Wrest Park
Wrest Park, near Silsoe, Bedfordshire
Postcard view from the author's collection
I have been outbid recently on one or two vintage picture postcards depicting Wrest Park, another great estate which once belonged to Lady Desborough's Cowper relatives. Ettie loved Wrest, where she spent much of her childhood with her grandmother Countess Cowper, calling the place "a Paradise for children" (Davenport-Hines, p. 22). Ettie's ancestor the Duke of Kent had created at Wrest one of the grandest eighteenth century gardens in England, 150 acres worth of radiating avenues of trees, "groves of huge ash trees, massive beeches and high elms." There was no end to "the lovely surprises in those huge pleasure-grounds," wrote Ettie, "the little hidden pavilions, secret Lovers' Walks, Chinese temples, obelisks, sudden great still pools of water walled in by tall yew hedges, the long canal encircling all..." (ibid).
Wrest had been held by Lady Desborough's Grey ancestors since the 13th century but was sold in 1917 to John Murray who owned breweries and coal mines in the north-east (Ettie considered him a war-profiteer, ibid, p. 249). Murray subsequently suffered a reversal of fortunes and in 1934 sold Wrest to the Essex Timber Company who ploughed up the park and cut down all the trees.
I am told that there are plans to restore the gardens at Wrest; if you know any more specifics of the proposal I would be very interested. Perhaps I was bidding on those rare wooded views of the front gate and gardens against some representative of the restoration project, some researcher who hoped to use these period images to reconstruct the way it all once looked. In which case, I am glad not to have pursued the matter. I'm sure you know I don't like running up prices when there's a good cause at stake, although I must say it is difficult to imagine anyone being able to recapture the beauty of the old growth allees and romantic wooded vistas Lady Desborough so loved as a child.
damn shame.
had they plowed it under for firewood to heat all those rooms, it might be forgiven. might.
xxx
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George darling,
Another fabulous entry. I usually look with envy at the great houses, but I just finished cleaning our not so great house this morning, and cannot help but pity the long dead (of overwork) staff.
Regarding the replanting-- the marvelous thing about those people was that they planted for the future-- a future they knew that they would not live to see. Would that people today thought in those terms.
XXXXXXXXXOOOOOO,
C.
PS- The above is not for publication.
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The garden at Wrest Park is managed by English Heritage and is open for visitors.This is from the Royal Horticultural Society website: 'The 'English Versailles' is dominated by a graceful long canal which runs down to the classical domed pavilion built by Thomas Archer in 1710. Capability Brown came here later, but worked around the earlier design. The house came later still, in the 1830s. Many historic garden buildings have survived, some from as far back as the 1730s and others from the 19th century, including the orangery, the Mithraic altar, the bowling-green house and the Chinese temple and bridge. In the walled garden and around the house are a rose garden, bedding displays and glasshouses. In the park are handsome specimen trees, including a fine example of the purple-leaved birch (Betula pendula 'Purpurea'). Privately funded restoration has been ongoing for some years now, and the garden's iron railings and many of the statues have been repaired. But English Heritage has just begun a major 20-year restoration project, which will involve repairing Capability Brown's lakes and replanting the Italian garden, as well as improving visitor facilities.'
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Orangery? Mithraic altar? And today we're supposed to be content with billionaires who have Gift Wrap Rooms.
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