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четверг, 21 апреля 2011
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среда, 20 апреля 2011
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A WING FOOTED MERCURY FLYING ABOVE A POOL OF WATER LILLIES, AT MADRESFIELD COURT.
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Movement XIV: “* * *” (Romanza: Moderato)
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Lady Mary Lygon. This person is not identified by initials, but Mrs. Dora Powell (herself a variation, “Dorabella”) has identified her as Lady Mary Lygon, sister of Lord Beauchamp of Madresfield Court near Malvern. Lady Mary Lygon was a personal friend of Elgar and his wife, promoter of the Madresfield Music Festivals and interested in Elgar’s music. In 1899, when the Variations were being finished, Elgar wrote to Lady Mary Lygon to ask permission to use her initials, but as she and her brother were on the point of leaving for Australia (he had been appointed Governor of New South Wales) and there was not time for a reply Elgar used “***” instead.
Sketches for this variation refer it it as ‘L’ and sketches for the Finale show that Elgar thought of re-introducing ‘L. M. L.’ She became Lady Mary Trefusis when she married Lt.-Col. Henry Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis in 1905.
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Madresfield Court is a magnificent moated Elizabethan manor, with 80 acres of beautiful gardens at the foot of the Malvern Hills. It can trace its origins to the de Braci family in the twelfth century, and was handed on to the Lygon family through marriage in the fifteenth century. William Lygon was created the first Earl of Beauchamp in 1815, and the eighth and last Earl died in 1979. Madresfield Court is now occupied by his niece, Lady Morrison.
Fig 1 - Entrance to the Rock Garden at Madresfield Court
The remains of the original twelfth century house are now all below moat water level, and very little of the fifteenth century additions now remain - the majority of that house being pulled down and rebuilt in Victorian Gothic style during the nineteenth century.
It was during this period that the then Earl of Beauchamp and his gardener, William Crump, developed the gardens, which are divided into discreet sections. The gardens are opened to the public on a few Charity days each year, and the lucky visitor will find a Yew Garden, a Maze, and a Herbaceous Border; a pleached Lime Arbour, a Cedar Avenue, an Oak Avenue, and a Poplar Avenue; Wild Gardens, and a Rock Garden.
ig 2 - Dropping Well amid the rocks
It is with this latter garden that we are concerned here, because it was constructed by James Pulham (2) between 1877-79. It is commonly regarded as being one of Pulhams’ masterpieces, and is indeed a truly awe-inspiring sight, although some might describe it as more ‘theatrical’ than ‘natural.’ Here is how it was described in an issue of The Gardeners’ Magazine, dated 15th September, 1888:
‘This is a noble construction, in agreement throughout with the characteristics of the new red sandstone or triassic. The imitation is so perfect that we have to assure ourselves of its artificiality, the great blocks being so admirably modelled, and the dislocations adapted for the accommodation of plants, while having the complexion of perfect naturalness. The planting is sufficient to give richness and variety without overloading it, for a rockery should display its rocks, as well as its Ivies and Brambles and Junipers and Ferns, which are here delightfully represented, with many lovely alpines to make a botanists’ paradise of the scene.’
As far as we know, the rocks are entirely man-made - even the steps that lead up from one level to another - and this is perhaps rather surprising, considering that there were two Malvern Hill quarries within four miles of the site at the time the garden was built.
Fig 3 - Massive archway between the rocks
Fig 1 shows the view that greets the visitor when they approach the rock garden from the main path, and Fig 2 is of the Dropping Well, situated to the right of the main mass, under the shadow of the massive crags. One of the huge archways is shown in Fig 3, while Fig 4 shows a rock, on the end of which is a distinct ‘Pulham Face’ - it may take a few minutes to spot this, but it is so obvious once you have!
Fig 4 - A ‘Pulham Face’ on the end of a rock at Madresfield
There is something else tucked away in the Rock Garden at Madresfield that is almost unique. It is an inscription stone, and it is not too easy to find. There is a very narrow crevice between one of the main masses of rock, not far from the entrance, and a small row of rocks that run just in front of it. If you squeeze round between the two, you may just see a few inscribed words, left by the Pulham workmen who created the structures. It is hardly possible to photograph, but Fig 5 is from a rubbing that was done some time ago. It reads: ‘This work by Mr J Pulham, Broxbourne, AD 1878-79. Workmen R Pegram, Boss, J Stracey, J Jonson, Fini July 18.’
Fig 5 - From the Inscription Stone at Madresfield
Fig 6 - The fountain basin at Madresfield today, looking towards the East Wing of the housecontra mundum
“It comes as a shock to discover that Waugh nearly called Charles Ryder by the surname of Fenwick, and almost gave Cordelia the first name Bridget.”
Madresfield Court is located next to the village of Madresfield, in Worcestershire. It is the...
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Madresfield Court is located next to the village of Madresfield, in Worcestershire. It is the ancestral home of the Lygon family .
In 1593 Madresfield Court was rebuilt, replacing a 15th century building. It was again remodelled in the 19th century to resemble a moated Elizabethan house and contains more than 100 rooms. The chapel was sumptuously decorated in the Arts and Crafts style by the architect Philip Charles Hardwick.
Evelyn Waugh was a frequent guest to the house and is said to have based the Flyte family in Brideshead Revisited on the Lygons. During World War II, the house was planned as a place of evacuation for the Royal family.
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In this episode of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor brings together the cast, the producer and the director of the iconic TV drama Brideshead Revisited.:
Listen now (45 minutes)
Last broadcast on Fri, 16 Apr 2010, 09:00 on BBC Radio 4
Listen now (45 minutes)
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“The school had been chosen for Charles because, at the age of eleven, he had had a “religious phase” and told his father that he wished to become a priest.
“Good heavens,” his father said; “or do you mean a parson?”
“A priest of the Anglican Church,” said Charles precisely.
“That’s better. I thought you meant a Roman Catholic. Well, a parson’s is not at all a bad life for a man with a little money of his own. They can’t remove you except for flagrant immorality. Your uncle has been trying to get rid of his fellow at Boughton for ten years—a most offensive fellow but perfectly chaste. He won’t budge. It’s a great thing in life to have a place you can’t be removed from—too few of them.”
But the “phase” had passed and lingered now only in Charles’s love of Gothic architecture and breviaries.”
- Charles Ryder’s Schooldays
“Good heavens,” his father said; “or do you mean a parson?”
“A priest of the Anglican Church,” said Charles precisely.
“That’s better. I thought you meant a Roman Catholic. Well, a parson’s is not at all a bad life for a man with a little money of his own. They can’t remove you except for flagrant immorality. Your uncle has been trying to get rid of his fellow at Boughton for ten years—a most offensive fellow but perfectly chaste. He won’t budge. It’s a great thing in life to have a place you can’t be removed from—too few of them.”
But the “phase” had passed and lingered now only in Charles’s love of Gothic architecture and breviaries.”
- Charles Ryder’s Schooldays
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Madresfield Court - 360 degree pictures:
Take a look at these panoramic pictures of Madresfield Court near Malvern. The image may take a couple of minutes to download, but it’s well worth the wait.
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Madresfield Court, near Malvern, Worcestershire, where the Royal Family would have been evacuated to if the Nazis had invaded.
Read the whole article at the ‘source’ link; I will only quote one passage.
The earl’s wife decamped to her brother’s estate in Cheshire after discovering what she, in her innocence, termed his “buglery”, leaving Madresfield – known in the family as “Mad” – in the hands of the Lygon children. House party followed house party. Waugh, the middle-class writer from Golders Green with a fascination for the aristocracy, drank it all in. Boom was the inspiration for his Lord Marchmain, and Hugh Lygon, the doomed second son and most likely a lover of Waugh’s at Oxford, was reinvented as Sebastian Flyte. A drunk, he died in 1936 after hitting his head on the pavement during a motoring tour of Bavaria.
According to Ken Davis, who delivered groceries to Madresfield before the war, there was no great liking for the Lygons locally.
“That was nobody’s business what was going on down there. The earl carried on with local men. He met them when he was hunting.”
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The Oxford Radcliffe Camera (also called “the Rad Cam” in Oxford), is a building in Oxford, England. Radcliffe is designed by James Gibbs in the English Baroque style and built in 1737-1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. The building was funded by a