Materialising Cultural Value in the English Lakes, 1735-1845
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MATERIALISING CULTURAL VALUE IN THE ENGLISH LAKES, 1735-1845: A STUDY OF THE RESPONSES OF NEW LANDOWNERS TO REPRESENTATIONS OF PLACE AND PEOPLE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Derek Denman, MA (Lancaster), C.Eng., MIET September 2011 Copyright © 2011 Derek Denman All rights reserved Abstract This thesis explores responses to the cultural construction in the developing identity of the English Lakes from 1735 to 1845, through studies of three landowners. The principal focus is Derwentwater. The Greenwich Hospital held estates from 1735 to 1832, Lord William Gordon from 1781 to 1823, and John Marshall of Leeds, the flax spinner, from 1810 and 1845. The study classifies the identity of the English Lakes and its inhabitants with Regions of Romance, as a territory increasingly occupied by the romantic antithesis of the dominant thesis within the modern age. The cultural identity of the English Lakes is considered as a construction of Throsby’s cultural values, established through discourse and overlaid upon economic values. This anthropological approach to culture recognises both aesthetic and social cultural assets. The acquisition, management and disposal of landowners estates are examined to evidence the materialisation of cultural values, whether through the agency of discourse, the influence of others, or personal experience. During the eighteenth century the Hospital responded to criticism minimally, by planting the Derwentwater shore. Lord William Gordon responded strongly to discourse by creating a picturesque park which demonstrated his taste and values, and by completing the picturesque occupation of Derwentwater by 1787. Wordsworth influenced the choice and management of John Marshall’s extensive estates from 1811, providing an early materialisation of the principles in Wordsworth’s Guide. In the early nineteenth century the Hospital protected their Keswick woods, before selling the estate in 1832 at auction to John Marshall at a low price. The study demonstrates a significant and growing intervention by these landowners to materialise aesthetic cultural value, but with little response to social cultural values, though cultural landscape was preserved. An early private path of intervention in the English Lakes is demonstrated, which feeds into the later and better known public path. 2 Contents Page Acknowledgements 5 Tables and Figures 6 Abbreviations 9 Glossary 10 Differences from the unpublished thesis 12 1. Introduction 13 1-1. Purpose 13 1-2. Previous work 14 1-3. Choice of locality and landowners 18 1-4. Approach 21 1-5. Theoretical framework 23 1-6. Structure 31 2. Discursive creation of the English Lakes 33 Introduction 33 2-1. Regions of Romance; a genealogy, identity and politics 35 2-2. Private property, public amenity, and threats 41 2-3. Valorisation of the English Lakes; the role of Derwentwater 50 2-4. Applicable cultural value in discourse; woods and buildings 55 2-5. Applicable cultural value in discourse; the representation of the inhabitants 64 Conclusion 74 3. The Royal Greenwich Hospital and the aesthetics of woodland, 1735-1801 77 Introduction 77 3-1. The Greenwich Hospital and its Northern Estates; taking charge and establishing policy, 1735-9 79 3-2. Sale and regeneration; the woods on the Northern Estates, 3 1739-69 89 3-3. Planting policy and Lord Sandwich, 1770-1801 97 Conclusion 111 4. Improvement, recession and sale: the Greenwich Hospital and its Keswick Estate, 1801-1832 113 Introduction 113 4-1. Improvement and recession, 1801-19 114 4-2. Poor results and misfortune, 1819-29 128 4-3. Edward Hawke Locker and the protection of tenants and wood, 1819-29 131 4-4. The sale of the Keswick estate, 1829-1832 144 Conclusion 149 5. Lord William Gordon and the picturesque occupation of Derwentwater, 1758-1823 152 Introduction 152 5-1. Lord William Gordon to 1781 153 5-2. Lord William Gordon at Green Park Lodge and at Court 160 5-3. The western shore of Derwentwater to 1781 165 5-4. The creation of the Water End estate 177 5-5. Management of the estate and its aesthetics 187 Conclusion 202 6. John Marshall and his relationship with William Wordsworth, 1795- 1845 206 Introduction 206 6-1. The relationship between John Marshall and William Wordsworth 208 6-2. Planting and property; the second tour of 1807 and finding the common ground 224 6-3. The politics of landed property and tenants 229 Conclusion 232 7. John Marshall and his estates in the English Lakes, 1810-1845 234 4 Introduction 234 7-1. Creating John Marshall’s estates, 1810-1824 237 7-2. John Marshall and his family estates, 1823-1845 254 7-3. The creation and management of Marshall’s woodland 269 7-4. Marshall and the Loweswater customary tenants and commons 277 7-5. Marshall and his leasehold tenants 283 Conclusion 287 8. Conclusions from the study 293 8-1. General 293 8-2. Landowners’ responses to cultural value, 1735-1800 296 8-3. Landscapes of nation 301 8-4. John Marshall and the influence of Wordsworth, 1800–1845 303 8-5. Management and sale of the Keswick Estate, 1801-1832 305 8-6. Landowners’ responses to the social cultural value of the inhabitants in the nineteenth century 306 8-7. Concluding discussion 307 Bibliography 311 Acknowledgements I wish to thank my supervisors, Dr Angus Winchester and Dr Michael Winstanley for their support and patience during the researching and writing of this thesis. The views and interpretations within the work are my own. I am grateful for the support of other academic and administrative staff within Lancaster University, and for the availability of Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Lastly I wish to acknowledge the support of many archivists, librarians and curators, but particularly the staff of the Carlisle and Whitehaven Archive Centres. 5 Tables and Figures Chapter 2. Figure 2-1. A general location map of the northern English Lakes, from Thomas West’s Guide to the Lakes, 1778. Third edition, 1784 34 Figure 2-2. George Smith’s map accompanying his article on the ‘Journey to the black lead mines’, the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1751 53 Figure 2-3. Derwentwater from Crow Park, William Bellers, 1752 57 Figure 2-4. Derwentwater from Crow Park, Thomas Smith, 1761 57 Chapter 3. Figure 3-1. Location map for the Keswick Estate of the Greenwich Hospital 81 Figure 3-2. The Derwentwater Lands of the Greenwich Hospital, 1736 85 Figure 3-3. The Derwentwater Lands of the Greenwich Hospital, 1774 86 Table 3-1. Land reserved for wood in the Keswick Estate, 1774-1832 105 Chapter 4. Figure 4-1. Gross and net rental receipts from the Northern Estates, 1787-1815 115 Figure 4-2. Gross and net receipts from the Northern Estates, 1788-1830 115 Figure 4-3. The Derwentwater Lands of the Greenwich Hospital, 1805 120 Figure 4-4. The Derwentwater Lands of the Greenwich Hospital, 1817 121 Figure 4-5. The Derwentwater Lands of the Greenwich Hospital, 1832 122 Chapter 5. Figure 5-1. Ranger’s Lodge in the Green Park, from the south, circa 1778 161 Figure 5-2. Green Park Lodge on Richard Horwood’s Plan of London and Westminster, 1792-9 161 Table 5-1. Costs of enfranchising Derwentwater property in Braithwaite & Coledale 169 Figure 5-3. The western shore of Derwentwater, seen from Crow Park circa 1749. From Sale of timber, from the Spedding collection 172 Figure 5-4. Plan of the enclosed land from Brandelhow to Faw Park 6 in 1781, showing closes, roads and woodland 173 Figure 5-5. Plan of the western shore of Derwentwater in 1781, showing the enclosed land and the estates purchased by Lord William Gordon by 1787 173 Figure 5-6. Lord William Gordon’s Water End estate on Derwentwater, 1824, showing the wood land and the threeroads 181 Figure 5-7. Peter Crosthwaite’s map of Derwentwater, with ownerships of lake shore estates, 1784 181 Table 5-2. Lord William Gordon’s Purchases of Estates on Derwentwater in the manor of Braithwaite & Coledale, 1781-1787 182 Figure 5-8. Lord William Gordon’s house at Water End, watercolour by James, 1790. Reproduced from Derwentwater: the vale of Elysium by permission of The Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage, Cumbria 190 Figure 5-9. Sir George Beaumont’s sketch of Water End (detail), 1798. By permission of The Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage, Cumbria 190 Figure 5-10. Samuel H Grimm, The Prince of Wales’ Pavilion at Brighthelmstone, from the Steyne, 1787. British Library 190 Chapter 6. Figure 6-1. The Marshall family 207 Chapter 7. Figure 7-1. Location plan of Marshall family property in the English Lakes, to 1845 235 Table 7-1. Marshall family property purchases in the lake counties, 1811-1845 236 Figure 7-2. Plan of Low Whelter on Haweswater, purchased by John Marshall in 1811 239 Figure 7-3. Low Whelter farmhouse, twentieth century photograph 239 Figure 7.4 The origins of the the Hallsteads estate at Watermillock, based on James Clarke’s survey of 1787 241 7 Figure 7-5. Plan of Hallsteads estate in the 1930s, with enclosure changes of 1835 244 Figure 7-6. Photograph of the Hallsteads mansion by Abrahams 244 Figure 7-7. Plan of John Marshall’s estate at Loweswater, Buttermere and Crummock, 1845 247 Figure 7-8. Plan of William Marshall’s Paterdale Hall estate, 1845 257 Figure 7-9. Plan of Castlerigg & Derwentwater manor and the Marshall estates, 1849 261 Figure 7-10. Plan of the Thornthwaite manor and estate of John Marshall jnr, acquired in 1832 262 Figure 7-11. Plan of James Garth Marshall’s Waterhead estate, in 1845 270 Figure 7-12. Drawing of Crummock Water and Buttermere, by William Green, 1814 273 Figure 7-13.