V&A

Yesterday I was on my own in London. As a student I sometimes came into the city and felt my smallness against a backdrop of teaming thousands purposefully walking down the streets. I felt so alone. This time older and a little wiser I decided to head for a place that I would not normally visit but have always wanted to. Coming from the Underground you can go down a tunnel and enter easily into the V&A museum and the first thing I saw was Tippoo’s tiger all the way from Mysore India. An immediate link to last years trip and a visit to the incredible Mysore Palace, curvy architecture, elephants, heat and the elegance of one of India’s seven wonders. Strange that I should find one of its most famous treasures inside the most English of museums deep in the heart of our capitol city. What an interesting nation of collectors we are, every country house contains the relics of past years, stored over a life time, books, porcelain or paintings. It makes me wonder what I keep. A few weekends ago the four Millers had a clear out. Joe tidied his room in anticipation of a new life coming quickly as he prepares to marry soon. Katie cleared and discovered her bedroom was bigger than she thought it was! Guy cleared the garage, I cleared our own bedroom and then we marvelled at the carrier bags of stuff to deposit at the charity shop and the pile of things fit for nothing but the tip! William Morris once famously said “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” and therein is the problem. Most of us don’t choose something ugly and thrill at the prospect of having it forever back at home! Our taste changes and what was once so desirable becomes old-fashioned or useless and out it goes. How to decide what is pure waste and what is useful, what is ugly but may have been gifted, ah there

is a problem. Which brings me back to Tippoo’s tiger. In my humble opinion it is not beautiful or useful, but it is rather interesting, both comical and macabre. It also has history and there you have it, the real reason we keep so much, a link to the past, a story to tell, a reason to choose to keep it all at home after all!