Discussion Paper: Where Is Capability Brown at Ickworth? S Rutherford 03 December 2015
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ICKWORTH Suffolk DISCUSSION PAPER: WHERE IS CAPABILITY BROWN AT ICKWORTH? Ickworth Lodge, east front, 1804, Quinton. Commissioned by THE NATIONAL TRUST from DR SARAH RUTHERFORD for SR Historic Environment Ltd 03 December 2015 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 4 2 SOURCES ............................................................................ 5 3 THE FACTS .......................................................................... 6 4 INTERPRETATION OF THE FACTS ...................................... 11 5 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................. 14 6 HISTORIC IMAGES AND PLANS ......................................... 15 FIGURES Map A Potential Areas of Activity by Lancelot Brown 2 Figure 1 1816, Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawing annotated with possible areas of Brown influence (British Library). ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2 1804, rotunda & church, Quinton. .......................................................................................... 15 Figure 3 1804, church and valley overlooking the site of the walled garden which is masked by a conifer plantation, Quinton. ................................................................................................................. 15 Figure 4 1804, Ickworth Lodge, east front, Quinton. ............................................................................ 16 Figure 5 1805, Ickworth walled garden and canal from the south, Quinton. ....................................... 16 Figure 6 1805, Detail of walled garden with plantation and valley behind, Quinton. .......................... 16 Figure 7 1783, Hodgkinson map of Suffolk, detail of Ickworth. ............................................................ 17 Figure 8 1816, Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawing, detail of Ickworth Park (British Library). ..................... 18 Figure 9 c.1810‐20, Isaacson Estate Map (National Trust) ................................................................... 19 1 MAP A Lancelot Brown at Ickworth Potential Areas of Activity (1950s OS 6” base). By 1780s 7 5a 1786 5c 2b 5b 1 7 6 2a 3 4 By 1780s By 1780s By 1780s KEY Pink shading = possible extent of park that could have been influenced by Brown (based on Phibbs/Gallagher report and recent site analysis) Green line = approximate park boundary by 1783 (based on first mapping of park boundary, Hodgkinson map of Suffolk) Brown ovals = schematic clumps present by 1780s (i.e. shown on Hodgkinson map of Suffolk), with sites possibly influenced by Brown. White numbered areas = Brown’s most likely features/activities (based on Phibbs/Gallagher report and recent site analysis) Blue line = course of River Linnet Red line = former main drive across park, between Horringer/ Ickworth Lodge and out to NW (1783, Hodgkinson) 1. Ickworth Lodge Garden, said to have been reduced in size by Brown 2. Albana Wood, probably E side (2a); perhaps he also suggested the (Phibbs/Gallagher). concept of final circuit layout & pleasure ground in Ickworth Lodge Wood west of the Lodge (2b). Strong contender to be by Brown. 3. Church valley, 6 London Planes (5 + stump) frame view from Albana down valley 4. House site, edge of plateau overlooking park to S. Unlikely Brown towards walled garden, possibly other planting. Strong contender to be by Brown. identified site 1760s/70s; possible in 1781 with his house designs. 5. 5a & b: Clumps framing North Vista (5c). 6. Horringer Park specimen trees and further clumps. Clump 5b The Grove (as noted by Phibbs/Gallagher) framed the C18 drive to the 7. Horringer Park drive, Horringer to Ickworth Lodge and possibly Lodge from the E entrance near Horringer church. continuing westwards across the park over the Linnett. Clump 5b may relate to views to Ice House Hill to the NW, and the Lodge to the W. North Vista (5c) can only be connected with Brown if he sited the new house. 2 5a 2b 5b 1 7 2a 3 4 Figure 1 1816, Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawing annotated with possible areas of Brown influence (British Library). Numbers and views correspond with those on 1950s annotated map as Brown’s main possible areas of influence/activity. By now the 1st Marquess had begun work on Ickworth grounds The Grove (5b) seems to be positioned too far north as it should be closer to the main drive to Ickworth Lodge. 3 Discussion Paper: Where is Capability Brown at Ickworth? S Rutherford 03 December 2015 1 INTRODUCTION Lancelot Brown (1716‐83) was the most prolific, renowned and talented of the designers of the English Landscape Garden (gardens on a large scale which seem natural and irregular), which were at their zenith between 1750 and 1800 and came to represent the epitome of British garden design. He worked as an independent designer between 1750 and 1783 and is connected with some 250 or more sites in England and Wales including 6 or so where he is known to have advised in Suffolk and 1 one or two tentatively ascribed to him.0F0F Brown worked at Ickworth, providing landscape advice in the middle of his career and a design for the house near the end of his life/career. The detail of his input and areas in which he worked remain tantalizingly unclear. Although records of payments made to him provide sure evidence of his connection with Ickworth, they are unhelpful in providing any idea of his design vision or schemes. However, peripheral evidence offers opportunities to identify potential areas of his activity including map evidence and the remains in the landscape itself (including trees and extant and relict features), which together with an understanding of his style and working methods can help to identify where he could have worked. Based on evidence from site observation by S Rutherford (2015), the sources below and their interpretation, this paper identifies possible features that survive in the landscape at Ickworth that could be by Brown. It plots these on maps and offers discussion of facts and interpretation as follows. The facts, their interpretation and conclusions include the results of discussions with Chris Gallagher, one of the De Bois park survey team in 1980, NT Curator James Rothwell who has recently been carrying out extensive research into the C18 archival material and contributed new data and analysis, and NT Regional Archaeologist Angus Wainwright. 1 Redgrave (1763‐73), Branches Park (1763‐5), Euston (1767‐71), Ickworth (1768‐73, 1781/2), Elvedon (possibly, 1769), Fornham Genevieve (1782), Heveningham (1781). See Garden History 41.2 (2013). 4 Discussion Paper: Where is Capability Brown at Ickworth? S Rutherford 03 December 2015 2 SOURCES Key sources include: 2.1 WRITTEN Lancelot Brown’s Business Account Book, covering the period 1764 to his death in 1783. Bank ledgers for the Herveys at Goslings and for Brown at Drummonds (now RBS Archive). W Childe‐Pemberton, The Earl‐Bishop... Vol. 1 (1924). Ed. SHA Hervey, Journals of the Hon. William Hervey, in North America and Europe, from 1755 to 1814; with order books at Montreal, 1760‐1763 (1906). [General Hervey’s Diaries edited by the 1st Marquess’s grandson] The diary of the Duchess of Northumberland c.1770 (quoted in Phibbs/Gallagher, 1980). Research carried out by S Rutherford as preparation for Capability Brown and his Landscape Gardens (National Trust Publishers, forthcoming, 2016). Phibbs/Gallagher Park Tree Survey for the National Trust (1980). L Barker, ‘A Survey of the Garden of Ickworth Lodge’ (English Heritage, 2005). 2.2 MAPS Hodgkinson map of Suffolk, 1783 (Suffolk Record Office). Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawing, 1816 (British Library). Isaacson Estate Map, c.1810‐20 (National Trust). 6” Ordnance Survey, all editions, 1870s‐1950s. 2.3 IMAGES Quinton watercolours of the south park, 1804‐05 (NT and private collection). 5 Discussion Paper: Where is Capability Brown at Ickworth? S Rutherford 03 December 2015 3 THE FACTS 3.1 FACT 1 BROWN WAS PAID TO ADVISE ON THE GROUNDS AT ICKWORTH Brown was paid a sum by the 2nd Earl of Bristol for landscape advice at Ickworth, spread into at least four payments over a five year period, 1768‐73. It was a standard sum for advice on what could have been a fairly extensive scheme. The account was recorded as settled in 1776 (no sum mentioned at 2 that time).1F No documentary evidence concerning Brown’s work survives to indicate the areas of his contribution to the landscape in this phase. Brown recorded in his account book (p.77) that he was paid £581 in 3 fairly even sized sums between 1770 and 1773 for work for the Earl of Bristol. Several of these payments are confirmed in his Drummonds Bank account ledger and in the Herveys’ Goslings ledgers (recently inspected by James Rothwell), in which his first payment is recorded in July 1768, indicating he had already advised by this point. AND in the Goslings account is an additional payment of £201 (see James Rothwell photos) beyond the payments in Brown’s account book bringing the total paid to him for this tranche of work to £781 between 1768 and 1773. Final outstanding payment was received in 1776. DISCUSSION This was a medium‐sized sum to be paid to Brown, indicating a detailed input from him and numerous visits. This was typical of a scheme on which he advised rather than supervised the work in detail as carried out by a foreman. After a site was surveyed and a plan agreed Brown was flexible about how it was put on the ground. In many cases he offered advice on the execution by the owner’s men carrying