Sidney's Place: HOLKHAM HALL and AUDLEY END: The Stately Homes of England (9)

English courtiers and aristocrats acquired estates eventually with surrounding tenanted farms so that the expenses of the great house itself could be covered by rents received. Accordingly many of the stately homes are in relatively remote rural locations. This is true of the two magnificent houses I here describe – Holkham Hall, Wells-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk and Audley End at Saffron Walden in Essex.

The South Facade of Palladian Holkham Hall

Holkham Hall is closely associated with the Coke family (pronounced “Cook”) who became Earls of Leicester. The founding father was Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), the eminent lawyer whose Institutes have become a key text proclaiming the supremacy of the Common Law through Parliament and limiting the prerogatives of the monarch. Almost his last political act was to present the Petition of Rights to Charles I. To that extent he deserves the epithet the Father of the Common Law but his earlier career as Attorney-General was ferocious and brutal as he used the royal prerogative to persecute and behead the Earl of Essex, condemn Sir Walter Raleigh to the block on trumped-up evidence and preside over and organise the torture and cruel death of Guy Fawkes – Coke was a savage man in savage times.

The house we now see is the creation, 5 generations later, of Thomas Coke, created Earl of Leicester who, inspired by classical architecture after going on the Grand Tour, joined forces with Whig connoisseur Lord Burlington and master interior designer William Kent to start the Palladian mansion in 1734. Holkham’s design was taken from Palladio’s Villa Mocenigo in Venice but it has to be said that externally Holkham is excessively austere, not helped by the use of local bricks rather than stone which would have mellowed gracefully. The upper storeys have insufficient windows to my eye.

The interior is by contrast much more lavish. The entrance into the Marble Hall is breath-taking, a homage to great classical and Palladian buildings in the Veneto and in Rome. The atmosphere of grandeur is inescapable with its wide staircase, fluted columns and elaborate ceiling.

The Marble Hall at Holkham

A succession of splendid rooms follow, mainly in the Palladian style, partly designed to show off Coke’s collection of rare Greek and Roman statues, his wonderful paintings and fine objets d’art. Thus we move to the Dining Room, with a bust of Aphrodite allegedly from the Parthenon itself, to the Statue Gallery with William Kent furniture and among many others a statue of Diana said to have belonged to Cicero. The Drawing Room, in a warmer red, displays a ravishing landscape by Claude Lorrain, a fine Madonna by Pietro de Pietri and works by Poussin and Hondecoeter, much to 18^th century taste.

Holkham, The Drawing Room

Perhaps the finest room at Holkham is the Saloon with sumptuous Palladian décor, majestic Kent furniture and lovely paintings.

The Saloon at Holkham

The most treasured painting at Holkham is here, The Return of the Holy Family by Rubens, but there are also terrific portraits by Gainsborough and van Dyck and the walls are covered in beautiful Genoa velvet.

More fine rooms follow with paintings by Claude Lorrain, a mosaic from Hadrian’s villa and magnificent Brussels tapestries, all demonstrating the delightful interior of Holkham. Outside, a Park and farm of almost 3,000 acres, an exotic fountain depicting Perseus and Andromeda, a commanding Obelisk by Kent and a huge lake complete the majestic picture.

The other famous resident was Thomas William Coke (1754-1842) who, after heraldic acrobatics, became the 1^st Earl of Leicester of the Second Creation. This Earl is better known as Coke of Norfolk, becoming a celebrated agriculturalist, dedicated to the improvement of his land and of the farming methods of his tenants. He and many others – “Turnip” Townsend was a friend and neighbour – spear-headed the Agricultural Revolution of the 18^th century, often overshadowed by the even more significant Industrial Revolution. He was an early advocate of the rotation of crops, the use of turnips as animal feed and he organised “shearings” where ideas were exchanged. Coke specialised in the selective breeding of sheep, being credited with the introduction of the successful Leicester breed. A column in his honour was erected at Holkham in 1851.

The Leicester Sheep breed introduced to Holkham by Coke

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Audley End was once a veritable 17^th century palace, enormous even by the lavish standards of that time; since then it has been partly demolished, remodelled and rebuilt so that what we now see is mainly late 18^th century and 19th century work, albeit often in the Jacobean and Carolinian idiom. Its ownership has been convoluted and it is now owned by taxpayer-funded English Heritage, yet remaining the seat of Lord Braybrooke, a scion of the Howard de Walden family enriched by property holdings in the West End of London.

Audley End

The Audley name derives from Thomas Audley (1488-1544), henchman of Henry VIII and Speaker of the House of Commons who oversaw the passing of the acts dissolving the monasteries. Audley was rewarded with the Abbey of Walden where the great house now sits. A descendant, Thomas Howard (1561-1626) had distinguished himself in the naval service of Queen Elizabeth and became Baron Howard de Walden and later, under James I, Earl of Suffolk. Using as architect Bernard Johnson, he built Audley End from 1603 to 1616 when he was Lord Chamberlain and then Lord High Treasurer of England. His financial dealings did not bear examination and in 1618 he was sent to the Tower for embezzlement, only escaping by paying the then massive fine of £30,000. But at least he died in his bed, if in disgrace, and Audley End is his legacy.

The Hall at Audley End

Charles II fancied Audley End (it is quite near Newmarket races) and bought it on deferred terms, the monarch occupying it from 1669 to 1701, when it was restored to the Howards, whose line started to fail. The house was acquired by Lady Portsmouth in 1727, who bequeathed it to a nephew Sir John Griffin who became Lord Braybrooke, dying there in 1797. A kinsman Richard Neville inherited and the Braybrooke title passed to his family. During these years the house was substantially down-sized with the demolition of at least two-thirds of its original area and extensive rebuilding.

The Library, Audley End

The Jacobean core was embellished by fine rooms designed by Robert Adam and by a Chapel in the Strawberry Hill Gothick style. Adam also erected classical monuments in the Park, but his Tea House Bridge is particularly enchanting. The House was taken on by English Heritage rather than The National Trust after WW2 and is its showpiece with lovely grounds and a sumptuous interior.