James Stevens Curl, ‘The Tomb in the Garden: A Few Observations on “The Shepherdess’s Tomb” at Shugborough, Staffordshire’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. XXIV, 2016, pp. 53–64

text © the authors 2016 The Tomb in the Garden: A Few Observations on ‘The Shepherdess’s Tomb’ at Shugborough Staffordshire

j a m e s s t e v e n s c u r l

he presence of the Mausoleum, Tomb, tomb: the shadow of one of the shepherds cast on TCenotaph, or Memorial in the landscape the monument alludes to the Spirit, or Classical garden has been the subject of numerous studies, Manes, and the inscription was interpreted to mean far too many to be listed here. Nicolas Poussin either ‘and I was once an inhabitant of Arcady’ or (1594–1665), in the second version of his painting that, even there, in Arcadia, ‘I’ (meaning Death) on the et in Arcadia ego theme (c.1635–6), depicted was ever-present (though there have been other shepherds in an Arcadian landscape studying the explanations as well, some turgid, some reasonable, inscription on a simple, rather severe Classical and some not). Standing to the right is a female

Fig. 1. Nicolas Poussin’s second version of the Et in Arcadia Ego theme, known as ‘Arcadian Shepherds’ (reproduced from James Stevens Curl, Freemasonry & the Enlightenment: Architecture, Symbols, & Influences. (: Historical Publications Ltd., 2011)

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   t h e t o m b i n t h e g a r d e n : ‘ t h e shepherdess ’ s t o m b ’ a t shugborough

Fig. 2. The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens, Fig. 3. The ‘Lanthorn of Demosthenes’ at Shugborough reproduced from James Stuart & Nicholas Revett, (1764–9). (Photograph © James Stevens Curl) The Antiquities of Athens I (London: John Haberkorn, 1762), Ch. IV. Pl. III, engraved by Edward Rooker [1724–74]. (Collection James Stevens Curl)

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   t h e t o m b i n t h e g a r d e n : ‘ t h e shepherdess ’ s t o m b ’ a t shugborough figure contemplating the scene. Yet, with Poussin’s eaves-tiles or on top of the crowning cymae of the vision, overt references to Death (e.g. skulls, bones, entablature, and sometimes occurring also on the animated skeletons, etc., that had been features of ridge, but there, too, the spacing would have been Baroque and earlier art) were expunged. A gentle governed by the distances between the covering- melancholy pervaded the lovely composition, and tiles. Furthermore, antefixa took typical palmette all allusions to the familiar horrors of decay, bones, or anthemion forms, set over twin scroll- or volute- decomposition, and dank, unwholesome graveyards like elements, and the upper edges of the upright were absent. Here was the peaceful, beautiful ideal, antefixum were shaped in accordance with the a place fit for reflection and memories, where death upper part of each frond, so were not smooth curves. was civilised (Fig.1)1. It was certainly a mighty The Shugborough antefixa, loosely based on those prompt in the first stirrings of what became the set over the entablature of the Greek-Corinthian campaign to establish garden-cemeteries. Order of the Lysicrates Monument in Athens, have The image often recurs, perhaps most rather crudely carved, somewhat un-Greek fronds, evocatively, in the so-called ‘Shepherd’s Grave’ resembling limp salad-leaves, carved on circular or ‘Tomb’ in the gardens at Shugborough, Staffordshire, where several celebrated fabriques were erected, designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart (1713–88): these include the ‘Doric Temple’ (1760); the ‘Lanthorn of Demosthenes’ (1764–9), derived from the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens,2 but omitting the tall, square podium of channel- rusticated masonry and blue Hymettos limestone on which the original stands (Fig.2), so that the impact of the ‘Lanthorn’ in the landscape at Shugborough is not what it could have been, and the ensemble looks truncated, stunted, and incomplete (Fig.3); the ‘Tower of the Winds’ (1764–5; Fig.4), based on the ‘Horologium of Andronicus Cyrrhestes’3; and the Triumphal Arch (1764–7), based on the ‘Arch of Hadrian’, Athens (Fig. 5).4 The strangely moving ‘Shepherd’s Grave’ or ‘Tomb ’, also known, significantly, in the eighteenth century as the ‘Shepherdess’s Grave’ or ‘Tomb’ (supposedly ­ c.1758–60, but probably c.1755), consists of two rough-hewn Greek-Doric columns, with the flutes only partly carved,5 carrying a Greek-Doric entablature above which are antefixa-like ornaments spaced closely together (as they were on the Fig. 4. ‘Tower of the Winds’ at Shugborough (1764–5). Choragic Monument of Lysicrates) (Fig.6). (Photograph © James Stevens Curl) Normally, antefixa were decorative terminations of the covering-tiles set over the joints between the flat tiles of a roof, placed either directly on the

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   t h e t o m b i n t h e g a r d e n : ‘ t h e shepherdess ’ s t o m b ’ a t shugborough disc-like elements (reminding one of decorated sufficient care, for the Order, with antefixa closely oyster-shells, perhaps), whereas the Lysicrates spaced, is clearly delineated in Chapter IV, Plate VI Monument has elegantly carved, unmistakably (Fig. 7), of the first volume of Stuart and Revett’s Grecian anthemion motifs on horseshoe-shaped The Antiquities of Athens. It is odd, however, to have uprights: the continuous repeated elements at added those particular antefixa to a Doric structure: Shugborough have more in common with late- the two do not belong, and as there are no roof-tiles Gothic brattishing or cresting on chancel-screens, on the ‘Shepherd’s’ or ‘Shepherdess’s Tomb’ at rather than with echt-Greek work, but the spacing Shugborough, the crestings were anomalies, but it owes its origins to the Athenian original as recorded appears that the original antefixa were vandalised in by Stuart and Revett. Some commentators have the 1990s, so the ornaments that are there now are thought that the close spacing of the antefixa at not original anyway. Shugborough is most unusual, and thus rather rules So we have an aedicule with two rough-hewn out Stuart as the designer. Such commentators have Greek-Doric columns virtually identical to the obviously not looked at the Lysicrates model with exemplar we know was drawn in pen-and-ink, with

Fig. 5. ‘Arch of Theseus, or of Hadrian’, Athens, reproduced from James Stuart & Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Athens III (London: John Nichols, 1794), Ch. III. Pl. IV, drawn by Stuart and engraved by Wilson Lowry [1760–1824]. (Collection James Stevens Curl)

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Fig. 6. The ‘Shepherdess’s Grave’ at Shugborough, Staffordshire, with Scheemakers’s version of Poussin’s Arcadian Shepherds (reproduced from James Stevens Curl, Georgian Architecture in the British Isles 1714–1830. (Swindon: English Heritage, 2011)

a wash, by Stuart, now in the British Library, except that the unfluted parts of the column-shafts are embellished with curiously un-Classical carvings to enhance the crude, primitive, archaic allusions, Fig.7. Detail of the Corinthian capital, and the lowest section of the column on the left entablature, and crowning antefixa-like elements has rudimentary carvings suggestive, perhaps, of decorated with anthemion, Choragic Monument of Neolithic decorations seen by Wright during his Lysicrates, Athens, reproduced from James Stuart & sojourns in Ireland when preparing his Louthiana Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Athens I (1748).6 These Doric columns support a Greek- (London: John Haberkorn, 1762), Ch.IV. Pl.VI, Doric entablature with six triglyphs on its frieze, and engraved by Edward Rooker (1724–7). (Collection James Stevens Curl) above the crowning cornice is a row of inaccurately- observed antefixum-like elements, more like shells, owing their origins to the unusual Greek-Corinthian Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, but singularly inappropriate in this case. Each metope of the frieze

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Fig. 8. Detail of the mirror-image of Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego by Scheemakers. (Photograph © James Stevens Curl).

is carved with a relief: at each end of the frieze the head in relief, one certainly male (possibly Pan or a metope is enriched with a laurel-wreath, perhaps Faun, therefore alluding to Arcadia), and the other suggested by the decorations on the Choragic probably female. This rather strangely assembled Monument of Thrasyllus, published in 1789 in aedicule frames a grotto-like arch taken almost Volume II, Ch. IV, Pl. III (with detail as Pl. IV), of straight from a design by Thomas Wright (1711–86)7 The Antiquities of Athens. The central metope also within which is a carved relief by Peter Scheemakers has a laurel-wreath, but with cypress-like fronds (c.1691–1781), the subject being et in Arcadia ego, but arranged in saltire fashion intertwined with it, and in a mirror-image of Poussin’s painting (Fig.8), and on either side each remaining metope has a human with the ‘tomb’ itself transformed into something

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   t h e t o m b i n t h e g a r d e n : ‘ t h e shepherdess ’ s t o m b ’ a t shugborough grander, less simple, more Baroque, perhaps owing (Best of Wives, Best of Sisters, a Most Loving something to funerary monuments by James Gibbs Widower dedicates this to her Virtues), but this (1682–1754). attempted reconstruction is strictly exempli gratia, It has been suggested that the Grecian elements and interpretation is open to anyone who wants were the work of Stuart, and that the aedicule was to try out his or her hand.10 There have also been added to the Wrightean arch, possibly to protect suggestions that the inscription may allude to that it. The designers of this haunting ‘grave’ in an which is ephemeral, or to the transience of existence: English garden were thus Scheemakers, Wright, and in this reading, the V V may stand for the vanitas (probably) ‘Athenian’ Stuart (whose delineations of vanitatum in Ecclesiastes 1:2 and 12:8, but proposed the antefixa may have been misinterpreted by the phrases or ‘translations’ into Latin from Ecclesiastes person or persons who carved and constructed the do not really work or fit the inscription. This ‘Tomb’, ‘Tomb’, but this is insufficient to discount Stuart however, clearly suggests loss, longing, and the altogether, given that the columns themselves are unattainable ideal of ancient Arcady (emphasised by too close to a drawing we know was by him).8 the primitivist nature of the curiously transmogrified The pedestal under Scheemakers’s relief is inscribed Doric Order), and the wreaths, crossed cypress with the mysterious letters fronds, Scheemakers carving, and mysterious inscription have obvious elegiac, even funereal O · U · O · S · V · A · V · V allusions. It has been argued that the ‘Tomb’ may D · M · have been a metonym for the overall scheme, an incarnation of Arcady,11 and the original setting of the An attempt is here made to interpret this, because fabrique as hinted at in eighteenth-century accounts all sorts of rumours have led to curious speculations was undoubtedly solemn, with ‘spiry cypress’, and even vandalism, with absurd claims (among ‘dim ilex’, and many other plants emphasising the others) that the Holy Grail is there interred, thus commemorative, longingly regretful, and bitter-sweet inspiring the lunatic fringe into action (always aspects of profound grief associated with the transient a disagreeable phenomenon). Here, drawing nature of existence.12 on rusty memories of schoolboy Classics,9 an There was, of course, a long history of literary interpretation is humbly offered in an attempt to allusions to commemoration in garden-settings, bring a degree of sanity back to the matter, but it harking back to Antiquity and especially to Virgilian should be emphasised this is only an hypothesis, descriptions of Arcady. English writers, such as based on reason, some understanding of Antiquity, Abraham Cowley (1618–67), had expressed desires and a profound interest in the whole subject of to be buried in gardens, away from pain and noise, commemoration. The D M would stand for DI where the beauties of landscape evoked Paradise13. MANES, or DIS MANIBUS, terms given to Roman One of the first major English landscape gardens dead as a sort of title, and meaning ‘To their Manes’ to suggest the Elysian Fields was that at Castle or ‘Shades’, sc. of the Departed. Capital letters with Howard, , where the great mausoleum dots between them signify the first letters of words in and pyramid (1728) entombed and commemorated a sentence, perhaps standing for the dead. Alexander Pope (1688–1744) created a garden of ‘memory and meditation’ at Twickenham OPTIMAE UXORIS OPTIMAE SORORIS (1719–44) containing an obelisk set in a grove of VIRTUTIBUS AMANTISSIMUS VOVIT cypresses (as a memorial to his mother) which was VIDUUS much admired and publicised, notably by Christian

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Cajus Lorenz Hirschfeld (1742–92) in his Theorie far away from Shugborough, mentioned (1772) how der Gartenkunst,14 who gave credit to Nature pours: for introducing memorials such as urns, columns, ‘Profuse her verdure & her flowers, and buildings into gardens, but who in turn was Her earliest, freshest bloom, massively influenced by theNight Thoughts of Embroidering all the hallow’d ground Edward Young (1683–1765).15 Pope’s obelisk appears With blue-bells, daisies, violets, round 20 to have been one of the first such memorials through Your shepherdesses tomb!’ which the poet sought to retain the presence of his mother near him by means of allusions, mnemonics, George Hardinge (1743–1816), in his memoir of and the artful composition of a landscaped garden.16 Sneyd Davies (1709–69), who knew the Sewards (see Whatever the explanation, the ‘Shepherd’s below) when living in ,21 confirmed Bagot as Tomb’ may have acquired associations with the author of this verse, but, some fifteen years before Elizabeth, Lady Anson (1725–60), wife of Vice- Bagot alluded to ‘shepherdesses’, John Gilbert Admiral George Anson, Baron Anson of Soberton Cooper (1723–69) had mentioned the reference to (1697–1762): both Admiral Lord Anson and his wife Poussin’s picture in the Refléxions Critiques sur are celebrated in , again by Scheemakers, la Poésie et sur la Peinture (1719)22 by the Abbé on the ‘Triumphal Arch’ at Shugborough.17 Thomas Jean-Baptiste Du Bos (1670–1742)23 in his Letters Anson (c.1695–1773), the Admiral’s brother, owned Concerning Taste (1757).24 Du Bos claimed that the Shugborough and was a member of the Society tomb in the painting was of a shepherdess, whose of Dilettanti: he was responsible for employing body could be seen lying on it: William Shenstone Stuart to remodel the house and design the (1714–63) referred to the description of ‘Poussin’s garden-buildings. If the Admiral was actually the Arcadia’ in Du Bos’s book in a letter of 1759, and ‘Widower’ in question (Thomas never married), it mentioned that ‘Mr Anson’ had ‘the two shepherds would be perfectly reasonable to refer to Elizabeth with the monument and inscription’ (et in Arcadia as the ‘Sister’ of Thomas and as George’s ‘Wife’. ego) carved ‘in alto relievo at Shugborough’.25 The dates seem to fit the hypothesis as well, and However, there are other versions of the image in Lady Anson was certainly a person of considerable existence in various forms, actually with a corpse on accomplishments, with a reputation as a political top of the monument, and it is possible the Du Bos correspondent and manager, as well as having great description was based on one of those rather than on talents and charm.18 If the monument is, in fact, hers, the better-known paintings, neither of which implies then it is a worthy memorial. that a shepherdess is commemorated. And is it There are further points to consider. Some have possible Bagot meant shepherdesses, in the plural? suggested that the inscription may be a Latin version Thomas Pennant (1726–98) mentioned this of a Biblical quotation, or perhaps something to do ‘beautiful monument’ by ‘Schemecher’, erected with Stoic philosophy, but the presence of the D M under the direction of ‘the late Mr Anson’, showing indicates, almost certainly, that a person or persons two ‘lovers’ appearing ‘attentive to an ancient must be commemorated, rather than an idea, a shepherd, who reads them an inscription on a tomb: philosophy, or anything abstruse. It is also curious Et in Arcadia ego’.26 However, Sir Thomas Hugh that the name ‘Shepherd’s Tomb’ may be incorrect, Clifford (1762–1823; first Baronet from 1815) and his for some early descriptions refer to the artefact as the brother, Arthur Clifford (1777–1830), in their volume ‘Shepherdess’s Grave’ or ‘Tomb’. A friend of Anson, on the Parish of Tixall (1817), quote Pennant, though William Bagot (1728—98) of Blithfield Hall,19 not not quite accurately, and state that he did not record

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   t h e t o m b i n t h e g a r d e n : ‘ t h e shepherdess ’ s t o m b ’ a t shugborough the mysterious inscription, but that Anson was wont The work, but emulous of ancient praise. to ‘hang over’ the monument in ‘affectionate … Let not the Muse inquisitive presume With rash interpretation to disclose meditation’.27 The Cliffords did, however, spell the The mystic ciphers that conceal her name.34 sculptor ‘Schemeeker’, and noted that Anson would Whate’er her country, or however call’d never explain the meaning of the D M inscription, Peace to her gentle shade. The Muse shall oft which remains ‘an enigma to posterity’, which it may Frequent her honour’d shrine, with solemn song well do, in spite of these notes. Lyric, or elegiac: oft when eve Let us assume the artefact is, in fact, a Gives respite from the long days weary task, And dewy HESPER brightens in the west, ‘Shepherdess’s’ rather than a ‘Shepherd’s’ or Here shall the constant hind, & plighted maid ‘Shepherds’ Tomb’. Some authorities date it to Meet, & exchange their tokens, & their vows 1755–9,28 others suggest a time-frame of c.1748–55,29 Of faith, & love. Here weeping Spring shall shed but, given the date of publication of Wright’s designs, Her first pale snowdrops, bluebells, violets, it is reasonable to propose that the monument was And Summer’s earliest roses blossom here.’ erected c.1755, which would make it the earliest exemplar of the Greek Revival in England. However, So the monument, by 1767, was definitely associated Stuart only returned to England in that year, and the with female shepherds, and the cryptic inscription other fabriques by Stuart at Shugborough all date had been cut. Of course those mysterious letters from the 1760s, so it is possible that the aedicule was could have been part of the original structure, or added by him to Wright’s earlier work in that decade could have been cut at any time from 1755 to 1767, rather than in the mid-1750s, and that the ‘mysterious’ but, assuming they were added after Lady Anson’s inscription is possibly slightly later (the assemblage death, they could easily have commemorated her as a of elements in the fabrique is undoubtedly odd, even sister and a wife. clumsy). The Rev. Thomas Seward (1708–90) seems Christopher Hussey (1899–1970)35 muddied to have penned the earliest known reference to the the waters somewhat when he confused the three monument in ‘On an Emblematical Basso Relievo lines given in italics above with the shorter Seward after a famous Picture of Nicolas Poussin’ which we poem of (presumably) 1756. Nevertheless, several know was sent by Elizabeth Anson to her brother-in- contemporary writers associated the monument with law, Thomas, in 1756.30 This poem, also attributed the commemoration of a woman (or a girl), and one to the ‘Swan of Lichfield’, (1742–1809), refers to the ‘ciphers that conceal her name’, so it the clergyman’s daughter (who would have been was definitely a person, and a female person, who only 14 at the time), is not particularly interesting or was commemorated. Philip Yorke (1720–90; second accomplished, but the dated letter and the reference Earl of Hardwicke from 1764), Elizabeth Anson’s would seem to indicate that the monument was in brother, saw the monument in 1763 and enthused existence, with or without the Doric frame, in 1756. about the ‘most elegant Piece of modern ’ A much longer poem, however, which does not appear which did ‘great honour to Scheemaker’s chisel’.36 to be associated definitely with any author,31 and is However, James Lees-Milne (1908–97) pointed out dated 1767,32 contains the following lines: that he considered the old shepherd pointing to the 37 ‘Observe yon rising hillock’s form, inscription to represent Thomas Anson, and it Whose verdant top the spiry cypress crowns, does seem as though, during the second half of the And the dim ilex spreads her dusky arms eighteenth century, the monument was associated To shade th’ARCADIAN Shepherdesses33 tomb: with commemoration of a woman; that the woman Of PARIAN stone the pile: of modern hands was mourned by Thomas Anson; and that the

t h e g e o r g i a n g r o u p j o u r n a l v o l u m e x x i v   t h e t o m b i n t h e g a r d e n : ‘ t h e shepherdess ’ s t o m b ’ a t shugborough woman may have been Anson’s sister-in-law, thus with an ovine duo beside her right knee, painted the hypothetical interpretation of the cypher would by John Vanderbank, Jr. (1694–1739), which might fit. There could have been some other female held appear to strengthen the association of the ‘Tomb’ in high regard by Anson, but her identity is unlikely with her.40 A disconsolate Pan, gazing over the to emerge into the light of day now. However, the waters of the Sow, the funerary nature of the ‘Tomb’ crowning brattishing-like effect of the antefixa may and its setting, and much else might suggest a Love suggest that the monument is capped with a nod no longer within reach, lost for ever: why else would to Beauty, associated with the Corinthian Order, Anson ‘hang over’ the monument in ‘affectionate while the elemental Greek-Doric of the aedicule may meditation’? have been intended to allude to masculine Strength. Doubtless speculation will continue, but at The wreaths on the frieze may be elegiac and least this short paper sifts through the evidence, commemorative, and the central wreath, with fronds and comes up with what is hoped will appear as a arranged across it in saltire pattern, might concern reasonable analysis, if not solution. It is hoped that a remembrance of very close friendship, even love. in future, the epithet ‘Shepherdess’s Tomb’ will be And if the two heads represent a Faun and perhaps adopted, for it seems to have been thus called shortly a Nymph, then they and their habitat in Arcady after it was created. are commemorated by the wreaths, but it is Beauty which crowns the whole composition, and female Corinthian Beauty at that. On balance, it would seem that it is likely the best candidate for commemoration acknowledgements was Elizabeth, Lady Anson. The author records his grateful thanks to Dr Susan However, an undated letter from Lady Anson Wilson, whose own work on et in Arcadia ego to Thomas begins ‘Gentil Berger’, and refers to has been an inspiration, and who encouraged time spent at Shugborough, ‘les delectables rives … research that gave birth to this paper. She also les moments heureux … jours filés d’Or et de Soye38 suggested making contact again with Mr Hawkins, … vallons fleuris … collines ombrageuses … eaux advice which proved invaluable, so both she and claires et ondoyantes …’ and ‘surtout des Bergers et Mr Hawkins are warmly thanked for their help. Bergères si aimables qu’on y trouve’,39 which suggests they played at being shepherds and shepherdesses beside the delightful waters of the River Sow at Shugborough. Was there also a sly reference to making silk out of part of a sow there? Who can tell? Lady Anson was a lot younger than her husband, and perhaps she won the heart of her brother-in-law. It does seem that Thomas Anson grieved deeply for her, and the ‘Shepherdess’s Monument’ or ‘Tomb’ is perhaps a more apposite name for this charming fabrique (over which he would ‘hang’ in reverie and perhaps longing) than any mention of male shepherds. Finally, there exists at Shugborough a portrait of Lady Anson in her younger years, dressed as a shepherdess, holding a garland of flowers,

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endnotes 12. Garden History 38/1 (Summer 2010), pp. 20–34, 1. See Richard A. Etlin, The Architecture of Death: 35–49. The author is indebted to Joe Hawkins, The Transformation of the Cemetery in Eighteenth- Head of Landscape at Hagley Hall, for information Century Paris (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984), on the original planting and its associations, and passim. See also James Stevens Curl, ‘Young’s Night for letting him read his unpublished paper on Thoughts and the Origins of the Garden Cemetery’ ‘Opening the Shepherdess’s Tomb’. in Journal of Garden History 14/2 (Summer, 13. Etlin, op.cit., 163, 171. 1994), pp. 92–118; Curl, ‘Gardens of Allusion’ in 14. Christian Cajus Lorenz Hirschfeld, Theorie der Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 22/4 (December, Gartenkunst (Leipzig: M.G. Weidmanns Erben 1997), pp. 325–42; Curl, The Victorian Celebration und Reich, 1779–85). of Death (Thrupp, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 15. edward Young, Night Thoughts edited by Stephen 2004), pp. 1–36 (also published electronically Cornford (Cambridge: Cambridge University [London: Heritage Ebooks, 2015]); Curl, Press, 1998). See also Curl (1994) op.cit. passim. Freemasonry & the Enlightenment: Architecture, 16. Curl (2004) op.cit. p. 12. Symbols, & Influences (London: Historical 17. Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Publications, 2011), pp. 175–203; and Curl, Staffordshire (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Georgian Architecture in the British Isles 1714–1830 Ltd., 1974). (Swindon: English Heritage, 2011), pp. 106–7, 152. 18. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography II 2. James Stuart & Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of (2004), pp. 259–66. Athens I (London: John Haberkorn, 1762), Ch. IV. 19. The author is indebted yet again to Mr Hawkins 3 Ibid. Ch.III. for this. He also thanks Charlie and Cosy Bagot 4. James Stuart & Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Jewitt for memorable hospitality at Blithfield Hall, Athens III (London: John Nichols, 1794), Ch.III. and Nancy, Lady Bagot (1919–2014), for an erudite 5. See The British Library, London, Add. Ms. 22, 153 exposition of the church at Blithfield and its fol. 177, reproduced in Susan Weber Soros (ed.), monuments. James ‘Athenian’ Stuart 1713–1788: The Rediscovery 20. Staffordshire County Records, Anson Papers of Antiquity (New Haven & London: Yale D615/P(S)/2/5. University Press for The Bard Graduate Center 21. George Hardinge, Biographical Memoir of the Rev. for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Sneyd Davies, D.D. (London: privately printed, Culture, New York, 2006), p. 341, Fig. 7–37. 1816), pp. 160–1. 6. Thomas Wright, Louthiana: or, An Introduction 22. Jean-Baptiste Du Bos, Refléxions Critiques sur to the Antiquities of Ireland …etc. (London: la Poésie et sur la Peinture I (Paris: Pierre-Jean W. Faden for The Author, 1748). Mariette, 1719), p. 53. 7. Thomas Wright , Universal Architecture Book I: 23. Also Dubos. Six Original designs of Arbours (London: Thomas 24. John Gilbert Cooper, Letters Concerning Taste Wright, 1755), Plate A. Ap. Historic England’s 2015 (London: R. & J. Dodsley, 1757). Listing No. 1001167 suggests that the Wright work 25. See William Shenstone, The Works, in Verse and was 1748 and the Stuart Doric aedicule was added Prose, of William Shenstone, Esq. III (letter of in 1763. 2 October 1759 to Mr Graves) (London: R. & J. 8. See note 5 above. Dodsley, 1769), p. 336. 9. here, especial gratitude to A.H. Buck (1900–87) is 26. Thomas Pennant, The Journey from Chester to recorded. London (London: B. White, 1782), p. 68. 10. The author is here indebted to Professor 27. Sir Thomas & Arthur Clifford, A Topographical E.J. Kenney for suggestions. See Curl, Georgian and Historical description of the Parish of Tixall Architecture, pp. 106–7. in the County of Stafford (Paris: M. Nouzou, 1817), 11. See Jane Fejfer et al. (eds), The Rediscovery p. 65. This reference to Anson also comes from of Antiquity: The Role of the Artist. 10 Acta Pennant. Hyperborea (: Museum Tusculanum, 28. Ingrid Roscoe et al., Biographical Dictionary of University of Copenhagen, 2003), p. 393. Sculptors in Britain 1660–1851 (New Haven &

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London: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon 35. See Christopher Hussey, ‘Shugborough, Centre for Studies in British Art and The Henry Staffordshire I’ Country Life 115 (25 February Moore Foundation, 2009), p. 1106. 1954), pp. 510–13; ‘Shugborough, Staffordshire 29. howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary II’ Country Life 115 (4 March 1954), pp. 590–3; of British Architects 1600–1840 (New Haven & ‘Shugborough, Staffordshire III’ 115 (11 March London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 1168. 1954), pp. 676–9; ‘A Classical Landscape Park I’ Soros (ed.), James ‘Athenian’ Stuart., p. 341. Country Life 115 (15 April 1954), pp. 1126–9; and 30. eileen Harris, ‘Cracking the Poussin Code’ ‘A Classical Landscape II’ Country Life 115 (22 April Apollo 163 (May, 2006), pp. 26–31, which deals 1954) 1220–3. Thanks are due to Lucas Elkin of firmly with nonsensical claims, and also notes Cambridge University Library for help here. the somewhat unsatisfactory nature of the overall 36. See Jane Fejfer et al. (eds), Rediscovery of assemblage of parts. See Staffordshire Records Antiquity, 2003, p. 371. Office, Anson Papers D615/P(S) 1/3/24B. 37. James Lees-Milne, Connoisseur 164 (1967), 31. Although the clergyman Richard Jago (1715–81) pp. 211–15. has been suggested as a possible culprit. Jago was 38. A quotation from Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, a lifelong friend of William Shenstone (1714–63), Marquise de Sévigné (1626–96), much used by creator of The Leasowes, Worcestershire, English letter-writers in the eighteenth century, where the elegiac element was represented, and meaning ‘halcyon days’. Shenstone was also published by 39. hussey (15 April 1954), p. 1129 see Note 35 above. (1704–64). Jago’s major work, Edge Hill, was 40. Joe Hawkins’s unpublished paper, ‘Opening published in 1767 by James Dodsley (1724–97). the Shepherdess’s Tomb’, is illuminating here. Shenstone appears to have seen the Shugborough Mr Hawkins also alerted the present writer to a monument late in 1759. row of antefixa-like ornaments on the wall of the 32. Staffordshire Records Office, Anson Papers, menagerie at Newby Hall, Yorkshire, where Stuart D615/P(S)/2/5. probably designed the Neo-Classical organ-case 33. The present writer’s italics. (c.1767), illustrated in Soros (ed.) (2007), p. 453, 34. Ibid. for the Hall itself.

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