THE HEAVENLY HAUNT OF A LINCOLNSHIRE LAD: GUNBY HALL

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson was born in 1809 in the village of Somersby in Lincolnshire.  Many of the lines in his work were inspired by the local landscape, for example it was a small stream in the vicinity that formed the basis of The Babbling Brook.  He also made frequent references to the woods in the area – “The silent woody places”. 



Being a member of the aristocracy, Tennyson had friends in high places in the locality.  One of them was Algernon Massingberd, the son of a local squire residing at Gunby Hall, a few miles from Somersby.  Tennyson, who by all accounts had a sad family life as well as losing his closest friend at a young age, paid regular visits to the hall, and must have found great solace there.  The hall is now the property of the National Trust, and visitors to the hall may notice a small framed picture above the fireplace in  one of the rooms.  The picture includes a few short lines describing the hall, and it is signed by Tennyson.  

Gunby Hall from the west.  Photo by DeFacto, via Wikimedia Commons.

The line forms part of Tennyson’s poem “The Palace of Art”, in which he imagines an art collection in a palace and its gardens constructed by a man who converses with his soul.  One of the pieces in the collection is described thus:



                            And one, an English home – gray twilight pour’d

                            On dewy pastures, dewy trees,

                            Softer than sleep – all things in order stored,

                            A haunt of ancient Peace



This is the verse reproduced in the picture above the fireplace, and it is widely thought to have been inspired by Gunby Hall. 



Another of Tennyson’s most famous poems, Maud, in which Maud is urged to “come into the garden”, makes references to the “musk of the rose”.  This was also probably inspired by the gardens of Gunby Hall, and there are still musk roses growing there today.  Another poem which may well have been inspired by the gardens of Gunby Hall is “The Gardener’s Daughter”. 



The gardens have changed a bit since Tennyson frequented them, but some features remaining would have been there at that time, such as the pigeon house and the garden seat against the west wall.  As for the plants, there is a cedar of Lebanon which was planted in 1812 by Algernon’s father.

Cedar of Lebanon Gunby Hall gardens - geograph.org.uk - 1352099. Photo by Paul Gray, via Wikimedia Commons.

Gunby Hall is a few miles inland from Skegness, at the south-east edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds AONB.  In normal times (not currently, obviously), the hall, estate and gardens are open to visitors, who can visit three floors of rooms full of collections dating from 1700, as well as the eight acres of gardens.

Map of the area.

LONDON WITH A SCOTTISH ACCENT: BELGRAVIA

When Belgravia hit our screens recently, there were inevitable comparisons with Downton Abbey, both series being the work of Julian Fellowes and with the same team behind them.  There have been dark mutterings that Belgravia is “no Downton Abbey”, but in reality there is no reason why it should be.  Personally, I slightly prefer Belgravia,  as I think it has a more interesting storyline.  The one thing the two series do have in common is that they both make use of sumptuous period backdrops, both for the interior and exterior scenes.

Belgravia is a district of Central London where properties routinely sell for multi-million pound sums of money.  The area really began to move up in the world when George III moved into Buckingham House (better known as Buckingham Palace) and construction began of the elegant streets adjacent to the King’s gaff.  The series follows the story of the nouveau riche Trenchards (Philip Glenister and Tamsin Greig) and the upper class Brockenhursts (Harriet Walter and Tom Wilkinson), whose London base is in Belgravia.  The two families find they have something in common due to a secret from the past which has come to light.   

However, fans of the series who want to visit the location where the scenes depicting the streets of Belgravia were filmed will be disappointed if they head to London.  These scenes were in fact filmed in Edinburgh, in the New Town part of the city, in particular Moray Place.  The grand old houses of New Town make a good substitute for their London counterpart except that they are built from the kind of dull grey sandstone associated with this period in the Scottish capital.  The production team behind Belgravia overcame this discrepancy by the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to change the sandstone to the white exteriors seen in the real-life Belgravia.

Moray Place, Edinburgh 002. Photo by Brian McNeil, via Wikimedia Commons.

Some of the interior shots featuring the homes of the Trenchards and the Brockenhursts were also filmed north of the border, making use of Manderston House near Duns in the Borders area of Scotland.  This elegant Edwardian country house, built on the site of an earlier house dating from the late 18^th century, is now used as a wedding venue, and is open to groups of visitors by appointment.

Meanwhile, heading back down south, one property which particularly stands out is the one used as Lymington Park, Lady Brockenhurst’s country estate, where she and the Earl of Brockenhurst host weekend parties.  The real-life estate is another wedding venue, Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire.  The estate, to the north of Barnet, is a Palladian Mansion built in the 18^th century by Admiral John Byng, and features a long, sweeping lawn leading from an ornamental lake to a light grey facade with a grand pillared entrance.

Wrotham Park, Middlesex by Brayley (1820).  Via Wikimedia Commons.

These are just some of the locations for fans of the series to seek out, demonstrating that there is much more to Belgravia than Belgravia.

LOVELY SETTINGS FOR A LOVELESS MARRIAGE: THE DUCHESS

Lady Georgiana Spencer, an ancestor of Princess Diana, was born in Althorp, where the Princess is buried.  At the age of 17 she was married off to William Cavendish, 5^th Duke of Devonshire, whereupon she became the Duchess of Devonshire.  On paper it sounds like a fairy tale for the young Georgiana, but unfortunately the Duke turned out to be a philanderer who was only interested in gaining a male heir.  Georgiana’s first two children, as sod’s law would have it, were female, but she finally managed a son the third time round.  Meanwhile, Georgiana became friendly with Lady Elizabeth Foster from Suffolk while on a visit to Bath.  Predictably, Elizabeth caught the roving eye of the Duke and she ended up in a ‘menage a trois’ with the pair of them, bearing two illegitimate children by him and finally becoming his wife three years after Georgiana’s death in 1806, only for the Duke to die two years later.  This saga is the subject of the 2008 film The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley as Georgiana and Ralph Fiennes as William. 

The scenes depicting Georgiana’s time at Althorp did not make use of the real-life Spencer family seat, but were filmed at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire.   One twist to this whole sorry tale is that Georgiana fell madly in love with Charles Grey (played by Dominic Cooper), a Whig Party member who would later become Prime Minister, but in spite of William’s own infidelities he would not allow her to continue the liaison (which resulted in an illegitimate daughter).  In the film she is seen flirting with Charles, a scene filmed at the South Front of Kedleston Hall.  The scene in which her mother (Charlotte Rampling) is filmed meeting with William to persuade him of her daughter’s charms was filmed in the Library.  Another scene in which Georgiana’s hair catches fire was also filmed here, this time in the Marble Hall. 

Kedleston Hall 04. Photo by Glen Bowman, via Wikimedia Commons.

The country estate of the Dukes of Devonshire is Chatsworth House, one of Britain’s best-known stately homes.  Chatsworth played itself in the film when the wedding scenes were filmed there.  However, the Dukes had another base in London called Devonshire House in London’s Piccadilly.  The scenes depicting Devonshire House made use of a number of locations for the interior and exterior shots.  The original building was demolished in 1924, so the film-makers had to find an alternative for the exterior, and Somerset House in The Strand proved the perfect choice.  The interior scenes were all over the place, making further use of Kedleston for some scenes, plus Clandon Hall, Guildford, with Holkham Hall in Norfolk used to depict the dining room. The streets of London, in which the newly-weds are filmed trundling along in their carriage being cheered by crowds of people, are actually the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

Chatsworth Bridge. Photo by Rob Bendall, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the scenes in which Georgiana goes to Bath to take the waters, this beautiful city gets to play itself, as the graceful Royal Crescent comes into view.  Another famous Bath landmark is the Assembly Rooms in Bennett Street.  The tea room forms the backdrop to the scene where Georgiana is presented to the throng and where she first meets Elizabeth.  However, the river scenes seen in this part of the film were not filmed in Bath, but back at Kedleston.

Royal Crescent, Bath 2014 04. Photo by Mike Peel, via Wikimedia Commons.

Kedleston Hall, to the north-west of Derby, is an 18^th century neo-classical house designed by Robert Adam and surrounded by sumptuous parkland.  The property is owned by the National Trust.  Chatsworth House, on the banks of the River Derwent near Bakewell, Derbyshire, is privately owned but open to visitors complete with retail and refreshment points.  The house was initially completed in 1708, with later additions the following century.  The extensive grounds include many interesting features, including fountains, a temple and a rectangular lake known as the Canal Pond.

Somerset House is a neo-classical building on the south side of The Strand in London.  It is been used for many purposes over the years, but its current role is principally as an arts centre.  The Old Royal Naval College dominates the banks of the River Thames in Greenwich.  A naval college since 1873, it forms part of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The College has been used extensively in filming, proving useful to film-makers as a quieter alternative to Central London for street scenes, Clandon Park, to the north-east of Guildford, Surrey,  is owned by the National Trust, but unfortunately Clandon Hall itself was destroyed by a catastrophic fire in 2015 and still stands as a ruin today.  Holkham Hall is in Holkham in North Norfolk, famous for its vast sandy beach.  An 18^th century house in the Palladian style surrounded by extensive parkland, it is privately owned but open to visitors.

The Royal Crescent in Bath was started in 1767 and consists of 30 Grade I listed terrace  houses.  For those wanting to immerse themselves in the Georgian spa town experience, part of the crescent has been given over to Bath’s poshest hotel, the Royal Crescent Hotel and Spa.  The Assembly Rooms, another National Trust property and designed in 1769, were the focal point of Georgian Bath’s social scene.  The building is used for functions and conferences, and can be visited when not in use.  There is also a Fashion Museum on the premises.  Both the Royal Crescent and The Assembly Rooms were designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger.