Lord Charteris, Lord Windlesham, Ladies and Gentlemen, For me, this is a great pleasure to spend just a short time from No. 10 to come and see the great treasures of this country of which we are so proud, and first I want to pay tribute to the way in which the Heritage Fund has been run by Lord Charteris and the Trustees for quite a number of years now, eight and a half or nine years. I am sure that everyone, if they had the chance to see what you had done for themselves, would think that their own money was extremely well spent and would be grateful, not only that we started up the Fund, but that it had come under such marvellous stewardship for the whole of its early years. It matters not only that the money is there, but we are grateful for the leadership, for the enthusiasm which your Trustees have brought to the work which has enlarged so much what they have been able to do. It is not just a question of amassing these treasures, of recognising their worth and their value, it is the love and inspiration which has gone into that which has brought together such a marvellous Exhibition today.
It was important that we conserve our heritage—few countries have such a rich heritage as we have. A heritage not only in beautiful things, whether it be the marvellous Calke bed, whether it be the beautiful silver, whether it be the lovely portraits, whether it be the great memorial part of the heritage to which you have given so much attention to the memorials of those who defended the freedom and justice which is so much a part of our way of life. All that we have. As one goes through the Exhibition, one marvels at the people who peopled this land before us. Their enormous confidence that they had in building these great and beautiful houses, their great taste, their great sense of proportion, the great elegance of the architects and of the great furniture people and goldsmiths that were available to do the work which they had commissioned. Remarkable taste, remarkable inspiration, remarkable confidence in the future. We are just regaining that confidence now, but it is nice to go back and see that we are retrieving something that was there in earlier years. They had all of that and they had something else, they had in this country so many craftsmen. If you look at the examples of craftsmanship as you go round, they are exquisite. It makes you realise that quite a large number of people in this country must then have worked, not at mass production, it didn't exist, but they had a very wholesome, rewarding, personally fulfilling life and as they saw these great creations coming under their hands and saw them growing and they, in fact, earned not only for their lifetime had they known it, they were building something very beautiful for us for the future. But you haven't stopped at that, you've [end p1] gone on to protect and to bring before us the examples of courage, of trying to go to the frontiers of what was possible. As we come in the great, marvellous car—the speed car that we saw as we came in—I had no idea it was so large. The tank outside in the First World War—all of these things too you have conserved and you haven't stopped at the last century. As we came through and looked at a chair in that room, we would have sworn that it was quite the latest thing ever to have been designed so modern does it look. I think you have done us such a great service that we can scarcely thank you enough and I hope that as many people as possible will come to see the beauties, the treasures that are part of the United Kingdom and the people who went before us and I hope, too, will take away another message because we are not only seeking to conserve all that is best, we are hoping it will be used as an inspiration for our present generation to create the things which your successors will wish to conserve in the future. So many lessons to be learned in elegance, in proportion, in skill, in the way in which things have been done quite meticulously and I think that we are fortunate now as I go around and am beginning to see people creating anew, because a country that is proud of its heritage will know that it has a duty to create a new heritage for the future. To create the same value architecture for its beauty, and we haven't quite got there yet, to create the same good, excellent new design, whether it be in porcelain, whether it be in metal, whether it be in furniture, whether it be in great deeds of valour to protect that freedom which we all enjoy. So the message is a great exhibition of the treasures of this country coupled with an inspiration to create the new heritage of the future and add our contribution to that with which we have been so richly endowed.
Just one final word. When you have beautiful things it matters very much how you display them. As you know, I am mad keen on design as well as heritage. They have been displayed beautifully here and may I also say the British Museum has set tremendous standards in the art of design and display and Lord Windlesham didn't say that I come here quite often as I do to the other museums and I think our display work is fantastic and it adds greatly to the attractiveness of those things which you are showing and also greatly to the attractiveness of the Exhibition bringing more and more people in to see it. I hope that the children who come here and the people who come here to see will have the privileges some of us have had to go round with guides who can see things through a tutored eye, because when you add understanding to the visual appreciation of what you see, then you know so much more about it and it becomes so much more significant. Thank you very much for bringing together this Exhibition. Thank you Sir Denis [end p2] Rooke. Its an example too of how British industry is, once again, giving back its success into the community, into its past and creating for its future. It would not have been possible to do it in such a splendid way without your generosity and again I repeat its not only your generosity, its the interest that you have brought to it, bringing these things together from all parts of the United Kingdom. It is, therefore, my very great privilege formally to declare open this Treasures of our Country and wish it every success and say that I hope as many people will come to see it as possible—not only from the United Kingdom, but from overseas. Their journey will really be necessary and worthwhile.