Brympton d'Evercy
Encyclopedia
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
near Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...
in the county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
of Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England. It has been described as the most beautiful house in England, in a country of architecturally pleasing country houses; whatever the truth of that statement, in 1927 the British magazine Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
published a set of three articles on the house, in which Christopher Hussey
Christopher Hussey
Christopher Edward Clive Hussey was one of the chief authorities on British domestic architecture of the generation that also included Dorothy Stroud and Sir John Summerson.- Career :...
, near the start of his 50-year career as a notable architectural authority and documentor of British country houses, described Brympton d'Evercy as "The most incomparable house in Britain, the one which created the greatest impression and summarises so exquisitely English country life qualities". Hussey's articles remain the only detailed account of the mansion. During its long history Brympton d'Evercy has belonged to just five families, the d'Evercys, the Sydenhams, the Fanes, the Weeks (from 1992 to 2007) and the most recent owner who purchased the property in 2007.
Brympton D'Evercy's was not built in a single campaign as an entirety; instead, it was slowly expanded between about 1220, when it was begun by the D'Evercy family, and the 18th century. During three quarters of a millennium it has remained little known, and little recorded. For a few years following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Brympton d'Evercy was a boys' school, before being reclaimed by its owners as a private house. Today occasionally hired out as a location for filming, or a hospitality event, it remains essentially a private residence.
History
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
, its stables and other outbuildings, the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
church and a curious building today known as the "priest house". Little remains of the original D'Evercy manor built between 1220 and 1325, for on its site the present house has evolved.
Brympton d'Evercy was listed in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086 as Brunetone, meaning 'The brown enclosure' from the Old English brun and tun.
The village of Brympton
Brympton
Brympton is a civil parish and ward in Somerset, UK. The parish is situated on the north-west edge of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The parish/ward has a population of 4,956...
is larger today than at any time in its history. Until the last century the village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
barely qualified for the title, having been deserted in the 14th century. Since then the village has consisted merely a few cottages scattered along the long drive to the mansion's secluded site, a few of these cottages can be discerned in the view by Knyff (illustrated right) Today a new area known as Brympton is a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Yeovil which encroaches on the secluded house at an alarming pace.
In Somerset and the adjoining county of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, such houses as Brympton d'Evercy containing wings in an assortment of architectural styles by unrecorded local architects and builders are numerous. The owners of these houses were nearly all related to each other in some way, and competition among them was great. As a result one often finds in various houses wings that are almost identical, having been constructed by the same builder, rather than an architect using drawings based on the works of the master architects from as far afield as Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. This is particularly true from the 17th century onwards.
The owners of Brympton d'Evercy at various times were related to the Stourtons of Preston Plucknett
Preston Plucknett
Preston Plucknett is a suburb of Yeovil in Somerset, England. It was once a small village, and a separate civil parish until 1930, when it was absorbed into the neighbouring parishes of Yeovil, Brympton and West Coker...
, the Pouletts of Hinton House, the Phelips of Montacute House
Montacute House
Montacute House is a late Elizabethan country house situated in the South Somerset village of Montacute. This house is a textbook example of English architecture during a period that was moving from the medieval Gothic to the Renaissance Classical; this has resulted in Montacute being regarded as...
, and the Strangways
Earl of Ilchester
Earl of Ilchester, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1756 for Stephen Fox, 1st Baron Ilchester, who had previously represented Shaftesbury in Parliament. He had already been created Baron Ilchester, of Ilchester in the County of Somerset in 1741, and Baron Ilchester and...
of Melbury House
Melbury House
Melbury House in Melbury Sampford near Evershot, Dorset, has been the seat of the Strangways family of Dorset since the estate was sold in 1500 by William Bruning to Henry Strangways. The present house was rebuilt after 1546 by his son, Sir Giles Strangways , using ham stone from a quarry nine...
. Those "County" families that were not actually related were usually close friends, so in the frequent visits between the great houses of the county architectural ideas could be exchanged along with the local gossip. Before the 17th century the profession of "architect" was unknown, Sir John Summerson
John Summerson
Sir John Newenham Summerson CH CBE was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century....
has observed, and all houses were built by local builders according to the ideas of their patrons. Inigo Jones, perhaps the first widely notable English architect, introduced Palladian ideals to English architecture: his Banqueting House at Whitehall of 1619 set a standard, and was much copied; by the 1630s his ideas permeated as far as Somerset. Among the grander families, there was generally a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, or as in the case of the earls of Ilchester, the head of the family kept a London house
Townhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
. These more travelled members of this provincial society would return to their Somerset estates and country houses with the latest architectural ideas. Occasionally one of the richer county families would employ a renowned architect, such as John Webb, Jones's son-in-law. Born in Somerset, Webb moved to London, but following his cosmopolitan success later worked in Dorset at Kingston Lacy
Kingston Lacy
Kingston Lacy is a country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, now owned by the National Trust. From the 17th to the late 20th centuries it was the family seat of the Bankes family, who had previously resided nearby at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War...
—a new mansion, built by the Banks family to replace Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight...
destroyed by Cromwellian
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
troops in the Civil War— and at Wilton House
Wilton House
Wilton House is an English country house situated at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire. It has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years....
in the adjacent county of Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
.
Once introduced to Somerset practice, the new genres of architecture were interpreted by the local draughtsmen
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
and masons, and then applied, often haphazardly, to the old houses of the local gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
, and what one cousin had in one part of Somerset the next cousin soon had in another. In this way Brympton d'Evercy and its neighbours slowly evolved.
Architectural appraisal
Great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...
, which as a result of the new west front substantially increased the size of the D'Evercy's original Great Hall. The older North wing to the left of the great hall was likely to have contained the private rooms of its builder John Sydenham.
The architecture of the house is as diverse as the characters who created it over its four hundred year process of evolution. Built in its entirety from the immediately local Hamstone
Hamstone
Hamstone is the colloquial name given to stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, England. Hamstone is a Jurassic limestone from the Toarcian, or Upper Lias, stage. It is a well cemented medium to coarse grained limestone characterised by its honey-gold colour and marked bedding planes. The stone contains...
, a stone of a unique golden yellow colour, which is used as a building material in just a few villages in the immediate vicinity of Yeovil.
It appears that for the first few years the Sydenhams owned the house they were content with that purchased from the heirs of the d'Evercy family. However from the mid 15th century English domestic architecture began to awaken to the ideas of privacy and comfort, if only for the immediate family of the head of the household. These new ideals are reflected at Brympton d'Evercy in the first major building works undertaken by the Sydenhams in 1460.
The 1460 wing
This is the first expansion of the original d'Evercy house, probably on the site of the present staircase hall ("K" on plan) occurred in 1460, when the Sydenhams added the southwest block ("B" on plan). This contained the house's first reception rooms other than the hall, consisting of a solarSolar (room)
The solar was a room in many English and French medieval manor houses, great houses and castles, generally situated on an upper storey, designed as the family's private living and sleeping quarters...
and retiring or withdrawing rooms for the lord of the manor and his family. Until this time the entire household would have lived and dined together in the hall. This wing has been much altered, having been given a new fenestration in the 17th century, when the south wing was built. However, the wing retains its original mock battlements, which together with the slight irregularity of the placements of the windows, compared to the perfect symmetry of the adjoining later south wing betray its older age.
The Priest House
Dower house
On an estate, a dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the estate-owner. The widow, often known as the "dowager" usually moves into the dower house from the larger family house on the death of her husband if the heir is married, and upon his marriage if he...
by Joan Stourton, who had married John Sydenham in 1434, not realising that her own son was to predecease her, thus allowing her to remain in the main house for the duration of her life.
The building is a very rare example of a complete small medieval country house, an oblong structure on two floors, the upper floor containing a hall, solar and bedroom, while the lower floor for servants had no internal means of reaching the upper floor, to which access was only obtained by a newel staircase in a turret with only an external entrance. The house, obviously designed for a person of refinement, had unusually good sanitation in the form of two garderobe
Garderobe
The term garderobe describes a place where clothes and other items are stored, and also a medieval toilet. In European public places, a garderobe denotes the cloakroom, wardrobe, alcove or an armoire. In Danish, Dutch, German and Spanish garderobe can mean a cloakroom. In Latvian it means checkroom...
s; the wooden chutes were still in existence in the early 20th century. The siting of the garderobes here facing the church reinforces the idea that this was considered the rear of the house; an arrangement such as this would not have been made if this were in fact the Priest's house. In the 17th century the Priest's house's principal room, on the upper storey, was given a decorative plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
ceiling.
Upstairs is a tessellated Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
pavement of blue lias
Blue Lias
The Blue Lias is a geologic formation in southern, eastern and western England and parts of South Wales, part of the Lias Group. The Blue Lias consists of a sequence of limestone and shale layers, laid down in latest Triassic and early Jurassic times, between 195 and 200 million years ago...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and red tile. This was excavated in 1923 by Ralegh Radford
Ralegh Radford
Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford was an English archaeologist and historian who pioneered the exploration of the Dark Ages of Britain and popularized his findings in many official guides and surveys for the Office of Works...
from a building near Westland Road in Yeovil.
The North or Henry VIII wing
The next major addition to the house was the north wing ("C" on plan). With its turretTurret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...
, oriels and external sculpted moulding
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
it is almost a miniature country house in itself. This wing has remained largely unchanged since it was built circa 1520. John Sydenham wished to retain an independent lodging at the house after he had handed the house over to his son; for himself he built three floors with a room on each, its own external entrance and staircase turret— a house within a house. Architecturally it must have been strikingly modern at the time of its construction. The facade is richly ornamented with coats-of-arms and tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
. The roof line is castellated, the battlements being purely for ornament, not defence. The two upper floors have large oriel windows; between these windows are finely sculpted the coat of arms of King Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. The Sydenhams were permitted the honour of displaying the royal arms, due to their relationship to the Stourton family who claimed connections with the blood royal
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
; as a consequence this part of the house is sometimes called the Henry VIII wing, though the King never visited the house. Of all the house's varied wings, this north wing is probably the most architecturally accomplished, displaying all the most up-to-date traits and flamboyances of contemporary Tudor architecture
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
.
West Front
The kitchen wing
The next major addition, still 16th century, was the kitchen block ("O" on plan) which is interesting for its huge proportions and barrel vaultBarrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design...
ed roof, suggesting an original function less humble than a kitchen. The kitchen is on two levels, the upper reached by a flight of short steps from the lower at each side of its width, yet the space does not appear ever to been divided. From the kitchen range a turret projects, (in the right hand between O and K on the plan) containing a spiral staircase, crowned by a belfry
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
. This would have originally given a secondary access to the upper floor of the original house, now replaced by the Palladian south wing. From the kitchen stretches another wing ("P" on plan) of indeterminate date (no later than 1690) this seems always to have been known as "the farmhouse" and lived in by the family of the tenant
Tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...
of the "home farm". It may possibly have been intended as a secondary or service wing, or even part of a grander never-completed scheme.
South Front and wing
The wing which finally brought the mansion to its present-day appearance is no better documented than the rest of the house. Opinion on the exact date of construction of the south wing is divided ("L" on plan), given dates between 1670 and 1680 or suggested to have been started as early as 1636 and completed in the early years of the Restoration of 1660English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
. Dating the wing is essential in identifying the architect: the south wing, if considered to date in the 1630s, was often attributed to Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...
—many English houses make this claim, some like Wilton House
Wilton House
Wilton House is an English country house situated at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire. It has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years....
with more plausibility than others — until Christopher Hussey debunked the myth in 1927. Hussey's claim was largely based on the assumption that the south wing was completed in 1680, at a time when Jones would have been dead for 20 years. The most noticeable similarity between Jones's documented work and Brympton d'Evercy is the use of alternating triangular and segmental window pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s, but Jones only ever used this motif
Motif (art)
In art, a motif is an element of a pattern, an image or part of one, or a theme. A motif may be repeated in a design or composition, often many times, or may just occur once in a work. A motif may be an element in the iconography of a particular subject or type of subject that is seen in other...
to give importance to the windows of the piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
, at Brympton d'Evercy the alternating pediments give both floors equal value. At Brympton the piano nobile is most unusual in being on the ground floor. It is doubtful a master architect who had designed for the Royal family, and the highest echelons of the aristocracy
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
, would have considered such a siting. Also typical of Jones, but a common feature of the time, is the balustrade parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
hiding a hipped roof. However, the greatest architectural clues which suggest Jones had no hand in the design of the mansion are basic: the architect of Brympton d'Evercy gave the facade 10 bays, which meant the windows begin with a segmental pediment and end with a triangular one, and no master architect would have permitted such an affront to balance. Finally, as the house is of ten bays, there is no central focal point: this is not an architectural crime, but what is an architectural crime is that the South front in its centre does have a focal point - a drain pipe, which has been sited there since the building's completion. The evidence seems to suggest that the South facade was probably inspired by Hinton House, at nearby Hinton St George
Hinton St George
Hinton St George is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated outside of Crewkerne, south west of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 404....
, (the childhood home of Sir John Posthumous Sydenham's wife) completed in 1638. These two houses together with Long Ashton House were most probably designed and built by the same local family of architects and masons, working from drawings by Serlio
Sebastiano Serlio
Sebastiano Serlio was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau...
's treatise on architecture published in five volumes in London in 1611.
Baroque state apartments
Whoever the architect was, the new south wing was intended to transform Brympton d'Evercy from a country manor to a grand house. Of ten bays, the two storied building housed on its ground floor the finest and most lavishly decorated rooms of the house. Known as the state apartments, they follow an arrangement common in houses built before circa 1720 where important guests were received and stayed. Basically they were a large bedroom suite or apartment, with all the rooms on an axis, connected by large double doors creating an enfiladeEnfilade (architecture)
In architecture, an enfilade is a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other. This was a common feature in grand European architecture from the Baroque period onwards, although there are earlier examples, such as the Vatican stanze...
. The first, largest and grandest room, known as the salon, was intended for the visiting dignitary to grant audience to the household, all of whom would be permitted access to this room. The following room was a large withdrawing room, slightly less grand; here the honoured guest would receive more privately than in the saloon. The next room followed the same pattern, each space becoming more intimate and private as the enfilade progressed. The final, and most private room, was the state bedroom: beyond this were two small closets for staff and private ablutions. This suite pattern of Baroque apartments exists in large houses all over England; in the very largest, such as Blenheim Palace, it was possible to have two such suites branching off from either side of the saloon. However Brympton d'Evercy was not a large or very grand house. Why Brympton d'Evercy needed a suite of state apartments has never been truly answered. It has often been said they were built for an intended visit of Queen Anne, but they were at the very least ten years old when she ascended the throne, and she certainly never visited the house. The state bed remained in situ until 1956, but was never slept in by a sovereign
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
. Circa 1720 the fashion for state rooms became antiquated, and they were often transformed for more general and frequent use. This was true at Brympton d'Evercy: the saloon became the Drawing room, the following room became known as the Oak or small drawing room, the next room the dining room, and only the state bedroom remained in solitary magnificence, slept in by honoured, but non-royal guests. At Brympton d'Evercy these were more likely to be talented cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
ers than esteemed potentate
Potentate
Potentate is an informal term for a person with potent, usually supreme, power.-Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine:...
s.
19th century works
In the mid 19th century Brympton d'Evercy was the home of Lady Georgiana Fane, a single lady of modest means who had no need of a large and lavish household. Thus the house was not given the VictorianVictorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
wings given so carelessly to so many of Britain's historic houses. Lady Georgiana confined herself to improvements in the gardens and grounds. She added a balustrade to the walls enclosing the forecourt in front of the west facade; the walls, topped by balustrading, link the priest house, churchyard
Churchyard
A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....
on the south side, and clock-tower and stables on the north. The effect was to create what in a grander house than Brympton d'Evercy would be known as a cour d'honneur
Cour d'Honneur
Cour d'Honneur is the architectural term for defining a three-sided courtyard, created when the main central block, or corps de logis, is flanked by symmetrical advancing secondary wings, containing minor rooms...
. Entered through great gate pier
Pier
A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars...
s crowned by urn
Urn
An urn is a vase, ordinarily covered, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed pedestal. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s...
s (see illustration top of page) the cour d'honneur effect is softened, and de-formalised by lawns and some very English style flower beds. The broad gravel
Gravel
Gravel is composed of unconsolidated rock fragments that have a general particle size range and include size classes from granule- to boulder-sized fragments. Gravel can be sub-categorized into granule and cobble...
terrace
Terrace (gardening)
In gardening, a terrace is an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect. A raised terrace keeps a house dry and provides a transition between the hard materials of the architecture and softer ones of the garden.-History:...
along the full extent of the south front was also created at this time, along with the large pond
Pond
A pond is a body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens, water features and koi ponds; all designed for aesthetic ornamentation as landscape or architectural...
which reflects it. Other than necessary restoration work, and installation of modern plumbing
Plumbing
Plumbing is the system of pipes and drains installed in a building for the distribution of potable drinking water and the removal of waterborne wastes, and the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and plumbing fixtures in such systems. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping...
and electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
, little has been added to the house since the 19th century. It is now recognised by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a grade I listed building.
The d'Evercy family
The d'Evercy family were responsible for building the almost adjoining church. Christopher Hussey suggests that the D'Evercy's manor at Brympton was little more than an unostentatious range of buildings on the site of that part of the present staircase wing (marked K on plan), with an adjoining farmyard to the north of it. The remains of a farm does exist on the probable site of the D'Evercy's farm today, and an old farmhouse (marked P on plan) actually adjoins the much later south wing built on the probable site of the original manor. Thomas d'Evercy purchased the estate in 1220 from the Chilterne family (of whom nothing is known). The d'Evercy family derived their name from EvrecyÉvrecy
-References:*...
, a village near Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
in Normandy. Thomas d'Evercy was part of the retinue of the Norman Earl of Devon
Earl of Devon
The title of Earl of Devon was created several times in the Peerage of England, and was possessed first by the de Redvers family, and later by the Courtenays...
, which is the reason he left the family estates on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
to reside in Somerset. D'Evercy represented Somerset and South Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
at the first Parliament of England
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
. Following Thomas d'Evercy's death family records are scarce until the time of the last d'Evercy, Sir Peter, who twice represented Somerset in Parliament, under Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
. The church next to the house, St Andrew's
Church of St Andrew, Brympton
The Church of St Andrew in Brympton, Somerset, England dates from the 13th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.It is closely associated with the manor house of Brympton d'Evercy. The d'Evercy family were responsible for building the church. Thomas d'Evercy purchased the...
, dates from this period. Sir Peter founded a chantry
Chantry
Chantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest...
at Brympton d'Evercy in 1306, endowing a priest with a messuage
Messuage
In law, the term messuage equates to a dwelling-house and includes outbuildings, orchard, curtilage or court-yard and garden. At one time messuage supposedly had a more extensive meaning than that conveyed by the words house or site, but such distinction no longer survives.A capital messuage is the...
and 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) in the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
. It has been suggested that this is the building today known as the priest house, but no structural evidence exists to support this claim. Sir Peter died in 1325, when the estate was described as "a certain capital messuage, with gardens and closes adjoining". The village at this time consisted of 17 smallholders, and three tenant farmers. Sir Peter's widow remained in occupation, and on her death the estate passed to the Glamorgan family, the d'Evercy's daughter Amice having married John de Glamorgan. Later it seems to have passed through obscure descent to the Wynford family of whom nothing other than their names is recorded. In 1343 the estate was recorded as: "..a manor house sufficiently built with a certain garden adjoining planted with divers and many apple trees, the whole covery some two acres" the record goes on to record some forty householders all charged to serve their lord as "village blacksmith, drover or domestic servant". This was the highest population the village was to have until the late 20th century.
The Sydenham family
Preston Plucknett
Preston Plucknett is a suburb of Yeovil in Somerset, England. It was once a small village, and a separate civil parish until 1930, when it was absorbed into the neighbouring parishes of Yeovil, Brympton and West Coker...
, who used it as a dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
for his daughter Joan when she married John Sydenham in 1434. The Sydenhams were said at one time to be England's largest landowners, yet their wealth seems to have fluctuated with each generation
Generation
Generation , also known as procreation in biological sciences, is the act of producing offspring....
.
John Sydenham as in infant
Infant
A newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
inherited the estate from his grandmother the original Joan Sydenham (née Stourton). However, at this time Brympton D'Evercy was not the principal family residence. In 1534 John Sydenham made over the house to his son, also, John - having first built the North wing to be his private lodgings for later visits. The new owner John III, was a great landowner bequeathing to each of his many children an estate. This lack of primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
proved to be the Sydenham's downfall. John III's successor John IV (died 1585), and his son John V (died 1625) were considerably less wealthy than their forebears, and used the house as their sole residence, the result of which was, despite their comparative penury, they added much to the house. John IV built the present west front thus enlarging the hall, and John V built the large kitchen block.
Sir John Posthumous Sydenham ("Posthumous" because born after the death of his father) built the south wing in the 17th century. He married Elizabeth Poulett, a descendant of Sir Amias Poulett, and member of one of Somerset's oldest and most notable families. The Pouletts lived at nearby Hinton House at Hinton St George
Hinton St George
Hinton St George is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated outside of Crewkerne, south west of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 404....
. Sir John died in 1696, having severely depleted the family's already precarious fortune building the house's state apartments.
Sir John was succeeded by his son Philip, a weak spendthrift
Spendthrift
A spendthrift is someone who spends money prodigiously and who is extravagant and recklessly wasteful, often to a point where the spending climbs well beyond his or her means...
character, but also a Member of Parliament for Somerset. At the time this was an expensive rich man's occupation and the Sydenham's money was running out. By 1697 Philip Sydenham was attempting to sell the estate for a price between £16,000 and £20,000. In the event of no purchaser being found Sydenham mortgaged the estate to Thomas Penny, the Receiver General of Somerset, the official who collected Somerset's tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es for the crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
.
Penny made a few alterations to the mansion: he added the castellated and glazed porch
Porch
A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...
to the South front, removing the earlier porch to the garden where it became a clock tower. He also and made a new entrance to the priest house. Penny then suffered a blow to his own fortunes: he was found to be rather cavalier in his passing on the taxes he collected to the crown, and was dismissed from office. He died in 1730 having executed no further work to the estate. The house and estate were then put up for auction in 1731 and sold for a price of £15,492.10s.
The Fane family
Francis Fane of Brympton
Francis Fane KC of Brympton, nr. Yeovil, Somerset, and later Wormsley, Oxfordshire was a commissioner for trade and the Plantations, and a British Member of Parliament.-Early life:...
, a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
and Member of Parliament. The Fanes completed the interior decoration of the state rooms, but other than this they are remarkable only for their various eccentricities
Eccentricity (behavior)
In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
rather than their structural alterations. Francis Fane lived at Brympton d'Evercy for 26 years before bequeathing it to his brother Thomas, who became the 8th Earl of Westmorland
Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland
Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland , MP for Lyme Regis and a lord commissioner of trade. Thomas Fane was the second son of Henry Fane of Brympton d'Evercy in Somerset and Anne sister and coheir of John Scrope, children of Thomas Scrope, a Bristol merchant. Anne was a granddaughter of Colonel...
. Thus once again the house became a secondary residence. The house seems to have been left largely empty until the time of John 10th Earl
John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland
John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland KG, PC , styled Lord Burghersh between 1771 and 1774, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who served in most of the cabinets of the period, primarily as Lord Privy Seal.-Background:Westmorland was the son of John Fane, 9th...
. This amorous adventurer had taken as his second wife Jane Saunders, so wildly eccentric that she was described by Charles Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
as :"...perhaps not mad, but nobody ever approached so near it with so much reason". The Countess decided to shock conventional society and leave her husband, taking her daughter Lady Georgiana Fane with her. This unconventional pair of ladies set up home at Brympton d'Evercy. The countess was responsible for installing the classical
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
fireplaces which remain in situ today, and assembling the furniture and art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
collection which remained at Brympton until it was dispersed in a large sale in the late 1950s.
Lady Georgiana Fane, like her mother of a lively disposition, declined a proposal of marriage from Lord Palmerston
Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...
, preferring instead to conduct a liaison with the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
. It is this relationship with the Iron Duke which is her chief claim to fame. A cousin of Wellington's friend Mrs. Arbuthnot
Harriet Arbuthnot
Harriet Arbuthnot was an early 19th century English diarist, social observer and political hostess on behalf of the Tory party. During the 1820s she was the "closest woman friend" of the hero of Waterloo and British Prime Minister, the 1st Duke of Wellington...
, Georgiana too became a close friend of the Duke; however, in later life she claimed the Duke had reneged on a promise to marry her. At that time this was a civil offence; she also threatened to publish the Duke's love letters to her. By the strict Victorian
Victorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period...
standards of the day this would have been a national scandal. The affair was "hushed up" but a letter exists from the Duke of Wellington to Georgiana's mother the Countess to: "to prevail upon her daughter to cease molesting him with daily vituperative letters". It has also been claimed that Lady Georgiana in fact refused the young future Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
's proposal, on the grounds she could not marry so lowly a soldier. Another version of the same story is that Lady Georgiana's father the 10th Earl of Westmorland
John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland
John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland KG, PC , styled Lord Burghersh between 1771 and 1774, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who served in most of the cabinets of the period, primarily as Lord Privy Seal.-Background:Westmorland was the son of John Fane, 9th...
forbade the marriage of his daughter to an untitled soldier with apparently limited prospects. Both of these stories however must be apocryphal, as Lady Georgiana never knew him before he was a "great man." She was born in 1801; Wellington (then Sir Arthur Wellesley) was married in 1806, and was created a duke in 1814. His wife died in 1831. Lady Georgiana began pursuing him some time after that. The Countess died 26 March 1857. Lady Georgiana lived on as the sole chatelaine of Brympton: her bedroom in the North wing retained her name until the 20th century. She altered the house little, but was responsible for the large pond in the garden, and some other improvements in the grounds. She died 4 Dec 1874 leaving the heavily indebted estate to her nephew the Hon. Spencer Ponsonby
Spencer Ponsonby-Fane
Sir Spencer Cecil Brabazon Ponsonby, later Ponsonby-Fane, GCB ISO was an English cricketer and civil servant.He was born in 1824 in Mayfair, the sixth son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough.-Cricket:...
, younger son of the 4th Earl of Bessborough
John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough
John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough PC , known as Viscount Duncannon from 1793 to 1844, was a British Whig politician...
The Ponsonby-Fane family
Frederick Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough
Frederick George Brabazon Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough was a British peer and cricketer. He was the third son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough and his wife Lady Maria Fane...
, escaping a court subpoena
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
for an indiscretion, at first refused the telegram informing him of his inheritance, assuming it was for his elder brother. Indiscretion appears to have been habitual in this family: Lady Caroline Lamb
Lady Caroline Lamb
The Lady Caroline Lamb was a British aristocrat and novelist, best known for her affair with Lord Byron in 1812. Her husband was the 2nd Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister...
was his aunt. Fane family legend, and most reference books relate that the two brothers cut cards to decide who was to return to face the British courts and the debt-ridden estate, Spencer Ponsonby picked the lowest card and returned to claim his inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
: he is said to have seen Brympton d'Evercy and vowed to retain it at all costs. Whatever the truth of the legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
Spencer Ponsonby, newly renamed Spencer Ponsonby-Fane (in accordance with Lady Georgiana Fane's last wishes), was a pillar of the British establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
, one time private secretary to Lord Palmerston, and later comptroller of Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
during the reign of King Edward VII. However it was cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
which was his first love, although he did father 11 children.
Through Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane Brympton d'Evercy became a meeting place of cricket lovers. It had its own cricket pitch
Cricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
where large house parties played against local and visiting teams. A houseparty devoted to cricket took place each year, a tradition which survived long after Sir Spencer's death and into the 1950s. As treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
of the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
Sir Spencer laid the foundation stone for the pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
at Lord's. He founded the Old Stagers
Old Stagers
The Old Stagers is an amateur theatre group, founded in 1842 by Hon. Frederick Ponsonby and Charles Taylor. It claims to be the oldest surviving amateur dramatic company in the world, having staged its first shows in Canterbury in 1842. It has continued to give annual performances every year...
club of Canterbury, and most eccentrically the team known as I Zingari
I Zingari
I Zingari are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs.-History:...
, a wandering cricket club of assorted aristocrats and Victorian and Edwardian notables. Throughout Sir Spencer's ownership of Brympton the house and estate were maintained, but survived only through the good fortune of low taxation and agricultural rents. This branch of the Fane family had never been wealthy, and World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
was to bring sweeping changes to not just Brympton d'Evercy but country houses all over Britain.
Richard Ponsonby-Fane
Richard Arthur Brabazon Ponsonby-Fane was a British academic, author, and Japanologist.-Early years:Richard Arthur Brabazon Ponsonby was born at Gravesend on the south bank of the Thames in Kent, England...
was an aesthetic intellectual and also an invalid. Unmarried, he chose to spend most of the year in Japan, a subject on which he published several books and papers. He returned to England and Brympton d'Evercy for just a few weeks each summer in order to follow the cricket. In his prolonged absences the house was occupied by his sister Violet and her husband Captain Edward Clive, a descendant of Clive of India. Violet Clive has been described as: "....a grand eccentric..and remarkable woman, she played field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
for the west of England, rowed for the Leander Club
Leander Club
Leander Club, founded in 1818, is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world. It is based in Remenham in the English county of Berkshire, adjoining Henley-on-Thames...
, was a master carpenter and keen landscape gardener". Apart from an annual day trip to London to the Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London...
and a short annual holiday at her fishing lodge in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
she seldom left Brympton d'Evercy, preferring to spend her days in endless gardening in the style of Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll was an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the USA and contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines.-Early life:...
. This quiet existence admirably suited the family's finances, because on her death in 1955, her only son and heir Nicholas was forced to sell the contents of the house. This large collection of fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
and antiques had been assembled by the Countess of Westmorland and Lady Georgiana Fane. Following the sale the family (their surname now extended to Clive-Ponsonby-Fane) moved to the nearby vicarage.
World War II
From 1939 to 1940, Westcroft Preparatory School was housed at Brympton, having been evacuated from CricklewoodCricklewood
Cricklewood is a district of North London, England whose northeastern part is in the London Borough of Barnet, western part is the London Borough of Brent and southeastern part is in London Borough of Camden.-History:...
north London.
Sale of contents
The contents of the house were sold by auction under a marquee outside the house over a five day period 26 November– 1 December 1956. Described extensively, if a little quaintly, by the auctioneers John D Wood of London as "....including interesting examples of 16th, 17th and 18th c.centuries, a fine set of George II chairs, Queen Anne and Chippendale mirrors, cabinets, chests, tables, buffets, sets of chairs, clocks, Jacobean needlework, French commodes, vitrines, tables and numerous other period piece...old paintings and a library of books". In truth the collection included items of national importance, but the 1950s were an eraEra
An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma–66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event. When used in...
of the destruction and dismantling of the British country house and such sales were not uncommon, as was exemplified in the Destruction of the Country House exhibition
Destruction of the Country House exhibition
The Destruction of the Country House 1875-1975 was an exhibition held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1974, curated byV&A Director Roy Strong with John Harris and Marcus Binney .The exhibition included a "Hall of Destruction", decorated with falling columns and illustrations of some...
of 1974. Among the 909 paintings described as old masters were works by Thomas Lawrence
Thomas Lawrence (painter)
Sir Thomas Lawrence RA FRS was a leading English portrait painter and president of the Royal Academy.Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his...
including a version of his state portrait of George IV, and his portrait of the 10th Earl of Westmorland, proving the earl's estranged wife did not totally forget him. Also in the sale were numerous works by Kneller
Godfrey Kneller
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
, Romney
George Romney (painter)
George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson....
, Lely
Peter Lely
Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.-Life:...
, Snyders and at least ten attributed to Van Dyke
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
: the paintings are listed in the "contents of the house" together with Tudor, Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...
, Sheraton
Sheraton Style
Sheraton is a late 18th century neoclassical English furniture style, in vogue ca 1785 - 1820, that was coined by 19th century collectors and dealers to credit furniture designer Thomas Sheraton, born in Stockton-on-Tees, England in 1751 and whose books, "The Cabinet Dictionary" of engraved...
and Louis XV furniture, and an "assortment of bed sheets", "3 new towels and an "old bedspread".
The sale was reported with due gravity and deference by the provincial press "The 400 chairs provided for the convenience of the buyers proved insufficient to accommodate the company.....top price of the week was £2000 for a Chinese dinner service..many of the pieces being badly damaged... a pair of Chippendale mirrors £1,350...a small carpet £800". And so the list continued detailing the prices fetched for Brympton d'Evercy's former treasures. First edition works by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
. On the last day of the sale an iron garden seat was sold for £14. Prices for the paintings are not recorded in the article except one of those "after" Vandyck which fetched £85.
The Clive-Ponsonby-Fane family retained a few of the family portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s and smaller items of furniture and moved to their smaller new home nearby, letting the house to be converted into a boys' boarding school known as Clare School.
Nicholas Clive-Ponsonby-Fane retained the ownership of the house and estate until his sudden death in 1963, when it passed to his wife Petronilla Clive-Ponsonby-Fane. On her remarriage in 1967, the house and what remained of the estate became the property of their son Charles Clive-Ponsonby-Fane. Clare School remained in possession of the house until 1974.
Stately home
Stately home
A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
. His problem was that, while the empty and neglected house may have been his home, it was far from stately. While the house was structurally in a fair condition, it had not been redecorated since the 18th century and had endured the obvious ravages caused by its use as a boys' school. The redecoration of the state rooms was executed on a very restricted budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
. The principal problem facing the owners was furnishing the house. Few of its former contents remained, and while Brympton d'Evercy is not on a par with Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
in size, it still required large items and quantities of high quality antique furniture. This was the stumbling block to the stately home scheme. The Clive-Ponsonby-Fanes made great efforts to draw in the crowds, an agricultural museum, a vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
, a distillery of apple brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
, but none of this was interesting enough to attract visitors from as far afield as London, let alone those from across the Atlantic. Ultimately, as a financial enterprise, opening to the public failed. In 1992 after almost 300 years of ownership the family sold Brympton d'Evercy. The situation was summed up at the time by the satirist
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
: "Last week we learnt that the most beautiful house in Somerset has been sold.....it is sad of course for the family who owned it who had made a valiant effort to keep it going ..it did not succeed as a showpiece: they had run out of money, the internal decorations were dreadful, and they lacked the proper kit to make it look like anything more than a prep school on open day. So now the most beautiful house in England will be a private family home once again..".
Brympton d'Evercy in the 21st century
The present owner, a member of the legal profession, and his wife live privately today at Brympton d'Evercy. However, to offset the cost of maintaining such a large and historic dwellingDwelling
Dwelling, as well as being a term for a house, or for living somewhere, or for lingering somewhere, is a philosophical concept which was developed by Martin Heidegger. Dwelling is about making yourself at home where the home itself is a building that is a house...
in the 21st century, the house has to help earn its own keep, partly by being licensed for civil weddings. These can take place in the nearby church or one or two of the larger reception rooms, while receptions and functions can also be held in the house or its grounds, including the 17th century stables. The house has also been the location for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
serials, and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
ing. For the greater part of the year, the house remains a little-known home. It is not open for public viewing. The greatest threat to the house, now without its former estate, is the ever encroaching town of Yeovil. Once some miles distant, its suburbs and industrial estates are now almost visible from the windows of the house. As recently as June 2005 a public planning enquiry was held to investigate the suitability of 15 ha of land adjacent to the house to be developed as a business park.
Further reading
- J.D. Gray, "Brympton D'Evercy", in Proceedings of the Somerset Achaeological and Natural History Scoiety, CIX (1965), pp40–46
External links
- Wisden's cricket biography of Spencer Ponsonby Fane
- Photograph of South Front, November 2009 as used in Google Earth/Maps
