Hartwell House is a

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

in the parish of

Hartwell Hartwell may refer to: Places * Hartwell, Victoria, a neighbourhood of Camberwell in Melbourne, Australia ** Hartwell railway station England * Hartwell, Buckinghamshire * Hartwell, Northamptonshire, a village * Hartwell, Staffordshire, a lo ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

Southern England Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...

. The house is owned by the

Ernest Cook Trust The Ernest Cook Trust is a large educational charity in England. It was founded in 1952 by the philanthropist Ernest Cook, the grandson of travel pioneer Thomas Cook. Each year the Trustees distribute more than £1.25m in educational grants to be ...

, has been a Historic House Hotel since 1989, and in 2008 was leased to the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

. The Grade I listed house is Jacobean with a Georgian front and Rococo interiors, set in a picturesque landscaped park, and is most famous as the home of exiled French king

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

in the early 19th century.

Location

The house is in the village of

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

along the A418, about from the centre of

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

, the nearest large town, which is about from the centre of London via the A41.

History

The property was first mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 and belonged to

William Peverel William Peverel (died 28 January 1114), Latinised to Gulielmus Piperellus), was a Norman knight granted lands in England following the Norman Conquest. Origins Little is known of the origin of the William Peverel the Elder. Of his immediat ...

. The core of the present house was constructed in the early 17th century for the Hampden family and then the Lee family. The Lees, an old Buckinghamshire family, acquired Hartwell c.1650 by marriage into the Hampdens.

Bourbon Court

Between 1809 and 1814 the owner of the house, Sir Charles Lee, let the mansion to the French prince Louis Stanislas Xavier, Count of Provence, the future King Louis XVIII. The arrival of the impoverished prince and his court at Hartwell was not a happy experience for the mansion, with once grand and imperious courtiers farming chickens and assorted small livestock on the lead roofs. Louis's wife,

Marie Joséphine of Savoy Marie Joséphine of Savoy (; 2 September 1753 – 13 November 1810) was a princess of Kingdom of France, France and Countess of Provence by marriage to the future King Louis XVIII of France. She was regarded by Bourbon royalist Legitimists as ...

died at Hartwell in 1810. After her death, her body was carried first to Westminster Abbey, and one year later to

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, where the Savoy King of Sardinia had withdrawn during Napoleonic occupation of Turin and Piedmont; she is buried in

Cagliari Cathedral Cagliari Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to Saint Cecilia. It is the seat of the archbishop of Cagliari. The church was built in the 13th century in Pisan-Romanesque style, ...

. Prince Louis signed the document accepting the French crown in the library of the house, following the defeat of Napoleon.

Scientific hub

In 1827, Dr John Lee, an astronomer, inherited the house from the unmarried Revd Sir George Lee. During his ownership, the British Meteorological Society, now the

Royal Meteorological Society The Royal Meteorological Society is an organization that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Members can be lay enthusiasts. It publishes vari ...

, was founded in the library in 1850.

The Hartwell Observatory

William Henry Smyth Admiral William Henry Smyth (21 January 1788 – 8 September 1865) was an English Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hy ...

, one of Lee's regular scientist guests invited to discuss theories "year after year" at Hartwell, who had helped with the design of the telescope and cupola that Lee had installed, described the house and the Hartwell Observatory established there, in ''Ædes Hartwellianæ: Or, Notices of the Manor and Mansion of Hartwell'' (Printed for private circulation, by J.B. Nichols and Son, London, 1851). Many of the illustrations in the book are by Smyth's wife Annarella and by his son-in-law, Rev. Prof. Baden Powell.

Subsequent use

Revd Nicholas Lee inherited the house when his brother, Dr John, died on 25 February 1866 at Hartwell. The house remained a private residence until 1938, when, at risk of demolition, the estate was acquired by the philanthropist

Ernest Cook Ernest Edward Cook (4 September 1865 – 14 March 1955) was an English philanthropist and businessman. He was a grandson of Thomas Cook, the travel entrepreneur. Cook was born in Camberwell, London and educated at Mill Hill School, as were his ...

and the contents sold off by public

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

. The estate passed to the Ernest Cook Trust when it was founded in 1952. In the 1960s the house became a girls'

finishing school A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's ...

, then was let in the 1980s to be run as a hotel. The house was converted and became part of the Historic House Hotels group. Its proximity to

Chequers Chequers ( ) is the English country house, country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister of the United Kingdom. A 16th-century manor house in origin, it is near the village of Ellesborough in England, halfway betwee ...

means that it has frequently been the host of international and government summits and meetings. A speciality of the house restaurant is the local

Aylesbury Duck The Aylesbury duck is a breed of domesticated duck, bred mainly for its meat and appearance. It is a large duck with pure white plumage, a pink bill, orange legs and feet, an unusually large keel, and a horizontal stance with its body parallel t ...

Architectural description

The Jacobean north front of the house is constructed of

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

and has a projecting porch with a bow window above. At each end of this facade are two flanking canted

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

s, each with a double height

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...

. Immediately on each side of the porch are two large windows of the hall inside. Hiding the roofscape is a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

with vases erected in 1740. Between 1759 and 1761, architect Henry Keene substantially enlarged and " Georgianised" the house, and built the east front with its canted bay windows and a central porch in the Tuscan style. Inside, the great hall has

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

panels, and three reception rooms with

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

chimneypiece The fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a smoke canopy, hood that projected over a fire grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fi ...

s. The 1980s conversion to a hotel was overseen by the architect Eric Throssell who created a new dining room in the style of Sir

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor ...

, by enclosing the former 18th-century open arcaded porch. The former semi-circular galleried entrance vestibule became an inner hall. Throssel was also responsible for the design and recreation of the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

crowning the roof.

Gardens

The of gardens at Hartwell were laid out by

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

c.1750. The North Avenue is a grand vista through trees planted in 1830, sadly today terminated by the ever encroaching town of Aylesbury. The gardens are reminiscent of nearby Stowe, with statues, an

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

and ornamental bridge. The Hartwell Estate currently covers of farmland surrounding Hartwell House. Hartwell's Egyptian Spring is a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

built in 1850 by Joseph Bonomi the Younger, an Egyptologist. It is an alcove seat on the western side of Lower Hartwell opposite a small

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

. The stone pylon bears the Greek inscription "ΑΡΙΣΤοΝ ΜΕΝ ΥΔΩΡ", translated as "Water is Best", attributed to

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; ; ) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, pre-Socratic Philosophy, philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Seven Sages, founding figure ...

Acquisition by the National Trust

In September 2008 the National Trust acquired a long lease of the house from the Ernest Cook Trust (until 2111). The gift had been under discussion for almost 30 years and in 1997 the National Trust accepted restrictive covenants over all three properties. The house and grounds were gifted the Trust by the directors of Historic House Hotels (HHH). The house continues its present use as a hotel under the existing HHH management. Three National Trust directors joined the HHH board and all profits will go to Trust funds to provide for the long-term care of the three houses.

Public access

It is envisaged that arrangements will be put in place for the gardens and grounds of the hall to be open to visitors, along with tours of the ground floor rooms.

References

External links

Hartwell HouseHartwell House entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses
*

,
Ædes Hartwellianæ: Or, Notices of the Manor and Mansion of Hartwell
' (1851) *

,
Addenda to the Ædes Hartwellianæ
' (1864) {{coord, 51.8051, -0.8468, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 17th-century establishments in England Houses completed in the 17th century Country houses in Buckinghamshire Hotels in Buckinghamshire Grade I listed houses Grade I listed buildings in Buckinghamshire National Trust properties in Buckinghamshire Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Buckinghamshire Country house hotels Louis XVIII