Dreams

	Derelict, 31/Dec/94 A Dickensian vision of life in an old mansion with a seemingly prosperous manservant who lives in a mysterious large room behind a large locked door. (He's kind of a cross between Ralph Richardson and Denholm Elliot - two actors I feel much affection for.) But when I go to his room while he's out, I open the large door and there's another, older door behind it. I open it and I'm in the room. It's completely derelict, with holes in the floor and walls where the wind gets in. It's freezing. I realise the manservant has kept up this charade of prosperity for all this time, when in fact he's been in dire poverty. This dream was probably inspired by a passage from John Berger's Ways of Seeing, which I read last night. It concerned a Dutch painter, Franz Hals, who lived in poverty while rich patrons of the arts sat for him. Those two paintings of The Regents in particular....