44 / CHRONICLESnplaced at such distance from one another,nlook like so many distant parishchurchesnin a great town.” AtopnBurghley House is a small stone forestnconsisting of columns, obehsks, lions,nand even a watehtower.nBurghley House benefited from thenefforts of successive generations of Cecils.nThe grounds are the work ofnCapability Brown. Using the amplengrounds. Capability Brown left an enduringnbridge in the Palladian style,nwith a trout-filled river flowing naturallynbeneath it. It must be rememberednthat in their Italianate ambitions,nthe French ventured and tamednnature surrounding their chateaux.nVersailles, for example, is inhospitablento most humans. The Anglo-Saxons,nfor their part, left matters happily innthe hands, capable hands one mightnsay, of gifted landseapers like CapabilitynBrown. Before long, CapabilitynBrown brought nature to the veryndoorstep of the English, and in thenprocess he allowed for their proverbialnprivacy as well. Where there stoodngorgeous hills. Brown had them flattened.nThen just as easily, he reversednthe process when he discovered marshes.nAnd out of the flattened hills.nBrown devised man-made lakes, andncascades, of which Burghley hasnample evidence. In this unique processnof making nature according to hisnwhims, Capability Brown incurred thenwrath of the British Parliament duringnthe construction and landscaping ofnBirth Control Tanningn. . . reads the improbable headline ofna JS&A ad for Protan, a tanning systemndesigned for women on the pill. “Livennow and pay later”—to borrow anphrase from George Garret. Now wenknow why Gidget still doesn’t have anynchildren.nBlenheim for the first Duke of Marlborough.nUntil 1981 Burghley Housenwas the residence of the Sixth Marquessnof Exeter, who won the 1928 IXnOlympiad 400-meter hurdles. Hisnearly sportslife, as a matter of fact, wasna feature of the film Chariots of Fire.nBurghley House is not a part of Britain’snNational Trust. It still belongs tonthe Cecil family, whose trustees invitednthe late Marquess’ Lady VictorianLeatham “to live at Burghley and tonconserve its resources for the future.”nLady Victoria, who spoke at JapannSociety in New York on May 18,n1986, obs.erved that those who lived inngreat houses were not expected tonknow the extent of their possessions.nBy way of illustration, she recountednthe cautionary tale of a young manninvited for the weekend to the countrynplace of a temperamental duke.nNo sooner had the young man beennshown into the duke’s residence thannhe commented admiringly on thenbeautiful carved chairs. Utterly displeasednby the young man’s verbalnappreciation of his furniture, thenduke’s monacle “popped out of hisneye.” Instanfly, he ordered his footmannto replace the young man’s luggagenback in the ear and ordered hisnchaufiFeur to “leave at once.” “Thendamn fella commented on m’chairs!”nThe Japan House exhibit of Burghleynporcelains is an ingenious selectionnfrom an embarrassment of riches. Nonefforts were made, for instance, tonmake these porcelains appear as if theynwere taken out of a Wunderkammer.nIn all-white glass cases with propernlighting, the porcelains were laid out.nOnly in one case, a pair of Edo wrestlersnfrom 1690 were placed on anrevolving disk—more to suggest motionsnof wrestling than to make anynstatement.nThe 292-page catalog, with overn150 black-and-white and 90 color illustrationsnpublished by New York’snJapan Society, is addressed to a widenaudience. Besides essays by Rand Castilen(former director of Japan House)nand Lady Victoria Leatham (chatelainenof Burghley House) a team ofntop-notch international scholars, curators,nand connoisseurs brings us closernto the spirit of Burghley House.nIn all, there are some 205 porcelains,nmostiy Japanese, beginning withnrare and important examples of 17th-nnnand 18th-century Arita and Kakeimonnwares. The Edo period, 1660-1680,nLobed Dish is a fine example of Aritanfrom Burghley. The design is a preoccupationnfor this anonymous ceramicist,nand it is fairly common to discovernsuch ideas prevalent among mostnJapanese porcelains.nWhile the Japanese pieces dominatenthe show, the exhibition also displaysn25 porcelains of the Ming, Transitional,nand early Qing periods (ca. 1550-n1750). The two most significant Chinesenporcelains from Burghley includena blue-and-white Charger With DaoistnEmblems and a large Ming blue-andwhitenbowl with silver-gilt mounts.nThe Ming bowl was brought to Englandnby Sir Francis Drake in 1580nwhen he captured a Spanish ship fillednwith similar porcelains. Elizabeth Inherself had shares in Drake’s voyage.nAccording to the curator of the collection.nDr. Nishida, several shards ofnblue-and-white, found at Drake’s Baynin California, where Sir Francis is saidnto have careened his ships, bear designsngreatiy resembling those on thisnbowl. The Burghley bowl, however,ncame as a direct gift from Elizabeth Into her godchild Thomas Walsingham.nHis granddaughter. Lady Osborne,ngave it to the Eighth Earl of Exeter inn1731. These tangible remains, sonbeautiful to look at and if possible tonhold, as is the case at some of the finernauction houses, have much withnwhich to instruct us.nShehbaz Safrani is a writer andnpainter based in New York City.nSTAGEnTime Will Tellnby David KaufmannAs if he still had somewhere to get to,nNeil Simon finally arrived in 1986: 25nyears after his first play. Come BlownYour Horn, opened on Broadway, orn18 plays and four musicals later. Withnmore than a third of the decade remaining,nTime magazine had the audacitynto proclaim Broadway Boundn”the best American play of then1980’s.” The same splashy cover storyn