The Cedars is a large detached house in Sunninghill, Berkshire. It is two storeys in height, painted white render and has a hipped slate roof. The house has a roughly rectangular plan. It was initially built in the early 19th-century and subsequently expanded. A large conservatory was added in the 20th century; this was the site of an indoor swimming pool in the 1990s. It has been listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

since March 1972. It is named for the prominent cedar trees in its grounds. A stream runs through the grounds. A thatched mock dairy building in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

with stained-glass windows stands in the garden. It is also listed Grade II.

History

It is situated opposite the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels. The former church green that adjoined Saint Michael's was sold to the owner of The Cedars in 1779. The front garden of the house was formerly part of the burial ground of the church. The Cedars was owned by the politician John Yorke in the 18th century; he sold it to the antiquary George Ellis. Ellis was a friend of Prime Minister George Canning. Ellis was a frequent correspondent of the novelist

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

; Scott wrote two cantos of his epic prose poem '' Marmion'' in the garden of the residence. A stone in the garden of The Cedars marks Scott's favourite spot. Scott and his wife, Charlotte Charpentier, stayed with Ellis at The Cedars for a week with their friends

Richard Heber Richard Heber (5 January 1773 – 4 October 1833) was an English book-collector. Biography He was born in Westminster, as the eldest son of Reginald Heber, who succeeded his eldest brother as lord of the manors of Marton in Yorkshire and Hodne ...

and

Francis Douce Francis Douce ( ; 175730 March 1834) was a British antiquary and museum curator. Biography Douce was born in London. His father was a clerk in Chancery. After completing his education he entered his father's office, but soon quit it to devote ...

. While staying with Ellis and his wife, Scott read the first two or three cantos of the ''

Lay of the Last Minstrel ''The Lay of the Last Minstrel'' (1805) is a narrative poem in six cantos with copious antiquarian notes by Walter Scott. Set in the Scottish Borders in the mid-16th century, it is represented within the work as being sung by a minstrel late i ...

'' to his hosts under an old oak tree in Windsor Forest. The house was the residence of Harriet Moore in the mid 19th-century. Moore was the sister of the geologist John Carrick Moore and attended lectures at the Royal Institution given by Michael Faraday in the summer of 1850. Moore wrote to Faraday from The Cedars and told him and his wife Sarah that the geologists Charles and

Mary Horner Lyell Mary Horner Lyell (9 October 1808 – 24 April 1873) was a conchologist and geologist. She was married to the famed British geologist Charles Lyell and assisted him in his scientific work. She never became widely known in her own right, although ...

had recently stayed at the house and were now "geologizing in the Hartz mountains". In the 1860s it was the residence of

Charles Anderson-Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough Charles Anderson-Pelham, 3rd Earl of Yarborough (14 January 1835 – 6 February 1875), known as Lord Worsley from 1846 to 1852, was a British peer. Yarborough was the son of Charles Anderson-Pelham, 2nd Earl of Yarborough, and his wife Maria ...

, peer and MP for

Great Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linc ...

. Caroline Elizabeth, the widow of Charles Pepys, 1st Earl of Cottenham, died at the house in 1868. It was for sale with 18 acres of land in 1935. The Cedars was profiled by Katherine Bergen in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' as its 'House of the Week' in March 1997. It was on sale with

Knight Frank Knight Frank LLP is an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy founded in London by John Knight, Howard Frank and William Rutley in 1896. Knight Frank together with its American affiliate Cresa is one of the world's large ...

and

Savills Savills plc is a British real estate services company based in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was established by Alfred Savill (1829–1905) in 1855 in London. B ...

for £3 million (). Bergen described the rear of the house as "more imposing than the front" and that it was "not seen to its best advantage from the front because it can be approached only obliquely from the side". Bergen likened the appearance of The Cedars to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

in Washington, D.C. and wrote that its "...endless large windows give the interior a kind of crystalline light that painters such as Vermeer would have swooned for".

References

{{Coord, 51, 24, 34, N, 00, 39, 03, W, display=title Country houses in Berkshire Grade II listed buildings in Berkshire Grade II listed houses Houses completed in the 19th century Sunninghill and Ascot