Belton House
Belton House is a country house in Belton near Grantham in the English county of Lincolnshire . English Heritage has listed it as a Grade I Historic Building. The mansion is surrounded by formal gardens with a series of star-shaped paths leading to a series of follies in a larger, wooded park. Belton is described as a compilation of the finest aspects of Carolinian architecture , the only truly indigenous style of architecture that England has produced since the Tudor period . The house has also been described as the most complete example of a typical English country house; It has even been suggested that the main facade of Belton House was the model for the modern road signs on British motorways that indicate mansions. Only Brympton d'Evercy has been praised in a comparable way as the perfect English country house.
For 300 years Belton House was the seat of the Brownlow and Cust families , who first bought land in the area in the late 16th century. From 1685 to 1688 the young Sir John Brownlow and his wife had the present mansion built. Despite their great wealth, they decided to build a modest country house instead of the baroque palace that was common at the time . The Carolinian architectural style, then common in the country, was chosen. But the new house was equipped with the most modern inventions of the time, e.g. B. with sliding windows for the most important rooms and - more importantly - separate rooms for the servants. Because the Brownlows were raised from baronets to barons and then to earls and then back to barons, subsequent generations had changes made to the interior to suit their different social classes and tastes, but the structure and style of the house remained almost unchanged.
After World War I - a period when Machine Gun Corps were stationed in the park - the Brownlows, like many other nobles, faced growing financial problems. In 1984 they gave up the house and handed it over to the National Trust, along with most of the interior . Today the house is completely open to the public, in good condition and is visited by thousands of tourists every year.
history
The Brownlow family, a dynasty of lawyers, began buying land in the Belton area in about 1598. In 1609 they acquired the Belton manor title from the Pakenham family , who eventually sold the house to Sir John Brownlow in 1617 . The old house was next to the church in the garden of the current house and was largely unused because the family preferred their other houses. John Brownlow had married an heiress but remained childless; his closest relatives were a great-nephew, also John Brownlow , and a great-niece, Alice Sherard . The two married in 1676 and three years later the couple inherited the Brownlow's estate from their great-uncle along with an annual income of £ 9,000 and cash of £ 20,000. They immediately bought a town house in the newly fashionable Southampton Square in London 's Bloomsbury district and decided to build a new country house in Belton.
Work on the new house began in 1685. The builder presumably responsible for the first design was William Winde . This design is also attributed to Sir Christopher Wren , while others believe that the design is similar to that of Roger Pratt's Clarendon House and could have been created by any talented draftsman. The now popular assumption that Winde was the architect is based on the stylistic similarity between the finished Belton House and the Combe Abbey, which has been shown to have been drawn by Winde . Further evidence is a letter from 1690 in which Winde recommends a plasterer and gives advice on the interior design.
Whoever the architect was, Belton House closely follows the style of Clarendon House, which was completed in 1647. This grand London townhouse, destroyed in 1683, was one of the most admired buildings of its time because of "its elegant symmetry and its secure and easy-to-understand style". Sir John Summerson has described Clarendon House as "the house of its time that most influenced those who aspired to be great" and Belton House as "quite the finest example of its class preserved to this day". It is known that John and Alice Brownlow brought together one of the best possible teams of artists for this project at the time. This dream team was led by builder William Stanton , who led the project. His agent, John Thompson , had worked with Christopher Wren on the construction of some of his churches, while the chief carpenter John Sturges had worked in Chatsworth under William Talman . The blacksmith John Warren had already worked under Stanton in Denham in Buckinghamshire and the first beautiful wrought iron gates and gateways in Belton were probably by him. The builders in Belton were so competent that Winde probably only had to provide the plans and workshop drawings and leave their interpretation to the local craftsmen. This theory is also further supported by the external appearance of the adjacent stable block. This one is more provincial and not so masterful in its proportions, but was entirely the work of Stanton.
architecture
Ethos
The late 17th century was a time of great advances in art and architecture in England. After the tough years of the Commonwealth of England , architecture and the arts flourished and continued to develop with the re-establishment of the monarchy in 1660. Emigrated royalists and wealthy young men who had done the Grand Tour returned home with new ideas - often extravagant variations on classic themes. This was the prelude to the Baroque for England. A new wave of builders such as Roger Pratt, John Webb or Sir Christopher Wren not only built sprawling buildings in a Renaissance-inspired style, but also converted old houses in this sense. Coleshill House in Berkshire is representative of the renovation of an older house , where Pratt converted the medieval, but at the time superfluous knight's hall into a classically inspired entrance hall complete with double stairs. The desire of the masters to live separately from their servants made the knight's hall superfluous. They no longer wanted to eat with them in the great hall and banished from the main parts of the house all appearances and smells of cooking and servants. The gentlemen now lived in fine, airy rooms above the ground floor, separated from the servants, who - as far as they were not needed - were limited to their own, specially built floors - often the ground floor or the attic. This was a time of great social upheaval in English history and the well-behaved people basked in enlightenment and elegance. Belton House is not in the baroque style, but it shows all the typical features of the new tendencies.
Belton House was designed in a restrained, almost Palladianist- influenced architecture that was popular in England just before the playful Baroque style was introduced. The basic form of this architecture were strictly symmetrical, often rectangular houses with a triangular attachment above the central part. This almost rigid concept would influence the construction of countless houses, including Belton House. Later this was called Carolinian architecture (after "Carolus", the Latin name of the then reigning monarch Charles II ). This style was popular with the lower nobility, both in their country houses and in their townhouses, long after the death of Charles II.
Belton House was built from the local ancaster stone , a limestone . The corner stones are made of the lighter stone made of ketton . The H-shaped floor plan became common towards the end of the Elizabethan period . But by the end of the 16th century, the architecture of residential buildings had developed further, away from the earlier, only one-room-deep H-floor plan, which is e.g. B. can be seen at Montacute House . The new layout placed rooms back to back, resulting in a two-room-deep floor plan. This was called the “Double Pile” (German: double building). As in Belton, this made it possible to create rooms that were not only better lit and heated, but also more accessible and related to one another. The biggest advantage was the greater privacy. In terms of structural engineering, this design enabled a more compact design under a single, more simply designed roof, which reduced construction costs. The houses looked more solid and had more than one or two facades.
The exterior of Belton House itself and various outbuildings on the property inspired Edith Wharton's home, The Mount, in Lenox , Massachusetts .
construction
The floor plan of Belton House was actually a thing of the past for a large house at that time. After the restoration of the monarchy, and through the influence of ideas from other European countries, it had become fashionable to build large, continental-style houses as a series of show rooms , such as a drawing room, a dressing room and a bedroom, which extend on either side of a central one Salon or a central hall. These rooms were for permanent use by high-ranking guests such as B. Monarchs, reserved. Belton House has a central drawing room, but no series of show rooms with decreasing furnishings. One possible reason for this unusual layout was the fact that while the Brownlows were very wealthy, they only held the title of baronet, and their wealth was barely a century old when the house was built. They were considered a gentry and not an aristocracy . Therefore, the construction of a flight of showrooms would have given hope that royal guests would be visiting rather than expected. Nevertheless, the lack of modern parade rooms and the low social standing of the Brownlows held King William III. 1695 does not stop from a visit to the recently completed house. The king was quartered in the “best bedroom”, a large room with an adjoining storage room directly above the salon, which had direct access from the large dining room on the upper floor.
The construction followed the older style of building reception rooms and bedrooms on the two main floors. The layout followed Roger Pratt's theory that guest rooms and rooms used by the family should be completely separate. As a result of this philosophy, the rooms on both floors of the west wing were reserved for the family, while the main staircase was built into the east wing of the house and led to the best guest rooms. The stairwell was therefore designed in a grand and impressive way and formed part of the guests' walk from the central hall and salon on the ground floor to the main dining room and bedroom on the upper floor. This older concept can be found more clearly realized in Hardwick Hall in neighboring Derbyshire .
The family's main entrance hall, reception room, and bedrooms were located on the first floor above the low basement with the servants' rooms. Two main entrances to the manor house, one in the middle of the north and south facade, could be reached via external stairs, originally a single, wide flight of stairs on the north side and a double staircase on the south side. These stairs were later replaced by simpler constructions as shown in the floor plan.
The upper floor has a window division corresponding to the ground floor with windows of the same size as on the ground floor. The sliding windows, which were only recently invented at the time, were installed on both floors. The older Ajimez or skylight windows can be found in the basement and in the attic , which show the lower status of the residents of these floors. This made it clear from the outside that the two main floors were reserved exclusively for the parade rooms and the rooms for the family and the servants were limited to the basement and the attic. The concept of keeping servants out of the lords' sight when they were not needed was relatively new and was first implemented by Pratt when building Coleshill House in Berkshire. Contemporary social commentator Roger North praised the back stairs, of which Belton House has two (“C” and “P” in plan), as one of the most important inventions of the time.
The most important room is the large marble hall ("J") in the middle of the south facade. This hall is the beginning of the grand sequence of rooms and corresponds to the former Great Salon on the north facade. The marble hall is flanked by the former small salon ("G", today tapestry room) and the large staircase hall ("L"), while the large salon ("H") is flanked by the two salons "F" and "K". Although the Marble Hall and Grand Salon were in the middle of the small suite of reception rooms, they were not intended to be the core of a suite of show rooms in the Baroque era. In fact, the large dining room (now the library), one of the most important rooms, was completely separated from these on the upper floor, directly above the marble hall. The bedrooms are distributed in individual order over both floors of the two wings ("E", "R" etc.), which flank the "State Center" of the house. The main staircase on one side of the marble hall is one of the few things in Belton House that is asymmetrically arranged. It is equipped with a sturdy stucco ceiling showing the brownlow's helmet and was designed by Edward Goudge , who “now looked on as ye best master in England in his profession” (Eng .: “proved to be the greatest master of his craft in England has ”), as William Winde reported in 1690.
Physical and spiritual needs were equally satisfied in the manor house: the kitchen ("A") and the chapel ("M") are both two-story halls that extend from the basement to the upper floor. This construction not only created great and spacious rooms, but also allowed the servants to pray in the chapel without leaving their servants' floor. The gentlemen prayed from their private gallery ("N"), which was completely furnished with an open fireplace and overlooked the chapel on the upper floor.
The most typical details of Carolinian architecture include the balusters and the lantern on the roof, other elements that Roger Pratt had introduced into English architecture. Belton House's lantern does not illuminate a large domed hall, as is often the case in the rest of Europe, but houses a staircase that leads to a large viewing platform on the lead roof, which is hidden from the ground by a balustrade on the ridge of the roof. From this vantage point, the owners of Belton House could admire the perfect symmetry of their gardens and garden paths that stretch around the mansion. However, this detail was removed by architect James Wyatt when he modernized the house in the 18th century. In 1870, the 3rd Earl Brownlow had it restored to its original form.
Interiors and furnishings
Some of the many rooms in Belton House have changed in terms of their use and furnishings over the past 300 years. One of the most important rooms, the marble hall (“J”), the first of the large reception rooms, serves as the entrance hall from the south side. At the time Belton House was planned, the great hall was no longer a household dining room, but served as the main entrance to the house. Originally there were 28 portraits of kings, queens and emperors, from William the Conqueror to Wilhelm III., Which were intended to give the house a touch of dynastic importance. The less numerous and much more recent family portraits of the Brownlows were hung in the great dining room immediately above. The room was named after the floor tiled in a checkerboard pattern with black and white marble. It is clad in full with linden wood panels and some of the panels contain decorations attributed to Grinling Gibbons . Jeffry Wyatville , along with several others, redesigned this room in the early 19th century . He treated the panels so that they looked like oak and also used false doors which, together with the existing, actual doors, gave a symmetrical picture.
The second main reception room, the salon ("H") opens from the marble hall. This large, wood-paneled room is aligned with the garden paths of the northern formal garden. Originally it was called "Großer Salon" and was the most important reception room in the house. It kept its original marble fireplace and has an ornate stucco ceiling with a Victorian copy of the original ceiling by the Carolinian plasterer Edward Goudge . Today the room is furnished with family portraits and furniture from the time of Lord Tyrconnel (1721–1754), Sir Brownlow's II nephew. The most important piece in this room is a large Aubusson rug made for 1st Earl Brownlow in 1839.
On both sides of the salon there are smaller salons ("F" and "K"), which originally served as private salons, in which one could withdraw from public activities that took place in the marble hall or in the great salon. One of the three small salons was converted into a parade bedroom under Lord Tyrconnel to create what was then a more fashionable escape from baroque parade rooms. Strangely enough, when a queen - Adelheid , the widow of Wilhelm IV. - was a guest in Belton in 1840, the parade bedroom was moved back to its original location above the Great Salon. It is now called the Queen's Room .
The last large reception room on the ground floor is the Hondecoeter Room ("A"), which is so named because of the large oil paintings by Melchior de Hondecoeter (1636–1695) that are hung there . The paintings show scenes of birds in courtyards set into the neo-Carolinian wood paneling. The 3rd Earl Brownlow had this paneling installed in 1876. This room is set up as the main dining room of the manor house and was formed in 1808 from the upper part of the earlier kitchen, which originally extended over two floors.
The stairwell (“L”) east of the marble hall is unusually placed in Belton House, as in a house from this period one would expect the stairs to be in the central hall. The stairs lead in three lines over the west, north and east walls to the former large dining room above the marble hall. The stairwell served as a representative connection between the three most important reception rooms of the house. The great dining room , now the library, was significantly rebuilt and all traces of Carolingian ornamentation removed, first by James Wyatt in 1778 when it was converted into a parlor with a suspended ceiling, and then again in 1876 when it was again converted, this time into a library. The room contains about 6000 volumes, a great example of the collection of books spanning 350 years. When Lord Tyrconnel died in 1754, a catalog in his library showed almost 2,300 books. Almost all of them are still in the Belton House library today.
Next to the library is the Queen's Room , the former parade bedroom. This paneled room was redesigned at the beginning of the 19th century for the visit of Queen Adelheid. It contains the large rococo four-poster bed in which the Queen slept, with the royal monogram "AR" (for Adelaide Regina) on the headboard. The other rooms on the upper floor are mostly bedrooms, e.g. For example, the Chinese Room with its original Chinese wallpaper from the 18th century, the Yellow Bedroom and the Windsor Bedroom , which was named after Edward VIII , who stayed here with his lover Wallis Simpson in the 1930s . The 6th Baron Brownlow, the King's Lord-in-Waiting, was deeply involved in the ruler's crisis of abdication in 1936. Today Belton House has a permanent exhibition dedicated to the event.
Gardens and park
In 1690 Sir John Brownlow received permission to fence in an area of four km² and turn it into a park. He was also allowed to keep deer there. There is evidence that parts of this area had been a park since 1580 at the latest. The park was laid out with star-shaped garden paths, e.g. B. the eastern garden path, which has been preserved to this day, as well as 9500 oaks and 614 fruit trees. It is believed that William Winde suggested the layout of the garden. Closer to the house were a series of formal gardens with canal ponds and accompanying plantings and symmetrically laid out rond point paths (circular paths crossed by radial paths) introduced by landscaper André Le Nôtre .
Sir John Brownlow was the owner of Belton House, only succeeded by his brother, who was gallant enough to allow Brownlow's widow Alice to continue living there. She spent the rest of her life in Belton, arranging advantageous games for her daughters. After her death in 1721 the property fell to the nephew of her husband (and son-in-law) Sir Jon Brownlow III. (the later Viscount Tyrconnel). A dilettante of little sense, Tyrconnel was responsible for many of the architectural details that still remain in the park and gardens today. From 1742 to 1751 he had a series of follies created , e.g. B. a neo-Gothic ruin, a cascade and a Belvedere called Belmont Tower . Originally the Belvedere had narrow side wings.
20th century
During the last three decades of the 19th century, 3rd Earl Brownlow spent considerable time and money restoring Belton House and the mansion was in good condition by the turn of the century. Still, the property was in serious trouble in the 20th century. For example, income and inheritance taxes were introduced, which significantly diminished the Brownlow family's wealth.
At the beginning of the First World War , the 3rd Earl Brownlow offered his house and park, like many other British landowners, to the government for use for war purposes. The offer was accepted and the biggest and most drastic changes in the park since the construction of the follies by Viscount Tyconnel have been made. In 1915 a home depot and a training ground for the Machine Gun Corps were created in the southern part of the park. The location of the site at a location where the Witham between the limestone of the lower Lincolnshire and the sedimentary rocks of the upper Lias enabled the construction of the necessary firing ranges close to good transport links through the main street London York Edinburgh and the London and North Eastern Railway with their train station in Grantham . The depot was closed in 1919, the site cleared and returned to Lord Brownlow in 1920. Little evidence of the Machine Gun Corps' presence in the park remains today , but plaques and signs can be followed from the park's south gate to Memorial Gate and from there to the city center and north wing of Grantham Parish Church.
Belton was reclaimed by the military when the Royal Air Force Regiment , a new division of the RAF , moved into the park during World War II . The regiment was founded in 1942 and moved to Belton Park, where it was housed in the Nissen huts .
Late 20th century
The years after the First World War were very difficult for the owners of larger estates. The servants for house and garden, which until then had been available en masse and cheap, became scarce. Millions of male domestic workers had been drafted into the army and few returned. Female domestic workers were drawn up for service in factories and they now saw that there were easier, better-paying jobs outside of the big country houses. After many manor owners lost both their staff and property, they found it difficult to recruit new servants.
Belton House was relatively unchanged during this period, largely due to the declining Brownlow fortunes. The 3rd Earl Brownlow (1844–1921) and his countess lived only a few months of the year in Belton, where they stayed during the parforce hunt , and lived in either their houses in London or Ashridge Park , the last one in another country house , for the rest of the year in Hertfordshire . Ashridge House, a large Gothic Revival building, was acquired by the Brownlows in the 19th century by the Eggerton family . In 1921, after the death of 3rd Earl Brownlow, it had to be sold, including its art collection and furniture, in order to pay inheritance tax. This made Belton House the only Brownlow mansion. Further inheritance taxes were payable in 1927 after the death of the 3rd Earl's successor, his cousin Albert Cust , the 5th Baron Brownlow.
In the following time, thousands of country houses of great architectural value were destroyed or entire wings were torn down. In 1955 a country house was demolished every five days. From this point of view, it is fortunate that Belton House has survived to this day because, in addition to the financial problems of the owner family, it was so deteriorating at the time that the 6th Baron Brownslow commissioned the architect Francis Johnson to undertake a major renovation program in 1961 monitor, which dragged on for three years. Not only the roof, but also a large part of the wooden panels in the parade rooms were repaired and new cornices were built. Attempts were also made to curb the brown rot infestation . With the death of 6th Baron Brownlow in 1978 and the inheritance tax to be paid again in connection with the increasing cost of maintaining the property, Belton House simply became too costly for the family.
The National Trust
The 7th Baron Brownlow tried to keep the house open to the general public. He successfully set up an adventure playground in the nearby woods to attract tourist families to the country house. But the financial difficulties proved to be too great, so in January 1984 he transferred ownership of the mansion to the National Trust, a not-for-profit company that had experience in maintaining such properties. The National Trust bought the 5.33 km² park and most of the mansion's interior for £ 8 million. This was made possible through a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund .
The National Trust quickly misplaced a guide for the 1984 season and opened the mansion to the general public. First priority was the opening of a restaurant that would not only increase Belton House's income but also encourage visitors to spend more time in the mansion and be prepared to travel further. Although the interior of the manor house and the outbuildings were in good condition at the time of the donation, a permanent conservation and restoration program was in place. At the same time, the National Trust introduced new attractions, such as For example, a silver exhibit that shows a collection of silver implements that the Brownlow family had acquired by 1698. Additional income is generated from using Belton House as a film set and from renting the marble hall and tapestry room for weddings, with receptions then taking place in the former stables.
The owners of Belton House
Until it was taken over by the National Trust, Belton House was owned by the family of its builder, but often through extensive inheritance, as three generations of the family had no sons or heirs. This resulted in inheritance partly laterally and backwards through the maternal line.
Belton House owners are buried in the parish church of Belton village near the house. Their graves are considered to be one of the most complete sets of family monuments in England - generation after generation for nearly 350 years. The first Brownlow buried here is the founder of the family fortune, the judge Richard Brownlow (1555–1638) and one of the last to this day is the 6th Baron Brownlow (1899–1978).
Belton House was owned by:
- Sir John Brownlow I (1594–1679) bequeathed Belton to his great-nephew John Brownlow II.
- Sir John Brownlow II (1659-1697). Builder of Belton House
- Sir William Brownlow (1665-1702). Brother of Sir John Brownlow II, allowed his widowed sister-in-law to keep Belton House.
- Sir John Brownlow III. (1690-1754). Was appointed 1st Viscount Tyrconnel in 1718. Nephew and son-in-law of Sir John Brownlow II.
- Sir John Cust, 3rd Baronet (1718-1770). Speaker of the House of Commons and nephew of Viscount Tyrconnel.
- Sir Brownlow Cust, 4th Baronet (1744-1807). Was promoted to 1st Baron Brownlow in 1776. Son of Sir John Cust.
- John Cust, 2nd Baron Brownlow (1779-1853). Was promoted to 1st Earl Brownlow in 1815 . Son of Sir Brownlow Cust.
- John Eggerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1842–1867). Grandson of John, 2nd Baron Brownlow.
- Adelbert, 3rd (and last) Earl Brownlow (1844–1921). Brother of John, 2nd Earl Brownlow.
- Adelbert Salusbury Cockayne Cust, 5th Baron Brownlow (1867-1927). Cousin of Adelbert, 3rd Earl Brownlow.
- Peregrine Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow (1899–1978).
- Edward Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow (born 1936).
- National Trust (since 1984).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Nigel Nicolson: Great Houses of Britain . Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1965, ISBN 0-600-01651-X , p. 148.
- ↑ Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House in Perspective . Pavilion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8021-1228-5 .
- ↑ Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House in Perspective . Pavilion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8021-1228-5 , p. 56.
- ↑ Christopher Hussey: Brympton d'Evercy, Somerset. In: Country Life. Booklet LXI. Year 1927, pp. 718, 162 and 775.
- ↑ Sash windows were first used on a large scale at Chatsworth House in the late 1670s, but didn't gain popularity until they were installed at the Palace of Whitehall in 1685. At that time Belton House was under construction. Source: Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House in Perspective . Pavilion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8021-1228-5 , p. 58.
- ^ A b c Nigel Nicolson: Great Houses of Britain . Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1965, ISBN 0-600-01651-X , p. 147.
- ^ JF Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 45.
- ^ John Harris, English Decorative Ironwork . 1960 in Geoffrey Beard: '' Georgian Craftsmen and Their Work ''. Country Life, London 1966, ISBN 1-111-68715-3 , p. 182.
- ↑ This assessment of Winde's contribution and the stable block follows the views of Jackson-Stops, see Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House in Perspective . Pavilion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8021-1228-5 , p. 57.
- ^ FE Halliday: Cultural History of England . Thames and Hudson, London 1967, p. 166.
- ↑ Chatsworth House is considered England's first Baroque house, but Baroque architecture didn't really become modern until the early 18th century under architects such as Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor .
- ↑ Continuations of this architectural style are often referred to as "Queen Anne" in Great Britain, not to be confused with the Queen Anne style after the monarch who ruled 1702–1714 .
- ^ Mark Girouard: Life in the English Country House . Yale University Press, Yale 1978, ISBN 0-300-02273-5 , p. 126.
- ↑ It is reported that the king enjoyed his stay so much that he was too drunk to touch any of the dishes served on his state visit to Lincoln . Source: JF Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 49.
- ↑ Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House in Perspective . Pavilion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8021-1228-5 , p. 66.
- ^ A b Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House in Perspective . Pavilion Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8021-1228-5 , p. 60.
- ↑ This is what Winde wrote to Lady Mary Bridgeman on February 8, 1690. (Source: Geoffrey Beard: Georgian Craftsmen and Their Work . Country Life, London 1966, ISBN 1-111-68715-3 , p. 221). The other great stucco ceiling by Goudge is in the chapel. (Source: Geoffrey Beard: Georgian Craftsmen and Their Work . Country Life, London 1966, Fig. 41).
- ^ JF Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 17.
- ↑ Michael Thornton: Royal Feud . Michael Joseph, London. ISBN 0-330-29505-5 , pp. 105, 125, 137-138, 349 and 425, note 49.
- ^ JF Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 37.
- ↑ Her daughters became Princess Ancaster, Marquess of Exeter , and Lady Guilford. The youngest daughter, Eleanor, married her cousin, John Brownlow, later Viscount Tyrconnel, who inherited Belton House. Another daughter, Anne, had refused to marry her cousin, Baron Sherard, and said she would rather die. She was later arranged to marry Lord Willoughby, but Anne died of smallpox on the night of their wedding .
- ^ JF Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 50.
- ^ Judith Lappin, Keith Stephenson: The Machine Gun Corps. (No longer available online.) The Machine Gun Corps Old Comrades' Association, archived from the original July 11, 2009 ; accessed on February 20, 2015 .
- ↑ Later, the 5th Baron Brownlow had part of the former training area integrated into the Belton Park Golf Club ( Memento of February 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), which had been founded in 1890.
- ^ History of the Royal Air Force Regiment ( Memento December 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved May 5, 2009.
- ↑ The title of earl was lost after the family was further divided, as the 5th baron was descended from a baron and not from an earl.
- ↑ SAVE Britain's Heritage 1975-2005: 30 Years of Campaigning. (No longer available online.) RIBA architecture.com, April 13, 2006, archived from the original on June 21, 2006 ; Retrieved June 23, 2006 .
- ^ JG Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 5.
- ^ NN: The National Trust Belton House 1984 (a promotional leaflet for the 1984 summer season).
- ^ Belton House ( Memento June 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ).
- ^ JG Chesshyre: Belton House . The National Trust, 1984, p. 4.
Web links
- Belton House . National Trust.
- Belton House, Belton and Manthorpe . British Listed Buildings.
- Belton, Lincolnshire: The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul . The Churchmouse website.
Coordinates: 52 ° 56 ′ 35 ″ N , 0 ° 37 ′ 5 ″ W.