In The Afternoon,

we decided to call into the house on the hill we had seen,

and here it is, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum,

it is set in a large garden surrounding the building,

we did not know it yet,

but we were going to be amazed at the contents,

the outside looked exotic enough,

with its turrets,

and gardens,

even the entrance did not prepare us for what was in store for us,

so what was the story here? from the web site, 'In 1901 Merton Russell-Cotes gave his wife Annie a dream house on a cliff-top, overlooking the sea, it was an extraordinary, extravagant birthday present – lavish, splendid, and with a touch of fantasy.  They filled this exotic seaside villa with beautiful objects from their travels across the world, and lined the walls with a remarkable collection of British art, creating a unique atmosphere in a most dramatic setting, a home, an art gallery, and a museum, then they sealed it in time, and gave it to the future,

here are a few photographs,

of some of the families history,

in the lobby,

as you walk in,

one of the amazing things that they did was to leave all of this for future generations to enjoy,

whilst we take travel so lightly it is amazing that to look at the number of country's the couple visited, and what a collection!

from photographs,

in albums like this,

to paintings with everything else in between

we entered a room which led to the main hall,

as we entered a pianist was playing, and I have to say he was so good, surprisingly he was playing a tune that I knew and also the name of the composer and pianist that I heard playing it, I mentioned to Diana, it was a song that I had heard Jelly Roll Morton play called The Crave, 

above is a short clip of what the pianist was playing, anyway Diana said she simply did not believe me, fast forward to Saturday as we were eating our evening meal I reminded Diana of the piece of music, and below here it is performed by Jelly Roll Morton himself, recorded on the 14th December 1939 at the Reeves Sound Studios 1600 Broadway, New York, and what a pianist he was,

He was considered to be the first great composer and piano player of Jazz. He was a talented arranger who wrote special scores that took advantage of the three-minute limitations of the 78 rpm records. But more than all these things, he was a real character whose spirit shines brightly through history, like his diamond studded smile. As a teenager Jelly Roll Morton worked in the whorehouses of Storyville as a piano player. From 1904 to 1917 Jelly Roll rambled around the South. He worked as a gambler, pool shark, pimp, vaudeville comedian and as a pianist. He was an important transitional figure between ragtime and jazz piano styles. He played on the West Coast from 1917 to 1922 and then moved to Chicago and where he hit his stride. Morton's 1923 and 1924 recordings of piano solos for the Gennett label were very popular and influential,

He formed the band the Red Hot Peppers and made a series of classic records for Victor. The recordings he made in Chicago featured some of the best New Orleans sidemen like Kid Ory, Barney Bigard, Johnny Dodds, Johnny St. Cyr and Baby Dodds. Morton relocated to New York in 1928 and continued to record for Victor until 1930. His New York version of The Red Hot Peppers featured sidemen like Bubber Miley, Pops Foster and Zutty Singleton. Like so many of the Hot Jazz musicians, the Depression was hard on Jelly Roll. Hot Jazz was out of style. The public preferred the smoother sounds of the big bands. He fell upon hard times after 1930 and even lost the diamond he had in his front tooth, but ended up playing piano in a dive bar in Washington D.C. In 1938 Alan Lomax recorded him in for series of interviews about early Jazz for the Library of Congress, but it wasn't until a decade later that these interviews were released to the public. Jelly Roll died just before the Dixieland revival rescued so many of his peers from musical obscurity. He blamed his declining health on a voodoo spell, in case you did not guess I do spend a lot of my spare time and when I am writing blog listing to music, as it happens as I type this I am listening to a selection called Top 50 Italian Songs, a collection of  Chillout,Jazz and Lounge Music, 

it goes to show all of that time listening did not go to waste!

back to the house, 

everywhere we looked,

there were fabulous things to look at,

the walls covered in paintings,

the skylights in the ceilings works of art in themselves,

meanwhile from below we were serenaded by the pianist,

off of the main hall both up and downstairs,

rooms branched from the hall,

each one full of treasures, I almost felt like using the Howard Carter quote, looking into the tomb of Tutankhamen, "Yes, wonderful things",

like these dueling pistols,had they ever been used in anger?

there is a reoccurring theme in the house, swallows, also they are used on cards to show which way to walk around the house,

the reason for the birds being featured so heavily is that Swallows (tsubame) are annual migrants arriving in Japan in the early spring, the swallow is considered to be a symbol of good luck, fidelity in marriage, and fertility,

each room had so many treasures to look at,

like this collection of butterflies,

and cabinets full of porcelain from allover the world,

like these,

they were collectors and travelers in the extreme,

nothing seemed to have escaped their collecting eye,

we found ourselves again in the upper level of the main hall,

when Diana saw this painting,and naturally said, 'been there!',

I had read that Japan was a favorite of the couple and we were now in a Japanese room,

the cabinet above,

is described in this label,

and a personal note,

this was not quiet what it seemed,

not a actual set as the label explains,

we passed another stained glass skylight of swallows,

in the ceiling,

the frieze around it had even been painted to reflect the couples taste in the Far East,

the room had artifacts of all things Japanese,

when we came to these masks, Diana mentioned a film,

 that this one reminded her of, the film was called Onibaba, (鬼婆, lit. Demon Hag), it was a 1964 Japanese historical drama horror film written and directed by Kaneto Shindo, the film is set during a civil war in the fourteenth century, Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura play two women who kill soldiers to steal their possessions, and one, the mother, appears to conjure up a demon, 

a slightly scary, what some would call a 'Art' film,

we were back in the main hall,

and started to explore another room,

looking at the treasures on the walls the skylight could easily go unnoticed,

the doorway leading to another room,

with decorations on the window of swallows,

the next few rooms were huge,

as you can see from the size of the painting Diana is stood by,

another decorated skylight,

as well as paintings and cases holding porcelain,

there were many statues,

the whole art gallery was so overwhelming, Diana took more than a few moments contemplating some of the paintings, well we both did,

next was the Pre-Raphaelite room,

with an introduction, 

and a explanation of The Brotherhood,

Diana was taken by this painting, 

a detail from it,

and the note that goes with it,

another from the same time,

and a closer look,

books also feature, with their line block prints, these from Aubrey Beardsley,  

featuring the Arthurian tale,

there are some modern works here as well, fans of Game of Thrones might recognize these,

from the series,

the label accompanying the works,

we made our way back,

to the entrance to the gallery,

passing cabinets with more porcelain on display,

 the couple traveled to many countries to build up the collection,

but it was not only the  number of countries they visited it was the length in time of their journeys,

one to the Far East took 18 months!

and they brought back literally hundreds of creates of items for the gallery and museum,

and we still had not seen all of them,

it was totally amazing,

as more rooms opened up before us,

each with its own flavor,

we were by now back into the dinning room,

and decided to take a look from the bay window,

so a quick panorama,

and a pose from Diana,

there were a number of items for sale,

from local artisans,

a guide to prices,

a last look at the entrance hall, what a fabulous place to look around, if you do decided to visit, make sure you have plenty of time, there really is so much to see and marvel at,

we made our way back to our room for a shower and change,

as we were going out for our evening meal, to the Indian Ocean, 

a sherry to start,

a mocktail for Diana,

after our poppadoms a King prawn puri each,

delicious,

our main courses arrived, two chicken dishes whose names I have forgotten, plus aloo gobi and a rice, the bill including a bottle of wine came to £80.50, 

back to the hotel for a night cap,

first a beer,

and a large Kracken, well we have a busy day tomorrow,

a quick pose for a selfie, and we were off to bed.