Inside the Dolls House

When I was a child I had the most enormous dolls house. If it had been scaled up it would have been about 3 times the size of the house I actually lived in and maybe that was one of the reasons I liked it; because it felt so grand and spacious, and there was room for all of us to have our own space and move about without falling over each other. Also I could furnish and decorate it as I wanted rather than having someone else deciding that my room would be painted violet and pink, whether I liked it or not. Then I could people it with the brothers and sisters that I didn’t have, and make up their stories and adventures. It was a fantasy world that encourages story telling.

The earliest miniature houses have been found inside Egyptian tombs dating from the 3^rd millennium BC. These came complete with models of people – including servants – furniture, pets and other animals and were thought to have a religious purpose. The first European “baby houses” as they were called, date from the seventeenth century. In those days, though, they were not intended for children. In fact children were kept well away from them and forbidden to touch them for fear of breakage. They consisted of cabinet display cases made up of individual rooms and contained detailed fixtures and fitting to reflect the fashions and designs of the time. They were status symbols, created by master craftsmen and built for the rich. When they were completed and furnished they were worth the same amount as an actual house! No wonder people wouldn’t let their children touch them!

The Tate Baby House, made in 1760, is one of the most famous dollhouses. It is designed as a stone built Palladian mansion with a pedimented front door and a steps sweeping up to it. Behind the façade is a very luxurious world with rooms adorned with plaster and panelling, tiny candelabra, miniature china, silk embroidered chairs and portraits in golden frames. Once again there is a detailed peek in the world of downstairs as well as upstairs with kitchens groaning with pots and pans and servants’ quarters with less lavish furniture.

This upstairs downstairs division was important as a way of teaching children the way that the social divisions in a house should work. Whilst the lady of the house sat at her embroidery, the servants scuttled around making the beds.

Some people wanted their dolls house to be the fantasy world they would have liked to live in. In^th century castellated dolls house for £5 and set about refurbishing it. She employed local carpenters to make peg dolls to live in it, issuing them with instructions that the butler should have a paunch and the footman nicely-turned calves. She made a tiny feather duster for the maid using pheasant feathers.

1962 a lady called Betty Pinney bought a 19

The boom in dolls house production came in the 1930s when they were mass produced. The company Lines Brothers made a “mock-Tudor” dolls house complete with plumbed in bath, flushing lavatory and vacuum cleaner. In contrast, Whiteladies House, created at the same time, was a modernist- style villa with dolls made from pipe-cleaners who frolicked by the swimming pool and lounged in the art deco sitting room.

A very famous dolls house is the one created in the early 1920s for Queen Mary who was an avid collector of miniatures. It was built by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens who said of it: "Let us devise and design for all time, something which will enable future generations to see how a King and Queen lived in the twentieth century, and what authors, artists and craftsmen of note there were, during their reign",

Queen Mary’s dolls house is still on display at Windsor Castle and I saw it last time I went there. It’s huge, built to 1/12th scale, and measuring 102 inches by 58 inches, and is 60 inches tall. Great care went into sourcing the items for the house. The list of famous names contributors is endless - sewing machine from Singer; real Champagne from Veuve Clicquot and Mumm; clocks by Cartier; china by Doulton and even cars from Rolls Royce and Daimler. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle even wrote a short story (500 words) in a miniature book for the library. Exquisite furniture made from exotic woods fills the house - such as the large Victorian wardrobe veneered in amboyna wood, which can be seen in the Queens Suite. A bathroom floor laid in mother of pearl reflects the opulence the dolls house portrays. The house was finally completed in early 1924 and exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition, to great popular acclaim.

I’ve always wanted to see a dolls house designed to look like Ashdown House. It seems the perfect style for one, and as we can’t show visitors the rooms, how cute would it be to have a miniature version of them on display!

Tyntesfield

Tyntesfield

  After a rather wet and very windy week in Devon for New Year, as we were driving back home, I was very tempted by a brief stop along the way. I always try to take the opportunity of visiting National Trust places that are too far for a day trip, and it was a bit of a disappointment when I discovered that all those within driving distance of our holiday cottage were either closed for the winter, or it was only the park and the café that was open. Tea and scones are a nice way to finish a long walk in the woods, but I was rather hoping for something more. Still, tea and scones was what we got at Tyntesfield too, because although the house was open for a few hours, we arrived there rather too late to get in. So it will have to be left for another time, and all I got was a tantalising glimpse of the lavish exterior – that, and an equally tantalising guide book.

The house, it seems, was built on an immense fortune made from guano (dried bird droppings). Not the most appealing or fashionable of commodities, but an excellent fertiliser, of great use in revolutionising large- and small-scale Victorian agriculture. The Gibbs family built their fortunes on overseas trade, but the business expanded dramatically after 1842, when they begun to import guano from Peru, so much so that in the mid-1800s William Gibbs became the richest commoner in England. He bought the Tyntesfield estate, enlarged it with the purchase of several adjacent ones, and in 1863 commissioned Bristol architect John Norton to remodel and enlarge the Georgian mansion that came with the estate and turn it into a country house which, according to Mark Girouard, most richly represented the Victorian age.

A committed Christian, William Gibbs did not merely work to enhance his fortune and improve the family home, but also funded churches and charitable works. After his death, his wife Blanche continued to fund many scholarships and community buildings, whilst his eldest son built the Home farm, managed the estate and, when he inherited the house after his mother’s death, he altered and modernised it, using the latest technology, including electricity. Each on the following generations left their mark on Tyntesfield, but the changes were sensitively made, by adding to the work of the predecessors, rather than undoing it. Thus, when the house came to the National Trust in 2002, most of the contents of the house, Chapel, servants’ quarters had survived largely intact, as did the gardens, home farm, woods and farmland, thus giving an exciting glimpse into the workings of the Victorian and Edwardian country house, as well as its decline.

Calke Abbey

The last Gibbs to live at Tyntesfield – Richard, 2^nd Lord Wraxall – never married. He lived alone, in fewer and fewer rooms, until his sudden death in 2001. 

His approach, however, was very different to that of the last owners of Calke Abbey in Derbyshire – the ultimate embodiment of the declining country house. At Calke, the owners (dedicated collectors for many generations) filled unused rooms to capacity with the items they had collected over the years, then closed the doors and proceeded to fill another room, so that the National Trust found a veritable Aladdin’s cave when Calke Abbey was entrusted to their care. By contrast, Lord Wraxall ensured the upkeep of the gardens, kitchen garden and the immediately surrounding land and, although the reception rooms were mostly shuttered and closed up, they were kept well-ordered.

I could only learn as much from the guide-book – I have yet to step over Tyntesfield’s threshold myself. But it sounds like a fascinating treasure trove, worthy of further exploration. Hopefully I might be able to explore it in the spring, and also see the gardens in full glory. There’s a Rose Garden, a Rock Garden, the Jubilee Garden, Lady Wraxall’s Garden, and a kitchen garden and walled garden too. The place was a delight even in the dead of winter. In full bloom it must be pure heaven and, although I am a Georgian at heart rather than a Victorian, I can’t wait to go back again!

The English country house - Lyme Park

One of the things I love most about living in England is visiting magnificent country houses. England has many such houses, built by wealthy landowners in previous centuries, and they demonstrate the best of English architecture and taste over a millennium.

One of my favourites is Lyme Park , on the border of Cheshire and Derbyshire. Lyme Park is one of the most famous, and beautiful, houses in England. It's probably most well known for its appearance as Pemberley in the 1995 BBC mini-series of  Pride and Prejudice. It's immediately recognisable because of the mirror lake in front of the house, which, on a clear day, perfectly reflects the house. Nowadays, visitors approach the house from the other side but in its heyday, the drive led up to the side by the lake.

The estate was granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 and passed to the Legh family in 1388. The house itself was built in the late sixteenth century, with alterations being made in the 1720s showing the influence of Baroque and Palladian styles. It was passed to the National Trust in 1946 and is now held in trust for the nation. The National Trust owns many of England's historic houses, since most of them are too expensive for individual families to maintain.




The houses are open to the public and I've spent many a happy hour wandering through perfectly preserved rooms, examining architecture, enjoying the gardens, learning about the history or just soaking up the atmosphere. I'm also lucky enough to do frequent book signings at Lyme Park, where Mr Darcy's Diary proves very popular in the shop. They often have exhibitions linked to Pride and Prejudice. My favourite was probably the costume exhibition, which featured the famous white shirt which became the famous wet shirt! Here I am, standing next to it (although, alas, Mr Darcy was not wearing it at the time). As you can see, I dressed for the occasion!





If you're looking for a quintessentially English day out, I can thoroughly recommend Lyme Park. It's a beautiful house with interesting rooms, glorious gardens, a deer park and a folly. It has a wide variety of displays and exhibitions, which vary from season to season, and it has an excellent shop full of Pride and Prejudice inspired items. It's one of my favourite places and I hope it becomes one of your favourite places, too.

Amanda Grange

The Georgian Shell House at Hatfield Forest

A few weeks ago we visited Hatfield Forest, which is a rare survival of a medieval royal hunting forest. I love woods and forests because they so often have a real sense of history; the ancient trees like living sculptures, the sense of timelessness that you get when you walk between them.

Hatfield Forest was in existence at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. Fallow deer were introduced in 1100 from Europe and their descendents still roam the woods today. Rabbits were another “foreign” introduction and a warren was set up in the woods to provide meat and fur.

In the 18^th century the forest was sold to the Houblon family, wealthy merchants and financiers from

the City of London. In keeping with the fashions of the day, Jacob Houblon had a part of the forest landscaped. He built the Georgian Shell House and the lake, surrounding it with exotic, non-native trees.

The Shell House is now the exhibition centre for the estate. It was originally built as a picnic house overlooking the lake and was decorated with flints and with British and tropical shells. Most of the shells were from the West Indies as these were used as ballast in the holds of slave ships. The decoration includes a bird sculpted out of oyster shells and blue glass, coral and coloured sands.

At this time there was a craze for collecting and purchasing shells and using them to decorate grottoes and garden features. The building of a picnic house was also a part of the 18^th century fashion for elaborate buildings in the landscape whether they were fishing temples, cold plunge baths, pavilions or grand arches. In the summer the Shell House provided a wonderful place for the family to picnic, fish and go boating. Grand parties were also held

there. It offers an insight into the leisured lifestyle of the Georgian upper classes. It is rumoured that the ghost of Laeticia Houblon, who decorated the Shell House, can sometimes be seen in and around the property! It must have taken her months to create such a detailed piece of art.

I actually found the shell decoration rather dark and not particularly appealing although I think that may be because after 250 years it has been very worn by the weather, and the bird motif was a bit sinister to my eyes! So I don't think I will be decorating my house like that any time soon, but as an example of the fashion for shell decorations in the 18th century it was well worth a visit.

Christmas Through Historical Objects

Recently there has been something of a craze for telling the story of certain things through material objects – the BBC series “A History of the World in 100 Objects” was a fascinating example. It got me thinking about the different object associated with Christmas through time. Here are a few I came up with:

The Yule Log

The burning of the Yule Log was said to have its origins in pre-Christian paganism and the celebration of a winter fire festival. Intriguingly it has been suggested that this Christmas tradition only started in England in the 17^th century and was an import from Europe. The first reference to it was made by Robert Herrick in the 1620s when he referred to “the Christmas log,” which was a good luck charm promising prosperity and protection from evil. The tradition died out in the late 19th century because of a decline in open fires. However, it could be construed to be continued in the Buche de Noel cake on the Christmas dinner table!

The Georgian table decoration

I’m cheating here a little bit because I don’t have an original Georgian Christmas decoration to show. This is a recreation from Fairfax House in York. Fairfax House is one of the finest Georgian town houses in England and every year they hold an exhibition called the Keeping of Christmas which displays elegant decorations, extravagant dining table decorations, sugar temples and Christmas greenery. There are lots of historical Christmas decorations on show at National Trust houses around the country. I'm planning a visit to Avebury Manor and also to Lydiard Park, where they are creating a Downton-Abbey style Edwardian Christmas.

The First Christmas Card

Henry Cole, first director of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the

organiser of the Great Exhibition, sent the world’s first Christmas card in 1843. However the traditions did not catch on in a widespread commercial way until later in the 19th century. Many of the first Christmas cards were postcards.

The Christmas Ball gown

I could not resist this gorgeous retro-looking Christmas ball gown that is now in the Chicago Museum. I would so love to wear that to a ball! It actually dates from the 1960s but looks like something from the 19^th century. Never mind decorating the house, decorating yourself for the season takes the whole celebration to a new level!

What object or tradition best sums up Christmas for you? The tree, the exchange of gifts, Christmas carols, or something else?

A Tale of Two 17th century Houses

A couple of weeks ago, on the way back from the fabulous RNA conference in Telford, I visited Stokesay Castle. Stokesay was built in the 13^th century but I was particularly interested in its 17^th century history as my current book is set in the Civil War period. During this time, Stokesay belonged to the Craven family so there is also a connection to the work I do at the former Craven hunting lodge at Ashdown House; I couldn’t wait to visit.

Stokesay is small as castles go, more of a fortified manor house, but with everything you could want from a

real castle – towers, a moat, a gatehouse. It was the timber-framed gatehouse that particularly fascinated me since it looked medieval to my untrained eye. I was astonished to read that it had been built for William Craven in 1640 – 41 at the not inconsiderable cost of £530. Built by local craftsmen, the style was based on that of townhouses in nearby Ludlow.

Craven also made alterations to the interior of the castle, including adding this splendid chimney piece in the medieval solar.

As a Royalist, Craven garrisoned Stokesay on behalf of King Charles I during the Civil War, the only time in its history that the castle was put to military use. However the parliamentarians took Stokesay in 1645 and demolished the curtain wall, but happily they left the gatehouse standing.

Almost twenty years to the day after he had built Stokesay, William Craven constructed Ashdown House in

a very different style. Clearly fashions in architecture and perhaps his taste in building had changed during that period.  Ashdown is a typical Restoration building with Dutch and French influences. The two buildings could hardly look more different!

Walking Through a Regency Landscape - Sheringham Park and Humphrey Repton

I’m lucky enough to live close to one of Humphry Repton’s finest landscapes at Sheringham Park on the North Norfolk coast and last week I went for a long walk in the grounds, admiring what is still very much a Regency landscape.

Repton (1752-1818) was born and bred in Norfolk but had a career as a landscape architect that took him all over the country. He was involved at Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire and “appears” off-stage, as it were, in my novel Regency Rumours: Scandal Comes to Wimpole Hall which is out in August in the UK (September US).

Repton was involved in the government’s search for an estate to bestow on Lord Nelson’s brother, to accompany a peerage to be given him in commemoration of Nelson’s achievements. He heard that Sheringham Park was for sale and suggested it, but the absence of a house ruled it out. However, when he heard that the estate had been sold to Mr Abbott Upcher by Mr Cook Flower (unusual names seem to feature largely in this story!) he approached Upcher with the suggestion that he design a house and landscape the park.

In July 1812, after spending an intensive five days on the spot, Repton produced one of his famous Red Books for the estate, covering not only the landscape of the park, but designs for a house and ideas for the village and estate cottages.

The Upchers favoured the locality because of its healthful sea air, but it was also on England’s vulnerable frontline in the French wars. The towering modern gazebo on top of the hill behind the house is on the site of a look-out tower from where the ocean could be scanned for French warships. In 1814 Upcher commemorated the victory against the French with a reservoir and water pump in the centre of the village.

Repton’s plans for the estate took advantage of the existing fine woodland and the hills, valleys and sloping fields, the result of its location on a glacial terminal moraine. Under his direction the Upchers planted more trees and carefully planned vistas were opened up to create the naturalistic, romantic, yet civilised, landscape so fashionable at the time.

I love the location so much that I used it as the setting for the third in my Shelley Sisters trilogy, Innocent Courtesan to Adventurer’s Bride. (Available on Kindle).

Now, as then, we approach the house down a very long carriage drive from the heights of the Cromer road. It winds down through the woodland with one spectacular glimpse of the sea to wet our appetite, before a turn in the road reveals the house, nestling against the wooded hill that shields it from the ocean. Everywhere through the park there are set-piece views so that the Upchers and their guests could walk or drive, picnic or sketch with a pleasing prospect before them. Not all of Repton’s suggestions were adopted immediately – it took until the 1970s before the Upcher family erected the Temple, for example – but the essential design is very clear.

If you are in the area now, and for the next few weeks, the spectacular rhododendron and azalea collection begun by Victorian Upchers is coming into flower and makes the park even more spectacular.

 

 

Louise Allen

 

The National Trust's Movie Map!

The National Trust has recently published a movie map of all their sites that have hosted film shoots since 1960.  You can see it here. It's fascinating to see the number and variety of films that have been shot using National Trust sites. Not all the films are costume dramas. The long gallery, library and backstairs at Osterley Park featured in the latest Batman film as did the Henrhyd Falls in Wales, which doubled for a waterfall scene set in remote jungle! Ham House in Richmond was used to represent a grand New York mansion in the sci-fi adventure John Carter and Antony in Cornwall, which is a gorgeous and quirky little house, was the setting for Alice in Wonderland.

Unsurprisingly, though, it is the costume dramas that feature most in the roll call of famous locations. From Pride and Prejudice at Basildon Park to The Duchess at Kedelston Hall, the grand houses of the National Trust provide the opulent interiors and impressive scenery need for epic style productions. My personal favourite though is Great Chalfield Manor in Wiltshire, which was used as the Boleyn family home in The Other Boleyn Girl. It’s not a grand house, more a cosy medieval manor complete with moat and topiary gardens! I could easily imagine living there. (Oh, I wish!)

It's great that villages like Lacock (used in the TV series Cranford) and even cities like Bath can also feature in period dramas so you might be out shopping and stumble across a film crew! Do you have a favourite place that has been used as a film set or is there anywhere you’ve seen in a film that you would like to visit?

Conservation work at Ashdown House

This season at Ashdown House we are offering tours up the scaffolding so that visitors can view the ongoing conservation work. Last week I had my training so that I can guide tour parties up to the 7th floor, which is a viewing platform above the roof. It was an exhilarating experience climbing so high above the outside of the house and looking down on the roof! Visitors are issued with hard hats and high visibility jackets and are well briefed before we start the climb up the outside staircase. No high-heeled shoes or flip-flops allowed!

The first stop on the tour is the 5th level to have a look at the work that is being done to replace the chalk stone blocks. Ashdown was built of chalk, the softest building material, and it has been melting away in the rain for the past 350 years! Last year the original quarry was re-opened in order to cut enough stone to replace the rain-damaged blocks. On one of these earlier stones the date 1756 is carved, evidence of repair work to the house in the Georgian period during the life of the 5th Baron Craven.

On the 7th floor visitors can walk all the way around the roof, looking down on the work to replace the Cotswold stone roof tiles and the 17th century cupola. This little octagonal dome originally had glass windows on four sides and painted trompe l’oeil scenes on the other four panels but it is being replaced with glass on all eight sides.

Lots of other fascinating bits of information have come to light during the conservation work and these illuminate the life of the house through 350 years of history. In peeling back the layers of paint on the interior walls of the staircase and landing we discovered that in the Restoration period they were painted a rich red colour that was very fashionable at the time. Similarly in the Victorian era the external bath stone quoins on the house were painted red. Not so tasteful!

We also know that repairs were made to the roof in 1927 because we found the odds on the Derby runners chalked up on a beam that was subsequently used in the repairs! Maybe the workmen had a sweepstake running on which horse would win.

Work on the house is still ongoing and I am sure there is much more to discover from the Restoration period through the Georgian and Regency to the Victorian and the 20th century. It’s a fascinating time to visit, not just to take the scaffolding tour but also to see the artefacts and hear about all the discoveries. If anyone is in the area and would like the tour, I’d love to show you round!

Historical Romance comes to Ham House!

The news this week that Harlequin Mills & Boon has teamed up with the National Trust to offer a historical romance set at Ham House is exciting for all those of us who enjoy historical romance, stately homes and the two together. The book, Scandalous Innocent by Juliet Landon, is a commemorative novel marking 400 years of Ham House but it is hoped that this will be just the first in a series of joint Mills & Boon and National Trust books. There’s a lot of potential!

Of course using a particular house as inspiration for the setting of a historical romance is something that many authors have done plenty of times before. Joanna Maitland, Elizabeth Rolls and I used an adapted version of Ashdown House as the setting for our anthology A Regency Invitation. I also used Ashdown to stand in as Delaval in The Penniless Bride. In the book the heroine thought it was quite an unusual building (ugly was the word she used!) The hero was most offended to hear his family home dismissed thus!

The difference with the current HMB/National Trust collaboration is that the house is specifically named and the story features as characters real people who lived there. On its website the National Trust suggests Dunham Massey, Montacute and Plas Newydd as other properties where love stories might provide the potential for a book. I'm sure we could come up with other suggestions of our own! Again I think Ashdown House would be perfect since it is said that the house was built expressly for “the love of a woman who never lived to see it,” Elizabeth of Bohemia, the Winter Queen, by her devoted cavalier William, First Earl of Craven. Or, if we want something from the Georgian period there is the Beautiful Lady Craven (as she styled herself!) with her rather racy love affairs. And a generation later we have the Regency Earl of Craven, soldier and rakehell, who married an actress. Plenty of material there – and how I would love to write those stories! I imagine that my colleagues on this blog must also be brimming with ideas of houses and characters that would suit these books.

So what do you think? Is the collaboration a good way of getting more National Trust members to read historical romance and of interesting historical romance readers in visiting National Trust properties? Is there a particular house anywhere in the world that you would like to see featured in a romance? Or a particular love story you would like to see told?