Tag Archives: basildon park

Charles Dickens and a house in Berkshire

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BASILDON PARK IS an 18th century stately home in Berkshire. Now managed by the National Trust, it has had many owners including the Sykes family. Sir Francis William Sykes inherited the place from his grandfather. When his wife had an affair with the artist Daniel Maclise, Sir Francis disowned her and publicly humiliated her. Now, Maclise was a close friend of the author Charles Dickens, and at the time when Sykes was being unpleasant towards his wife, the author was working on his novel “Oliver Twist”. Dickens created the nasty criminal character called Bill Sikes to take his revenge on Sir Francis (see http://www.basildon-berks-pc.gov.uk/basildon-berks/basildons_past-20268.aspx)

Fagin

We visit Basildon Park regularly. For this reason and because of its connection with Bill Sikes, I had decided to read “Oliver Twist”. It is the third of the Dickens novels that I have read recently. It was one of the first that he wrote. Compared with the two I have already read, “Nicholas Nickleby” and “Martin Chuzzlewit”, it flows easily and is very exciting.

The first thing that struck me was how early in the book the famous “Please Sir, can I have some more” scene occurs. It is an important episode but one that people seem to remember more than the rest of the book.

“Oliver Twist” is full of wonderful characters, both good and evil. Amongst the latter, Sikes, Bullseye (a dog), Fagin, Mr Bumble, and Monks are particularly well portrayed. There is a host of characters who see the best in Oliver’s personality. Oliver and his troubled young life is brilliantly narrated, and as I turned the pages, my heart was in my mouth as I waited to see what misadventure would next befall him.

I found the novel to be fast moving and exciting. As the saying goes, it is a real ‘page-turner’. I had no idea that Dickens’s writing could be so thrilling. Having come to the end of “Oliver Twist”, I am next embarking on “Barnaby Rudge”, which I have chosen because it concerns the Gordon Riots of 1780, about which I have read in history books.

Chairs, coronations, and royalty

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BASILDON PARK IS an 18th century neo-classical mansion not far from Reading. From 1949, the house was owned and restored by the 2nd Baron and Lady Iliffe. They lived in it for 25 years. In one room on the ground floor, which contains the fascinating sketches made by the artist Graham Sutherland for his tapestry in Coventry Cathedral, there are four chairs. Two of them have the insignia of King George VI embroidered on their covers, and the other two are embroidered with the insignia of Queen Elizabeth II.

A National Trust volunteer guide working in the house explained that the 2nd Baron and his wife had attended the coronations of both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. The chairs were those they had sat on during these ceremonies. After the coronations, so the guide told us, the Iliffes bought the chairs they were sitting on to keep as souvenirs. The proceeds of sales such as this helped to pay for the coronation events.

Seeing these chairs reminded me of another chair, which I saw in a cousin’s house in Cape Town, South Africa. It was in this chair that Queen Mary (wife of King George V) had sat for a few minutes when she paid a brief visit to the Mayor’s house in King Williams Town (now called ‘Qonce’) in South Africa in 1946. The Mayor was my mother’s uncle. His grandson, my cousin, has kept this souvenir of the royal visit. I saw it when I visited him in Cape Town. Unlike the chairs at Basildon Park, there is no royal insignia on it.

Setting the table at a grand house in Berkshire

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BASILDON PARK IS an 18th century country house in Berkshire. Managed by the National Trust, it is open to the public. The dinner table in its grand dining room was set as it would have been in Victorian times, so a guide explained to us.

The centre of each place setting is a soup bowl resting on a plate. To the left of it, there are four forks, and to its right there are three knives and a spoon. Above the plates, there is a dessert spoon and fork. Working from left to right, the forks are for seafood (often oysters), fish fork, starter fork, and then closest to the plates, main course fork. To right of the plates, working from right to left, there is a soup spoon, a fish knife, a starter knife, and the closest to the plates, a main course knife. Each place setting had four drinking glasses: sherry, white wine or champagne, red wine, and port. We were told that there was no cutlery for cheese because in the 19th century, cheese was not served at formal dinners. What I have described was typical of a Victorian table setting in a grand country house such as Basildon Park.

In the early 1990s, we were invited for lunch at a friend’s house. Each of the table settings was almost as elaborate as that which I have described above. I looked at the table, and expected that we were about to be served a multi-course feast. The first course was pasta. I was seated so that I was able to see the kitchen. I noticed that there was a light on inside the glass-fronted oven, but it was empty. When our host offered second helpings of the pasta, everyone, doubtless expecting that much more food would be arriving, declined the offer. I was the exception, and said I would love some more. That is because, having seen the empty oven, I was more realistic about the future course of the meal. I was served my second helping, and then a bowl of salad was passed around. After that, the meal was over. However, we had only used a small proportion of the cutlery laid out at each place setting. To this day, I have been puzzling over the elaborate place settings when only one course was served. Seeing the table at Basildon Park reminded me of this occasion.

Houses in England built with money made in India

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DURING A VISIT TO Basildon Park near Reading, I spotted a display of photographs of “Nabob houses in the Indian Style”. A ‘nabob’ was someone who was conspicuously rich, having made his fortune in India. These were buildings constructed by people who had made their fortunes while working in India. for the British East India Company. Some, but not all of these, buildings incorporate architectural features derived from the architectural styles that the British found when they visited India.

Late 18th century Basildon Park, which was built by a Brit who had made his money in India, is a Nabob’s house, but without any features borrowed from the Indian subcontinent. It is a Palladian-style building. It was one of about 30 houses built in Berkshire for the nouveau-riche British ‘nabobs’, who had enriched themselves in India.

Art works by Graham Sutherland for Coventry Cathedral on display in a country house in Berkshire

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ON THE FOURTEENTH of November 1940, Coventry’s cathedral was badly damaged by bombs dropped from aircraft of the German Luftwaffe. After WW2, a new, modernist cathedral was constructed next to the shell of the damaged one. Designed by Basil Spence, the new cathedral was built between 1956 and 1962. Visitors to this magnificent replacement cathedral can hardly miss seeing the enormous tapestry that hangs at the eastern end of the church. Depicting “Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph”, it was the creation of the artist Graham Sutherland (1903-1980). I have seen this work and admired it on several occasions, but little did I expect to find a connection with it when visiting a National Trust property not far from Reading – Basildon Park.

Set in lovely grounds surrounded by rolling hills that lead down to the rows of trees growing near the Thames, the house at Basildon Park was largely completed in the Palladian style by 1783. After a series of owners, including the military during the two World Wars, it was bought by Lord and Lady Iliffe (later known as ‘the 2nd Baron and Lady Iliffe’) in 1953. They restored the house, and filled it with artworks they collected. A great patron of the arts, Lord Iliffe was a friend of the artist Graham Sutherland. He and his wife were able to purchase many of the studies that Sutherland made when planning the great tapestry that hangs behind the high altar in Coventry Cathedral. Some of these were donated to the Herbert Museum in Coventry, and several of them are on display in a room on the ground floor of Basildon Park. The studies exhibited in Basildon Park demonstrate Sutherland’s great artistic talents. Each of them, although sketches of details to be included in the final tapestry, is itself a lovely work of art.

Sutherland’s studies are (for me) the highlights of the Iliffe’s artworks on show in their former home – they gave it to the National Trust in 1978. In addition to these fine works, a few others caught my attention. In one room on the first floor, there are four sketches of places in India by William Daniell (1769-1837). It is quite appropriate to find these in Basildon Park, which was originally built by Frances Sykes, who made his fortune in the British East India Company. Another, more recent, painting that interested me was a portrait of Lady Iliffe painted in the 1940s by Frank Salisbury (1874-1962). A society portrait painter, he interested me not because of his art, but because he owned a spectacular neo-Tudor mansion, Sarum Chase, on West Heath Road in London’s Hampstead. I came across him when I was doing research for my book about Hampstead.

For some reason, despite visiting many National Trust properties around it, today (the 19th of May 2024) was the first time we went to see Basildon Park. The house is worth seeing – its rooms are spacious and well-lit, and the artworks are, as I hope I have explained, of great interest. Also, it stands in beautiful grounds – an idyllic English countryside.