Travel and the British country house: Cultures, critiques and consumption in the long eighteenth century

264 Pages·2017·22.56 MB·English

by  Jon Stobart

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T R AV EL A ND A T R AV E L
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THE BR ITISH (
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A N D T H E
COU N T RY HOUSE )
CULTURES, CRITIQUES AND CONSUMPTION IN
THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY B R I T I S H
Travel and the British country house explores the ways in which travel
by owners, visitors and material objects shaped country houses during
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the long eighteenth century. Bringing together essays on a wide variety C O U N T R Y
of British houses, it provides a richer and more nuanced understanding R
of the impact of travel on the culture and perception of the British
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country house, and how this varied according to the identity of the
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traveller and the reasons for and geography of their journeys. H O U S E
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The book begins by exploring the ways in which travel formed an
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inspiration to build or remodel houses and gardens. Attention has
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generally focused on the Grand Tour, but this volume also highlights the A
importance of empire and vicarious travel to China in shaping taste and V
acquiring goods. Subsequent essays examine the importance of country C C U L T U R E S , C R I T I Q U E S
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house visiting in infl uencing aesthetics through the published accounts T R A V E L
of elite visitors, the growing number of guidebooks and the less familiar OL A N D C O N S U M P T I O N I N T H E
journals of foreign visitors to British houses. The fi nal essays focus
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L O N G E I G H T E E N T H C E N T U R Y
on some of the practical aspects of travel, including the expenditure
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involved and the logistics of moving people and goods around the N A N D T H E
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country and across Europe and the globe.
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Suitable for a scholarly audience, including postgraduate and D
undergraduate students, but also accessible to the general reader, R B R I T I S H

Travel and the British country house offers a series of fascinating studies YT
of the country house that provide fresh insights and serve to animate

the country house with fl ows of people, goods and ideas. HH
C O U N T R Y
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Jon Stobart is Professor of History Cover: W. Hollar, View of Windsor

at Manchester Metropolitan University Castle, 1644. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum
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S H O U S E
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www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
E D I T E D B Y J O N S T O B A RT
Travel and the British country house

Travel and the British country
house
Cultures, critiques and consumption
in the long eighteenth century
edited by
jon stobart
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Manchester University Press 2017
While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press,
copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may
be reproduced wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of both author
and publisher.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
isbn 978 1 5261 1032 9 hardback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external
or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any
content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Contents
List of figures vii
List of charts x
Notes on contributors xi
Introduction: travel and the British country house 1
Jon Stobart
1 ‘Antiquity mad’: the influence of continental travel on the Irish
houses of Frederick Hervey, the Earl Bishop, 1730–1803 19
Rebecca Campion
2 From Rome to Stourhead and thence to Rome again: the
phenomenon of the eighteenth-century English landscape garden 42
John Harrison
3 Virtual travel and virtuous objects: chinoiserie and the country
house 63
Emile de Bruijn
4 Gentlemen tourists in the early eighteenth century: the travel
journals of William Hanbury and John Scattergood 86
Rosie MacArthur
5 A foreign appreciation of English country houses and castles: Dutch
travellers’ accounts of proto-museums visited en route, 1683–1855 106
Hanneke Ronnes and Renske Koster
6 ‘Worth viewing by travellers’: Arthur Young and country house
picture collections in the late eighteenth century 127
Jocelyn Anderson
vi Contents
7 ‘Enjoying country life to the full – only the English know how to do
that!’: appreciation of the British country house by Hungarian
aristocratic travellers 145
Kristóf Fatsar
8 Magnificent and mundane: transporting people and goods to the
country house, c.1730–1800 168
Jon Stobart
9 On the road (and the Thames) with William Cavendish, 1st Earl of
Devonshire, 1597–1623 188
Peter Edwards
10 ‘No Lady could do this’: navigating gender and collecting objects
in India and Scotland, c.1810–50 206
Ellen Filor
Bibliography 225
Index 242
Figures
1.1 Downhill Castle, County Derry, from George Sampson, Statistical
Survey of Co. Londonderry (Dublin, 1802) 20
1.2 Ballyscullion House, County Derry, from George Sampson,
Statistical Survey of Co. Londonderry (Dublin, 1802) 20
1.3 Ickworth House, Suffolk. Author’s photograph 21
1.4 John Soane, sketch of triclinium, 1778–79. Sir John Soane’s
Museum, London, Italian sketchbook, SM vol. 164, pp. 6–7. Image
© Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Photograph: Hugh Kelly 26
1.5 John Soane, sketch of proposals for Downhill, 1780–81.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, Italian sketchbook, SM vol. 39,
pp. 86v–87r. Image © Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.
Photograph: Hugh Kelly 27
1.6 Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry and 4th
Earl of Bristol (1730–1803), with his Granddaughter Lady Caroline
Crichton (1779–1856), in the Gardens of the Villa Borghese, Rome,
c.1790. Oil on canvas, 223.5 × 199 cm. National Gallery of Ireland,
NGI.4350. Image © National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 32
2.1 Fredrik Magnus Piper’s 1779 plan of Stourhead 44
2.2 (A) Overton’s design No. 16; (B) the Englischer Gartensitz at Wörlitz;
and (C) Piper’s sketch of the ‘Temple on the Terrace’ at Stourhead 47
2.3 Modern plan of the gardens at Wörlitz with photographs of features
influenced by Stourhead gardens 48
2.4 Modern plan of the garden at Hagaparken with photographs of key
items 50
3.1 One of a pair of Delft glazed earthenware plaques showing a Chinese
landscape with a pineapple plant and a banana plantain, late
seventeenth century. Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire, NT 452247
and NT 452248. Image © National Trust photo library no. 1036101 66
viii Figures
3.2 One of two tapestries by John Vanderbank the elder, 1691, at Belton
House, Lincolnshire, NT 436999. Image © National Trust Images/
Graham Challifour 70
3.3 The landscape garden at Shugborough, Staffordshire. NT 1271061,
in a painting by Nicholas Dall. Image © National Trust Images 73
3.4 A Chinese painting on glass depicting figures in a garden on the
banks of a lake, from the Hoare collection at Stourhead, Wiltshire,
NT 452429, currently on display at Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire.
Image © National Trust Collections/Seamus McKenna 75
3.5 English cabinet, c.1755–60, at Uppark, West Sussex, NT 137638.
Image © National Trust Images/Nadia Mackenzie 76
3.6 A section of the mural paintings in the Music Room at the Royal
Pavilion, Brighton, created in 1817–18 by Henry Lambelet. Image
© Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove 81
4.1 Page of accounts from Hanbury’s travel journal. Image © King’s
College London Archives 91
4.2 Letter from Scattergood recounting a visit to Chatsworth. Image
© Northamptonshire Archives Services 95
5.1 W. Hollar, Whitehall in London, View from the Thames, 1647.
Etching on paper, 14.7 × 33.2 cm. Collection Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam 110
5.2 W. Hollar, View of Windsor Castle, 1644. Etching on paper,
9.3 × 17.1 cm. Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 112
5.3 D. Marot, Parterre of Hampton Court, between 1703 and 1800.
Etching on paper, 28.7 × 19.5 cm. Collection Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam 114
5.4 W. Hollar, View of Richmond Palace, 1638. Etching on paper,
11.5 × 33.8 cm. Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 115
5.5 Anon., The Tower of London, 1726. Etching on paper,
13.1 × 16.5 cm. Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 115
5.6 J. Kip, View of Hampton Court, 1709. Etching on paper,
34.7 × 47.5 cm. Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 120
7.1 The 1st Duke of Wellington’s country seat, Stratfield Saye House,
probably by Prince Miklós Pál Esterházy, 1836. Image
© Hungarian National Archives 155
7.2 Interior of Lady Jersey’s suite at Middleton Park, probably by
Prince Miklós Pál Esterházy, 1836. Image © Hungarian National
Archives 156
7.3 Dome of the unrealised conservatory in the garden of the Károlyi
Palace in Pest, designed by William Tierney Clark in 1833. Image
© Architectural Collection of Kiscell Museum / Budapest History
Museum 161
Figures ix
7.4 F ront elevation of the gardener’s house, attached to the back of
the conservatory in the garden of the Károlyi Palace in Pest, 1833.
Image © Architectural Collection of Kiscell Museum / Budapest
History Museum 162
7.5 D ouble sash window on the first floor of the Károlyi Palace in
Pest, facing the courtyard, in the room used as a study by Count
György Károlyi. Image © Kristóf Fatsar 163
10.1 ‘In the Dining-Room’ in Lawrence Weaver, ‘Brahan Castle,
Ross-shire’, Country Life, 19 August 1916, p. 213. Image
© Country Life 216