Panshanger, Hertfordshire, seat of the Earls Cowper.  Demolished 1954
Postcard view, from the extensive private collection of the author

Lady Desborough inherited Panshanger from her uncle Francis, the 7th (and last) Earl Cowper (pronounced 'Cooper').  The house, rebuilt around 1806 in a neo-Gothic style and situated to take advantage of the views laid out by Humphrey Repton, was a rambling 350 foot long assemblage of battlements and turrets with interiors remodelled in the 1850s in an Italianate style. 

Ettie adored Panshanger which in her special drawl she managed to both abbreviate and elongate into "Pppnns."  In addition to the house and land, she also inherited the contents, including an extensive picture collection assembled in the eighteenth century by the third earl.  Among other treasures several Rembrandts, two Raphaels and a Franz Hals hung in the picture gallery.  In 1928 the Desboroughs would sell a Raphael to the art dealer Duveen for $875,000 (about $39 million in today's money).  The painting is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.  "Ettie lived on the proceeds of its sale for two decades." [Davenport-Hines, Ettie, The Intimate LIfe and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough, 2008, p. 285].

You will not be surprised to learn that, given my abiding interest in vanished country houses, the urge to acquire something from these lost estates would inevitably come upon me, a desire to possess something more substantial and more satisfying than a picture postcard.  However, since at this point the Raphaels have been pretty much picked over, I set my sights slightly lower and decided to seek out books from the great libraries dispersed usually right before these stately piles were turned to rubble or converted to drug rehabs or schools or prisons.  Of course the likelihood of coming upon books with so specific a provenance at one's local yard sales was not great, even something of a long shot (although I found a few very important items at a recent sale thanks to my dear friend Felix), yet, the internet has made it possible to extend my search beyond the narrow confines of my usual sources, the neighborhood used-book shop and occassional church rummage sale.  

The thrill of the chase, as you know, can be intoxicating, yet I must confess there have been moments of painful disappointment as well -- Lady Desborough's own copy (with the Pans bookplate) of Edmund Gosse's memoir, Father and Son, a first edition in calf-backed boards, was very nearly mine until the bookseller discovered the volume was either lost or previously sold or in any case no longer in stock and my order was (somewhat abruptly) cancelled.  My heart sank at the news.  However, I persevered and am delighted with my first acquisition for what I like to think of as my little library of lost houses:

 

Bookplate of the Earls Cowper from the Panshanger library, pasted down to the front free endpaper of Thomas L'Affichard's Caprice Romanesque, 2 vols in one, uncut in original calf-backed marbled boards, First Edition, Amsterdam, 1745.  Unfortunately lacking 3 leaves, P4-6, but otherwise a nice unsophisticated copy.

And there's even more, for In addition to the Pans bookplate, in the same volume on the front pastedown endpaper, is the bookplate from Brocket Hall, another Cowper estate to the west of Pans, left to the 7th (and last) Earl Cowper by his grandmother Lady Palmerston.  Another lovely home much loved by Ettie.



Unlike Pans, Brocket Hall is still standing so not quite lost although altered -- it is now a hotel and conference center.  It also suffered damage during the first world war when a German plane headed for the munitions factories at Luton dropped a bomb on the lawn, breaking all the windows on the south front.  "Lord and Lady Mount Stephen, who were sitting in the drawing room, were later asked what they had done in the crisis.  'Why, rang the bell, of course,' replied Lady Mount Stephen, 'and much to our annoyance, no one came.'" [Davenport-Hines, p. 221].