Thank you for the comment – sorry I could not get the link to work.
I agree that we cannot get back to anywhere. I am, today, in a place which I knew very well 50 years ago. In one sense, it is remarkably unchanged. But in other ways, it is completely different.
As an (amateur historian) I am very keen to get back to as many periods in history as I can. Books help and so do reconstructions, whether they are drawings or physical reconstructions.
With Chiswick and Claremont, I think they are precious relics and anything which can be done in the interests of historical accuracy should be done. Any other policy would seem like changing the words in an original copy of a Shakespeare play.
Re archaeologists – I love what they do and read a lot of their books, always believing that they probably make as many mistakes as any other profession and that they are in need of critical commentary to keep them on their toes!

In terms of usage I do believe that there are big issues here thrown for me into stark relief by the experience of visiting Chiswick. Here we have the amphitheatre fenced off and, I was told by the staff, alarmed to prevent access at pretty well all times contrasted with the rest of the garden which exhibits a pattern of activity: ball games, dog exercising, which would seem more at home on a recreation ground. I’m sure Chiswick would work better for me if the amphitheatre were opened up a little and the gardens closed down a touch.

P.S. Please don’t give archaeologists quite such a hard time. Yes we do get it wrong occasionally but if you saw the hoops we are having to jump through to conduct even the most modest amount of digging within the boundaries of a National Trust property you would be sobbing in sympathy – well almost.

Find it offencive and snobbish. Are midddle classes still regarded as plebs? Shell we restore the place to its glory so aristocrates could walk there instead of plebs?

See blog post on what archaeology did to a deserted silk road city in central Asia.

That would be more than enough for me. Much though I like archaeology I think they dig up far too much, to further their careers, and leave it to be damaged by the elements. This is what is happening to Pompeii and I have seen a desert city being eroded in the wind which, had it been left unde the dunes, would have lasted for a few more millennia.

See above blog post on paradise.
The British Museum’s Egyptian Galleries in the British Museum are among my favourite places in London – but their tranquility is usually destroyed by boring parties of bored school children learning how to tick boxes in preparation for their future careers as health and safety inspectors.