Category: Stately Homes

The Wellington Tour: Masterpiece Theatre

The Wellington Tour is still nine months away and so I do not dwell on it. Much. It would be folly for me to think on the prospect of seeing England again this far ahead of our departure. So I’ve decided that the best thing to do is to put the Tour as far from my mind as possible. You would think it would be relatively easy to accomplish this state of enforced amnesia, but it is not. Reminders seem to be round every bend. Rory Muir’s new biography of the Duke of Wellington was just published in December and so I’ve been reading reviews of it whilst awaiting the arrival of my own copy (oh, Joy!). And then there are the gossip items one can’t help reading lately regarding the engagement of the present Duke of Wellington’s granddaughter, Sofia Wellesley, to ex-guardsman and current crooner James Blunt, pictured below. Lately, one can hardly turn around without encountering the Duke of Wellington. And there was the diorama of the Duke of Wellington’s funeral procession, with rolls of handcoloured pictures of all the dignitaries and their carriages, which I found recently on eBay. It looked something like a thicker Etch-A-Sketch, the pictures moved along rollers that were controlled by the two knobs beneath the glass window. Alas, I was forced to stop bidding when the price flew above four hundred dollars, more’s the pity. It would have been a grand addition to my future Wellington Museum.

And then there’s Masterpiece Theatre, which seems to be on a mission to remind me of the Wellington Tour on a regular basis. I watch a lot of PBS, and thus have been treated to the spate of commercials and programs running up to the premiere of the new season of Downtown Abbey. PBS has been running Season Three episodes of Downton Abbey almost non-stop. Hubby has even gotten into the spirit of things, though unwittingly.

“Hey, Hon!”
“Yeah?”
“You watching your PBS?” (Hubby watches his shows in the living room – I in the bedroom).
“No. Why?”
“That woman’s on again. You know, the one who’s in every British program ever made.”

I switched over to our PBS channel, where I saw the Dowager Countess of Grantham on the screen. “Maggie Smith,” I yelled.”It’s Downton Abbey. I’m going there.”
“Riiight.”
“Downton is really Highclere Castle and we’re going there on the Wellington Tour.”
“Better you than me. My good man,” answered Hubby.

In fact, I’m watching The Secrets of Highclere Castle – again – as I write this.  Once more I hear that Highclere Castle costs roughly a million pounds a year to maintain. And that within it’s walls is the priceless Van Dyck of Charles I, visible in the photo below.

I wonder if the family will be at breakfast when we arrive . . . . . . Once more, I’m told that in 1839 Highclere House was remodeled in the Gothic style. And that Capability Brown redesigned the landscape, which features a ruin-like folly and various temples, including the Temple of Diana, below.

In fact, the more I think on it, the more I realize that what I want to see most at Highclere are the grounds.

In the photo above, we see one of the fifty-six Cedars of Lebanon planted by the first Earl. I’m glad that Victoria and I have blocked out an entire day for our visit to Highclere, so that we’ll all have the time to take it in at our leisure. You can click this think for a map of the grounds.

This will also leave us plenty of time to visit the Tea Rooms


Highclere Castle Afternoon Tea Menu
Tea and Coffee
A glass of Sparkling Elderflower/Champagne
Selection of sandwiches that may include;
Roasted Chicken and Stuffing
Smoked Salmon and Horseradish
Honey Baked Ham
Egg and Cress
Freshly Baked Scones
Clotted Cream and Homemade Jam
A selection of cakes: Victoria Sponge, Carrot Cake or a Coffee and Cream Cake
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and, naturally, the Gift Shop. But returning to the house . . . .

I do want to see Lady Mary’s bedroom . . . . . . .

where Mr. Pamuk died. 

It’s part of the tour, as is the gallery along which the ladies of the house carried the body.

I know, I know – with all that’s happened on Downton Abbey, why do I keep going back to that episode? Could it be because it was strangely comedic?

Of course, I’ll be tuning into Downton Abbey this Sunday since I can’t wait to find out what Thomas the Footman has up his sneaky sleeve this season. That should keep me from thinking about The Wellington Tour. Much.

Why not consider joining Victoria and me on our Tour?  We’d love to have you with us as we experience all the fun of Highclere Castle, as well as the exciting feast of additional sites we have planned.

Visit Basildon Park with Kristine and Victoria…September 2014

We are busy investigating every aspect and all the details of our upcoming tour — which we hope YOU will join!  The details are here.
 
 
 
Victoria here, remembering her previous visit to Basildon Park and reprising a blog post from December, 2010 . . . And while you read it, think about how it will feel as you approach the great house…enter the halls and view the sumptuous rooms.  You will love every moment of it…and especially the fascinating story of the couple who turned it from a sad wreck of a place into a brilliant National Trust stately home.

from Sunday, December 26, 2010:

Basildon Park Rebirths

Basildon Park is in Berkshire overlooking the lovely Thames Valley, built in the 1770’s in the strict Palladian style by architect John Carr of York.

Basildon Park was abandoned about 1910 and stripped of its furnishings even including flooring, fireplace surrounds and woodwork. It was used to house troops or prisoners in both world wars. Some rooms were removed and reconstructed in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City (ballroom, below).

Basildon Park stood mostly empty and deteriorating until 1952 when Lord and Lady Iliffe, a newspaper tycoon and his wife, rescued the house. Lady Iliffe writes, “To say it was derelict is hardly good enough: no window was left intact, and most were repaired with cardboard or plywood; there was a large puddle on the Library floor, coming from the bedroom above, where a fire had just been stopped in time; walls were covered with signatures and graffiti from various occupants….It was appallingly cold and damp. And yet, there was still an atmosphere of former elegance, and a feeling of great solidity. Carr’s house was still there, damaged but basically unchanged.”

Views of the outside show the Bath stone construction. The Palladian window in the Garden Front  is in the Octagon Room.

The Iliffes were fortunate enough to find genuine Carr fireplaces and woodwork removed from other houses, mostly in Yorkshire. Carr employed meticulous craftsmen and used standard measurements so that the pieces were virtually interchangeable.

Again, Lady Iliffe: “Carr was such a precise architect that his mahogany doors from Panton (in Lincolnshire) fitted exactly in the sockets of the missing Basildon ones.” Thus Basildon is both authentic and a recreation in one.

Lady Iliffe collaborated with leading designers of the English Country House style of decorating to fit out the house with a combination of antiques and

contemporary pieces, including the inevitable floral chintzes that simply drip with that country house charm. Right, the Octagon Room interior.

Upstairs the generously sized rooms were adapted to alternating bedrooms and huge bathrooms. It is a bit of a shock to see one of the perfectly proportioned rooms with its decorative plaster ceiling and elaborate woodwork and marble fireplace decked out with nothing more than the finest 1950’s plumbing fixtures.

Basildon Park was built between 1776 and 1782 by Sir Francis Sykes, created a baronet in 1781. His roots were in Yorkshire and he chose Carr of York to build his house, a classical Palladian villa with a main block of rooms joined to pavilions on either side. The Sykes fortune was made during his service in India. Right is the view of the countryside.

In 1838, the Sykes family sold the house to James Morrison (d. 1857), a Liberal MP who had turned his London haberdashery business into an international concern. By the way, when he was a shopman at Todd and Co., he married his employer’s daughter, and eventually took over the firm. Morrison engaged architect John Papworth to design handkerchiefs for his company and later to remodel Basildon. Morrison had acquired a fine collection of paintings and was one of the founding fathers of the National Gallery in London. Papworth worked at Basildon from 1837 to 1842, making some changes to the Octagon Room and other interior designs, all in keeping with the original spirit of Carr’s house. Morrison’s daughter Miss Ellen Morrison was the last resident before Basildon Park fell into disuse.

Basildon Park was used to house soldiers during World War II, as were many country houses, and certainly suffered occasional, if not constant, abuse.
The Iliffes were collectors of the work of the distinguished English artist Graham Sutherland, whose gigantic tapestry adorns the modernist reconstruction of the Coventry Cathedral. (The 14th century cathedral was destroyed in 1940 by German bombs; a modern cathedral was built and filled

with works of contemporary art.) A number of Sutherland’s paintings and many studies for the tapestry he designed hang at Basildon. The Iliffe family  presented the house to the National Trust in 1978.

Basildon Park has often served as a set for costume dramas for the BBC and other producers. Here is a scene from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, where Basildon enacted the role of Netherfield Park.
This picture shows how carefully designed temporary baseboards can hide 21th century electrical outlets or cable connections.

To Basildon Park in Berkshire now in the capable hands of the National Trust, we wish as many more rebirths as necessary to keep out the damp and bring in the tourists.

 Remember, Gentle Reader, you can join Kristine and Victoria and experience this fabulous mansion yourself.  Please check out all the details at THE WELLINGTON TOUR website.

 
 
 
More detailed reports on Tour Sites to come soon…
 

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire

Victoria, here, lately reading several memoirs by Deborah Mitford Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.  I find them delightful. When I put the book down to attend to other matters, I feel like I’ve been chatting with a friend.

Now, most of my friends are not quite duchesses (more like countesses and baronesses, don’t cha know?), but Debo’s breezy style just feels like an old pal has been telling me about her very long and full life.  Don’t all of your friends cavort with Prince Charles, care for many of the Chatsworth Estate affairs, and feed their chickens?  Actually, I really do have a few friends who feed their chickens, come to think of it.  And Kristine waved at Prince Charles once as he passed her in his limo.

All in One Basket (immediately above) combines two of the Duchess’s previous memoirs into one volume.  They were entitled Counting My Chickens and Home to Roost, collections of stories and essays she wrote earlier.  Wait For Me (top picture) is a memoir of her childhood and marriage to nearly the present. 

The dowager Duchess speaking to Charlie Rose

At the age of 92, she is living near Chatsworth in a house she redecorated — with a few spare pieces from the Chatsworth attics — after the death of her husband, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, in 2004, Chatsworth became the home of her son Peregrine Cavendish, known as Stoker, 12th Duke of Devonshire. and his wife Amanda, the Duchess.

 

The excellent website for Chatsworth is here.  We’ve written about Chatsworth on this blog, as have many others.  It is a favorite target of tourists and residents of the British Isles as well.  The first time I visited Chatsworth, quite a few years ago, I was amazed to be greeted by flocks of chickens wandering the parking area.

These were not just ordinary chickens, but lovely exotic feathered works of art — which walked around and seemed hungry.  My suspicion is that the visitors frequently bring treats for the hens and roosters.  When we entered the main house, the doorkeeper cautioned us not to let the creatures inside. “The Duchess,” he said, “does not like her chickens in the house.”

I have visited Chatsworth several times and I would love to go again. And again.  It is the quintessential English Country House and has been in the forefront of developing the Stately Home Industry, if I dare to call it that.  Debo would not approve. However, she has been an inspiration and a guiding force for the movement.

Deborah and Andrew at their wedding in 1941

Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford was the youngest of the seven children of Lord Redesdale, thus one of the famous Mitford Sisters, of whom so much has been written.  Nancy, eldest of the seven, wrote several novels which are very popular and have been turned into films or tv series; some of these have autobiographical overtones of the sisters’ lives.

Jessica, is famous for her book The American Way of Death, criticising the funeral business. Two other sisters developed fascist sympathies, with Unity trying to shoot herself over the British declaration of war against Germany.  Diana married the head of the British fascist party, Sir Oswald Moseley.  Through it all, Debo ignored politics and remained devoted to each sister in her own way.

Marquess of Hartingdon and bride Kathleen Kennedy in 1944
Joe Kennedy jr. stands behind his sister

When Debo married Lord Andrew Cavendish in 1941, he was not expected to inherit the dukedom. But only four months after his elder brother William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartingdon married Kathleen Kennedy in May, 1944, the Marquess was killed in action  in WWII. Kathleen, sister of future U. S. President John F. Kennedy, died in 1948 in a plane crash.

Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire 1920-2004
Picture: BBC
Thus Andrew and Debo had to prepare for their eventual roles as Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, along with all the responsibilities of many properties, tenants and enterprises. Andrew’s father, the 10th Duke died in 1950.  Though she writes with the advantage of hindsight, the reader of Debo’s accounts can easily see what difficulties the family had with death duties and the establishment of Chatsworth as a profitable business capable of sustaining the house, its contents and activities for the public. Though she pooh-poohs the idea, Debo is largely responsible for Chatsworth’s success.  Thanks, Debo!

For a review of Wait For Me from the Telegraph, click here.

Kenwood House: Traveling Treasures

Early Spring at Kenwood House

Victoria here, recalling several visits to Kenwood House, a beautiful white mansion sitting atop Hampstead Heath just outside of central London.  Originally built in the early 17th century, it was remodeled by Robert Adam 1764-1779 in the neoclassic style with Adam’s distinctive and oft-copied interiors.

1st Earl of Mansfield (1705-1793)

At the time, it was owned by William Murray, who was named Baron Mansfield, later 1st Earl of Mansfield.  He was the Lord Chief Justice from 1756 to 1788 and is credited with  major contributions to the development of English law as well as measures to end slavery in the British Isles.

Elevations of Kenwood House, 1764

The famous Library

In 1925, Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh (1847-1927) and heir to a brewery fortune, bought the house from the Mansfield heirs as the home for his magnificent collection of art. At Iveagh’s death in 1927, he left both the house and the art collection to the nation.  It is also known as the Iveagh Bequest.

Now managed by English Heritage, Kenwood House is undergoing extensive renovations and improvements, returning many rooms to their appearance after Robert Adam decorated them, probably to match the library, which has been long admired by visitors.

In 2012-13 an exhibition of works from the collection Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London   is touring museums in the United States while Kenwood House is closed. Many of the works have never before been outside Britain.  The treasured Rembrandt Self-Portrait was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art briefly in spring before the whole exhibition opened at the Fine Arts Museum of Houston, Texas, where it can been seen until September 3, 2012.

Self Portrait, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1661

I am particularly excited because the collection will next travel to the Milwaukee Art Museum (practically in my front yard) from October 12, 2012 through January 13, 2013.  After Milwaukee, the collection will be shown in Seattle and later yet at the Arkansas Art Center.

The other artists celebrated in the title of this traveling exhibition include Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) who painted numerous portraits of English royalty and aristocrats.

Princess Henrietta of Lorraine attended by a Page, 1634

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) is renowned for his exquisite portraits, and this one is among his best.

Mary, Countess of Howe, c. 1764
Many other masterworks are included in the nearly fifty paintings in the exhibition by artists such as Canaletto,  Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thomas Lawrence,  Sir Edwin Landseer, and…

Portrait of Pieter van der Broecke, by Frans Hals, 1633
Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Coast Scene
 with Fisherman Hauling a Boat Ashore, c. 1803-04
George Romney, Emma Hart as The Spinstress, c. 1783-84
The exhibition Rembrandt, van Dyck and Gainsborough: Treasures from Kenwood House is organized by The American Federation of Art and English Heritage.

SAVE Britain's Heritage

An organization called SAVE Britain’s Heritage has been campaigning for historic buildings since its formation in 1975 by a group of architects, journalists and planners. Its Dare to Care: Buildings at Risk 2012-13 report, published June 1, contains almost one hundred homes in need of restoration, from castles to cottages.

Buildings featured in the 2012 report, Dare to Care, range from enchanting cottages, such as Shellards Cottage above, farmhouses and town houses to forlorn country piles, deserted chapels and crumbling mills – all crying out for restoration. These neglected treasures, ripe for sensitive repair, often lie in idyllic locations, surrounded by fields or in country villages or beside rivers and canals.

SAVE’s latest report contains almost 100 new cases, resulting from a major consultation with local authorities in England. It also features up-to-date case histories of buildings rescued since appearing in earlier SAVE reports. Finally, the report highlights the scandalous waste of several historic buildings over the past twelve months. These include the demolition of a 19th-century brewer’s villa in Hungerford, Berkshire, and the imminent destruction of Charles Barry’s elegant Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

A must read for anyone interested in Britain’s heritage and an essential tool for prospective restorers, SAVE’s reports play a critical role in the conservation of Britain’s historic buildings. Some two-thirds of the country houses included in SAVE’s first report, published in 1977, had found new owners or uses within three or four years and good news has continued ever since. Marcus Binney, SAVE’s President says, ‘This is the 23rd of SAVE’s annual reports on buildings at risk, each one illustrating a remarkable selection of endangered properties in varying states of repair, but all candidates for immediate action.’


Here are some highlights from the 2012 report:

Milton Damerell House, Devon: this treasure trove of architectural detail and history is currently on the market for £495,000. Dating back to 1500, this handsome Grade II listed house is an amalgamation of four centuries of architecture. Thought to have been a vicarage at one time, and located within beautiful countryside, this building boasts extraordinary surviving features and the promise of a mysterious hidden tunnel.

Shellards Cottage, (above) Essex: This historical gem, a charming thatched cottage built around 1500, is situated at the end of a country lane and would make a delightful home or rural bolt hole.

Ivy Cottage in County Durham: When this idyllic house – which dates back to the 17th century – was listed in 1987 the Inspector recorded that it was already empty and derelict. Two decades later, this picturesque sandstone building, in a small rural village, continues to cry out for a new owner and a new life.

The Georgian Toll Cottage at Marple, near Stockport: stands in a picturesque position next to a hump bridge at the junction of the Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canals. Pathetically boarded up, it cries out for some TLC.

Overstone Hall, (above) on the outskirts of Northampton: is a majestic Italianate mansion in a 40 acre walled park but poses a considerable challenge. It was built in 1866 to the designs of W M Teulon, younger brother of the great Victorian ‘rogue’ architect S S Teulon. After suffering a fire it was put up for sale two years ago. It would make for a magnificent hotel, offices, or could be adapted sensitively for multiple residential use.

For further information, visit the Save Britain’s Heritage website.