Bowood House
Encyclopedia
Georgian era
The Georgian era is a period of British history which takes its name from, and is normally defined as spanning the reigns of, the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain : George I, George II, George III and George IV...
country house with interiors by Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
and a garden designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. It is adjacent to the village of Derry Hill
Derry Hill
Derry Hill is a village in the English county of Wiltshire, belonging to the civil parish of Calne Without.-Geography:Derry Hill is located to the south of the A4 road, east of Chippenham and to the west of Calne...
, halfway between Calne
Calne
Calne is a town in Wiltshire, southwestern England. It is situated at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs hill range, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty....
and Chippenham
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Chippenham is a market town in Wiltshire, England, located east of Bath and west of London. In the 2001 census the population of the town was recorded as 28,065....
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The greater part of the house was demolished in 1956.
History
The first house at Bowood was built circa 1725 on the site of a hunting lodgeHunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
, by the former tenant Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baronet
Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baronet
Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baronet was a British baronet and Whig politician.-Background:He was the oldest son of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet and his wife Mary Cave, daughter of Sir Thomas Cave, 1st Baronet. His sister Penelope was married to Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington...
, who had purchased the property from the Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
. His grandfather Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, had previously been granted the lease by Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. Bridgeman got into financial strife, and in 1739 under a Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
Decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
, the house and park were acquired by his principal creditor Richard Long. In 1754 Long sold it to the first Earl of Shelburne
Earl of Shelburne
Earl of Shelburne is a title that has been created two times while the title of Baron Shelburne has been created three times. The Shelburne title was created for the first time in the Peerage of Ireland in 1688 when Elizabeth, Lady Petty, was made Baroness Shelburne. She was the wife of the noted...
, who employed architect Henry Keene
Henry Keene
Henry Keene was an English architect, notable for designing buildings in the Gothic Revival and Neoclassical style.- Life and work :...
to extend the house. The 2nd Earl, Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
from 1782 to 1783, was created Marquess of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne, in the County of Somerset, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. This branch of the family descends from the Hon...
for negotiating peace with America after the War of Independence
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. He furnished Bowood and his London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
home, Lansdowne House
Lansdowne House
Lansdowne House is a building to the southwest of Berkeley Square in central London, England. It was designed by Robert Adam as a private house and for most of its time as a residence it belonged to the Petty family, Marquesses of Lansdowne. Since 1935, it has been the home of the Lansdowne Club....
, with superb collections of paintings and classical sculpture, and commissioned Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
to decorate the grander rooms in Bowood and to add a magnificent orangery
Orangery
An orangery was a building in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...
, as well as a small menagerie
Menagerie
A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...
for wild animals where a leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
and an orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
were kept in the 18th century. Adam also built a fine mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
for the 1st Earl in the park.
In the 1770s the two parts of the house at Bowood (the "Big House" and the "Little House") were joined together by the construction of an enormous drawing room. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Big House was first occupied by a school, then by the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. Afterwards it was left empty, and by 1955 it was so dilapidated that the 8th Marquess demolished it, employing architect F. Sortain Samuels to convert the Little House into a more comfortable home.
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Gardens
Bowood is one of Capability Brown's finest parks. He extended a pond into a large curved lake. Laid out over 2,000 acreAcre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (8 km²) in the 1760s, it replaced an earlier, more formal garden of avenues and wildernesses. Brown's design encompasses a sinuous lake (almost 1 km long), with lawns sloping gently down from the house, and drifts of mature trees. Brown planted an arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
of rare trees in the Pleasure Grounds behind the walled garden, and these were added to in the mid-19th century when a pinetum was begun. It was at about this time that the Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
Temple folly
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
, originally situated by Brown in the Pleasure Grounds, was moved to its present position beside the lake.
In 1766, Lady Shelburne visited the landscape garden created by Charles Hamilton
Charles Hamilton (MP)
Charles Hamilton , styled The Honourable from birth, was a British politician.He was a younger son of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn....
on his estate Painshill Park
Painshill Park
Painshill Park , near Cobham, Surrey, England, is one of the finest remaining examples of an 18th century English landscape park. It was designed and created between 1738 and 1773 by the Hon. Charles Hamilton .Painshill Park is owned by Elmbridge Borough Council and managed by the Painshill Park...
. Hamilton was then asked to improve on Capability Brown's improvements. Working with Josiah Lane, the same artisan stonemason who had built the new cascade and grotto at Painshill Park, Hamilton added a cascade
Cascade
- Ecology :* a type of waterfall or a series of waterfalls.* Trophic cascade, when predators in a food web suppress their prey, releasing the next lower trophic level from predation* Cascade effect , the triggering of series of secondary extinctions...
and grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
to the Bowood landscape.
The great Italianate terrace garden
Italian Renaissance garden
The Italian Renaissance garden was a new style of garden which emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landscape beyond, for contemplation, and for the...
s on the south front of the house were commissioned by the 3rd Marquess. The Upper Terrace, by Sir Robert Smirke, was completed in 1818, and the Lower, by George Kennedy, was added in 1851. Originally planted with hundreds of thousands of annuals in intricate designs, the parterres are now more simply planted.
Lansdowne residents
Bowood House is the stately homeStately home
A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
of the Lansdowne family and has been the residence of:
- Sir William PettyWilliam PettySir William Petty FRS was an English economist, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to survey the land that was to be confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers...
, (1622–1687) - Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of KerryThomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of KerryThomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry PC was an Irish peer and politician.He was the son of William FitzMaurice, 20th Baron Kerry, and Constance Long, and succeeded his father in March 1696/97 and was invested as a Privy Counsellor before April 1711...
(1668–1741) - John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne (1705–1761)
- William Petty Fitzmaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburn & 1st Marquess of LansdowneWilliam Petty, 2nd Earl of ShelburneWilliam Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, PC , known as The Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister 1782–1783 during the final...
, (1737–1803) - John Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 2nd Marquess of Lansdowne (1765–1809)
- Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of LansdowneHenry Petty-FitzMaurice, 3rd Marquess of LansdowneHenry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne KG, PC, FRS , known as Lord Henry Petty from 1784 to 1809 and then as The Earl of Kerry to 1818, was a British statesman...
, (1780–1863) - Henry Charles Petty Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of LansdowneHenry Petty-FitzMaurice, 4th Marquess of LansdowneHenry Thomas Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne KG , styled Lord Henry Petty-FitzMaurice until 1836 and Earl of Shelburne between 1836 and 1863, was a British politician.-Background and education:...
(1816–1866) - Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of LansdowneHenry Petty-FitzMaurice, 5th Marquess of LansdowneHenry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC was a British politician and Irish peer who served successively as the fifth Governor General of Canada, Viceroy of India, Secretary of State for War, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs...
, (1845–1927) - Henry William Edmund Petty Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of LansdowneHenry Petty-FitzMaurice, 6th Marquess of LansdowneLieutenant-Colonel Henry William Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne DSO MVO , styled Earl of Kerry until 1927, was a British soldier and politician.-Background:...
(1872–1936) - Charles Hope Petty Fitzmaurice, 7th Marquess of LansdowneCharles Petty-FitzMaurice, 7th Marquess of LansdowneCharles Hope Petty-Fitzmaurice, 7th Marquess of Lansdowne was the son of Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne.He died in 1944, aged 27 in Italy, killed in action during the Second World War...
(1917–1944) - George John Charles Petty Fitzmaurice, 8th Marquess of LansdowneGeorge Petty-FitzMaurice, 8th Marquess of LansdowneGeorge John Charles Mercer Nairne Petty-Fitzmaurice, 8th Marquess of Lansdowne DL , known as George Petty-Fitzmaurice until 1944, was a British peer and Conservative politician.-Background:...
(1912–1999) - Charles Petty-FitzMaurice, 9th Marquess of LansdowneCharles Petty-FitzMaurice, 9th Marquess of LansdowneCharles Maurice Petty-FitzMaurice, 9th Marquess of Lansdowne LVO DL , styled Earl of Shelburne between 1944 and 1997, is a British peer.-Early life:...
(b. 1941) - Simon Henry George Petty Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne (b. 1970)
20th century
The "big house" was demolished in 1955 for economic reasons. However, the remaining house is still large, and the front wing is open to the public with rooms, paintings and sculpture on display. One of the rooms was the laboratory of Joseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
, who discovered oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
there on 1 August 1774. In the year 2000 Bowood House was designated an ACS National Historical Chemical Landmark
ACS National Historical Chemical Landmarks
The National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program was launched by the American Chemical Society in 1992 and has recognized more than 60 landmarks to date. The program celebrates the centrality of chemistry...
in recognition of the importance of Priestley's discovery.
It is said that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles used to meet in Bowood regularly during their 30-year affair. It was discovered that the lake was formed at the sacrifice of a village called Manning's Hill, which to this day remains submerged in the lake. In 2007, divers found the remains of two cottages and stone walls under the lake.
In the grounds is an adventure playground, for children aged 12 and under, a large waterfall, and many gardens incorporating 2 miles or 3.2 km of Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
walks in May and June and carpets of daffodils, narcissi and Common Bluebell
Common Bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta, commonly known as the common bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial plant. -Taxonomy:...
s in Spring.