Violet Gordon Woodhouse
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JESSICA DOUGLAS-HOME TO RODNEY The Life and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse THE HARVILL PRESS LONDON ML- CONTENTS 5C14 Acknowledgements Vll , Dt;25 Introduction lX Chapter I Family Secrets 3 Violet's family background - on her mother's side Dutch colonials and adventurous Scottish traders, with a native ( °11~ Sumatran princess as a great-great-grandmother; on her father's side, inventors and rich businessmen. Long and stormy engagement between Violet's parents,James Gwynne and the musical May Purvis. Strong opposition from the Gwynnes to James marrying someone of "questionable" descent. James and May set up house in Harley Street in London and at Folkington Manor in Sussex. The birth of Violet and her six brothers and sisters. Chapter II I Can Never Marry Lord Gage 14 Violet's relationship with her parents. Her father's black moods. Her oldest brother Reginald banished to Canada First published in Great Britain in 1996 for extravagance. Her precocious talent and introduction to musical life by her mother. Her debutante season. She breaks her engagement to Lord Gage after learning the facts of life. by The Harvill Press, 84 Thornhill Road, Chapter III An Extraordinary Marriage 26 LondonN11RD Violet plans a musical career despite her father's opposition. A fateful house party. Her engagement to the wealthy Gordon Woodhouse and secret agreement to an unconsummated marriage. The letters sent to Gordon by a female First impression admirer of Violet, Christabel Marshal, warning him of Violet's unusual nature and charismatic genius. Chapter IV Gordon Knew They Would Seldom Be Alone 37 © Jessica Douglas-Home Violet's wedding and honeymoon, on which they are accompanied by her close friend Adelina Ganz. Setting up house in Upper Brook Street in London and Wootton Manor in Sussex. Violet's taste in colours and interiors. Her Jessica Douglas-Home asserts the moral right to be introduction ,to Arnold Dolmetsch, early music and the harpsichord. Her clothes, and the start of a salon. identified as the author of this work. Chapter V A King Among Men 51 A CIP catalogue record for this book The Hon. Bill Barrington and Violet fall in love. Gordon's acquiescence and the creation of a menage iI trois. Unhappiness of Gordon's mother. Violet moves to Southover Manor, Lewes, and Park Place, Mayfair. Beginning is available from the British Library. of Bill's lifelong interest in gardens. ISBN 1 86046269 3 (hbk) Chapter VI More Daughter than Pupil 68 Violet meets Agustin Rubio, teacher and mentor. Her range and versatility. Her musical career is launched. Extracts from Noble Essences by Osbert Sitwell, courtesy of David Higham Associates Chapter VII Menage it Cinq 79 Maxwell Labouchere, barrister and wit, and the Hon. Denis Tollemache, dashing cavalry officer, both fall in love Extract from by Siegfried Sassoon, courtesy of George Sassoon Esq. Blighters with Violet. End of the Boer War. Painful death of Bill's mother. Violet's brother Nevile comes to blows with his father, who secredy changes his will. Violet gives up the piano. Her menage iI cinq. Chapter head decorations by Jessica Douglas-Home Chapter VIII Golden Years Before the War 97 Designed and typeset in Caslon at Southover is sold and the menage moves to Armscote Manor in Warwickshire. Bill Barrington creates a garden. Libanus Press, Marlborough, Wiltshire Disapproval of society. Ethel Smyth, the composer, falls in love with Violet. Violet and the suffragettes. Social unrest in England. Denis leaves for India. Max's flirtation with another woman. Violet collaborates with Vaughan Williams and others in the folk-music movement. The last glorious season before the war. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Buder &Tanner, at Selwood Printing, Burgess Hill Chapter IX To the Trenches 126 The start of the First World War. Bill, Max and Denis enlist, but Gordon is unfit. Violet's father dies, leaving nothing to Violet. Nevile is disinherited and Violet's brother Rupert inherits James's vast estate. The "Georgian" poets. Radclyffe Hall, the /irst lesbian novelist, dedicates a book of erotic poems to Violet. Violet's wartime perfor CONDITIONS OF SALE mances. Denis wounded in the Battle of the Somme. Bill at the attempted relief of Kut. Violet's youngest brother All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, Roland's dread of the trenches. or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission ofthe publishers. Chapter X Death, Capture, Return 149 Roland wounded in Flanders. Denis captured in the Battle of the Dunes, but at first listed as "missing, presumed This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, byway oftrade or otherwise, be lent, dead". Disgraceful behaviour of Denis's aunts. Violet meets Osbert Sitwell. Max at Passchendaele. His last leave home. Max dies of wounds on the Somme. Violet meets Sachie and Edith Sitwell. Her salon a refuge for poets, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of writers, artists and musicians. Her hatred of war. She plays to the two great war poets Siegfried Sassoon and binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition Wilfred Owen. Denis a prisoner in Freiburg. including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. v Chapter XI Society in Upheaval 174 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Emotional crisis for Bill and Violet, financial crisis for Bill and Gordon. Violet's extravagance. She turns profes sional. Delius writes a piece for her. Picasso and Diaghilev visit her. Violet plays the clavichord for the first time in public and records on the harpsichord for HMV. Spiritualism. Playing for Bart6k. The London house is sold. Denis makes his home available to the menage. I am very grateful for all the help I have received from members of the Labouchere, Chapter XII How Can You Live in a House Like This? 193 Tollemache, Barrington and Drinkwater families, who have taken time to recall their Gordon's mother dies. The mitlage moves to Nether Lypiatt Manor in Gloucestershire. Bill designs a garden ancestors' memories of Violet Gordon Woodhouse, and have lent me photographs and masterpiece. Violet's mother dies. Violet plays with Casals. Rupert dies. Introduction to the Arts and Crafts move ment by Detmar Blow. Lawrence of Arabia's visits. Ethel Smyth brings Edith Somerville to stay. documents. I am especially indebted to Bill Barrington's great-nephew, Robin Alderson, for lending me his store of Violet's letters to Bill dating from the beginning of their love Chapter XIII Murder in the Black Mountains 207 Gordon's two sisters murdered by their devoted buder. The sisters' wills disinheriting Gordon unsigned. Gordon affair in 1899. unexpectedly inherits his sisters' fortune, in place of the intended beneficiary, his cousin John Drinkwater. The Isabel Armitage generously shared with me her perspective· on Violet from her unique buder hanged. position as a friend and neighbour since the day that Violet first moved to Nether Chapter XIV Artists ofthe Golden Valley 216 Lypiatt Manor in 1923; it was she who, more than anyone else, was responsible for Violet, Bill and Gordon settle in to Nether Lypiatt. A new house in London. Gordon's celebrated cuisine. Violet's putting me in touch with so many who were connected with Violet's story. crazes for the cinema and Nelson. Violet and Mozart. At the centre of the Arts and Crafts movement - Barron & Richard Luckett helped me immensely in a host of issues connected with Violet's Larcher's hand-dyed materials, William Simmonds's puppets and sculpture. Retreat from the public stage. Violet's music. I thank, too, Ruth Dyson, Richard Troeger, Noel Malcolm, Raymond Glaspole, salon becomes a meeting place for artists from all over Europe. Christopher Hogwood and Robin Holloway for their help in musical matters; Alfred Chapter XV Riches in Abundance 232 Brendel for listening to Violet's recordings; Alan Vicat for so tirelessly compiling the Ethel Smyth in love with Virginia Wool£ The Sitwells become closer to Violet. Bill inherits pictures from his father. Tom Goff starts to make clavichords for Violet. Violet and Scarlatti. Playing with Tertis. Dolmetsch's discography; and Liz Wood for sharing her limidess knowledge of Ethel Smyth. eightieth birthday honoured. Forebodings of war. There have been many who, through their patience in answering questions on histori cal detail, or commenting on the manuscript, have helped me more than they know over Chapter XVI Wrath and War . 250 Violet's despair at the outbreak of the Second World War. Her anger at Churchill. Her nephew John Gwynne a long period of time. I thank Angela Huth, who, by herself seeing the fascination of leaves to fight. Death of Dolmetsch and Rubio. Wartime concerts. Denis becomes ill. Violet's BBC broadcasts. Violet's life, encouraged me; Peter Adamson, Mark Almond, Valda Aveling, Diana Baring, Simon Blow, Julia CaffYn, George Clive, Anne de Courcy, Carl Dolmetsch, Chapter XVII My Poor Broken Limbs 264 Violet breaks both wrists. Denis dies of cancer. Gordon copes with rationing. The magic of Nether Lypiatt. The Christopher Gibbs for being a living Almanach de Gotha, Michael Gough Matthews, Sitwells. Violet begins to play again in London. Bernard Shaw comes to tea. William Harcourt-Smith, Sabrina Harcourt-Smith, John Higgins and David Jennings; TRH Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, the present owners of Nether Lypiatt, for Chapter XVIII Late-Flowering Passions 277 Violet and Sachie Sitwell start on a musical odyssey - rediscovering Scarlatti's litde-known sonatas. Death of letting me, amongst other things, revisit the house; Moira Kennedy; Colin Leach for Ethel Smyth.