Not my last blog of the year, but the last from the RA where I have had the rare pleasure of working in the library, using the wonderful resource of the early manuscript Minutes of Council and General Assembly, some of the surviving manuscripts, including Fuseli’s draft notes of his lecture about Leonardo’s Last Supper, and a host of early printed books, which are available as they were, more or less in the same form, to the early students:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
I think the library and print room were one of the last designs of Jim Cadbury-Brown, who was a real gent as well as a fine architect.
Yes, quite right – a brilliant and intelligent design by a modernist, done in the late 1980s when the Library moved upstairs. Charles
So a chance, then, to thank you for the pleasure of the blog for another year and all the keen observation it portrays, whether of Whitechapel, Anglesey, now also Blackfriars – and all the rest; and every one with something of interest to lighten the day. Thank you!
Thank you ! Much appreciated. I enjoy doing it. Charles
Might your time in the RA’s wonderful Library lead to another book on the Academy? The move into Burlington Gardens is a good moment to consider again the origins and ideals of the Academy ?