The spirit of the age
Country Life UK|August 03, 2022
In the first of two articles, John Goodall revisits the splendours of this celebrated house created in the mid-18th century by Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester
John Goodall
The spirit of the age

Holkham Hall, Norfolk, part 1 The seat of the Earl of Leicester

HOLKHAM HALL is one of those rare buildings that seems to embody the spirit of the age in which it was created. Its outward appearance, set in spreading parkland, answers the popular ideal of a great nobleman's seat. So, too, does the sumptuous interior, which not only preserves most of its original collections and furnishings, but much associated documentation. Added to which, exemplary recent stewardship of the house means that there are few places a modern visitor can get so close to the realities of life on the grand scale in 18th-century Britain.

Such riches have, naturally, attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, not least by figures such as John Cornforth, former Architectural Editor of COUNTRY LIFE, and, more recently, by the former archivist of the house, Christine Hiskey, in her own magisterial history titled simply Holkham (2016). This pair of articles draws heavily on such work, but it also seeks to stand back from it and, with the help of new photography, offer a short, fresh overview of the story by which this familiar and celebrated building came into being.

The present hall is the creation of Thomas Coke, the eldest of five children born into a prosperous gentry family in 1697. Shortly before his 10th birthday Thomas was left as an orphan and his considerable inheritance passed into the guardianship of four relatives. His patrimony was substantially derived from the estate amassed five generations earlier by the notable lawyer and politician Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634). It included a concentration of property in north Norfolk, with a house at Holkham, but also land across the wider kingdom from Staffordshire to Kent.

Esta historia es de la edición August 03, 2022 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición August 03, 2022 de Country Life UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE COUNTRY LIFE UKVer todo
Save our family farms
Country Life UK

Save our family farms

IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
A very good dog
Country Life UK

A very good dog

THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.

time-read
1 min  |
November 27, 2024
The great astral sneeze
Country Life UK

The great astral sneeze

Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
'What a good boy am I'
Country Life UK

'What a good boy am I'

We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Forever a chorister
Country Life UK

Forever a chorister

The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Best of British
Country Life UK

Best of British

In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Old habits die hard
Country Life UK

Old habits die hard

Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
It takes the biscuit
Country Life UK

It takes the biscuit

Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
It's always darkest before the dawn
Country Life UK

It's always darkest before the dawn

After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat

time-read
4 minutos  |
November 27, 2024
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
Country Life UK

Tarrying in the mulberry shade

On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.

time-read
3 minutos  |
November 27, 2024