As I said in an earlier entry, The Queen, having been brought up among great pieces of art and taking them for granted, must be pretty oblivious of aesthetic aspects or she wouldn't have Corgies.
How did I become aware of any aesthetic aspect? It was when I moved from West Germany to where I am living now. The almost-a-drawing-room was 80% finished with all furniture where it belonged, rugs, curtains and most pictures in their places. Then there was my old smooth-coated Weimaraner lying on a sofa, very quiet, already starting to feel ill. (He had to be put down a couple of days later because of kidney failure.) Then it occurred to me: That wonderful animal lightened up the room. Ennobled it. Elevated it to a level it never reached before and will never reach again.
My terriers keep me young and they are wonderful working dogs. They love the human race with an indiscriminate and totally uncalled-for passion. Nobody would accuse them to ennoble a place, although they certainly make it more homely, even though they do horrible things of all sorts to one's furniture and other belongings and all that in countless different ways. But I guess to suffer that with good grace is, in a way, another expression of style. Excessive tidiness is frightfully lower middleclass anyway.
