Margaret Black's Delius at Home, Part 2
The House
Now we will enter Delius' home,
through the big hall, up a wide, winding staircase made of oak, to his bedroom,
which was once the salon, and has the double folding doors of the period of
powder and patches, still painted gold and blue, as the fashion was of that
day. These doors were very wide and high to allow the enormous hooped skirts
and high head dresses of the belles of Versailles to pass through when they
came to call on the marquis, and they are to be seen in many old châteaux all
over France.
To the right is a door leading to
a bath-room and dressing-room. To the left a smaller door and a passage, on one
side two bedrooms, one being occupied by his valet, on the other side windows
overlooking the courtyard and gardens, and at the end of this passage is
Delius' music room.
The Music Room
This is a large, sunny room, with
the same parquet floor (all the rooms have these, except one or two in the
right wing of the château used as studios).
In here are two pianos, music
stands, shelves full of books and manuscripts, a Persian rug and some
tapestries. On the walls hang some paintings by his wife, whose first picture
was exhibited in the Paris Salon when she was only seventeen. There are three
studios filled with interesting studies, most of which have been “hung,” or
whatever the equivalent is in France, for the coveted little “number disc” all
artists hope to see one day on their pictures hangs on them.
My aunt speaks five languages
perfectly, and is therefore of the greatest help to my uncle, for whom during
his temporary illness she undertakes his entire correspondence, by no means a
small matter.
Leading out of the music room are
two or three other rooms, forming the short left wing of the house, which is
built in the shape of an “L,” with an upright piece on the end of the toe.
These unknown rooms I always meant to explore, but never did. Up above are
store rooms, filled with apples and tomatoes arranged by Madame Gréppié like
soldiers on parade. She is a marvellous French cook, and gives as much thought
and care to the cooking of a potato as the French Government did to the
stabilisation of the franc! Cooking she regards as a career.
Near these store rooms is a
lovely studio, very sunny, with an enormous picture on an easel of a girl with
long golden hair; this model used to come from Paris to sit for my aunt, who at
that time especially was working very seriously with her painting. From this
studio you can walk on to a flat roof, from which there is a wonderful view of
the countryside.
At the foot of the staircase in
this wing is another group of rooms, two or three I think, which are always
kept ready for friends of my uncle; one I believe is a famous pianist, another
a noted composer [2]. While I was there a very well known 'cellist [3] came for
a flying visit prior to an important concert he was giving in Berlin. In the
afternoon sometimes he would play for us. Over in the main wing, at the top of
the main staircase, was my room, with two long French windows, and when I
looked out I could see the lovely old Church of Grez. It was here I think my
uncle and aunt were married [4]. It has an old turreted tower with a clock in
it, and this forms a medieval gateway into the village of Grez; it is a few
minutes’ walk from the château.
Leading from my room was a sort
of ante-room, with wardrobes and linen closets, etc., a small passage and then
an enormous studio and store room, for lavender and rose leaves, for pot-pourri
and various other things, leading out of this another huge room used as a studio.
I can only give some idea of the size of these two rooms especially by likening
them to those we use in England for gymnasiums and concerts.
My uncle spends most of his time
in the garden, where his valet and my aunt read to him in turn, his eyesight being
rather bad. Here one can often meet well-known people in the literary and
musical world, whose visits and music give him great pleasure.
Delius Himself
Perhaps I ought to give some
description of Delius himself.
He is tall and slender with a
very thin face and aquiline features, which gives him the appearance of a
Jesuit priest. A bust showing this resemblance very strongly was exhibited
recently in England. But undoubtedly his most striking feature is his hands,
very white in spite of his long hours out of doors, with long, tapering fingers
and filbert nails, slender and fragile looking, and yet he has climbed all over
the mountains in Norway, where he had a house, and as a boy I have been told he
was a great cricketer.
I heard a very funny story about
him when he was in Norway. A friend of his who had just arrived at an inn heard
the landlord talking. “The tall young Englishman has again arrived. He climbs
every mountain, and he always runs. Never have I seen such energy.” So he knew
that my uncle was somewhere in the neighbourhood!
The Village of Grez
I could write pages about the
lovely little village of Grez, beloved by the great Robert Louis Stevenson, [5]
surrounded by the forest of Fontainebleau. The horrors it endured in the Great
War, when the cobbled streets were packed with refugees, and my uncle and aunt
had to dig all their wine in a large hole in the lawn and leave the château,
spending two days and two nights in a cattle truck.
The roads were impossible, being
a solid jam of peasants pushing their little carts, packed with their family
and household goods. A few kilometres away is the town of Fontainebleau; the
road leading to it was made by the great Napoleon, who lived at the wonderful château there, which is almost more beautiful than Versailles.
So I will conclude with the hope
that lovers of his music will realise that he is not living “neglected and
abandoned in ugly surroundings,” but amid great beauty and with all that care
and attention can give him.
Notes:
[2] Probably Percy Grainger
(1882-1961) and Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877-1950) who both visited Grez-sur-Loing
at ‘the end of summer’ 1927. (Carley, Lionel, Delius: A Life in Letters, Volume 2, Gower Publishing, 1988)
[3] I cannot identify who the
cellist was. The conductor and composer Oscar Fried (1871-1941) did visit
around this time. He was en-route to Russia for a musical engagement.
[4] Eric Fenby (Delius Society
Journal October 1984) pointed out that Delius was in fact married at Grez-sur-Loing town
hall and not at the church.
[5] Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850-94) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. In 1875
Stevenson journeyed to Paris where he discovered the Forest of Fontainebleau.
He settled in the small town of Barbizon that same year, at the Siron Inn (now
the Bas Breau Hotel). In the following year, Stevenson journeyed on foot from a
second visit to Barbizon to Grez-sur-Loing to meet his cousin Bob, who was
staying at the Chevillon Hotel (still extant). In Grez Stevenson met Fanny
Osbourne (1840-1914), who would later become his wife.
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