Alex St. John has led an interesting life, to be sure. He helped create the DirectX platform in the early 1990s, founded WildTangent therafter, and served as the CTO for Hi5.

He also got to visit Britannia Manor a while ago, and recently posted his thoughts on the experience, along with a number of photos.

Visiting Richard Garriott’s legendary Britannia Manor is like visiting Santa’s workshop at the North Pole, an experience that nobody would believe unless they witnessed it first-hand. Richard owns a collection of historical artifacts that most people wouldn’t believe actually existed. To try to describe Richards collection could only fail to do it justice, fortunately I have a few pictures but the thing to keep in mind is that his home is a museum of the bizarre so extensive that having witnessed it first-hand it is nearly impossible to take in and recall everything I saw. I wonder if Richard remembers what everything is and he lives there. Britannia Manor is also a bit of a labyrinth with secret passages and hidden doors. Deep in the houses basement Richard keeps a hidden vault that contains his most exotic collection of mythical and extinct creature skeletons, cursed and occult objects, ACTUAL vampire hunting kits, mummified bodies, shrunken heads and much more.

[snip]

…we were all so awestruck with Garriott’s house that most of the dialog revolved around the subject of “WOW I’ve never seen anything like this!”

I don’t know about you all, but I find it oddly comforting to know that even a man who has made a significant name for himself in the fields of technology and gaming can be so completely blown away by the contents of Garriott’s house of oddities that he is reduced to speaking in fanboyisms.

Click on through and read the whole thing. St. John is an engaging writer, and his chronicle of the visit is a fascinating read.