Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

We are also proud that the portrait of the current Headmaster, .Maxwell A. Howell, reproduced on page 56, was painted by a Trustee of the Gallery, Mr Lawrence Daws. So there is a certain nexus between the Gallery and Images ofa School. Perhaps that was why I was asked to launch it, because I have little practice and even less expertise in launching books. Those of you who have read Anthony Powell's monumental work, A Dance to the Music of Time, named after Poussin's equally monumental painting, may remember that one of the novels-the tenth, I think, in the series of twelve or thirteen is called Books Do Furnish the Room. I have no quarrel with this title. Indeed, the way in which it evolved is worth a speech on its own, but that must wait for another day. Books do furnish a room-of that there is no doubt, especially if they are bought, as happens, I understand (in the case of certain parvenus) by the yard. But books do much more than that. They bring into a room many of those qualities that distinguish civilisation from barbarism. They fill a room with warmth and light, they please the eye and they stimulate the mind; they promise knowledge for those who seek It and Inspiration for those who are creative; they encourage conversation and they give pleasure even to those who have no special attributes at all. Images ofa School will do all these things. It will take its place with equal ease on the most elegant of coffee tables and on the most scholarly of library shelves. Following upon much detailed research, it has been written with proper regard, not only to syntax and grammar but also to the beauty of the English language-both rare qualities in these illiterate days. I don't suppose anyone, apart from serious scholars of European history, remembers the first Hapsburg Emperor, Maximilian I. Like most crowned heads of his time, he expended much of his energy leading his troops into battle, but he was also a writer of note and excellence and he has left behind one quotation that is, I think, appropriate to this afternoon's proceedings: 'Whoever prepares no memorial for himself during his lifetime has none after his death and is forgotten along with the sound of the bell that tolls his passing'. What is true of human beings is true also of schools. Those that are chronicled will be remembered, those that are not will be forgotten. Brisbane Grammar has been fortunate in this respect. Already, in its 120 years of existence, it has had five histories written about it but, as the Headmaster points out in his Foreword, three of these merely listed the academic, sporting and military achievements of the School and the fourth was light and anecdotal in character. Images ... breaks completely new ground. It links the history of the school with its architecture, and the artefacts and works of art within its walls, and it explains how these have given to it its special environment. The first paragraph of the Introduction sets the scene for the book's succeeding chapters: This is a book about images of a school. Over many years schools develop images of what makes them distinctive-as places of education and as institutions intimately connected with the social life and history of their wider communities. Such images, variously constructed, 112