I am talking, of course, about the Victoria and Albert Museum's early medieval galleries, which I properly visited for the first time today.
"What they really need to do is to demonstrate the enamelling techniques, so I can do more than wonder, openly gobsmacked, at the beauty of the cloisonne panels on this tabernacle - so that I can appreciate it."
And just round the corner - a really well made video demonstrating the same. It made me want to throw in my job and run away and join the, erm, enamellers.
"All these so-so ivory plaques - why all the cracks? Age, or elephant tooth decay?"
And just round the corner - samples of ivory to touch and feel, smooth and cracked, with explanation.
You get the picture. It's one thing to be competent, another to apply competence and erudition to beauty.
I then went to spiritually recharge at the Devonshire Hunt Tapestries. Seriously, I can't write about them now, the memory of them makes me want to cry. Another day.
Go, do go, before the Big Society restricts this, and much more, to a small elite.
Oh, sorry for the break in service.
*Yeah, really stupid title for this post, but I thought if there were ever a book about pre-modern drunkenness. Well I laughed.
