“...we were as if drained of all future, suspended in a journey that had not ended nor was to end.” Italo Calvino.

A monk in a tower is staring at cards laid out on a table. A table aligned to the stars. He is living in a fantasy. He is probably the richest man in the world but this only brings concerns. He intends to remain the richest man in the world. Obsessively he lays out the cards again and again, reading the stories. Some he understands instantly and he makes notes of actions that will bring resolutions to his advantage; other stories puzzle him, they relate to a world in which he has little interest. This is the Castle of Crossed Destinies. Each pattern is noted in a book. 

In his 1969 novel, Italo Calvino, experimented with story telling through the use of images first and words second. Lougher inspired by this approach seeks to create a story woven through 78 images (the number of cards in a tarot deck). In the spirit of Monopoly, the game of capitalism for all the family, this is the Cardiff edition. 

The tour: Cardiff Bus of Crossed Destinies was initially prompted by paintings in the collection of the National Museum Wales; predominantly those bought by the Davies sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret. As the cards have been reshuffled some have been substituted and others palmed. This blog will follow the patterns of cards laid out in the book reputedly used by the 3rd Marquess of Bute.

This blog has been created to publish material used on a guided bus tour of Cardiff for Cardiff Contemporary / Caerdydd Gyfoes

I had been approached by an acquaintance of mine, a gentleman of the name Doxman. He sometimes styles himself Dr Doxman. I am doubtful of this qualification, although I am often mistaken. Doxman knowing of my interest in the 3rd Marquess of Bute and his involvement with the esoteric had contacted me in great excitement having found a book he claimed to have once been in the possession of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart. The notebook in which Bute had noted every tarot reading made in Cardiff Castle, usually in the smoking rooms in the Clock Tower.

Doxman claimed the writing in the book had been erased magically. This had created a problem but not one that was insurmountable. Doxman had recently become enamoured of a colleague in science. As a sign of his affection he had bought her a distinctive ring in the design of a six petalled star. He believed this woman would be able to help him find an electro-static detection device. He was correct.

With the use of this equipment he has claimed he was able to recover the card readings emailing me the information for interpretation.

The monk was in thrall to the Middle-Ages. He felt his was a time when few people knew their place. The Middle-Ages were a time in which, he felt, he would have known his. A time when his tastes, his religion, would have been the norm and his status unquestioned.

The monk was seeing something frightening on the horizon. He had a sense that a plague was coming. An epidemic of murder. Had he, through his magical operations, opened a door that had let it through? When he turned over a single tarot card, the psychic equivalent to licking his finger and holding it up to check the wind direction, he was seeing signs of death and war at every turn: The Tower, The Hanged Man, The Devil, Death, The Moon. His family would not be untouched by the coming calamity.

in 1898 he decided to sell, for £159,000, the land the council wanted to build a civic centre . Perhaps he thought this might heal what was to come, acting as a counter-balance to whatever malign forces he had released into the twentieth century. Instead of growing calendulas and peas, his land would become a garden of culture and peace. Perhaps the monk was looking for a legacy. Whatever the case, he was certain his family would no longer control Cardiff in the twentieth century. At his insistence the existing layout of avenues was kept and at the centre of the development Alexandria Gardens was created, which is now a garden of remembrance. 

Cathays Gardens

Cathays Gardens provides accommodation for Cardiff Civic Centre, said by Nikolaus Pevsner to be the 'finest in the British Isles'. It's centre piece is Alexandra Gardens. This with the monument to the South African War at the bottom of Edward Vll Avenue is a testament to the the desire of the British Government to wage war and sell arms and the willingness of Welsh people to die for them. This contrasts with the Temple of Peace designed by Sir Percy Thomas, he was awarded a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects for his troubles. The Temple of Peace and Health was commissioned by David Davies, brother to Gwendolne and Margaret who donated many paintings to the National Museum Wales. 1st Baron Davies had fought in the First World War and had dedicated himself to promoting world peace as a result of his experiences: he was a supporter of the League of Nations and his ideas had an impact on the writing of the UN Charter. The Temple of Peace was bombed in 1968 in protest at the approaching investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. Presumably it was easier to place a bomb there than the Welsh Office buildings opposite. Perhaps this was a riposte to the question posed at the Eisteddfod "A oes Heddwch?" (Is there peace?").

Amongst the other buildings are The Glamorgan Building, built in 1911 as the home of Glamorgan County Council. This was before the population was such that the county was divided up into a number of city states and rustic constituencies. It was designed by Vincent Harris and Thomas Moodie. The statues at the front depict navigation and mining. It houses the School of City and Regional Planning and the School of Social Sciences. There are several other Cardiff University buildings here. In lonely opposition stands University of Wales Registry, apparently this looks like the library in Hove. Bute Building was also designed by Sir Percy Thomas and Ivor Jones. It is home to the Welsh School of Architecture, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Percy Thomas was born to a shipping family from Narbeth. He, Percy Thomas, jumped ship from his job as a shipping clerk to board the vessel architecture after having his head read by a phrenologist. National Museum Wales was opened in 1927. In front of it are the Gorsedd Gardens apparently the most used park in Cardiff. City Hall  was planned as a town hall but was City Hall by the the time it was built. The Crown Courts are nearby.

The monk lays out the cards. The first card is the six of cups. It suggests a meeting, perhaps a formal meeting and the making of an alliance. The second card is the four of wands and instantly he understands that this is a railway board. In 1836 the Taff Railway Board was formed to deliver coal and iron to Cardiff docks from Merthyr and all stops in between. The third card, the seven of swords, suggests another alliance; a brotherhood, an union. The monk is sensing trouble; rising working class consciousness. The monk is unsurprised by what he sees then, the ace of coins. The workers always want more money. At first the monk thinks that the next card, Judgement, is the union calling the workers out, but these are not mineworkers, their defenceless nakedness suggests something else, the company evicting the trouble makers and their families. The following card, The Wheel of Fortune, shows the workers gain ascendency; like monkeys they are all over the engines preventing them from moving and they have the upper hand. But the wheel will turn again. The monk is sure of this. The company will gain reparation for this outrage. That the decision goes against the union seems to be borne out. The Moon shows dogs howling, shut out from the city and the true company of men, they ululate in the stink and decay that surrounds them. The next card worries him. The queen of swords is carrying a red sword, she is looking towards these dogs with sympathy, she is going to avenge their wrongs.

Marseilles pack

The Taff Vale Railway Company

In 1900 the Amalgamated Association of Railway Servants went on strike in defence of John Ewington. The company had punished him by transferring Ewington to a different station after his repeated requests for a raise. The company sacked the striking workers, evicted them from their homes and employed scab labour. The union, however, forced the company to negotiate through a campaign of sabotage. In revenge the company sued the union for damages. The company won the first case, lost at appeal but finally got their way through the House of Lords - the final court of appeal - deciding in their favour. Amongst the vested interests in this railway company were members of parliament, members of the House of Lords, judges, magistrates etc. It was not until 1918 that the majority of working men over the age of 21 were able to vote and 1928 before women had voting equality with men in Britain.

The disgust at this decision in the Taff Vale case among working people lead to a massive rise in the number of trade unionists affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee. Membership more than doubled from 350,000 members in 1901 to 850,00 in 1903. This lead to the formation of the Labour Party and in 1906 the passing of the Trade Disputes Act which overrode the ruling in the Taff Vale case: now no course of action could be brought against a trade union for economic loss, if a strike was "in contemplation of a trade dispute." 

The hermit cuts the cards and starts to lay them out, one after another. There are seventeen cards in the portion he has cut and so he just lays them down in one go.

The king of coins and page of coins point to a great wealth, an inheritance perhaps through a grandfather, making these women virtual queens: queen of wands, queen of cups. The cards that follow: ace of cups, The Moon, and The Sun suggest travel; perhaps to Rome, Venice, Greece and Egypt. The Temperance card suggests that despite their wealth they were not extravagant and more than this they saw their wealth as helping to nurture the country - this marked by the recently germinated plant in the background of the card.

This seedling grows to become a spreading tree, the next card shows a hand holding a limb from this tree, ace of wands. The tree limb seems to radiate a vital energy. At this point the mood changes. The knight of swords goes off to war, his sword unsheathed. Death mows down men women and children, in the bloody orgy torn limbs lie in the killing fields. In the same field as Death there is a table at which someone is preparing food, The Magician. The monk wonders if either or both of these sisters followed their brother to war. This is followed by the five of coins and The High Priestess in which a queen holds out a fine book, this is followed by the ace of coins and finally the king of swords. He wonders what this could mean, the founding of a library, a press perhaps? Then finally a legacy, both financial and something more, an ideal, a foundation? He wasn't sure, he thought that these were the scions of David Davies, Top Sawyer, Ocean Davies. The page of coins at the beginning suggests that their father, David Davies's son had died young. Was this his magic vengeance?

Marseilles pack

Gwendoline and Margaret Davies

Edward Davies, the son of David Davies, Ocean Coal, died at 46 mentally and physically broken by the intense pressure of trying to run the family business. His son, David Davies, took over the management of the business and his sisters Gwendoline and Margaret, 16 and 14 inherited a great fortune.

Privately educated they made the grand tour and began to collect art, taking advice from Henry Blaker of the Holburne Museum, Bath and John Whitcombe, curator at the Victoria Art Gallery also in Bath. 

At first the sisters collected Turner, Corot, Millet  and Daumier and later the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Their taste is in some ways conservative yet also socially engaged and extraordinarily comprehensive. For Gwendoline the purpose of art was to educate and inspire people morally and spiritually. They bought several Monet's and two paintings by Cézanne when he was little appreciated in Britain, the paintings they bought being instrumental in changing this through their generosity in lending them, not least to Roger Fry. They also bought a Van Gogh and several works by Rodin. They collected none of Degas' work but his reputation and opinions would no doubt have made him unpalatable to them. They bought a painting by Walter Sickert, Palazzo Eleanora Duse, which complements their other paintings of Venice but gives no insight into this artist's more ground-breaking work. They also bought paintings by Augustus John.

In 1915 their brother David was fighting in France. The sisters supported artists fleeing from Belgium to Britain, but later Gwendoline and then Margaret joined the French Red Cross in order to be nearer their brother and to do something practical themselves in the face of the unfolding tragedy of the First World War.

After the war their collecting slowed to a trickle. In 1918 they gave a grant of £5,000 to Aberystwyth University to support the teaching of art and the establishment of an Art Department and Gallery of Crafts. In 1920 they bought Gregynnog Hall from their brother and turned it into an art and cultural centre, hosting music and poetry festivals. They also established the Gregynnog Press, an imprint that produced some very beautiful hand made books. Gwendoline died in 1951 and on her death bequeathed a large number of paintings to the National Museum Wales. Margaret began collecting again, helping the National Museum fill gaps in its collection of twentieth century British work. In 1960 she donated Gregynnog Hall to the University of Wales. In 1963 on Margaret's death there was a further bequest of paintings to the Museum, in all Gwendoline and Margaret contributed 260 pictures to the National Museum Wales. Oriel Davies, Newtown , was built with a legacy from the sisters.

As he deals Bute looks for familiar patterns. The first card is Judgement followed by the knight of swords, then 6 of coins, The Sun and then 7 of coins. This seems to be quite a happy story, a person born a blazing angel, a seraphim, faces challenges and by his truth and energy is rewarded. He gains money and travels to a gilded city and through these endeavours is further rewarded. Once more the person travels, this time to a watery place, The Moon, perhaps Cardiff Docks, and then further afield, perhaps to Paris, ace of cups. In this city he meets a well read woman (by now Bute is sure he is reading the cards of a man, though he couldn't say why). Our hero changes direction, three of staves, perhaps finds his true direction and finds his muse. He meets great men, the king of cups, perhaps he becomes a king of his craft, king of staves. Here the king seems to hold a giant pencil, the earlier staves might have been chisels. Bute thinks this man has become a sculptor, perhaps the king of cups is another great sculptor or artist for here the page of cups is carrying an as yet unrevealed sculpture. Then he lays down the 4 of staves, this puzzles Bute, is this an increase in his output? However, it is followed by Death and The Tower. Once more Bute sees this terrible omen and seemingly another young man is claimed by the war to come.

Marseilles pack

Henri (Alphonse Séraphin Marie) Gaudier-Brzeska

Born on the 4th October in Saint-Jean-de-Braye. His father was a carpenter. He studied business and because of his linguistic and academic skills won a scholarship in 1806 to study in London and then a second scholarship in 1807 to study at the Merchant Venturers College, Bristol, a work placement in Cardiff and further study in Nuremburg and Munich. In October 1908 he was living in 29 Claude Road, Cardiff, working for Fifoot and Ching, a coal exporting firm based in Mountstuart Square. His employer Mr. Ching said of him:

"Whilst he excellently fulfilled the duties allotted to him, one could easily notice that his mind was not altogether in his work. Art undoubtedly occupied the greater part of it, and in his spare moments he was everlastingly, pencil in hand, sketching some little incident that appealed to him. During the lunch hours he periodically walked across to the docks and brought back with him a small sketch of, perhaps the bow of a boat, or the elevation of a crane or tip, all of which showed genius. I encouraged him in his work because I felt that commerce was not his forte, and that he was bound to leave it at the first chance. In character he was Bohemian, and just a little casual, which was natural, but he was the kind of boy that one would have expected to have lived, if necessary, in a garret while he got on with his life's work as he felt it to be"

Gaudier also drew in the National Museum Wales and in Victoria Park. In 1909 he visited Germany and then Paris. In April 1910 he met Sophie Brzeska whilst he was drawing people in the Bibliothèque Saint-Geneviève. On noticing him she described him as being 'as beautiful as an angel (but one acquainted with sin)' Her mixture of intelligence, flirtation and touchy independence seems to have answered his need for maternal love and intelligent companionship and to have boosted his confidence as an artist. In him, at least to begin with, Brzeska thought she had finally found someone she could safely love, care for and trust to treat her with candour and honesty. In 1911 they moved to London and Gaudier added Sophie Brzeska's surname to his own, posing as her brother. In London he met Epstein and visited him in his studio. Between 1911 and 1913 he worked for a London-based timber importer as a foreign language clerk. One of his models, Edith Bagnold, said of him "He didn't want to know what people were like. He rushed at them, held them, poured his thoughts over them, and when in response, they said ten words his impatience overflowed; he jabbed and wounded and the blood flowed." 1912 He received a commission to make a small sculpture of a wrestler. 1913 he made Torso 1 from Sicillian marble he said "I understand beauty in a way that was better than the Greeks, and history and observations convince me that I am right." The sitter for this sculpture and several others was Nina Hamnett. 1914 Ezra Pound commissioned him to make a sculptural portrait which was entitled Heiratic Head. Gaudier-Brzeska was one of the founders of Vorticism and a signatory of the 1914 manifesto along with Epstein, William Roberts, Edward Wadsworth, David Bomberg and Jessica Dismorr. Gaudier-Brzeska had a complicated relationship with violence, he made a knuckleduster for T. E. Hulme who would slip it onto his hand and thump people on the arm with it to reinforce his philosophical arguments. Gaudier-Brzeska had originally escaped the call up by coming to Britain, to join the French army he risked being arrested as a deserter. However, he was determined to join up and succeded. He continued to sculpt on the front line and continued to write for Blast from the trenches. He was killed on June 5th at Neuville St Vaast, Pas de Calais. Sophie Brzeska was deeply affected by his death, she died in 1925. H. S. 'Jim' Ede acquired her estate from the British Treasury Solicitor in 1927. This included not only her writings but also the estate of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, with many of his works and papers. Ede wrote the biography 'Savage Messiah' detailing the lives of Gaudier-Brzeska and Sophie Brzeska. Henry Stanley Ede was born in Penarth in 1895, he died in1900. He founded Kettle's Yard in Cambridge.

He is shuffling the cards, curious about the coming century. A century he knows he is unlikely to enter due to a family susceptibility to kidney disease. He cuts the deck and lays the cards on the table. Here is the story of talented excess. He lays down the queen of coins, Temperance, the ace of staves, The Empress, ace of cups, The World and The Lovers. Here is a person brought up by their grandmother, a person who then rebels and becomes uncontrollable. She is sent to a charity school but on leaving the stultifying atmosphere she is finally able to train as an artist, to be queen, empress, of her own destiny. An artist she travels to Paris to undertake further training. In Paris she dances naked in a café and at parties in artists' studios, artists as renowned today as they were then. She is openly bi-sexual and not interested in a conventional relationship. She meets The Magician in Paris but the card following it, The Lovers, suggests that she already knew him. She became involved in design, the nine of cups, but the nine of cups  as much as it suggests a love of pattern and colour suggests an increasing problem with alchohol. The excess that has been so liberating now seems to be destructive. Despite the beginnings of decline, the page of wands shows she is able to exhibit her work widely. She publishes a book 'The Laughing Torso', The High Priestess, and it seems that the the magician's malign influence, The Devil, leads to a court case, Justice. Whatever the court decides the artist's problems become more extreme resulting in her falling to her death as her life crumbles, The Tower. 

Marseilles pack

Nina Hamnett

Nina Hamnett was born in Tenby, although she didn't meet Augustus John or his sister Gwen until they were all studying in London. In London she met Aleister Crowley, he commissioned a mural from her for his house in Victoria Street. Hamnett became a talented Modernist artist. She was Henri Gaudier-Brzeska's model and lover and she posed for a number of his sculptures. In Paris she was friends with Brancusi, Picasso, Diaghilev, Cocteau, André Gide and was a lover of Modigliani, or did she take him as a lover? Her relationships with these artists was one of equality. It is possible that if she had not chosen to investigate sex, alcohol and raconteurship as media instead of canvas and paint she might have an even greater reputation as an artist today. She also knew and modelled for Walter Sickert, another artist with a high opinion of her talent. She worked at Omega Workshops for Roger Fry and took him as a lover, she also helped him in the development of his craft as a painter. After the First World War Hamnett returned to Paris, where she was very probably the best known female artist.  Aleister Crowley was also in Paris, he was as attracted to the Bohemian way of life as these Bohemians were to his. In 1926 she returned to London and fully dedicated herself to alcohol and story telling. In 1932 Hamnett published her first book, "The Laughing Torso'. Aleister Crowley sued her for libel over her reference to his practice of black magic. His case was not proven and he was bankrupted. Crowley's bitterness towards Hamnett led some to believe he had cursed her, bringing about Hamnett's death, even though it occurred nine years after his own. In 1956 she fell forty feet from a window and was impaled on the railings below. In 1955 Hamnett had published 'Is She a Lady?' a sequential autobiographical account.

He is on an artistic roll, a flush, maybe a lush. He lays down the two of swords, ace of cups, The High Priestess, two of cups. He imagines that the first two cards represent the parents of the high priestess. He thought the two of swords was the mother, but he could not believe that there could be a more feminine card then the ace of cups. Perhaps the father, works in the law, the mother overflowing with culture which her daughter inherits. The woman travels. knight of cups, and she finds great art treasures as a result, seven of cups. She become a model, The World, but also realises herself. The Lovers, shows that she becomes the lover of the artist she is working for. The Moon suggest an intensity in her love which it takes time for her to control through aloneness and an enforced stillness, The Hanged Man. At the end of her life she heads for the sea, finally to lose herself in an ocean of feeling, The Star.

Rider Waite pack

Gwen John

Gwen John was the second of four children. She studied at the Slade, the first art school in Britain to admit female students. She and her younger brother Augustus shared rooms. On her first trip to Paris she studied with Whistler at the Academie Carmen. On her return to London she had her first exhibition of work at the New English Art Club. In 1903 she returned to France with Dorelia Mcneil, the couple setting off to Rome on foot. At Toulouse they gave up and went to Paris. Here John modelled for Rodin. She modelled for a memorial statue to Whistler, although the commission was never completed. Gwen John painted possibly one of her most beautiful pictures here, 'A Corner of the Artist's Room in Paris'. Gwen John fell in love with Rodin, leaving Dorelia who was now being pursued by her brother Augustus. Gwen's love was too intense for Rodin and he broke off the relationship. 'Her passions for both men and women were outrageous and irrational. She was never "unnoticed" by those who had access to her', Augustus wrote of his sister. Gwen moved to Meudon, where Rodin had a house, here she led the life of a recluse painting the nuns in the nearby convent.

Her painting become a deafening silence. Sparse, with a muted palette, she loaded the paint with chalk making it stiff and less malleable, her marks more considered and less mutable.

In 1913, John Quinn an American patron, had her work shown at the seminal Armoury Show in New York.

She painted her last picture in 1933. In 1939 she wrote her will and then travelled to Dieppe where she collapsed and died.

He lays the same first two cards: two of swords and the ace of cups, this is a full house of Johns. This time these cards are followed by The Fool, The Hanged Man and the ace of wands. We see the younger brother of the earlier artist. We see him standing on a cliff and then plummeting and after we see that he is an ace at drawing, holding the wand as if measuring a subject by eye. This is an artist who is identified with a self-invented myth. But there are also other threads in this narrative, the traveller lost in nature, a Gypsy a true Bohemian eager to experience life at first hand. These cards are followed by the seven of cups, three of cups, which tells of the artist's trip to Paris and his household of wife and mistress. The six of cups followed by The Lovers suggest the death of his wife and his later marriage to his mistress. The page of wands, eight of cups and knight of wands suggest an artistic pilgrimage to the mountains by three friends. The nine of wands his occasionally quarrelsome and belligerent nature. The king of wands tells of his crowning as a great artist, but the way he looks back over his life suggests that his greatest work is in the past.

Rider Waite pack

Augustus John

Augustus John was born in Tenby, his father was a lawyer and his mother a talented amateur artist came from a family of master plumbers. He was six when his mother died and his father entered a prolonged period of grieving, which seems to have affected him as strongly as it did his sister.

Augustus John studied at Tenby College and in 1894 the Slade. He also met Travellers in Pembroke and became enamoured of the Gypsy life. It was around this time that he connected the story of his remarkable drawing skills and his unconventional way of life to a head injury caused by diving into the sea. He certainly cut his head badly and became impatient to get on with his life put on hold by his long convalescence.

In 1898 he won the annual Slade Prize and used the money to study in Paris. In early 1900 he married Ida Nettleship and took a teaching post in Liverpool. In 1893 he co-founded Chelsea School of Art with William Orpen. In 1903 he met with Dorothy McNeil, Doreilia, who had studied at the Slade with Gwen John and had been her lover. Augustus pursued her to Paris and Gwen helped persuade her to become part of Augustus John's household. Dorelia became his muse. In 1907 Ida died from puerperal fever. He later married Dorelia. In 1910 he made several trips to Arenig Fawr with James Dickson Innes, born in Llanelli, and Derwent Lees, an Australian. There is a painting of James Dickson Innes painted by Ian Strang in the National Museum, Wales. In the mountains of North Wales these three overpainted the hackneyed myth of the Sublime. Augustus John was also able to spend time with the Kale, the Romany Gypsies of North Wales; he learned their language and joined their campsites. This was possibly the highpoint of his career, both geographically and aesthetically. James Innes Dickson was dead from tuberculosis by the start of the First World War and Derwent Lees was confined to a psychiatric hospital from 1918 until his death 1931.

During the First World War Augustus John was assigned to the Canadian froces. He never settled to this and was sent home for brawling. After the war he became Britain's leading portraitist, although his style was becoming laboured. He had a return to form with paintings he made on a trip to Jamaica in 1937. He was the president of the Gypsy Lore Society until his death in 1961. Six months before his death he was on the first march to Trafalgar Square to protest against the deployment of nuclear weapons in Britain.

The Monk begins to recognise the cards that tell him an artist's life is about to be laid out before him. He wondered why he was drawing on this information. He found the lives of artists tawdry and vacuous. He thought much of their work slapdash and banal. Was this the new century that the Butes' enterprise was ushering in? He lays down the ace of wands, page of pentangles, ten of wands. Here is an artist holding his charcoal to measure the figure, or maybe a landscape. He is standing in a field holding a gold coin - it suggests to the Monk something worked in the open air: a thing wrought in real time in the fields and under the trees with the sky around him, something reflecting the light. The ten of wands suggests a fellowship, an association of like-minded artists. Perhaps this artist is one of those who helped define this group, bind them together and delineate the rules. But then in the nine of wands he is outside the group, a little battered and bruised. He doesn't appear to have been ejected, but perhaps he doesn't feel as if he has done as well as the others. 

King of pentangles, knight of cups, Death and The Lovers show a change of mood. The king of pentangles is undoubtedly the painter's patron and the knight of cups suggests travel, by the artist. Death would seem to mimic the previous card as if behind the journey is a desire to escape from death, or perhaps that death follows the artist on his journey. Perhaps the patron has paid for this artist to travel in the knowledge that he is dying. The Lovers, the card that follows is very poignant in this context. In the background of the lovers' nuptials is a mountain and in the following cards the sea.  The page of cups and the page of swords suggest the artist is inspired by the sea and here wields his paintbrush with the of incisiveness of a sword.

Rider Waite pack

Alfred Sisley

In 1897 Alfred Sisley married his long time partner and the mother of their children, Eugenié Lescouezec at Cardiff Town Hall. They were both dying of cancer. He had been brought to Cardiff by his patron François Depeaux. Depeaux, a collector and promoter of Impressionist Art, had an office in Swansea through which he organised the importation of coal from Wales into Rouen. Sisley and his partner stayed with Mr Thomas a coal merchant who lived in Penarth. Sisley wrote "I have been here for a week...The countryside is very pretty and the Roads with the big ships on them sailing into and out of Cardiff is superb...I don't know how long I will stay in Penarth. I am very comfortable here, 'in lodgings' with some decent folk. The climate is very mild, and has indeed been too hot these last few days, especially now as I write. I hope to make good use of what I see around me and return to Moret in October, or thereabouts'. After their marriage in August the couple spent their honeymoon in the Gower. The year that Sisley make his visit is the same one in which Augustus John bangs his head in Pembrokeshire. 

Born to British parents in Paris, Sisley was one of the founding members of the Société Anonyme, better known as the Impressionist Movement. Sisley showed work in three of the first seven exhibitions held by the 'société'. However, Sisley didn't feel he had done as well as his friends Monet, Renoir and Pissarro and withdrew from Paris to Moret-Sur-Long near Fointainbleu.

Whilst in Penarth and the Gower Sisley painted at least 19 paintings (that are known). The change of scene seemed to have revitalised him. On his return in October an article in Le Journal observed "The Impressionist master has brought back from Penarth and Langland a series of admirable sea pieces, in which the strange flavour of that landscape, little frequented by painters, is rendered with art that is as captivating as it is personal."

A year after their return Eugenié died and the following year Alfred followed her. Monet organised a sale of his paintings to help raise money for their orphaned children. I imagine Monet nipping over to be a witness at Sisley's marriage and perhaps painting his very first Water Lillies at Roath Park Lake. The ones that are now in the National Museum Wales.

For Wales, Sisley's lasting legacy is that his Impressionist paint strokes brought about a sea change in Welsh landscape painting. It was now possible to make a painting in Wales that was not in the shadow of the Romantics. He unlocked the door for Welsh artists Augustus John and James Dickson Innes.

John Stuart Crichton lays down cards he has cut from the Marseilles pack. He lays down the nine of coins and wonders who this rich person might be. The nine of coins is followed by The Wheel of Fortune and the ace of swords; is this person from old money? There are suggestions here of the seasons changing and a coats of arms in the ace of swords. Strength, the following card, could be the family motto. Then he sees the two of wands followed by the seven of wands and he sees that this is a railway builder. When he sees the two of swords he believes he knows who this is. The two of swords is followed by Temperance and then the six of swords. By the time that John Stuart Crichton had reached his majority and taken over the businesses and Cardiff Castle, David Davies had sunk his first pit. One of nine children of a West Wales farmer he had earned enough money as a sawyer to buy a second farm. Then by organising rail gangs, building bridges and digging cuttings he had earned enough to lease his first mine. His strength and temperance impressed the men he employed and through their support he made the mines pay, despite unprofitable beginnings. 

What is to come is of interest to Bute, Davies's path is crossing his in a way he feels threatens his interests. David Davies's power base is in Ceredigion far from Bute's sphere of influence. Davies is a Calvinist, Bute a Catholic, both are at odds with the establishment. Bute sees Davies feeding his power base by funding Aberystwyth University, The Hermit, bringing light and education. This last card and Judgement suggest he has a desire to be elected to Parliament. The seven of wands shows Davies's use of his railways to transport his skilled workers back home to Cardigan to vote for him. The ten of swords shows further consolidation of his mines. The cards suggest that Davies will need to build influence in Parliament to have an act passed to further develop his railways. The Star suggests that Davies wants to build a dock, the thing that would most undermine Bute's monopoly. The World, suggests that David Davies will achieve his goal. Crichton-Stuart believes that he can defeat him and that the next time that he lays out David Davies's cards the pattern will be different. A different outcome brought about through marshalling his  political influence and burgeoning magic powers.

Marseilles pack   

David Davies, Ocean Davies, Top Sawyer

David Davies was born in 1818, the eldest of nine children. He began work as a sawyer, at a time when a two man saw was used; one man stood in a pit the other at ground level. Davies would never work the saw from the pit hence his nickname 'Top Sawyer'. He also worked with his father on the farm. In 1838 his father died of tubercolosis leaving him in charge of the family. At this time he was illiterate yet he took over Tynymaen Farm, which later became the home farm of the Plasdinam Estate and two years later Gwerneirin Farm. In 1851 he married Margaret Jones of Llanfair and a year later their only child Edward was born.

In 1852, he completed his first engineering project, building a bridge over the Severn at Llandinam. David Davies built most of the railway lines in mid-Wales: building the deepest cutting, at the time, at Talerddig, on the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway and later the impressive feat of crossing Tregarron Bog on the Manchester and Milford Railway (which reached neither destination). He also visited Sardinia with his chief engineer, Benjamin Piercy, to advise the company given the concession to build a railway on the island. The engineer remained behind becoming a friend of Garibaldi and tutoring his son Riccioti.

In the 1860s Davies became a colliery owner founding the Parc and Maendy collieries on land rented from Crawshay. He almost failed when he ran out of money and was unable to pay the workers wages, however they kept working out of loyalty to him and fortunately they made a big breakthrough at Cwmparc mine, Treorchy. His mine holdings grew and in the 1880s his mines were consolidated in the Ocean Coal Company a limited liability company. It was his need to export his coal and bypass the expensive bottleneck at Cardiff Docks that led him into conflict with Bute.

In 1872 Aberystwyth University opened, largely through his support. In 1874 he was elected to Parliament as the M.P. for Cardigan Boroughs. He was able to shepherd the bill to create Barry Docks through Parliament after it had failed at the first attempt in 1873 due to opposition from Bute's supporters. In 1875 he was elected the treasurer for University College Aberystwyth. In 1886 he split with Gladstone over Home Rules for Ireland and split the Liberal party in Cardiganshire standing for the Unionist Liberals. He was defeated by nine votes. He then put his energies into local government; he was elected to Montgomery County Council, he was a member and later chairman of the Llandinam School Board and was a Justice of the Peace for Montgomeryshire. 

In 1889 Barry Docks was opened. At their peak in 1913 the docks were the largest in the world exporting over 11.05 million tons in a year. In 1890 when David Davies died Ocean Coal Company Ltd was the largest and most profitable company in South Wales. When he died his son Edward took over the company, he died within 8 years mentally and physically exhausted.

The Sun, The Star, ace of pentangles and five of cups suggest a rich and yet painful beginning. The blessed child set to inherit a land blessed with water who gains a great inheritance early. Next, he sees a youth holding the world in his hands looking out to sea, two of wands. The next card, The Hierophant, confirms his suspicions it is his own tarot reading - an automatic biography. Next, he sees the arch built outside a castle to welcome him as the young Marquess, four of wands, when he came to his majority ten of pentangles. He was welcomed like a king, The Emperor, and showered with praise and hope. His father had transformed Cardiff by building the Bute Dock (the Bute Dock West when the Bute Dock East was built, the construction of which he had already set in train). The third Marquess himself had promised to build a third. He was also embarking on a huge project to rebuild and remodel Cardiff Castle, three of pentangles. But what was to come next? He sees himself standing holding a light into the dark, into the far distant past, The Hermit. Like David Davies he makes generous donations to an University at his power base, although for Bute that is Scotland and the Universities of St Andrews, in Fife, and the University of Glasgow.

But what will become of him? He puts down The Devil, he will certainly try to bind people to him, to control them and of course he will be misunderstood and demonised. The seven, six and three of wands follow next. He see himself fighting his enemies and rivals; people like Batchelor, Wood and Davies. He sees a triumph, of poetry and pageantry, a recreation of a medieval court and finally he looks over a desert. This last card puzzles and troubles him in equal measure. What does this mean? Will his interests in Cardiff come to nothing, or perhaps his own intellectual endeavours will not be valued.

Rider Waite pack

The Third Marquess of Bute

The third Marquess of Bute's father died six months after he was born. The child had a difficult and unhappy childhood. On being sent away to Harrow he developed an interest in Catholicism that he nurtured through his student days at Oxford. He was one of last batch of peers to enter Oxford University as a 'nobleman'. In 1865 he made his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was able to indulge his curiosity in Islam and the Jewish religion. He became a Catholic in 1866, gaining an audience and blessing from Pope Pius IV in 1869. This choice of religion further alienated him from many of the people in Cardiff: he was a Conservative and a Catholic, they were largely Liberal and Nonconformist; although interestingly both were estranged from the established church, although no longer barred from holding civil positions. Bute was the inspiration for Disraeli's novel Lothair. He was considered to have a great mind and great things were expected of him.

Bute continued to develop Cardiff. In 1868 work was begun on Roath Dock and in 1895 Queen Alexandria Dock, finished in 1907. But it was too late, Barry Dock had been built and was more efficient and could handle more coal.

Possibly the most visible legacies of Bute in Cardiff are Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch, considerably re-designed by William Burgess starting in 1868. Burgess was the son of one of Bute's dock engineers. Burgess shared Bute's fantasy of of recreating a medieval world.

Despite Bute's efforts he was unable to prevent Batchelor from building Penarth Dock or Davies from building Barry Docks, although, it's possible that he managed to engineer the former's bankruptcy. In an effort to remedy the loss of his monopoly Bute created the Cardiff Railway Company. His intention was to short circuit the Taff Vale Railway Company line by building his own railway to Pontypridd via Taff's Well from Heath Halt. Once again he was outmanouvered when the Taff Vale bought land between their sidings and the Bute's new railway company. Whilst this was only ever a temporary solution it was sufficient to defeat the Marquess.

The third Marquess of Bute was certainly interested in the cultural life of Cardiff and Wales. Bute created the Western Mail as a Conservative mouthpiece to counter the Cardiff Times that supported the Liberal Party. He supported the Eisteddfod, as his father had done (although at this time this was largely an English language affair). He was also the President of Cardiff University and funded a chair in engineering construction. However his loyalty was to Scotland. He was a supporter of Scottish independence and the majority of his collections are housed in Scotland. 

He is laying down cards familiar to him, although in a different context. Here they have a different meaning. We see wood thrusting into our vision from the left (eight of wands), this person is involved in the timber business, He becomes the prince of timber acclaimed by his peers (six of wands). Just as his business is expanding he is cut off from the river (three of wands - he stands in a kingdom of wood looking over a blighted land). The river has moved, it has been diverted to protect the city from flooding and he needed a new dock to land his timber.  He is now in the grasp of the the monks father and is forced to sign an expensive yearly lease to use Bute's docks. This way Batchelor's success will enrich the Bute empire and should he ever become a threat the lease can be ended quickly. (two of wands) A man stands between pillars looking out over the bay, the world in his hand; the monk has to ask himself if this person is Batchelor or Bute? Batchelor has plans (two of coins) he is juggling the future, perhaps he can build his own dock if he can arrange the finance and ally with the necessary people. In 1852 he manages to get Walter Coffin, the chairman of the Taff Vale Railway, elected to Parliament (knight of pentangles) the following year Batchelor is elected Mayor of Cardiff (king of wands). Batchelor is able to continue a programme of civil and social reform (page of swords). Coffin and Batchelor succeed in getting the act for the building of Penarth Docks through parliament, but the monk has his revenge (The Devil); Batchelor is declared a bankrupt and his assets are liquidated in 1870. Bute muses on the next card, The Star, does this refer to Batchelors work in building the Penarth Docks or maybe his building of sewers to prevent the devastation of cholera or his pouring of money into libraries and education for the illiterate poor. Bute wonders what the page of cups could mean or Justice, the last two cards. He hopes this means he will finally discover a means to bring this radical to book?

Rider Waite pack

John Batchelor

John Batchelor was born in Newport in 1820. In his twenties he began trading in timber and slate and established yards in Aberdare and Merthyr. In 1843 he moved to Cardiff and set up business with his brother Sidney as Batchelor Brothers. They took over the William Jones yard on the bank of River Taff at the lower end of St Mary Street. The River Taff was diverted to prevent flooding. This process meant that the Batchelor Brothers no longer had access to the river from their yard and were forced to move their business to Bute Dock. The 2nd Marquess of Bute used this to his advantage, only giving the Batchelors an annual lease. Batchelor became a Liberal Councillor for Cardiff South in 1850, partly due to his campaigning for better sanitary conditions. In 1852 Batchelor helped to get Walter Coffin of the Taff Vale Railway Company elected to parliament as a Liberal against Bute's Tory candidate, J.D.C.L. Nicholl. At the end of the year Bute refused to renew the Batchelors' shipyard tenure. His ships were barred from entry to the docks. In 1853 Batchelor was elected Mayor of Cardiff. The reason for getting Coffin elected was to get an act of Parliament passed to allow the building of Penarth Dock, in direct competition to Bute's current monopoly. It also meant securing the necessary connection to the Taff Vale Railway, the main connection to coalfields and for Batchelor to his timber yards in the valleys. In 1856 Batchelor was appointed director of Penarth Dock. Work started in 1859 and was completed by 1865, three years before the 3rd Marquess of Bute reached his majority. In 1869 Batchelor was elected president of the Cardiff Liberal Association, he was on the Cardiff School Board and active in the anti-slavery movement. The first act to abolish slavery in British territories had been passed in 1833, however, there were some exceptions in this act and slavery continued to be practiced in other countries. Batchelor had improved the sewerage system in Cardiff, cholera nurtured in Bute Dock had previously killed many of the citizens of Cardiff. he had also broken the Bute families monopoly on Cardiff's access to the sea. On his death Batchelor's fellow Liberals and Non-conformist co-religionists raised the money to build a statue in his honour to stand in the Hayes outside the Free Library that he had helped found. The final insult was yet to come. The statue was defaced , covered in tar and yellow paint and a scurrilous epitaph placed in the Western Mail by Thomas Henry Ensor, a successful lawyer and supporter of the Butes and the Tories:

"In honour of John Batchelor, a native of Newport, who left his country for his country's god; who, on his return, devoted his life and energies to setting class against class, a traitor to the crown, a reviler of the aristocracy, a hater of the clergy, a panderer to the multitude, who, as first Chairman of the Cardiff School Board, squandered the funds to which he did not contribute: who is sincerely mourned by his unpaid creditors to the amount of fifty thousand pounds; who at the close of a wasted and mis-spent life died a demagogue and a pauper, this monument, to the eternal disgrace of Cardiff is erected by sympathetic Radicals: "Owe No Man Anything' ".

This lead to a court case for libel, however, the court found that a dead man had no need of a reputation and so could not be libelled or slandered, setting a precedent in British Law.   

The Page of Wands is followed by the eight of pentangles, four of swords, The Chariot, The Hierophant, nine of cups, ace of cups, five of pentangles, ten of pentangles. In a very short time Bute can tell that this is the education of an architect. Here he is at the very beginning of his apprenticeship surveying a building; the greenness of his surveying rod mirroring his own greenness. He learns the craft: eight of pentangles; he studies Gothic architecture, four of swords; travels to see Egypt and Ancient Greece and Rome, The Hierophant. He also travels in Turkey, eight of cups, and Venice, ace of cups. He takes on the commission for Bute, three of pentangles. The architect does not need money and spends as much of his time designing his own house, ace of wands, as he does Cardiff Castle. The whimsy and richness of his life is seen in the Page of Cups: Edmund Gosse described taking tea with Burgess; 'He used to give the quaintest little tea parties…the meal served in beaten gold, the cream poured out of a single onyx, and the tea structured in its descent on account of real rubies in the pot." But his lifestyle was also destructive, the architect would die in his house, The Tower.

Rider Waite pack

William Burges

William Burges was born on the second of April 1881. His father was Alfred Burges, a civil engineer who specialised in marine engineering. Alfred Burges was apprenticed to James Walker with whom he worked and he in his turn trained Joseph Bazelgette, who masterminded the sewage system in London. Walker and Burges designed East Bute Dock, for the Bute Estate in Cardiff; the 3rd Marquess of Bute had not yet reached his majority. William Burges intended to follow in his father's footsteps, studying at King's College in 1839 and then engineering under Edward Blore. In 1849 he joined the office of Mathew Digby Watt, the special commisioner and secretary to the Great Exhibition of 1851. He also worked on Paddington Station with Brunel. However, he seems to have constantly been attracted to the Victorian whimsy of medieval craftsmanship and Gothic fantasy. At King's college he was a contemporary of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, they were both taught by John Sell Cotman and even when studying engineering with Blore he specialised in antiquarian draughtsmanship, Edward Blore was an advocate of the Gothic Revival. From 1849 to 1851 Burges worked for Matthew Digby Wyatt, the special commissioner and secretary to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Burges worked on the Medieval Court for the exhibition, he also contributed drawings of medieval metalwork to Wyatt's book Metalwork, published 1852. In 1851 he began to work with Henry Clutton, contributing drawings to his book; Remarks with Illustrations on the Domestic Architecture of France (pub 1853). 
Burges began travelling widely in Europe following his research trips to France. In 1853 he stayed in Rome and the following year he travelled around Italy with George Aitchison who described Burges as "the most accomplished thirteenth century architect England had". Burges's travels in Europe became more adventerous taking him through Greece and into Turkey. His biographer, J. Mordaunt Crook, says Burges was susceptible to the "tug of distant places: the ancient world, the dark ages, the Far East".  
Between 1854 and 1856 he worked on the restoration of the Chapter House, Salisbury Cathedral. During this time he became a partner with Henry Clutton, the partnership lasted for one year. In 1859 -62 he began work on The Great Bookcase, designed to hold his collection of art books. It would later sit in the home he designed for himself, The Tower. The bookcase was decorated with paintings representing Christian and pagan art  by fourteen artists including Edward Poynter, Henry Holiday, Simeon Solomon, Rossetti, Albert Moore, Stacy Marks and Burne-Jones.
Burges's first large solo commission was for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork. He arrived in Cardiff in 1865 and began work on the Castle in 1868. By the 1870s his work on Cardiff Castle was causing quite a stir. It had both popular and snob appeal and so was widely copied.Bute imposed the style that Burges established in re-modeling Cardiff Castle on all new buildings in Cardiff from town houses to terraces. In 1871 he began work on Park House for McConnochie, engineer, Cardiff Mayor and Bute stooge. In 1872 he began work on the reconstruction of Castell Coch and in 1875 his own home in Holland Park, The Tower House. During this time he took on a number of other commissions: Knightshayes Court, Tiverton, Devon; Church of Christ the Consoler, grounds of Newby Hall, Skelton on Ure, N. Yorkshire; St Mary's, Studley Royal, Fountain Abbey, N. Yorkshire