ON Friday we went to see-oh! the palace of palaces! and yet a palace without crown, without coronet -but such expense! Such taste! Such profusion!' So begins Horace Walpole's enthusiastic description of Osterley Park, Middlesex, in a letter dated June 21, 1773, to his muse on domestic subjects, Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory.
Osterley had been acquired in 1562 by the Elizabethan founder of the Royal Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham, and redeveloped by him as a grand courtyard house. What commanded Walpole's admiration two centuries later, however, was not the Tudor building, but its complete overhaul by the vastly wealthy banking family, the Childs.
Walpole's emphasis that this was a palace without a crown or coronet-in other words, that it was neither royal nor aristocraticis significant. It was built instead with money from the City of London; as Walpole describes it, a shop is the estate'. If the title was the conventional adjunct of great wealth, Osterley represented something quite different: mercantile wealth as derived from Britain's trading empire.
The unrivalled scale and reach of Britain's trade was on display throughout the house, as Walpole noted: 'Mrs. Child's dressing-room is full of pictures, gold filigree, China and Japan. So is all the house-the chairs are taken from antique lyres, and make charming harmony... Not to mention a kitchen garden that costs £1400 a year, a menagerie full of birds that come from a thousand islands...'
Denne historien er fra August 17, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 17, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
