An Actress in the Family

In the A-Z of Ashdown we have reached L. L is for Louisa. Louisa Brunton is one of the fascinating characters in the Craven family. Born between 1782 and 1785, Louisa was the daughter of a grocer turned actor and theatrical impresario. For part of his career her father John Brunton was manager of the theatre at Brighton where the Prince of Wales was his patron. Louisa’s brother John was also an actor and theatre manager, and two of her sisters, Elizabeth and Anne, became actresses. They were a theatrical dynasty.

The youngest of John Brunton’s six daughters, Louisa made her stage debut on 5th October 1803 at Covent Garden, playing Lady Townley in the 'Provoked Husband' opposite John Kemble as Lord Townley. She followed this role with that of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. The “Theatrical Inquisitor” for November 1803 described her as “extremely handsome and striking” with features expressive of archness and vivacity. One critic predicted a glittering future for her and gushed that she was both beautiful and gifted. Other gossip-writers agreed on her charm and the perfection of her face and figure.

Many other roles followed between 1803 and December 1807. It is interesting to note that from the start the respectable antecedents of Louisa and her family were emphasised in all the newspaper reports and biographies. She was from a professional theatrical family. She was not a courtesan.

Louisa's last performance was as Clara Sedley in Reynolds's comedy 'The Rage.' In 1805, William, 7^th

Baron and 1^st Earl of Craven of the 2^nd Creation had become one of Louisa’s admirers. In 1807 Mrs Calvert wrote in her diary: “She is certainly a very handsome woman but I don’t think her looks pleasing. She has prodigious fine black eyes, but she rolls them about too much. Lord Craven is supposed to be very much in love with her and many think he will marry her.” He did; they were married on 12^th December 1807. The marriage took place at the Earl’s London town house in Charles Street, Berkeley Square. The groom was thirty-seven and the bride’s age was given as twenty-five. Louisa left the stage behind. The Earl and Countess of Craven went to live at the earl’s estate of Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire, christening several of their children in the church there.

With the family connections between the Cravens and Jane Austen, it was only natural that Louisa Craven should be an avid reader of Jane Austen's work. In 1816 she was recorded as being a great admirer of Emma but apparently did not think it the equal of Pride and Prejudice.

The earl, like his forebears, was keen on field sports and horse racing. He was also a founder member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and in 1809 named his yacht Louisa. It was in Cowes that he died in 1825, aged 55. Louisa became the Dowager Countess with an income of £15 000 a year. She continued to live at Hamstead Marshall whilst her eldest son, the 2^nd Earl, chose Ashdown as his main seat. The family was close with the earl and his brothers Frederick Keppel and George and sister Louisa frequently visiting their mother at Hamstead.

The original grand “palace” at Hamstead Marshall had burned down in 1718 and Hamstead Lodge developed as a hunting lodge in its place, probably from one of the original 17th century buildings on the estate. During Louisa’s occupancy this house was remodelled in the Regency style and it was later extended again. Having left the ranks of the middle classes to join the aristocracy, Louisa seems to have been intent on maintaining a grand style. Perhaps her theatrical experience stood her in good stead for the role of great lady. She employed a liveried butler and attended church in a coach and four complete with postillions. She had a French cook. One of Louisa Craven’s main interests was garden design and she had a whole army of gardeners and a park-keeper in her household. The gardens at Hamstead Marshall became renowned for their beauty.

Louisa Craven died in 1860 at the age of 79. Her funeral took place at Coombe Abbey and she was buried in the Craven family vault at Binley. However there was a memorial service for her at Hamstead Marshall and it was here that she was particularly remembered as a generous benefactor to the church and the village school, and for the dances and suppers she held for villagers and tenants. She had become the perfect epitome of a grand aristocratic lady.

I am indebted to Deirdre Le Faye for the information on Jane Austen's Emma and to Penelope Stokes for the detail of Louisa Craven's life at Hamstead Marshall. Penny's book, Craven Country, is available here.

Hamstead Marshall Palace

Today we’ve reached H in the A – Z of Ashdown and I’m writing about a house built for love of a queen: No, not Ashdown this time, but the grand mansion of Hamstead Marshall, near Newbury. It was at Hamstead that William Craven planned a “miniature Heidelberg” for Elizabeth of Bohemia, The Winter Queen. The intention was to model this mansion on the Palatine palace lost during the 30 Years War. As with many things to do with Craven and Elizabeth the term “miniature” was relative. This was a very grand house indeed. However, after the death of Elizabeth in 1662 its design did not mirror Heidelberg much at all.

Lady Craven, the widow of Sir William Craven, bought the estate of Hamstead from Francis Jhones in 1620 as part of her policy of turning the vast Craven fortune into land ownership. As at Ashdown, building work started some time in 1661 as soon as Lord Craven had returned from exile in Europe. The grand house at Hamstead Marshall was designed by Sir Balthazar Gerbier with the assistance of William Winde. When Gerbier died in the early 1660s Winde took over the design and build. Papers in the Bodleian Library in Oxford give a detailed description of work on the house, which continued for the rest of the 17^th century. They include 40 drawings that show designs for gateposts, porticoes and stabling and a floor plan with 30 rooms including a “withdrawing room to repair the records” a “room to repose after bathing” and a distillery, spicery, confectioner’s room and “Lardery.”

As with Kyp’s view of Ashdown, his engraving of Hamstead Marshall is stylised but there is no reason to suppose it is inaccurate in detail. Aerial photographs have shown the outlines of the parterre gardens, and the remaining gateposts show very fine details.

In 1718, 21 years after the death of the first Earl of Craven, Hamstead Marshall burned to the ground when a brazier was left untended on the roof. Very little is left of this magnificent mansion that was originally intended as a palace for a queen.

In her book Craven Country Penelope Stokes writes extensively about the fascinating history of Hamstead Marshall. You can find more information here. http://www.hamsteadmarshall.net/history/cc.pdf

Gerbier and Golf

G is for Gerbier and also for golf. In the Victorian heyday of Ashdown House there was a nine-hole golf course in what is now the fields to the west and south west of the house. I have a sketch of what the course looked like and we have drawn it onto an ordnance survey map to see where it would have been.

A number of National Trust properties once had family or “informal” golf courses as part of their landscape. Many, like Ashdown, have been lost but at Lyme Park in Cheshire, Studley Royal in Yorkshire and on Lundy Island, traces remain. There is a fascinating article about the ghost of the lost golf course at Studley Royal in the National Trust Views magazine, which you can click here to see (p33).

Golf first came to England from Scotland in the 17^th century with the Stuart dynasty. At Ashdown the golf course was part of a wider sporting estate that also offered hunting and shooting and had its own cricket team. Whilst we have photographs of the early 20^th century cricket eleven I have yet to come across any of Ashdown’s golfers.

And so to the other “G,” Sir Balthasar Gerbier. Gerbier was born in 1598 in Holland and was, amongst other things, a courtier, diplomat, art advisor, miniaturist, and spy. He was also an architect who worked with William Winde for the first Earl of Craven on the plans for Craven’s “palace” at Hamstead Marshall. It seems plausible that the same combination of Winde and Gerbier also worked on the plans for Ashdown House, which were drawn up at the same time. Gerbier died at Hampstead Marshall either in 1663 (according to a petition to the king from his daughters who asked for £4000 in unpaid salary) or in 1667 (according to Gerbier's monument in the local church). He is also buried there. It seems likely that the date on his memorial is wrong and that the building of both Hamstead and Ashdown were in their early stages when he died.

Bronze Age Barrows and Balleroy Ponies

We're on B in the A - Z of Ashdown! B is for all sorts of Ashdown-related topics: The 1000 year old badger sett in the woods which is mentioned in the records of the medieval hunting chase, the rare and not so rare butterflies that fill Ashdown's glades in the summer months and the variety of birds that nest in the trees there.

There is also the beer. South Lodge, as well as containing the kitchens for the main house, was also the brewery. At a time when water was not safe to drink, beer was the staple beverage for men, women and children ( a low-alcohol version, small beer, was served to children.) The beer brewed at Ashdown was so good that the Cravens sent a carriage every week from Hamstead Marshall to fetch their supply.

 Also on B we have the Bronze Age barrows that can be seen on the line of the hill to the south west of the house. There are three round barrows visible on the skyline but also a pond barrow which is only visible on the ground as a depression sometimes filled with water. It is said that these barrows mark a Bronze Age territorial boundary. Certainly they are situated so as to be in clear sight from miles around.

And finally B is for the Balleroy Highland ponies. Balleroy is the name of the chateau in Normandy which is said to have inspired the design of Ashdown House. William Winde, Ashdown's most probable architect, was a pupil of the French architect Mansart who designed Balleroy in 1626. The stud that is now based in Ashdown village breeds handsome Balleroy highland ponies with a very sweet temperament!

A Dollar Princess at Ashdown House!

As Professor Kathleen Burke puts it in her excellent book "Old World, New World": "Beginning about 1870, the union of American money and the British aristocracy was a continuing theme in the Anglo-American relationship... there was something special about the earlier period: perhaps it was the number of such unions, or the amount of cash involved. Perhaps it was the sheer hard-headedness of many of the transactions. For whatever reasons, these fairy tales - or horror stories - provided the plot for many a newspaper article, novel and play."

One such marriage saved the Craven family fortunes in the late nineteenth century. Whilst the story of Cornelia Bradley Martin isn't as well known as some other "dollar princesses" such as Jennie Jerome or Consuelo Vanderbilt, it was every bit as glamorous. This picture shows Cornelia as a child and this link connects to a vintage bromide print of her in the National Portrait Gallery, dated between 1910 - 1914 when she was in her thirties.

Miss Bradley Martin was a mere fifteen years old when she first met the 4th Earl of Craven on her parents' Scottish shooting estate at Balmacaan. They married in 1893 in New York after a brief engagement. The bride was sixteen and had not "come out;" it was felt that the 24 year old Earl had stolen a march on other potential suitors by marrying Cornelia straight out of the schoolroom. The wedding took place in New York's fashionable Grace Church with acres of white satin and much exotic floral decoration including 40 foot high palm trees. An over-excited crowd thronged the street outside for a glimpse of the bride and at one point there was a near-riot when the public invaded the church and the police took an hour to clear it.

Cornelia Craven was herself descended from a notable American lineage. Her mother was the daughter of Isaac Sherman, who had made his fortune in the railroads. Her father, Bradley Martin, was descended from an old Albany family. Her parents had met at the wedding of Miss Emily Vanderbilt. The balls and parties that they gave featured prominently in the gossip pages of the New York Times although after some stern criticism of their opulent lifestyle in the early 20th century, they moved to Britain.

It was no co-incidence that in the same year as his marriage, the 4th Earl began a series of renovations at his main home, Coombe Abbey, which included the restoration of the fabric of the building, a partial re-roofing and improvements to the servants' quarters. Improvements at Coombe continued to draw on the Countess's wealth. In 1907, electric lighting was installed and given the vast size and expensive running costs of such a house it seems inevitable that without Cornelia's money, the Craven family would have had to sell Coombe Abbey much sooner.

The earl and countess adopted a classically wealthy aristocratic lifestyle at Coombe and also moved between fashionable watering holes and glittering society events. In a rather neat example of the Cravens' sense of style, it was reported that Lord Craven sported the longest cigarette holder in London! Quite a claim to fame!

The 4th earl died in 1921 in a mysterious yachting accident during Cowes Week, one of the events of The Season. He fell overboard from his yacht and drowned, a particularly odd end given that he was a good swimmer and was only 55 years old. His body was washed ashore two days after his disappearance. The police report noted, amongst other things, that he had the Craven family crest tattooed on his chest. Tattoes had become increasingly fashionable with the aristocracy during the Victorian period, popularised by the Prince of Wales and later by his son Prince George.

The death of the 4th earl dealt a powerful financial blow to the Craven family fortunes and Cornelia was obliged to sell off the contents of both the Bradley Martin house in Mayfair and of Coombe Abbey. Before Coombe Abbey was sold in 1923 she removed the fireplaces for her home at Hamstead Lodge in Berkshire. She was later to do the same with Ashdown House, removing fireplaces and panelling. Despite these economies, however, the Dowager Countess's establishment at Hamstead Lodge was very grand. She had a staff of 17 inside servants and 8 outside servants plus 19 gardeners. Gardening was her passion and she created "The Dreamland," a garden inspired by a dream she had in the early 1930s.

Visitors to Hamstead Lodge were very eminent; they included Queen Mary, Princess Marie Louise and continental royalty. The Churchill family were regular guests and entertainment was often sporting-themed, including racing weekend house parties and shooting parties. The Dowager Countess was also renowned for her stunning collections, including emeralds and china that had belonged to Marie Antoinette and jewellery that had belonged to the Empress Eugenie. Her staff included two "night-watchmen" who were effectively security staff to ensure that her jewellery and the Craven portrait collection were safe.

It was Cornelia Craven who gave Ashdown House to the National Trust in 1956. She died in 1961. The opulent style in which she and her husband the 4th earl had lived was emblematic of the Edwardian period and very reminiscent of the time a hundred years earlier when the first Earl of Craven of the 2nd Creation and his Countess had lived a life of Regency glamour. The injection of her fortune into the family coffers was of particular benefit to Coombe but also to the remainer of the Craven estates. Hit hard by death duties and the decline of the country estate after the first world war, Coombe, Ashdown and eventually Hamstead Lodge itself were sold off and the glittering years of the Craven's "dollar princess" were gone forever.

The Ashdown Blog will be back on Halloween with a suitably spooky tale of ghostly goings on at Ashdown House!