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.

The Strawberry Hill Gothick Chapel of 1786

Robert Adam's Drawing Room

        

                                                                 

Adam's Tea House Bridge

                                                               

                                                                          

SMD

29.11.13 

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013

THE COLLAPSE OF ANGLICANISM

  

George Carey, erstwhile Archbishop of Canterbury, has glumly predicted that Christianity in Britain was “just a generation away from extinction”. Lord Carey should know about Anglicanism as he was Archbishop from 1991 to 2002, but Christianity in the round may be beyond his remit. Yet even the demise of Anglicanism would be an enormous event. As a convinced non-believer, I can understand those who simply snap “Good riddance”, but on reflection that would be uncharitably glib. Our spiritual world changes just as our political and physical world changes; the positive contributions of Anglicanism deserve to be acknowledged and honoured. 

Pessimistic ex-Archbishop George Carey

First, let us draw a line under the crimes and sins of the past. The hideous stake-burning of dissidents and later Catholics: the centuries of exclusion from power and employment of non-conformists, Catholics and Jews: superstitious burning of witches: systematic intellectual obscurantism even from the dawn of the Age of Reason; contempt for women. Much of this is ancient history although the final acceptance of women bishops only happened a day or two ago.

On the credit side, the Church of England has hugely enhanced the beauty of the English landscape

Northleach Church, Gloucestershire

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Every village had its church and many medieval ones survive, often surrounded by their churchyards redolent of the history of the place. Northleach is typical but there are a thousand others, once serving as a focus for a multitude of village activities. English parish churches are one of the glories of the country and their bells and bell-ringers are a unique feature. I need not extol the tremendous 26 ancient English cathedrals and many other religious places of beauty like Kings College Chapel, Cambridge.

King's College Chapel, Cambridge University

The Church of England has two supreme works of literature to its credit, The Book of Common Prayer of 1552 and The Authorised Version of the Bible of 1611. Both works have had an enormous influence on the English language and on the speech and mind-set of the English people. Although I am a non-believer, I am always moved by the eloquent Confession in the Prayer Book:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore those who are penitent; according to your promises declared unto men in Christ Jesus our Lord. Grant that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life; to the glory of His name. Amen

The Authorised Version, despite quite a quantity of dross, is a mine of quotable phrases, memorable narratives and miraculous fables. The Creation myth, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah’s ark, Moses and the Children of Israel, the Promised Land, Jacob, Esau and “the mess of Pottage”, the lyrical Psalms, - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me – then flowery Isaiah, Job and the biblical proverbs - Sufficient unto the day is the Evil thereof – To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted. The New Testament has the well-loved Nativity myths, the parables like the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan and the enticing offer: Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Paul’s paean on Charity in 1 Corinthians is deservedly treasured.

I will not debate the truth of these two books but their language is incomparable and the Church of England created them. Later revisions and modernisations take the mystery out of religious literature, fatally damaging its appeal to its adherents.

Anglicanism has been the inspiration behind great poets, especially John Milton with his Paradise Lost, but also T S Eliot and John Betjeman while John Donne and Dr Samuel Johnson produced respectively profound sermons and expressive prayers. In short the cultural contribution of the Church of England to literature and scholarship has been immense.

So why this talk of collapse? Dr Carey sees, as all the world has long seen, that his Church has lost its place in the peoples’ hearts. Congregations dwindle, revenues plummet, the priesthood diminishes and the views of bishops are ignored. The tenets of Christianity are no longer believed by the majority of Englishmen, though they are often too polite to say so. The rational modern philosophers, the historians of comparative religion, the scientists of evolution and the analysts of human psychology have seized the intellectual high ground once home to the Church. 

John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, pleads for a reinvigorated ministry, for a national religious revival on the lines of John Wesley’s. He is at least a century too late. England has moved on. The Church has earned warm gratitude for its heritage but Sentamu’s successor will one day pack up his lawn sleeves, his orphreys and his mitre and turn the lock in the Bishop’s Palace for the last time. The game is over.

SMD

22.11.13

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2013

STORMY WEATHER

We British moan and groan about our changeable climate especially at this time of the year when “mists and mellow fruitfulness” give way to grey clouds, cold blasts from the West wind, rather persistent rain and flurries of frost and snow. The blessed intervals of reinvigorating sunshine are few and far between while the glories of Spring and Summer are long forgotten. Yet in our gloom we hardly realise how lucky we are.

An all-American Tornado

Other countries suffer much worse. Only a day or two ago tornadoes in Illinois killed 6 and flattened a township. Destructive tornadoes in the American mid-West are an annual occurrence – remember Dorothy (and Toto) rushing to the Kansas storm-shelter in The Wizard of Oz? – and the US has had appalling hurricanes ranging from the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 (8,000 dead), the category 5 Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 in the Gulf of Mexico, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 battering New Orleans which so damaged the reputation of President George W Bush.

Although parts of the US have severe extremes of weather, the worst storms are in Asia, notably at monsoon time in the Bay of Bengal. Modern Bangladesh has suffered particularly badly from 1737, when records started, onwards. Casualty figures would have been very high had a reliable count been made. In recent memory, the calamity of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 resulted in a horrifying 230,000 dead; this tsunami was triggered by an earthquake as was the East Japan Tsunami in 2011 which killed 16,000 and alarmed the world by the imminent meltdown of 3 nuclear reactors at Fukushima.

The Japanese Tsunami strikes

 

Predictably, galvanised by the dreadful category 5 Haiyan Typhoon this month in the Philippines, the global warming industry has claimed these storms are all our fault and we must intensify our suicidal policy of reducing carbon emissions and rely ever more on inefficient windmills, tidal barriers and the warmth from blazing copies of The Guardian. We Europeans have long experience of burning coal, the world has developed a highly effective nuclear power industry and there is still plenty of oil. Yet somehow the zealots are winning the argument – despite centuries of evidence that hurricanes and so on blow about in both hot and cold times. Global warming is pseudo-scientific eyewash and its espousal could be our ruin.

18th century Frost Fair on the Thames

Britain has had its difficult days but in a global context they are not remarkable – but give Britons plenty to complain about. Going back a bit, winter 1684 was the coldest ever recorded; the Thames at London froze over with 11 inches of ice. The Great Storm of 1703 blew the lead roof off Westminster Abbey and caused two stone columns to fall at Wells Cathedral killing the unfortunate Bishop; many naval ships foundered on the Goodwin Sands and the death-toll was at least 8,000 The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 triggered a 10 foot tsunami which hit Cornwall. The winter of 1939/40 gave London 39 days of snow while even I can remember the severe 1946/47 winter, when the fuel supply chain broke down.

The Spring Tide surge in 1953 combined with strong gales to bring floods and wide-spread tree-falls (307 dead) while 1963, The Great Freeze, was the coldest English winter since 1740. The hurricane which BBC forecaster Michael Fish famously poo-pooed in 1987, devastated the woods of Southern England and blew down cherished plane trees all over London It coincided with Black Monday, a record sell-off in the London Stock Market – a Divine judgment perhaps? The much-heralded St Jude’s Day storm of 2013 disappointed the doom-mongers and was no more than a filthy day.

I will be in London until the end of December and I prepare for winter as prudent Britons have always done. I will enjoy brief walks in the rain especially as the clouds scamper across the skies. On dry moments I will take deep breaths of now-clean London air.   I will sink a convivial pint or three of bitter with friends at a local pub. Most of all, I will crowd round a snug fire with my lovely wife, keep on warm woollies, watch lots of undemanding TV and fortify myself with rich fruit-cake and regular slugs of Whisky Mac (50% blended whisky, 50% ginger wine). Christmas will be a joyous family feast and the West wind can blow as much as it likes – I will be inside, warm and highly contented. Cheers!

SMD

18.11.13

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013