45 - 1919: La Maison de l’Institut à Londres and London Victory Parades

Summary

When the King gave me the land in Madrid, I asked for a large sum from Edmond de Rothschild. He told me, “No! Whatever interest in Spanish art there is for us, it's far from equaling that of the relations existing between England and us. Without the English fleet, we were lost in 1914, and also without the French alliance after the Battle of Cassel. We must therefore unite with Great Britain by all possible means, and reaffirm the endless chain between the two youths!”

May 26–30, 1919, I went to London with Rothschild to find a house that he wanted to donate to the Institute. We were shown the house of Sir Thomas [More] that had to be pulled down in order to cut a street through; it was then transported stone by stone to the banks of the Thames. The house was very interesting, but it was impossible to transform for the use we wanted to make of it. Its name was Crosby Hall.

Faced with the impossibility of finding what we wanted, I had the idea of contacting a correspondent member of the Institute, an architect whom we had just nominated: Sir John Simpson, president of the Royal Society of Architects. He hastened over the next morning and told us, “I know everything around here. Go back to Paris. You can rely entirely on me. As soon as I find something suitable, I’ll let you know.”

[July 19, 1919:] Attending the great parade of troops in London, five days after the one in Paris, we met Ferdinand Foch who was the guest of Buckingham Palace, and General Debeney who commanded the French troops. In the morning, I was awakened by the bugle calls of the French troops who were camping in Hyde Park. We saw the parade from the balcony of Edmond de Rothschild's cousin, Lady Rothschild. And I still have in my ears the cheers of the people as the sailors of the Battle of Jutland and Admirals David Beatty and John Rushworth Jellicoe passed by.

The next day, Sir Simpson took us to Queensgate to visit the house he intended for us; we were surprised by its fine condition and its French furniture. Corneille and Racine were represented in its library, as well as a number of engravings from our calligraphy, and models or reductions of statues from our French school.