Garsington Manor, in the village of
Garsington
Garsington is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford in Oxfordshire. "A History of the County of Oxfordshire" provides a detailed history of the parish from 1082. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,689. The vi ...
, near
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, is a country house, dating from the 17th century. Its fame derives principally from its owner in the early 20th century, the "legendary
Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfr ...
, who held court from 1915 to 1924". Members of the
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...
, the aristocratic Ottoline, and her wealthy husband
Philip
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
, were friends with an array of artists, writers and intellectuals,
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
,
T. S. Eliot,
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
,
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
,
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley ...
,
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
and
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
being among the visitors to their house. The manor was later owned by
Leonard Ingrams
Leonard Victor Ingrams, OBE (1 September 1941 – 27 July 2005) was a financier and opera festival founder/impresario.
Leonard Ingrams was the youngest of four sons. His parents were Leonard St Clair Ingrams, who served in the Secret Service ...
and from 1989 to 2010 was the setting for an annual summer opera season, the
Garsington Opera
Garsington Opera is an annual summer opera festival founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams. The Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert are its two resident orchestras. For 21 years it was held in the gardens of Ingrams's home at Garsington ...
, which relocated to
Wormsley Park
Wormsley is a private estate of Mark Getty and his family, set in of rolling countryside in the Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire (formerly Oxfordshire), England. It is also the home of Garsington Opera. Acquired by Sir Paul Getty in 1985, th ...
in 2011. Garsington is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
The
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
was built on land once owned by the son of the poet
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
, and at one time had the name "Chaucers". It was constructed in the 1630s by a William Wyckham. Lady Ottoline and her husband,
Philip Morrell
Philip Edward Morrell (4 June 1870 – 5 January 1943) was a British Liberal politician.
Background
Morrell was the son of Frederic Morrell, a solicitor of Black Hall, Oxford, by his wife Harriette Anne, daughter of the President of St John's ...
, bought the
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
in 1913, at which time it was in a state of disrepair, having been in use as a farmhouse. They paid £8,450. Their moving in was delayed until May 1915, due to the continuing occupancy by the former tenants.
Garsington became a haven for the Morrells’ friends, including
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
,
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...
,
Edward Sackville-West
Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville (13 November 1901 – 4 July 1965) was a British music critic, novelist and, in his last years, a member of the House of Lords. Musically gifted as a boy, he was attracted as a young man to a lit ...
,
Lord David Cecil
Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) was a British biographer, historian, and scholar. He held the style of "Lord" by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess.
Early life and studies
David Cecil was ...
,
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychological insight ...
,
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley ...
,
Mark Gertler,
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
,
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
,
T. S. Eliot,
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
and
Walter de la Mare
Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for a highly acclaimed selection of ...
. In 1916, they invited
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
s, including
Clive Bell
Arthur Clive Heward Bell (16 September 1881 – 17 September 1964) was an English art critic, associated with formalism and the Bloomsbury Group. He developed the art theory known as significant form.
Biography Origins
Bell was born in East ...
and other members of the
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...
, to come and work on the home farm for the duration of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, as civilian work classified as being of national importance was recognised as an alternative to
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...
. Aldous Huxley spent some time at Garsington before he wrote ''
Crome Yellow
''Crome Yellow'' is the first novel by British author Aldous Huxley, published by Chatto & Windus in 1921, followed by a U.S. edition by George H. Doran Company in 1922. Though a social satire of its time, it is still appreciated and has been a ...
'', a book which contains a caricature based on Ottoline for which she never forgave him. His pen portrait of her, written after their first meeting in 1915, summarises the aspects of her character which both attracted and repelled; "
heis quite an incredible creature - arty beyond the dreams of avarice and a patroness of literature and
the modern The Modern could be
* The Modern (band), a British Electropop band formerly called Matinée Club
* The Modern (building complex), a twin tower complex in Fort Lee, New Jersey
* The Modern (restaurant), a Danny Meyer restaurant in the Museum of Moder ...
. She is intelligent, but her affectation is overwhelming". Huxley was not the only one of Ottoline's friends to mock her in print. Her affair with a stonemason Lionel Gomme, known as "Tiger", who worked on the statuary at Garsington, has been cited by some critics as the basis for Lawrence's portrayal of
Lady Chatterley's affair with the gamekeeper, Mellor in his novel of 1928. Lawrence portrayed her even more directly as Lady Hermione Roddice, in his novel ''
Women in Love
''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel ''The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...
''. The savagery of the depiction caused a decades-long breach in their friendship, and Philip Morrell threatened to sue Lawrence's publishers.
![LadyOttolineMorrell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/LadyOttolineMorrell.jpg)
''In Confidence'', a short story by
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...
, portrays the "wits of Garsington" some four years before ''Crome Yellow''. Not everyone found the atmosphere congenial; the shy poet
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...
, taken to Garsington by his tutor
Maurice Bowra
Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra, (; 8 April 1898 – 4 July 1971) was an English classical scholar, literary critic and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as Vice-Chancellor of the Univer ...
, found it "a tremendous ordeal" and sought refuge "slinking gloomily amongst the peacocks" in the Italianate gardens. Lytton Strachey complained that the constant coming and going of guests made work impossible: "I sit quivering among a surging mesh of pugs, peacocks, pianolas, and humans - if humans they can be called - the inhabitants of
Circe
Circe (; grc, , ) is an Magician (paranormal), enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion. She is either a daughter of the Titans, Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse (mythology), Perse ...
's cave".
David Garnett
David Garnett (9 March 1892 – 17 February 1981) was an English writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.
Early ...
, a writer, and lover of a number of Ottoline's guests, recorded his impressions of Garsington in his autobiography; "Ottoline's pack of
pug
The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (fawn) or blac ...
dogs trotted everywhere and added to the Beardsley quality, which was one half of her natural taste. The characteristic of every house in which Ottoline lived was its smell and the smell of Garsington was stronger than that of Bedford Square. It reeked of the bowls of
potpourri
Potpourri ( ) is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It is often placed in a decorative bowl.
The word "potpourri" comes into English from the French ...
and
orris root
Orris root (''rhizoma iridis'') is the root of ''Iris germanica'' and ''Iris pallida''. It had the common name of Queen Elizabeth Root.
Constituent chemicals
The most valued component of orris root is oil of orris (0.1–0.2%), a yellow-whit ...
which stood on every mantelpiece, side table and window-sill and of the desiccated oranges, studded with cloves, which Ottoline loved making".
The Morrells restored the house in the 1920s, working with the architect
Philip Tilden
Philip Tilden (31 May 1887 – 25 February 1956) was an English architect, active in the early twentieth century, who worked for some of the most prominent members of English society, including Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Lord Beaverb ...
, and creating landscaped Italian-style
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
s. The
parterre
A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...
has 24 square beds with Irish
yews at the corners; the Italian garden has a large ornamental pool enclosed by yew hedges and set with statues. This was designed by
Charles Edward Mallows; beyond, is a wild garden, with lime-tree
avenues, shrubs, a stream and pond. Financial difficulties forced the Morrells to sell Garsington in 1928. The house was subsequently bought by
Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, the historian, who lived there until his death in 1975. It was sold in 1981 to
Leonard Ingrams
Leonard Victor Ingrams, OBE (1 September 1941 – 27 July 2005) was a financier and opera festival founder/impresario.
Leonard Ingrams was the youngest of four sons. His parents were Leonard St Clair Ingrams, who served in the Secret Service ...
, a banker and brother of
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
. Following Leonard Ingrams' death in 2012, the house was again sold.
Architecture and description
The house is a rectangular structure, of two storeys with attics. The building material is
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary ...
.
In his memoirs, ''True Remembrances-the memoirs of an architect'', Philip Tilden recorded the unobtrusive style he sought to achieve at Garsington; "I doubt whether the present-day visitor could spot these alterations, they were made out of odd bits, and the workmanship was carried out by men of the old school".
Garsington is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
,
and its gardens are also grade II* on the
Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...
. A number of other buildings on the estate, and landscaping features in the gardens have Grade II listings including the stables, the
bakehouse
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish ...
, the gates at the forecourt to the manor, the pool, a
summer house
A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden ...
and statuary and an 18th-century
dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...
.
Notes
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Garsington Manor
Country houses in Oxfordshire
South Oxfordshire District
Bloomsbury Group locations
Grade II* listed houses
Grade II* listed buildings in Oxfordshire