Country houses are famously more than the sum of their individual parts. The greatest not only unite landscape, architecture and art to symphonic effect — each element setting off the others to advantage — but reveal in countless ways the changing personalities, circumstances and fashions that have shaped them. Each house has its own story to tell and every story rightly told has details to fascinate and amaze.
Therefore, although it remains important to cherish these buildings as physical manifestations of history, as well as for the quality of their architecture and contents, it is also possible to enjoy them for the insights they offer into the personal experience of those who have lived, loved and worked in them through time. It is to explore this theme of the human interest of such homes that Country Life launches a new series this week titled Country-house treasures.
We have asked the present owners and custodians of houses great and small, ancient and modern, to choose an object from their home for which they have a particular affection and to explain the significance it has to them and the history of the building. These individuals necessarily have an unrivalled understanding of the buildings and collections they care for, so are both well placed to choose and to explain their choice. Added to which, they are presently making their own contribution to what will become the story of their homes.
'In the bonds that link the three together is the very essence of what keeps the British country house — in the face of so many challenges — loved, living and vigorous in the 21st century'
In making their selection, the only guiding principle has been to steer away from things of intrinsic value, such as Old Master paintings or fine pieces of furniture. Such objects tend to advocate themselves to a wide audience and command respect because of their perceived value. Rather, we have asked the owners to think of something that has an engaging story attached. These are the things — we suggested — that are pointed out to enliven a tour or which naturally catch the attention of visitors as curiosities. Alternatively, they might be commonplace objects that it would be easy to look straight through, but which benefit from having their presence and significance explained.
The choice has not necessarily been easy, but the results are invariably fascinating, varied and unexpected. In each case, the person who has made it has been photographed with the object in the house, sometimes in company with their spouse. We are grateful for their enthusiasm and time contributing to this series. The result on the page is a short explanatory text with a happy trinity of commanding images: caretaker, curiosity and house. In the bonds that link the three together is the very essence of what keeps the British country house — in the face of so many challenges — loved, living and vigorous in the 21st century.
A life remembered
Henry Lytton Cobbold, 3rd Baron Cobbold, holds a portrait of Emily Bulwer Lytton (1828–48). A concealed inscription declares in French: ‘When I am gone, think of me!’ Emily was the daughter of the celebrity Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton and the forceful beauty Rosina, née Wheeler.
After their acrimonious separation in 1836, Rosina tried to exact vengeance on her husband for his infidelities by writing novels based on her experiences. By the terms of their settlement, she was denied access to her children.
Emily suffered from curvature of the spine and died aged 19, alone in a boarding house in London. The discovery of her coffin in the family mausoleum — prised opened by thieves — and a box of her letters at Knebworth prompted Lord Cobbold to research and write up her tragic life in a two-volume biography.
It was asserted that she died of typhus, but she may have taken her own life, overdosing with laudanum she had been prescribed for toothache. The message on the portrait seems to have been aimed at her grandmother, in whose former bedroom it hangs.
A musical façade
Gus Christie sits in front of the organ in the hall that physically links the house and opera at Glyndebourne. This instrument — and the purpose-built Tudor-style room that contains it — were built after the First World War by the founder of the opera, John Christie, for his composer and friend Dr Charles Harford Lloyd, the Precentor of Eton, as an inducement to retire in East Sussex. Sadly, however, Harford Lloyd died in October 1919, before the organ was completed.
The instrument was so powerful that, when it was first played, pieces of plaster fell from the ceiling. Christie went on to buy the Norfolk-based company that built it, Hill, Norman & Beard. Alterations to the neighbouring opera house in the 1950s have left the instrument as a silent monument to his enthusiasm for music.
‘Operagoers love passing through this room and all our performances are relayed here,’ Mr Christie explains. ‘This instrument is like a musical façade that introduces both the history of the house and its musical life. If we can raise the funds, I hope that one day it will play again.’
Signatures from the past — Stedcombe House, Devon
Graffiti incised in the window panes of this fine 1690s house, which Paul Zisman has been restoring with his wife, Sybella. The graffiti includes the repeated signature of John Hothersall Hallett and the date April 15, 1788.
At the time he scratched his name, John would have been 12 years old. He had eight siblings, one of whom was Nancy Hallett, who also signed her name.
Hallett inherited Stedcombe in 1814, by which time he had already built his long-term home nearby, called Haven-cliff. This was a Gothic villa overlooking the mouth of the River Axe, which he attempted to develop, cutting a channel through the beach to make — in the words of a local press report — a ‘commodious harbour… capable of admitting vessels of 150 tons burden’. He secured an Act of Parliament in 1830 ‘for maintaining and governing the harbour of Axmouth’. It lists the duty to be paid on such commodities as coal, eggs, nails, gunpowder and cattle, associated with Hallett’s diverse business ventures.
The harbour was hit hard by the arrival of the railway in the 1860s and the family’s fortunes declined with it. The estate was auctioned by order of the Chancery Division in 1890.
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The great house that's 'a magnificent scrapbook of cherry-picked ideas', and 'one of the most compelling products of Britain’s 18th-century love affair with Antiquity'John Goodall looks at the sources of inspiration behind the design for the magnificently idiosyncratic West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.
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Rock stars and the country house: Liam Gallagher's life in the Cotswolds is in the finest tradition of music A-listers, from the Beatles to BeyoncéWhat is it about the British countryside that draws A-listers from every walk of life? With Liam Gallagher's Cotswold former home on the market, Toby Keel takes a look.
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The great house that's 'a magnificent scrapbook of cherry-picked ideas', and 'one of the most compelling products of Britain’s 18th-century love affair with Antiquity'
John Goodall looks at the sources of inspiration behind the design for the magnificently idiosyncratic West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.
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Say goodbye to the traditional ski shop and hello to the 'boot room of the future' — as reimagined by Norman FosterThe British architect has completed the first phase of a major transformation at the Kulm Hotel in St Moritz.
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The unfortunate case of the Tudor estate that was bombed, torn apart for firewood and then buried underneath a golf courseFew houses have suffered a fate as protracted and violent as Belhus in Essex.
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Belmont House: The 'jewel in Kent’s celebrated crown', created by a decorated soldier who was sent to prison and premature death by false accusationsBelmont House in Kent is a Georgian creation rich in military associations, now run by a trust. Steven Brindle looks at its history and the remarkable architect responsible for its design; photographs by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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A derelict school turned into a gorgeous home with 'an interior of harmony and visual éclat'Capel House in Badminton, Gloucestershire — the home of Gerald Harford and Jane MacEwen — is a fine 18th-century estate building with a remarkable history has been converted into a stylish home, as John Martin Robinson discovers. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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What have the Romans ever done for us? They made the Cotswolds Britain's beating heartThe confident and aggressive Romans brought savagery, great taste and efficiency to the Cotswolds, crowning Cirencester Britain’s second city
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The proposed National Gallery extension is a ray of light in a stormy sectorThe announcement of a new wing for one of the nation's top art galleries 'is a transformative initiative undertaken through private philanthropy to clear and universal benefit. What is there not to celebrate?'
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Marble Hill: The house built for a secret lover of the Prince of Wales, with a little help from one of Britain's greatest ever poetsA major programme of restoration at Marble Hill has transformed both the house and grounds. Jeremy Musson admires what has been achieved by English Heritage at this outstanding property in Richmond-upon-Thames. Photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
