Patrick Pilkington, ‘Kerry House, Portland Place: a proposed Adam town house for the third Earl of Kerry’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. xxIII, 2015, pp. 147–166
text © the authors 2015 KERRY HOUSE, PORTLAND PLACE: A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
PATRICK PILKINGTON
The discovery of a collection of letters between the Adam brothers and Francis Thomas Fitzmaurice, third Earl and twenty-third Lord of Kerry, has thrown new light on the history of the unbuilt Kerry House in Portland Place, London. The letters, newly transcribed by the author, are published here for the first time, along with some of the brothers’ drawings now in Sir John Soane’s Museum.
n October , in the wake of the September Oprison massacres in Paris, Lord Kerry (Fig. ) and his wife fled their house in the Rue d’Artois, which they had leased from the Marquis de la Borde in June . The house had only recently been furnished in the latest and most fashionable taste at a cost of , livres français (£ , ). In his submission for compensation from the French Government Lord Kerry made an exceptionally detailed inventory for Lord Hawkesbury, one of the Fig. . Miniature of the third Earl of Kerry abler administrators of the Committee set up to by G.B. Lampi (Marquess of Lansdowne’s Collection, provide financial assistance to the French emigrés Bowood, Wiltshire).( Author’s photograph ) settled in London, a copy of which is held among the Shelburne papers at Bowood (Wiltshire). One of the Countess’s closest friends was the Princess de On June the Convention, now engaged in Lamballe, and her portrait was in the house. She was a costly foreign wars, passed a law seizing the contents favourite of Marie Antoinette and was viciously reviled of the royal palaces, having already passed one by the political cartoonists. What must especially have seizing the possessions of those whom they seriously frightened the Kerrys was her brutal murder considered emigrés. Lord Kerry, a foreign national, at the La Force prison on September and the was not an emigré, but he was an Irish peer and at the parading of her head before the Temple where the very least an enemy alien. Amidst the chaos royal family were being held. unleashed by the Revolution, the revolutionary
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . Armorial Ceiling for the Hall at Portman Square by Robert Adam, . (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
Government had set up a Commission Temporaire des The Hôtel de la Borde was the fourth and Arts , intended to reserve for the State those works of grandest of four houses that Kerry fitted out in art which were destined for the new museum to be Paris, but it was preceded by five others in England, set up at the Louvre. These were listed in a register beginning in : Crossdeep Hall, Twickenham; for the ‘Reception des Objets d’Arts & Antiquités South Hill Park, Bracknell, Berkshire; the trouvés chez les Emigrés et Condamnés’. The new magnificent Prior Park, near Bath; a house in the government was paranoid about Royalist Circus in Bath; and a huge ft.-wide London town sympathisers, and the papers of emigrés were of house on the corner of Portman Square and Lower particular interest. The contents of Kerry’s house in Seymour (now Wigmore) Street. The interiors and the Rue d’Artois, now renamed Rue Cerutti by the probably much of the furniture of the London house revolutionary Government, were therefore seized on were designed by Robert Adam c. – , and the April . Kerry had already taken with him as expenditure was eye-wateringly large. Adam was the many personal papers as he could, including receipts most fashionable architect of his day, and the for the furnishings of the Hôtel de la Borde. But his upholsterers and cabinet makers, Mayhew & Ince, extensive estate papers remained in the house, and were by far the grandest and most expensive, as the two of his higher servants, Brunel and Nicolas, were surviving spectacular furniture from the Eating arrested and guillotined after attempting to enter the Parlour demonstrates. The Earl’s personal copies of sealed building. the ledgers from Mayhew & Ince survive in the
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Archives Nationales in Paris, and a drawing of one block to the right, facing an equally impressive of the ceilings, proposed for the hall, proudly kitchen block, both projecting forward to form a displays the Fitzmaurice coat of arms (Fig. ). courtyard enclosed within iron palisades after the Hardly had his house in Portman Square been fashion of a French Hôtel Particulier ; the iron grille finished and furnished than Kerry commissioned that would have closed the courtyard off from the Robert Adam to build him a veritable palace in street may have even have recalled the one that stood Portland Place. He may perhaps have wished to in front of the house of Kerry’s great-grandfather Sir consolidate his position in the capital of the Empire William Petty in Dublin. rather than its second city in Ireland; the country of The Francophile Earl, one of the first non- his birth had rejected him on the grounds of his French patrons of Sèvres porcelain, had found in scandalous marriage to the divorced Catholic, Adam his ideal architect. In his Ruins of the Palace of Anastatia Daly, which eventually took place in the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro of Adam London in March, . Kerry House was to stand wrote about ‘a remarkable diversity of form, as well at the south-east end of the new street, north of New as dimensions … to which the Ancients were Cavendish Street and on the site of the present Nos. extremely attentive’, and in his discussion of Syon – . The one surviving elevation (Fig. ), House in The Works in Architecture of Robert and probably dating from , shows a pedimented James Adam ( –) he drew attention to the building of two storeys over a basement, with a ‘proper arrangement and relief of apartments [which hipped roof, slightly recessed wings on either side, were] branches of architecture in which the French and five-bay pavilions flanking the ramp leading up have excelled all other nations.’ The Adams were from the front courtyard to the main entrance. An very familiar with the kind of personal and private early plan, inscribed ‘Plan of the Ground Story of comforts, as well as the grander rooms for Ld. Kerry’s House’ (Fig. ), shows a very large stable entertainment, which wealthy French patrons
Fig. . Front Elevation of Kerry House, Portland Place, probably . (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Plan of the Ground Storey of Lord Kerry’s House’ ( Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. ). Another plan, No. , shows the void below the ramps used as coal vaults.
required in their houses, and the surviving plans and , mentioned ‘the bill for work already done’, designs for the interiors of Kerry House in the Soane either on the design of the Portland Place house or Museum show their characteristic attention to detail for work done at Portman Square, or even Bath. The and to the wishes of their clients. Earl, even by the standards of the time, was The Archives Nationales contain an interesting notorious for the length of time he took to pay his group of letters between Robert and James Adam bills; many of those for the second Kerry House in and the Earl about the building of his London house Dublin in the Archives Nationales are inscribed (see Appendix), though the complete ‘protest for payment’ and were not paid for two years correspondence does not survive. While there are after their submission. The letter went on to plenty of letters from the Adam Brothers to their express the opinion that Kerry’s desire for octagonal clients, the letters from their clients are extremely offices would have been much too expensive and that rare, possibly because of their destruction at the time square ones were much cheaper. The total cost was of the commercial failure of the Adelphi and the estimated at £ , . The Adam brothers did not Scottish banking collapse. But such was the build many free-standing houses from scratch, and meticulous nature of the third Earl that he wrote out published estimates are uncommon. A short note on drafts, which his Valet de Chambre or Secretary February indicated that the site was ‘ foot in copied in a neat hand. front at one guinea a foot’: double the width of the The first of the brothers’ letters, dated January first Kerry House in Dublin.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Principal Story of Lord Kerry’s House’. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
It is likely that Kerry was introduced to the Adam coal mines in Durham and Northumberland, and brothers by the Duke of Northumberland, one of their access to ready cash from those and when he sold up most munificent patrons; Kerry had met him in land in Ireland. Dublin in 1763, when he was Lord Lieutenant of David King has eloquently described the floor Ireland, and in April when he accompanied him plans of Kerry House as ‘ both striking and fluent. to the Newmarket races. In their letter of January The rooms have interesting shapes and yet little the brothers approved ‘the Duke of Northumberland’s space is lost. There is a fine circuit for entertaining, ideas both with respect to the Gallery & great Stairs’ yet Lord and Lady Kerry each have a dressing room, but pointed out that they would ‘add very much to the a powdering room and a writing room’. One plan, building & consequently to the expense.’ The which must date from , (Fig. ), shows the building of a gallery might have alluded to the great Entrance Hall flanked by Lord and Lady Kerry’s Library of Kerry’s cousin the Earl of Shelburne, later private apartments, each consisting of one large Marquess of Lansdowne, in his town house, begun to room and two smaller rooms. A passageway leads Adam’s design c. but not completed internally from the Hall between two oval staircases into a until , but whether there was a rivalry between circular Ante-Room with niches inset into the walls. the cousins is open to debate. Kerry was not as On either side are a Drawing Room and Library, and wealthy as Lansdowne and he had considerable beyond, on the garden front, the Dining Room and a difficulty collecting his Irish rents. But he also had second Drawing Room, oval in shape, with apsidal
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Another Plan of the Principal Story of Lord Kerry’s House’. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
Fig. . Plan of the first floor, inscribed in a contemporary hand in pencil ‘Lord Kerry’. Note that there are no rooms above the Ante-Room, Dining Room or the larger Drawing Room. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. . No. )
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Fig. . ‘Design of a ceiling for the Hall of the Earl of Kerry’s House, Portland Place’ . (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
ends, ft. long by ft. wide, and proportionately surviving drawings in the Soane Museum, there is higher. An alternative plan (Fig. ) moves the Library one for the Hall ceiling, quite austere, with military to Lord Kerry’s side of the house and provides a trophies (Fig. ). The ceiling of the Ante-Room to bedroom for Lady Kerry and a small Drawing Room the Drawing and Dining Rooms, lit by a circular ft. by ft. It also shows a staircase leading down to glazed oculus , was to be more elaborate, with painted the garden. The house was clearly designed medallions depicting twelve Muses: the usual nine primarily for entertaining, the first floor containing plus Melete, Mneme and Aoede (Fig. ); Lord Kerry only five bedrooms for guests and higher servants already possessed paintings of the nine Muses by (Fig. ); it is not altogether clear where Kerry and his Cipriani. The ceilings of the Eating [Dining] wife were meant to sleep. Room and the larger Drawing Room on the garden In the letter to Lord Kerry dated June , it front, were to be even richer in character, with is clear that Adam must have asked for details of the characteristically Adamesque wreaths and ornamental finishings: ceilings, walls, medallions (Figs. – ), but the design for the ‘Little chimneypieces, doors etc; each drawing that went Drawing Room’ was to be more abstract in character, out of the office was charged for. Among the with stucco enrichments on a green ground (Fig. ).
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Ceiling of the Anti room for the Earl of Kerry, Portland Place’. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
Two plans of uncertain date, annotated in the The later letters refer to Kerry’s growing Earl’s own hand, show the house with a similar financial difficulties. On July he made rectangular shape but with a radically different plan in proposals for paying for the house by selling his which the reception rooms would have been grouped Portman Square house and its contents: ‘I would sell around a central circular staircase (Figs. , ). They Both by Auction in the Winter of and that this may relate to Adam’s letter of January , with its sale being accomplish’d, either by private contract or itemised schedule of costs, to which Kerry added by auction, I would immediately take up my notes of possible savings. In one of the plans bonds ’. Prior Park had already been sold in July (Fig. ) the kitchen and stable offices have been , and Kerry made a fifty per cent loss on the sale drawn in later at -degree angles to the main block, of the contents at Portman Square. The Adam perhaps for different client on a different plot. brothers were well aware of their client’s money
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Ceiling for the Eating Room for Lord Kerry, Portland Place’ . (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
Fig. . ‘Ceiling for the Great Drawing Room for the Earl of Kerry, Portland Place’ . The corners are painted with figures of Nike; the centre with Zelus, Crates and Bia. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Ceiling for the Little Drawing Room for the Earl of Kerry, Portland Place’ . (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
problems, and were very direct in describing their time Lord Kerry discussed the project with the Earl own difficulties, as they did in their reply of of Findlater and Seafield. On September he August, when they insisted that they would not start told Robert Adam that he was work on the Portland Place house until Kerry’s ‘still desirous of building upon the plot of ground in proposals were more realistic. Portland Place that you proposed to me and the more James Adam’s letter of September especially as my Lord Findlater (who has deferr’d mentioned a proposal to link the kitchens to the coming to any determination with respect to this lot house by a vaulted corridor, increasing the cost from an uncertainty whether the adjoining lot would be occupied by one house only) has desired me to further, and urging Kerry to restrain his expenditure acquaint you, that in case I should take the lot I had on the ornaments until later. On November he thought of, he will also take the other’. wrote to the Earl again, calling the house Kerry House for the first time and putting forward further From May onwards the Earl spent almost all his proposals for consideration. It is plain, though, that time in Spa and Brussels. A letter of November from Kerry still owed the brothers money: ‘The extreme the Adam brothers confirmed ‘the joint building pinch we are now in with respect to some payments article’ with Lord Findlater, and Kerry’s reply on that fall due by us end of this year makes us again November, the last in the Archives Nationales, still take the liberty to have recourse to you Lordship to gave no indication that the houses were not going to favor us with the amount of the old bill which has be built. Lord Findlater seems to have been as been so long unsettled.’ There was then a break in indecisive as Lord Kerry, as a later house designed for the correspondence of nearly a year, during which him by Robert Adam for a different site at Portland
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Fig. . ‘Another Plan of the Ground Story of Lord Kerry’s House’. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
Fig. . ‘Another Plan for the Principal Story of Lord Kerry’s House ’. (Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam drawings, Vol. No. )
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
Place was not built either (Fig. 15). Events, though, letting his own great country seat in Ireland, Lixnaw were rapidly catching up on the Earl, and a letter from Old Court, to fall into complete ruin. His reckless him in Paris to Dean Crosbie (later Lord Brandon), spending left very little to posterity, and in the end his dated Paris, December , indicates that he was in papers in Paris are perhaps his most valuable legacy. very serious financial difficulty, having ‘determined to remain in this kingdom until some arrangement of my affairs shall be completed and in the interim to go to Lyon and perhaps to Montpelier’. A half-hearted ACKNOWLEDGMENTS plan to return to Ireland in to manage his estates I am grateful to Stephen Astley and Colin Thom for was unlikely to have succeeded. Robert Fitzgerald, their help in preparing this article and to the later th Knight of Kerry, offered him his own house Trustees of Sir John Soane’s Museum for permission near Listowel, but he told an unknown recipient: ‘I to reproduce images from the collection. know too well the kind of habitation Lord Kerry has been accustomed to, to suppose that Woodford would answer as a residence for him’. The desolation and poverty of Kerry in the APPENDIX : THE LETTERS eighteenth century would not have suited Lord Kerry . Adam Brothers to the Earl of Kerry, Adelphi any more than it would his cousin, the first Marquess January of Lansdowne. Neither had any intention of living there. The Earl and Countess remained in Brussels My Lord for a short while after the French Revolution and then lived in Pall Mall from , where Lord Kerry We have received the Honor of your Lordship’s continue to patronise the most fashionable cabinet letter of the st inst. and are extremely obliged to makers of the day. His beloved Anastatia was buried you for remembering the bill for work already in St Andrew’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey in , done But note your Lordship is to be so soon in and he joined her after his death in . Ultimately, town we think it unnecessary to give you the the Earl spent virtually nothing on building, even trouble of accepting drafts for that money till we have had the honour of seeing you & we would undoubtedly have done ourselves the Hon. of waiting upon your Lo’p before you left London but found that upon tryals that the octagonal offices proposed ran to such an expense that we were obliged to reduce them into a square form & reduce their extent. After this was done J. A. waited upon your Lo’p’s but found you was gone for Bath before we called. Notwithstanding all we could do to diminish & confirm the offices, your Lo’p will see, the whole amount is very great and we do not know in which manner to lessen it. We shall subjoin to this letter the amount of the Site plan of Kerry House showing the ‘adjoining plot’ for general estimate. Lord Findlater, from A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam ( ).
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We approve much of the Duke of . Adam Brothers to Lord Kerry, Adelphi, Northumberland’s ideas both with respect to the February Gallery & great Stairs, & yet upon examination your Lordship will perceive they both add very much to the building & consequently to the Messrs Adam present their compliments to Lord expense. We have fully turned in our minds your Kerry & having taken his proposal into Lo’p’s proposal in respect of this house and have consideration and having the honor of his Lo’p’s the strongest inclination to do it for your Lo’p employment to build the house, they think it nor do we ever decline the mode your Lo’p their duty to let his Lo’p have the ground at his proposes but as we cannot afford to lay out so Lo’p’s price – viz L. ft in front at one guinea much money we would wish that your Lo’p pay a foot. us down £ at the commencing and £ at Annotated verso: From Messrs Adam to roofing in which we think would enable us to The Right Honble. The Earl of Kerry carry through the next on a mortgage without th . Feby: being greatly out of pocket which we dare not venture upon & in this case we would cheerfully agree to take the future payments in any way that . Adam Brothers to Lord Kerry, should be most agreeable to your Lo’p. Adelphi, June The objection the Duke of North’d finds to the double doors from the Antiroom into the Dining & Drawing rooms may be easily removed in the My Lord way his Grace proposes which could be made to The estimate of your Lordship’s House is now have a very good effect. We have the honr to be completed and the carcassing & plain finishing with the greatest respect & esteem does actually amount to £ . . without any My Lord part of the ornamental finishing which we are your Lordship’s both of opinion cannot be estimated with any most obedient & very degree of precision without entering into a detail humble servants of the mouldings and every thing to be done, with the same minuteness that would be necessary for Robt & Jams Adam the execution, and if the whole exceed what your Lordship should incline to lay out, this minute Estimate for Lord Kerry’s house detail would be attended with such an expense Body of the House £ that we should really be ashamed to charge it, Stable offices when your Lordship was to reap no benefit from Kitchen offices it. We must therefore I imagine trust to a guess Passages for the offices estimate of the ornamental finishings, which we Porter’s Lodge etc think will amount to £ from this we shall deduct the offices which your Lordship proposed Garden walls to leave undone at present which deduction is £ estimated at £ . . so that the whole Annotated: From Mr. Adam Archt’t th. Jan’ry remaining sum for the house and offices will be
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£ ... This exceeds what your Lordship The only thing therefore remaining to be settled seemed formerly to mention as your ultimatum, is our plan of proceeding conveniently to both but it is our own fixed rule to lead no patron into parties. Your Lo’p may easily imagine that it any unforeseen expense. It is therefore with your would be exceedingly flattering to my Brother & Lordship to determine, what you would chuse me to execute a design much to our own liking should be farther done in this business and your and which from many circumstances must be Lordship will always find us ready to obey your attended with great éclat. At the same time our commands. situation is such that we must be extremely cautious not to venture beyond our depth and We have the honour to be with the greatest my Brother, who is now returned to town is of respect opinion with me that it will be quite impossible Lord for us to engage without such a sum of money as Your Lordship’s would enable us to go on till a mortgage could be Most obedient and Very humble procured upon the building itself. We hope your Servants Lo’p will excuse our mentioning our difficulties with freedom as without some such aid we could Robt & Jams Adam never carry through your Lo’p’s business & therefore it would be exceedingly wrong for us to Annotated verso: From Messrs. Adam Architects attempt it. nd . June I have the honor to be with greatest respect
My Lord . James Adam to Lord Kerry, Adelphi, Your Lordship’s th. July Most obedient & very Humble servant My Lord James Adam I think I mentioned to your Lordship last time I had the honor of seeing you my having gone Annotated verso: From Messrs. Adam Architects. through the Estimate of the ornamental part of th . July the finishing, with so much precision as possible without drawing every moulding & all the detail at large. I now take the liberty of finalising a very . Earl of Kerry to Robert Adam, Panshanger particular description of this ornamental (near Hertford,) July finishing in the way we have estimated it & the way we suppose it ought to be done which will Sir not only be elegant but magnificent. I received your letter of the th . instant just as I If more shall be required by your Lo’p our was leaving town and I had not then time to supposed sum of £ would not answer but if answer it. I have read your description of the those particulars should be approved we should ornamental finishing and find it corresponds have no objection to contract for these as well as exactly with my Idea. I certainly would not by the other Branches.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY any means wish for more & I doubt not but that, . The Adam Brothers to Lord Kerry, Adelphi, when I shall see the designs it refers to, I should th. August not object to contracting for the executing them at the price you propose. My Lord
I believe that only the one point, of adjusting the Your Lo’p’s letter of the th . of last month came agreement to our mutual convenience, remains to safe to hand but as we have been both in the be settl’d. My desire is to pay Four Thousand Country which seldom happens, we could not Pounds of the whole expense and that the till now have the honor of answering it. We were remaining sum shall be a mortgage upon the very happy to see that your Lo’p’s ideas for the house for some certain number of years . When I finishing of the house coincided with ours, & we saw you last I said I could not pay down now the are in great hopes that when your Lo’p come to four thousand pounds and I propos’d to you to see the designs made out, that you will much give my bonds payable at Mich’s (if that approve of them. shall be the time at which you shall contract that the house shall be finish’d) and I mentioned to Our present pinched situation with regard to you that as it was my intention to sell my house money matters makes the arrangement relative to and the furniture of it the very first moment after them of more essential consequence and therefore I shall have made an agreement with you, that an we are under the necessity of deviating somewhat opportunity shall offer, or if such an opportunity from your Lo’p’s proposal merely for the sake of shall not offer in the course of next winter, that I accommodation without which we clearly forsee would sell Both by Auction in the Winter of that we could not carry through the undertaking. and that this sale being accomplish’d, either by What therefore we would propose is this. That private contract or by auction, I would instead instead of the bonds for £ your Lo’p immediately take up my bonds. should make these bonds for one half of the Building namely £ which bonds should be Now Sir to this proposal there is only one secured by a mortgage on your Lo’p’s house in alteration that it is my power to make, which is Portman Square or some such way, otherwise in this, I will make £ of the money payable at all the present dreadful timidity about all money events at Mich’s if the house shall be covered transactions we should not be able to convert them in. The rest to be payable Mich’s . If this into cash which alone can enable us to provide plan, with any alteration in the mode of it, but not materials & defray the cost of so great a work. in the substance of it, to render it more satisfactory to you, and not inconvenient to me, After these bonds to the above extent are paid by can suit you, I shall I think very readily agree with your Lo’p you will perceive that we shall still be you by contract on the terms you have propos’d prodigiously in advance at the end of the work as and I shall in that case be glad to see the sections much indeed as we could any how afford and and designs of the ornamental furnishings. more than we would choose to be were it not for our sincere desire of carrying through this I am Sir your most obedient humble servt. K. business for your Lo’p. The balance then due by your Lo’p being the sum of £ we will Annotated verso: To Mr. Adam Architect th . cheerfully take a mortgage for, on the new house, July at the rate of percent per annum.
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If this alteration on your Lo’p’s proposal should The articles most capable of being delayed your meet your approbation we shall be very happy to Lo’p will easily see in general are the stucco proceed with your business &, we do flatter ornaments carving & gilding which we think ourselves, we should do it in every respect to your may be estimated at about £ of the £ Lo’p’s satisfaction. calculated for the purpose. This deduction which we shall estimate more particularly, if your We have the honour to be with the greatest Lo’p approves of the idea, would reduce the sum respect & esteem to nearly £ , which is much more within My Lord compass & leaves your Lo’p at liberty to add & Your Lordship’s furnish as you shall afterwards find convenient. I Most obedient & very Hum.e shall be glad to have your Lo’p’s sentiments Servants upon this subject & have the honour to be with the greatest respect. Robt & Jams Adam my Lord Annotated: From Messrs. Adam Architects Your Lordship’s th . August Most Obedient & very Humble servant
James Adam to Lord Kerry, Adelphi, James Adam th. September Annotated verso: From Mr. Adam Architect th . My Lord, September
I now take the liberty of sending enclos’d a new . James Adam to Lord Kerry state of the Estimate of your Lo’p’s house from th. November which your Lo’p will observe that the reduction made on the plan diminishes the former amounts of the Body of the house £ . .. But upon My Lord again adding the Kitchen offices now propos’d & The plans of Kerry House with all the alterations the additional vault it will bring up the sum to proposed by your Lo’p were sent by your Lo’p’s nearly what it was before, so that in fact this servants some days ago. reduction is very trifling & indeed can be no object in so large an affair. In consequence of your Lo’p’s letter upon this subject we have supposed that the circular ante What therefore my Brother & I have been room & small oval lobby are to finished as thinking of, in order to make the matter more originally intended. This will again replace part easy for your Lo’p in the meantime was to check of the sum for finishing deducted from the offering articles of the ornamental finishing that former estimate and make the amount of the can be delayed & done afterwards & and only to whole as the plan now stands £ ... do at present those articles of it which could not afterwards be executed without undoing or If then your Lo’p is still of opinion that this sum pulling to pieces the work already executed. does not exceed what you would incline to lay
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY out at present you will please to observe that it . Lord Kerry to Robert Adam, Spa, rests with your Lo’p to determine the other th. Sept. points relative to the agreement namely with regard to the article for the ground as formerly Sir mentioned; then with respect to the terms of payment and security for the bonds for £ As I am still desirous of building upon the lot of which your Lo’p was so good as [to] say should ground in Portland Place that you proposed to me be satisfactory to our attorney. Also what period and the more especially as my Lord Findlater your Lo’p should choose to fix for completing (who has deferr’d coming to any determination the purchase of the house, so as to enable my with respect to this lot from an uncertainty brother & I to relieve the mortgage we must have whether the adjoining lot would be occupied by upon it for the difference of the money between one house only) has desired me to acquaint you, the £ above mentioned and the sum to be that in case I should take the lot I had thought of, expended thereon. Were these points once fix’d he will also take the other. I therefore desire this by your Lo’p we can see no impediment now in favour of you to let me know in answer to this the way to prevent our immediately proceeding letter whether the ground shall remain undispos’d to carry your Lo’p’s orders into execution by of, in which case, and provided that you will having the foundations cleared out and materials procure a reasonable term rent free for the brought upon the spot that a beginning might be building of two such houses, and that the terms of made upon the building early in the spring the lease shall be in all other respects convenient which would allow of its being roofed in good to us, we shall at all events take Leases thereof time next year so as to allow no risk of injury immediately. As I have promised my Lord from rain or frost. Findlater that I shall communicate to him your answer before he leaves this, I desire the favour of The extreme pinch we are now in with respect to you to let me hear from you as soon as may be some payments that fall due by us end of this convenient directing me to the care of Mr. Dan. year makes us again take the liberty to have Danoot, Banker at Brussells in case that you shall recourse to you Lordship to favor us with the not write on or before the instant, but if you amount of the old bill which has been so long shall you shall be able to put your letter into the unsettled. I have the honor to be with the post office on the th . in that case you may direct greatest respect for me at Spa in Germany. You will please (if the ground is still on hand) to send a sketch of the two My Lord lots and of the street marking upon my lot the Your Lordship’s outlines of the house & offices. Most obedient & very Humble servant I hope that Mr. Adam’s health is better than it was before I left London & I beg my James Adam compliments to him. Annotated: From Messr’s Adam th . Nov:r I am Sir etc.
K
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
. Adam Brothers to Lord Kerry, Adelphi, . Lord Kerry to the Adam Brothers, Paris, th. November th. November
My Lord Sirs
We were honoured with your letters of the th . I have this moment received your letter of the th . October & nd . November by which we find that inst: and do not lose a moment to aquaint you your Lo’p is still desirous of having the spot of that I am much obliged by your accommodating ground formerly proposed for you & by a letter my Lord Findlater and me with the piece of from Lord Findlater from the Hague we see that ground originally intended for us, and that I shall his Lo’p is equally desirous to have the ground accede to your proposal, even though you shall allotted for him adjoing your Lo’p. not change that part of it which I think a little unreasonable viz that the ground rent shall This has determined, notwithstanding the offers commence from Lady day next. It certainly we have of shillings a foot for the ground, to let the whole plot to your Lo’p and Lord would be but reasonable that the commencement Findlater in a joint building article at a rate of of it should not be sooner than Lady day but one guinea a foot as formerly propos’d and to in this point I put myself in your hands. The commence rent at Lady day next as it does to the obligation to enclose it within a wall and iron Duke of Portland, at the same time we shall not palisades against Lady day is perfectly object to having a reasonable time to cover it and consistent with my designs & as to covering the secure the ground rent, only it must be enclosed ground to secure the ground rent, I hope you will with a wall & iron palisades in front within one grant such a time as you yourself must conceive year from the above term. is reasonable for two such houses. In consequence of my acceptance of this proposal I If this proposal meets with your Lo’p’s and Lord beg that you will have the article made out & sent Findlater’s approbation to whom we have wrote to me enclos’d (so that I may receive them before by this night’s pack’t we shall immediately send the last day of this month) the plans I desired. I your Lo’p the plans and write more fully on the am sirs etc. subject, till this is determined we shall only be putting your Lo’p to unnecessary expense. Annotated verso: To Robt. & Jas. Adam Esq’res. th . Nov. We have the hon’r to be with great esteem
My Lord your Lordship’s most oblig’d & very hum e Servants
Rob’t & Jas. Adam
Annotated verso: From Messrs. Adam th . Novr.
Addressed verso: To The Earl of Kerry at Messrs. Panchaud’s Bankers, Paris.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
ENDNOTES . Hugh Roberts, ‘”Precise and Exact in the Minutest . Margery Weiner, The French Exiles ‒ Things of Taste & Decoration”: The Earl of Kerry’s (London ), p. . Patronage of Mayhew & Ince’, The Journal of the . Inventory, pp. – . The box is unnumbered and Furniture History Society, ( ). filed among the first Earl of Shelburne’s (later . He met Anastatia Daly, wife of Charles Daly of Marquess of Lansdowne’s) papers. Quansborough, Co. Galway in . It seems to . Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey have been a coup de foudre on his part. She had (London, ), pp. – . already fled her violent husband in a dramatic . Michel Beurdeley: La France à l’Encan ‒ : escape to England in that year. Kerry was in London Exode des objets d’art sous la Revolution (Fribourg, in the Spring of and on November Charles Office du Livre, ), p. . Daly received damages of £ , .s. d. English, or . Archives Nationales (ANP hereafter), Paris, £, .s. d. Irish, from the hands of Thomas Rice T – contains a list of papers seized from Lord Stephens Esq., (his agent). The marriage was Kerry’s house as well as those of the Abbé Cooke, dissolved by Act of Parliament on the grounds of personal chaplain to the Countess. The Hotel de la criminal conversation (adultery). Borde contained a chapel. The papers themselves . I am indebted to Colin Thom of the Survey of are in numbered boxes, T451, 1 –9. London for this information. . The first was in the Rue Neuve de la Michodière . He gave a tea service on his sister’s marriage in (near the Opéra), the second, the former Hôtel de to Maurice Fitzgerald, the sixteenth Knight of Kerry. Charost in the Rue du Pot de Fer, Faubourg Saint He himself ordered a very extensive ‘bleu celeste’ Germain and the third, the Hôtel de la Caze (de la service in and added to it over the years. Bove), close to the Champs Elyssés. The Rue . Eileen Harris: The Genius of Robert Adam (New d’Artois was cut through by the extension of the Haven & London, ), p. . Boulevard Haussmann in the ’s, taking the . There was also once a ‘ portefeuille of plans and Hôtel de la Borde with it. decorations of three hôtels ’ in the Rue d’Artois . . A photograph of the house ( c. ) is illustrated in These are not in the Paris archives but were weeded this author’s article ‘Extravagance and Ennui: The out by the Commission , raising the intriguing Earl of Kerry’s London Houses before the French possibility that Lord Kerry’s own copies may Revolution’, Georgian Group Journal, ( ), survive somewhere. Fig. , p. . . This was to ensure a separation between the 8. Five fully-worked up coloured drawings for ceilings different family businesses and the Adelphi crisis. at Portman Square are at Sir John Soane’s Museum. Much of the correspondence is also missing. Adam Vol. , ‒ . There is also a page of designs . This was a large mansion ft. wide and occupying for three chimneypieces, Adam Vol. , No. . the site of the present Nos. , & Molesworth inscribed ‘Lord Kerry’, which may well be for Street: Registry of Deeds, Dublin, RD: , , Portman Square. Mayhew & Ince’s Ledger & . I am deeply indebted to Peter ( ‒ , p. ) makes a rather oblique reference to Keenahan and Peter Walsh for this unpublished a large number of designs for Portman Square: information, which firmly places Kerry House to the ‘Paid a man for making very neat & accurate Plans middle of the street and not at Nos. & , as stated & Sections of each Story & Ellivations of South & in the Georgian Society Records , IV ( ), p. . west fronts of House, drawing of all the Ceiling . The first Kerry House, built for the Earl’s great- decorations & Enrichments of the Several Rooms grandfather, Sir William Petty, was on the North drawings of all the Furniture & Carpetts & Sundry side of St Stephen’s Green at Kildare Street and was Sketches for Use of the Axminster & Wilton ft. wide. It was variously known as Shelburne Manufactorys, days at s. £ . .. ’ (ANP, and Kerry House. It became an army barrack in T /). This author ventures to suggest that the and was burned out in . The site is now ‘man’ in question was in the Adam brothers occupied by the Shelbourne Hotel. drawing office. . ANP, T /. . Now at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. . Eileen Harris, op. cit ., Fig. , p. .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XXIII KERRY HOUSE : A PROPOSED ADAM TOWN HOUSE FOR THE THIRD EARL OF KERRY
. North of England Institute of Mining, NRO . This was the country house of the third Earl (Colliery Deeds and Leases – ). Cowper. He spent much of his time in Florence and . Lansdowne’s estates were tied up in a complicated was a considerable authority on the art of that city. system of trusteeships and male entails, which meant . The nine-day sale was to have been conducted by that he did not have the freeholds, under the terms of Christie & Ansell from February but was the will of his uncle Henry, Earl of Shelburne postponed to March. (of the first creation). He was even more profligate in . This would have been a plot adjoining to the North his spending than his cousin, with the result that at and now occupied by seven houses Nos. – . It is his death in , he was almost insolvent with debts not to be confused with plans in Sir John Soane’s of £ , . Almost the entire contents of Bowood Museum for a different and later house for Findlater and Lansdowne House had to go under the hammer. on a plot on the north-west end of Portland Place in Kerry could sell up his entire Irish estate, which he the s. Again I am indebted to Colin Thom for did, but he left, to the third Marquess, a welcome this information. and much needed legacy of coal mines, annuities . ANP, T /–. Written on black edged paper and cash when he died in . following the death of his mother in . . David King: The Complete Works of Robert Adam; . Considerable debts were still owed to Mayhew & Unbuilt Adam (Oxford, ), pp. & and Ince even in : see Charles Cator: ‘The Earl Of Figs. –. Kerry and Mayhew and Ince, The Idlest . These were unsold in the Christie’s Sale of the Ostentation’, The Journal of the Furniture History Portman Square contents (Eighth Day’s Sale, Friday Society, , ( .) pp – and notes & . March , , p. , Large Drawing Parlour: . A copy was sent to him in Paris and is dated: Cipriani (lot ). His agent in London, Anne Merrion Square, Dec. . Gladwell, eventually sold them back to Cipriani: . When Young visited the house in , he wrote ‘my Papa went to Cipriani who gave him a draft that ‘the house was fast going to ruin, the walls and immediately for guineas’ (letter to Lord Kerry, roof being removed by thieves and the trees being June : ANP, T /). cut down’: Valerie Bary, Houses of Kerry (Balinakella . Sir John Soane’s Museum, Adam Vol. , No. Press, Co. Clare ) p. . (Ground floor) and Adam Vol. . No. . ANP, T /–. The letters have been transcribed (Principal Storey). by Patrick Pilkington. . The majority of the plans for the two service wings . A pencil inscription, probably in Lord Kerry’s are drawn on the main sheet and so have been hand, suggests savings amounting to £ on each folded. The two small additional pieces of paper of the items mentioned, and another in ink suggests added to each side, on which are drawn the smaller savings of £ . portions of the service wing plans, have not been . This letter is a rough draft, full of crossings out and folded and so must have been added at a later stage. reconsiderations. For example, Kerry wrote It is impossible to have folded the main sheet originally that he wanted to pay ‘all but nine without continuing a fold line across each of the thousand pounds’, but changed this to: ‘My desire additions. The conclusion is that the two smaller is to pay Four thousand Pounds’. pieces of paper were added after the main sheet had . An early sketch plan of the site was seen by Arthur been folded and then unfolded. I am grateful to Bolton at Cullen House, Banffshire, seat of the Earls Stephen Astley, Keeper of Drawings at Sir John of Findlater, and a sketch plan based on it was Soane’s Museum, for his detailed observations on included in his The Architecture of Robert and this drawing. James Adam ( vols, London, ).
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