PAINSHILL PARK (Surrey)

The Honourable Charles Hamilton was born in 1704, the ninth son and one of fourteen children of the Earl of Abercorn. The 6th Earl, Charles’s father, was at his accession an Irish baronet, "of Dunalong in the County of Tyrone, and of Nenagh in the County of Tipperary.” He was additionally created Baron Mountcastle and Viscount Strabane, in the Peerage of Ireland, on 2 September 1701. The 7th Earl, Charles’s oldest brother, became the first of the Earls of Abercorn to be invested a Privy Counsellor, having been appointed to both the English and Irish Privy Councils. Charles, being the ninth son, was somewhat down the pecking order as far as inheritance went. However, his father did provide him with the very best education  which should have honed his talents and provided him with substantial opportunities to be successful, and indeed he had great imagination and boundless ambition. Charles Hamilton went to Westminster School and then on to Oxford University.

Charles Hamilton

 His father enabled Charles to go on two tours of Europe, which was always regarded as the finishing touch to an excellent education. Charles was inspired by the landscapes and exotic vegetation of the Mediterranean. He was especially inspired by the landscapes of Italy. He was also inspired by the landscape paintings of Pousin, Claude Lorraine and Salvatore Rosa.

Salvatore Rosa (self portrait The National Gallery)

In 1738, arriving back in England from his two tours of Europe, he acquired land near Cobham in Surrey, which included a stretch of the River Mole, which, incidentally, reaches the River Thames beside Hampton Court. It was here that Charles Hamilton decided to put into practice his love of natural landscape and deep interest in the varied flora found around the world. He became a member of parliament and was on the staff of Frederick, Prince of Wales. He had some well paid jobs which enabled him to get started on his Painshill project but he also borrowed heavily. For the next thirty five years he dedicated his life to creating a vision of beautiful and emotional landscapes. Charles Hamilton had one of the qualities most prized in the 18^th century and is probably a quality prized today. He had, “taste.”

Painshill Park lake

Nicolas Poussin (15 June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style. It is quite something to think of Pousin as an influence on Charles Hamilton’s ideas for Painshill Park. Many of Pousins rural pictures show shepherds and sheep within vast landscapes of rocks, rivers and beautiful trees placed in such a way that they look natural occurrences but reveal shimmering  close and distant views. You can also see this same depiction of landscape in the pictures of Claude Lorraine . (1600 – 23 November 1682 )also a French painter of the baroque period. However one of the main differences between Pousin and Claude Lorraine is that Pousin painted many nude portraits of beautiful women and nude, goat like, dark complexioned men leaning over them and admiring their most intimate parts. The ladies themselves are often asleep leaning backwards over pregnant mounds of grass with legs wide apart inviting scrutiny. Perhaps Charles Hamilton had other ambitions apart from the effects of landscape at Painshill? The follies he created are a series of moods and situations set within these Pousin and Claude style landscapes. Perhaps some of the parties he held in his grounds did lead to debauched tableaux too. Charles Hamilton, some money in his pocket, bright, intelligent, well educated, travelling throughout Europe, experiencing all the different cultures and situations he came across; one can well imagine. Salvatore Rosa’s landscapes are very similar to those of Pousin and Claude except that they portray Italian scenes. It was Italy that ultimately influenced Hamilton in his positioning of his, “ruins.” There is a self-portrait of Salvadore Rosa in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. It is one of the most striking self portraits you will ever see. It shows a young man dressed in a black cloak and wearing a black tricorn hat jauntily angled on his head. The face is of a young man but one full of concerns, frowning and deep in concentration. He is intelligent and brooding. You cannot but help engage with this portrait. I can imagine Charles Hamilton being as deeply thoughtful, intelligent and fighting his demons as Salvadore Rosa portrays himself.

Landscape by Salvatore Rosa

Charles Hamilton arrived at Painshill in 1738 and he set about his ambitious venture. He wanted plants from all over the world to give variety of texture, shape, size and colour to his garden and I should imagine scent

too. The 18^th century brought about a period of plant mania. Wealthy aristocrats prized seeds and plants from all over the growing British Empire. The Tradescants, father and son, in the early 1600’s had already explored Virginia in America and various other locations to obtain plant specimens. Phillip Millar at Chelsea Physic Garden published the “ Gardner's Dictionary,” in 1731 and we know that Charles Hamilton had a copy of it. Plants and seeds came from Europe, Asia, the Far East, South Africa and North and South America. The gardens at Kew received a lot of these plants and seeds and its botanical reputation began to develop too. Christopher Gray, the gardener for the Bishop of London at Fulham Palace bought plants from around the world and advised Charles Hamilton on his purchases. Hamilton also corresponded with the Abbe Nolan who was a gardening adviser to  Louis XV’s gardener at Versailles. 

The gothic temple

One of Charles Hamilton’s greatest sources of new seeds was the businessman Peter Collinson(1694-1768)who was the London dealer for John Bartram (1699-1777). Bartram and Collinson had a trading relationship for over fourty years. John Bartram was born in Pennsylvania and became a self-taught botanist. Peter Collinson was a cloth merchant and passionate plantsman but he was also a Quaker. His Quaker connections gave him links to the Quakers in the emerging states on the East Coast of America. He met and associated with John Bartram who was a Quaker too. Bartram felt a great affinity with nature and flowers and plants. He roamed the whole of the east coast of America from the Mountains of Pennsylvania, the coast of New Jersey, Lake Ontario, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and down as far as Florida. He travelled in the autumn when the harvest had been gathered and trees, plants and shrubs were ready to drop their seeds. He often travelled with indigenous Indian guides and on more than one occasion his life was in danger.He had to contend with rattle snakes, bad weather, rough and treacherous terrain and Native American and French raiding parties against the English settlements. His native guides were able to show him the best places to obtain seeds as well as guide him on his journeys. He was a true scientific explorer. 

John Bartram

John Bartram would send his seeds to Peter Collinson who held a living at Mill Hill, which is now situated in the London Borough of Barnet in North London, about fourteen miles from Charing Cross. Collinson kept a living collection derived from Bartram’s seeds. He sold on Bartram’s seeds to rich merchants and land owners who wanted to develop their estates and of course his main customers were the aristocracy who prized new varieties of plants shrubs and trees for their vast estates.

1783 John Bartram seed catalogue.

 Charles Hamilton was one of Peter Collinson’s main customers. There is evidence in a large quantity of letters and receipts. He received his first Bartram box of seeds in 1748 and then a second supply of seeds in 1756. Collinson also worked with Hamilton on developing Henry Fox’s estate at Holland Park. We also know that Hamilton bought seeds from Alexander Eddie who owned a seed shop in The Strand. His bank statements for 1760 show Hamilton paying Eddie for seeds.

Collinson supplied the Chelsea Physic Garden, which was interested in the medicinal properties of plants and shrubs. Kew Gardens received seeds from him. James Gordon, who by germinating and propagating seeds, turned Bartram’s rare American plants into affordable items. John Bartram also sent seeds to the Swedish botanist Linnaeus who developed a system of naming plants which is still used today. He used Latin as a universal language to do this. Linnaeus wrote that he considered John Bartram as the greatest botanist of his age.

Bartram's boxes and barrel for transporting seeds.

There was a great problem in getting plants back to Britain from America in the 18^th century. It was a dangerous enterprise. England was at war with France and there was always the chance that trading ships might be captured. Also there was a matter of storing and packaging the seeds and plants. Plants needed to be watered and cared for on a trip that might take three months. Bartram invented a box system for live plants which kept them safe from damage and allowed them to be watered regularly. He also designed a barrel with different sections for storing loose seeds. The partitions would be layered with moss. Rare seeds might be wrapped individually.

The ruined abbey at Painshill Park

Hamilton had problems with money. He borrowed extensively and eventually in 1773 his debts became too much and he had to sell Painshill Park. Painshill then had a succession of owners who took care of Hamiltons original design and garden plan. The gardens survived into the twentieth century unchanged from their original form. However from 1949 it suffered neglect. Parts of the estate were sold off for farming and it became dilapidated and overgrown. Some of Hamilton’s original structures collapsed or disappeared. Elmbridge Borough Council bought the estate in the 1970’s. In 1981 the Painshill Park Trust was incorporated and the council granted the land to the trust on a 99 year lease. It was thought that the grounds could not be salvaged and restored but with great efforts it has been returned to its former glory and is still being developed and restored.

The Grotto 

Last Sunday during our May Bank Holiday weekend, Marilyn, my wife, myself and Abigail our youngest daughter visited Painshill Park and spent a few glorious  hours walking around the grounds and enjoying the beautiful scenic vistas and experiencing the scenes and moods that Hamilton created with his original park layout. We stood within the Gothic temple on a hill looking out over the lake with its low arched stone bridge spanning one end, with the great Turkish tent positioned high on an opposing hill. We walked around the lake and crossed the Chinese bridge.

The Chinese Bridge 

 We walked into the magical limestone constructed lakeside grotto with it’s ceilings dripping in crystals. 18^th century night time frolicking’s within a candlelit grotto literally sparkling like a mystical dream must have been the height of the exotic and maybe the erotic. We wandered past the , "ruined abbey,” beside the lake with an expansive vineyard stretching high above the lake up to an escarpment along the top of one of the high points.

The crystal ceiling in the grotto.

 Some of the original trees planted by Hamilton are still there. Europes tallest cedar of Lebanon stands majestically viewed from many parts of the estate. There is a Spanish cork tree, rugged and tatty propped up these days like an old man using a walking stick close to the entwined figures of a copy of the statue of The Rape of the Sabines. 

The Cedar of Lebanon 

Many of todays shrubs, trees and plants are the same species and types Hamilton originally planted. The restoration not only includes the views that helped create the English Landscape Movement, Hamilton's series of ,”Living Paintings,” as he liked to call the views but the trustees are remaining loyal to Hamilton's seed catalogue and planting scheme.

The Turkish Tent

 The John Bartram Association in the United States has been integral in helping the trust in their pursuit of authenticity. There is indeed a John Bartram Association in the City of Philadelphia to this day. They have a 45 acre garden and preserve the name of John Bartram.

http://www.painshill.co.uk/
http://www.bartramsgarden.org/

FREE!!!!!!! It's alright now.

Sometimes we all need a piece of pure rock music to clear the cobwebs. A vast drum kit, throbbing base, wailing lead and a singer to break your heart.  I certainly do. In my head it takes me back 40 years and I want to get up there and strut like Jagger or punch the air like Daltrey or sing out with that dry scraped voice of Eric Burdon or indeed Paul Rodgers,

 So stand up, turn this up VERY LOUD and do your thing.

You will feel better I guarantee!

EXPERIENCE THE POWER AND THE GLORY!

MARBLE HILL HOUSE TWICKENHAM,RICHMOND AND ITS ENVIRONS

The River Thames wends it’s tortuous way across England from Thames Head in Gloucestershire until it reaches the southernmost part of the North Sea. It’s journey stretches for 215 miles. Finally the wide Thames Estuary which pours it’s contents into The North Sea is bordered on the north bank by the Essex coast and Southend on Sea and at its southern bank by the Kent coast, Sheerness and the entrance to the Medway.

The Thames from Richmond Hill. the view protected by an  act of Parliament.

Along it’s course The Thames passes though some beautiful English countryside before it enters the Greater London area passing by Sunbury and on to Hampton , then Hampton Court, Kingston upon Thames, Twickenham and Richmond. At last it reaches the centre of London with its iconic landmarks. The Thames,  from London along it’s whole length, has a long history of Iron Age villages, Roman habitation, Saxon towns, and mediaeval settlements, Tudor Palaces and Georgian and Victorian Villas.  London itself began as a Roman settlement for trade, built at the nearest bridging point to the coast   where they had their port called Ritupiae (Richborough). They wanted to penetrate the hinterland north of the Thames. Indeed the names Thames which was Celtic in origin but had it’s Roman equivalent (Tamesas  recorded in Latin as Tamesis)  and London (Londinium) come to us from Roman times.

Over the centuries the Thames outside of London has provided a beautiful Arcadian retreat for the wealthy, the famous, the aristocracy and the monarchy away from the stench and diseases prevalent in many periods of London’s history. They built palaces and grand houses and villas with adjoining estates and landscaped parks to relax and take their leisure in. Marble Hill House is a Palladian Villa built between 1724 and 1729, very close to Richmond upon Thames but on the northern bank of the Thames near Twickenham. It was built for George II’s mistress, Henrietta Howard.

To view Marble Hill House standing on the Richmond side of the river, which is the most panoramic view, set amongst river bank reeds and vegetation, I usually drive through Richmond Park from Wimbledon taking the Kingston Gate beside Kingston Hospital, off Kingston Hill. I emerge into Richmond Park from a road lined by elegant Victorian terraces, three stories high. These are, well to do, Victorian terraces, not the industrial town type of abode. The park opens out into a beautiful expanse of wild country, bracken, oak tree glades, some of the oaks lightening scarred and herds of roe and fallow deer grazing here and there. A mile into the park I take a left turn towards Ham, along a straight driveway set between a wooded expanse which leads to the Richmond Road  which runs between Kingston upon Thames and Richmond. I cross this road, towards the Ham Road. It leads down a narrow lane past cottages and an ancient pub with low doors and sunken windows and oak beams to the Thames next to Ham House, a superb example of a 17^th  century country mansion.

Ham House beside The Thames.

 I park my car beside the Thames here in the tree shaded car park. I turn right and walk  beside the Thames towards Richmond. You can watch rowers exerting themselves in their eights, or coxless fours or their single sculls. Ham House reveals itself on the right hand side, it’s curved entrance drive, lined by classical busts circling a great lump of a statue depicting Neptune reclining part nude and looking very whiskery. A little further on you can see Richmond Hill looming up ahead with a broad meadow stretching beneath it with cows grazing.

An unusual rural sight you might think for London. On the top of Richmond Hill you can see the massive brick Star and Garter, which used to be a home for injured soldiers. Next to it is Wick House which was the home of Joshua Reynolds, the 18^th century portraitist and next to that is The Wick, another beautiful Georgian villa where Pete Townsend of The Who now lives. To your left, across the Thames you pass the remains of Orleans House built in 1710. Before you reach Richmond Town itself you will also see Marble Hill House opposite you.

The Wick,Pete Townsend''s house.

Marble Hill house is one of many villas built here in the 18^th century. Here also, Alexander Pope built a villa just downstream and had a famous grotto constructed in the grounds beside the river.  The grotto still exists but his villa doesn’t. There is a school on the site. The grotto is open to the public at certain times. Horace Walpole, had his grand, exotic, gothic, Strawberry Hill House built near here too, which looks like a fantasy castle. Walpole’s house is now  part of  St Mary's University College, Twickenham, the country's oldest Roman Catholic College which is situated on Waldegrave Road. Its sports grounds were used as a training site for the 2012 Olympics.

Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole's abode near Marble Hill  House.(Wikipaedia picture)

Marble Hill house was built between 1724 and 1729 by Henrietta Howard, mistress of George II. There was a strange arrangement made between her husband, Charles Howard, the younger son of the Earl of Suffolk, who was a wife beater and compulsive gambler and George II. Money passed hands and permission was given by Charles Howard for Henrietta to be the mistress of the then Prince of Wales who was later to become King.  Henrietta did not get a good deal from this at first appearances. She went from a wife beater and compulsive gambler to George, who had a notoriously bad temper which he often vented on poor Henrietta. George’s official wife, Caroline of Asbach, was compliant with the arrangement. You can almost sense her relief that Henrietta took the brunt of her husband’s bad moods.

Marble Hill  House from the lawn bordering the Thames.

However Henrietta was a survivor. After her husband died in1733 she didn’t look back. In 1735 she married the Hon. George Berkely, a member of Parliament and the son of the Earl of Berkely. She was granted permission to retire from court and from being a member of the bedchamber to the King. The King was generous and gave her a large financial settlement for her services. With this money she was able to build Marble Hill House. During her time at court she had made many friends amongst the writers, artists, politicians and intelligencia of the time. Henrietta’s friends included Horace Walpole,  4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797). Walpole was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. Apart from being famous for building Strawberry Hill, he is famous for his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Along with the book, his literary reputation rests on his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. He was the son of Sir Robert Walpole, and cousin of  Admiral Lord Nelson. Henrietta, was also good friends with Alexander Pope(21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) who was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer.  He lived a mile away in a villa he had built beside the Thames. She would entertain not only Pope but Jonathan  Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745). Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer ,first for the Whigs, then for the Tories, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub.

 Henrietta Howard.

Henrietta also entertained the playwright John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732). Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peachum, became household names.

These leading literary, political and artistic elite who Henrietta Howard was well acquainted with, were some of the leading lights of what was termed the Scriblerus Club. Alexander Pope, her near neighbour and friend was a member, so too was Jonathen  Swift, as well as  John Gay.

Alexander Pope

The Scriblerus Club, or as their members were termed, the Scriblerians, consisted of a group of thinkers and writers who wanted to satirise the world and the politics of the time. A character who was named Martin Scriblerus was invented and the members wrote articles about, “every art and science,” under his name. They imagined him as a man who had dipped into every sphere of learning, but injudiciously. The members originally intended to preserve their anonymity through this device.

Some others who were members of the The Scriblerus Club and amongst the  greatest wits of the age included, Lord Bollingbroke, The Bishop of Rochester,  William Congreve, John Arbuthnot,  and Joseph Addison. There were others. The only meetings of the whole group that were documented  were between March and April 1714 at John Arbuthnot’s lodgings in St James’s Palace in Pall Mall.

Enthusiasm  for the project  waxed and  waned amongst the  group. John Gay went off to work in the embassy in Hanover for a while and the others were distracted from the project by other work too. When they did try to rekindle an interest in Martin Scriblerus, lack of enthusiasm by Gay and others made the project falter. However the ideas of the club had far reaching consequences.

Thomas Parnell coming over from Ireland was enthused by Alexander Pope for the principles of the  Scriblerus Club and wrote Homers Battle of the Frogs and Mice… (1717) which used some of the ideas and philosophy promoted by the  Sciblerians such  as mock  heroic verse and mock scholarly commentary. John Gay, although not enthusiastic about the  club continuing  wrote satirical  farces in the spirit of the Scriblerians such as, The What  d’ye  Call It (1715)  and the mock, Georgic Trivia (1716) and the farce ,Three Hours after Marriage(1717).Gays masterpiece, The Beggars Opera, is a further development of Scriblerus satire. Alexander Pope also said that Jonathen Swift’s , Gullivers Travels, originated from ideas discussed amongst the  Scriblerians.

The satire promoted by the Scriblerus Club has its echoes in political satire today. They all had brilliant wit, and an edgy mix of antagonism and political subversiveness. Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson saw them as the high watermark of eighteenth century satire.

Henrietta died at Marble Hill House in 1767 at the age of seventy nine.

Other famous people who lived at Marble Hill House after Henrietta’s death included Mrs Fitzherbert, the mistress and illegal wife of George IV. In the 19^th century it was the home to General Jonathen Peel, the brother of Sir Robert Peel the Prime Minister. Jonathen Peel was the Secretary of State for the War Department. Peel lived in the house even longer than Henrietta had from 1825 until his death in 1879. After his widow died it was sold to the Cunard family. They wanted to demolish the house and build houses on the site. Local residents got up a petition to stop this. In disgust the Cunard family sold the house to the local council who had raised donations from the people of Richmond and Twickenham.

In 1902 an act of parliament saved not only the house but the view from Richmond Hill which Marble Hill House is part of.

The view from Richmond Hill comprises a quintessential view of England and because of the act of parliament,can never be destroyed. The local council still have ownership and guardianship of the grounds in which the house is situated but since 1986 the house has been looked after by English Heritage. It has been brought back to it’s full Georgian splendour. The house has been refurnished to create a sense of the period. Some original artefacts from the time of Henrietta Howard have been recovered including original paintings. These paintings include those by Giovanni Paolo Panini. There is a fine collection of Georgian paintings from the period including portraits of all the members of Henrietta Howard’s friends and circle, Hogarth, Hayman, Wilson, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Ramsay and Hudson.

The initial design for the house in the Palladian style was drawn by Colen Campbell, but probably Henrietta’s friend, Henry Herbert, the 9^th Earl of Pembroke and  Roger Morris, the architect, had a hand in it’s design and construction too. Along with the building of Chiswick House a few miles away, it sparked an interest in the Palladian style. Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from and inspired by the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). It drew ideas from classical Roman and Greek architecture and is uniform and symmetrical. If you visit Marble Hill House you will notice the geometrical design of the house.  The back and the front are identical and overall view has a satisfying symmetry. Echoes of Marble Hill can be seen in civic buildings in Britain and America. The great estates of England owe a lot to Marble Hill House and also Chiswick House, which is a couple of miles from Marble Hill House. Chiswick House was designed by Lord Burlington and William Kent (1685–1748) doyens of the Palladian style in England. Georgiana Spencer was an infamous occupant of Chiswick House, using it for weekend parties set in a rural idyll away from London. The influence of the Palladian style and in particular the designs of Chiswick House and Marble Hill provided ideas for the construction of plantation buildings in the Southern United States.

Chiswick House, the weekend retreat of Georgiana Spencer.

The view from across the river is spectacular but the most direct way for me to get to Marble Hill House itself is to continue driving through  Richmond Park, drive on past the turn off for Ham and that idyllic walk along the Thames and continue driving through the park past Pembroke Lodge to the Richmond Gate. This was the former home of Lord John Russell, one of Queen Victoria’s Prime Ministers and friend of Charles Dickens. It was here that his grandson, Betrand Russell, was brought up. I continue towards Richmond town, descending Richmond Hill, with that glorious poetic view of England on my left, until I get to the turn off for Richmond Bridge. I drive over the bridge into Twickenham and then turn left along the Kingston Road on the north bank of the Thames. A little way along the Kingston Road which is set back a little from the river; there is a left turn into Beaufort Road. This is at the entrance to Marble Hill Park. There is a small car park there. The park is open to the public and people walk their dogs. A rugby pitch provides the facilities for a game of rugby and children fly their kites. This might amaze you, but as you approach the front door of this beautiful Palladian villa you notice that the front door is rather small, in fact no bigger than the front door to my own suburban home. There is no grand entrance. There are two low arching walls at either extremity of the house that seem to gather those approaching towards this inauspicious entrance but that is all. The other thing that strikes you is that the door is closed and there is no sign to greet you. English Heritage like it like this. They want you to think  that you are  visiting it like  anybody in the 18th century. You are an invited guest and you can obtain entrance by merely walking up to the door, knocking, turning the handle and walking straight in. Inside you are met by perfect classical symmetry. The entrance hall is vast. It reaches right up to the roof with a balustrade encircling the upper floors from which the upper rooms proceed. A grand staircase on either side gives you the choice of which way you want to ascend. The downstairs grand entrance continues across the whole width of the house to the other side of the building with an identical door on the other side. This door leads you out onto a broad stretch of green lawn that reaches down to the banks of the Thames.  This is the side of the house you see from your walk on the other side of the Thames, walking from Ham House. The interior is spacious and light with all those paintings to contemplate.

As an aside, walking along the Thames opposite Marble Hill, amongst the reeds and vegetation, with fields and grazing cattle about you, contemplating the geese and waterfowl and noticing rowers and sailors, you are walking in the steps of many famous people throughout the centuries, some of them fictitious. Arthur Clennam, a major character in Charles Dickens novel Little Dorrit walked from the centre of London across Putney Heath and Richmond Park to the river here and took the ferry, still plying it’s way, across to the Marble Hill House side, to visit his friends the Meagles family.

Some of the few remaining parts of Richmond Palace.

Dickens himself often brought his family to Richmond for weekends away from the hustle and bustle of London. It was here too that the great Tudor Palace of Richmond was situated and where Elizabeth I died. From here too, Frank Churchill rode on horseback to visit his family at Highbury and Hartfield in Jane Austen’s Emma. Even nowadays, some of the grand villas and houses in and near Richmond are the weekend retreats of the aristocracy and  famous music stars, such  as Pete Townsend and Mick Jagger. Film stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Sienna Miller both own beautiful Georgian mansions at Petersham, an idyllic village on the Kingston side of Richmond next to the river.

Hogarth House where the Hogarth Press was  begun by Virginia and Leonard Woolf.

Another famous resident of Richmond who lived not far from Marble Hill House was Virginia Woolf, who moved to Hogarth  House  in Paradise Road in 1915 after a bout  of violent mental illness. She published her first novel that year called,  The Voyage Out.  She  was  thirty  three years old and  had  actually  been  writing and rewriting The Voyage Out   since  she  was twenty five.The book is a fascinating study of mental illness and the writing process. It took her eight years to bring it to the public. Richmond features in the novel, with some of the characters in the book living there, when not on board the ship, Melymbrosia or residing in a fictitious South American port. The main protagonist, Rachel Vinrace, is twenty five years old within the scope of the novel and has been brought up by spinster aunts in a large house in Richmond. It comprises all her life’s experiences at the start of the novel. She can be seen as a version of Virginia Woolf herself and there are some autobiographical elements in the book. The story is a sort of rite of passage for Rachel and also Virginia Woolf. Rachel plays  Bach and Chopin on the piano, reads the Brontes and Hardy but mostly Cowper and  Jane  Austen. Early in the novel she expresses her views about Austen and especially Persuasion. She feels she could not live without Austen.

The view from Richmond Hill painted by Turner.

William Wordsworth visited Richmond and wrote a sonnet. In his sonnet “June 1820” (1820), he refers both to the nightingales for which Richmond Hill was once famous and are commemorated in the name "Nightingale Lane.”

"Fame tells of groves – from England far away –

Groves that inspire the Nightingale to trill

And modulate, with subtle reach of skill

Elsewhere unmatched, her ever-varying lay;

Such bold report I venture to gainsay:

For I have heard the quire of Richmond hill

Chanting, with indefatigable bill,

Strains that recalled to mind a distant day;

When, haply under shade of that same wood,

And scarcely conscious of the dashing oars

Plied steadily between those willowy shores,

The sweet-souled Poet of the Seasons stood –

Listening, and listening long, in rapturous mood,

Ye heavenly Birds! To your Progenitors."

The view Sir Walter Scott was writing about.

An extract from Sir Walter Scott’s, Heart of Midlothian, describes the view passionately from Richmond Hill. It could almost be a description of the scene today

"A huge sea of verdure with crossing and interesting promonteries of massive and tufted groves,… tenanted by numberless flocks and herds, which seem to wander unrestrained, and unbounded, through rich pastures. The Thames, here turretted with villas and there garlanded with forests, moved on slowly and placidly, like the mighty monarch of the scene, to whom all its other beauties were accessories, and bore on his bosom a hundred barks and skiffs, whose white sails and gaily fluttering pennons gave life to the whole."

The Thames near  Popes Grotto.

Alexander Pope , mentions the Thames at Richmond, in his most famous poem, The Rape of The Lock.

(The start of part 2)

NOT with more Glories, in th' Etherial Plain,

The Sun first rises o'er the purpled Main,

Than issuing forth, the Rival of his Beams

Lanch'd on the Bosom of the Silver Thames.

Fair Nymphs, and well-drest Youths around her shone,

But ev'ry Eye was fix'd on her alone.

On her white Breast a sparkling Cross she wore,

Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore.

Her lively Looks a sprightly Mind disclose,

Quick as her Eyes, and as unfix'd as those:

Favours to none, to all she Smiles extends,

Oft she rejects, but never once offends.

Bright as the Sun, her Eyes the Gazers strike,

And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.

Yet graceful Ease, and Sweetness void of Pride,

Might hide her Faults, if Belles had faults to hide:

If to her share some Female Errors fall,

Look on her Face, and you'll forget 'em all.

MARMITE!!!!! AT CHRISTMAS

"On the first day of Christmas." (Regent  Street)

OOOH!!!! “Love it or hate it.”

Here in the British Isles we eat Marmite on toast, mostly. It’s great in a cheese sandwich too, to compliment the taste of the cheese and add that extra bight, a certain oomph! to the sandwich eating experience.

There is many a  kitchen here in Britain,  in the early  morning, of young married couples with  their  toddler sitting in his or her high  chair holding toasted fingers of bread dipped in runny boiled egg in one hand, the  youngsters face  smothered, black with Marmite and a happy  grin, chuckling and chortling as  they  suck  and chew on some Marmite coated toast  fingers held in their other  hand . Oh gummy happiness!

We teach our youngsters to eat Marmite as soon as they are weaned off the breast or maybe even before.However, amongst the uninitiated, a first experience of Marmite might be  rather  disgusting. Note the Marmite slogan,” Love it or hate it!!!!!. “  It is an acquired taste; hence the very early beginning we advocate for the introduction of Marmite to our youngsters.

"You either love it or hate it."

But why? you might be asking. It’s very very good for you. It contains largely yeast derived from the brewing industry. It also includes quite a bit of salt within a jar, but spread thinly on toast this is not a problem. It includes many vitamins; thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid and vitamin B12.

Between 1934 and 1935 it was used to treat malnutrition in Sri Lanka when they had a malaria epidemic there.It was included in the rations of soldiers in the trenches during the first world war.A lot of the troops also  carried copies of Pride and Prejudice too,  so Marmite and Jane  Austen actually  have something in common.

Marmite was discovered in the late 19^th century by a German Scientist called Justus von Liebig.  He discovered that the extract from the brewing process could be collected and put into jars. It appeared to be a healthy food for invalids.

In 1902 the Marmite Food Extract Company was founded in Burton upon Trent in The Midlands. At first  they used earthenware jars as  containers.  The jar looked similar in shape to  the French earthenware cooking pot called a ,”marmite,” so they called the black spread, Marmite.I knew a  French Canadian who told me that when he first came to Britain and he saw Marmite on the breakfast table he thought somebody had taken the scorched and burnt charcoal off the bottom of a "marmite," cooking pot and put it into a jar and was revolted by the idea.  By 1907 it was so popular they opened a second factory in Camberwell, London. The Marmite company is now owned by Unilever and the product is as popular as ever with some amazing advertising campaigns full of British humour  that rivals the Cadbury Chocolate  adverts in their Monty Python  style craziness and bonhomie.

You can have your face in the display.

In the 1920’s the Marmite company started using glass jars which still retained the distinctive  ,”marmite,” shape. It is still sold in the same distinctive glass bottles today with the same yellow label, although, in March 2006 squeezy bottles, again with the distinctive round shape, were also introduced.

It is not a good idea to keep Marmite in the fridge by the way. It goes hard and is unspreadable. However it never ever goes off. You can keep a jar for years and it will still retain it’s health providing qualities.

Marmite Gold and Marilyn and Abigail. (Oxford Circus crossing.)

Other companies and other nations have tried to copy Marmite. The Australians have a product called Vegemite. The Swiss and Germans have versions too  called respectively,”Cenovis ,”and “Vitamin R,” but Marmite, the British product, is dominant and nobody else can quite get the same distinctive flavour that can blow your head off!!!!!

A little boy disappears into the Marmite jar.

You might be wondering about the title of this piece,,” MARMITE!!!!! AT  CHRISTMAS.” Every year Oxford Street, the heart and pulse of British shopping puts up inventive and outstanding Christmas lights displays. This year the lights have been sponsored by guess who? Yes, Marmite!!!!!

Last night, Marilyn, Abigail and myself took the 139 double decker bus from Waterloo Station across Waterloo Bridge, through Piccadilly Circus and along Regent  Street, which also has an amazing Christmas light display based on, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and then we turned left at the top of  Regent  Street at Oxford Circus, into Oxford Street and the world of Marmite hit us. All the lights are animated. Father Christmas eats a Marmite sandwich and throws it away in disgust, his face turning green. The next one shows a little boy disappearing into a Marmite jar and  lapping it all up. The next display features the happy Marmity faces of pedestrians in Oxford Street. You can take a photograph of yourself on your i-phone and send it to,the lights, and appear for a few moments in the display yourself. Delicious!!!!!! And so on down Oxford Street.

Father Christmas throws his Marmite sandwich away and turns green,

They say you stay a Marmite baby for life, once you have become addicted and it is an addiction. Here are two very happy Marmite babies still going strong  Ha! Ha!

Tony--that's me!!!!!!!

Clive--that's him!!!

Jane's Birthday 16th December 1775

Jane  Austen was  born to Cassandra and George  Austen at Steventon rectory in Hampshire on the  16th  December 1775. 

In the village of Selborne, some fifteen miles from  Steventon, the naturalist Gilbert  White wrote about  the winter of 1775 in Hampshire. He said  that the Winter of 1775 was a hard one. On 11th November ,  White wrote that the trees around his Hampshire village of Selborne had almost lost all their leaves. “Trees begin to be naked,” he wrote in his diary.

So the weather was severe and must have made giving birth a much harder task, but Jane Austen was born, a healthy and vibrant child into a noisy  world of brothers and frost.

I was visiting my mother and father in Southampton today. On my way back to Wimbledon I thought I would call in at Chawton and  take some pictures of Jane's cottage on her birthday. 

The  weather in Chawton today is  not  at all like Steventon 237 year ago. It is sunny and bright and blue skied. Over the last few days we have had frost and temperatures at -2 degrees centigrade  but not today. Today the sun is out.

HAPPY  BIRTHDAY JANE!!!!!!!

Tom Yates, Love is Losing Ground

Tom Yates in concert in an Antwerp club.

Two Manchester mates, Mike Billington and John Constantine, have recently begun a venture together and started a new recording label called, EPONA RECORDS. Mike and John are well-known musicians on the  pub and club circuit of Manchester.  

This is their second release on the EPONA label. It is a CD compilation of songs by another old friend, singer songwriter Tom Yates, who unfortunately died in Antwerp in 1993.  This CD, “Love is Losing Ground,”is the product of a labour of love by Tom’s widow Sonja, who agreed to release these tracks and the hard work of Mike and John.John used digital software to clean up the tapes of the songs.

The album can be best described as autobiographical; a heartfelt exposition of Toms deeply held religious beliefs and a view of the world, particularly European in essence. Although Tom was born and brought up in the tough environment of the northern mill town of Rochdale which was at the heart of The Industrial Revolution, those experiences do not seem to infiltrate the songs on this album.  However the religious beliefs expressed in the album do echo the strict Protestantism of the northern mill towns in the Victorian period that created the strong work ethic that drove those northern towns to be the industrial might of Britain and the world. There is a similar strength of purpose reflected in these songs.

Two photographs of Tom are featured on the album cover. On the front of the CD a picture shows Tom, wearing his cowboy hat and leather tasselled jacket, electric guitar in hands as he sings into a microphone, his intimate club audience close to him. The picture on the inside of the cover shows Tom gazing wistfully into the distance with the ancient city of Athens, bleached and bright in the background. Ancient Athens was the centre of the ancients study of their gods and religion, the birthplace of philosophy.This is a reference to Tom’s religious journey exploring what god is and philosophising about the world and the human condition.  Both pictures encapsulate the essence of this collection of songs.

The opening song, “Love is losing ground,” is also the title of this album.  The lyrics set out Tom’s strong beliefs and views using powerful religious imagery delivered with a haunting clear voice. Refrains about ,”love forging the  new man,”  sets a positive note but the synical refrains  the ”word gives way to image,” and , “ love  is losing ground,” shows us Toms view that there is a battle ahead  to defeat sin in the world. There seems to be certain pessimism here. This is a studio  album and the   reverb produced on most  tracks combined with Tom’s crystal clear vocals and reedy voice create a wistful  atmosphere combined with his spare and economical  guitar playing. The tempo is slow which adds to the haunting quality. Listening to this track gave me the feeling that Tom was close up to me. The intimate club atmosphere is recreated well in the studio.

The second track, Jaques Brel, immediately takes us to Tom’s adopted country, Belgium, and the city Antwerp.  Jacques Brel was a world famous Belgium singer songwriter, actor and film star renowned for his guttural singing and sparse uncompromising songs. He played to club audiences the world over. Tom tries to imitate Jaques guttural rolling of his ,r’s, with a more staccato delivery and a driving earnest tone to his voice. I don’t think he achieves it in this song. Tom’s voice is more suited to his own haunting wistful lyrics. But obviously Jaques Brel was an icon that Tom admired and in this song he wanted to pay tribute to his Belgium compatriot. This song brings some invention and experimentation with the introduction of trumpets to compliment Tom’s acoustic guitar playing.

The song ,Godspeed, returns us to Tom’s religious theme with a more hopeful and encouraging tone to it this time. The reverb is still very evident, still creating a wistful feel. It is a speedier number and also introduces backing singers who seem distant so as not to impinge on Tom’s voice too much. Tom has not got a powerful voice, his vocal strength lies in his perfect pitch and clear intonations. There are a lot of New Testament references in this song. Tom sings about,  “showing me the wounds bleeding all the same.” He is doubting Thomas. The metaphor of ripples on the lake  suggest Galilee and the important  symbol of water  in  Christianity sending out a message that extends further and further like the ripples.

Tango Valentino is a big departure for Tom. He seems to include a number of genres in the one song. There is a short rock refrain which returns now and then, combined with a tango riff suggesting the title and perhaps a reference to Rudoplph Valentino, the 1920’s Italian, Hollywood heartthrob, and a hint of Jaques Brel.  The whole piece opens with a meatier base sound. There is still the use of reverb throughout which seems to be Tom’s signature. The lyrics are more depressive in this number talking about the,”world of sorrows we live in.” He berates the world, disenchanted with money, the use of credit cards and financial backers. A little note of anger about decadence which refers to movements such  as Dada in the Weimar Republic of the 1920’s that introduced anarchic ideas as a reaction to the first world  war. He thinks avante garde  movements , “try too  hard.” These references to the Europe of the 1920’s in this piece show, perhaps, Tom thinking it was a particularly decadent and immoral period in Europe’s history which his religious beliefs encourage him to counter.This number ends with an oboe refrain, haunting in the memory.

Brutal and Cruel, brings a change of tempo. It is a faster high tempo number with a happy jolly bounce and feel to it which contrasts strongly with the theme and contents of the lyrics,”the good life we are living can be brutal and cruel. Too many  deaths.”This contrast creates a sarcastic feel which shows Tom feeling hopeless about the state of the world. He reverts to humour to deal with what  he sees as  evil. It  reminded me of the film, “Oh  What a Lovely  War,” which used music hall entertainment to  portray the horrors of trench  warfare  on Flanders  Fields, which of course again brings us back to the Belgium  link. There is also a brass intro to this number which is a departure from Tom’s usual  slow, intimate guitar  licks.

Amid The Alien Corn, sees Tom being pessimistic and a little homesick and feeling the dislocation from his roots. His , “homeland is torn from him, in these alien fields of corn.” It could almost be a reference to Joseph, in the Old Testament and his near death experience, his exile and his rise to power dealing with the harvests in Egypt. An association of strife and overcoming adversity  becomes apparent in this album and was part of who Tom was.

Wild Track, is a moment of self-recrimination laying bare his own failings. ,”Blame it on the money and the weed.” “Pound of flesh on the bathroom floor. Blood in the bowl.” Stark stuff, reminiscent of John Lennon’s Cold Turkey and Whatever Gets You Through the Night.

In Misha Madou, a song about remembrance of a past lover, there is more musical experimentation using synthesisers extensively combined with Tom’s acoustic playing. A pleasant combination of sounds. The electronic synthesiser gives a feeling of cathedral space. I think there is probably too much feedback on Tom’s voice in this number but a brave attempt that doesn’t totally work.

Stars and Sails  has Tom producing some classical guitar references played crisply and sharply. He is pondering the universe, whistling as he contemplates the stars and planets, their function and their meaning. The guitar playing is enjoyable to just sit and listen to on this one.

The final tracks bring us back to overtly religious themes. A table in the wilderness seems to combine the Last Supper Table with Jesus’s sojourn in The Wilderness for forty days and forty nights. It is an upbeat number with some harmonica to go with his guitar playing giving a wilderness campfire feel to it. You can imagine Jesus with his disciples sitting round such a campfire eating fish from Lake Galilee caught by Peter and the conversations that ensued. And in, “A Song of sable Night,” Tom has become one of the disciples sitting at the feat of Jesus who is keeping his thoughts on him, Tom.  In this song he is faithful and true. There is a slightly discordant note when the message Jesus gives, “sets you free,” but, “is grief to some.” It is a reflective song that shows Tom at his most introspective and serious of thought. Finally the CD ends with, “It’s been a while,” This is an autobiographical number, Tom in his faded blue dungarees recalling the past and finding it difficult to separate dreams and memory. Ancient civilisations and tropic isles are recalled.  Whether this is a hint at a belief in reincarnation is not evident.

This album provides food for thought. You do not have to agree with Tom’s religious beliefs but you can admire his clear honest look at life and the world around him. It is a courageous album in many ways because he tries different styles and techniques to present a song. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. He uses the themes and topics that interest and influence him in creative, thoughtful and intelligent ways.

EPONA RECORDS:       http://www.eponarecords.com/

ARMISTICE DAY 11/11/1918

 Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English poet, author and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War.

A poppy from Flanders Fields.

Myself at The British  cemetery at Arras

British graves at Arras.

Another view of the cemetery  at  Arras, designed by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens  OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA (29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944)