West Wycombe Park
West Wycombe Park is an English country house near the village of West Wycombe in the English county of Buckinghamshire , built 1740-1800. It was a pleasure palace for the libertines and amateurs Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Baronet . The house forms an elongated rectangle with four facades, which are provided with columns and decorative gables; three of them give a theatrical impression. The house represents the entire advancement of British architecture of the 18th century from the idiosyncratic Palladianistic to the classical , even if anomalies in the design of the house make it architecturally unique. The mansion is set in an 18th century landscaped garden that contains small temples and follies that represent satellites of the larger temple, namely the house itself.
The house, which is listed as a Grade I Historic Building , was given to the National Trust by Sir John Dashwood, 10th Baronet (1896–1966) in 1943 , which resented his legacy. Dashwood retained ownership of the contents of the house, most of which he sold. After his death, the house was renovated at the expense of his son, Sir Edward Dashwood . Today the building is owned by the National Trust, but Sir Edward Dashwood and his family live in it. During the summer months, the house is open to the public and also serves as a location for civil weddings and corporate events that help finance repairs and maintenance. The film Austenland was shot in this house .
architecture
Ethos
.jpg)
West Wycombe Park, which was architecturally inspired by the Veneto Renaissance villas , is not the largest, grandest, or most famous of England's many country houses. Compared to the contemporary Palladian buildings like Holkham Hall , Woburn Abbey or Ragley Hall , it is quite small, albeit architecturally important, as it encompasses a period of English social history of the 18th century when young men called dilettanti from came back on their almost obligatory Grand Tour with newly acquired art objects and often built country houses to house their new collections and to display in stone their knowledge and culture that they had acquired on their travels.
The West Wycombe Park estate was acquired by Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet , and his brother Samuel in 1698. Dashwood had the old mansion demolished and a new mansion built on a higher site nearby. This mansion formed the core of today's house. Pictures of this house on early plans of the property show a very conventional square-plan house in contemporary Carolinian style . In 1724 Dashwood bequeathed his little remarkable house to his 16-year-old son, the 2nd Baronet, who was also called Francis , who later became Lord le Despencer , who is believed to be most likely responsible for founding the Hellfire Club near the manor in the West Wycombe Caves , got known. Two years later he embarked on a series of grand tours: the ideas and customs he acquired during this period influenced him throughout his life and formed the fulcrum for the renovation of his father's simple house, which made it became today's classic building.
West Wycombe Park has been described as "one of the most theatrical Italianate buildings from the mid-18th century in England". The undiluted facades of all the country houses of the 18th century are not only designed in the classicist style of Italian villas, where Palladianism first established itself, but also in that of the ancient temples on which classicism is based. The Doric columns on the west portico of the house are believed to be the earliest example of the Greek Revival style in Great Britain.
The end of the 18th century was also a period of changes in the interiors of English country houses. The baroque conception of the main floor or the bel étage with large suites of bedrooms, called parade rooms , and a new large hall or salon for communal use gradually disappeared in favor of smaller, more comfortable bedrooms on the upper floors. This changed floor plan made it possible to use the bel étage as an escape from reception rooms, each for its own purpose, and created separate areas such as the small salon, the dining room, the music room or the ballroom. West Wycombe Park perfectly reflects the changes and ideals from the end of the 18th century. This arrangement of reception and public rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms and private rooms above has remained unchanged to this day.
Facades
West Wycombe Park builder Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Baronet, commissioned three different architects and two landscape architects to design the house and park. He also brought a lot into the planning himself: He had a grand tour behind him, had seen the Italian Renaissance villas himself and wanted to emulate them.
Work began in 1740 and ended around 1800 when the old house had been completely changed inside and out. This long construction period explains the jumps and variations in the designs: When construction began in 1740, Palladianism was just modern, but by the time it was completed it had been completely replaced by Classicism; and so the house presents itself as a marriage of these two styles. While this marriage is not entirely bad, the Palladian details come with a loss of Palladio's proportions: the east portico is not in the axis of the house and on either side of the house trees have been planted to distract the eye from this design flaw.
The best architects of the time submitted plans to convert the older family seat into a modern architectural extravaganza. Among them was Robert Adam , who submitted a plan for the western portico, but his proposal was not accepted. Finally, the architect Nicholas Revett was interviewed and designed the western portico that has survived to this day. Today the first component that you see when approaching the house from the driveway is this same western portico: From this side the entire house appears as a Greek temple. The portico with its eight columns, which was inspired by the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek and was completed in 1770, is considered the earliest example of Greek Revival architecture in Great Britain. The opposite (east) portion of the house, which was designed by John Donowell and completed around 1755, also appears temple-like, but this time the muse was La Rotonda . The two opposite portico, east and west, represent the period of architectural transition of the late 18th century from earlier, Roman-inspired Palladianism to more Greek-inspired classicism.
.png)
The main facade is the south facade, a two-story colonnade of Corinthian columns on the ground floor and Tuscan columns on the upper floor, all with an ornamental gable above it in the middle. The pillars are not made of stone, but of wood covered with stucco . This is especially interesting as cost wasn't an issue in building the house. The architect of this facade was John Donowell, who carried out his work between 1761 and 1763 (although he had to wait until 1775 for their payment). The facade, which is similar to the main facade of Palladio's Chiericati Palace from 1550, was originally the entrance facade. The front door is still installed in the middle of the first floor and leads into the main entrance hall. This in itself is a major departure from the classic form: West Wycombe Park has no upper floor. If the architect had followed Palladio's ideals exactly, the main entrance and the parade room would have had to be on the upper floor and could have been reached via an external staircase, which would have offered a view of the main reception rooms from an elevated position. Rooms for the servants would then have been arranged on the ground floor.
The stricter north facade is 11 bays wide, with the end bays being given special importance by rusting the ground floor. In the center of this facade are Ionic columns that support an ornamental pediment and originally bore the Dashwoods coat of arms. This facade is said to have been built in 1750 and 1751, even if the split windows on this facade suggest that this was one of the first improvements made by the 2nd Baronet to the original house, as curved or split window heads are typical of the early 18th century. Century were.
inside rooms
The main reception rooms are on the ground floor and have large sliding windows that open onto the portico and colonnade, and therefore also onto the gardens, an arrangement not found in the grand villas and palaces of the Italian Renaissance. The mansion contains a number of 18th century salons decorated and furnished in the style of that time, with multi-colored marble floors and ceiling paintings depicting classical scenes from Greek and Roman mythology. Of particular interest is the entrance hall, which resembles a Roman atrium with marbled columns and a ceiling painting, a copy of Robert Wood's Ruins of Palmyra .
Many of the reception rooms have painted ceilings copied from Italian palazzi , particularly Palazzo Farnese in Rome . The largest room in the house is the music room, which opens onto the eastern portico. The ceiling fresco in this room depicts a “banquet of the gods” and was copied from Villa Farnesina . The salon, which occupies the center of the northern front, contains many marble figures, including statuettes of the four seasons. The ceiling painting depicts "The Council of Gods and the Admission of the Psyche" and is also a copy from the Villa Farnesina.
The walls of the dining room are made of painted false jasper and contain paintings by the host - Sir Francis Dashwood - and his colleagues from the Divan Club (a society for those who had visited the Ottoman Empire ). The room also contains a ceiling painting from Woods Palmyra .
The Blue Salon is dominated by a fine ceiling painting on which “The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne” (see picture on the left) is depicted. In this room there is a plaster statuette of Venus Medici and symbolizes the 2nd Baronet's risky tendency towards the goddess of love. The room has blue flocked walls with paintings from various Italian schools from the 17th century in the 1960s were hung.
The relatively small study contains floor plans of the house and possible impressions of various facades. One of them is said to have been drawn by Sir Francis Dashwood himself. In the tapestry room, once anteroom to the adjoining parade bedroom, hang tapestries that were given to the 1st Duke of Marlborough to celebrate his victories in the Netherlands . Marlborough was a distant relative of the Dashwoods. The knitted pictures , which were created around 1710, show pheasant scenes by the Teniers , which were cut to size and adapted to the proportions and furnishings of the room.
Despite the great decoration, the interiors of the house are not overwhelming. The rooms are not terribly big and the ceilings are not gigantic high. The many large windows in all rooms allow a good exposure for the colors of the many paintings and silk pictures on the walls and the antique furniture .
The gardens and the park
The gardens at West Wycombe Park are among the most beautiful and idiosyncratic gardens of the 18th century left in England today. The park is unique because of the consistent use of classical architecture from Greece and Italy . West Wycombe Park's two main gardening architects were John Donowell and Nicholas Revett. They designed all of the ornamental structures in the park. Landscape architect Thomas Cook began executing plans for the park with a 3.6-acre man-made lake in the shape of a swan that is fed by the nearby River Wye . A Spanish galleon originally swam on the lake for the edification of Dashwood's guests, complete with a full-time captain on board. The water flows over a waterfall from the lake and into a canal pond.
One of the most important achievements at the end of the Georgian period was the introduction of many new species of trees and flowers from around the world, which Horace Walpole describes as bestowing the "richness and colors so special to the modern landscaped garden". The new plant species also made it possible to change the mood by changing the planting; one surface could be dark and melancholy, another bright and billowing, or mystical. Contemporary gardens like West Wycombe Park or Stourhead , both designed as a path around a lake, take visitors through a number of locations, each with its own character, completely different from the previous one. Humphry Repton later expanded the 20 km² eastwards towards the nearby town of High Wycombe until it looked like it does today.
There are still many follies and temples in the park . The "Temple of Music" is located on an island in the lake and was inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Rome. It was designed for Dashwoods Fêtes champêtres , with the temple serving as a theater. The remains of the stage have been preserved to this day. Opposite the temple is the main waterfall of the garden with statues of two water nymphs . Today's waterfall is a reconstruction as the original was demolished in the 1830s. The design of an octagonal tower, called "Temple of the Winds", is based on the Tower of the Winds in Athens .
The classical architecture continues with the "Temple of Flora ", a hidden summer house, and the "Temple of Daphne ", both reminiscences of small temples on the Acropolis , along the path around the lake. Another hidden temple, the "Round Temple", has a curved loggia . Closer to the house is a Roman triumphal arch that frames the view of the servants' building, the "Temple of Apollo " (also known as the "Cockpit Arch" because of its earlier use for cockfights). There is a copy of the famous Apollo from Belvedere . Nearby is the "Temple of Diana " with a statue of the goddess in a small niche. Another goddess is celebrated in the "Temple of Venus ". Below is an exedra , a grotto (also known as the "living room of Venus") and a statue of Mercury . In the exedra there was once a copy of the Venus Medici ; it was destroyed in the 1820s but was recently restored and now contains a copy of the Venus de Milo .
Later buildings that do not adhere to the classic theme are the neo-Gothic boathouse , a neo-Gothic alcove - today a romantic ruin hidden in the undergrowth - and a neo-Gothic chapel, where the village's shoemaker once worked, but which later became a dog kennel of the property was used. A monument to Elizabeth II was erected on her 60th birthday in 1986.
The Dashwoods of West Wycombe Park
Sir Francis Dashwood had West Wycombe Park built for entertainment and there has been much speculation as to the type of entertainment it provided to its guests. Dashwood and his clique were believed to have acted contrary to the sexual morality of the 18th century and were viewed as promiscuous . On the other hand, it is likely that the contemporary accounts of the Bacchanal orgies that Dashwood presided over at his Hellfire Caves above West Wycombe Park were exaggerated, but free love and drinking took place there. Dashwood was often portrayed in fanciful clothes (on one dressed as the Pope toasting a female Herme ), and this passion for fanciful clothes probably carried over to his festivals in West Wycombe Park. After the western portico was consecrated as a Bacchanal temple in 1771, Dashwood and his friends, dressed only in vine leaves, celebrated at the lake and performed " Paians and libations ". On another occasion, the “captain” of one of the yachts rigged up as battleships was almost killed during a mock battle on the lake when he was hit by a cannonball made of cotton wool fired from an opposing ship. It appears that Dashwood matured in his later years as he then devoted his life to community service. He died in 1781 and bequeathed West Wycombe Park to his half-brother, Sir John Dashwood-King, 3rd Baronet .
Dashwood-King spent little time in West Wycombe. After his death in 1793, his son, Sir John Dashwood-King, 4th Baronet , Member of Parliament for Wycombe and friend of the Prince of Wales (though that friendship was put to the test when Sir John accused his wife of an affair with the Prince), inherited ) the estate. Like his father, Sir John cared little about West Wycombe Park, conducting a five-day sale of furniture from the mansion in 1800. 1806 was held from the sale of the estate by the trustee of his son, to whom the property awarded was. In the last years of his life he became religious and held boastful anti-alcoholic parties in the gardens of West Wycombe Park. He did this with the help of the "Friends of Order and Integrity" - these parties were probably very different from the bacchanalia that his uncle held on the property. In 1847 Sir John went bankrupt and stewards owned his furniture from his Halton House family estate . He died in 1849, estranged from his wife and surviving son.
Sir John was inherited by his estranged son, Sir George Dashwood, 5th Baronet . For the first time since the 2nd Baronet's death in 1781, West Wycombe Park became the owner's preferred residence again. But the property was heavily in debt and Sir George was forced to sell the unassigned properties, including Halton House. He sold the latter to Lionel de Rothschild for the then enormous sum of £ 54,000 (now approx. £ 5 million). The recovery of the Dashwoods' finances enabled the restoration and refurbishment of West Wycombe Park. Sir George died childless in 1862, leaving his wife, Elizabeth , a lifelong right to live in the house, while his title and ownership of the property passed briefly to his brother and then to his nephew. Lady Dashwood's continuous presence in the house prevented her nephew, Sir Edwin Dashwood, 7th Baronet , a drinking sheep farmer in the South Island of New Zealand , from living in the manor until her death in 1889. She left behind a neglected property and a crumbling house.
The 7th Baronet's son, Sir Edwin Dashwood, 8th Baronet , traveled from New Zealand to claim the house only to find that Lady Dashwood's heirs claimed the contents of the house and the family jewelry they subsequently claimed sold. As a result, Sir Edwin was forced to mortgage the house and property in 1892. The following year he died unexpectedly and the heavily indebted property fell to his brother, Sir Robert Dashwood, 9th Baronet . Sir Robert started an expensive lawsuit against Lady Dashwood's trustees, which he lost. He received the money for this by cutting down the sparse forest on the property, selling the wood and selling the family's townhouse in London. After his death in 1908, the house fell to his 13-year-old son, Sir John Dashwood, 10th Baronet , who, as an adult, took over much of the mansion's remaining original furnishings (including the parade bed - for £ 58 - an important piece in the house's history complete with its gold-plated pineapple is lost today) sold. In 1922 he tried to sell the house himself. He received just one offer for £ 10,000 (around £ 488,000 today) and so he decided not to sell the house. So he had to live in a house he didn't like and he sold the whole West Wycombe village to pay for the renovations. Not all renovations were well done: 18th century ceiling frescos were painted over and the dining room was divided into two rooms for the servants, so that the large building for the servants was no longer needed and it was left to decay.
A sort of salvation for West Wycombe Park was Sir John's wife: Lady Dashwood, the former Helen Eaton , was among the top ten thousand who loved entertainment. It gave festivals of some level in West Wycombe Park throughout the 1930s. She lived almost alienated from her husband; the couple lived opposite parts of the manor house. She often gave "big and elegant" house parties, which she financed through further land sales.
During the Second World War the house served as a warehouse for the evacuated Wallace Collection and as a sanatorium. A troop of riflemen occupied the dilapidated building for the servants and the park was used to inflate blocking balloons . In this mess, the Dashwoods withdrew to the upper floor and took in tenants to pay the bills, but only very posh tenants, such as B. Nancy Mitford and James Lees-Milne .
Lees-Milne was secretary of the Country House Committee of the National Trust , which during the war had an office in West Wycombe. Sir John, appreciating the historical value of his home, if not the home itself, gave the property to the National Trust in 1943 along with a £ 2000 foundation (around £ 80,000 today).
West Wycombe Park in the 21st Century
Today West Wycombe Park serves as a public museum, family home and film set. During the summer months, paying visitors can tour the ground floor to view the architecture and ancient contents of the home that still belongs to the Dashwoods. Much of the antique furnishings were bought back by Sir Francis Dashwood, 11th Baronet , in the late 20th century and brought back into the house after being scattered during several sales promotions in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The current head of the Dashwood family, Sir Edward Dashwood , born in 1964 , operates the property and house as a commercial enterprise, so he can maintain and maintain the entire property. The house is often rented out as a film set and in addition to agricultural businesses there is also a large pheasant hunt for which rifles can be rented. Sir Edward is President of the West Wycombe Polo Club , which is located on the property.
West Wycombe Park is not just being maintained today, it is being "improved". For example, a huge equestrian statue was set up as a focus for a wide view from Hausa along long avenues. If you look closely, you realize that it this to be a prop from GRP is that in the Pinewood Studios found and the 20th century by Sir Francis Dashwood, 11th Baronet, was acquired for twelve bottles of champagne finish. The local building department was very angry about this, but they lost the process of requesting the removal. Today it is even said to deceive experts from a distance. The park appears on the CBBC television series Hounded with Rufus Hound . It is the place where Rufus receives instructions from his future self.
Public concerts and fireworks are often held in the park, a natural amphitheater . The mansion, which is often used for weddings and corporate events, and its park are still venues for lavish entertainment events, just as their builder originally planned. Jointly managed by the National Trust and Sir Edward Dashwood, West Wycombe Park is not only a well-preserved memorial to the tastes and weaknesses of the late 18th century, but also a widely used public venue.
Individual references and comments
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001, p. 62.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 9.
- ^ Mark Girouard: Life in the English country house . Yale University, Yale 1978. p. 77.
- ^ West Wycombe Park . All About Britain.com. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner attributes the adjoining, but now partially destroyed, building for the servants and the stables to Robert Adam on p. 286 of his book. However, this assessment cannot be found in other relevant books.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 7.
- ^ Carew Wallace: West Wycombe Park . National Trust, London 1967. p. 12.
- ^ Nikolaus Pevsner: Buildings of England . Chapter: Buckinghamshire . Penguin Books, 1973. ISBN 0-14-071019-1 . P. 283.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 30.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 4.
- ^ Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House Garden (A grand tour) . Pavilion Book, London 1988. ISBN 1-85145-123-4 . P. 208.
- ^ Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House Garden (A grand tour) . Pavilion Book, London 1988. ISBN 1-85145-123-4 . P. 192.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001, p. 37.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 36.
- ↑ In the background on the hill you can see the recently completed church, but strangely not the mausoleum built by a member of the Bastard family around 1764 , so that one can assume that the painting is incorrectly assigned to the time. If the year of origin were 1776, the lady portrayed could not be Lady Dashwood, who died in 1769, but Frances Barry, Dashwood's lover and mother of his two children, with whom he lived after the death of his wife.
- ^ A b Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 50.
- ^ Gervase Jackson-Stops: The Country House Garden (A grand tour) . Pavilion Book, London 1988. ISBN 1-85145-123-4 . P. 148.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001, p. 57.
- ↑ George Knowles: Sir Francis Dashwood Controverscial.com. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ A b Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 61.
- ^ A b Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 35.
- ↑ Knox does not name these experts.
- ^ Tim Knox: West Wycombe Park . The National Trust, Bromley 2001. p. 5.
Web links and sources
Coordinates: 51 ° 38 ′ 29 " N , 0 ° 48 ′ 10.4" W.