The Stowe catalogue priced and annotated / by Henry Rumsey Forster. [With 'Historical notice of Stowe', etc].

  • Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Stowe catalogue priced and annotated / by Henry Rumsey Forster. [With 'Historical notice of Stowe', etc]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    57/398 page 39
    at Stowe for many years, and is now in the possession of the Marquis of Chandos. There is another’ avenue of very considerable extent, in the direction of Water Stratford and Finmere, called the Oxford avenue, ‘This road crosses the site of Boycott, a depopulated hamlet, which gives its name to two Pavilions erected near the north-western extremity of the gardens: one of these is now occupied as a dwelling-house, The Kitchen Gardens are on the north side of the park: they cover a space of from eight to ten acres, and abound in hot-houses, pineries, &c. Stowe has, perhaps, been more frequently the scene of royal hospitality than any other aristocratic residence in England. The visit of the Queen and Prince Albert is of too recent a date, to require more than a passing reference ; but those who had the good fortune to witness the magnificent hospitality dispensed by the Duke of Buckingham, will not easily forget the scene presented in its brilliant halls on that occasion. The Queen and the Prince, on the day before their departure, planted an oak and a cedar on either side of the Temple of Concord and Victory, in commemoration of their visit. The following is a list of the royal personages who have been entertained within its walls :— In 1737, their Royal Highnesses Prince Frederick, and the Princess of Wales, visited Lord Cobham, and remained the guests of his lordship for some days. A new State Bed, from the design of Signor Borra, was erected on this occasion for the Prince and Princess. In reference to this visit, the following remark occurs in the “ Opinions of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough :”—‘ The Prince has gone to make a visit to my Lord Cobham, where my Lord Chesterfield is, and some others that I think very good men. I believe keeping that company won’t be agreeable to her Majesty.’’ Walpole, in a note to his “ Memoirs of George III.,” relates that Lord Cobham, who had been much engaged with Frederick Prince of Wales, being asked by Henrietta Lady Suffolk, what was the real character of the Princess, replied, ‘She was the only woman he could never find out: all he had discovered was, that she hated those most to whom she paid most court.” In 1770, the Princess Amelia honoured Earl Temple with a visit, when Horace Walpole, and many other distinguished men of that period, were invited to meet her Royal Highness. Apropos of this visit, the Editor cannot resist giving the following quotations from Walpole’s correspondence, extracted from Mr. Bentley’s recent edition of that author’s collected Letters. Having passed a night at Adderbury, the seat of his friend, George Montague, Esq., in Oxfordshire, en route to Stowe, whither he had been invited to meet the Princess, on his return to Strawberry Hill, Walpole writes as follows :— TO GEORGE MONTAGUE, ESQ. Strawberry Hill, Saturday night, July 7, 1770. After making an inn of your house, it is but decent to thank you for my entertainment, and to acquaint you with the result of my journey. The party passed off much better than I expected. A Princess at the head of a very smal] set for five days together did not promise well. However, she was very good-humoured and easy, and dispensed with a large quantity of etiquette. Lady Temple is good-nature itself; my lord was very civil; Lord Besborough is made to suit. all sorts of people; Lady Mary Coke respects royalty too much not to be very condescending ; Lady Anne Howard* and Mrs. Middleton filled up the drawing-room, or rather made it out; and I was so determined to carry it off as well as I could, and happened to be in such good spirits, and took such care to avoid politics, that we laughed a great deal, and had not one cloud the whole time. We breakfasted at half an hour after nine; but the Princess did not appear till it was finished; then we walked in the garden, or drove about in cabriolets, till it was time to dress; dined at three, which, though properly proportioned to the smallness of company to avoid ostentation, lasted a vast while, as the Princess eats and talks a great deal; then again into the garden till past seven, when we came in, drank tea and coffee, and played at’ pharoah till ten, when the Princess retired, and we went to supper, and before twelve to bed. You see there was great sameness and little vivacity in all this. It was a little broken by fishing, and going round the park one of the mornings; but, in reality, the number of buildings and variety of scenes in the garden, made each day different from the rest, and my meditations on so historic a spot pre- vented my being tired. Every acre brings to one’s mind some instance of the parts or pedantry, of the taste or want of taste, of the ambition or love of fame, or greatness or miscarriages, of those that have inhabited, decorated, planned, or visited the place. Pope, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Kent, Gibbs, Lord Cobham, Lord Chesterfield, the mob of nephews , * Lady Anne Howard, daughter of Henry fourth Earl, and sister of Frederick fifth Earl of Carlisle.
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