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KATHLEEN

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MA

PHOTOGRAPHY BY
MICHAEL DUNNE
PRINCIPAL

li

(.jV

PRESENT

-'

THE GOTHIC REVIVAL

in architecture

and

design emerged in the early eighteenth century as a release from the aesthetic restraints

of classicism. Lavishly illustrated, Gothic

Architecture

Century

and

Interiors

to the Present

from

the

Style:

Eighteenth

celebrates this flamboyant

and often whimsical revival of the medieval

Gothic, revealing the lyrical romanticism of

an 800-year-old style that

still

looks vibrant

today.

From mock

ruins and other fanciful garden

tles,

manor houses and casfrom simple cottages to Hudson River

villas

and the mansions of Palm Beach, author

follies to

extravagant

Kathleen Mahoney examines Gothic's inven-

and exuberant design heritage over the

tive

last three centuries. Some 30 structures

many open to the public in the United States

and Great Britain are explored inside and out

in beautiful full-color
ic

photographs and histor-

engravings. In addition, the author weaves

an intriguing social history that conveys the

romantic
tects,

spirit

with which tastemakers, archi-

and designers have captured the medi-

eval past.

After decades of neglect, the Gothic style

now
its

is

enjoying a period of renewed interest and

return to favor promises an adventure into

an imaginative world. Designers, decorators,

architects,

and

are

collectors

increasingly

turning to the Gothic legacy for inspiration

and

designs

reminiscent

of the

style

are

appearing in buildings and in a wide assort-

ment of home
ture,

furnishings, including furni-

decorative

coverings. This

objects,

book

is

fabrics,

and wall

sure to delight and

inspire.

289

illustrations, including

258

plates in

^f

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CWIC CENTER

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DATE DUE
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,^^

(iotl7i(;3tyl?
J^rckiUcluu and Interiors
from th

Siaktanth Qmtury
to

th

Present
KATHLEEN MAHONEY
PRINCIPAL

PHOTOGRAPHY

BY

MICHAEL DUNNE
ADDITIONAI PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN MAHONEY AND NIGEL HUDSON

HARRY N. ABRAMS,

INC.,

PUBLISHERS

Vo

the

memory

of our dear and treasured friend

]ac]<^JAacurdy

K.M. and

Frontispiece;

and

Vhe round room

at

M.

D.

Strawhcrry Hill, with

its

decorative dado, can he seen heyond the

doorway

'

at the far

end of the lona aallery.

A^t each corner of the doorframe are gilded quatrefoils with shields

&ndfapers: Ji
to he

engraving of King Alfred's Hall hy

1763

thefrst Qothic sham

1721 on

rum

the estate of Lord

m their centers.

Vhomas '^hins,

in 6>ngland as well as one of the hest.

^athurst

at (^irencester

window

stained' alass hay

It

helieved

was heaun

in

^ar\.

Editors: Beverly Fazio Herter and Elisa Urbanelli

Designers: Dirk Luykx and

Amy

Hill

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mahoney, Kathleen.
Gothic
/

style

architecture and interiors

Kathleen Mahoney

from the eighteenth century to the present

principal photography by Michael

Dunne

additional

photographs by John Mahoney and Nigel Hudson,

cm.

p.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 261

ISBN 0-8109-3381-0

Gothic revival (Architecture)

England.

United

3.

States.

decoration

5.

United

Published

A Times

in

England.

2.

England.

Decoration and ornament, Gothic

4.

Gothic revival (Architecture)

Decoration and ornament, Gothic

States.

NA966.5.G66M326
724'.3~dc20
Copyright

Interior decoration

62).

I.

United

States.

6. Interior

Title.

1995

94-32731

995 Kathleen Mahoney

i.

1995 by Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated,

New

York

Mirror Company

All rights reserved.

No

part of the contents of this

the written permission of the publisher

Printed and bound in Japan

book may be reproduced without

It 15

that strancjc

disquietude

oj the

Qothic

that restlessness of tke dreaming mind, that

amona

the niches,

and fades

in

.spirit

tdat

15 it5

Cjreatncss;

wanders hither and tkitker

and flic]<^rs feverishly around

the pnnacles,

and frets

lahwinthine knots and shadows alona wall and

and yet

JOHN

is

roof,

not satisjiei, nor shall he satisfied.

RUSKIN, THE STO\ES OF VEMCE

Introduction

Parti

Part

c/ke Snojlish

Cjothic]<,^^anor Houses of

III

Landscape Qardcn

17

the &icj}iUcnth

Hagley Park: Sham Ruin

25

St.

29

Strawberry Hill

101

Arbury Hall

111

33

Alscot Park

37

St.

41

Part IV

Enville

Summer House

Painshill Park:

Gothick Temple and

Sham Ruin
Painswick:

Rococo Garden

Michael's

Qcntury

ss

Mount

John the Evangelist

95

131

Exton Park: Fort Henry and

Dovecote

l^mUmth-^ Qcntury
Part

II

Qjttagcs

Qastlcs df a Qo\kic

& Qardm

^wdlmas

47

Houghton Lodge

55

Clytha Castle

59

Frampton Court Orangery

63

The Ring

69

Inwardleigh Cottage

73

Chandos Lodge

79

transformation

135

Birr Castle

145

Eastnor Castle

153

Cardiff Castle

157

Contents
PartV

Part VII

yhc Arrival ofQothic

^5 a ^s[atlon J^atures,

m the United States

165

Gothic

Rotch House

179

Mar-a-Lago

251

Lvndhurst

183

McKim House

257

Notes

260

Selected Bibliography

261

Glossary

263

Illustration Credits

264

Part VI

cJke

blower ma of

j\merican Gothic

191

Andalusia

203

Roselanc

211

Is

yransformed

237

<

Kingscote

215

Staunton Hil

219

Bishop Gilbert Haven Cottage

223

Tom

231

Fallon Cottage

Introduction

cJItc

haunUngly romantic

the Qistercian

m east Wales
ahhey

ELEGATED TO THE DUSTY

of

Gothic style has languished for close to

one of the most

many

hun-

ruined

dred years, yet there are strong indications that

sites that are leji in the

Unitt: J

remains

Kinadom
is

y\II that

now

a taste for Gothic, after a long^ hiatus,

'^.

some of

W.
Its

is

re-

a skeleton of arches

surfacing.

ahove a turf jloor. Artist

J.

PAST, the

Vintan Jihhey

\s

heaut:ful of the

shell

Its

return to

tavor

promises an

Vurner captured

drama

adventure into an imaginative world.

in this water-

color painted in the

ijgos.

Two museum

Museum

installations

major exhibition sponsored bv the

of Fine Arts, Houston, featuring decorative arts from the Gothic

Revival period, plus the addition of a Gothic Revival

City's Metropolitan

Museum

of Art

room

at

New

York

undoubtedly provided added

im-

petus. These days, as prices for antique Gothic treasures climb, sending
collectors scrambling, designers and architects are increasinglv turning to

Gothic's rich design heritage for inspiration. Gothic designs are turning up
in a

wide assortment of home furnishings, from furniture,

fabric,

and wall

coverings to decorative objects and architectural applications in houses,

conservatories, and even skyscrapers.

many

Yet for

today, the Gothic Revival

is

Httle

understood, caUing to mind dark, sUghtly sinister

Victorian interiors or novels recounting tales of horror. In truth, these

manifestations played but a small

role in a major, emotionally charged

more than

persisted for

a century, stretching across

from England and

national boundaries
into Europe,

movement that

Scandinavia,

Russia,

its

colonies

and America.

Gothic ultimately w^as to influence virtually

ative endeavors,
arts

all

cre-

none more so than the decorative

and architecture.

Elements of Gothic

style,

the roots of w^hich

reach back to medieval times, never really stopped

being used for simple English dwellings. In addition, the

need for constant repair to early churches

required a working knowledge of Gothic on the

part of stone masons,

down from one

ties,

such

as

whose

skills

had been handed

generation to the next. Universi-

Oxford and Cambridge, and churches

continued to be constructed and expanded upon in

the original Gothic style, frequently for the sake of
continuity of tradition. These buildings, the product

of surviving Gothic influences, bore a great similarity to

those erected several hundred years earlier.

However, the introduction and development of

Gothic

as

an expression of the Romantic

was quite another

revival

story. Its early-eighteenth-century

was marked by

emerged

Movement

as a release

a decidedly

from

new form, which

classical restraints. It

was

exuberant, borrowing Gothic elements in a whimsical,

lighthearted manner.

other fanciful garden

house interiors,

its

From mock

follies to

ruins and

flamboyant manor-

inventive and decidedly playful

approach was purely decorative and evocative. Enthusiasts

as

found joy simply

in

what pleased the

eye,

they incorporated motifs from original Gothic

structures, imaginatively adapting whatever suited

their fancy.

Freed from the

at the time,

10

classical

formality in vogue

Gothic motifs offered endless variety.

The reappearance of Gothic

century was brought about

in the

in part

eighteenth

by a fascination

with the legends and lore of medieval times. Ballads

written during the Middle Ages became extremely

popular and were a source of inspiration for creative

spirits

of the dav,

who were

captivated bv notions

knighthood and chivalrv. The dark side of the

of

Middle Ages was particularly exciting to poets and

writers,

who

delved into the mysterious and the su-

pernatural with great abandon. This fascination was

largely responsible for the building of castles during

the last quarter of the eighteenth and into the nine-

teenth century.
In the third

decade of the nineteenth century the

character of Gothic changed profoundly, shifting to

more

serious approach guided by the Ecclesiolo-

gists, a

powerful group whose aim was the reform

of church architecture, and by the religious dogmatism of architect A. W. N. Pugin. Gothic style be-

came imbued with moral and

religious meaning,

with devotees emphasizing structural honesty and

archaeological accuracy. By the beginning of
Victoria's reign in 1837, Gothic

England, moving toward

Queen

was entrenched

a heavy,

more ornate

in

ex-

pression typical of the period.

Across the Atlantic,

own

new

historical references

nation devoid of

its

turned to England for

guidance in stvle trends. America was prospering

the nineteenth century evolved, shedding

Colo-

garb and venturing to explore a variety of ar-

nial

chitectural styles.

A.

its

as

J.

Under

the guidance of architect

Davis and landscape gardener and writer A.

J.

Downing, Gothic forms bloomed across the American landscape. Exuberant manifestations appeared
in the guise

Ju5t
tilt-

iM

Oicross

still

^ Welsk

remains

1536.

of cottages and

cJlit

\)orhr,

o\'^\r\\cry\

on

tli^

J^cy,

pu'twres^uc site

villas

enlivened by the

riaht banl^^of tlw

cow^scauii bv

ktamc

^it'r Wvt%

s\\s

Ki^^ Henrv VIII

a ^ipular tourist attraction in

tialitttntli ttnturv.

11

tlif

of the jigsaw. Steeply pitched gables

liberal use

gaily

trimmed with

lacy vergeboards and decorative

Ot^^osxU:

An Attempt

bay and oriel windows extending from fa9ades gave

in

storybook look to houses. Castle-like residences,

Vhnc

first

vival. In

America

characterised hy narrow lancet

(1280-1^80)
tracery.

used around

'

windows frecmently

Vhe
'

window

distinguished hy elaborate curvilinear

IS

'Perpendicular Style

.that are divided into

(1280-1^^^)

two or

windows

features

three sections hy i^ervendicular

mulhons. Later windows frec^uently have a scmared'off headinci

1850 and became accepted with the 1872 publication of Charles Eastlake's

15

&arly Snalish

combined with clustered columns, decorated English

made an appearance, especially along

picturesque banks of the Hudson River.

The term Gothic Revival was

m tKe da)eloi^ment of the Gothic style.

regressive stages

nevertheless
the

hooh^,

to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture

popular in the States than in England,

less

Vhomas ^^c]<^ans 1819

England from the Conquest to the Reformation, show

(1189-1280)

while

illustrations from

over a stretched arch with syandrels.

History of the Gothic Re-

generally applied to the entire

it is

period from the eighteenth century through

its late-

Goethe, Hegel, and Coleridge, believed the Gothic

nineteenth-century decline. The English, however,

cathedral to be inspired by the crossing of branches

distinguish

between

periods, adopting the

stylistic

spelling Gothick w^hen referring to the exuberant

in a forest, while others

have chosen to use Gothick

as the English

do

in or-

der to clearly distinguish between the two very

dif-

ferent stylistic trends.

The

name

to this eccentric, budding style

of a problem. The

of the Visigoths,
to the

fifth

Roman

was something

word Gothic conjured up

who

visions

overran Europe from the third

centuries, bringing about an

end to the

Empire. Controversy about the nomen-

clature raged throughout the eighteenth century, as

alternate

names such

as

English were suggested.

Pointed,

Christian, and

The term Gothic seems

have actually originated in sixteenth-century

to

Italy,

where design influences based on the precepts of

classical

Roman architecture were faithfully adhered

to. Italians
sical,

looked disdainfully upon anything not

thinking of it as barbaric.

clas-

A seventeenth- century

dictionary defined Gothic as anything crude or rough.

With

the study of history

still

in a primitive state

in the eighteenth century, Gothic's twelfth-century

origins

12

the

were vague to most. Some,

like writers

was

a style

at

from

original Gothic style actually evolved

Romanesque and had

the church of

St.

its

beginnings in France

Denis just outside

Paris, the

construction of which was begun in 1140.

was

It

the parts of the church to be completed last

choir,

For citizens of the eighteenth century, putting a

it

brought back fi^om the jCrusades of the twelfth century.

eighteenth- century influences, as writers at the time

commonly did, and Gothic Revival to denote only

the later, more serious nineteenth-century forms.

were convinced

the

and chapels, distinguished by their

aisles,

pointed arches and ribbed vaults

tinctly Gothic. Less than

that

were

one hundred years

dis-

later,

with the building of Chartres in 1220, the Gothic

style

was to reach

What made

its

zenith.

this style

dled architectural

unique was the way

stress.

it

han-

With arches designed

push against each other, stone walls,

stabilized

to

by

reinforcements in the form of exposed flying buttresses,

climbed to heights never before reached.

Another outstanding quality of Gothic was

its

ex-

traordinary use of light. As the style developed,

walls

became mere

shells to

house vast expanses of

luminescent stained-glass windows, which flooded

church interiors with multifaceted rays of

These masterpieces of architecture

also

light.

employed

vaulted ceilings, pinnacles, tracery, and decorative

details

such

as

crockets and gargoyles related to

nature or to the grotesque;

all

were united into

Ittiip

Romsoy Abbey,

o.

1220.

Meopliam, Kent,

symbiotic union of design and structure.

While Roche Abbev

first

(c.

160)

Gothic building in England,

oped Gothic

style

appeared just

is

fifteen years later,

the legendary

Norman Canterbury

French influences continued

at

in

fire

Cathedral.

England, especially

Canterbury and Westminster Abbey, but before

long the English developed a style entirely their

own. Rejecting the soaring heights of the French

Ages. Like

all

design

ticular stage.

with

occasional smaller second transept. Interiors

cin

Gothic architecture eventually made

from

ecclesiastical

of Architecture

in

It

The

first,

William

and the

that

many

col-

in

his

to Discriminate the Stjles

to the

Re-

still

in

use to-

a step closer to gaining

the time.

in

1066, was

Norman. It was the second

by Rickman as Early English,

marked the beginnings of Gothic. Character-

ized by the use of

clustered
1

at

for each

Norman Conquest

civil

stretches into the twentieth century, as

manifested

which started with the rei^n of

buildings to residences,

1387 and 1440, respectively. This design tradition

names

academic respectability

period, referred to

public schools Winchester and Eton, founded in

it

Thomas Rickman,

was to bring Gothic

way

bridge, established in the twelfth century, and the

evolved

formation, divided medieval architecture into tour

appropriately called

Oxford and Cam-

endure over

that

England Jrom the Conquest

its

buildings, and colleges, such as

it

1819 handbook. An Attempt

positioned almost in the center,

were frequently divided into compartments.

as

Historian

day.

a transept

of

halls

elements that were generally characteristic of a par-

tion, the English elected instead to elongate, replac-

adding

movements

broad period of time,

periods, establishing

end and

look to those early

still

1500.

Gothic reigned supreme throughout the Middle

cathedrals and their lavish use of carved ornamenta-

ing a grouping of chapels with a square east

learning for architectural inspiration.

fully devel-

with the replacement of the choir destroyed by

at

Ruslideii, Uortliaiiiptojisliire,

1280.

leges and universities

credited as the

more

c.

columns,

189, as Richard

narrow lancet windows and

Early

English

beaan around

assumed the throne, extending

until 1280.

The

transition

from one phase to another was

13

gradual one. The use of bar tracery, consisting of

pope

branching ribs or mulhons in windows, allowing

wife invalid. The King was appointed head of the

them

to be

made

considerably larger, was

troduced in France

at

Reims Cathedral

in

first in-

1211 and

for refusing to declare his marriage to his first

Church of England by Parliament,

independent national Anglican Church and the

was quickly adopted by the English during what

of the English Reformation.

Rickman termed

owned by

the Decorated period, which fol-

lowed roughly one hundred years

Early English.

An

after the start of

important step in the evolution of

Gothic, the subdivision of windows,

tial

now

an essen-

part of the structure, ultimately progressed to

the point

where walls diminished to mere

forms.

was during

It

came more

this

naturalistic

skeletal

period that ornament be-

and

less restricted to struc-

the

moying toward the Renaissance. The Hundred

War betw^een England and

France raged from

1337 to 1453 and resulted in England's loss of

French possessions save for

Calais.

much

all its

Coupled with

with the papacy sometime

VIII's battles

England was cut off from

later,

of Catholic Europe,

prolonging the use of Gothic. The Perpendicular

Style,

years later, land

the Catholic church was confiscated by

subsequently built on the foundations

v^e-re

of dispossessed old Catholic abbeys, a

Gothic churches were

teenth century

all

left

number

to ruin, and by the eigh-

remained of the once

that

of

vastly

powerful structures were skeletal forms made up of

crumbling arches and walls.

To the romantic-minded eighteenth-century En-

By the fourteenth century, the Continent was

Henry

Two

start

Crown. While some of England's great country

houses

tural use.

Years'

establishing an

which evolved during

this time,

was uniquely

emphasis was on verticality and the use

English.

Its

of light.

Window tracery became

mented with simple

cusping.

rectangular, orna-

The decorative

vault and elaborate paneled walls,

which we

fan

will see

glish tourists, these

as

Gothic ruins were looked upon

One

wonderfully picturesque and melancholic.

of the most popular of the solitary

the

Cistercian Tintern

proved to be
century

Abbey

sites to visit

in

was

Wales, which

a source of inspiration for eighteenth-

artists

and writers such

as

J.

M. W. Turner,

one of the most important painters of his time, and

the

then-popular

William Gilpin,

travel

who wrote

writer

the

Reverend

of Tintern, "Mosses of

various hues, with lychens, maiden hair, penny-leaf,

and other humble plants,

face

...

all

overspread the

sur-

together they give these full-blown tints

which add the richest

Sem-

finishing to a ruin."

adapted in a number of beautiful manor houses of

blances of ruins recalling the melancholy remains of

Many older
of graceful new towers.

these early feats of architecture were soon to grace

the eighteenth century, were introduced.

cathedrals

were the

The Tudor

recipients

style,

characterized by

arches used over doors and

vaulting,

It,

windows and

elaborate

By the sixteenth century the Renaissance had

phase of the Per-

brought neoclassicism into the mainstream of de-

last

was restricted to England. While not

a period of great

church building,

beautiful chapels, such as the

Cambridge, were
In

14

one

number

of

at King's College,

built during this time.

1534 King Henry

step in the revival of Gothic.

centered

was considered the

too,

were to become the

flat

pendicular period, r,unning from about 1485 to

1555.

lush English gardens. Decidedly whimsical, they

VIII retaliated against the

sign throughout

the

first

first

much of Europe,

but

it

was not

until

quarter of the seventeenth century that

the Renaissance

came

to England, spearheaded by

leading English architect Inigo Jones.

It

was the

rebellion against these forms a century later that ul-

timately motivated the return of Gothic.

Once

Wiis

view o[

overall

cJinttTn

^bk'v, a

mcdiaal monastcrx
settled bv

monk^

oj

Qisteraan

tlxe

order, faces

toward

^cshytcry.

the

which housed
chwrtlii (lyli

tfi

Vhe

altar.

of the
loncj

east

end

2 ^6'foot'

church

is

on

the jar riaht

ensconced, Gothic went on to dominate design

throughout

much

when
and

Because of the vast scope of the movement,

more

hearted aspects, found in the earh' davs of

pearance in the British

Isles

and

its

its

first

came

its

more about

learn

reap-

was sadly neglected

those of vou

century English adaptations for comparison, and,

book

tieth century

its

intriguing journey into the twen-

with a closing glance

at

recent inter-

For those of vou

much

it is

who

are unfamiliar with the

mv hope

that

you

will find as

pleasure in the discovery of Gothic as

did

its

fantasy

in

remarkable period, which

mv

art history classes. For

have already been initiated into

eccentric stvle,

will afford

it is

my

some undiscovered

wish that

insights

mv

and

greater appreciation of Gothic.

I

have provided a glossary

at

for clarification of architectural

pretations.

Gothic Revival,

this

who

this energetic,

to trace

was drawn to

found myself delving into books on the subject to

into America, with a brief look at mid-nineteenth-

finally,

delight in the unexpected and in short order

hght-

subsequent entrv

Horace Wal-

across pictures of

pole's Straw berrv Hill.

of the nineteenth century.

have elected to concentrate on Gothic's

raphy that

lists

the back of the

terms and

book

a bibliog-

recent relevant books and early man-

uscripts for those

who

have an interest in pursuing

the subject further.

15

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^7^^S?Z.^}'^

18

,^1

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Previous
detail of a

of an

fiac^cs:

A.

rcpvducUim

8>ncj\isU loilc in

the "^run.stliu'i^

& Fib

archives, oncjxnally

in blue

Spsss^pmBBsaml HROUGHOUT the seventeenth century

Uj^f^M
well into the eighteenth, grandly formal

done

^J^^^.

and white about

1775-85.

If

vavilion similar to one

^Paul

'^ec]<^r's

1759
Gothic Architecture,

Decorated.

Opposite.

houses were looked upon

fashion. Situated in parks

En-

as the height

whose design

of

dictates

includes

a Gothicl<^ tjardcn

illustrated in

glish

and

A. Qothick^

Green House, one of tke

sion,
lives.

were governed by the same precepts,

gardens stretched out

their vast

symmetrical preci-

in

with arbors, parterres, and plantings clipped to within an inch of their

As the eighteenth century progressed, however,

swept the country,

The mood

shifted

first

a totally

new

spirit

surfacing in the verdant gardens of English estates.

away from the reserved formality brought about by

clas-

u^Kimsical encfravinas

from '^cck^rs

sical restraints

toward

a decidedly

exuberant romanticism.

Gothic Architecture,

Decorated.

'^eclqr utih^ei

Irregular plantings simulating unspoiled nature began replacing formal

tlte

oaee arch for the ijracejul

curves of the central

gardens, as master gardeners

artist

would

worked with nature

in the

same manner an

attempt to create an earthly paradise, garden

a canvas. In their

section.

designers scattered trees and shrubbery throughout rolling hillsides that

were dotted by man-made

lakes,

These picturesque inventions

no longer
laid

out

in

sufficient to simply

meandering streams, and

waterfalls.

virtually redefined the garden. Since

was

it

be pleasing to the eye, gardens were

now

an effort to evoke a multitude of sensations, especially one of

agreeable melancholy. To a country bound bv the limitations of earlier

formality, the illusion of unrestrained nature

Fueled by the works of literary and

was

deliciously seductive.

artistic talents

of the dav, the voice

of reason was replaced by a force that delighted in the senses and the cmo-

19

These new attitudes proved to be

tions.

for a style as eccentric as Gothick.

nature,

boldness, and

its

Gothick was

its

fertile soil

With

its

link to

brooding melancholy,

a natural expression of the country's

budding romantic mood. Encouraging inventiveness,

its

exuberant form provided an escape from

The

tradition.

classical

early high-spirited, decorative eigh-

Italian Salvator

Rosa, which were brought back as

dertook the Grand Tour throughout Europe

Contemporary writer KelH Pryor

Poussin

created

logical figures that inhabited

were

his fellow

they were with evoking a mood.

Manv

credit the multitalented

thfe

aptly describes

in

land was every bit as heroic as the mytho-

At the same time,

it.

countr^Tnan Claude Lorrain explored the

countryside around

William Kent with

an

memorials to human virtue

gian Gothick, rococo, and Strawberry Hill Gothic,

historical accuracy than

as

the works of artists Poussin and Lorrain. "Nicolas

which

concerned with

un-

essential part of their education.

teenth-century interpretations, referred to as Geor-

less

who

souvenirs by well-bred young gentlemen

Rome,

toral idylls caught in the

painting expansive pas-

honeyed

morn-

light of early

formulating the concept of the landscape garden.

ing or late afternoon. His gentle nostalgia for a golden

Gothick luminary Horace Walpole described Kent

age,

as "painter

enough to

taste the

charms of landscape,

bold and opinionative enough to dare and to dictate,

and born with

a genius to strike out a great

from the twilight of imperfect

essays."^

system

major

in-

one

in

which human and natural forms coexist-

ed harmoniously, holds

a special appeal.

Kent's image of a garden was one

by boundaries;

it

."^
.

unencumbered

was made possible with the

duction of ha-ha's,

ditches

intro-

surrounding country

on Kent and other designers came from

houses, reinforced bv stones and bricks that were

landscape paintings of seventeenth- century French

constructed to confine animals to the adjoining

fluence

artists

Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, and the

fields,

thus allowing fences, walls, and other visible

cJKi5

cmraving shows a

*^erlm5

cave at

dcsiancd hy

^^chmoni,

William Kent for

Queen Qarolinc
l^uhlished

section of

in

1733

m 1744 in J.

Some Designs

of

and

Vardy,

Mr. Inigo

Jones and Mr. William

Kent.

'^' ,..,'yW /y jrKc..l.I.V.-.r.lT

20

,/,//,. ./

/"'/'

means of enclosure
lieved that ha-ha's

were

a decisive

Gardening, that thev

deemed so astonishing
called them Ha- Has!
at

Hnding

walk."^

element

and related

lution of the informal g^arden

On Modern

Walpole be-

to be eliminated.

in the evo-

in his essav,

were "an attempt then

that the

common

people

express their surprize

to

sudden and unperceived check to their

Once

ha-ha's

were

in place, the distant hills

and valleys of the surrounding countryside became

Wsual extensions of picturesque landscape gardens.
Kent,

who had

little

ning, operated purelv

experience

on

in

intuition.

garden planHis informal

garden designs may have been influenced by travelers'

engravings of Chinese gardens, featuring ser-

pentine paths and grottoes interspersed with patches

of wilderness.

The

beautiful g^arden of

Oxfordshire, laid out around

series of picturesque vistas,

is

Rousham

in

740 to incorporate

garden commission was

the onlv garden de-

estate of his mentor.

two collaborated

at

Chiswick, a familv

Lord Burlin2;ton, where the

in the

1729 design of an immense

and irregular garden. Kensington, one of many gar-

den commissions

that followed for Kent, "even

dead trees planted

in

it

in his

The
ic

book The

versatile

Kent

had

Park,

was demolished

in

it

of&dae

j^rovided

wonderful views of the countr\side and functioned as an eye-catcher for

^^dway Qrange (1862

.

engravincj

hyQ. Walford)

scape 2;ardens.

The deceptive

buildings

were not

only designed to look like remnants from an earlier

civilization,

they were also built to give the appear-

ance of being constructed of stone

when

in fact they

were frequentlv made of wood and covered with

plaster or canvas.
It

was onlv natural

for English gardeners to

catchers in their romantic picturesque gardens.

Picturesque.

With

also occasionallv

emploved Goth-

now known
1764, when

as

Kew

Gardens.

It

landscape gardener

Capability BrowTi replaced the formal gardens.

The

m 1745 on a ndge,

Hussey

"^

motifs for garden structures, such as in his 1733

Richmond

the battle

include Gothic as well as classical ruins as eve-

design of Merlin's cave, a thatched Gothick follv built

in

Qonstructed

tlie site.

was inspired hy

to heighten the similaritv to

Salvator's landscapes," as writer Christopher

noted

Hill [ought on

castle

sign of Kent's that has survived unaltered. Kent's

first

Sanderson filler's sham ruin

paintings of the seventeenth-century artists

Henrv

the dissolution of the Catholic

VIII in the earlv sixteenth centurv,

Gothic abbeys and priories were

Coupled
ing of

Church bv

left

to

manv
ruin.

centurv later with Cromwell's plunder-

Tudor countrv houses during England's

civil

war, authentic Gothic ruins abounded throughout

the countryside.

When

monastic ruins such

proximity permitted, real

as those at Rievaulx, Fountains,

frequentlv included a distant classical ruin to catch

and Roche were actually incorporated into adjoin-

the eve, and before long similar structures punc-

ing gardens, capitalizing

tuated English estates. These seemingly decaying

orative qualities.

on

their evocative

and dec-

Lord Kames was amon^ those

who

ruins, lent an air of

preferred the Gothick style for sham ruins. In his

mystery and melancholy to newly developed land-

1762 Elements of Criticism, he commented, "Gothic

castles, referred to as

sham

21

Go^liick

jf

CArmA/r

4-

7..::.^,

^\\ra

delyktjiil en^rann^s, Xivo oj Qotlnck^tt'mplt's ancl one of a

portions,

the

1742 pattern

book^l?)'

Qotliu\pornco, jrom

Gothic Architecture Improved by Rules and Pro-

^att)* and c/Komas Lan^le^/, u'kich u^as instrumental

triumph of time over strength;

m encouraaina

tite

use 0/

Got}tK\jor aardcn huildinas.

melan-

Miller, a wealthy

gentleman architect whose

choly, but not unpleasant thought; a Grecian ruin

were frequently

called

suggests rather the triumph of barbarity over taste;

Gothick. In 1745 he designed a sham ruin for himself

exhibits the

gloomy discouraging thought."^

One

of the

was Alfred's

first

in the

of these intriguing ruined castles

Hall, first built in 1721

and enlarged

in

1732 on the magnificent grounds of Cirencester

Park by the

first

Earl of Bathurst. Bathurst

was

Its

hilltop spot near a picturesque thatched cottage

had

built the previous year in the village of

Radway Grange

essay in The Guardian, wrote, "There

came

in the

amiable Simplicity of unadorned

Nature, that spreads over the

Mind

more noble

sort of Tranquility, and a loftier Sensation of Pleasure, than can be raised

Art."^ In his

own

from the nicer Scenes of

three-and-a-half-acre garden in

Twickenham, Pope abandoned parterres and

enues, replacing

them with

broad

vista

av-

enclosed

Edge

and functioned

as a distant eye-catcher

estate below. In short order

it

his

be-

a tourist attraction, establishing Miller's repu-

tation for the design of ruins.

Not long

completion Miller was commissioned by

Sir

after

its

George

Lyttelton to build a ruined castle in his expansive

Hagley Park near Stourbridge (see page 25).

Miller's

more important Gothick

contributions

included the 1755 addition of a splendid Gothick

entrance hall

at

Lacock Abbey and early restoration

Roger Newdigate's

efforts at his friend

walks and a hidden grotto.

bury Hall, where he

is

several two-story bay

windows with cusped

22

Hill

from

by woodland that was interrupted by serpentine

Another early Gothick luminary was Sanderson

he

afforded a pleasant view of the surrounding country-

sader for liberating orderly gardens, who, in a 1713

something

shields,

stained glass, and even a nonfunctioning drawbridge.

side

certainly

in the adaptation of

form of a Gothick tower, with heraldic

close friend of poet Alexander Pope, an early cru-

is

upon

talents

fantastic

Ar-

believed to have executed

panel-

ing, an architectural

became known

embellishment for which Miller

became known

double-curved ogee arch prominently featured

(see page 111).

As the centurv progressed, garden

building^s of

his

pattern

great variety, referred to collectively as follies, be-

came

to his

increasingly popular as

\\

himsical

adornments

Some were

scattered about the landscape.

posi-

tioned on hilltops with sweeping vistas of pic-

turesque gardens below or

at

the edge of

lakes, their decorative facades

in the tranquil water;

man-made

charmingly reflected

many were

placed at the end

book was one of its major

prolific writer

1728 publication,
His

many

Principles

number

and, like a

of Gardening.

of design books of the day,

Gothic Architecture Improved carried a

was

and members of the

its

to ad-

design books were extremely popular,

secret grove waiting to delight the discoverer.

the Gothic Revival had

first

vocate the use of ruins to end garden walks, in a

ers; the illustrious

of these fanciful garden structures that

characteristics.

name, Langley had been one of the

in a

It

in

with more than twenty publications

of g^arden paths, while others were tucked away

in the design

Langley Manner. The

as the Battv

list

of support-

group included bishops, judges,

Among them was

nobility.

Horace Walpole. Walpole, however, engrossed

in

the world of antiquity, considered his vision of

beginnings.

Designs for these decorative garden structures

Gothick

far

He

superior to Langley 's free interpreta-

were frequently copied from pattern books, which

tion.

were

encouraging trends. Inexpensive

because Langlev presumed to improve upon au-

pattern books proliferated

thentic forms in an attempt to update the style for

influential in

and readily

available,

disdained Lang^lev's original approach

throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,

eighteenth-century tastes. Walpole's

specializing in such subjects as architecture, furni-

berry

ture design, and garden planning.

of Gothick to reality a decade later (see page 101

The

first

to suggest and illustrate Gothick build-

ings for gardens in a pattern

book was

sometime

name

architect and gardener by the unlikely

of

Batty Langley, who, in response to growing interest

in Gothick,

published Gothic Architecture Improved

by Rules and Proportions. In

1742 with

his

Many Grand

brother Thomas.

It

Designs in

contained a total

of sixty-four delightful engravings of temples, "umbrellos," fireplaces,

ions, confections

windows, doorways, and

dreamed up by Langlev

pavil-

that only

vaguely resembled their medieval ancestry.

It

also

included five "Gothick Orders" that Langlev invented, based

on those found

in classical design, in his

attempt to make Gothic conform to prevailing

sical

clas-

Langley 's unique designs were decorative as well

for the

and were responsible to

development of a

brought

Interestingly,

his

own

some of its

a large extent

style that in its early stages

Straw-

personal interpretation
).

early exterior renovations

bear a great similarity to designs featured in Langley's

book.

By mid-century, garden
essential

element

in

had become an

follies

English garden design, fre-

quently providing a visual connection to the main

house

as well as a

melancholic reference. The

forms of Gothick, adapted for

a significant

lively

number

of garden structures, sparked the imagination of

architects

and

landowners,

leading

to

further

experimentation

By the end of the eighteenth centurv, with the

growth of the Picturesque Movement, which

es-

poused the adoption of a painterly approach to gardens, garden buildings as well as

standards.

as innovative

Hill,

villa,

were looked upon primarily

composition.

Their

as

manor houses

elements within

placement

based on their pictorial effect upon

was

established

a scene.

23

',

.'

>>'''

^-

i^m.

Hagley Park
SHAM RUIN

HAGLEY HALL

IS

SURROUNDED

bv

one of the great Worcestershire gardens;

its

immense

several small

private park, consisting of

woods and pools

across rolling hillsides,

is

scattered

an early example

of a picturesque landscape garden.

The

first

Lord Lvttelton, who was responsible for Haglev

eighteenth-century restoration, was a

man

Hall's

of diverse interests; involved

in

Oppo5itf. c7ki5 mtrigmncj eyccatchcr

cmhelUsh\m

the extensive Cjrounds of

HaMcy ^ark^,
architect
15

he served for a year as the prestigious Chancellor of the Exche-

desianed h\ "gentleman"

Sanderson 'filler

a ^rime example of a

of the first structures

to

sham

quer.

detail

of the

He was

also a poet

and historian with

a lar2;e

number of

literarv

1747,

ruin, one

friends, including

Henry

Fielding,

whose novel Tom Jones was dedicated

to

punctuate

eighteenth' century landscaj^e gardens.

^hove: A.

politics,

sham ruin

wall

him. Horace Walpolc was

a friend as well.

Lyttelton had original Iv wanted Sanderson Miller to redesi2;n his

564

25

family house in the Gothick style, but with considerable persuasion

^clow: '^csiancd

to

k viewed from a distance and to suggest

oriains, the seeminaly decaying castle, sheltered hy a large sycamore, ivas

vartly constructed of stones

and

architectural elements

tah^nfrom an

authentic thirteenth-century ahhey that lay in ruin nearhy.

from

his wife,

he

finally elected to

medieval

build a Palladian mansion executed by Miller.

pleted in 1760, Hagley Hall was the

Palladian houses in England.

last

Com-

of the great

In

keeping with the fashion of the day, Lyttelton

built a collection of follies

Dispersed about were

throughout

grounds.

his

Doric temple, an Ionic ro-

tunda, an obelisk, and a ruined castle situated on

what Walpole described

broke into

all

of three miles, but

as "a hill

manner of beauty."^ When

Lyttelton

saw the sham ruin Sanderson Miller had designed for

Radway Grange, he wanted one

himself at

Hagley Park was constructed

Miller's ruin in

1747 and placed

nent

though

in

request on a "promi-

from the house and to appear

has survived

it

as

from medieval times." From

the Black Mountains of Wales, about

hilltop,

its

at Lyttelton's

to be seen

hill

as well.

fortv miles away, can be seen

on

a clear day.

Rose

Macaulay, in her informative book Pleasure of Ruins,

notes that a visitor to
the

hill

"your eye

it

recalled

how when

repose ... on

will, delighted,

the remains of an old dusty building,

venerable, rearing
trees." ^

its

gothic turret

Walpole had commented

believe fortress,

climbing

solemn and

among

^l)oi'e; cJlic

an^

thirteen

l^w leasecJ

mam

\aX
io

\0\ixx

o^Wa^Vj'^a,y\(^s\\Oim Yi\m,^ouY ^Xoms

m diamettT,

was onainall)' used

(xs

liiali

a aami}^VDvrs Xoiat.

a lau'ver, tke liimmutife castle strvcs as kis couwXr^ Kowse.

the bushy

that the

make-

whose crumbling walls were cov-

^elou';

cJliree s\\OYiiY iovotYS,

one skoit'n kere, voiYi msi^^oy a larder,

kakekouse, an^ stables.

ered with ivy and lichen, had "the true rust of the
Barons' Wars."^
Partially built of sandstone

and inset with point-

ed window^ frames from the ruined thirteenthcentury Halesowen Abbey nearby, the whimsical
structure

is

more than seventy

whole tower and three

partial ones.

It is

one

believed

had originally planned to use the

that Lyttelton

sham ruin

feet long, with

for entertaining because Miller

requested to design chairs for

ick plasterwork in the top

tower confirms

it.

The

room

had been

delicate

Goth-

of the completed

this.

Recently the sham ruin has undergone extensive

restoration undertaken bv a tenant

duced by

its

Hagley Hall

fanciful
is

now

and, along with

its

who was

se-

charm. The beautiful Palladian

the

home

of Viscount

surrounding park,

is

Cobham

open to the

public in January, February, and August.

27

V,.-.

-.^iii^l^^S^^

JsSf.-

Enville
SUMMER HOUSE

ONE OF THE MOST ENCHANTING

eighteenth-century garden structures

Gothick summer house

of

is

at Enville, a large

estate in Staffordshire adjacent to

Ha^lev

Park. Enville's eighteenth-ccnturv owner,

j\hove:

Vhc jlamhoyant cunts toppma

front facade of the recently restored

the

witdows.

filled its

spacious grounds with a dazzling array of delight-

summer

house are rcj^eated over the doorway and

jlan]<^n^

Lord Stamford,

its

ful follies.

c/his dcUahtful folly,

A number of

Enville's follies, such as a boathouse,

farmhouse, and arch,

about twentyfour feet daf, has heen

referred to
billiard

throughout

tlt

years as a

were Gothic

in design.

nineteenth-century addition included a spectac-

room and a museum.

ular Gothic glass conservatory

160

feet long.

Opposite: cTKe decorative Gothicku'in-

the passage of time

dows of the summer house
positioned

hetwan

is

the recently restored

One

of few that has survived

summer

house, believed to

at Snville are

clustered

columns that

have originally been used as

a billiard

room and

later as a small

museum.

visually divide the fa<;ade into thirds.

Subtle hlocks of^inted arches run across

An

eighteenth-century letter mentions "an exceedingly, well designed

at midpoint.

29

^^R}g}it

the

and hclow: One of

few rcmaimna follies

on the

>nville estate, this

summer house was

once

one of many on the

arounds

huilt

during the

eighteenth century as

adornments
scape.

Oaee

with small

to tke

land-

arches, edged

crockets,

frame

the top of the center

door and a pair of side

windows ornamented with

large quatrefoils

Gothick

Billiard

Room"

a billiard table, an organ,

at Enville that

and busts of

included

Homer and

Cicero. Mr. R. Fish, gardener at Putteridge Bury, in

an article featured in the 1864 edition of The Journal

of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, refers to the

summer house as a museum. "Of the museum itself,

though we took a few notes, we must say nothing of
its

birds,

sils,

fishes,

and animals, and

shells,

and

fos-

and ores, and minerals, and kinds of rocks, but

from
and

and

its

its

trees

pinnacled turrets, and pretty oriel windows,

position on a knoll, and

and evergreens,

grounds from many

it

forms a

its

background of

fine feature to the

distinct points of view." ^^

Sanderson Miller designed several

follies

here for

the Earl of Stamford and might possibly have been

responsible for the

believe

30

it is

the

summer

house. Some, however,

work of Henry Keene.

Its

charm-

A. ^cn-and'wash drawing
hy

William and '^avid

Hiorne of a garden

Gopall '^ark^xn
shirc,
u'liicli 15

the

done

"scat" at

Leicester-

hcfore

1758,

similar inform to

summer house

at 8>nville.

ing ogee arches and rose

windows

are similar to

Keene's lovely Hartwell church in Buckinghamshire,

one of the few rococo Gothick churches de-

glass

window

is

joined by two smaller ones on

either side.

About twentv-four

signed during this time.

Situated in a

central section a large, round, flower- like painted

clump of trees not

house, the Batty Langley style

far

from the main

summer house

can

interior,

plasterwork,

is still

room and

wall; side walls are

standing architectural feature

shaped arches, trimmed with

that

form the top of

ogee shape

is

its

is

its

finials

Its

triple

out-

ogee-

and crockets,

front facade. This lyrical

repeated atop the central door, which

most probably had

a finial at its

two small windows

flanking

apex, and on the

it.

Decorative clustered columns run up the facade

in

need of restoring.

by windows

fireplace flanked

bedroom windows.

summer house's

once elaborately decked out

be seen across the manicured lawn from the dining

the master

feet deep, the

is

in fanciful

A decorative

centered on the back

ornamented with three

delicate

plaster ogee-shaped arches, the central ones carved

out to form niches.

just

under the

suggestion of a plaster molding

ceiling remains.

Sold about fifteen years ago, Enville

is

now man-

aged by the Trustees of Enville Estate. Recentlv

grant from English Heritage, coupled with a gen-

erous contribution from Enville

present owner,

and join the inner ends of the top ogee arches,

has enabled repair to be undertaken bv William

dividing the building visually into thirds. In the

Hawkes, an authority on Sanderson

Miller.

31

"9.

z^^'

^.r

Painshill Park
GOTHICK TEMPLE

AND
SHAM RUIN

LANDSCAPE GARDENS became

ex-

tremely popular by the mid-eighteenth

century.

While many of the most out-

standing ones, such as Stowe and Stour-

head, were the creations of professional

Oppo5it; ^amsliill ^ar](s recently rebuilt

sham rum

is

in need

vcQctatwn climhina
give

it

its

pristine walls to

the desired appearanct' of an

authentic

Cobham,

gardeners, the beautiful Painshill Park in

Surrey,

was designed

of weatherincj and

by

its

owner, the Honorable Charles Hamilton, an inspired horticulturist.

Hamilton possessed the imagination of an

artist

and incorporated

this

with

rum.

a love

of the unexpected in the design of his park.

One

of the most

splendid of eighteenth-century gardens, Painshill combined carefully contrived landscaping, designed for

optimum

visual effect,

with winding

cuit walks typical of the picturesque gardens inspired

cir-

bv the growing

Romantic Movement.

33

Hamilton purchased

a lease in

were formerly part of

that

Henry

deer park

During the following

VII.

1738 for 250 acres

owned by

thirty-five years

transformed the barren heath into one of the

and best-known gardens

one of the
plants

first

he

finest

was

in England. Painshill

to determine Hamilton's original plan; descriptions

from

early visitors

were

especially helpful.

The

Gothick temple and the sham ruin shown here were

the

first

to be restored. Painshill Park has recently

reopened to the public.

gardens to include an assemblage of

from the American

colonies.

Many

traveled to Painshill to enjoy Hamilton's

creation.

At each turn along the serpentine three-

t^

mile walk, visitors were treated to a variety of

pleasant discoveries. Areas were divided
scenes,

some

featuring nature at

ers the serenity of

clusters of trees.

up

into

wildest and oth-

its

open parkland surrounded by

Throughout the journey, an

eclec-

collection of fanciful structures unexpectedly

tic

presented themselves and then, a bit farther along,

disappeared from view. Plantings visible from each
vista

were selected

were

for color, texture,

carefully positioned as

Gothick temple,

and shape and

on elaborate stage

a Turkish tent, a

sets.

temple of Bac-

chus, a Chinese bridge, and, at the edge of a pond,

a

sham ruin

in the

form of a Gothic abbey

a part in Hamilton's elaborate

many

could catch sight of

played

scheme. Each ap-

peared and then was gone until the

itors

all

when

vis-

follies at

the

finale,

of the

same time.
Lack of funds forced Hamilton to

sell his

park in 1773. Miraculously,

it

ing 150 years intact, until

was purchased

by

a land speculator

who

it

beloved

survived the followin

started to subdivide

1948
it

and

JKi

l\vc

end of a heavily wooded

patk not far from the entrance

Painshill

^ar\,

this

to

Qothick^

temple appears lil^ a crown

uj^on the landscai^e

sell off plots.

cil,

its

nal

Fortunately, the Eldridge

urged by a group of concerned

town coun-

locals,

came

to

rescue, recovering 158 of Painshill Park's origi-

250

acres. Subsequently, a

number

of other sup-

port groups have lent their assistance, including the

English Heritage and the Prince of Wales,

become

its

who

has

Royal Patron. Major restoration efforts

started in 1981 with the founding of an indepen-

dent trust, which embarked on extensive research

34

J^

Psk

flic?

^^^^H.^

'^HE^
f^JP^
j^3?'y^<i
***-^-^

*^ T

*"

?-?

,\

^^^
-^..-l::-

r-^*.,:
^

^4.^

"

Painswick
ROCOCO GARDEN

^T^ltt

T*aiM5U'it"I<j!!

appmavkt d

winding

palli

IN

gardens are

THE SCENIC VILLAGE

of Painswick

descending a

douii

to

on the edge of the Cotswolds

a hroad

in

Glouces-

lauTi. Skortlv before rounding tlw

tershire
jirst

QotUiek^tem^k
of the

ap^rs

Upon

patli

one discovers that

t\xe

8>agle

at tUe edge

it

mix of both formal and informal

ments,

Georgian house.

Vhe tiny^^d House

asymmetrical

QDesigned

IS

to he

its

is

Vhe

broad central lawn, interrupted by two small ponds,

bowling green, and

a kitchen garden,

is

bordered by serpentine paths

unusual in

and woodland walks, with

number of

decorative garden structures,

.skape

viewtdfrom

architectural interest

concentrated on

jacoiie

Its

tucked avvav behind the main

is

of a hroad

ex^nse of lawn

the front,

ele-

House, one of a number

to the far right

Its

Painswick's hidden garden, a

a hillside,

aliahts atop

grounds.

Opposite;

on

the next turn,

of fanciful follies scattered around

the

a lovelv six-acre estate. Built

is

u tiny Uetagonal

l)oi<i,

its

mostly Gothick

Some

of

its

in design, scattered

throughout.

delightful follies, like the tiny asymmetrical Gothick

Red

aar^ien

interior hears the

House on the edge of the grounds and

Gothick pavilion, named, for

Hvett family coat of arms and tke

motto "lA steadfast Heart.

some unknown

reason, the Eagle House, can be seen from

most of the

37

garden. Others, such as the castellated Gothick Alcove, are tucked away in a small

wood

They were

restoring their unique garden in 1984.

awaiting the

aided by an intricately detailed garden painting by

Bishop Richard Pococke, an inveterate eighteenth-

Thomas Robins, commissioned in 1748 bv Benjamin

Hyett, son of the original owner and the one re-

pleasure of discovery.

who documented

century traveler

his expeditions

sponsible for constructing Painswick's lovely garden.

to country houses and parks in a manuscript entitled Travels Through England,

was the

visitor to the garden, in 1757.

market town

to Painswick, a

on the

good

hewn

side of a hill,

air: just

above

He

prettily situated

buildings,"^

as well as the

building.

Mr. Hyett built an house of

ecuted the painting

it

the garden

is

made

was one of

five

and flowers,

placement of each garden

quite possible that Robins

as a

may have

who

owners.

its

completion.

views of Hyett 's properties Robins

Painswick's beautiful garden

bulldozing,

trace their ancestry back to the

15

is

is

replanting,

open

ruary to mid- December.

^ainswick^^^coco Qarden

affroacked hy ai^ath originally lined with hccch

the fertile Stroud Valley helow.

draining,

This tranquil setting

started the formidable task of

ofsa>cral follies at

It

executed.

cut into

Lord and Lady

yhs Gothick^alcove, one

ex-

design guide to the grounds

now

close to

original appearance after considerable

present

whimsical

documenting the physical

rather than as a record after

very

on an hanging

in the vale

It is

its

shells, butterflies,

especially helpful in

appearance

wood and adorn 'd with water and

original owners,

38

and

Painswick's

Dickinson,

was

and esteem'd an exceeding

ground from the house

walks through

border of painted

recorded

wrote: "we came

stone, in a fine situation, and

pretty garden

first

Robins 's delightful watercolor, with

trees;

hehind

it

m Gloucestershire,

one catches cjlimpes of

its

dredging,

and rebuilding.

to the public

from Feb-

'^cloiv:

c/lit:

restored 8>a^le

House,

out with a fink^stucco fdi^ade,

is

prettily iech^d

built into the side

of an emhanlqnent. Ji pointed archway, jlan]<^d

hy a fair of niches,

is

crowrud hy

castellation

and

a small hexaaonal Qotltick^temple duplicating

'-^hmss pointing

one in

-j^atj^raKifc

tlie

(riaht).

W:aillH
i

mH^^
;::i-

^ri^^^^^^^^H

"^^t

v^^ >=*.

/X
^^^-

i>.'

W---

^^R^ht: o'komas

17^8

to

^^bms ifas commissioned

in

paint an overyiea' oj^tKe ^ainswich^ gar-

dens and this charmina Gotkick^aale House,

restored

1991

39

ijpww

^3^
4?^^:"^'

L.:^-^'''/
"^ f^^v
"; f^^.,..-.:^

H
B^
inffi

V.
l^i'

:-

i:-

^-_

'.

'
fKi<f(s iwif

U:^

^.'.JB

: __J-1^-''

,f,fK":^^';'^:''^'f^4!i"^i^B

11

^^^s^^-

A^*. ;-

^s^

40

Exton Park
FORT HENRY AND

DOVECOTE

'^Riaht

Fort

EXTON PARK

Henry emhodics

Qothick^ fantasy at

its best.

Gloucester stone,

15

it

edged

is

a large estate

Of
bordering

cremUation and detailed with

book

diminutive picture-

village

composed of thatch-

oi'erscale o]^enworl<^ pinnacles, a

decorative door,

and oaee win-

roofed

cottages

bv

fronted

dows.

flowering gardens. Originally a

Oppsite. Swansglide among
water

lilies

deer park and woodland,

on the ornamental

lak^ horderina Fort

Henry, a

many of

its

now

acres are farmed,

wonderfully whimsical rococo

GothKl<^summcr house
'^arl<^

are

Flanking the

at

Sxton

central

number

of wonderful follies are sprinkled about the grounds; the most

room

two smaller rooms, one an

magical

is

Fort Henry, about two miles to the east of the

manor house. A

entrance hall, and the other

unj\niske(i. ^elou', at water
latl,

IS

wonderfully romantic Gothick

a hoathouse.

fire all

but destroyed

Gainsborough,

it.

summer

house, recently restored after a

Fort Henry was

who was responsible

for

have enacted battles in miniature on

its

its

named

after the sixth Earl of

construction and was

rumored

to

adjoining lake, one of a scries of

small lakes fed by a stream flowing throughout the park.

41

First

viewed from across the ornamental

inviting scene
ily

is

lake, the

the ultimate romantic vision.

A fam-

of snow-white swans glides serenely in the dis-

tance, sharing the

wildlife, while the

water

lilies

pond with an assortment of other

round, scalloped-edged leaves of

interrupt

its

smooth

surface.

On the dis-

tant shore, a Gothick pavilion topped with oversized

pinnacles and crenellation

sits

invitingly

on the edge,

end posts, reinforcing

exaggerated

scale.

a sense of fantasy with their

The

lakeside pavilion

dwarfed by the great sweeping branches of

pine,

some dipping

far side.
Follies

and

anywhere

Grottoes, states,
at

any time was better than

Another, of Exton Park's Gothick

which

bank of another of the small

edge, the lower walls of the boathouse that contain

had an arcaded semicircular

from view. The

crenellated fortress-like side walls of the boathouse

form

low three -sided stone wall

seems to em-

summer house above it, on the second

Enormous finials are positioned at each of its

brace the
floor.

that

its

"No gothick decoration

From across the meadow. Fort Henry appears

much smaller than when viewed from the lakeside.
Built into the side of an embankment at water's
are hidden

on

Barbara Jones, in her definitive 1953 book.

from the main

first floor

also

a giant

into the water's surface,

reflected in the tranquil water.

Fort Henry's

is

sits

hall

is

this."

^^

follies

not

far

a lovely octagonal dovecote,

surrounded by sheep

in a field

on the

lakes. First built in the

eighteenth century, the pinnacled Gothick charmer

cattle

shed added to

its

base in the early nineteenth century. Architectural

features include a

pedimented central entrance and,

above, the illusion of windows.

Exton Park

borough and

is

is still

in the family of

Lord Gains-

not open to the public.

Left;

When one approaches this

cavncious lakeside pavilion hy

land,

It

avvears to he

much more

diminutive.

i
Opposite;

&xton

'^ar](s octago-

nal dovecote, ornamented with

obelisk^ shaved pinnacles

and

wravyed hy an arcaded sheep

shelter,

seems to he lifted from a

hucolic landscape painting.

42

> :m-^?-

>^AiXj;^

./

/'^

?.,.

"^^^

.V.^',

,,V.'^n

f! rl

If ff f

^Mi

ii
'

Ovvosiu: Fort Henrys

delicate

vlasteru'ork^uus recently redone

from tastiM^5 of decorative

elements

rcmaimna

ajterajire.

cTKe entrance throuali

anteroom

lies

a small

beyond.

Soft shadings accentuate Fort

Henrys

hcautifully ^ro^^rtioned interior,

a confection of creamy moldinijs and fan vaulting, hlincteenth- century

French Gothic chairs from ^^allett's accompany a table

set

for a hunt

luncheon, c/he lilacpatternetl cloth and plates arc jrom Qjlefax and

Fowler.

'JAolding framing this door repeats the feather-lik^ motif found above
tlie

mantel. A. beautijul ineiseJ Icafj^attcrn

tde ogee-arched door.

On

is

tucked into the apei of

eitderside oj the null arc large tjuatrejoiLs.

(Classical oeantkus leaves form a cornice

around tke room.

45

rF^
/

\B^y

\\^

,^-

%;^^i

/'

^m
4

iif<^

i^ai

43??

v/

#
f

4j,

^T

"S

m
'

Du/^IIi90

T
:-'>.>^

^^

i^iP^

T^.

'

^ra'wus
print

patjcs:

u'ltfi

^n

830.S

roller

ornamented with

F1I5, 15

toward landscape gardens

grew, grounds surrounding English country

from the archives of^runschwicj

&

THE TREND

51 ittYU'iiitli repeat,

vertical

houses became dotted with

a vast array of fol-

rows of pilars made up of Gothic

nulitvsanJ joined hy flowers scat-

The renowned gardens

Hes.

Stowe alone

of

tered throualiout.

contained forty-eight such structures. Follies

Opp5itt;.

cottaae orne

assumed many forms,

from simple

ran2;ing

"designed to comhinc with garden

scenery"

is

one of the hand-colored

columns and arches to

a rustic vine-covered cottage or a shell grotto

com-

vlates in J0I111 '^aj^ivorths

Designs for Rural Residences,

and again
^anxing
the

issued first in
in 1

text,

832.

plete with resident hermit.

1818

In ki5

The motivation

accom-

^apu'ortli stn'sscJ

for their construction varied as greatly as the

they took. There were memorials to battle heroes and monarchs, tributes

imprtance of a building

appearing to he "native to the 5pot.

forms

to wives or to a lost love

one tower was rumored

reminder to an unfaithful wife;

a few-

were erected

providing employment for hungry villagers, and

es,

gamekeeper lodges,

to have

been

built as a

for practical purposes,

some served

as

gatehous-

dairies, ice houses, cattle sheds, aviaries,

hound

houses, and even privies. Others were constructed solely for the pure
pleasure they evoked in the eye of the beholder, ornaments to embellish
the landscape and to excite the imagination.

Leading architects experimented freely with the tiny garden structures.

(The magnificent fan vaults

of

Arburv

by some to have been tried out

garden temple

at Enville.)

in

Hall's reception

was

are believed

miniature by Henry Keene in a small

The one common

appealing;, whimsical buildings

rooms

that each

link

among

was

dcliiThtfullv

these eccentric,

unique and

extremely personal.

49

It

was only

matter of time before Gothick

in-

new

species of building in the

fluences spread

beyond the boundaries of country

architecture, and subject to

estates to farms

and laborers' cottages, small hum-

and propriety.

It is

economy of domestic

its

ous, but of the affluent, of the

of roads or clustered together around central greens

ence, or of leisure;

domestic comfort, and in

was quite

ment,

label

moldings over casement windows,

crocketed panels, and cusped windows

seen in a pattern book

charm

brought

an element of

to vernacular cottages throughout the En-

glish countryside.

poor.

such

Thomas

on the page. Those published

as

John Plaw, using

the concept of a rose-

covered cottage was particularly appealing to

of the growing

number of

English. Architects

many

well-off middle-class

were quick to pick up on

burgeoning interest in country

as cottages ornes. Pattern

this

retreats, referred to

books such

as

William

F.

Pocock's Architectural Designs Jor Rustic Cottages and

Picturesque Dwellings, first

introduced in the 1770s,

later in the

century and into the next by the likes of John

and things rustic grew, and

life,

Lightolier, consisted of simple engravings

Papworth,

to return to a simpler

age of elegant refine-

those by Batty Langley, Paul Decker, and

as

as

the expanding Industrial Revolution fueled a desire

sci-

Earlier mid-eighteenth-century pattern books,

Toward the end of the eighteenth century,

a fondness for nature

of study, of

mere cottage would be incongruous with

silhouetted

Cottages were not to remain the domain of the

this

the nature of its occupancy."

perhaps

man

often the rallying point of

it is

in village settings.

ways,

laws of fitness

not the habitation of the labori-

ble dwellings scattered in fields and along the edges

The use of ornamentation here

arbitrary. Gothick windows and door-

own

aquatint,

P.

F.

B.

Robinson, Francis Goodwin, and

a

new

printing technique called

featured cottages and

villas

set in the

midst of pretty gardens with distant rolling

hills fre-

quently thrown in for good measure. The relationship of the house to

setting reflected the strong

its

influence of the Picturesque

portance

it

Movement and

the im-

placed on landscaping. By the end of the

centurv, architects like

Humphrey Repton were

de-

signing Gothick cottages with high gables, decorative

vergeboards, diamond-paned windows, and

towering chimneys. Repton,

prominent

offered the gentry a wide selection of picturesque

fanciful

cottage styles to select from, and Gothick was well

landscape gardener, wrote, "The picturesque and

represented.

pleasing effort of smoke ascending,

John Papworth,

in his

1818 pattern book. Designs

for Rural Residences, wrote, "The cottage orne

i)^aca/^

is

^/i/acey'^^rirre^

dark hanging

means

wood

is

when relieved by

circumstance by no

to be neglected,"^ a sentiment as well as a

cu^^a^ea^^ C/^^ec^
J

50

.J

borrowed by nineteenth-century Americans

style

Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson

were positioned

estate parks

from the

to be seen

Davis. Lord Chesterfield tagged these houses "Car-

manor house. Author James Chambers, in his informative book The English House, comments that "a

penter's Gothic." Architectural pattern books flour-

number of landlords

ished until the arrival of the Victorian Age, which

villages for their labourers,

heralded the end ot the Picturesque Movement.

than to improve the approaches to their mansions.

The word "picturesque" was

monlv used bv

a familiar

citizens of the late eighteenth centu-

1756 Edmund Burke attempted to

rv. In

visual

world

one com-

classify the

which man understands

sensations bv

in a philosophical essay entitled

his

aesthetic pleasure.

all

William Gilpin,

who

The Reverend

schoolmaster and travel writer

enjoved painting pastoral views while on

many journeys,

Burke missed

felt

acteristics related to painting,

went so
up

his

number of char-

adding "picturesque

in

The building of workers'

elements

easilv

translated

into

architecture.

model

turies,

landowners,

early nineteenth cen-

in their zeal to create the pic-

cottages was not con-

house workers and their families,

villages to

motivated in large part by the desire to provide better living conditions for

mous

them.

One

of the English model

Hamlet

in

of the most

was

villages

Avon, designed by John Nash

in

fa-

Blaise

1810

at

the request of banker John Scandrett Harford. This

trend-setting

village

consisted

a village

of nine

cottages

green. Unlike earlier

where cookie-cutter cottages

lined

up

vil-

in

an

orderlv fashion, Blaise Hamlet simulated the natural

During the eighteenth and

dwellers dress

fined to private estates. Industrial concerns financed

lages,

all

Some landowners

long flowing robes or shepherd's costumes

roughness, irrcgularitv of form, and interest in light

and shadow,

no other reason

far as to insist that cottage

grouped around

list.

for

inevitably Gothic."^

The term was further clarified

in Uvedale Price's 1794 "An Essay on the Picturesque," when he assigned to it attributes such as
beautv" to the

if

for effect.

"The Sublime

and the Beautiful," establishing attributes for each

that explain

Many were

and

built Picturesque cottages

evolution of a village, with cottages in different

architectural styles positioned in irregular spots.

One element

all

had

in

common was

an elaborate

swept

ornamental chimney reminiscent of the exuberant

housing their workers and re-

chimneys dating back to Tudor times. During the

placed them with an assemblage of picturesque cot-

nineteenth century, the influence of the romantic

ture-perfect

romantic

away existing

villages

tages.

These pastoral

landscape

villages

garden,

incorporated into

English Gothick cottage extended across the Atlantic;

adapted to American needs,

fabric of

Much

it

became part of

the

American architecture.
of Gothick's appeal was fueled bv literary

endeavors that were the product of the Romantic

Movement. Among
ofJiomas

Lykolitr mclucied

\>i\ori Ji.sutjrtt'aMt

Objects"

1762 publication, The Gentle-

man and Farmer's Architect

Containing

Great

Variety of Useful and Genteel Designs, ^csyncii asQotfr

icl<^5luim r\K\y\s, the)' xxxxt

inteniei to camou^(xat privids.

par-

Goth-

who

shared

ick
\\\s

who were

ticularly instrumental in fostering a taste for

so'eral s\i0^isX\or\s\or "Facades to place

the luminaries

were

a handful

an interest

in

of poets and writers

archaeology.

of the group was

Thomas

The most

distinguished

Gray, a poet and a scholar

of medieval literature and architecture who, as a

51

companion of Horace Walpole's,

traveling

is

on Walpole's

lieved to have had an influence

be-

selec-

tion of the Gothick style for his country house.

Another

Thomas Wharton, an

w^as

who wrote

an influential essay in 1762 encouraging

and writers such

Wordsworth, Byron, and Coleridge

intellect, expressing in their

as

glorified

of the senses over the

as the victory

and the simple

when

first

Many

she was nineteen.

works

a love of nature

The immensely popular 1798

life.

publication of Lyrical Ballads by

Wordsworth and

recognize

science-fiction wTiter with the publi-

cation of this 1817 thriller.

Gothick 's hold on the

also

literary imagination

advanced by the work of

Sir

was

who

Walter Scott,

brought another dimension to Gothic

In addition, romantic poets

what they saw

her as the

archaeologist

the use of Gothick.

Blake,

Frankenstein

literature.

Un-

der his substantial influence, which reached across to

America and the Continent, Gothic

from

tales

acters that

fiction strayed

of horror to simple melodramas with char-

were more

true-to-life. His vivid descrip-

tions of medieval times

were invaluable

in spreading

the Gothic style. Kenneth Clark, in his 1928

commented

Coleridge, which praised unrestrained nature as a

The Gothic Revival,

force that liberated man's imagination, heralded

of archaeological detail in Scott's novels which

Romanticism's overwhelming acceptance.

his picture of the

that "it

Middle Ages so

is

book

the wealth

satisfying

made

and so

Gothic novels and historic romances popular

much more

influential than the

during the second half of the eighteenth and into the

the poets." ^

The most famous

nineteenth centuries exuded a fascination for the

age was Scott's Ivanhoe: A Romance, an adventure

melancholy and the sentimental. In 1764 Horace

story of medieval chivalry published in 1820.

Walpole wrote The

Castle of Otranto, the first of the

so-called Gothic novels. Set in medieval times in

an

of Walpole's

Italian castle evocative

country house,

glish

young

love,

was

it

it

En-

of melancholy,

depended

for

chivalrous age, and

that class of novel

it

on the incidents of

Mrs. Ratcliffe and perfected by

followed

suit.

Rich

in

toric research, they

than-life figures

of fiction which

in the

Shelley, wife of the poet,

52

new

calm streams

with cottages nestled on their banks, and,

in the dis-

tance, a church spire.

The
is

as

desire to escape to a tranquil country retreat

appealing today as

when

it

was two centuries ago,

growing English middle

class,

the product

the beginning and end of the eighteenth century,

his-

contained heroic larger-

take Gothic literature into a

fields,

same vein shortly

Walter Scott

and expressed the darker side of

Mary

with gentle cultivated

of a population that had almost doubled between

Sir

Gothick 's fascination with the mysterious and the

supernatural.

J.M.W Turner

.'"'^

sentiment but light on

all

canvas. Important English land-

scape painters John Constable and

which was afterwards imitated by

Numerous books written

movement on

ideal,

became the prototype of

thus

ic

Constable's tranquil scenes encapsulated the rural

modern work

interest

its

of nature, captured the prevailing spirit of the Goth-

had been reprinted

Charles Eastlake recognized Walpole's Castle of

Otranto as "the first

from immune to the lure

best expressed the romantic notion of landscape.

its first

medieval manuscript.

a recently discovered

historical novel of the

edition

and the supernatural. In

Walpole actually claimed that

from

full

own

Painters of the time, far

mere melancholv of

was to

direction, writing

found

a special appeal in a rustic rural cottage.

cottage orne, based on a stylish, sophisticated

The

mod-

became among the most fashionable expressions of the Picturesque Movement,

el

of the simple

life,

finding favor with not only the middle class but with

the wealthy as well.

V\\\s "Villa iM
Stvit'" 15 out-

till

Q'ttutji

of thirty eight

oKjravmgs jrom a

1795

PuHitatiOH hyjohn ^Pluic

Ferme Ornee; or,

Rural Improvements

c-ntitliii

.^11

arc se^ia-colorcd

and cncjraixd
a vroccss that

111

"afia'tmta.

pvvidcd

suhtlc

shadings and gave the

effect

of a wash drawing.

fU//a./y7im/'

-*

r'/Zyrr/r

'J

M/ff
^*^^T1

4X0

Aj-lU

i/jf

53

A.n

1813

advertisement of Houghton Lodge

in a very su]^erior

and

m The

Statesman

reads,

chaste style with Gothic emhellishments, affording

"Vhe

cottage has heen erected within a few years at very great expense,

accommodation for a family of the frst

res^ectahility

." ^

and finished

Houghton Lodge

HOUGHTON LODGE,

set in a tranquil

spot near Stockbridge in Hampshire,

ultimate picturesque cottage.

Once

is

the

past a

Gothick entrance ^ate and charming; twin

gatehouses, visitors can catch a glimpse of
the lodge at the end of a wide drive lined

with towering beech trees that dwarf the handsome cottage. Built around

1800

as a

Houghton

gentlemen's retreat or fishing lodge on about

believed by

is

was responsible
ilar

Ahovc:
Qardcn

c/lie lovely
\s

for a

some

number

fifty acres,

to be designed bv architect John Flaw,

of neighboring structures.

The lodge

to one of the plates in Flaw's 1795 publication, Ferme Ornee;

is

or,

who
simRural

^cacocl<^

entered throuah an

Improvements

Calculated for Landscape and Picturesque

Effects.

ironmte ornamented with

QotUic motifs.

pair of large quatrefoil

windows gracing

the fa9ade

first

capture the

55

c/he pcturcs(^ue mirror-imaac

Qot]iic\aatc]iouses
\ng the intranet' to

announc

Houdhton

Lodae, an cnchantina cottaac

orni

m Hamvshirc, an

tnmmcd with

decorative verac

hoards, large c^uatrefoih.

and

extended chimneys.

Most of the lodge's windows,

away from the drive to a great ex-

visitor's attention.

how^ever, face

panse of open lawn that slopes gently

down

to the

River Test. Little

more than

celebrated for

trout fishing, meanders by at a

its

leisurely pace. Just

beyond

it,

scene stretches out across the

plete with

meadow.

a stream, the river,

a pleasant pastoral
flat

cows grazing peacefully

landscape,
in a

com-

neighboring

In the spring, fields of daffodils streak the

drive and riverbank with gold.

Houghton Lodge's

early history

is

vague.

believed to have been built bv a Mr. Bernard.

cottage, with

its

six second-floor

It is

The

bedrooms and

dressing rooms, was advertised for sale locally in

1800 shortly

after

it

was constructed, most prob-

ably because of the death of

its

owner, and again

the following January in the Times. Fourteen years

56

Vhe

veranda look^ across a gently slopng laini

tranc^uil
15

^^verVest. ^uilt

hdieved

to

to the

m i860 of wrought

iron, the

have originally heen constructed of twigs.

frame

A hcdac
trimmed
tomarv

dccorativcly

iiith

im the

wh\ms\cd\

form ofhirds

dclmcatcs the '^PtacocI^

Garden, a recently
redesxaned knotaarden on
the spac"J0U5 ijrounds.
c7lit

ktwt lias a tjcomctric

vattcrn icitliin a

.sijuaiv,

made of hot and

herhs clipped into shape.
It

was

dae\oif<cd

iHtJuTiil times.

later the

house and grounds were on the market

once more.

ment.

Houghton Lodge
ample of
that

is

a cottage orne,

wonderful storybook exwith a deep hipped roof

rounds out into a large

dome

to the back of the

cottage, and clusters of decorated

chimneys soaring high above the

ly

thatched,

century by

its

tile.

molded brick

roofline. Original-

roof was replaced in the nineteenth

On

pitched dormered
tive

the south side, small, steeply

windows with

scalloped decora-

trim extend from the roof. Below them, the

pointed windows of the drawing

floor

was moved from

and open out to

was

built

around

circular

original location in the base-

music room overlooking the river

protrudes on the east side, creating

beyond

it is

808 to house fourThis

was

later

smoking room and kitchen, which

a large

bow. Just

veranda that mav have re-

a Victorian

placed an original rustic one constructed of twigs;

built in

860 of cast

the period.
sic

room

iron,

its

scroll

The dining room

has a

work

is

tvpical of

to the right of the

window framed

in

pewter,

its

mu-

design

reflecting an Indian influence.

Houghton Lodge
and Mrs. Busk,

who

is

now

the propertv of Captain

inherited

the process of restoring

it.

it

in

1980 and are

The cottage and

rounding grounds have passed

until a small addi-

teen horses and three coaches.

converted to

dip to the

a small court.

The cottage was symmetrical,

tion of stables

room

its

its

in

sur-

down through Mrs.

Busk's family, going to the youngest daughter.

Overnight guests are welcomed occasionally and

tour

of the

interior

and

the

garden

can

arranged.

57

be

J^

ni

h'Ml
1 Pt
*//!.

Clytha Castle

ONE OF THE MOST

lyrical

of

follies is

to be found in Wales. Built in the guise of

a

small castle, this fanciful masquerade,

purported to be the work of architect

John Nash, was constructed

touching

as a

memorial. An eloquent plaque centered

on the front of Clvtha Castle reads:

"Erected in the year
Ahovc: VUis

out of tilt- pa^ of a

lies

child's storyhooh^,

with Qothicl<^u.'indows,
crenellation along

round towers are

square tower.
c^uarters

and

790 by William Jones of CKtha House, husband of

Elizabeth, last suryiying child of Sir William

Morgan of Tredegar,

it

was

Wales, 'designed

in ihc heart of

Opposite

hilltop /oil)' castle, straight

c^uatrefoils,

its roofline, its

and

undertaken with the purpose of relieying

mind

afflicted

by the

loss of a

two

liollou^.

most excellent
cated."

Gwyn

wife, to the

Headley and

memory

of whose yirtues this tablet

is

dedi-

Wim Meulencamp captured the essence of this

vieu; of (^lytlia (pasties

c?lie
is

jollv includes living

magical place

when

they wrote in 1986: "Jones found solace in stone.

The

amilable for holiday

rentals throuali the

Landmarl<^Vrust

building he

left

us

is

pure magic; deriyatiye yet wildly original,

it is

a late

59

Qlytha Qastlc was

built to ease its owner's

mind

at tlie loss of his

beloved wife
if>la(^ue set

eJkis

m the center

of the folly relates the

touching story

Vhe main
tite

estate,

which can

he

glimvscd from

tiny castle in the valley helow, has at

its

entrance a Gothicl<jirchway trimmed with

croc]{^ts

and pnnacles.

gatehouse adjoins

60

it.

A small

Qotliick,

Qlytha
wint

Qastlc's si^uarc tower, the pirotal

tins L'.sliaptd jolly, includes several

rooms that extend

helxind a screen

runnina

across the ornamental front.

Strawberry Hill Gothick, to

fling of

own

is its

The
hill,

pattern which

castle sits picturesquely

encircled by a ha-ha. In front of

on the summit of

it,

fields

with

populated by grazing cows

and sheep. Positioned to be seen from Clytha House

in the valley below,
ily as a

it

Its

originally used

More

excuse for

recently, the castle

was

to the estate gamekeeper.

two round and

the central one square,

joined bv two curtain walls.

The most

all

over

its

ornamenta-

as

lovely pink stucco facade.

The round tower

to the east

is

open to the

whose

the top of the back tower to the west,

floor houses a

tower

in the

air, as

first

round bedroom. The square south

middle has two rooms, each with

ings about twenty feet hi^h.

ceil-

The upper room, once

resplendent with delicate plasterwork,

to the lower by a spiral staircase and

is

\n

connected

as

used

as a

distinctive

This once- loved follv stood emptv and nci^lected

lor twenty-five years until the

Landmark

charity that rescues historic buildings

Trust, a

from vandal-

north curtain

ism and demolition, recently took a lon^ lease on

crown-like pinnacle.

Clvtha Castle and repaired the be^uilin^ structure.

and unusual feature of the castle

which .sweeps up to

reminiscent of

medieval inspiration, are utilized

tion

is

all

chapel in the nineteenth centurv.

unusual L-shaped form sports three towers,

the end

wall,

by the fam-

retreat, for picnics, or simply as an

a long leisurely walk.

home

was

its

charming pas-

toral scene spreads out across the landscape,

manicured

(narrow openings through which

slits

arrows were shot), and crosses,

master."^

half-hidden in a gjrove of ancient chestnuts and

rolling

dows, arrow

is its

Large crenellations run around the towers and

Now

walls. Decorative quatrefoils, trefoils, lancet win-

through the Trust.

furnished,

it

is

available for holidav rentals

61

'If^

.V

V'.-'--^

i'^^V-

.r'.V:

-^A>
'^>v

>5<'-

'^^.
<r.ry

i-ii->

'^ki.
's.*!*

Uj^ff.,

-Uil^^^VC

<1

FlTM

->

'^^s^.

/^

'c^"^'

Frampton Court
Orangery

Oppsiti.
cak^'\i\<i

c/lu-

THE LYRICAL FRAMPTON COURT

ivcddin^'

oran^ry,

orangery

m the waters of a

rcjlccud

lona ornamental canal,

is

is

It is

located

Gothick

on the

at its

east

most successfuL

bank of the River

on the Cjrounds ofFramV'

ton (^ourt. a

manor house

Severn

in

Frampton-on-Severn, Glouces-

m Fram^toyronSeiern.
one of the

tershire,

0}K of a numher of sleeky.

prettiest villages in the

^Kturcsc^uc 8>nijUsh
inllacjes

Severn Vale, with

virtually

unchancjed h\ time.

Above: Vhe entrance

tilt

oranacry

is

with

croc\<^ts

arch

On

its

to

countryside.

ornament'

The

fanciful

Gothick pavilion

built in

1752

is

an carlv example of the

sfroutmij

surface and an

tofij^ed

charming collection

of half-timbered houses and thatched cottages surrounded by beautiful

ed uitfi stoneivor\<^carved

alona

its

hyafnial

follies that

began adorning landscape gardens of the eighteenth century.

About three hundred yards north of its

classical

wedding-cake-looking garden pavilion

is

manor house,

the fanciful

either side are Gothick^

pitTS

small

ornamented with

mirrored

in

the

still

water of

c^iiatrefoils rej^eated

on window frames.

decorative canal stretching out two hundred yards.

The ornamental carp-

63

Left

cJke hexagonal glazjna of

the orangery's ogee

IS

windows and doors

typcal of early eighteenth' century

Qothick^, as put forward hy

Langley in his

^atty

Gothic

Architecture Improved,
first fuhlished in

Vhc

Opposite;

1742.

interior includes

octagonal drawing room,

shown

an

here,

plus a dinincj room and kitchen on the

ground

level

them.Vhe

and four hedrooms ahove

decorative hexagonal

dows,

many with

glass, look-out onto

"^utch
heyond

filled

Dutch

which

is

canal curves

midway along

its

ed by

east side,

bordered by flowering shrubs, roses, and

staircase to the rear,

herbaceous plants.

octagonal tower.

The fragrance of fruit

trees

was appealing to the

to house a

ground

number

floor of the orangery

tropical trees.

was

set

up

as a

its

way up

a third

a cupola, the parapet

decked out with battlements

of the ogee arched windows and doors, typical of

The

green-

surrounding ^ark^and

and pinnacles. The beautiful hexagonal glazing bars

of them to construct buildings

wide assortment of

an ornamental

canal filed with carv and

to the

which winds

is

win-

onamal

with a cantilevered stone

Crowned by

of the third tower

romantically inclined eighteenth-century landowners leading a

a rectangular hall

their

*the
i

early

Gothick motifs,

reinforce

the

folly's

faceted surface and add a decorative touch to the

The ogee

house for plants and flowers and probably housed a

confection.

variety of flowering fruit trees as well.

Batty Langley 's publication Gothic Architecture Im-

The orangery

64

is

composed of two octagons

unit-

proved,

arch, featured prominently in

was believed to have originated

in the

Near

^^^^"^
^m

^
'm

'4
>

r--'^-"

66

Ovfositc:

An ocjccarchcd

doorivay, a

form njpcaud

throuijifiout the [oily,

frames

tUc araccful cantilaxrcd

stone stairway situated in

the oran<jery's hach^octa^onal

touer.

c7Iti5

tilc'Imed stone jire]^lace in the dinina

room, one of two in tKe buiMm*^, was ori(ji'

nally uj^stairs in a room used to tah^ tea or

j^ssihly to ]pamt. c/ke oace curve outlimncj

Its

to^

and o^enina echoes

arches of the

folly's

the Gotkick^

windows and

doors.

East in the fourteenth century and

as a decorative

element

riod around the

in the

same time.

in the eighteenth

Gothic Decorated pe-

Interest in the "exotic"

century brought together

mix of

cultural influences, such as this motif.

While the designer of the pavilion

is

not known,

version of Stout's Hill, a

manor house

in Gloucestershire that

was designed by William

also situated

Halfpenny and closely resembles designs found

and

his

brother John's 1752 pattern book,

Chinese and Gothic Architecture Properly Ornamented.

floor of the orangery

was probably

used for afternoon tea and possibly the pursuit of

creative endeavors, such as painting.

contains
tially

the lively follv has the appearance of a scaled-down

in his

The second

was introduced

Its

interior

two decorative Gothick Hreplaccs

that ini-

were

upstairs but

now

which was converted from

arc
a

on the ground

floor,

conscrvatorv to the

drawing room and dining rooms. Rcccntlv restored

bv

its

can trace

Manor

its

a familv

who

roots back to the twclfth-ccnturv

Old

present owners, the Cliffords

located across the village 2;rcen from Framp-

ton Court

the delightful Gothick orangery

is

now

available for holiday rentals.

67

h^

wOi
5*.

"'"^^^^

r-->

^"5^-y:/^

II
1?

IKi

iig^?x

^^,v'

it^WWs *

''/.

The Ring

BESTIARIES, or menageries,
referred to them,

vogue

all

French

were verv much

in the eighteenth centurv.

time

this

as the

manner of

in

During

beasts inhabited

the grounds of English country estates,

from
^hovc:

c/Ke tiny arched rustic entrance

to tlw little

Hansel'and'Qrctd cottaae

of the animal kingdom, such

t)'

It

in a

woodland,

enchanting cottage was built in i

this

776 as

an aviary on the arounds of a vast country

estate. c7lie

^^na

is

polar bears, and kangaroos,

joined bv an assortment of exotic birds from storks to peacocks. Often the

structures housing

away

more wild

xsjoined at itspeak^

a simple' jinial.

Opposite: c/uck^i

as lions, tigers,

livestock to the

is

patterned with twias and edaed U'ltk

^\n^cr\)rcad carving.

common

now

a wec\<^nd retreat,

them were Gothick

Just such a building

in design.

was included on the grounds of one of the

largest

of the English country houses located not far from London. Here, a pic-

776 to shelter exotic Indian pheasant

turesque Gothick aviarv built

in

was positioned on

some

where wild i^heasant roam tke arounds and

paU

roses

c\imhthe waWs and

roof.

a hillside

distance from the main house and

69

i
The Ring because of its construction on

christened

many

the remains of an ancient Saxon fort. Like

fol-

Hes scattered throughout the grounds of country

estates,

had been long neglected and ravaged

it

bv time.

Gothick windows opening to

garden just beyond
trees.

filled

a small

veranda and

with flowering cherry

Furnished with taste and imagination, the

Gothick cottage captures the comfort and warmth

exemplified in the best of English country houses.

This diminutive aviarv was luckier than most,

woman who

however. Bettv Hanlev, an American

makes her home

London, came upon

in

while visiting friends for the weekend

nearby.

had been

It

a rainy Saturday

ed to go exploring. Unable to

when

tage

she glimpsed

undergrowth and

buy or

trees,

1973

who

lived

and they decid-

resist the rustic cot-

half-hidden in a tangle of

Ms. Hanley

set

about to

crumbling cottage, which

lease the

marked

point was

it

in

it

The

for demolition.

at this

task proved

to be an arduous one, for Ms. Hanley had quite a

convincing the owner to lease the dilapidated

fight

structure to her. Ultimately, her persistence finally

won him

over.

While her considerable

creative

powers gave her

the ability to envision what the ruin might become,

Ms. Hanlev was not

restoration

been

would

built of lath

fully

prepared for what such

The cottage had

originally

and plaster bv the same

man who

entail.

constructed a rococo Gothick chapel on the estate

grounds.

When

over, trees

she

the

were growing out of its

worked

roof.

the cottage

J\}oovi: eJke

Undaunted,

jm^lau. A. Qothic^chair

diligently to restore only

absolutelv necessarv.
feet, a wall

new owner took

The roof had

constructed where

it

drawina room sports pointed

})oo]<^ascs jlank}n0 the

sits at the dcsk^

what was

to be raised three

was

originally

open

to allow access for the birds and water, and electricitv installed.

Reconstruction took over a year.

Ms. Hanley decorated the interior

Ofj^sitc:

in an eclectic

manner, mixing Gothick elements, such

as

the

Vhe

cottaac entry douhlcs as a dining room. Its walls arc

striated to create the illusion ofj^anelina.

table is

her other possessions. In the lovely dining room,

trompe

paneling, the Gothick

fire-

place and chairs are copies from the chapel.

The

with

its

dining

70

room

>>

is

I'oeil

dominated by three floor-to-ceiling

larac

round dining

surrounded hy fainted Qothcl<j:hairs, coped from ones

a nearbj chipel. Vhree

arches framing her drawing-room bookcases, with^

y\

in

large Qothiclij^nndoivs look-out to a

garden jilled with cherry

trees.

71

A^.:w-

Inwardleigh Cottage

AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COTTAGE,
^..^f.-^

Qj^g Qf ^

handful bordering a narrow coun-

try lane in a sleepy

England,

is

hamlet

home

in

southwestern

to talented decorator

Bridget Glasgow and her husband.

the Gothick
A-hove: Vhis cottaae

m a southern

Sn^Usli luimlct started

life

a thatckei

tkf country

roof. It 15

attracted Ms. Glasgow's attention.

The couple

simple cot-

initially rent-

ed

it,

when told

the cottage was not for sale, and eventually convinced the

now

owner

home of decorator

^nd^ct Qlas^ow and

first

this

was

at

about half Its p-esent siZf, toj^ed

u'ltli

tage that

windows of

It

to sell

it

to them.

her

Ms. Glasgow had started her

hus\>and,^avid.

after

working

in

London

for a

own

design business in nearbv Salisbury

number of years

at

the prestigious design

Opposite: Qothic]<^d\amond'^ancd

windows hrina
to the front

the style /or

a touch of whimsy

of the cottaae and

its

charmina

firm of Colefax and Fowler.

(Much of the

fabric used

throughout the cot-

set

interior.

tage

is

from

that firm.)

It

took four years to remodel the cottage,

as the

73

4.

new owners extended it to include an ample drawing room with a conservatory off the back overlooking a pleasant garden.
originally

The small 1730

had a somewhat lopsided look, but

symmetrical with

its

its

is

now

recent addition.

Inside, the cottage projects an air of

comfort;

cottage

welcoming entrance

warmth and

hall,

the oldest

part of the house, sets the tone for the rest of the
cottage.

large stone fireplace, with

bread oven to one

desk

is

side,

its

original

dominates the small room.

positioned next to the window. Walls are

covered in a subtle stripe and windows are draped

in a strawberry toile, their arched

Above: Vhc front

to the left

of the

entrance, just

window, of ens

into this comfortable

Its

study with

ample fireplace, a favorite

si^ot

on cold winter days.

^elow: j\

large eighteenth' century

Swedish

chest is right at

&nglish

cottage's

home

in tke

small dinmg room.

'Pointed upholstered side chairs

repeat the

74

window's silhouette.

pelmets repeat-

ing the shape of the Gothick windows.

covered in the same pattern gives

the cozv

room,

a roaring fire.

for strawberries

is

winter

reflected throughout her cottage.

room

Gothick theme. Walls covered

peach damask wallpaper bring a

room. Tableware

when

The owner's fondness

Pointed backs of upholstered dining

reiterate the

loveseat

cohesiveness to

a favorite spot in the

accompanied bv

is

chairs

in a pale

warm glow

to the

stored in a nineteenth-century

Swedish sideboard painted robin 's-egg blue. The

crewel fabric of the dining-room curtains and the

sisal

carpeting used throughout help retain a casual look.

The

inviting

new drawing room

hides

its

secret

Ahovc: Vhc graceful cunnn<j valance

at the front

the

the

window

drawina room,

most

recent addi-

tion to the cottacje,

follows the shape of

tilt'

^otkicl^

window. Vhe
p)inU'J side chair
flankincj

it

reinforces

the Gothicl<^thcme

'^dsand

hlues

were selected for

Inwardleicjh
Q)tta(je's drawin(j

room, a decidedlx
stylish yet relaxed

country room

Vhe

side door leads to a

lovely hack^aarden.

75

76

well, appearing as though

cottage.

it

were always part of the

The Gothick motif

is

carried into the

room, with pointed bookcases flanking

place.

The pelmets topping

door leading to the

the

stone

fire-

windows and

plant-filled conservatory

the

and

garden beyond are gently arched. The same pattern

complemented by

as in the draperies covers a sofa,

checks and stripes on a loveseat and chairs.

A concern

for detail,

from

a subtle

wallpaper

border or narrow braid edging walls, to contrast

binding on upholstery and

window

treatments,

combined with an unerring sense of style, have

ated a highly personal country

owners' tastes
pleasure for

^hove: l^rrow stairs

many

home

home

cre-

that reflects

that will surely bring

them

years to come.

in the

o^uaint cottaac, illuminated,

with

liahtfrom the^inted diamond'

^ancd window at tke

to]^

of the

landina, lead to several hedrooms

on the second jloor

'^R^ht A. decorative red woven

,

tope trims tke walls of the master

hedroom as well as the Yointzd

scallops of the hcd cano]py

and

shades.

Opposite;
toile

Vhe

use of a rosy

fabric for the walls, dravery,

and dust ru^e

creates a

its

cozy

atmosj^here in tKe cottaae's small

auest hedroom.

11

Ch an dos Lodge

CHANDOS LODGE,

hidden behind

sturdy brick wall encircling

estate,

is

actually only a

eight-acre

its

few blocks from

the center of a simple English village.

Painted a soft clear pink, like numerous

houses that dot the surrounding spare

Opposite:
gates of

Once you

Qhandos

sUj^ inside the

landscape, the charming

that look out

and

the

villa is

distinguished by a set of Gothick

windows

Lodge, tke kustle-bustle

of the small village ]ust outside

is lost

garden

its

onto an expanse of lawn punctuated by

a reflecting

pond and

walls

magic of the house and

its

topiary garden.

gardens tak^ ]^ssession.

The lodge was

originally built in

1810 bv Thomas Wythe,

^boi^e; c^kis charming lodge has

undergone a numher of chanctes since

1810 construction One

.

recent

is

at

rear.

tite

this

of

tfte

tened

it

Chandos

in

honor of

a likely love interest, the

who

chris-

widow

of Henry

times,

Chandos

its

more

Bridges, the second

Duke of Chandos.

In

more recent

Qothick^conservatory added

Lodge became the cherished country

retreat of

world-famous choreogra-

79

Opposite:

Vhc pn]{j)f the faQodc

his

m this sunny

hccn repeated inside

dinina room, one of the oriainal sections

of the lodae.

A.

delicate Gothicl^jcornice

adds a touch of confection

Vhe

nine

teenth' century cast'iron heater to

the lef has heen clectrifcd

^^Riaht

A.

central cantilevered

staircase is situated at one end of the

dinina room,

mornina room
room,

pher

and

Sir

its

IS

beyond

is

a small

that, hl<e the dinina

original to the house.

Frederick Ashton,

who

grounds shortly before he was knighted

1962. The romantic structure

would expect

who until his

ly

acquired the house

is

just the sort

in

one

to appeal to the imaginative Ashton,

death at eighty-three in

988 frequent-

returned to Chandos, finding in the quiet spot not

only an escape from his demanding

life

but a source

By the time Ashton assumed possession, the

size.

Toward the end of the

nineteenth century, additional rooms were constructed on both ends of the original central portion.

The

area to the west was utilized as a storage

room, with

when
its

it

access

80

its

was

entrance through the kitchen, but

later

called

by friends, continued the Gothick

installing a beautiful

most probably
rear of this

originally part of a church, to the

room. He

to the dining

converted into a

was changed, so

that

it

sitting

room

opened onto the

tradition,

Gothick window and door,

also

room and

which feature the

added Gothick moldings

morning room, both of

the

original

Gothick windows. Most

of the pottery throughout the house

of inspiration as well.

lodge had doubled in

dining room. Sir Fred, as he was affectionately

is

inexpensive,

having been collected by Ashton while poking

through antique shops

to

w ith friends when they came

visit.

Ashton made

number

of changes throughout

the grounds, adding a topiary garden and a

pond

mirroring the lodge, their construction funded by

profits

from

of Beatrix

his

Potter,

choreography for the film The

made

in 1971,

Ashton

Tales

also built a

small Gothick conservatory behind the lodge that

the Vics-Wells, later

overlooks a garden and what was once the stables.

Ballet.

Ashton,

ment of a

whom many

distinctlv British ballet stvle,

for his versatility

graphing the
In

credit with the develop-

first

and

of

was know^n

his classical bent,

more than

1926.

fifty ballets in

1963 he became director of the Royal

When he first joined the troupe

choreo-

in

1935

it

Ballet.

was

called

rina

becoming the

Sadler's Wells

Ashton worked closelv with the famed

Dame Margot

the greatest

Ashton's

Fonteyn,

who

described him as

choreographer of our time.

death,

his

nephew

balle-

inherited

Upon

Chandos

Lodge. Now, with recent restoration and the prized

possessions of the

new owner,

the house stands

ready to delight another generation.

81

^^R^Ut: y\ic comfortahle morning room

doubles as an entrance kail, ^otkick^

moUina

x^

a small lantern,

c^uatrefoilyatterncd

--6

it-all

and

the

paper jrom Q)lc, a

copy of a mnetecnth' century original,

reinforce tke Qotkick^tkeme.

^elow: Qhandos Lodges front

was

entrance

originally at the foot of the central

staircase.

Ahove

it is

a Qothic\ivindoiv

and a small lalcony now connecting one of

the hedrooifis to a hath.

Vhe

Qothicl<^chairs

on tke halcony arc nineteenth- century

'M

Left: cJkis sitting room,

a late-nineteenth' century
addition,
initially
Its

was
a storage area.

Gothickdoor and

window, jlanli^d hy
point^d'arcked cabinets

rimmed with
auatrejoils, were

added

hySir
Freiericl^^^skton.

83
03

r:

v^

^-;\

V V

l^

xx;.

^/

^Ai&^ tiV^si^SrK
1

^s

^^^^^^'^^1^9 ^^E^^^^I^^^^B^^^ ^^^^^K^ ^^^^^^^^m^^^^^m

^m^

/\\'n

r*iifT2ix
;y^^ii;V..:j
if

.-v--^

]^^^

f^ ^ ^ \^

^^^^r-^

^^^^^^^I^^^H

86

Previous

^acjes:

An

utilizes

a^ssBsan
TW

8305

Snalish hlock^fnntcd fahnc

Gothic staincd-glass

'^^
S^^^
^^M
r
l^i
^SS
aSUSSSE
Bl

windows

as a design motif.

Opposite.

Vhe most

spectac-

ular of the cicjhteenth' century

Got\iicl<^manor houses

mammoth

tkf

was

Fonthill

he eighteenth century was

stability in

time of relative

England; economic changes brought

^^

H.-^H

!VBH

greater prosperity and, under Robert Walpole,

England's

up

first

prime minister,

a cabinet

was

set

that functioned as a central organ of govern-

ment. The British Empire added

India,

Aus-

Ahhey, designed hy James

Wyattfor
aire

eccentric million'

William '^cckford.

enormous tower ultimately

toppled, destroying
the house.

shown
in

Vhe

here

traha.

New

Zealand, and Canada to

its

fold, and, following the

founding

Its

of the Bank of England in 1694,

it

dominated the world of trade and finance

most of

engraving

wasfuhlished

as well.

Aristocrats and the landed gentry, motivated by travels to ancient

1823.

European

cities

or simply by the desire to outdo their neighbors, con-

structed magnificent

or two

new

residences or restored structures built a century

earlier. But, unlike

much

of the wealthy on the continent

who

chose to construct elaborate city residences along broad boulevards, the

English, with their long-standing love for the country, elected instead to

channel fortunes into the construction of country houses, most of which

were

set in the

Many

midst of expansive grounds.

of these houses, frequently financed by agricultural rents or

mining, were specifically designed for entertaining on

era

when

friends often stayed

on

for weeks.

grand scale

They were not only

mations of their owners' wealth, education, and taste but

and Herculaneum

in

an

procla-

major avenue

to social recognition and political power. Fueled bv the discoverv of

peii

in

Pom-

1748, the most popular architectural style for

87

cJlte

vaulted

U^fcr Qloistcrs

of Wilton House

Wiltilinr, dcsiancd hxjamcs

Wvatt

in

1801,

can

cjlimfscd through the ]S[prtlt

Hall entrance. (Classical

statuary

15

displayed on

columns hetivcen kautijul

QotkicI^u'inJou'5.

these grand houses during

neoclassicism,

of the century was

governed by the precepts of

straint, balance,
ly

much

and

unity. Gothick,

used an approximation of Gothic, and

brugh demonstrated

re-

during the ear-

it

in the

John Van-

Gothic form, but

second quarter of the eighteenth cen-

tury that 'Rococo Gothick' had

decades of the eighteenth century, was, for the

most

was

a feeling for

Sir

its

beginning,

when

There were,

William Kent and Sanderson Miller introduced the

however, scattered examples early in the 1700s of

use of Gothic details in a purely decorative manner,

Gothic motifs that had been adopted for residences

adapted and applied to

part, relegated to the garden.

by architects such
castle-like

house

as Sir

at

John Vanbrugh

in his

more

1717

Greenw^ich. Jane Davies, in her

'

classical

forms."

While

often associated w^ith the Palladian architec-

ture popularized by his mentor. Lord Burlington,

was one of the

introduction to the catalog for the 1976 Houston

the multitalented William Kent

Museum

to explore the use of Gothick embellishments to

late

of Fine Arts Gothic show, w^rote: "In the

seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries

Christopher

88

Wren

and

his followers

Sir

on occasion

evoke the

past.

Around 1730 Kent created

first

coun-

trv house at Esher Place in Surrev for financier

Henry Pelham by joining two semi-octagonal towers of a late-fifteenth-century gatehouse

between them

the carriageway
hall.

and turning

into an entrance

Kent added ogee Gothick windows and large

quatrefoil openings to the towers

and the connect-

The formation of the Antiquarian

was started bv gentlemen

of taste

Society,

became

as

houses.

The

early

propitious time for the

of

icizing

George

Strawberry

three
Hill,

Their owners

way

outstanding

Arburv

Horace

Hall,

where her

stories of the

of

varied coloring.

the Goth-

ably smaller than

Walpole, Roger Newdi-

com-

medieval

roots.

ick designs

eve was Strawberry Hill, the intriguing creation

lic

of the oft-quoted literary lion Horace Walpole,

had acquired
the

a taste for

who

Gothic after embarking on

Grand Tour with friend and poet Thomas Gray,

an ardent Gothic admirer. Picturesque and capricious, the asymmetrical Strawberry Hill

was an

in-

was

made him something of a

and

political contacts that

fashion arbiter, and his se-

lection of the unconventional

Gothick gave

it

Eighty miles to the north, another ambitious

scale,

in

1752. Grander

the flamboyant additions at Arburv

its

whimsical lighthearted rococo

who

in a closer

accuracy to the

appearance was

the only

thing that counted. Terence Davis aptlv describes

this early

period in The Gothick

Taste,

focusing on

Georgian Gothick: "the design and decoration

most Gothick houses was

of

li2;hthearted, unrealistic

and sometimes frivolous. Herein

lies

the magic

these very qualities of improbability and es-

and

the further they are

removed from

these realms the less magical they become. This

make-believe aspect
the Gothick taste."

is

the strength and weakness of

Exterior additions, from simple pointed win-

healthy boost toward respectability.

Gothick remodeling had begun

lovely interiors

Its

were adopted both bv those who were

basically decorative

capism

social

Hall.

of the nineteenth century, the use of Gothic motifs

The younger son of

Horace had many

Arburv

medieval ancestry. But until the third decade

in

Robert Walpole, the witty

James West's Alscot Park,

and by the more antiquarian-minded,

tensely personal expression of the taste of its owner.

Sir

trio,

found greater appeal

style's

Gothick into the pub-

grand Gothic canopy."^

Throughout the remainder of the century, Goth-

spirit

through the use of exuberant orna-

and

together classical elements with fanciful

Gothick

that catapulted

family, she used

are filled with a delightful plasterwork pastiche that

Georgian Gothick.

its

Newdigate

located in the picturesque Cotswolds, was consider-

and Alscot Park.

all

Completing the

captivated by

The house

brings

mentation only vaguely reminiscent of

was steward. Growing

"petrified lace-work picked out with delicate

mitted antiquarians. Each managed to capture the

spirit

1819 on the Newdi-

the intricate plasterwork of the saloon ceiling as

to English

were

father

known

and

life

manor houses

and James West, respectively

in

better

material for several of her novels. Eliot described

1750s proved to be

movement, with

was born

Eliot,

gate estate,

Horace Walpole and other early advocates,

its

Mary Ann Evans,

at its best.

who

a driving force in the revival

the Gothick style finally found

gate,

Gothick

splendid interiors featured early

Its

these and the physical characteristics of the house as

Gothic. By mid-century, encouraged by the enthu-

manor

years.

fifty

for

which

and learning

were fascinated with the study of medieval

siastic

Roger Newdigatc's manor house, continued

up with

ing unit.

culture,

in

Hall,

dows and

interlocking fanlight traccrv to

elaborate turrets, battlements, crocketed

more

finials,

and

bay windows, brought an animation to previously

89

manor

houses. Decorative interior alterations,

west, with eighteen

bedrooms and

a gallery that ran

usually limited to the library and the entrance hall,

a length of

The immense

central

were

high octagonal grand saloon was topped with a 276-

staid

playful

Mixing

and imaginative.

and Gothic

in

in

one structure was quite accept-

1799, but was rebuilt in time for a

County Down,

example of this.

In

feet.

foot-high tower. Visible for miles,

as well as

able throughout the eighteenth century.

ward,

85

Chinese

classical

forms together

1772

Ireland,
its

is

Castle-

an interesting

owners, Lord and Lady

When

Nelson and Lady Hamilton.

ed to

live at Fonthill

Abbey

tower bf stone, but again

it

it

2 8 -foot-

collapsed in

visit

from Lord

Beckford decid-

full-time,

he rebuilt the

came toppling down and

Bangor, decided to update their sixteenth-century

demolished part of the house in 1819, shortly

country house; Lady Bangor was set on using Goth-

the estate was sold. Little remains of the massive

ic

motifs, while her husband

that

The resolution was

determined

compromise.

house's formal southwest facade

colonnaded, while

decked out

in

its

The

pedimented and

is

northeast garden fa9ade

is

Gothick splendor, with pointed win-

dows and battlements.

rooms

just as

structure today.

should be redone in the popular Palladian

it

style.

was

Inside, the saloon

and

sitting

are fancifully Gothick, in contrast to the clas-

sical restraint

of the

room. Castleward, now the property of the National

Trust and open to the public, and

in

County Kildare,

of major Irish

Moore Abbey

are the only surviving examples

manor houses

in the

Gothick

style.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, ex-

were planned on the

Fonthill Abbey's gardens

prevailing Picturesque theory,

which held

that a

building should share a symbiotic relationship with

its

surrounding grounds. During the

year

first

alone, Beckford planted one million trees. Fonthill,

however, was never really comfortable within

landscape because of its overwhelming

dining room, and music

hall,

after

its

size.

Wyatt, having gained invaluable experience earthe restoration of medieval Gothic cathe-

lier in

was instrumental

drals,

in establishing a taste for

Gothick by the turn of the century. Yet, Terence

Davis writes, "although Wyatt 's grasp of Gothic

was masterly

techniques

were ... no

they

Abbey on

more authentic."^ He undertook at least ten grand

manor houses in the last fifteen years of his life, but

Wilshire Dovsns, constructed in 1794 and designed

Ashridge, in Hertfordshire, designed by Wyatt in

tremely large manor houses became fashionable,

the largest being the

mammoth

Fonthill

by architect James Wyatt. The most incredible

807 and carried out by

seemed

to spark

ville after

the imagination of all of England. Built as a

summer

dent,

country house of

its

time, Fonthill

retreat for William Beckford,

who

inherited a vast

is

his

nephew

Wyatt 's unfortunate death

Jeffry Wyatt-

in a

coach

acci-

the only one that has survived.

During the mid-eighteenth century,

a brief flirta-

fortune in Jamaican sugar plantations and slaves

tion with ornamental Gothic elements descended

upon the death of his

upon

it

was intended

father,

London's Lord Mayor,

as a residential rival to the great

cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

The cruciform -shaped

structure was constructed

of timber and cement by five hundred

initially

workmen who

toiled day

sured

north to south and 270 feet east to

90

2 feet

and night. Fonthill mea-

typical

Georgian furniture forms. Like Batty

Langley's imaginative architectural flights of fancy,

they bore
styles.

little

limited

resemblance to original historical

amount of genuine medieval

furni-

ture existed, and in the interim a plethora of

new

forms had come into existence. Consequently,

chitects

ar-

and cabinetmakers borrowed architectural

A. pair 0/ hcautiful &n^\ish

Gotkick^ckairs, dated circa
1

820, an

dcsicjncd

the

manner ofGeorae Smith or

Jdynes

Wyatt. tainted

in

araywhite and outlined in

Qold, their scats arc caned

motifs

from medieval cathedrals for furniture,

The

freely

incorporating carved

for interiors

pointed

pinnacles,

first

pattern book to feature Gothick furniture

was Mathew Darly's A New Book of

arches, tracery, quatrefoils, crestings, crockets, and

Chinese,

crenellations into chairs, cabinets, tables, bookcases,

Darly, a talented engraver, also

and the

like.

decorative
sign

The only

structural

as

opposed to

Gothic form adopted in furniture de-

was the clustered column, which was

for legs of tables and, occasionally, chairs.

utilized

Even the

ubiquitous English Windsor chair, normally found

in

country-house

library,

became

gothicized,

sporting a pointed back and three pierced splats inspired bv

window
first

appearing in the second quarter of

the eighteenth century, because

was placed on furniture

trations for

8i^

Modern

Chairs,

issued in

worked on the

Thomas Chippendale's

A number of respected

signers of the day, such as

Robert Adam, turned

motifs

when

it

illus-

highly successful

The Gentleman 8l Cabinet-Maker's Director,

lished in 1754.

75

pub-

first

furniture de-

George Hepplewhite and

for a short time to

Gothick

was considered trendy.

Pattern books were

important because they

functioned as sales catalogues lor furniture design-

tracerv.

English furniture design books were latecomers

on the scene,

Gothic

little

importance

ers such as Chippendale, an astute businessman as well

as a designer,

whose polished design book

wealthy clients to

his

attracted

cabinetmaking shop. The

first

in the sparely furnished

edition of his beautifully illustrated Director reflect-

grand English houses of the seventeenth century.

ed current trends, with an emphasis on the more

91

Left

'Purina

the

mid'eialxtcenth century, a
y^N:;^'?^-. yOsT*-^-.-

*>>-

Afc,f^

number ofleadina cahinet-

>V^. ^ssV?^:^ya^*>:^j

ma]<^rs, such as

Vhomas

(^kippendale, incorporated
fanciful Qothick^elements into

Vhose shown

their designs.
here arc

from the

of QhifT^endalc's

Gentleman

third edition

The

& Cabinet-

Maker's Director,
puMisheci in

1754-

W.V;Wja'AR3'3WIW*^JF.T**3**

_iA/ji-/**; ,vr)^<

*s

<ar/^.^^/i*w'"/'i/

1-^=^0^^/^^^ ^o(/Kra.f C'

Opposite; c/ke publication

of measured enaravincxs of
oriQinal Gotliic structures,

fm-mmm:

such as these from A.ugustus

'T'uains

Examples

of Gothic Architecture,
was

]^articular]\' helpful to

architects mteresteti

experimenting with Gothic.

Shown

here are details of a

and

hase of a nicke jront

canoj^y

tlie u'est
Cr/H,},;,,^.,/, ,.'^/,/.

.J^SM^4U .^.r^y^,.'.mf

^6r/

fw

front of the gateway at

/7/1-

Y'/^'"^'*^^^'7^'-

'^agdalene Qollege, Oxford,

829, and an

dated 1

U'lnd outdated
^alliol

exotic and playful, incorporating elements of Gothick, chinoiserie,

and rococo.

Two

editions followed;

oriel

1828 from

QMege, Oxford.

time recognized the difference between the two

styles,

grouping them together simply

as

elements

of the 162 designs in the third edition, a dozen were

of the flamboyant and exotic rococo style brought

whimsical fantasized versions of Gothick.

over from France in the 1740s. Both shared sinuous

As

number of furniture

pattern

linear curves. Chinoiserie, the eighteenth-century

books featured Gothick and Chinese designs com-

English vision of Chinese style, like Gothick, usual-

bined in one piece of furniture. Few people

ly strayed far

92

in architecture, a

at the

from

its

original origins, as designers

from exported porcelains, wall-

in the library at

paper, and other Oriental goods, creating fanciful

Gothick had

freely lifted motifs

designs with

little

but a passing fad,

men

sured details from original Gothic designs, such as

architects,

those by the extraordinarily talented sixteenth-

artistic fields.

century architect Andrea Palladio, which had been

rically

major aid

tecture,
er,

in fostering classical influences in archi-

had slowed the spread of Gothick; howev-

after 1790,

John Carter, Augustus Pugin, and

John Britton published

number of

finally arrived.

illustrated

books on medieval antiquities that were especially

it

While the eccentric

style

classicism in the forefront of fashion, the conflict

between the two

tension that

styles

was to produce an intriguing

became an important element

3fwn ly

Goth-

After 1830, serious, carefully researched adapta-

when, adopted by the Victorians,

Gothick

in

ick's appeal.

style

at

was diamet-

opposed to the decidedly formal forms of

perimenting with Gothic forms. Even the revered

hand

at

of learning, and those in assorted

were to bring

his

805.

persisted, inspiring respected

tions

John Soane tried

Although many

helpful for early-nineteenth-century architects ex-

classicalist Sir

in

the time were ready to write Gothick off as nothing

basis in historic tradition.

The absence of books with engravings and mea-

Stowe, Buckinghamshire,

evolved into a

a respectability to the

movement

it

Gothick

ultimately

of gigantic proportions.

B-t'-rtp^.^Ert*^ Uiwinuxi inilp*

\jt

93

Ibm

Mlr^

MichaeYs Mount

St.

CORNWALL
tinctly its

possesses a character dis-

own.

region rich in prehis-

toric remains dating

it is

set apart to

tion to the
Opposite; St. '^ickael's^Mount

crowns a rodi^ outcropping

(jornish coast.

Ai

is

some degree by

its

loca-

extreme southwest of England.

Cornwall's predominantly rural landscape, interrupted by bleak moors,

is

o|jf tke

dotted with whitewashed houses, built of stone because of a shortage of

tKe waicrs

t^i, a small \mr\)or

back to the Iron Age,

cndosi^

Iry

trees. Picturesque fishing villages nestle along

its

rocky coastline, broken

tifo jetties anSi surro\m3it^ by tKe

slurry \\ousiso^\)oaismcn.

narrow causeway connects

castle to t\vc

mamlamJ

at

A.

low

tide.

A.hovc: A. decaying Lady's

(^kapel was converted

by wide estuaries and craggy caves that were once

a favorite for

smugglers

tke

m tke mid'

and

pirates.

It is

here,

on the summit of a granite outcropping on an

islet just off

the

Cornish coast, before land gives way to the Atlantic Ocean stretching out

ei^hteentk century into Qotfiicl^

sittiiw rooms.

to the north, that the priory of St. Michael's

Mount was

built.

Named
95

for

^
i

'<

i,

9
4

1
>|.,^^

JtabL

OvvosiU: Vhc hluc drauin(j room

frames tUe doorways and borders
jixrevlace \s

15

tfit"

decorated with ]fi\asterwor\<^that

laultt' J ceilmej.

Over

marble

the

a family pyrtrait of the fourth haronct. Gotkicl^

Phivvendalc chairs were made for the room; tke upholstered sofa

is

nineteenth' century

Michael the Archangel, who, according to an old

St.

Cornish legend, appeared on

in the fifth century,

form

since

its

it

has

its site

grown

to a fisherman

in all

manner of

twelfth-centurv construction bv a

Benedictine abbot from Mont-St. -Michel, in Nor-

mandy, yet the massive structure maintains

siveness because each addition

golden-stoned granite. The

came the home of the

St.

and

manor houses, such

librarv',

employed the same

Mount was

later utilized

Aub\Ti familv.

Gothick influences were

on the northern

cohe-

1659, the medieval castle be-

as a fortress, and, in

nish

coast,

late in arriving to

as the lovelv

J^ove:

Qprmsh

castle

onamallv

depicts

u'hen

its

It

drawina of St. ^Michael's '^ount,

built

the

m the ta'eljth century as a monastvry,

cobbled vcoWvcay

is

covered bv an eighteen-foot tide.

Cor-

Prideaux Place

where the front

hall, stairs,

created in 1810, are t\pical of Strawberry

Levan, because of the financial burden of maintain-

was due to a strong sense of region-

ing and preserving his unique English treasure, de-

Hill Gothick. This

alism that resulted in trends being absorbed

slowly. St. Michael's

more

Mount, however, was the rare

exception. Several parti cularlv early Georgian Gothick

rooms were constructed bv the

Sir

John

St.

third baronet,

Aubvn, who had been exposed to cur-

rent trends as a

member of Parliament serving under

cided

retaining a lease

Now
its

coast.

into the elegant blue Gothick drawing

The lighthearted rooms

in

1463,

room and

are decorated

Mount,

with

together

it is

on part of the

castle for his family.

open throughout the year

for

all

to savor

the narrow half-mile-long causeway connected at

when he

and decaying Ladv Chapel, originallv built

the

colorful past; a steady stream of tourists tread

low

died, he elected to transform the disused

donate

to

generous endowment fund, to the National Trust,

Robert Walpole. Sometime between 1740 and 1744,

boudoir.

c/hi5 romanticized

tide to the village of

It is

the

Marazion on the Cornish

same path followed bv pilgrims who

journeyed on foot

or by small open boat

when

the eighteen-foot tide closed off the cobbled walk-

wav

to the early monastery, motivated in part bv

More

with a delightful assortment of imaginative plaster-

the promise of indulgences.

work ornamenting

each year climb the steep rocky path to the impos-

In 1954,

John

their walls

St.

and

ceilings.

Aubyn, the present Lord

St.

than 170,000

ing entrance of the splendid medieval castle.

97

JSl.

detail oj one oft\it

\n^\\^ts

GotKicI^u'mdou'5

m the \i\uc ^rawxm room

tKe outstanixna crajtsmanskip of tke \ovdy Y\asUYwor\^

e7Ke oak^brancK

is

fl

typical early

Gothic motij.

c/he

window valance,

heautiful curved

witli it5 ailt

window i^ancs

wood trim,

c/he shape

i5

repeats the outline ojthe

repeated

m the arched

pla5terw;ork^bordenna the walls.

Left

.Jin anteroom with vaulted ceilings has four unusual Qothick^

(^hippendale chairs, one oj^ivhich

is

seen here.

of the St.

A^uhyn and Wmajield jamilies.

Offosite:

A. small hay

St.

^ichael's'^ount,

^70
98

hears the coat of arms

in the houdoir, one of the Qothick^rooms of

is

the perfect

honored Siwlish custom of afternoon

It

spt for
tea.

hreal<^a5t or the time-

99

Strawberry Hill

AFFLUENT RESIDENTS of London,

^JB
^^Right:

Strawhcrry

effort to escape the city's heat

Hill's

during the
thru- story facade was thcjirst
area to he renovated

Vhis

in

an

and stench

summer months, looked

for

country retreats; Twickenham, only ten

charmina oaee-shaj^ed Qotkick^

window

m the garden entry hall,

miles from

London on

the banks of the

one of a numher 0/ additions, has

Thames, was

stained'glass inserts at tke top

ta]<^nfrom earlier huildings.

that
Opposite;

Vhe

section to the

originally the stahles,

lejt,

Horace Walpole,

dering the

Thames

in

at

a favorite spot.

It

was here

the age of thirty, subleased a five-acre farm bor-

1747 from Mrs. Chenevix, the owner of a fashionable

and the

top story of the round tower were

toy shop. Walpole wrote to a friend,

"It is a little play- thing-house that

got

added hy Lady Waldcgrave

around i860.

Vhe wrought'

iron stairway leads to

an

anteroom dividing the nmeteenthcentury addition from Walple's

out of Mrs. Chenevix 's shop."^

year

later,

he purchased the proper tv

from three minors named Mortimer and promptly

set

about gothicizing the

unpretentious house, which he had christened Strawberrv Hill from old

eiahteentk-centurj
creation

on the

ri^ltt.

leases that referred to the

ground

as "Strawberry-Hill-Shot."

101

Strawhcrry HiII, Horace

Walpoles
distance

villa

a short

from London, ylayed

a major role

m encoiiragma

the use of the Gotkickjtyle

residences.

Vhe ivy covered

portion ofths ramhling

structure,

ornamented

with battlements, was the earliest section.

A.

stone screen to the side of the courtyard encloses

priors Garden.

Vhe second'jloor window

look^ out to a semicircular drive

Hoi km chamher,

102

and

tlie

so'callei

to the ri^Kt, ii'kicli

the road heyond, is in the

originally used as a hedroom.

One

of many en0raviYi0s

done of Strawherry HiII,

charmma

this

nineteenth' century work^

hy

I.

Jcavons, printed by

'i}omhleson&' Q).,
p)rtrays a tranquil scene

alona the

Vhames unth

Strawherry Hill, then

in

the j^ssession of Lord

Waldearave, in
tke distance

"^

--

rrv'/'^^

^^i
'*

Vv

"^

--.-,:.-,

- ^^^^^^^

"^

"-

'A,

Mi^iit

'

"W^
...:7>!:u>i:'!n%^nr.-:

^^^^^KaEE'!2S=tef*^^=-'"

-"

-^^.:.^..-^-.

'^^^^^^^^^^^B
--^^tiVII^^^^H

^^^^^^^^^^r

"'"^^^^l

Walpole's intention was to create "a small capricious house

some degree

built to please

to realize

he added, with every

who

my own

modern

my own taste,
visions"^

and

in

a vision,

convenience. William

ing himself an antiquarian, Walpole lifted designs

from

all

sorts of medieval sites,

from chapel tombs

to cathedral choirs, applying

them

manner

ceilings,

to

chimneypieces,

in a

random

windows,

Gothick Fonthill

balustrades, and other structures throughout his

Abbey toward the end of the century, dismissed

house. While Walpole's adaptations of authentic de-

Strawberry Hill

signs

Beckford,

built the massive

as a "gothic

mousetrap."^

With few examples of Gothick manor houses

available at mid-century,

Walpole was quite free to

express himself in whatever

manner he chose,

was

a step

away from Langley's whimsical

ventions, their use

was

especially apparent

purely decorative; this

still

when

inis

they are compared with

he

later nineteenth-century structural applications of

merrily altered and added as his budget allowed. As

Gothic forms. Victorian writer Charles Eastlake

writer Linda Hewitt says, "The pursuit of Gothic

says of Strawberry Hill:

afforded the thrill of discovery and the delight of

what one might expect from

improbable conjectures. Walpole used

vague admiration for Gothic without the knowledge

his

as

Gothic

as

"The interior ...

a

man who

an intellectual plaything, a means of rising above

necessary for a proper adaptation of

and refuting the ordinary and mundane."^

Ceilings, niches, &c., are

His inventive, picturesque

tions

villa,

with

its

addi-

and decorative motifs borrowed from a wide

variety of original Gothic structures, evolved into a

possessed a

its

features.

copied, or rather par-

regard for the original purpose of the design."^

Walpole assembled
sist

design of future English and American

whom

Fancy-

just

odied, from existing examples, but with utter dis-

unique asymmetrical form that would influence the

villas.

all

is

with Strawberry

"committee of

Hill's

taste" to as-

makeover. John Chute,

Walpole had met on the Grand Tour, and

103

who,

took

like himself,

a scholarly

approach to the

use of Gothic, was joined by Richard Bentley, a

who

draftsman

many

provided

fanciful touches to

the structure, and the gifted Swiss-born artist and

scholar

H. Muntz. Walpole also called upon

J.

number of his other sophisticated friends, such as

Robert Adam, who designed the chimneypiece and
ceiling for the Round Room, which Walpole used
as a

renovation Walpole undertook was to

first

the exterior,

when he added

1758, his

bits for souvenirs,

Walpole died
villa in

in 1797, leaving his

the hands of

Anne Damer,

1815 she relinquished

auction in

its

and close

operation. In

to the descendants of his

it

niece. Countess Waldegrave,

"at

much-loved

a cousin

friend, with a yearly pension for

treasures

as tourists

842

who
it

sold Walpole 's

was the

largest sale

a three-story

bay to the

looked

as

it

though the neglected house had come to

an end, but Strawberry Hill was to be a center of

trimmed with crocketed pinna-

crenellated roofline

A new

took away

became an annoyance,

and quatrefoil windows and a

east front with ogee

cles.

stone and

of the century, lasting thirty- two days. For a while

drawing room.

The

artificial

and library followed. Then,

stairwell

in

was extended with an adjoining

little villa

long gallery that ended in a round tower. The

fifty-

foot-long, thirteen-foot- wide picture gallery had an

open

cloister

under

it.

of a small chapel-like

By 1763, with the addition

room

referred to as the Cabi-

net (and later called the Tribune) just off the long
gallery to display

Walpole 's rarer treasures, the

rambling house was considered complete.

An

avid art collector and a genealogist, Walpole

furnished his

home with

assorted medieval frag-

ments and memorabilia, from stained

of armor,

to

glass to suits

heighten the medieval ambience.

Passer sby intrigued with the house frequently re-

quested a tour through

show

time. Anxious to

it,

common practice

off his extensive collection,

Walpole opened part of Strawberry

lic

from noon to 3:00

at the

P.M.

Hill to the

May through

pub-

October.

way

Visitors flocked to tour his curious house and he

took to printing tickets for admission. Walpole had

used synthetic substances such

as plaster in place

of

icists.

all

Strawberry

medieval tomb

at

that

(opposite). eJke delicately carved,

stone oriQinal leading to the

door on the landing, with

the lihrary.

its

^^uen

stair-

wood balustrade was coped from a

(^athcdral lihrary. eJke leji'liand

canoped

ceiling

Noised on each of the newel psts

under

triple arches, leads to

(ahove) are gilded antelopes,

each dis]^laying a heraldic shield.

stone and papier-mache as a substitute for plaster

appearance was

^Medieval armor onamally lined the walls andjillcd mchcs of the

mattered for early Goth-

Hill's

gateway,

based

on

Ely Cathedral, was constructed of

I
104

when the fashionable hostess

Lady Waldegrave, who had married both of the

gaiety once again

countess's sons, reopened the house in 1856, su-

pervising

its

new Tudor

restoration and the construction of a

Gothic Victorian wing in 1861. She

changed the entrance but kept the original portion

virtually the same, attempting to
ftirniture,

those

who had purchased them

at auction.

1920s the property was sold to

Mary's College and

Order

paint-

and other original items from

ings,

In the

buy back

is

St,

operated by the Vincentian

as a teachers' college.

Extensive restoration

under the guidance of experts from the Victoria and

Albert

Vhc Hoi kin chamhcr

(above)

onamally

was

so called hccausc

was

lined with tracings from

it

drawings of the royal Holbein

^rtraits

m Queen Qarolmcs

closet at

Kensington, c/he ckim-

neyviece
altar at

was inspired hy

^^uen

^rclibisliop

the high

Qathedral and

Warhams

tomb.

Ji

Saracens head top tke decorative

screen (riakt)

m the Holbein

ckan^er, while crocV^ts and trc

foils

trim

Its

pointed arckes.

Vhe

ribbed ceiling was copied from

the
at

Queens dressing room

Windsor Qxstle

106

Museum began

in the late 1980s.

^^R^Ut:

Vhc

briahtlvpamtetijv replace on

one side of the small entry

with the head o[a Saracen,

is

ornamented

^he image

is

and

is

repeated throughout the house

shown

here with a keraldic shield of the

Wal^le family

^elow:
this

cJlte

qariien entrance o^ens into

small room, ^amtecl alass collected

from

earlier itructurej

was added

top of the door and windows

to tke

to lend

touch ofantK^uity. c7ke itullpaper

is,

appropriately, straifberr^-patterned.

107

A.hovc

left: e/Ite

ney^ucc

clahoraU chim-

m the hhrary at Straw

hcrry Hill, designed hy

^^chard

^entity, was coi^ied from the

tomh of John of&ltham, &arl of

Qjrnwall, in Westminster

Ahhey.

Jihove riaht:

Vhc j^ainted

lihrary ceilina

Walpole
seals.

on

was designed hy

m tke manner of ancient

Kniahts

suited in

armor

horschacl<^flanl<ji center

medallion made up of a large

shield encircled with smaller

ones rei^resenting the families to

which tKe Wfllpoles were linked

hy marriage

'^^Rujht:

Walpole took^i^articular

l^ride in his lihrary.

a sof gray,

its

Originally

painted hookcases

lining the walls were inspired hy

a choir screen door in

Old

St.

haul's. Qjilored glass decorates

Lc/t; Five

recesses jimsked

canofud

aaold nctwork^ovcr mirrors

a'ltli

run alona

om of the

crimson- colored

damasi<^walls ofStrawherry Hills

ona

gallery

]fi\clure

Vhe

ceiling

design was tak^nfrom a side aisle

in

Henry

Vll's ckapel

m Westmm'

ster^bbev.

^elow

cTke canopies, inspired

lejt;

hy

^rchb 15 kop ^ouchier's tomh

at

Qanterhury, top tke niches and

doors at either end of the long

aallerv

and

trefoils

hased on iesiqns hy

J.

are festooned a'ltk

H. JAuntz,.

^elou'.

One

of the three doorways

in tke picture aallcry, tkis one, hased

on a door

in St.

Alkans ^bbev,

leads to tke small

room, where
treasures.

domed

Walpic

cabinet

l^pt kis rarer

He commented

that

the air of a Qatholic chapel

cally,

It 15

now

it

had

ironi-

indeed a consecmtei

(^atholic chai^el

109

Arbury Hall

SOME OF THE MOST beautiful

Gothick

houses can be found on estates bordering

the EngUsh Midlands, a region rich in coal
A}>ovc: e/kf north fai^adc hccamc the
front entrance to

Arhury Hall

A. 5impk douhlcarched prtc

that

brought industry and great wealth to the area. Arbury Hall,

side

Nuneaton and some twenty miles south of the

just out-

1783.

cochere,

industrial citv of

Birm-

trimmed with croch^tid jlankina

Vhe

pinnacles, extends from

it.

GothK\windoiv ahove

lights the

large

ingham,
as

is

one of the most outstanding of the early Gothick houses

as well

one of the best preserved. Many share writer Terence Davis's opinion

interior staircase.

that within Arburv's walls are "the

Opposite;

iforl^^embelhshes the semicircular hay

rooms ever designed." ^^

window uiling, modeled on Henry VlTs

Like a
chaj^l at
crests

most consummate Rococo Gothick

A. not of loce'lik^ plaster-

number of important Enghsh country homes,

the original house

Westminster T^bbcv. Familj

ornament

portion of each

^uatrejoils.

window

flower motif tinted pale

Vhe

top

was

built

on the foundation of an ancient

priory.

Its

very name, Arbury

has a delicate

pml^

Hall,

is

derived from the

name of that

Augustinian priory, which was called

Erdbury. In 1580, Sir

Edmund Anderson bought

orative Gothick style, perhaps because of his friend-

the land and built a quadrangular, gabled Eliza-

ship

bethan house, which he exchanged

Newdigate,

six years later

with Gothick enthusiast Sanderson Miller.

a

member

owned by John Newdegate.

Newdegate then moved into Anderson's quadran-

was involved

gular house.

and engineered

for Harefield Hall, then

In 1750, Sir

Roger Newdigate

(the spelling of

name having been changed), the fifth

who succeeded to the estate when he was

the family

Baronet,

fourteen, elected to update Arburv Hall in the dec-

112

deavors.

his

in

both

political

He developed
a

of Parliament for Oxford,

and commercial en-

coal fields

on

his vast estate

system of canals running through

property to link up with the national system.

A man

of uncompromising patience and un-

swerving vision, Newdigate took

transform

his family

fifty

years to

mansion. Like Walpole,

Sir

Roger gathered together

artists

a collection of talented

throughout the restoration, turning

went on

to

more

as

time

historic medieval structures for in-

done by

spiration. Sketches

Sir

he almost certainly had a hand

Roger

indicate that

in the design

of these

Miller undoubtedly assisted in the

aided bv William Hiorne,

who was

mason. Henry Keene, placed

in

initial

designs,

hired as master

charge of decora-

tions in 1762, brought an elegant yet lighthearted

touch to Arburv Hall

as

it

was slowlv transformed

Keene 's position of

into a Gothick masterpiece.

Surveyor to Westminster Abbey was especially

helpful as a reference for the design of the intricate

fan-vaulted

ceilings

Abbey were

actually used for

Opposite: ^uilt on the

qroumis

V5

s\\i

iry

until natural

.A cofj^r'tnmmcd

It IS

also

executed

the plasterwork at Alscot Park, and William Hanwell,

first

who was

responsible for the saloon.

assignment was to design a

Keene 's

new drawing room,

from the

some of the

detaiUng.

dining room, begun in 1770. Originally

entrance to the great

hall

it

was the

of the early house, and

room. The staggeringly

beautiful saloon

was under-

taken after Keene 's death in 1776 by Henry Couch-

man, but

it

bears Keene 's touch and

may have been

influenced by his suggestions before he died.

The home of Viscount and Viscountess Daventry,

the hall and
the

its

extensive grounds are open during

summer months

to the public.

awi man-made
.

Itsjlamhoy

its hest

iron stove sits at the

^uatrejoils.

a pintiiw hy Sir Joshua '^ynolds.

On eitlier si(ie of the alcove,

its

soaring height added a sense of drama to the elegant

m a small plaster alcove

ornamented with an arch ofo]^en

Over

who

tal-

i^rdant coal'ricli

ant mterwrs represent Gothiel^at

^^Riaht

castings

plaster

lak^, canals, and a small waterfall

far end of tlw: saloon

ented stuccoists, Robert Moor,

two

o^ax\ ax\c\vni priory,

suxYOMwh.^

^nctwxU^

to have the services of

but his crowning achievement was the two-story

later sections.

^rlmrv Hall

Keene was fortunate

built'in shelves

display a collection of Qhinese porcelain.

113

Ift.

^x

>.

^.

#
'^

^^H

(0
ttl
iiii:

^mm

:^H

Ahovc: Flowers,
all

incorporated

stars, jlcurs'dc'hs, leaves,

dent umnhihited ceding

Left:

and a

trott\na horse are

m the nctivorkjjf wehhina that nuil<e5 up the resplenof^rhury Hall's arand

saloon.

Qhi^cndale' style Gothick^chairs, with small Gothu

mar china around

window,

c/lte

the seat,

and ar coded chair

rails line the

heautiful petit'pomt on the chairs

and

arches

saloon hay

settee ivas the

handwor]{of Sir '^Rmer's mother.

Opposite: cThe saloon

Jin immense hay

flotliiei;^in^,
uj^

is

the

most

elaborate of j\rhury Hall's rooms.

u'lndou', completed in

1798,

m the final stacjc of

dominates the room, (flustered columns oj^scaaliola run

the pale walls, terminating in

fan yaultiiw

t^iat

erupts across tke

soariiwceiliiw.

115

iiiti

'"f

iiii

Ahove:

e/Ke central tnple

was converted

Left:

Vhe

windows of the

into a two- story dinina

cjarien front

re^laad tkc ormnal entrance

dinina room, occui^ying the grand hall of the original mcdiaul house,

three'(^uartcrs of the

way up

the walls

to

Arhury'sareat 8>lizahethm

hall,

whuh

room in 1776.

and spreads across

is

distinguished hyfan vaultina, which heains

tKe high ceiling. Inset hetween slender

columns are niches tovved hy lacy

tiered canoj^ies holding classical statuary.

F^e
^elow

leji

Vhra

large

mullioncd windows run along an

ahout ten feet duj^, created hy

delicate ]^lasterworl<^,

:jiA>

triple arches

aisle

ornamented with

on the south side of the dining room.

Stained-glass medallions are inset just ahove them.

^elow

right

arched

recess

turn

centered on one wall of Arhury Hall's

IS

A. row of small

intricate niches

housing a hrass'trimmed iron

runs across the

stove,

which

in

immense dining

room, the culmination ofJ^wdigate's Gothick^ restoration.

III!

liiii

Opposite:

Vkc

delightfully

decorative ^lasterworl^of

the

drawing-room

ivalls is

continued across the harrel

ceiling, decorated

with

groining and small colored

crests.

(^uatrefoil

j\ row of large

motifs

is relocated

around the dado of

the

Vhe
inset

room

walls of the drawing room are covered with lively flasterwork^fanclmg

with family ^rtraits, including one of Sir '^^chard l^wdigate, the first

baronet,

to the right

of the fire^^lace

Vhe marhle

inlaid overmantel has a large medallion framed

hy ogee arches that form a scalloi^ed trefoil

the

drawing room

A.ymcr

de Valence

chimncyj^iecc,

On either side

of

modeled after the tomh of

m Westminster Abk)', are jimal'topped

pinnacles with niches holding (^hinese i^rcelains.

118

Alscot Park

w^^^^^
i

1,

^^

SHAKESPEARE COUNTRY

the loca-

is

'

tion

another

of

Gothick

remarkable

gem. The manor house of Alscot Park,

situated

1'

on

a flat stretch of land

the River Stour,

is

a delightful

bordering

example of

the blending of classical and Gothick forms.

^hove: A.
carvxm
xn^

detail of Gotkickwood

t\u.

dxnim
xn^ room.

Opposite. Alscot '^ar]<^, a

\u)usi

\xtan of tke

l\xc

The

original dwelling,

which may have been owned by Deerhouse

Priory in Tewkesbury, was medieval, dating back to the twelfth century.

manor

Various owners

made numerous changes

to the small house as

it

passed

Q)tswo\h

as a modest

mcdxaul

that siaxtcd

Iije

cottage, ivas

transformed xn the

through the centuries,

treat

by James West,

until 1749,

who

when

it

was purchased

as a

summer

re-

held the important position of Joint Secretary

ei^htanth century wxtk the addxtxon

of decorative battlements,

turrets,

to the Treasury. West's wife, the daughter of the celebrated architect

and resurfaced walls ojsmootk

05 lilar stone.

Christopher Wren, after hrst seeing the structure, wrote to her brother.

121

"It

was the comicallest

West

little

house you ever saw."

started remodeling the simple

the following year, refacing

its

room and dining room, both with intricate plasterwork on ceilings and walls. All three rooms were

manor house

exterior walls, adding

Gothick ogee arches to windows, building

considerably

house. Robert Moor, the stuccoist

battle-

sible for

the river, adding a three-story bay extension.

Arbury

some of the more

ments, and, in the back of the house overlooking

Twelve years

later.

began remodeling

his

West

grander than the modest existing

retired and once again

Hall,

who was

respon-

delicious concoctions at

worked on Alscot 's entrance

hall

and

back stairway.

country house. This time, a

Interestingly, although

West was an antiquarian

major addition was made to the front of Alscot

Park.

It

included a large entrance

hall,

decorated

with delicate garlands, swags, and medieval arcading, and, leading off either side, a

122

dramatic drawing

and even served

as

president of the Society of An-

tiquaries for a time, his use of Gothick motifs had

little

relationship to historic references as at Straw-

berry Hill and Arbury Hall, leaning more heavily

Ovvositc: Vhxs side view ofAlscot

^ar]<^,[acina the dining room hay,

clearly sliows the Qothicl<^add\twn

constructed in

1762

on the

kjt,

with the lower earlier structure just

behind

it

to tkt' ri^ht.

Stow winds

Its

Vhe ^ver

imypast

the house,

creating a pcturcsc^ue setting.

'decorative ciahteenth' century

turrets jlank^Alscot

^arl(s

with

vorte cochcre,

its

central

heavy

door trimmed with wood studs.

entrance

was most
t}ie

i^rohahly

oal<^

Vhe

added

in

early mneteenth century.

toward Batty Langley's

style,

found

In the

fanciful

rococo Gothick

glass,

mid-nineteenth century, the house's glazed

plate

which had recently been perfected and was

considered

at the

1960 the current owners, descendants of

James West, took over the three-hundred-acre fam-

in the early years of the revival.

windows were unfortunately replaced with

In

time to be the height of fashion.

ily

estate

and began the arduous task of restoring

and updating

it.

Furniture and carpeting found in

sheds and in the attic were repaired, the drawing-

room

ceiling

was regilded, and the dark paneling

in

James Roberts West, the descendant of the original

the dining

Structural changes

owner who was responsible

for the change, also re-

also

room was lightened.

had to be made to reinforce

ceilings

decorated the large dining room, removing most of

The

satisfying result of the family's labors

the eighteenth-century plasterwork on the walls,

fortable

which was

the integrity of

far

from Victorian

oak paneling went up

tastes.

Darkly stained

environment
its

that

still

ancestral

and
is

floors.
a

com-

retains a respect for

home.

in its place.

123

^hovc

the fircjflaas centered

oakjeaves.

124

Ji

third hust,

on the side

ofl^wton,

is

walls, husts

on tke

ofShak^^^re ani^^atthew ^rior

bocl^i^all ahove

a doorway.

rest

on

hracl<its framed

hy exc^msite arches against acjorland of

Clustered columns run up the walls of the

larac entrance
catc

liall

Vhey arc met

pnnacled oo^ ardtus

tudf^d bebu^

tfieir

wxr^ovc^^. J^
extends jroni

u^itli

hy dclr

^uatrejoils

a^^^^, repeahr^ tke

larof,

^otkick^Iantern

tlie ctrxtcr

of tfte ceiling.

cTKe lyrvcal design oft^M. Kali ceiling

(belou' lejt), the u'orI<^o/tke

man

'^^^ert ^^oor,

jul u'lthout

15

\)e\y\a

superb cra/ts'

gloriously /ancr

overly opulent. J\.

detail 0/ tke lovely plasterworl^above tke

fireplace reelects tKe
interest

eiahtunth' century

m nature (helow riqKt).

a cornice of Gothick^arches

is

Above

it,

joined by a

mmantic jrie^e ofaarlands and

vases.

125

^w

eJlie

staircase located hchind

the entrance hall is the Yroduct

of early gothicizjng.

Its

wrouaht'iron balustrade, tke

doorways, and the delicate

flasterwor\on walls and

ceil-

ina are a pastiche of GotKick^

forms.

On

landma

off the stans, a

recently remodeled small

room used

as a study sprts stencileci Gothic

arckes reflecting tkc motijs that
j^ervade the jancijul house.

126

Vhc

dining room's oak^fancl'

ina

was

the product of the

Victorian ^cjc,

when

serious form

rciancd

^he

ofQothic

room,

untcr of activity for

a more

now

tftc

tkc

present

family, includes a small

kitchen, a sittincf area

around

a larae firej^lace, and a dinina

tahkinthc window

hay.

A. Vudor

linenfold motif

is

dinin(j room's oal<^ j^anelincj.

carved into the

j\dded

in the

nineteenth century and oriainally stained a dar\<^

brown,

it

]^resent

owners.

has hccn liahtcned

m recent years hy the

127

c/he elegant
Its classical

frieze.

drawing room, part of the i']6^ addition,

jircplacc of colored

Qothickdemcnts

in the

is

formal, with

marhles and (^erhyshire ^luejohn

room are concentrated in

the vointed

doorframes, windows, and elaborate ceiling.

Vhe
with

Qothickjygec-arched doorway
Its

entrance hallway.

4.

m Alscot '^ark^s drawing room,

gilded frame topped hy afnial, leads out

128

to the central

A sccUon of

the

ornate JraintW'

room

jtiliiw.

m paptT'

executed

compjsed

mdche.

is

c\rc\es.

each

lunty

a nit JuIIion

uithin

In

tilt

center of the ccihn0,

tilt

Ki5t of a

tvnJant sprcaJs
out, rtcallny petals

of a hhsscm mjull

Moom.

129

St.

John

the &vancjclist, hmlt

736,

is

a ran example of the use ofQcorcjian Qothickjn a church.

Herefordshire was commissioned hy Viscount

4.

130

!.

^ateman.

Vhc

delightful structure at

Shobdon

Stjohn
Evangelist
INTERESTINGLY, examples
gian Gothick are quite rare.
ful

is

the private church of

Shobdon
1980s.

in

One

St.

of the most beauti-

John the Evangelist

at

Herefordshire, restored in the mid-

was one of several

It

of ecclesiastical Geor-

built

on the

site,

the

first

dating back to the twelfth century.

Viscount Bateman of Shobdon Court was responsible for the delightful

now on

the

a friend of

Ho-

Gothick church

spot. His brother Richard,

who was

race Walpole, had been put in charge of the estate

and supervised the church's construction, which ran from 1752 to 1756.

While

St.

John's architect

is

unknown, Michael McCarthy,

mative recent publication. Origins of the Gothic

St. John's rear halcony

is

orna-

mented with a row of larac

trejoils repeating those

the sides of the peu's.

may have been

the

in his infor-

Revival, speculates that

work of William Kent. Kent died

in

it

1748, before the

c^ua-

dccoratina

church was

built,

but

its

plans

were

initially

drawn

in 1746.

McCarthy

in-

Ji horder

of pointed arches sianals the start

of the simple cove ceiliiw.

cludes in his

book an engraving done by Kent

Cathedral of York," which

is

entitled

"A Pulpit

indeed quite similar to the one

at

in the

Shobdon and

131

Left; Fluid Imcs qffimal'topped oace arches ddin-

caU windows, framing

the chancel

and

side

transeps. (flustered columns jlan\the altar and

transect

openings.

'^elow: Qrock^ts outline the

chair in this

Shohdon church.

ofQothic window
arches

is

most convincing. An exuberant example of Goth-

ick, its tester

ed with

is

ribbed ^^dth crockets and ornament-

finials.

Designed

in the

form of

a Latin cross, St.

the Evangehst's inventive Gothick interior

Between the

fully refined.

some with memorial

quatrefoils.

is

John

beauti-

windov^^s, pointed arches,

are

tablets,

adorned with

Quatrefoils, a decorative motif used

throughout the church, march across

above the entrance and are repeated

cutouts on the sides of pews,

ceiling delineated

a rear

balcony

as decorative

simple deep cove

by a row of pointed arches run-

ning around the interior does not distract from the

lively motifs

the

pews and

below. Soft dove gray and white cover

footstools as well as the walls.

The handsome church

is

prime example of

Gothick, comparable to the finest of the country

houses of the period.

132

and

l)ac]<j)fa Gothicl<^
Its hack^,

tracery, is carved

quatrefoils.

reminiscent

m pointed

1I,

N ^ ^

^
fl*l^l*lXl*

L?l*

m tKi5

Qothvc ^ulpt

and j^unctuated with decorative finials

haftistry.

lovel)'

ckwrch

is

Wkile

crowned with a

cJKc exuberant
croc]<^ted tester

Vo

its left is

the

,/////',/' ^////',;A;f/ ,r/

tke dtiurc^is ardaitect is

William
in

'//'///////

ur^own,

its

pulpit

is

j -^.^.

_^""-

'"'

similar to a

Yjent enaravinaof a^^^it in the (^atheiral at Xor\(^nc\uded

Some Designs

Kent, publisked

of

Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William

1744.

133

^w^^/1

Castlps

u a (jotl7i(;

Jra9sfor/T]al:io9

Ghn
it

was

Qastlc

is

an Irish Georgian house on tke hank of the Shannon

i^rohahly frst huilt in the

that had been in his family since the thirteenth century.

lodges

mthc 1820s.

'^R^ver.

RDeck^d out with troppmas of a

I'jSos hy Q)lonel John Fraunceis Fit;^Gerald,

His son added

the

the

Knight ofQlin, on

castle,

]^roi^erty

Gothichjirimminas and various Gothick^

NCE UPON A TIME

'

^ranous

Lilv

^acjcs: "^otliic"

'^t-5i^nt:d

0/ Westminister, circa

VheoriQinal

Hou

were magic to our childhood

8^0.

words

these

the

firm oj Q)le

power

to carry us

ears.

They had

away on the wings

of

h\ocl{jprint is still

heina produced hy the 8>nglish

hyA. W. ^u^in

for the restoration of the 'Palaces

availahle

."
.

&" Sons and

tlu"

U.

our imagination to

a land

of enchanted castles

is

with valiant and charming knights readv to

S. tfiroiyli

^armu House.
rescue
ly,

fair

damsels in

distress.

Not

surprising-

Grimm brothers collected and published their beloved fairy tales,

the

when

miliar to generations of children, in the earlv nineteenth centurv,

Gothic was flourishing

hood was

in flower

Castles,

a style closely associated

and one that took special delight

whether from the pages of

traditionally held a unique appeal for

Ruins, wTites,

"The

castle has always

intimidating fantasy of the

in

1066 heralded the

sive structures

with

first

human

all

tion.

time

when

ages.

been

Rose Macaulav,

life,

have

in Pleasure of

formidable image,

imagination."^

knight-

in the imagination.

storybook or from real

a pow^erful,

The Norman Conquest

great era of castle building, with massive defen-

dominating manv English towns and

warring Middle Ages. Architectural elements such

windows, and drawbridges

lancet

fa-

all

villages

during the

as battlements, turrets,

evolved out of the need for protec-

Bv the seventeenth centurv, however, with the countrvside more

secure, fortresses began to be replaced by country

Images of

castles

manor

houses.

returned to the English countryside

in the earlv

decades of the eighteenth centurv, under the guise of decavin^ miniature

castles

ornamenting landscape gardens. By the close of the centurv,

castle

137

building was once again undertaken in earnest. But

acceptable because

while these baronial residences had a distinctly me-

Gothic's reappearance in Ireland was at

dieval

flavor,

their

Abbey

construction was motivated

it

incorporated familiar forms.

Moore

in the 1760s, but according to Burke's Guide to

purely by the romantic appeal of the Middle Ages

Country Houses, Gothick "was not really fashionable

rather than by a desire to actually reproduce an

until

Norman

original

stronghold.

Castle building

What

became the ultimate expression of

Movement

ing of the Act of

was adapted to

when Richard Payne

went on. The

ar-

Knight, a major

were

the principles of the picturesque in his

Downton

formed structure

Castle in East Cowes.

specifically

designed

as

lure of

many

known
its

design,

which incorporated

on the rugged

was responsible

years

site

mantic

castle

with the rugged

Irish

landscape.

glish

visits

Gothick

who was

responsible for the exotic

Koepp

own

his

and

style

on the

Isle

ter tackling the

in Sussex,

castle at East

Lascombe

Cowes on

the

in

Isle

a rival of Nash's, built

Norris

of Wight about the same time.

to be the

monumental

most

fash-

two years

Fonthill Abbey,

af-

he was

appointed Surveyor General to the Office of the

Irish

of them in the southwest. Consequently, the

Nash,

ionable architect in England; in 1796,

home

houses abounded with authentic medieval ruins,

rugged Cornish coast was the

Wyatt was considered by many

Irish

with them. The grounds of many substantial

many

Castle

to En-

country houses had brought the style

few

of Wight in 1790. James Wyatt, an enthusiast of the

melded well

Wealthy

landowners encountering Gothick on

1812, John

of John Nash's imposing Caeyrhays Castle, built

Devon, and

in

appealed to the wild and roit

prime ex-

wing of the house and farm buildings with

castles, including

rough landscape was aptly

Irish also, and, as in Scotland,

marriage in

his

Brighton Pavilion, designed a number of Gothick

suited to the dramatic, solitary aspects of castles.

The Gothick

is

later.

in 1808.

for

archi-

was not particularly popular

Scottish houses, Scotland's

after

In England, the

a considerably older

mansion house. While the use of many Gothic

tectural elements

County Limerick,

crenellations cind adding three Gothick lodges a

Robert Adam, better

for his classical tastes,

Soon

cizing a

of the Ayrshire coast overlooking the sea, was

just such a location. Architect

originally started

battlements to his eighteenth- century home, gothi-

dramatic spots that dominated the landscape. The

cliffs

many

Fraunceis Fitz- Gerald, the Knight of Glin, added

their romantic settings in

Scottish Culzean Castle, positioned

scratch, but

Georgian houses. Glin Castle, on the western

ample.

of the imposing newly built

was heightened by

from

coast of Ireland in

an in-

two excellent examples.

eighteenth- and nineteenth-century castles

built

life as

tegral part of the surrounding landscape.

castles

which abolished

castle of Charles\ille Forest, started in

800, and Luttrellstovsni are

Some

Starting in 1774, Knight constructed a large irregu-

The

in 1800,

in a legislative union, a great deal of castellating

decidedlv Gothick

larly

Union

the

started as a philosophical concept as-

supporter of the Picturesque Movement, consciously utilized

all

the Irish Parliament and joined England and Ireland

sociated with landscape gardens

chitecture

suddenly became

of the late eighteenth

the Picturesque
century.

tles

when Gothic casrage."^ With the pass-

immediately after the Union,

'

Works, the most exalted post an architect could hold.

The rebuilding of Windsor

most important of Wyatt 's

Castle

projects.

became the

By the time the

fashion for adding decorative turrets and battle-

Prince of Wales, at the age of fifty-seven, assumed

ments to contemporary dwellings was quite

the

138

easily

title

of King George

IV,

Windsor

Castle had

fall-

en into grave disrepair. The State Apartments, suf-

winning architect of the Houses of Parliament, and

fering the effects of an assortment of influences as

each monarch put his or her stamp on them, need-

Salvin,

ed not onlv modernizing but unifying

gothicized

part

of

the

exterior

Apartments and the Main Hall; upon

nephew Jeffrv

Wyattville,

as well.

of

the

Wyatt
State

his death, his

who changed his name

af-

ter being knighted for his services at the castle, as-

sumed

the task, and

from 1824 to 1830 he carried

ChamGarter Throne Room, and

number of

his

contemporaries, such as Anthony

Robert Smirke, and Edward Blore, were

sponsible for the design of

ly

re-

many remodeled or new-

built castles of the early Victorian period.

Wales, Lord Bute, one of the wealthiest

men

in

In

En-

gland, aided by architect William Burgcs, rebuilt

Cardiff Castle (see page

Coche.

One

57) and the smaller Castell

of the great triumphs of nineteenth-

on, gothicizing the staircase, the Waterloo

century Romantic architecture, Cardiff Castle

ber, the Knights of the

brimming with ornate Victorian Gothic ornamenta-

Guard Chamber.

the Queen's

The

restoration of

Windsor

to construct smaller versions

tates

tion. Castle

Castle inspired

on

many

their country es-

and to update earlier castles with currently

fashionable Gothic motifs. Sir Charles Barry, prize

c/his

waUrcolor

^arlijtiousc

Drago, the

last

great castle to be built in

England, was designed by the renowned architect

Sir

Edwin Lutyens

in the early years of the twenti-

eth century for Sir Julius Drewe, founder of a

grocery chain.

oj

Qardiff.

designed hy architect

William Purges, was done

hy A.xel

1872.

Hay about

It 15 tyi^ical

of the

High Victorian Qothic popular during tke second half

of tkc nineteenth century,

a'lth

is

ornamentation elimi-

nated and colored handing

around windows and doors

for decorative mt^re^t

139

While

architect

A.W. N. Pugin was unsuccessful

in his efforts to suppress the taste for picturesque

castles,

he was ultimately instrumental in bringing

close to Gothick's early exuberance. Reinforced by

the 1833

Oxford Movement, favoring

a return to

were rejected because of

was viewed
ic,

as the

their connection to

decadent Regency period. Goth-

on the other hand, appealed to the

lineage,

and appealed

who turned

as well to the

class,

of England, and bolstered by the remodeling of

gland's history for identity.

Castle and the rebuilding of the Houses of

Parliament in the 1850s as well as an expanding soconscience, a

cial

to

become

the

more

serious

form of Gothic was

most important design direction of

the mid-nineteenth century.

By the 1840s, with Queen Victoria now on the

When the

Houses of Parliament were destroyed

by the Great Fire of 1834, the Perpendicular Style

of Gothic was selected for

its

redesign in an effort

to retain a cohesive connection with the eleventh-

century Gothic Westminster Hall that survived.

Sir

Charles Barry was awarded the job; he was ably

as-

W N. Pugin, who was responsible

for

sisted

mation, turning from decorative and associational

the exterior and interior detailing.

racy.

With

its

romantic youth

coming more authentic

now

at

an end, in be-

became decidedly

growing middle

to a style rooted firmly in En-

throne, the use of Gothic went through a transfor-

to a concern for archaeological and structural accu-

class-conscious

wealthy English because of its suggestion of ancient

Catholic doctrines and practices within the Church

Windsor

what

by A.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, born

in

1812, was perhaps the most influential of the nine-

less

teenth-century personalities in advancing and redi-

adventurous. While the linear Perpendicular Style

recting the Gothic Revival. At twenty-two Pugin

was

at first

century

more

it

popular, Victorians a bit later in the

preferred

earlier

medieval

Gothic

converted to Catholicism, and

his

to play an important role in his

new

life.

religion

Pugin 's

forms exemplified by heavier shapes and simpler

Augustus Claudius Pugin, a French emigre

detailing.

worked

The
but

life

Victorians,

who took

not only themselves

in general very seriously,

adopted

this

same

when choosing architecture. Classical deexcept when utilized for municipal buildings.

for the architect

father,

who had

John Nash, made extensive

studies of medieval buildings, publishing Specimens of

Gothic Architecture in 1821. His Examples of Gothic Ar-

three-volume handbook of mathemati-

attitude

chitecture, a

signs,

cally accurate drawings,

140

was

was completed by

his

son

An

after his death.

invaluable tool for architects,

ficial

ornamentation,

set an

it

example

Of the more

for smaller

than one hun-

these books proved to be a turning point in the

mid-Victorian houses.

Gothic Revival.

dred buildings Pugin designed, most were churches.

The younger Pugin was

intense, intolerant,

and

dogmatic; he believed Gothic to be the only appropriate architectural style for Christians, insisting
strict

archaeological correctness as well as on truth-

construction and the use of ornamentation only

ful

as

on

it

related to a structure. Ultimately, architecture

was to be judged according to the morality and

ligion of

its

re-

stained-glass business. His excellent

was valuable

fabric, wallpaper,

and

memory

for vi-

in the design of furniture,

tiles, all

of which he based on

medieval precedent. In 1835, Pugin designed and

built St. Marie's

family; a

cftte

Grange outside Salisbury

new form

tianitv

first

put forward

his principle that Chris-

and Gothic were svnonvmous

Parallel Between the Architecture

Centuries

Style,

oj the

and Similar Buildings of

1836 pamphlet.

Initially

drawn

in Contrasts; or

4th and

for his

of Gothic eliminating any super-

5th

the Present Day,

an

to the Perpendicular

he turned to the simplified form of the Middle

Pointed period shortly thereafter. True

Principles of
1

841

de-

plored the earlier Gothick of Wyatt and the castles of

the Picturesque
in

1852

at the

Movement. Pugin came

to a sad

end

age of forty. Having driven himself to

excessive limits, he died overworked and insane.

Contemporaries of Pugin, such

as

G. E. Street,

William Butterfield, and William Burges, among

the

most eminent

architects of the dav,

were

also

most m^umlxai oJtKe tar\y'n\Y\tUtnt\v' century i^xMxcaXxons on^ur-

mtun was Jidk^rrrmms Repository of the Arts,

monthly from January

i8og

until

furniture cnaravimjs hv A.ugustus

1823

and 1826. Shown on

window,

hall

lamp and

these

w\nc\i

^^eccmhcr 1828.

W.

]S[^,

^ugin

twofages are

hall chairs, sofa,

a^^cand

cJkese

Gothic

were included in

(lejt to

Pointed or Christian Architecture, published in

creator.

Pugin had a successful metalworking factory and

sual details

Pugin

right) a Gothic

and hed

141

A.

carefully measured

pencil of the

drawing

Exterior of Ducal Palace,

Venice hyjohn ^^R^isk^n,

shown

w^

tion.

w^^^

executed

1852, was

m an 1870 exhihitwn at the ^^yal Institu-

Vhe ^lychromed

Qothic

m ^cn, wash, and

huxldina,

with

its lovely

tracery, in ^^R^slqn's words, "stands

tively alone,

and JuII^ exvresses

the

comvara-

Gothic vower."

'^

^.^^MMM:*M
'cutt

mj^

mm

fift^

i*t

exponents of High Victorian Gothic. In an attempt

to

the importance of architecture.

modernize Gothic, many incorporated construc-

tional
tive

polychroming, a

colored brickwork and

made

tiles, in

Middle

served as a reference for what became

known

as Italian

the staunchly Protestant Ruskin had

the Catholic Pugin.

or High Victorian Gothic. But the person

most responsible

for popularizing the style

was not

uralist,

command

fuhlication

A Collection of Designs

for

hy George SmitK, which included a numher of plates

"after the

142

and wrote in praise of

in The Stones of Venice in

rial

-'../.^

Household Furniture and Interior Decoration,

Qothic or Old 8>nglish FasKion.

trips to Italy,

it

medieval architecture

he created an interest in Venetian

his

eloquent praise of

its

technique of

colored banding, created by using contrasting mate-

language coupled with a passionate conviction of

1808

numerous

liking for

its

Gothic with

a nat-

of the English

Featured here are enaravinas from the wvular

On

little

Ruskin was impressed by

architecture,

had an outstanding

instilled

1853. Keenly aware of the importance of color in

an architect.

John Ruskin, an architectural historian and

1819,

architecture with moral and ethical qualities, yet

their buildings.
in the

in

Ruskin adopted Pugin's preachings, which

use of decora-

1855 book. Brick and Marble

Street's
Ages,

style that

Born

//.,

to

form moldings.

/,,.f^^/.

A. six' inch-high
glaze teapt

is

the A.]^stles, a

Jin

18^0 English sah-

ornamcnud with designs of

common motif of the

final 15 h brass

watch stand and

bottle holder, ten inches high,

has

the fa(;ade of a cathedral.

time.

m rows across this Wilton cari^et, an 1848 rei^ro'

duction that dui^licates tke colors of one m tke archival fles of Woodward

Qothic arches are repeated

**

'^

**

>

/^

"

"

"

-t

"

^>^^^

'

'

'-^^-

f^ J^

*>

"

^ ^ ^ A

Grosvenor, the comi^any that produced tke carpet for 'burrows df Q). e/he
Jt-

4*

^ *

border was not part of tke original overail design.

Bv the mid-nineteenth century, Gothic motifs

found their way into virtually

all

areas of the deco-

and

topped with valances and pelmets

style draperies

which were

that followed the line of a Gothic arch,

silver-

frequently embellished with embroidery of Gothic

ware, lighting, and even metal stoves. Gothic and

ornaments, were commonly used in dining rooms

Elizabethan furniture designs, used primarily in

or libraries.

rative arts, including ceramics, glassware

grand

halls

and

libraries,

were

at first

custom-made

for specific houses but later simplified versions

were

mass-produced for cottage dwellers. By 1830,

lays,

in-

marquetry, and exotic woods, which captured

the fancy of Regency England,

During the

last half

of the nineteenth century,

there were several

movements formed by

and craftsmen, such

as the

artists

Pre-Raphaelite Brother-

hood, that were an outgrowth of Gothic influences;

were usurped by rose-

they incorporated medieval themes, an interest in

wood, mahoganv, walnut, and oak. Pugin brought

nature, and the ideals of excellence of design, in-

out Gothic Furniture in 1835.

tegrity of materials, and exacting craftmanship. "By

Flamboyant Gothic designs on wallpaper and

ric started

appearing

in the

with patterns employing

quatrefoils,

eighteenth century,

vistas

of ruins, arches,

and tracery, and bv 1815 were quite

common. Carpets
ic

fab-

as well

were designed with Goth-

motifs throughout the 1830s and '40s. Gothic-

the 1870's," as Gavin

noted

in their

Stamp and Andre Goulancourt

book The

English House

18601914,

"avant-garde architects had abandoned the

Pugin

Gothic style
sessed

literal

the pointed arch which had so ob.

but they essentially remained

Gothicists in their approach to design."^

143

ft

.'^a

>>

f-

.*i.

*^Sir:
"^-f^-'

!!
'>'

,<<i

^,

,ui-

:"

"

*>^v

,> :'r^^

^^

-:^*

L^.V

<^^

.c

>^f>p^'

.^^^.
..^'*-

.^'

y^"??-

>>*?'
.*!f*Sr<^'*'-

\,l.j>l''

Opposite .'^irr Qastle's

maamjicent i^O'acn grounds,

Birr Castle

comvosed of formal aardcns,

fcrncncs, hidden aardcns, and

rolUna informal

land.scapt', boasts

twenty-three hridcjcs linkina

lak^

and

rivers.

1810,

hridcje, huilt in

its

Vhis suspension
helia'ed

is

m Ireland.

to he the oldest

GOTHICK MADE
Ireland

its

presence

known

in

around 1800; one of the best

examples of

Irish

Gothick can be found

romantic Birr Castle

in

County

at

Offaly.

Situated in the heart of Ireland, the

town

of Birr sidles up against the castle wall to

the east of the
Ahove: One of Ireland's most
magical

castles,

Qounty O^aly
untury

^irr
is

ancestral

the seventeenth-

land rises, then drops sharply

1810 the

castle

wasgothicizfd; at

The

ancestral

this time

to the lively

western front the

Camcor

River.

of the Earls of Rosse, Birr Castle started with the

who had come

in

1620 by English-born

Sir

Laurence

to Ireland thirty years before with his brother.

in cjray

limestone and tke castellated

its

home

purchase of 1,277 acres of land

Parsons,

was encased

with

down

its

home of the

of'^sse .In

entrance,

30-acre desmesne, or park, while on

Qastle in

8>arls

tHe facade

Parsons promptly started altering

gatehouse on the property by con-

over^wering

iron-studded door, was created.

necting two free-standing seventeenth-century towers to

it.

The

structure

145

suffered extensive

damage during the turbulent

second half of the seventeenth century, passing

down

through several generations of Parsonses to

Laurence, the second Earl of Rosse,
his title in
Sir

who

Sir

inherited

member

of the Irish

House of Commons and supported an independent

46

Act of Union was passed

to his estate at Birr,

where he began extensive

remodeling and updating,

spired by

When the

in 1800, Parsons retired

fashionable Gothick style,

1807.

Laurence had been

self-governing Ireland loyal to the crown.

much

of

it

in the then-

which was

work being undertaken

Charleville Forest. Sir Laurence

largely in-

at the castle of

was

actively in-

Opposite:

^irr

Valines

line t\ic walls

the oncjinal entrance.

Its^udor

ceiUna was added around

while

Its

838,

exc^msite larcje Qothick^

window, draped in^ran

velvet

overlooking a lush rear garden,

an

of

hmlt over

(jostle's entrance hall,

and
is from

earlier remodehruj.

'^^Ridit

Vhc

stools,

wardrohe, mirror, chairs,

and jardiniere

m the master

bedroom were desianed hy

^^sse and made hy

workshop for

^^ary

the estate

her marriaae to tKe

third &arl

18^6.

volved in the designs; one of his notebooks contains

drawings for the

castle's castellated front entrance,

which was remodeled

in

1810. The spectacular

Gothick saloon overlooking the river was also

undertaken
case has
Sir

at this time.

been found but

A
it

plan for a Gothick

stair-

was never executed.

Changes were again on the agenda

stroyed the roof of the castle in 1832.

was

built,

his

third story

the staircase. Third-floor corridors were vaulted

and

Gothick ceiling installed

new Gothick

and moats and

in the

gates

part by a desire to provide

one of the most distinguished astronomers of

the area during the famine.

entrance

hall.

were constructed

fortifications rebuilt,

honesty and intelligence. His son William became

his

and Gothick plasterwork was added to

In the 1840s,

Laurence was known and respected for

after a fire de-

motivated in

employment

to

many

in

on the grounds

Restoration to the castle and careful maintenance

of Birr, which, until 1917, was the world's largest.

of the vast landscaped park, as well as cataloguing

day, building a reflection telescope

In

keeping with the castle renovations, the tele-

scope's walls

were embellished with Gothic arches

and topped with crenellations.

William's

Mary, was a pioneer

of photography.

in the field

wife,

the extensive collection of

the estate,

Rosse,

who

Birr. Its

is

documents pertaining to

an ongoing job for the present Lord

has dedicated his energies to preserving

magnificent gardens,

Charles, the youngest of their eleven children, in-

tiful

vented the steam turbine.

throughout the year.

found anywhere,

are

among

the

most beau-

open to the public

147

^irr's resplendent octaaonal saloon

is

an outstandina example of the inventive Gothickjmrit Vhree Gothic\windows emhellisked with

.

delicate tracery stretch from floor to ceilina alonu the far wall, while slendev

and gold,

to

a s]^lendid vaulted

Opposite; c/ke saloon frej^lacc

tent'li]<i ceiling.

is

aold'and'white columns

up tke other

walls, flocked

m green

i^

detailed with Qothic]<jnotifs. '^fleeted

m tke ornate gilded mirror ahove

chandelier sus]^endcd from the center of the room and one of the large

148

rise

it is

a beautiful Waterford crystal

Qothid<^indows

tkat lint the opposite wall.

^^a

>'-*^'l

1.

i^i

*."

ii^!N^I
V

Ji

*^;

siJ^J

#^

:&

ll

-:^:^.^^?^^^-7^^:^^^^^
"""'
..

"

~rr=^

fy

MB::^^.^^^:^^
sy-^..-^-'-^'v
'

-W "S^N

'

'

J^

(ietail

of tke elaborately carved ^otltick^ pelmet ami velvet drapery

'^irr (pasties darhj-y opulent dxnxm room

Vhe

dinina room plastcrworhjmd the

pelmets trimmirw its^reat hay

window

date from tke second quarter of the

mnetienth century. In tke 1 9405,

Anne '^sse was responsvHe for

resurrecting tke imposinu

ormolu

chandelier, redoing tke paneling,

and

covering tke ivalls ivitk jlock^d

damaskcliki wallpaper.

150

j\n

ovcrscalcd cag-and-iart molding frames doorways

window

Vhc

in the regal Qothic dining

room

at

^irr

and

the hay

(^astlc.

heautiful dining room doorlqwhs are emhellished with the

initial

"^,"

representing the Saris

of^^sse.

Eastnor Castle

x^
THE IMPOSING

Eastnor Castle in Led-

^^^m
bury, Herefordshire, designed bv architect

Robert Smirke, was begun

1812 and completed

in

March of

six years later.

It

was

commissioned by the romantic John, the

1 b'OrJ'VrinfiiMI^^HI
Ahovc:

(^rajts mans Kip

priorities
o\i\\c

jor'^uam.

Wass

^owcr an^

was

kvalt

on th

list

o\

cTke \)cauX\fu\ iitaxXxm

^oor]{^\)s, u'ltK

A..

\ia^ ornammlaixon,

tite

1849 ^rawxm room.

W.

]S(^.

'^xiaxrx,

It IS

Earl of Somers, and

top with commanding views of the Malvern

three-hundred-acre park across

Hills. Its

a small lake just

is

sited

on

a hill-

groimds include

below the

castle,

with red

tkir stvli^ei

sva:^ voiumes.

Opposite; 3M<^nijicent tapestries line tke walls

of tke

first

deer and unusual examples of flora and fauna.

In keeping

'^csxaniA. hy

cient suits of

with the

spirit

of the castle, the Great Hall

armor and weaponry.

Just off

it is

is

lined with an-

the entrance to the splen-

a sterliiw ejcample 0/

more scrxous a^roaclx Qothic varti towari

did Gothic drawing room, the product of

renowned

architect A.

W. N.

hy tke mid'niiwteentk ctnXury. cJke ckanielier

IS

a coYy 0^ one in

J^rembera (^atkeinil

Pugin.

The grandly proportioned room

is

distinguished by richly gilded

153

fan vaulting, pendants, and decorative designs

ceiling
in

and

849,

walls.

it is

Commissioned by the second

wonderful example of the more

on

Earl
seri-

of

Pugin was responsible for the design of

art.

number of the
case, inlaid

furnishings, such as the Gothic book-

round

table, velvet-covered chairs,

ous approach to Gothic in mid-nineteenth-century

the spectacular brass chandelier,

Victorian England. While

Great Exhibition of 1 85

mentation

is

still

flamboyant, the orna-

more grounded

in historic references
ily

ry Gothick of Arbury Hall and Strawberry Hill.

Above

of the particularly special qualities about

at the

emblazoned around the drawing room.

are

the large fireplace, the

Somers family motto,

"Be useful rather than conspicuous,"

is

displayed

along with a heraldic tree illustrating the family ge-

many

nealogy from the time of Thomas Cocks of Bishops

possess their original furnishings, providing a

whose son Richard, around 1600, bought

the property on which part of the castle is built. In
1695, Richard's son Charles married Mary Somers,

through generations of the same family

is

that

rare opportunity to savor unique interiors imprint-'

ed with the eccentricities of centuries of occupants.

Eastnor 's Gothic drawing

room

is filled

with fine

furniture, exquisite Brussels tapestries, and

shown

handed down

dwellings, like Eastnor, that have been

still

first

and

Heraldic emblems of the Somers and Cocks fam-

than the earlier exuberance of the eighteenth- centu-

One

154

4-

works

Cleeve,

who brought

with her a substantial fortune;

their grandson, John,

who built

it

Eastnor Castle.

was

Above

left:

touches

ofjiamim red

this

Virginia creeper climhs the

m the fall

early nineteenth' century

could have entertained the

Ahove naht

In

castle

the fashion of tJre day,

was constructed

Kmahts of the ^^und

.^Jhe lofty curved uiling of the

dado around

of&astnor Qastlc, hringirwj

k^pvr^ with

with rich painting and pendants. A.

the

ivalls

the room.

Vudor

to

loo\as though

'clahle.

drawing room

is

ornamented

linenfold moti/15 repeated in

A.hove thf heavily carved fireplace

family coat of arms, with interlocking family

^^Right:

it

is

th^

trees.

Simple columns join elahorate gilded and richly painted vaulting

that fans out across the

Hl<f

drawing room

ceiling,

moldings edge the doors and

throughout stands for

tlie

while various gilded leaf-

ceiling.

Vhe

letter

"S" scattered

Somers family, whose coat of arms

and motto

are painted above the door.

155

Cardiff Castle

^kt.c/Ite Winter
Smok}nq

'^om

Qardiff Qastlc

door

is

deco-

rated with marauetry. In

an upper panel, at the top

of a

tree, sits

hon hearing

THE ULTIMATE

expression of Victorian

a Stuart
tKe

arms of

Gothic

lies

tle. Its

interiors are, in the opinion of re-

within the walls of Cardiff Cas-

Stuart of^ute. ^irds,

some on hranches, sina

tke

to

music of a drum and

[larp plajed hy

spected historian
a squirrel

and mouse. Vhe door

handle

is

in the

the

most

Mark Girouard, "among

remarkable

and

impressive

form of

achievements of the

a bird.

Revival.""^ Distinguished

by

a sense of fantasy

9th-century Gothic

based on

a highly

romanti-

cized vision of the Middle Ages, the castle interiors are, nevertheless,

worlds away from Arbury Hall and the other confections created one
Opposite;

Vhe

staircase in

tlie

walls of the octagonal

old watch tower, with

its

hundred years

earlier.

circular stairs, present a fantastical

Cardiff Castle, an
version '/ tke

fiddle

roundels scattereii

amalgam of

styles

from medieval times through the

A(je3, with

among

a leajli^e motij,

end of the nineteenth century,

is

situated near the River Taff in the heart

illustratii^ scenes from A.esof'sfahle5.

A. muzjzled

lion sits

on

the newel post.

of the Welsh capital, Cardiff. The earliest building on the

site

was

Roman
157

fort dating

from around 75

A Norman

A.D.

defense

curtain was later erected on top, with living quarters

added

walls of the castle's austere

the

most

was

for

wore on occasion. Burges 's preference

French thirteenth-century Gothic rather

than the English Decorated period favored by Pugin.

Writer

Construction began with the turreted clock tower

its

Cook comments, "Not

among

low, massive

up, which he

made

and military-like exterior

belie the elaborate splendor of

Olive

The

in the fifteenth century.

have a set of clothes appropriate to the period

interiors.

only must they be

but they shock

lavish ever created,

southwestern corner, consisting of summer

at the

and winter smoking rooms together with the bach-

bedroom, which form the bachelor

the senses with the boldness, the unrelenting thor-

elor

oughness, the sustained, almost maniacal energy

Three other towers were enlarged and heightened.

with which every detail of the unique decoration has

Bright murals depicting scenes from the

been carried out."^

of the

The immense structure passed through the hands

of a number of powerful British families until, in
1776, much in need of repair, it came into the pos-

ed walls of Burges 's elaborate banqueting

Arches with elaborate crocketing form over door-

who

the castle's past owners. Fan vaults create a banding

session of John Stuart, first

hired

Henry Holland

Marquess of Bute,

to reconstruct the decaying

lodgings in the Georgian Gothick style. But

his great-grandson,

was

it

John Patrick Crichton- Stuart,

who was

Norman

life

around the decorated timber

carved angels just above
third

of one

lords of the castle top the wainscot-

ways, while stained-glass windows depict

The

suite.

ceiling,

hall.

many

of

with rows of

it.

Marquess did not stop

at Cardiff Castle

to bring about

but went on to build and restore numerous struc-

major changes, embarking upon a building program

tures throughout Britain, lending credence to his

third

Marquess of Bute,

that lasted for sixty years. His father,

when he was

six

months

old, left

largest estates in Great Britain.

need for

a port to handle the

who had

died

him one of

the

Recognizing the

reputation as one of Britain's greatest builders.

Cardiff Castle was donated to the city in

open

947 and

is

to the public throughout the year.

expanding iron and

coal industry in South Wales, he had sunk his for-

tune into developing Bute Docks. They would turn

Cardiff into an important commercial world port

and

major

city.

to die in 1859,

One

of the

when her son was

twelve.

decisions of the serious, shy, and

first

scholarly third

heritance in

Sophia, second Marchioness, was

Marquess upon coming into

his in-

868 was to undertake the reconstruc-

tion of Cardiff Castle, a small portion of his vast

property.

He had

enlisted the talented, quirky ar-

chitect William Burges, considered

by many to be

Vhc

third ^Mflr^uess turned a study, a

[avontc

the greatest exponent of High Victorian Gothic, to

propose

scheme to restore the

ters in 1865,

quar-

scholar like his patron, Burges was

fascinated with the

158

castle's living

Middle Ages, going so

far as to

retreat

of hs father, the second

^^arquess, into a pnmte chapel and

dedicated

it

to

him.

Vhe

large central

windows depct four

a]^stles.

tlJ^^I'-l^
--*/

^^ft^

'^^

^' >B*x^~

;!^'-

t5^

.-o

.'^-SiSZE^lpH-B I

f^l I

:S;^

H
^^^^K

Ki^\

-55

W\c theme
alass

of the

windows

Winter Smok}m ^^R^m

cclchraU the days of the

is

time. Stained'

wuk^ Zodiacal

figures adorn walls and vaulted ceiling. Jihove the

viccc,

autumn pursuits of harvestinci and hawkina

illustrated.

Vhe

red leather door leading into the

Smoking ^^R^m

(right)

is

uj^

titt:

arc

Winter

covered with an overlay of ornate

gilded ironworh^decorated with hirds.

door^ick^

chimney

j\ horder framing

the

bird motif.

A.rrows desunding from stylized clouds rain down tke

Winter Smoking ^^R^ms gilded chimney^iccc hood

(opposite).

Vhe

carved fgure ofLoie, supprtfd

In-

(^apricorn, tke ^ociiocal ji^ure of the winter months,

is

joined hy a frieze deleting winter amusements for lovers.

Wie

Latin mscriptwn translates, "Love concmcrs

yield to love."

all, let

us

A.hovc: eJhe staircase walls arc faxnud

simulatina

and

tile

and limestone and include

hirds, rcjlcctin^

Lord Bute's

Overhead, a not of hold

vaulted ceilina.

m a sty!i;^ei motif

color

love

illustrations

oj^

animal,

of natural history.

and motifs ornament

the lively

Opposite

cJlit'

stairs, IS rich in

I'antjut'tin^ hall,

just off the top of the circular

symbolism, '^ased on the

Gloucester, tke chimneyj^iece

forms

life

re^^licates

tliejocal point of the

162

castle

8>arl

of

gatehouse and

room. Scattered al^out the

chimnejpiece are small ji^ures such as a lady bidding /areu'el

to a

of'^hert,

Iqnaht on horseback^

X
^n

flH^1%

^^^E9

aJa^.

f^

^mki^m'l

HIH

fl

^^^^^^^^^

^L^

X
1^1k^LJ

/
Jl^^/lrriual

!9 tl?e

di^it^d^tat^s

Previous faacs:

A current uul paper

URING THE EARLY YEARS of the nineteenth

mttcrnfrom Qlarcncc House inspired

\l<-

'

^^m^ ^^m^^^\

Ifc^

century, as America was adjusting to

h\ Gothic tracery.

won freedom,
Opposite'. 7^.
villa,

J.

Walnut Qrovc,

Hurrah,

built

\s

shown

perspectu'e watercolor.
tlid

Gothic influences struggled for

QDaviss Qothic

m 1843

in ^ridcjcpyrt, (Connecticut, for the

U.K.

newly

its

9
6

foothold. But
'

'fli^BP^r^f

^B7

in this

T^w demolished,

S-

<

<

-J-ii.^"*.!!

for a nation

ple

it

was

far

grounded

from love

at first sight

Sim-

in the Puritan ethic.

unadorned Colonial and conservative Fed-

Snaiish (^olleaiate Gothic mansion

was similar
arcaded

to

LvnJIiurst,

u'ltli its

porcit, crenellated tower,

eral

houses whose designs were based on rules that governed proportion

hay

windows, and asymmetrical form

and order were verv

It

much

was during the 1830s

in favor.

that a revolution in architecture

began trans-

forming the American landscape. The acceptance of the picturesque

Gothic, while not as all-consuming as in England, brought a vitalitv to

American

architecture. Breaking free

symmetrical forms dictated by earlier

experimentation.

What emerged was

from the conforming

styles, the

Gothic

a style distinctly

style

encouraged

American, one that

gave free reign to the imagination. As William Pierson,

ican Buildings

restraints of

Jr., states in

Amer-

and Their Architects, "The Gothic house changed the face of the

American town, and shattered forever the

ence of a deeply rooted

The Gothic

stvle

simplicity and stylistic coher-

classical tradition."^

was used

in a rich diver sit v of structures,

cottages to castle-like villas strongly influenced by the

from

combined

rustic

efforts of

architect Alexander Jackson Davis and landscape designer and writer

An-

drew^ Jackson Downing. By the time Gothic was established in the United
States,

its early,

more whimsical

days were

left

behind and

it

had headed

4-

167

into

its

Picturesque phase. Whereas a

chitects

had

flirted

number of ar-

with Gothic toward the end of

the eighteenth century, adding touches of

cidedly classical structures,
still

rare.

1799 on

An
a

early

its

it

to de-

use in residences was

example was Sedgeley,

built in

bank of the Schuvlkill River outside

and Masonic temple. Many of the churches were

wooden

unpretentious

dows and doors,

roof.
in

ica,

The

New

buildings with pointed win-

a square tower,

York

847 by the growing Episcopal Church

controlled the design of

many

selecting Gothic partly because

English-born architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe,

to construct.

arches and

hood moldings combined with

cal motifs. Latrobe,

who came

to

neoclassi-

America

after the

death of his wife, was the most prominent of a

number of

architects

who

emigrated during the

Unlike English Gothick, which reappeared in the

eighteenth century in domestic architecture (adopt-

ed by gentlemen of comfortable means

to

got

start in ecclesiastical buildings.

its

who were

American Gothic

drawn

aesthetic qualities),

it

founded
in

Amer-

rural churches,

was

less

expensive

English-born Richard Upjohn, the leading Gothic

Revival church architect, was responsible for

some of this
a

number of

found

He

country's finest churches.

designed

smaller churches inspired by those

in English villages. In

an effort to encourage

design excellence in rural areas, he published de-

Federal period.

its

a steep gable

Ecclesiastical Society,

Philadelphia and demolished in 1857. Designed by

the symmetrical house was decked out in pointed

and

By the 1820s

Gothic was frequently selected for churches of

all

denominations and eyen an occasional synagogue

J
o o

signs for churches, schoolhouses,

and parsonages

in

Church

in

Upjohn's Rural Architecture in 1852. Trinity

New York

City was Upjohn's most important work.

Completed

in

1846,

it

is

churches looked upon today

one of three Gothic

as

among

the

most im-

portant architectural achievements of the nineteenth century.

Ithiel

Town's Trinity Church

Scdgclcy, the

in

1799

'T'liiladelpkia residence of

William (^rammond,
shown

in this

is

awraving hy

William ^irchfrom

County Seats

of the

U.S. and North

America, designed
'benjamin Latrobe,
the jirst

it

hy

was

A.mcrican house

to

incor^rate Qothic architecture elements

A
,!ir

',VL

UfJohn's charmim simple

'^chard

EAST

CNO

.7

nave church with

hecause varishxoners wanted somethina more elahorate.

hcllcotc,

designed in

18^8 for St.

'^auVs

Qhurch

E.

ND

in ^rook]in, ^Massachusetts,

A. number of similar Upjokn churches were constructed and

was never

built

j^roved to he influential in tkf

desian of churches at the time.

New

Haven, finished

Jr.'s St.

in 1817,

Patrick's Cathedral in

Decorated

in the English
St. Patrick's,

and James Renwick,

New

York

style, are the

the largest church in

City, built

other two.

America

at

the

time, comparable in scale as well as grandeur to the

magnificent

completed

cathedrals

throughout

was

with the exception of its spires,

in 1879,

which took another nine years to

Bv the 1830s,

Europe,

inviting

finish.

examples of domestic

While

on American

it

had arrived by way of England, once

soil

Gothic was to dance to

tune. This distinct difference

number of

factors.

was the

its

own

result of a

Unlike America, which had

United States there was

Langley,

Loudon were important sources

chitects, furniture

But

it

was the romantic novels of

Scott, first published in the

Sir

United States

Americans hungry for diversion,

AmerWalter
in the

that ultimatelv

sparked the imagination of the nation, creating

wave of enthusiasm
tales of chivalrv

and valor

spirit. Scott's

for Gothic. Scott's descriptive

number of American

scarce, while

ar-

1830s, and widelv distributed and devoured bv

landscape. Choices of building materials varied as

wood was

American

playing a part in the acceptance of Gothic in

mantic

frequently of stone because

for

makers, and local carpenters,

could only attempt to create the illusion of untamed

eighteenth-century English residences were

of natural

Thomas Chippendale, and John Claudius

were taken to heart by

bountv

English pattern books from such authors as Battv

boundless wilderness, English landscape gardens

well

resources such as timber.

ica.

Gothic started appearing across the American landscape.

in the

set in the

Middle Ages

country engulfed in a ro-

writings inspired the

work of a

writers and poets, such as

Edgar Allan Poe, James Fenimore Cooper, William

Cullen Bryant, and Washington Irving,

many

169

of

whom made

the pilgrimage to Abbotsford, Scott's

romantic baronial

castle

on the River Tweed

Scotland. Irving 's charming

to as the

first

Gothic

villa in

the United States, but

no drawings or other evidence of it has survived.)

in

Dutch manor house,

Irregular in form, Glenellen 's castellated towers

Sunnyside, and Cooper's classic Otsego Hall, re-

and walls were of stone quarried on the

modeled by inventor Samuel Morse, incorporated

even had

number of Gothic elements.

Robert Gilmor

is

family,

be scrapped. In 1988, Glenellen burned to the

Born

into a wealthy

ground, having been abandoned and neglected for

Gilmor traveled to France

as

an

some

at-

tache to the American embassy after graduating

in

papers of introduction in hand, he paid a

Sir

Walter Scott

celebrated home.

Upon

leading architectural firm of

a replica of

Town and

nior partner in 1829.

to

established

re-

try,

Glenellen after his wife, Ellen Ward. (Glenellen

'

as a ju-

The combination of the

older,

architectural libraries in the coun-

and the ambitious, younger Davis proved to be

a successful partnership,

it

Town

Town, an engineer possessing one of the

most important

Davis in

Abbotsford, naming

his career as an

architectural illustrator, joining Ithiel

Gilmor commissioned the

turning to America,

1832 to build

visit

time.

Alexander Jackson Davis started

Europe, with the prerequi-

site

at his

sham ruin gatehouse, Gilmor ran short

first

credited with building the

from Harvard. While

It

of funds, however, and plans for the top floor had to

truly Gothic house in America.

Maryland

estate.

and was

which

lasted until 1835

briefly resurrected in 1842. Davis,

now had

who

was one of two Gothic-inspired houses designed by

grew up with

Town and

trove of material at his fingertips, which undoubt-

Davis in 1832. Davis recorded another

1832 commission for

Moulton of Brooklyn,

Gothic house for James

New York,

which he referred

a love of

books,

a treasure

edly helped to broaden his knowledge of Gothic.

Town's architectural preference was for Greek

170

Glenellen, set

m the 'Maryland countryside twelve

outside of Baltimore,

was

the romantic

home of ^hert

Gilmor. Vhis asymmetrical house, Wilt

credited

was

miles

m 18^2 and

with heing thejirst truly Qothic house in the U.S.,

the workj)f the architectural

team

ofVown

& ^ai'i5.

Opposite; Snalisli i^attern books ivere turning out

beauti/ullv iHustrateii en^rai'm^s
villas

ofQothic country

such as this one from Francis Qoodwin's

publication, Domestic Architecture

an influence on A.merican

that

1833

ii'ere

architects.

Small

hall chairs

accompany a

lovely dressing glass

and a

ti^o'drawer dressing table ornamented with large ^uatrefoils; all, c.

trom]^e

1840-50,

I'oeil

are in maho^^any.

a'allpaper border

the wall, a

from ^runschu-'i^^

imitates stoneworl<^ Furniture mclucled

'^useum's

On

1976

Qothic

&

Fils

m the Houston
^vwal

shou.'.

Vhs colored

engravina

features a Yers]pectwe of
the

Hathan ^. Warren

^roy

cottage

and

its

surrounding grounds
(Constructed
It 15

1838,

many

one of the

dwellings designed

loyA.f. ^avistomctt
the needs of middle- class

Americans

interested in

a home of their own.

A drawing shows
elevation of

Lodge,

tke east

Wildmont

A.],

(^avis's

romantic twentyacre

summer

'^c\in

residence at &aale

Orange,

jersey, huilt

cliff'to^ retreat

l^w

1878. Vhe
had a

sj^ectacular view,

which extended as far as

lHcwYorl<^Qity.

;"ii9KS'5S^Sg.?J?^Ka

Pj^aB-^

SgPWftS

Revival; he and Davis played a

major role

was to write

for public buildings, but, as Davis

book Rural

his

Residences,

in its use

"The Greek Temple form,

it

is

and even to town mansions,

is

inappropri-

ate for

country residences."^

Drawn

Davis was responsible for the Gothic design of

in

perfect in itself and well adapted as

edifices,

type of the American Gothic cottage (see page 175).

to public

instead to the

the

Wadsworth Athcncum

cut,

and the Virginia Military

in

Hartford, Connecti-

Institute.

several residences in Manhattan,

Coventry Waddell's picturesque

He

such

villa

designed

W. H.

as

with turrets,

picturesque qualitv as well as the versatility of

battlements, and oriel windows, built in 1844 at

become

Thirty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue and demol-

Gothic, the prolific Davis was soon to

Gothic's major advocate as well as one of the

most

ished only thirteen years later to

make way

popular architects of the day. His imaginative de-

Brick Presbyterian Church. Davis rescued

signs encapsulated the spirit of the age, inspiring

case, incorporating

countless cottages throughout the land.

house he had built for

Davis published two thin installments of Rural

Residences Etc. Consisting of Designs, Original
lected,

for Cottages, Farm-Houses,

Churches in 1837.

Its

Villas,

and

and

Se-

Village

introduction read, "The

fol-

ic

w ishes

of a few gentlemen

who

are

desirous of seeing a better taste prevail in the Rural

Architecture of this country."

continued, "The

It

bold, uninteresting aspect of our houses

obvious to every traveller; and to those

must be

who

are fa-

miliar with the picturesque cottages and villas of

England."^ The book, the

ica,

first

of

kind in Amer-

its

introduced the concept of the

villa to

American

Female College, was

While Rural

Residences

had

a limited distribution,

was most favorably received.

It

featured hand-

Wildmont,

his family in

summer

1856. His Goth-

a series of eleven

just a

Avenue and Forty- second

In 1838,

connecting

few blocks north

Alexander Jackson Davis met Andrew

Downing had

New

nineteen.

earlier, at

joined his brother in a Newburgh,

York, nursery, a business their father had

owned and operated before his death. Andrew became its sole proprietor five years later. Within a
relatively short

time he was looked upon

as

culturists.

Downing 's 1845

Fruit Trees of America,

work on

publication. The Fruits

considered the definitive

the subject in the United States, plaved a

role in standardizing the

names of fruits. He was

become

termed

well before his tragic death at age thirty-six.

hybrid, and Gothic. Davis's pref-

erence was for the

legiate style,

last,

because

which he

both of plan and outline;

tions

is

susceptible of addi-

from time to time, while

oriels, turrets,

and chimney

its

bay windows,

shafts give a pictorial

major architectural

critic

Motivated by a concern over

called English col-

admits of greater variety

"it

one of

America's leading landscape gardeners and horti-

colored lithographs of three architectural styles

classical,

at Fifth

Street.

Jackson Downing. Four years

and

architecture.

it

House of Mansions,

into

its stair-

houses built in 1858, which later became Rutgers

lowing series of designs has been prepared in compliance with the

it

for the

and theorist

to
as

a general lack of

harmony between American houses and their

tings. Downing used his considerable talent

set-

as a

writer to persuade a receptive American public that

a

house and

its

setting should be

viewed

as a

cohe-

he encouraged

effect to the elevation."''' Rural Residences included a

sive unit. Passionately persistent,

drawing of

the construction of houses that were positioned to

whimsical gate lodge

large stone

house built

mid- 1 830s;

this

in the

at

Blithewood,

Gothic style

in the

gatehouse was to become the proto-

take

full

advantage of

picturesquely enhanced

landscape.

73

The handsome Downing, who had married

into

one of Newburgh's most important famiHes, dedicated his

first

book, pubHshed

in

great uncle, ex-President John

first

book of its kind written

Treatise

841

to his wife's

Quincy Adams. The

in the

United

States,

on the Theory and Practise of Landscape Gar-

especially Davis,

superb

draftsman, to translate his rough pencil sketches

into finished artwork. Original designs by Davis,

such
for

as the Albany,

New

York,

villa

Davis designed

Rathbone, and The Knoll in Tarrytown,

J.

York, were featured in

Downing 's

dening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the

Improvement of Country Residences went through re-

most

several people,

Downing 's books

Cottage Residences, or

for Rural Cottages and Cottage-

Villas

New

as well.

Series

of Designs

and Their Gardens

peated reprintings, bringing Downing a major step

and Grounds Adapted

closer to convincing the country that landscaping

1842, promised "smiling lawns and tasteful cot-

was within the reach of every homeovnier.

tages."

While Downing 's book discussed

tectural stvles, his favorite

simplified version of

it

several archi-

was Tudor Gothic and

that

he referred to

Rural

as

Gothic, or the English cottage style, because

it

featured Tuscan designs and those adapted

from rural English Gothic

Italian style

cottages.

The Tuscan or

was considered to be more appropriate

for tropical climates, while Rural Gothic to be

more

fitting for

homes

located in an area with

expression to

changing seasons. Davis and Downing envisioned

landscapes entirely devoid of that quality."

the cottage as ideally suited for small working-class

character and picturesque

"gives

manv

It

North America, published in

to

Highland Gardens, Downing 's

house

New

Newburgh,

in

Hudson

and, sadlv, torn

trated in

own Tudor

Gothic

York, overlooking the

down

in 1951,

was

illus-

families. Frequently symmetrical,

Downing was twenty-three when he met

Davis,

twelve years older and by then a highly successful

architect. Sharing a

mutual commitment to devel-

gable

trimmed with carved vergeboards,

in the
last,

form of pointed

but far from

lancets, oriels,

end would be

the emotional aspects of the Picturesque, they believed

it

to be an appropriate expression of the

young country's

tastes

and

to change the course of

ideals.

Their vision was

American domestic

archi-

ular architectural books.

Each covered the practical

aspects of the field as well as the aesthetic, offering

explicit information

an easily readable

and

style,

specific advice.

Written

in

they also featured plans and

elevations of houses. Because Downiing lacked architectural training, he

depended upon the

skills

of

mark of

"and in the

distinction betw^een the

Revival.

Although the porch was not new to American

architecture, the idea that the veranda

was the

link

between the house and nature had picturesque connotations that had not been encountered before."^

One
collaborated with Davis on three pop-

Jr.,

American and English houses of the Gothic

tecture.

Downing

"The veran-

da became for Davis a major architectural compo-

American

match. Both were romantics to the core; drawn to

and bays, and

least, front verandas.

nent," observed William Pierson,

they proved to be a perfect

pinnacles,

hood moldings, windows

oping an architecture that would be suitable to the

life -style,

was character-

ized by board-and-batten siding, a steeply pitched

clustered chimney stacks,

Treatise.

it

of the distinctions

cottages and villas

was

Downing made between

that, for cottage dwellers,

household duties were performed by family

bers or one domestic while the

or

more

villa

mem-

needed three

servants to run. Unlike that of cottages,

the interior space of a

Downing defined

villa

a villa as a

was asymmetrical.

country residence char-

acterized by irregularity, with part of

its

surround-

174

mH

A hand'colorcd Utho'
arav\\[rom jKlcxandcr

Rural Residences
shows a charming
rusUc cottaac dcsiatud

asaaatc

lodcjcat

^litlituwii in
FLslikiK.Nt-uYorl^.

(^avis,
txon of

m
It,

Iii5

licscnp-

called atten-

tion to Its rustic poj-ili,

ha\and mullioncd
ivmdou's, Uiahgahlcs

with ornamental
carved veraehoards, and

chimncx sUajis

fl.J.IJA..:

E^LA^:GE:",

in

the

MUD

cottage style.

rustic

KITCHEN

-V

PA

M N&
I

LOU

'

-rs^-

/
'

i
i

k
(

LjlJ

'i-j

_!

S t-C

L.

ON D

175

Otl

JAillhrook^, the late

18305

residence of

Henry Sheldon,

located in

^arrytown, l^wYork^,
IS

the workjof A.

QDavis. Illustrated in

'^owmng's Treatise on
Landscape Gardening,
It

i^resented the architect's

I'lsion

of the appropriate

A.mencan

cottaae

to

Mavis's Jesian for

tlie^tck House.
I

^^
n

rt.

XJJ

ij

irH R tii NC
I

-.n

J)l f^

f
/

KUL

Tr

NO-

i
J-

S A

'>

:j:^

1;
I

:l

I^

1/

V.

\1G

-^

/="

il. ::H:ft

Mn

f>

rt

fj

J'

and

hears a strona similarity

ing land "laid out as a pleasure ground.

should be a

man

of some wealth

and

Its

taste

Downing, whose houses were frequently

fied versions of those

books with

found

owner
"^

years

critic

and celebrated author. Loudon, cred-

death on July 28, 1852, three months short of his

While he was

thirty- seventh birthday.

the

Hudson River on

garden and picturesque landscape for the

less well-

saved his wife but

borrow from with great frequency. Downing,

in

edited Loudon's books for the U.S. market,

Horticulturist, a

them through

editorials in the

monthly journal of which he

w as

ed-

a fire

drowned

on

common

broke out. Downing

trying to rescue anoth-

er passenger.

Vaux remained

pedias on such topics as gardening, architecture,

and furniture, which Downing did not hesitate to

traveling

a steamship, then a

means of transportation,

to-do in England, wrote several successful encyclo-

Downing 's untimely

gether for two years before

romantic

helping to popularize

in

twenty-six-year-old Calvert Vaux. They worked to-

ited with popularizing the adoption of a

fact,

England

to

in English architectural

John Ruskin, and John Claudius Loudon,

horticulturist

Downing journeyed

later.

search of a suitable partner and returned with

bv English Gothic advocates A. W. N. Pugin, writer

and

Two

but Davis appeared uninterested.

simpli-

veranda added, was greatly influenced

alliance,

in the

United

going into

States,

Law Olmsted and publishing Villas and Cottages three years after Downing 's death. Dedicated to Caroline Downing and the

partnership with Frederick

memory

of her husband,

and reflected the

less

it

included 370 engravings

romantic direction the team

essays featured in the Horticulturist,

had started to take under Vaux's influence. The

on subjects ranging from landscape gardening to

preface reads: "In this collection of studies there are

Downing 's

itor.

rural architecture,

were compiled and issued

in

1850 Downing published The

Country Houses, the

al

books. In

it

Architecture of

most popular of his

he wrote, "Those

'D.

& V.'

that have a special interest as

the latest over which the genial influence of the

Rural Essajs a vear after his death.

In

many marked

who

architectur-

love

shadow

lamented Downing was exercised. Several of the

plans were in progress

when

the tidings of his sud-

den and shocking death were mournfully received

and friends, and almost

mournfully

and the sentiment of antiquity and repose will find

by

pleasure in the quiet tone which prevails in the

by thousands, who, knowing him only through

Gothic style

."^

Downing dropped

publication, concentrating
ors,

and furniture

landscaping in this

on architecture,

as well as heating

The following vear Downing w as

a landscaping design for the

the Capitol building, the

interi-

and ventilation.

invited to submit

grounds surrounding

White House, and the

his family

books,

still felt

that he

was to them

as

dear and

his

inti-

mate companion."^

While

tastes

veered

toward

High

Gothic following the Civil War, resulting

dling commissions for Davis,

who

Victorian
in

dwin-

died in 1892, he

and Downing 's collaborated influence

in the

middle

was profound.

Smithsonian, but only a small portion of his plan

years of the nineteenth century

was ever carried out. During

Freely experimenting with flexible

new

along the East Coast, giving advice on laying out

their architecture reflected the vitalitv

and idealism

grounds and

houses for twenty dollars a day,

of the young nation, contributing greatly to the ar-

architectural design requests to Davis.

chitectural heritage of America. Their timing could

but referred

siting

all

Downing had suggested

this

time he traveled

to Davis in 1848 that

thev turn their informal collaboration into a closer

not have been better

as

an expanding

ated an exploding market for

forms,

economy

cre-

new homes.
177

Rotch House

ONE OF THE
picturesque

FINEST examples of

cottage

style

is

the

Alexander

Jackson Davis's charming Pointed Cottage

in

New

for

William

Jackson
^hove and

oppsvte

c/ke

one of architect A.. ]

endearing houses,

is

^tcK House,

a celchration of the

stvle,

central aahle, oriel

window, and

^^ownina

with

its

Vhc

Downing 's book

Andrew

The Architecture of

Country Houses with an illustration entitled "The Cottage-Villa in the Rural

Gothic

Style,"

tall

helieved that

it is

typical of Davis's cottage

form, with

its

symmetrical

massing and extended central gable, although larger

in scale than

most

no

cottages.

veranda, which intersects the

William
entrance front, j^rovides a strong horizontal
element. Its lattice-patterned suif>i^rts
reflect the

Rotch. Featured in

extended

dwellina was complete u'ltkout a porcK or

veranda.

J.

'Mavis's most

A.merican Gothic

chimneys,

Bedford, Massachusetts, designed

J.

Rotch, the mayor of the thriving mill town of New Bedford,

Massachusetts, and a Quaker, was taken with the Gothic stvle after

com-

diamond'j^aned ifindou's

throuqhout the house.

ing

upon

number of examples while honeymooning along

the

Hudson

179

River, and in

845 commissioned Davis to design

Gothic cottage. Davis apparentlv adapted

render-

Some time
house for

Rotch

later,

built an addition to the

About

his family of nine children.

that

ing he had previously done in 1838, changing the

time, dormers were added to the front to let in

rough stone to dressed stone. Ultimately, how^ever,

light

flush

boarding painted the color of stone was used,

probablv because
set in a

was

less

expensive.

pear orchard, was built

of S6,000. The

Bedford,
ther,

it

it

first

made

ensconced

at

The house,

an estimated cost

Gothic Revival house in

New

Rotch's sanctimonious grandfa-

in a large

Greek Revival house

same town, upset

that his

such an outlandish

style.

in the

grandson would build

in

ements, coupled with the house's pared-down oris

central gable,

terra-cotta

which were

chimney

an expression of American Gothic

The veranda,

flanking the

originally clustered with

pots,

were

rebuilt,

perhaps

because of structural problems. Around World

the addition was

house

removed

just behind)

back about

(it is

now

fifty feet. Interestinglv,

to the south side

the hands of

its

John Bullard,
also served as

War I,

a free-standing

and the main house was moved

the house

was designed by Davis

Beautifully preserved, the

Davis's dramatic use of animated architectural el-

namentation,

Chimnevs

to the third storv.

now

as well.

Rotch house

is still

in

The present owner,

descendant who, coincidentallv, has
original family.

mavor of

New

Bedford,

moved

into

so tvpical of Davis's de-

the house with his familv in the mid-1970s. In

signs, intersects the entrance porch, its latticed sup-

1980, the house was struck by lightning while the

ports repeating the pattern of the diamond-paned

Bullards

windows. Downing 's description

roof, the third floor, and a portion of the second.

at its best.

calls

attention to

were

aw^av.

The ensuing

the aspiring lines of the roof and the horizontal lines

Water damage was considerable

of the veranda, stating that the house's dramatic

the Bullards,

high-pointed gable "would be out of keeping with

home and

the cottage-like
roof,

were

it

modesty of the drooping, hipped

not for the equally bold manner in

which the chimney- tops spring upwards."^

Vkc '^tch House,

central hall

windows

nearly square,

is

who

fire

destroyed the

as well. Since then,

have a special feeling for their

a strong sense of tradition, have painstak-

ingly restored their treasured house, recognizing

historical significance as a living

monument to

its

Davis

and the American Gothic Revival.

planned around a

Architectural features, such as side hay

in the living

and dinina rooms, hring a

liveliness to the interior spaces.

180

^d.

c/Ke vcrachoard

ec^ijw the extended

central gahle,
Its

with

intersecting larcje

jinial, 15

jlmd

made up of

scallops tipped

ifitkjleurs'ie-lis.

From

tite

center

pomteti U'lnclou',
u'lth Its tiny

halcony,

and from

the onel

window

helow, the harl^or of

N^w Bedford
he

can

sun.

181

I-

Lvndhurst

LyndUurst,
'^I^u'al

StaUs,

tlxejincst

mansion

15 set

in the

in the

hundnd'ocre

WHILE COTTAGES were extremely pop-

Gothic
United

estate outside

and earlv 1850s, castellated

Varrytoun, l^ii York^, on a

of the

ular in the United States through the

midst of a

villas

840s

were

han]<^

Hudson ^ler. Vhe

rare.

Alexander Jackson Davis introduced

view opposite lool^ west toward the

front of the villa. First built

the concept to the

18^8 for William Paulding and

called

Vhe

enlarged
J.
its

m 1864 hv architect A.

^avis,

u'ho was resj^nsihle for

onqmal

desian.

^boi'e;

that

Lyndhurst's

shows an

was fart of the

nal structure. Itsjinial

the peaI<^o/the roojline,
raised during the

castles

such

as Ericstan

is

New

York

and the Herrick House

hurst, the finest surviving Gothic

detail of

front (east) facade

window

near

Knoll, Lvndhurst was

was Davis's masterpiece and the

mansion

first

Hudson River

Vallev

City, designing baronial

in

in the

1855. But

it

was Lvnd-

United States todav, that

of manv Gothic

villas

to be built along

oriel

origi-

repeated at

the banks of the scenic

Formed by

glaciers

Hudson

River, an area rich in

American

and fed by northern Adirondack

history.

lakes, the

Hudson

which was

186^

renovation.

River and

its

valley boasts landscapes of great variety

and beautv. Henry

cThe crenellated edge of the veratida

can he seen helow.

Hudson,

for

whom

the river was

named, explored the

river in his search

183

for the

Northwest Passage to China. The Algonquin

Indians once hved and traded along

men

ington's

banks; Wash-

camp along

pitched their

Three-quarters of a century

Hudson were looked upon

its

later,

commodate

the banks of the

gage Davis,

setting for the castles of rich industrialists.

New

Yorkers,

drawn

cessibility to the city,

estates in

to

its

beautv

Wealthy

as well as its ac-

began building

sizable

country

as

Lyndhurst was

first called, sits

on

bold promontory high above the Hudson River.

was

built in

New

York

Paulding, from one of the

York

families,

a
It

1838 by General William Paulding,

once mayor of

Seventy-year-old

City.

most prestigious

had commissioned

Ithiel

New

Town and

Alexander Jackson Davis to execute the design of

his house. Davis,

who

loved the majestic

and the untamed beauty of its

tessential

Gothic

villa,

windows, buttresses,
tions, inspired

and

In

valley,

Hudson

created a quin-

complete with turrets, bay

trefoils, finials,

by Lowther Castle

gray Sing Sing marble,

ralistic

it

and crenella-

in England.

Of pale

was surrounded by natu-

grounds that included

stables, gatehouses,

greenhouse.

1864 The Knoll was sold

184

it

his family

now

and had the good sense to en-

in his

prime and with

a sizable

collection of Gothic buildings to his credit, to design an addition. Davis skillfully

design to double the space.

was retained

as additions

expanded

The house's

his initial

original

were harmoniously

form

incor-

porated, controlling the scale and keeping the house

its valley.

The Knoll,

who renamed

York merchant,

Lyndhurst. Merritt needed a larger house to ac-

shore.

its

an ideal picturesque

as

New

prominent

from becoming overwhelming. Davis

George Merritt,

and texture, blending beautiful

lized light, shadow,

detailing with a great variety of shapes to

hurst

form

Originally symmetrical, Lynd-

unified structure.

became decidedly asymmetrical, with

its

new

wing, tower, and bay windows creating a house that

was revolutionary
Jay

chasing

who

in

its

freely developed interiors.

Gould became Lyndhurst 's

it

in

1881.

third owner, pur-

powerful business magnate

then controlled the Western Union Telegraph

and the

New

York Elevated, he made few changes

to the house. Gould's daughter inherited Lyndhurst

upon

his death,

and when she died

in

1964, she

left

the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

to

skillfully uti-

Lyndhurst

throughout the

year.

is

now open

to

the

public

Lyndhursts hroad veranda, an

U'raj^]fed

around the west and south sides of the house, seen

was extended

'Purina remodehna,

essential j^art of the oriainal plan, initiallv

here. Later,

the

onainal porle coehere was

enclosed inalassand transformed into a vestibule

it

with a veranda extendina from either side. A. new

to tfie jront east side. Its stroncj I'ertical line unified tde neiv

sinale'story turrete^i

additions.

prte cochcrc was

built in front

ofit.

Vhefrst green house was

built

on the Lyndhurst
ahout

^Merntt

It

1870

estate

hyQeorge

was wonderfully

fanciful, with an

enormous

onion-dome

toj^.

85

^'1

0m

:^^

\
:

//

,.

1^

"Wi

lih

II

rTT^>!* ^

.^

Ovvosite: Hcxacjonal hays extend from

hoth ends of the dining room

Qomfoscd

of three pairs of fioor-tO'ceiUng

windows with painted glass,

their

frames duplicate tke ornate tracery

around the walls. hl}ches with

arches, displaying sculpture, ji II

QothK
tlie

corners of the room.

elaborate dinina room, located

newer north wina, was large enough

to

Lyndkursts
tlT

entertain

m a grand manner,

(flustered

columns around tKe glazed and stenciled

U'alls

were painted to duplicate tke marble of

tkeji replace.

silver

and hrass wall

flanli^ng tke

sconce, one of a fa
pair

dinma room hay window, was

oriamally made u'ltk aosjets. ]S(pu' adapted

electricity, it is believed to be

tuntietK centur-y.

jrom

the early

to

cJIiis

long kill u'ay leads from ike entrance Kail,

with

Its

On

the

faux stone

riak

is

chairs designed by

windows

woXls, to tke dining

room

one of affair of beautijul Gothic

^avis,

inspired by rose

m Gothic cathedrals.

One

of over fifty peces of furniture designed by

^ayis jor Lyndhurst,

about
arches,

18^0
and a

15

this oak^hall chair

from

ornamented with cusp, Gothic

leajjinial top;

its

octagonal legs end

in foliate feet

187

Opposite;

A small

jewel of a room, the

master hedroom

at tke

south end of the corridor, with

Its

lovely

vaulted ceilina, was

enjoyed hyall of

its

owners. A. Qothic hed

designed hy
15

left

On

the second floor, just across from the

reserved for guests

is

pcture gallery, a large hedroom

dominated hy a magnifcent Gothic window with a

small trianaular inset filed with Viffany alass ahove

Vhe guest hedroom

of which

15

it.

has a minted and stenciled Vudoresc^ue

shown

m this detail

Vhe

master hedroom

is

ceiling,

part

considerably

smaller, refecting tke nineteenth' century practice of saving the

hest for

188

guests

^avis

tucked into tke

corner.

II

COLOMBIA uxivaRsntT ""

.-"

l-V'^T-/P--^?^i

^ra'wusfaaes:

OF ROMANTICISM

SPIRIT

"^ugm

pervaded the

VrcUis." From an early ^utjin

American scene

u'allpaptT design recalling

medieval motifs. j\vailahle

at the

beginning of the nine-

teenth century, setting the stage for the even-

Qhnstoj^her Hyland

tlxrough

tual acceptance of

Gothic

in the

United

States.

Opposite: Vhis uik^and'water'

color

wash

is

of the cJIromas

This decidedly romantic

H.

c/avlor house on Staten Island,

in the

l^w Yorh^, which was designed

around

1839 hy^^chard

U]^john (who was hctter

articulated

middle decades of the centurv bv Amer-

Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who

known

for his church designs) and

reminiscent of

ican philosophers

mood w as

is

encouraged

return to a simple

life

governed by nature.

It

was

also beauti-

many pcturesc^ue

houses designed hy A..

fully illuminated in the

work of landscape

artists

of the time, whose paint-

"^ai'is.

ings

were

optimism

in a land full of

American wilderness,

boundless promise. Attitudes concerning the

earlier

viewed by pioneers

endured during exploration, had undergone

fierce

reverence for nature and

a clear reflection of the nation's

new

patriotism that

emerged

after the

in

major change. Joined by

War

peared;

made up

a similar style

the nation's

first

and an understanding for the land,

its

fifty artists

it

became known

artists

such

as

all its

shared
as the

Asher Durand, Fred-

Church, John Kensett, and George Inness. Their

nature in

who

head was Thomas Cole, whose naturalistic

views of the Hudson attracted local

eric E.

American landscape.

native school of landscape painting ap-

of an unorganized group of about

Hudson River School. At

of 1812, artists began

celebrating the simplicity and beauty of the distinctive

Around 1825,

terms of hardships

art, celebrating

aspects, possessed a sense of innocence and an idealized

grandeur. Romanticized visions of the

Hudson and

the Catskill mountains

193

Lomsianas Old
partner of A.
J

sippi.

Vhe

State (^apitol
.

^aris, and

m ^aton '^ugc, situated on a kyh han]<j)verlookxna tke "Mississippi ^ver, was designed W James '^akpn. a onetime
built m 1849. ^arkVumn, Jisapprorin*^ of its Qothic facade, referred to
as a sham castle in his Life on the Missisit

dramatic ^otliic interior ojtke castellated building

were commonly executed

in

lias recent!)' l^een restoreti to

sweeping panoramic

views. To a large degree, European perception of

the United States

Hudson River
not only
but

its

as a

was based on the

painters.

art of these

The Hudson River served

stimulus to the imagination of artists

banks also proved to be an appropriate back-

the

i88ofcriod and converted

tarv

Academy

Institute

Town

at

and

West

Old Louisiana

by James Dakon,

turesque views of the Palisades and

New

York

City,

its

where many wealthy

Wayne Andrews ob"would one dav come down with the Gothic
as

writer

is

closeness to

ablv responsible for the capitol building for

it is

New

Yorkers

conceivable that this

been

Bv the middle of the nineteenth centurv, the

American landscape abounded with

a variety of

Gothic structures, from theaters right

down

to

dog

houses. Gothic turned up in cities and towns across

Davis.

J.

contagion himself," wrote, "Sir Walter Scott

chose to build.

the country, adopted for schools

one-time partner of A.

pic-

its

such

as

Kenyon

the

Baton Rouge, designed

State Capitol in

served,

was the southern region, with

like

Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the

northern areas were better suited to the

it

Point; and Virginia Militarv

for municipal buildings,

Mark Twain, who

villas,

museum.

College in Gambler, Ohio; the United States Mili-

ground for Gothic architecture. While the rough

castle-like

to a state

built, if he

little

sham

castle

prob-

not

would ever have

had not run the people mad,

couple

of generations ago, with his medieval romances."^

Prisons, like the castellated Eastern Penitentiary
in Philadelphia; cemeteries, like

dianapolis;

and train depots,

tion in Nashville,

like

Crown

Hill in In-

Church

Street Sta-

were undeniably Gothic. So were

194

.oi.

Company number
Engine House number 6, as

San Francisco's Engine

Baltimore's

Chicago's 1869

one

New

in

and

well as

to

Even bridges, from

York City's Central Park to the

Chestnut Street Bridge, were

fanciful Philadelphia

y\ic

Water Tower, which managed

survive the Great Fire of 1871

a small

not immune. By mid-century, Gothic designs were

being

made up

in cast iron

and applied to a vast

sortment of commercial buildings

It

was

a time of

it

was

as well.

economic prosperity and expan-

sion westward, aided by a

roads;

as-

growing network of rail-

also a time of great achievements

impo5ma Green-Wood Qemctery

entrance and aatchousc, built

m ^rookjyn, N^w

i86i

Yor\^, o[ Belleville

hroumstonc, was desianed hy ^^cUard

UpjoKn and
'JAitcUcll

UfjoUn.

Its

his son

^^chard

elaborate

Qothic

arches recall fai^ades of monumental

Gothic cathedrals

'Philadelphia's (^hestnut Street

Bridae, which once sj^anned tke

Schuvlkjll '^ver,
after a

is

shown

igozflood. Vhc

hridge, built

cast' iron

m 1861-66 with

Gothic arcade and decorative

foils,

shortly

c^uatre'

was designed and enqineered hy

Stricl<^and Kneass. (Considered one of

the

most handsome hridaes

try,

It

in tke

was demolished

coun-

m 1958

M:'
195

heralding remarkable inventions and social changes.

had

An emerging middle class with the desire as well as

the means for a home of their own brought about a

popular that

building

boom, which became

the

most progressive

evolved into a vernacular form. As

it

Gothic flowered
the

and became so

a rich tradition in carpentry,

in rural

American landscape,

and urban settings across

lively interpretations

were

period for residential construction America has

encouraged by the development of the steam-

ever seen.

powered

Country houses were becoming

more

larger,

with

elaborate ornamentation, frequently includ-

ing ribbed and vaulted ceilings, carved mantels and

paneling, and stained-glass windows.
able for houses to have at least

where other

styles

dominated,

It

was fashion-

one Gothic room;

libraries

were often

cessible

scroll saw, a

by the

woodworking

tool readilv ac-

830s, providing American craftsmen

with the means to execute endless varieties of intricate designs.

The carved- wood decoration known as

gingerbread, a term

first

used in eighteenth- century

England to describe fancy carved decoration on

sailing ship,

was

actually an imitation of stone trac-

decorated in Gothic motifs. Houses that took the

ery found in medieval Gothic buildings. Like origi-

whole plunge into Gothic possessed not only

nal Gothic forms, the roots of

sense of drama but a respect for their sites as well;

picturesque yet practical, these

homes ranged from

were often to be found

At

first,

its

in nature.

decoration was applied to traditional

castellated small fortresses to the gingerbread con-

shapes. Generally, earlier houses

fections referred to as Carpenter's Gothic.

with

Carpenter's Gothic architecture, distinguished by

the use of sawn and carved ornamentation, was a

phenomenon unique

Ufsion

to the United States,

which

ornamentation

classical

were remodeled

and Gothic features combined. Per-

haps the best example of this

is

w hat is known as the

Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk Landing,

Maine. The addition of a Gothic barn to the prop-

XXV

PI.

o.

Left an^ opposite; Samuel S\oan, a ^rommcnt

^kilaielpkia

arc\ntcct,^n}o\is\it^ a Kiakly

sucass\u\ tu'O'i'olume joIio'5i^eti pattern

\>oo\^cnt\\\c^

The Model Architect m

1832. ^\aUs

ma^rom mo^tsl
such as

ani

t\iost

incluieci a selection o^\iOus'

to

mansion, as

bracket, aaMe, u'lndou',

for a rustic wayside cottaac.

PSlhmlttCoi

S<im-SIbn Aich*

^f MEG WWKB^T.
196

5limLih)-i*u.Pfcil'

u'ell

as

tietails

s\iown ktrt^or a veranda pst

and

\)a\cony rails

crtv cncoura2;ed

owner, George Bourne, to

its

build an exuberant lace shell of

woodworking

su-

perimposed over the surface of his Federal house

in

The Architect (1847), Lewis Allen's Rural Architecture

(1852), Gervase Wheeler's Rural Homes (1853) and

Homes

for the People in Suburb

and Country (1855),

George Woodard's nine books and Arnot's

1855, producing, through an uninhibited addition of

plus

elaborate pinnacles, boarded buttresses, crenella-

Gothic Architecture Applied to Modern Residences,

tions,

and spandrels,

uniquely personal dwelling.

all

While

Architectural handbooks and builder's manuals

became quite popular

writers followed

as a

number of American

Andrew Jackson Downing; 's

lead

bv brin2;ing out pattern books featuring Gothic designs.

Samuel Sloan, whose best-selling The Model

Architect

was presented

in

two

tolio-sized editions in

1852 and 1853, also published Architectural Review

and Builders Journal, the
its

subject,

first

professional journal on

from 1868 to 1870. William Roulett's

eagerlv read by a surge of

local

were

new homeowners.

craftsmen referred to pattern books,

copying decorative designs from them, or chose

from

a variety

from lumber

of decorative Gothic trims available

mills,

bv the

late

1830s free interpre-

tations flourished; imaginative renderings created

great diversity, ranging from primiti\e to the highly

sophisticated.

and eaves with 'gingerbread' stimulated

das, gables
a

"The opportunity of decking veran-

vernacular expression of folk art that blossomed

in the invention

of a

g^reat variety

of fanciful cre-

ations,"^ asserted Jane B. Davies in her introduction

to the catalogue for the

Art's

1976 exhibition on American Gothic.

While

far

itv.

villas

removed from medieval

cathedrals in

nineteenth-century Gothic cottages

appearance,

and

Houston Museum of Fine

shared with

them

the element of vertical-

Pointed arches and windows, towers, extended

gables

ornamented with

clustered

finials

and pendants,

tall

chimney stacks (English writer John

Claudius Loudon believed that "in every

human

dwelling these [chimney pots] ought to be conspic-

uous objects, because they are

teristics"^),

its

essential charac-

and board-and-batten siding

skyward, creating a strong vertical

all

illusion.

pointed

Board-

and-batten siding, often utilized by Davis in his cottage designs, consisted of a narrow strip of
nailed over the joint

wood

formed bv the meeting of two

wider vertical boards. Downing agreed, finding

to be an expression of strength and

than

the horizontal

houses.

It

was one

distinguished

more

it

truthful

clapboard used in Colonial

of the architectural

elements that

American Gothic cottages from

their

Enalish counterparts.
miET&,2.2^ So

197

H.

^irt ipaths twist

and turn, leading one
on a merry chase

amona hundreds

of

tiny cottages, which

replaced tke tents tkat

originally jilled the

campgrounds

fluffs on

at

Oak^

^artks

Vineyard. aeli cottaae 15 trimrncd with

a unique assortment

of gingerhread carv
ng
xnci

and
ana

all vossess

disarmina charm

One

of the more

unaamative vergehoards found at Oak^

fluffs shows a
rahhit caught between

a hunter and his dog.

There were numerous other

teristics

distinctive charac-

of American Gothic architecture that ac-

counted for

its

great diversity.

These included

carved vergeboards decorating gables and dormers;

hood moldings; verandas with decorative supports,

spandrels, and crestings; crenellations along rooflines;

and

lancets to

wide variety of windows, from narrow

diamond-paned casements occasionally

sporting tracery and stained glass, as well as pro-

windows.

jecting bay and oriel

The popularity of Gothic varied from one region

to another.

Two

fine

examples

in the

West

are the

Lace House, located in the mining town of Black

Hawk, Colorado, and General Mariano Vallejo's

Lachryme Montis (Tear of the Mountain) in Sonoma, California. The Mexican general, a cultured
man, purchased three prefabricated Carpenter's
Gothic cottages that had been shipped from the East

around Cape Horn

nia in

198

850

to

show

after the acquisition of Califorhis patriotism for his

new coun-

Besides

trv.

in

Lachryme Montis, one was constructed

San Francisco and lost

in the great

and the other was constructed

in

earthquake,

Benecia for one of

Gothic

failed to

make major

inroads in the South

because of an absence of major industry, yet scat-

While plantation

tered examples can be found.

owners on the whole preferred Greek Revival, certain Louisiana plantations

rative

Afton

Villa,

such

as the highly

which was destroyed by

1963, and the Orange Grove plantation

as

decofire in

as well

Errolton, a typical antebellum house in Missis-

with Gothic columns and arches,

sippi

from the norm. The

first

strayed

James River plantation

house to be built in the Gothic taste was Belmead,

the

work of A.

Davis, currentlv in need of major

J.

an opportunity for companionship.

meetings were held

In the South,

tow

need of

in

areas,

would often

in

September

cows

arrive with

Camp

daily milking.

after
in

gatherings in

the East tended to attract people from urban areas,

who journeyed

much

to a rustic country setting as

for the chance to experience the simple pleasures of

nature as to experience religious enlightenment.

Presbyterians were the

first

to undertake these

outdoor meetings, but they were shortly joined by

and Methodists, two of the fastest-growing

Baptists

denominations between 1800 and 1850. Methodist

camp meeting

sites

sprang up around the country,

yet they were never formally recognized by the

Methodist Church because of their emotional and

sometimes controversial nature, and the church's

repair.

An

who welcomed

harvesting; farmers

Vallejo's daughters.

remote

lated settlers, scattered throughout

interesting incarnation of Carpenter's Gothic

archives contain

no mention of their existence. One

architecture appeared at religious campgrounds, a

of the most successful Methodist

phenomenon

sites,

that manifested itself during the first

half of the nineteenth century. Religious

freedom

guaranteed by the voung American democracy

spawned

wave of religious fervor

fertile soil for

that

proved to be

numerous new Christian

sects, all actively

wing

for

members.

religious

Revivalist

and

and the largest of eight

Wesleyan Grove,
seaside

later

camp meeting

in Massachusetts,

knowTi

as

Oak

Bluffs.

community on Martha's Vineyard,

was

Now

it is

filled

with some of the country's best-preserved Carpenter's

Gothic houses.

What began

1835

in

as a small

gathering of nine

camp meetings, which sprang up all over the country, were among the more successful ways to achieve

nent community with the introduction of camp-

conversion. These gatherings, lasting from several

ground

davs up to a week,

were unique to the United

States.

Thousands of eager participants flocked to desig-

tents in the

woods

eventually evolved into a perma-

One summer Sundav in 1858,

people journeyed to Oak Bluffs to

cottages.

twelve thousand

attend a service preached by a hundred clergy.

nated locations to hear evangelistic sermons deliv-

was

ered bv itinerant preachers and, in the heat of the

started being replaced bv

emotion, experienced conversion amid shouting,

architectural

shaking, and falling to the

hysteria.

ground

1850s that A-frame canvas tents

campground

cottages, an

form new to America. Manv sported

mild

exuberant gingerbread carvings on gables, door-

Meetings offered an occasion to partici-

ways, windows, and balconies, sometimes combin-

in a state of

pate in animated devotion, setting aside worldly

fairs for spiritual

af-

renewal; they also presented an

opportunity for socializing. Open-air revival meetings

during; the

It

on the western frontier brought together

iso-

ing a

number

of patterns.

Shelter Island Grove, a later and smaller

meeting

New

site

York,

located just off the tip of

is

another thriving

Long

camp

Island,

summer community
199

A.n A.mcrKan transfcnvarc flatter jrom

about

1830 ornamented

panhoM

its

center. ^JAore tyvically

hrown or hluc with

shown

A. rosewood
high was

white,

here

tlie

is less

mauve

common.

hall chair ahout four feet

made

Alexander
seat lifts

with a Gothick^

in

'Hew Yoi\Qity hy

'^ux and

uffor

dated

1830.

Its

storage.

4
A mahocfany

side chair from a set of twelve

J-^ewYork^Qity ahout i860.

200

was made

in

boasting a selection of charming Carpenter's Gothic

houses. Boston landscape architect Robert

who

Copeland,

ris

and

laid

out the streets, parks,

an area bordering Wesleyan Grove,

in

lots

had

Massachusetts, was responsible for the

layout. In 1871 a 2;roup of

from Brooklyn,

who had

ties to

New

campground

Methodist churchmen

York, headed bv John French,

The following year

Camp Meeting

Grove

known

as

the Shelter Island

Association was formed and

and wallpaper, stoves, lighting fixtures, and

great variety of other articles. Gothic furniture was

The

especially fashionable for libraries and halls.

best

Gothic furniture was designed for specific

houses by respected architects. Davis designed furniture for

all

his

important houses, creating

fifty

Gothic designs for Lvndhurst.

With the end of the

Wesleyan Grove, purchased three

acres in an area of Shelter Island then

Prospect.

Mor-

ric

try

was

Civil

left disillusioned.

War

in

865, the coun-

The American dream, en-

couraged bv economic development brought on by

expanding industrialization, had turned from

a fas-

cination with nature to the desire to conquer

cottages had climbed to

number of
two hundred. The small

community, now known

as Shelter Island Heights,

Americans soon began to amass huge fortunes and

five

cottages were built. Bv 1883, the

has remained virtually

unchanged since

its

inception

save for the loss of the 1873 Prospect Hotel,

functioned as the social center of the

and which burned

down

in

which

community

942

motifs began appearing on

made

objects

in

all

manner of household

America, finding their way to

fur-

niture and decorative accessories, dinnerware, fab-

^T^k.
around
surface

Far

Vliis cast' iron andiron

1830

riaht:

in

\s

and sha^c

A.

American.

hase

15

to build impressive houses.

nouveau

riche,

naive charms of

Europe beckoned to the

who now turned awav from

Hudson River

new form sweeping

Europe. For the low-

er classes, cities that had sprung

up

in the

wake of

the expanding railroad beckoned seductively, bringing a shift awav

from rural areas to

cities

and their

surrounding suburbs.

Its lively

recalls Gotliic svires.

delicate side tahle

the

paintings to Impres-

made

made

Philadelphia in tKe i8^0s,

In a

time of great economic growth and exploitation,

sionism, a

Bv the middle of the nineteenth century, Gothic

it.

its

trimmed with acorn jimals

20

Vhc Qothic

cottage at j\ndalusia is

ornamented with ^mtcd

aahles,

diamond'^aned windows topped with hood moldings, and

crenellated hay

windows.

202

1
^bii.

Andalusia

THIRTEEN MILES north of Philadelphia,

form of

rough-hewn stone grotto

Gothic ruin

sits

picturesquely along a bank

of the Delaware River.

large estate

in the

known

It

has been part of a

as Andalusia, the

home

of the Biddies, a distinguished American

family, for close to
tate

One

of the

United
sits

m the

few sham ruins

States, this

first

centuries. Originally consisting of

purchased

in

1 1

3/^ acres, the es-

1795 by John Craig, an export trader whose

connections with Spain must have influenced his selection of the

name

charmina arotto

on a hank^of the ^Delaware

^wr amona the grounds of

Andalusia, ^uilt

was

two

183^,

Andalusia. Craig's daughter married Nicholas Biddle, a prominent banker

who was to become president of the Second Bank of the

United States.

Upon

it

was originally used as a reading

his wife's parents' death in 1814, Biddle

purchased her family's property.

room and a resting spot for ladies

strollir^ tke estate

grounds.

Great care and considerable money went into developing the grounds,

203

?^'W:

Vhc Qothic pool

pavilion at JKndalusia, on a hroad

Gothic house alona

the

Hudson

^^i{\ver

rpansc of lawn

to tke side

bles housing

was

some of the

sta-

dens.

country's finest horses.

The

now

estate

was comprised of cottages, farm buildings,

dairy,

and

a late Federal style

modernized and extended

ter,

who

transformed

it

in

house, which was

1834 by Thomas Wal-

into a

sion with a striking white

Greek Revival man-

columnated facade.

While the main house was decidedly

classical,

the spacious grounds abounded with Gothic structures.

The grotto

at the river's

edge, a rare surviv-

remnant reminiscent of eighteenth-century

ing

English

and

sham

initially

204

ruins,

used

was

as a

m fact a prtion

of a porch rescued from a Qarventer's

spot for ladies during their stroll around the gar-

working farm, with

also a

is

that had hecn demolished.

which included exquisite gardens and natural woodland. Andalusia

of the cottage,

summer house
room and a resting

built as a

reading

It,

too,

was designed by Thomas Walter and

serves as a

several

members

mausoleum, holding the ashes of

of the Biddle family.

Walter transformed

small farmhouse a few

years later at Mrs. Riddle's request into a Gothic

cottage,

which he included

Villa Architecture.

The

in his

book

Cottage and

lighthearted spirit of eighteenth-

century Gothic permeates the Gothic cottage. En-

now the private residence of

James Biddle, who has added to its won-

larged in 1853,
historian

it is

derful assortment of Gothic furniture and accessories. Interior designer

Mr. Biddle to

George Doan worked with

revitalize the cottage interiors in 1976.

Toward the back of the

estate

is

vv

himsical Car-

from about

penter's Gothic garden house dating

1855. Dwarfed by towering trees,

tance

looking like

child's

it sits

in the dis-

playhouse.

It

was

brought to Andalusia from The Dell, an estate on

the Delaware just south of Andalusia.

Gothic Pool Pavilion

is

a relative

grounds, added in 1970.

a

porch salvaged from

It

was

The

delightful

newcomer

to the

actually a portion of

Hudson River Carpenter's

Gothic house that had been demolished.

The descendants of Nicholas

Biddle,

who

have

included bankers, lawyers, diplomats, and senators,

have carefully preserved Andalusia.

Now, James

Biddle, a past president of the National Trust, has

set

up the Andalusia Foundation, which operates

the property.
are

open

The

beautiful

main house and grounds

to the public by appointment.

id

i
j\.

Un\ Gothic

more hk^ a
15

Cjardcn cottaac nestled

child's j^layhouse

now at home

^uilt

under towerma atrarccns look^

m 1833 on

a neitjhhorinij estate,

Vhis nineteenth' century Gothic umbrella stand of cast

the

doorway of the front

the cottaae at

it

at Jindalusia.

]f>orch. It 15

one of

iron

many Gothic

is

situated h\

treasures thatjill

^Andalusxa.

205

eJlie

cottage entrance hall

is

reminiscent of Strawberry Hill, with

hoth Jimencan, are oriainal

to the

house

Vhe pedestal

itis

trom^e

I'ceil

tracery wall^aj^er.

Vhe Gothic

oakjjcnch and chair,

holding an Snglish Gothic lamp and tke radiator cover carved with Gothic

motifs are twentieth' century

206

A.hove: Gothic treasures ahound throughout tke cottage. Here in one of

two

sitting rooms, a lovely

house,

on

tKe

1840. Vhc

lejt, is

Qothic

oal<^armchair original to the

joined hy one of A.mcncan

decorative carved pelmet

A diamond'^aned hay window

for

oj^en

mahogany from ahout

and bookcase

in a hacl<joom,

are recent addition's.

which serves as an o^ce

owner James Middle, holds a hexagonal Qothic

mahogany.

It is

pedestal lahlc of

accompanied hy a ^air of mafic American Qotltic chairs

original to the house.

207

-^

Vhe

Opposite:

bedroom

is

master

dominated

by a beautifully
carved Qothic bed
fainted to

mafle

It

IooI<^IiI<c

was a gijt

from Joseifh ^onaparte,

tk

brother

ofl^j^leon,

to

Kiicholas Middle

about 1833.

eJlte

Qothic painted pine

5ide table is&nglish.

yhc warm

tones of the dinincj

room walls

sc^uared'hacl<^&nglish Qothic chairs

table

and a small round one

One

208

table

legs are

j^rovide a

fleasmg hackaround [or the heautiful

mahoaany from about 1813. ^oth

the center

in the extending bay are twentieth' century interpretations.

of the cottage's treasures

mahogany side
Its

is this

delightful

from about 18^0. Itsapvn

is

Jimencan Gothic marble'tovved

ornamented with

formed by clustered columns. Vhe Gothic

cp,iatrefoils

tabic clocl<^on

it is

while

French.

*^:x^

t^
"''a;

.>,

^.i^

Roseland

^^kt.'^uilt

ROSELAND,

m 18^6 as

a country retreat for

try

Qhandkr ^oiven, ^5e'

land was designed with a

main entrance on
side

tlie

retreat

built

Chandler Bowen,

in

846 for Henry

situated

is

on

green

surrounded by prim Colonial homes

in a

and an

typical

extending prtico were pos'

sihly added in the

Gothic coun-

south

c/ke ]^rojecting

entrance hall

a picturesque

Henry

New

England

village.

It

was the

1880s.

Wells,

who was

better

known

work of English-born

architect

Joseph

for the design of Gothic churches,

Bowen, whose main residence was

in

Brooklyn,

New

Woodstock, Connecticut, where he had grown up, to build

York, chose
his

country

Of]posite:^^scland, a Qar^entcr's Qothic

house in Woodstock^, (Connecticut,

is

distin-

cottage.

guished hy an ahundance ofQothic motifs,

ly
such as hoard' and'hatten sidina, triple

and

ciecoratii^e

glared stoneware

successful silk merchant,

Bowen

published an influential week-

journal called the Independent and was a founder of Brooklyn's Plymouth

ctahles

ornamented with veraehoards, pinnacles, and

croclqts,

Church.

A man

of unquestionable virtue,

Bowen had

selected the "point-

chimney stacks of

ed

style" of architecture, as

Gothic was referred

to,

because he believed,

211

as

many

morally

in the

nineteenth century did, that

more appropriate

it

was

than other architectural

House

the Rotch

in

New

The property

\yas christened

flourishing rose gardens set

Roseland for

among

its

attractive land-

The main entrance on

south side, however, with

window, and projecting entrance

hall

w ith an

ing portico, a possible 1880s addition,

ing alley (one of the earliest), an ice house, and a

original.

The well-connected Bowen often entertained

at his

country residence and became

known

for his

Independence Day parties, which were

lavish

tended by

leading; writers

at-

such as Oliver Wendell

The board-and-batten

dusty purple, was painted

darker trim

in the

at the

time

w ith

of the furnishings

States Presidents of the late nineteenth century.

architectural detailing.

lively

asymmetrical cottage,

while reflecting the influence of A.

unique.

Made up

J.

Davis,

is

of a riot of gables and steeply

dormered windows trimmed with carved verge

boards,

it

sports a variety of windows, from trefoil

and oriel to
east side.

Opposite.
the street,

c7he casX
\\(xs

pointed tracery

The facade

window on

facing the street

is

the

siding, originally a

present pink with

to have designed a

it

was

it

Preservation of

now open

some

Thomas Brooks is believed

number of pieces as well. Many

Roseland remained

1970

designing

motifs that repeated interior

of the original furnishings are

years. In

built,

the

in

in the

still

in the

Bowen

house.

family for

was acquired by the Society

New

England Antiquities and

to the public during the

It is

ixXm^ma^rom

dommateci bv a

vaneled

window ornammud with

^hovc

IS

similar to

either

iarae

tracery.

an oncl window and a laracjinial

elaborate carved

hlackjvalnut about

Vhomas brooks.

GotUic

i8^6
It is

settee

is

made of

attributed to

one of the oriamal

pieces o/ jurniture furckased hy

is

summer months.

tUat intersects tke a^cx ofthcaahlc.

Vhis

24

for the

s\h of ^seland, janna

a reran^ia

panhoM.

5iie o\<x

a large

distinctly

890s.

Holmes and Henry Ward Beecher, and four United

The design of the

its

is

extend-

Wells completely furnished the house

Gothic style

the

three dormers, bay

its

scaped grounds, which included a barn with a bowl-

privy.

steep

its

window, and extending pavilion

central gable, oriel

pierced by side verandas.

styles.

Bedford, with

Henry

(^hand ler ^oi^en for '^seland's

double parlor.

213

214

Kingscote

NEWPORT,
^R^ht: Kin0scote

is

vorite

an

mtcreshna example of the

5 had

ow

Its

Island, has

summering place

been

a fa-

for wealthy south-

erners traveling north to escape heat and

of liaht and

effective use

Rhode

ively front

disease-carrying insects

the

since

early

extends, then withdraws,

1700s. By the start of the nineteenth cen-

then projects out atjain in

tke suaacstion of a tower.

Vhc

entrance, with

decorative canopy,

tury,

its

is

lost its posi-

tucked

tion as a leading seaport and

hackjn

however, the town had

gone into

a steep decline.

Nevertheless,

the recess.

southern visitors continued to arrive, staving

Opposite

in small hotels

and rented

Kinascote was

l^w^rts frst

imj^rtant

cottages, and in

1839 George Noble Jones,

prosperous Savannah planter,

ninetunth'untury summer
house.

^ handsome asym-

metrical ^otkic cottaae,

was

decided to build a

summer

retreat there. His

would be the

first

important

it

nineteenth-century house constructed in Newport.

built bv arc kitect

^^R}chard

Ufjohn

for Qeor^e
ualtfi^

in

1841

Jones purchased a breezy rid^etop

lot

with views of the harbor and

l^hle Jones, a

Savannah

planter.

ocean and hired Richard Upjohn to design

a cottage,

complete with indoor

215

Tl^TT.l^T^lfT

<ki\

Urn

0i:

^
i&iJ
iW

ki

'11
HP

I^JP U

m
m

nn nnU
^

range of decorative Qothic details includes crenellation trimming the edge of a hay window, hood moldings atop windows, roojlines edged with

jleurs'dc'lis,

and gahles trimmed with an undulating scalloped vergehoard

plumbing and sleeping apartments

Upjohn was
Trinity

time involved

at the

Church

in

for servants.

in the design of

New^ York City and had been

re-

ers, as well as a crenellated entrance

canopy and

veranda supported by slender clustered columns.

The exterior

surface, originally pale beige,

is

com-

sponsible a few years earlier for Oatlands, a large

posed of horizontal wooden boards covered with

Gothic house in Maine built for John Gardiner,

paint- and- sand mixture

Jones's father-in-law.

However, Gardiner's daughter,

Delia, died before Kingscote

moved

into his

summer

was

cottage in

and Jones

built
1

841 with a

new

The handsome asymmetrical house

ing,

resembling several of A.

Rural Residences.

It

Gothic forms, such

J.

encompasses
as gables,

paned and bay windows,

216

sonry.

Its

native and

imported

is

unassum-

Davis's designs in
a

wide variety of

vergeboards, diamond-

label moldings,

and dorm-

and scored to resemble ma-

lovely garden, containing a

trees,

such

wide variety of

as

paper birch,

sweet cherry, Sawara cypress, dogwood, American

elm, and balsam

bride in hand.

fir,

reflects the influence of land-

scape designer A.J. Downing.

Six

months

after the Civil

War broke

out, Jones

shipped the contents of the house back to Savannah

and deeded

it

to a Canadian relative, motivated,

perhaps, by concern that

it

might be confiscated.

In

1863 the cottage was purchased bv Wihiam King,

Gothic, correspond as closely as possible to the

but several vears later King had a mental break-

original cottage.

down, and
Jr.,

it

was leased by

who named

become
done

it

his

nephew, David King,

Kingscote. Bv

880,

Newport had

the height of fashion, with entertaining

in a

grand

stvle.

space and en2;a^ed

King was

in

need of more

McKim, Mead & White

sign a three-story addition.

The

to de-

architects endeav-

ored to make the addition's exterior, while not

A. veranda runs

aloncj the east side

After William King's death, David's

chased the house.

It

widow

pur-

ultimately passed on to her

who battled land

developers and the citv of Newport, who were both
intent on destroving the house. Upon her death in

granddaughter, Gwendolin Rives,

1972, Kingscote was

left

of Newport Countv and

to the Preservation Societv

is

now open

to the pubHc.

of Kinascote, overlooking Cjrounds filled with an impressive array o[ trees and shrubs.

Vhe

house and

its

landscajfe rej lect A..

'^ounincjs

helief in the importance of siting.

217

IMj

Staunton Hill

IN

1848,

Gothic plantation house

the

Staunton

Hill,

designed by John E. John-

was

built

on

son,

bank of the Staunton

River in Charlotte County, Virginia, for

Charles Bruce.

Having graduated from

Harvard, Bruce embarked on the Grand

Opposite:

Vhc pcturcsquc

Staunton Hill,

dccl<^d

his return, set

up

his plantation

on

five

out with turrets and

exaoQcratcd hood moldinas,

remote killtop

Tour through Europe and, upon

castlclik^

is

situated on a

m soutkern Viramia.

It

was

thousand acres purchased earlier by

be the third wealthiest

man

his father,

James, vNho was reputed to

in earlv-nineteenth-centurv

America. Produc-

once a plantation house at the center of a

tkru'iiw

^,ooo'acre

Ahove: A. short
plantation kouse

distance to tke
is

ing tobacco, corn, oats, and hav, the plantation required five thousand

estate.

u^'est

of the

Its

extending entrance

Bruce went on to become a

state senator

a Gotkic cottaae, which

functioned as a billiard room as well as a

plantation offce.

slaves to operate. In later years,

simple ja^ade has an

prck

and collected one of the most valuable

libraries in the countrv.

Staunton Hill was more fortunate than

manv southern plantation

houses.

u;itk pointed door-

ways and a trianaular window centered ahove

While not

far

from

number of Civil War

battles,

it

survived untouched

^-

219

Vhc umntcrrui^ud
Hill's

wcstfagadc

mned

oncl

top.

surface of Staunton

is

hrok^n

W a diamond'

window positioned

Just hclow

\t IS

high on

a formally arranged

garden

'^elow: A. crenellated veranda

u'ltJi

extended central portico runs across

an
tlit;

symmetrical storyhook^facade of

Staunton Hill

lawn

in front

Staunton
K'V0)1 j

220

j\ wide expanse of

drop

shari^ly to the

^ver and

miles of unlderness

because of

remote

its

location. Positioned

on

unencumbered view of

hi^h above the river with an

miles of wilderness stretching out before

house
tle,

is

its

built in the

a hill

it,

the

form of a small symmetrical

cas-

castellated and

closelv allied to the

more

turreted silhouette

garden

decorated

follies that

ei2;hteenth-century English landscape gardens than

to the

American

villas

of

Downing and

The Gothic- inspired house includes

eried window, flanked by turrets,

overlooking the

river.

Davis.
a large trac-

on the third

floor

Label moldings trim diamond

paned second-story windows, while crenellation

over the front veranda repeats the edging of the
roofline.

diminutive Gothic cottage to the side

served as a plantation office and a billiard room.

Inside,

Gothic motifs include an octagonal en-

trance hall with a ribbed ceiling and a library with a

bav

window

SxauwXow HiH's octoaonal mXrayxa

kali is

orwMnmXti

u'lth

jour

nicfids

koIdiM^ classical sXaXwxry. yhrcc of its doors, which have pointc^i ^ancl'
ing,

arcjlank^d u'ltk clustered columns.

Vhe front

door has colored insets

facing out onto a colonnaded court.

to

simulate stained glass.

Lining the librarv walls are carved bookcases orna-

mented with pointed arches and

crenellations divid-

ed bv clustered columns. Gothic details are also

scattered about the house in mantels,

on

plaster

moldings, and in the staircase balustrade, composed

of Gothic arches.

For a number of vears in the earlv twentieth

centurv, Staunton Hill

fell

Bruce familv; however,

out of the hands of the

in

1933,

David Bruce,

Charles's grandson, repurchased 275 acres of the

property, updating the house and adding a wing

onto the back. Bruce had

little

time to enjov

it,

however, because shortly thereafter he was appoint-

ed head of the

OSS

in

Europe, followed bv

Undersecretary of State, then a term

bassador to China. During his

a stint as

as U.S.

visits to

am-

Staunton

number of prominent visitors,, from Ladv Astor to Dean Acheson. The house
Hill,

he entertained

and grounds are

S.

Bruce,

who

now

in the

hands of his son, David

has recentlv turned the estate into a

conference center.

One

wall of the likrarv, u'kick once housed one of Americas most impor-

tant collections,

is

lined with arched hook^ases divided hy clustered

columns and decorated with

three-paneled hay

trejoils

and crenellation.

cJo tke rear is

window with diamond'j^aned glass.

^ouhlc

cottages at

222

Oak^^luffs

arc rare.

Surrounded hy a small yard,

this one is situated

on a corner

]^lot

just inside one of the

cammround

entrances.

Bishop Gilbert

Haven Cottage

Vimc

seems

inside the

to

have stood

OAK

still

cammrounds ofOak^

'fluffs, a sniaW

town of

community of

diminutive cottaaes on '^artha's

Vineyard that started

life

site.

I'

is

contrasts; hidden just behind an

assortment of noisv restaurants and tourist

in tKe

middle of the nineteenth century

as a ^Methodist

BLUFFS, Massachusetts, todav

II

shops

is

a tranquil

campground, once the

cam^ meetina

Wesleyan Grove,

site

as tKe

of hvelv rehgious revival meetings.

3Metko(li5t camj^around was

Here, ornatelv trimmed minuscule Car-

'

initially called, includes several

cottaaes tkat have heen joined

together. Here, identical

tottaaes

l^uilt

around

penter's Gothic cottages, about 320 in

line

all,

narrow winding

streets,

Gothic

1869

have

many unpaved. Sandwiched

together, thev

form

irregular

rows around

heen comhined into one.

central preaching area, with smaller circles at the outer edges of the

grounds. Writer William Pierson,

the

Jr.,

found these tiny jewels to be "one of

most remarkable concentrations of

folk architecture

anvwhere

in the

country.'"^

Wesleyan Grove,

as the

campground was

originally called

when

it

was

223

ahc

cottages were con-

structed on a platjorm,

ahoutafoot off the

ground, of singic'layer
hoarding.

Windows and

doors were cut out and

often the sj^are material

was reused

to

hoard up

the cottage in winter,

yhe fr St floor had two

rooms, the front heing the
parlor and tke hacl<^con'

taming a narrow

stair-

case to the second floor.

formed

in 1835,

dered by

accompanied by
in the

At

first

an ideal

site for

there were only a few tents

and benches

set

midst of the half-acre grove of oaks, but by

number of

Days were

filled

tents had increased to 200,

with prayer, song, and meditation.

In the evenings, as the

air,

a preacher's stand

1854, the

sea

a solitary bluff, bor-

pond and open pasture

revival meetings.

up

was located on

sound of hymns

camp took on

the

filled

a magical quality,

the soft

glowing

with lanterns in the trees and candlelight illuminating the tents.

By mid-century,
tiny,

tents

began being replaced by

uniquely proportioned cottages, most no larg-

er than twelve by twenty feet, with steep gables

pitched

at

45 -degree angles.

typical cottage

story and a half high, with a living

floor

was

and

bedroom above under

originally single-layer

room on

was

the

fir^t

the eaves. Siding

random-width

vertical

tongue-and-groove planks, but in later years a number of the cottages were covered with shingles. After

224

1880 most owners added front verandas and dormers to increase the living space.

Many

cottages

Association was formed; ten years later an

octagonal wrought-iron tabernacle was construct-

Around

lacked kitchens (camp meals were eaten at large

ed.

communal

nies, the

tents), but,

by the turn of the century,

immense

this

Oak

time two land developing compa-

Bluffs

Land and Wharf Company and

kitchens and bathrooms had been added to the backs

the Vineyard Highlands, began purchasing property

of most dwellings.

bordering Wesleyan Grove, building houses that

1860 the Martha's Vineyard

In

JAost of the

Camp Meeting

turned out to be larger versions of the campground

cottacjes

Imvc hccn added

aci^uirina porclids

usually a kitchen

to,

and
the

hackihisOak'^luffs
cottage,

with

its synall

ovcrhanaim balcony

i5

one of the few that have

not had a roof-covered

porch added onto

their front.

Opposite helow:

On

either side of a cottage's

front door are small

lancet

windows framed

with hood moldina.

^^tK windows and

doors were cut after tke
walls were in place

WKiIe

all tke cottaaes

were unique, they

possessed a strona simi
larity that

sense of

hrouqht a

harmony

to the

storyhook^comm unity

225

1880 the three groups

cottages. In

form the town of Cottage

to

were 500 cottages and

One

united

renamed Oak

City,

By the turn of the century, there

Bluffs in 1907.

World War

officially

10 tents; with the start of

only one lone tent remained.

1,

ment. Today, cottage owners travel from

the country to open their tiny

summer months. The

summer

over

for the brief

present owners of the Bishop

Gilbert Haven cottage,

for thirty years,

homes

all

who

have

owned the

come from Ohio

cottage

to spend each

Grove cottages belonged to Bishop Gilbert Haven.

Oak Bluffs. Their four children, all of

whom have honeymooned at the cottage, have a

The

special feeling for the time they spent

more important of

of the

fanciful

the Wesleyan

Gothic cottage, situated on a broad,

known

grassy expanse

as

Clinton Avenue,

is

prime

example of the exuberant camp meeting form of

architecture.

carved

dulating

moldings end

and two

High gables are trimmed with an unin corbels over

sets of

there and

now

bring their

own

growing up

children to

ground holds.

windows and doors,

pointed church-like doors flanked

by slender windows, the

set

above opening to a

small overhanging balcony, adorn the front facade.

covered veranda wrapping around on one side was

added about twenty years

The cottage was

after the cottage

was

built.

1872 by

originally built in

Brooklyn resident John French and given to Bishop

Haven, an active abolitionist and

campground, shortly

after

preacher

he was named

of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

at the

bishop

literary

man

and an admirer of Ruskin, Haven was the editor of

the Zion Herald, a weekly publication. In August
1

874, shortly after Bishop Haven acquired his cot-

tage. President Ulysses S. Grant,

his

accompanied by

wife and an entourage of reporters and friends,

visited

Wesleyan Grove on

a political tour, staying

three nights at Bishop Haven's cottage. While the

president and his partv spent

little

time on Martha's

Vineyard, he and Mrs. Grant attended Sunday services preached

by the zealous Bishop Haven,

who

was reported to have given the greatest sermon of

his career.
i

By 1 885, enthusiasm

for revivals

was

all

but spent.
'T'resiient \l\yssts

The camp

cottages

class families

were now

who journeyed

filled

with middle

to the area

more

for a

vacation than for the pursuit of religious enlighten-

226

visit

and experience the simple pleasures the camp-

hood

exaggerated

vergeboard,

in

S (^rant
.

anA. \ns entourage arc

shown

here on

the i^orch of bishop Qil hcrt Haven's cottage, one of a concentration

of (Carpenters Qothic cottages

popular

niy\cteenth-- century

m Oak^^luffs, Massachusetts, a

rehaious camj^ meeting

site.

^isliop Gilbert Haven, a noted orator, received

as a aijt

from

his j^arishwncrs shortly before

Ins cottaac, one

of the laraer ones

m OahJ^lujfs.

President Qrants arrival

Ill

J{.hovc:

One

adornma

of the slender Gothic windows

the cottaae

is

inset at the top

colored etched glass, as are

many

with

of the cottaae

windows, yhe hroad hooded molding, with

decorative clover i^attern,

touch to the facade,

rior, this decorative

^he front

i^orch oj the lovely

around a side entrance.

Its

^iskop Gilkrt Haven

douhle doors on the ground

flanked with slender pinted windows,

and

Its

front roof were later additions.

228

cottage

re^^eat the

level

wrap

and

front facade

ahove,

Vhe prch

^elow: Once on

room was

kitchen was added

to the rear

It.

the inte-

Gothic window looking

into a small living

enclosing

its

hnngs a fanciful

left

intact

when

of the cottage

yhe

small

cottage j^arlor
15

simply

furnished.
Interior skutt^rs

add a

decorative

element.

Vhc

front door

just to the

is

left.

On a (juiet street

4.

230

ywt far from the Uarhor at Shelter Island Heights

is

this Qar]^e}her's

Gothic

cottage, one

ofman\ on thisjormer '^ethodist

camjf^

meeting

site.

Tom

Fallon Cottage

HOUSES

IN

THE METHODIST

ground of Shelter

Island Grove, situated

the eastern tip of

Long

were arranged

in

r^ ^HH^^^^HHkltoMliiH
Oak

Bluffs,

manv were

erected in
still

on

New

York,

scallop-shaped

rows

around the east side

tages at

camp-

Island,

of

Union Chapel,

87S. While larger than the cot-

modest dwellings. Gothic influences

flourished here as well, with an assortment of pointed

windows and doors,

gabled roofs, and gingerbread trim on the porches, balconies, and towers.

^n inacnwus solution jor Icttina

m more natural Uaht, the ^intcd
o^nin0, cut hiah u^ on one of the
stair walls, follows

cottaaes Gothic

tite

One

of the typical Carpenter's Gothic cottages in the quiet

now known

as Shelter Island

community

Heights was purchased in 1981 bv

Tom

Fal-

shaft of the

windows.

lon as a

summer

retreat. Built in 1875,

Pettit family, the original

it

remained

owners, until about 1960.

in the

hands of the

Initially

constructed

231

in the

form of a

cross, the cottage

number of changes over

Fallon bought

room and an

now

upstairs

added

The spacious

living

room, which most probably

two rooms, included

a large rustic

stone fireplace as well as wall paneling added

after

Mr. Fallon

it

was

made

at

porches

number of changes but

be-

first

set

house was surrounded by deep

cind a thick

priority

web

of trees and branches, his

was to bring

light into the

jKn antique
peach wall
ceihna,

house

as

he

about thinning out the growth. Inside, walls

were painted cool shades, and

it

232

at the

top of the

stairs,

Nmtlxayx ^ass cKanielier ^u^^xt^ tke \ns^\roX\oy\ \or the

m the icmxm room (jomJ^ined u^ith the 50^ tone oj the

c(}ior

awes the room a Swedish jlavor

element
dark

assisted

each piece that graces

mix up

derful antiques

with

things
its

who has

unexpected,

friends who have added to

bv
J

tic collection;

make

Mr. Fallon

Mr. Fallon,

a special eye for putting together the

like to

one bed-

kitchen by enclosing a portion of the porch.

When it came to decorating,

was

in

hall.

cottage has a quirkv character. As the

built.

lieved in the importance of retaining the house's integrity. Since the

eaves, providing a decorative

covered by weathered shingles,

ing.

some point

basement, was installed under converging

as well as light to the

originallv constructed of board-and-batten sid-

originally

in the

room

a half feet

was

was

the upper section of a pointed window, discovered

and

bedroom had been extended two and

the exterior,

the years by the time Mr.

the dining

it;

had undergone

this

his eclec-

wonderful

owner

savs: "I

objects with a sense of humor.

Won-

combined with nickel and dime

come

alive."

The

large living

imposing Gothic chair from

stuff

room,

Masonic

lodge, as well as the kitchen have an Adirondack

feeling to

them, while the dining room possesses an

eighteenth- century Swedish

cJhe cottage's small aucst

mood, with

its

pale

hcdroom has a pointed cu toiit that not only

Junctions as a chirmina decorative device hut, more importantl)', provides

liaht to the stairu'ell

Vhc

cottaac's

room, with

its

Iwina
larac

stone jircj^lacc, a later

addition, has the feci of

an A.dirondackJodae

Vhe

cozy lowceilinaed

room, filed with an

eclectic collection

of

treasures, is decidedly

masculine, u;itk a
strona dash of whimsy.

In the far corner of the livina room,

afniah

topped ^otitic chair originally used in a '^asonic

lodge asserts

its

presence.

^othic window looks out

Vhe
to

slim shuttered

a side porcfi

encircling tke cottage.

233

-y

->

'

c/lit'

pared'

lioum hcdroom

m this

Opposite,

fascinatincj Shelter

Island cottacjc has

appeal. Simple
It

Cjrcat

in spirit.

captures a soxsc of the

onainal campground
cottaae. cJhe tlouble

doors lead to a small

halcony.

colored walls and

its

muted aqua

ceiling.

Mr. Fallon

faux-marbled the floors and added columns. The

dining room's beautiful Venetian chairs were found

Inaenuity

is

tKe trademarl<^of this cottage kitchen

Mock^ table made from tke sink^openina

from

its

hutcher

to the built-in dresser

drawers under the rear counter.

in an offbeat antique shop.

Mr. Fallon painted

ciled leaves

on

it

himself.

ed window, found
be extended.

in a

When

kitchen floor, then sten-

his

To accommodate

a point-

junk shop, the ceiling had to

who built the

know how to build

the carpenter

kitchen confessed he did not

drawers, Mr. Fallon found an old dresser and had

built in

under the counter.

butcher-block table

made from

the part of the countertop that was cut

out for the sink opening. The benches are church

pews

that

were

was simple:

"1

left in

wanted

the house. Mr. Fallon's goal

a

house that would be wel-

it

coming, one touched with fantasy that was not to be

is

taken too seriously."

He succeeded

admirably.

235

liSiSSii

s
1

,8

^ra'wus]f>acjcs:

"York}nmskr ."

ITH

c?ltis

THE END

of the devastating Civil

War

in

fahnc dcsian from '^ak^r combines a

jloral

motif with architectural elements,

common

desian theme in

tlic

1865,

newer American

such as

Queen Anne,

early

architectural

Stick,

styles

and Shingle began

nineteenth century.

usurping the picturesque Gothic so beloved by

Opposite:

Art,

Vhe

built in

]\(ationaI

1862 m

Jicadcmy of

Davis and Dow^ning. Gothic, however, was not

]\[eu' Yorl<^

Qity, was dcsiancd hy ^eter ^onnett

Wiaht '^minisccnt
.

Palace

in Venice,

it

American example
Victorian

st^'Ie

of the

was an
of the

early

m 1899

forms

lost favor, the style

off.

While

earlier

romantic

reemerged under the guise of High Victorian

HyH

cJKis pkotoarapli icas

takpi shortly hefore the

demolisKcii

about to be written

^oges

Gothic. This newer form, also referred to as Venetian and Ruskinian

buiUm^ was

Gothic, turned
Italy

its

back on English influences, casting

its

sights instead

and Germany for design inspiration. Forms remained

regular and buildings

became more

eclectic

and

ir-

and imposing, distinguished bv

heavy, coarse detailing and polychroming, a

utilized the intrinsic colors of brick

livelv

on

method of construction

that

and stone to form contrasting

patterns.
Just as Sir Walter Scott sparked an enthusiasm for Gothic in the United
States earlier in the nineteenth century, the widely read
critic

John Ruskin were largely responsible for the creation of this

proach to Gothic. His architectural theories, voiced

books. The Seven Lamps

c)f Architecture,

three-volume The Stones of

sides of the Atlantic.
is

books of English

Venice in

"Much

in

two

ap-

influential

published in 1849, followed bv his

185153, inspired architects on both

of his writing

is

contradictory (some, in

nonsense)," write Calder Loth and Julius Trousdale Sadler,

book The Only

new

Proper Style, "but his enthusiasm

Jr., in

combined with

fact,

their

^ih tor

239

and repeats the same idea continually.

beautiful but the Italian Gothic

While Ruskin never went so

actual application, architects

is

It

is

very

the nobler style ."^

far as to

advocate

its

became intrigued with

monu-

his beguiling descriptions and, before long,

mental Venetian Gothic structures started appearing

American

major

in

cities

throughout

country! Loth and Sadler refer to

them

the

as "un-

abashed declarations of the opulent materialism of a

more

confident age."^ Used primarily for

such

cial structures,

as the city halls in

commer-

Richmond,

and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the

Virginia,

Connecticut state capitol in Hartford, the

ly

conveyed

One

style apt-

power and majesty of government.

tlie

of the earliest U.S. examples of Ruskinian

Gothic was the 1865 National Academy of Art

in

New York City, where architect Peter Bonnett Wight

turned to the Doges Palace in Venice,

a favorite

of Ruskin's, for inspiration. The Jefferson Market

4at>l

KS

Courthouse, designed by Calvert Vaux

I.

in partner-

ship with Frederick Withers, both English trans-

and built

plants,
c/he majesty o\

opvimmtni

15

Qothic (Connecticut State Qafitol, halt

buiMm^

eJhe

15

m the Hialt Victorian

in Hartford m 1872-79.

ampl)/ expressed

the u.'or]<^of ^^chard

^itcKell UpjoKn.

the

style.

make him one of the

most popular writers of his time

main Victorian

his

works

of the history of taste."

classics

Ruskin's writings are

filled

with praise for

medieval Gothic architecture, with

its

with

in the

Frank Furness, an American

was

re-

in

Italian

use of pat-

Fine Arts in Philadelphia, designed

George Hewitt.

his partner,

In Boston, the

re-

formed by colored masonry and restrained

Victorian Gothic, but

before

it

was copied from

He

Veronese Gothic

stated in The Stones of Venice, "the

is

strong in

masses, but perpetual in

French Gothic

is

weak

in

its
its

masonry, simple in
variety.

The

later

masonry, broken in mass

it

only survived thirty years

in

1908. Isabella Stewart Gardiner's Fenwav Court,

and such found

Gothic forms of Ruskin's na-

of Fine Arts, completed

was replaced by the Copley Plaza Hotel

built in

in the

Museum

878, was architect John Sturgis's tribute to High

ornamentation so unlike the crockets, pinnacles,

240

was one of

sponsible for the 1876 polychromed Pennsylvania

forceful expression served to

its

in 1875,

architect particularly adept at this style,

Academy of the

England.

York

most famous of the buildings executed

High Victorian

structure.

tive

New

cJKis inl<^

drawing of the Senate front shows a small ]^rtion of the imposma

terns

in

Boston

privately

in

1901 to house her art collection,

a Venetian palazzo

and

is

now

owned museum.

Castle building in the United States was for the

most part

left to

teenth century,

the closing decades of the nine-

when many

of the great American

fortunes were amassed before the creation of a national

income

tax.

The newly

rich, in their

need to

impress, endeavored to gain social acceptance by

flaunting their wealth.

They entertained

ostentatious houses, similar to those

pean

nobility.

The construction

lavishly in

owned by Euro-

as well as the

main-

tenance of these opulent estates was facilitated by an

immigration

influx of

at

the time, which brought

skilled craftsmen as well as unskilled labor into

this country.

A number
the 1880s, a

homes constructed in
time appropriately referred to as The
of magnificent

Gilded Age, were inspired by French chateaux of

the sixteenth century, which were a blend of late

Gothic and Renaissance influences. American archi-

Morris Hunt,

tect Richard

worked

in France,

among

a desire

who had

was one of the

the wealthy for

to recognize

first

homes

sented their newlv found status.

style referred to as

studied and

He

that repre-

introduced a

Chateauesque, or Frances

among

I,

which was

also

monied

While these sumptuous residences mir-

set.

popular in England

the

rored the attitudes of the times, they were to have

little

influence

common

folk.

fond of this

Avenue

The Vanderbilts were

style;

New

designed

on more modest dwellings of the

William Vanderbilt built

York City mansion

Chateauesque

the

in

particularly

at

style

660
in

HuntFifth

1881,

ornamented with the salamander and crown, the

emblem

of the French king Francis

I.

His brother

J^

Lt|it,SO\^

llWl-^ Ah.^v^-j ^>

'"7*

-U-. n?i

George chose the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains

outside Asheville,

North Carolina,

spectacular mansion.
situated

on

as the site for his

The magnificent Biltmore,

125,000-acre estate looking out over

cJke arckitectural Xt(xm

rts^ns\\At\or tke pol^/chramed

tke iorntr of Sixtk
the

miles of virgin woodland, was completed in 1895.

Still

owned by the

public,

who

glittering

are

Vanderbilt family,

now

it is

o^Qo\vvcX Vaux

(xni Frederick^ Witkers

1873 Je(jfer5on

A.vcnuc and loth Street in

most famous of the hmldings done

^^ay\i^\

was

Qpwr^oust

l^w Yor]<^Qity.

m the '^R^sh^man manner,

One
it

aX

of

once

housed a market and a jail

open to the

able to catch a glimpse of the

world of the wealthy around the turn of

the century.

241

Qi^or^e

m
'^^^H
jtibiH

'"tiffin

Washimton Vanmaamficcnt

derhxlts

'^iltmore

estate,

structed from

1893,

con-

189010

located

15

liiMHH
umiUii

Ashanlie, N^rth (Caroli-

Ih^^i
^^H^H
BlBiMB
^H^^l
i^^^^H
^^^IH
^^^^^B

^chard JAorris Hunt

mu

na.

Vhe

eminent architect

was responsible jor

Francis

tke

i^yroom

style

mansion. Landscape
designer Fredenck^Laiv

Olmsted

laid out tke

123,000 acres surroundina tke house.

Oppsite;

^MarMe House, a
l^wpjrt man-

sensational

1892,

sion huilt in

da;^<lif^ Qothic

room dcsiancd
small Qotkic
IS

lias

sitting

to display

objets

dart.

It

distiiwuisk^d by stained-

windows, areat hronze

flloss

cliandeliers,

and an immense

crenellated ckimncvpiece
u'lth i^anels of

domestic scenes.

c/lic

Left:

most nit'morable

ojtke rooms at
tlie

I^^uprt

^e! court,

summa retreat

of Oilier Belmont,
nitwnijiccnt
loncj

is

tke

samtyfoot-

hxnch Gotkic

ball-

room Fu'e dmmatic

.

stained-aloss ifiniou's
dcpictiiw early Frnick court
life

stretch along one wall,

with tkirteentk-centurv
foil

242

tre-

wmdows above tliem.

Newport, Rhode

end of the cen-

Island, near the

became one of America's most

tury,

summer

resorts. Its

prestigious

rocky seacoast was lined with

fabulous mansions set in lush gardens with rare fo-

The mansions were designed

liage.

most

wealthiest and

American

architects

Codman, and

Hn

influential families

such

Hunt, Richardson,

as

Newport mansions incorporated

some form of Gothic, such

at

by leading

McKim, Mead & White.

the firm of

of the

Several

for the country's

an elaborate fireplace

as

Chateau-sur-Mer, a French Gothic drawing room

XIV Marble House

in the lavish Louis

of Mr. and

Mrs. William Vanderbilt, and a ballroom grand

^:,|

enough

II

to satisfy a medieval king at Belcourt, the

Louis XIII hunting lodge of Oliver Belmont.

Chicago had become the center of commerce for

]?

1^

T5

....

!t

the Midwest with the establishment of the railroad

system, which transported grain into the thriving

<:

city

from the

prairies for milling

cattle in for slaughter. Its

to multiply tenfold

1871

fire in

The

and storing and

exploding population was

from 1850

to the great Chicago

leaders of midwestern society in

the 1880s were Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer,

were known for

their

who

extensive art collection.

Their Chicago home, built in 1882 on Lake Shore

Drive between Banks and Schiller

bled a medieval Gothic castle.
>

fell

u^knm

6J

1lj

chitect

Henry

Ives

It

streets,

resem-

was the work of ar-

Cobb. Palmer,

real

estate

developer and owner of the famed Palmer House,

jif,

had started
store,

^-^^5*^^111:

empire with

dry goods

which he eventually rented to Marshall

From
which

his business

Field.

the ashes of Chicago's destructive

virtually leveled the city,

fire,

sweeping away ten-

ements, slaughterhouses, factories, and workhouses,

.

cJUi^-j'-'V^^^

J1-J.I.-J

emerged

a profusion of progressive architectural

forms designed by
Vhis study for
scrafcr in

the thirty story

Wool worth ^mldmg,

J^w York^Qity huilt m

1913, was done

as
the

244 +

own

breed of architects, such

Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright,

who

Qothic sky-

m ^Mav of igio.

established Chicago as a leader in

chitecture.

its

The eminent

contemporary

architect

ar-

Henry Hobson

Richardson was responsible for the 1872 Gothicstvle

American Express Building, erected

go.

was

It

surance Building, the

first

Home

major structure to

steel-skeleton construction,

The

first

Chica-

is

architects.

Collegiate Gothic, frequently selected for a

li-

brary or chapel, flourished from 1890 to 1930.

utilize

Colleges such as Bryn Mawr, built near Philadelphia

frequently referred

in

1896;

Trinity

College

in

Hartford,

187380; and Yale Harkness Quad

skyscraper.

constructed in Philadelphia in 1851, was the

some

its

Meade Howells and Raymond Hood

In-

eight-storv Venetian Gothic Javne building,

building of

were

commission and one of the few he

his first

did in the Gothic style. Chicago's 1885

to as the

in

world. John

first

height to be built of iron columns.

built in 1917,
versities as

in

built

New

in

Haven,

emulated such revered English uni-

Oxford and Cambridge. The success of

collegiate Gothic

was due to

a considerable

degree

By the end of the nineteenth century, with the development of

scrapers

cast iron

would

and structural
change

radically

steel,

sky-

skylines,

city

usurping the space that was once the sole domain of

Not immune

spires.

to Gothic influences, these

cJhispkoto of the

ui^j^cr

stones of the

Woolworth '^uildina

Qothic detailing, c/he skyscraper, referred

loo]{^d

to as

hiahliahts

decidedly to the future while remaining resvcctful of past traditions.

towers of industry and commerce were embellished

with historical references linking them to the past,

the result of a reluctance to relinquish what

was

familiar.

Burnham and Root's Masonic Temple,

skyscraper built in 1892,

spected

New

York

is,

a gabled

in the opinion of re-

Times architecture editor Paul

Goldberger, "an icon of turn-of-the-century Chicago." "^ Architect Cass Gilbert

1913

Manhattan

Woolworth
tailing.

turned to Gothic for

masterpiece,

the

building, distinguished by

The world's

its

was considered the ultimate

his

sixty-story

Gothic de-

tallest building until

1931,

in skyscrapers.

it

Three

years earlier, the University Club in Chicago, de-

signed by the firm of Holabird and Roche, had been

constructed in collegiate Tudor. But the Chicago

skyscraper that received the most notoriety was the

1925 Chicago Tribune Tower,

Gothic-inspired

steel structure

with stone overlay, based on the

Tour de Beurre

in

Rouen, France.

It

was the

result

of an intense international design competition spon-

sored by the Chicago Tribune, which was in need of

new

headquarters and determined to settle for

nothing

less

its

a cathedral of commerce,

than the most beautiful building in the

245

"H
A.

example of

iy^xcai

the cJudor style

m the

ular

vof

19205

and early 19305,

tlii5

stucco

and hnch^

m l^w

seaside house

Jersey was Wilt

1926

bvtke

'^alionev Qonstruction

Q).

It

fea-

tures a iecoratiue

half'timher fai^ade,

two

cross aahlcs, tall

narrow windows,
and vromment chimneys.

to leading architect Ralph

Adams Cram, who,

in

style of fourteenth- century

Gothic

the only great

partnership with Bertram Goodhue, an outstanding

U.S. cathedral to be built in the twentieth century.

early-twentieth-century draftsman, and Frank Fer-

Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson received

guson, until 1914, specialized in ecclesiastic and

sion to

collegiate structures. Their firm

the expansion of

was responsible

for

West Point Military Academy and

the University Chapel and Graduate College at

Princeton,

all

Cram was

designed in the Gothic

a prolific writer

and

New

remodel the immense

York

St.

commis-

John the Divine

City, unfinished to this day, converting

in
it

from Romanesque to Gothic.

Gothic turned up in residential buildings during
the early decades of the twentieth century in the

style.

a staunch sup-

form of Elizabethan-style manor houses, recognized

time

symbol of affluence. By the Roaring

porter of Gothic; his The Gothic Quest, published in

at the

1907, and The Substance of Gothic, published in 1916,

Twenties, the automobile offered mobility to many,

were

and, as families

first

delivered as lectures. Cram, like Pugin

before him, believed that Gothic was the only appropriate style
that

fit

for Christian worship, a belief

determined the design of

churches.

number

The group was responsible

design of New York City's

fire

St.

of major

for the re-

Thomas Church

destroyed Richard Upjohn 's original, and

after^

at

one

style

as a

moved

Tudor houses

to the suburbs, medieval-

proliferated. In

warmer climates,

Gothic appeared with a Venetian or Spanish

One

of the

more

winter residence of

flavor.

spectacular was Ca'd'Zan, the

showman John

Ringling and his

wife, built in Sarasota, Florida, in 1926 and de-

signed by

New

York architect Dwight James Baum.

point they supervised the construction of the re-

Gothic forms in general, however, were rapidly

cently completed Washington National Cathedral of

ing favor, and in 1928 the respected art historian Sir

Sts,

Peter and Paul, built in the English Decorated

246

Kenneth Clark would write

los-

that "the real reason

A.

detail

of sUowman John '^n^luttjis

thirtx'room Florida mansion,

cxoUc Venetian Qotlnc

jinial'toppt'ti

Qad

]f>ala::izp.

Zan,
shows

the
its

oQccarchcd doors and windows

handmade of tinted Venetian ^l ass. A. Qothic

ohservatory

to]^s

tke sixtyfoot

Spanish tower,

hased on a similar tower at the old ^^adison

Sauare Garden huildincj

m J^w Yorl<^(^ity.

Qad'Zan, on Sarasota ^ay, was completed

^^wiaht James
which was hased
It

15

^aum
in j^art

was responsible for

on

tlit

^oaes Palace

constructed of poured concrete and

decorative alazed terra-cotta

in

igzS.

its desi<^n,

in

Vt niu

()ritl<^u'itli

tiles.

247

why

the Gothic Revival has been neglected

produced so

little

on which our eyes can

is

that

it

rest with-

gables, soaring chimneys, arched

das, in their designs for

out pain."^

to

change.

contemporary residences.

Collegiate Gothic interpreted into today's terms

The Great Depression of 1930 brought

effect

windows, and veran-

introducing

architecture,

Around 1932,

movement

a sobering

profound

a revolutionary

new

design

arrived in the United States. First con-

ceived of in

Germany

in

is

also alive

and well. Recent versions include the

Lewis Thomas Laboratory for Molecular Biology

Gordon

Princeton, built in 1986, and the

at Butler's College,

1919, the Bauhaus school

Wu

at

Hall

Princeton, opened in 1983.

1988 the architectural team of Philip Johnson

In

stripped away ties to the past, concentrating instead

and John Burgee executed a skyscraper

on an

LaSalle Street in Chicago topped with extended

idealistic,

streamlined approach to design.

soon became known

It

in the States as the Interna-

was not

It

until the 1960s,

est in restoration

movement

and preservation, that

surfaced,

architects like

with renewed intera counter-

younger

by

spearheaded

Robert Stern, Robert Venturi, and

Charles Moore,

who

crusaded for the return of or-

namentation and architectural references rooted

tradition.

in

This concept of returning to cultural

roots revitalized architecture. Tagged "postmodern,"

it

ernism

duo, such

on embellishing contemporary forms.

Gothic and

classical

elements that had been lan-

guishing for decades once again

emerged

trans-

as the

Atlanta

Johnson has
rules,

also

and

if this

opens up

results in a

High Victorian Gothic came

more

interesting

by attaching to

it

architecture

images from peo-

make

ple's pasts,

from people's memories,

that

mean more

than the pure forms of the

last fifty [or]

it

Many new homes

such

most

today recall familiar forms,

as the cottage, villa,

successful

combine

and meeting house; the

Neoclassical elements have never been

more widely

utilized, yet a

number of respected

Hugh Newell

Jacobsen, the Centerbrook Archi-

tects,

and R. M. Kliment

&

architects like

Frances Halsband have

turned to Gothic-related forms, such

248

as

extended

no longer any

measure of chaos,

as a

breath of fresh

twentieth century, a distinctly romantic

it

air

spirit has

materialized yet again, motivated in part by an

awakened

and

interest in nature

its

it

has
its

and a concern for our

come

renewed appreci-

rich reservoir of motifs

close ties to nature.

As Penelope Hunter-

Siebel, in her introduction to the

1989 European

Gothic show, "Of Knights and Spires," commented,

on works

are at last able to cast our eyes

were the pride of another age and

feel

no

that

guilt at

the excitement they elicit."^

Architecture, in an effort to express the spirit of

a respect for past tradi-

tions with ingenuity, innovation, and imagination.

PPG

As we journey into the twilight years of the

"We

sixty years."

building and

Revival."^

ation for Gothic, with

make

renowned

this

after the archaeological correctness of the Gothic

"We

interested in trying to

in

possibilities for inventiveness, just as

environment. With

all

IBM

by

said, "is that there are

formed. Architect Charles Moore commented,

are

90 South

Place in Pittsburgh. "The only absolute," Philip

was based not so much on rejecting modas

Gothic gables. Gothic strains can be discerned

several other skyscrapers designed

tional Style.

at

an age,
it

is

constantly being redefined, bringing with

widely divergent attitudes. Yet

that,

it

is

imperative

whatever the current fashion may be,

we

lose sight of the fact that the history of a nation

be found

not
is

to

in the richness of its architectural her-

itage, created

through a layering of

wide

assort-

y\dorncd with

trefoils

and jinials,

this

small oijccarckcd Gothic conservatory

from

the

'^achin Qomj^any,

the landscape, combines the

modern technology with

sitting alone

wonders of

tke .spirit of

eiahteenth' and mneteenth'century

SSM.vj

ment of
has

styles.

been

lost

Much

ass houses.

Gothic architecture of value

through the years because,

as

it

has

gone out of fashion, we have lacked foresight to

preserve

Now

it.

that Gothic has again

shadows into the limelight,

tempt

will

amples of

emerged out of the

it is

hoped

that an at-

be made to save the best remaining exit.

The time

has

come

to recognize that

Gothic's rich architectural legacv

is

an important

part of the fabric of America and, as such, should be

regarded

as a national treasure.

J\.n oasis of calm,

^ass house
a

few

a^iiiet

is

an

^e gracefvXiy ar^Md

ideal spot jor en]oy\ng

moments among a

collection

of foweringT^lants and vines.

249

Mar-a-Lago

floU'leof ceilm^

15

copy of the cJhousani

Wina

m
m Venice,

(^eiUiw

A.ccadcmia

tftc

THE CONSTRUCTION

with sunhursts substi-

of the luxurious

Roval Poinciana Hotel and the Palm Beach

tuted for an^el faces

tainted
15

m the arches

Inn

(now the Breakers) around 1894 bv

a mille-fieur design

Henry M.

accom]^anied hy armorial shields hearincj the

Flagler, a partner

with John D.

Rockefeller in Standard Oil, put Palm

insignia of the '^oges

of Venice.

Beach, Florida, on the map, establishing

as

one of the fabled winter watering holes for the rich and famous.

order, the rich began building lavish

homes along

its

shores.

it

In short

The most

Oppo5ite: Qlittering regal lions stand

guard

sumptuous of these mansions was Mar-a-La2;o, owned bv Marjorie Merri-

at the trii^le- arched entrance to

the splendid salon

of^ar-a-Lago,

weather Post, the cereal heiress whose father had established the Postum

'^arjorie'^erriweather host's
extravagant

^alm ^each

now owned

hy

tke swee]f>ing

Donald

marble

mansion,

c/rump.

Cereal Company, which in 1929 became the General Foods Corporation.

Uv

stairs, pa5t rou'5

of

Ms. Post,

who

inherited the business in 1914, was instrumental in

5inuou5 columns, a small loggia overlook^ the ocean

phenomenal

success.

251

its

'^J\Aarjonc

svlcndid

^^crnwcathcr

svau

host's fabulous

'^ar-a-Lago

m '^alm '^cach was completed m

m tke iiy room house, has rare sill^needlework^j^anels from an old Venetian palace inset around the ivalls.

Marjorie Merri weather Post married four times.

Her

first

marriage, in 1905,

when

she was eighteen,

was to Edward Bennett Close. Edward Francis Hutton, the stockbroker, followed in 1920.

husband, Joseph E. Davies,

whom

Her

third

she married in

1935 shortly after her divorce, was ambassador to

the Soviet

Union from 1937

husband was Herbert May,

to 1939; her fourth

whom

she married in

1958. Ms. Post's Washington, D.C., home, Hill-

wood,

is

filled

with Imperial Russian treasures,

many purchased during her

was
it

left to

stay there.

The hous^

the Smithsonian Institution, but in 1978

was returned to the Marjorie Merriweather Post

Foundation and
profit

1^2']. c/Ke mansion's salon, the most

is

now

museum open by

operated

as a public

written request.

non-

With

the completion of her Mar-a-Lago winter

residence in 1927, Ms. Post became the head of

Palm Beach

society.

Her

15 -room mansion, set in

seventeen acres of landscaped grounds, took four

years to build.

The crescent-shaped house, with

flanking wings, boasts

fifty- eight

three bathrooms, and three

was

bedrooms,

bomb

shelters.

thirty-

There

also a theater.

The mansion
by concrete and

is

situated

steel,

on

a coral reef

anchored

with Lake Worth on one side

and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Designed by

Joseph Urban and Marion Sims Wyeth,

its

architec-

mix of Spanish, Venetian, and Portuguese

influences. Old Spanish tiles, some dating back to

ture

is

the fifteenth century, were used extensively inside

252

_jt

cJhe chilcHtood

room of actress '^ina '^crnll, ^Ms. host's daughter hy her second husharui, 6.

Ji hechwe freifilace

is

surrounded hy a rosehush

in j^laster relief.

A. gilded Gothic

dressing table

F,

Hii (ton,

is set

15

out of a fairy

tale.

against one wall

253

and out. The most important room

in the

the magnificent Itahan Gothic hving room.

leaf ceiling
in the

is

copy of the Thousand

Accademia

in Venice,

house
Its

Wing

is

gold-

Ceiling

with sunbursts substi-

c/he elaborate' salon, an opulent jantasv

nese designer Josepk

ian Qotlnc hooded jireplace

from

Its

ii'itli

a stwsc o^a siaat

WrhayisY^ia dc re'sistance.
.

A. pair 0/ 'Bristol ^lass

set, is

pint

Its focal

is

an

VienItal-

ckandeliers hang

svcctaciilar ceihna.

tuted for angel faces.

Ms. Post died

in 1973, leaving her estate,

had been designated

landmark, four years

which

earlier,

to the state of Florida, but the state soon found that

it

was too expensive to maintain,

mon

problem com-

OYpositc: ^nti^ue

Sfamsk

to these vestiges of an opulent age. Mar-a-

lanterns arc suspended from

Lago, most definitely one of America's architectural

pointed arches around the

treasures,

was more fortunate than manv.

In

1985

room, which reflects a hlending of

it
Italian, S]^amsh,

was purchased, along with

its

furnishings, for ten

million dollars bv the wealthv developer Donald

Trump, who

ISA-

has restored

it

to

its

original glory.

and '^ortuQucse
entire

^oorisfi,

influences, c/he

house (displays an

amazyng concern for

detail

4.

255

Lfilifii'rii

McKim House
Vhc

'^^R^kt:

south side

ofthc^^cKim
15

house

dominated hy a lona

vorte cochcrc leading to

the

main

entrance.

actually

It is

an extension

of the roof of a storage

shed.

A wide

cornice

WHEN CHARLOTTE McKIM

with j^lychromed
brackets

is

decided

tucked

under tke extending

to build a

summer

retreat, she

looked to

gahle of the roof.

Fishers Island,

summers

known

where she had spent her

as a child. This exclusive, little-

enclave located three miles off the

^^^^^'^ Connecticut

shoreline

in

Long

Island

Sound, accessible only by small plane or boat, has managed to keep an

Opposite: Sited high on a hluffon Fishers
Island,

tfie

shingles

wmdswe^^t house has cedar

and ha]^hazard rough-hewn

trim scattered across pediments, brackets, and

a halcony. In most houses,
kori;^ontaII)',

flii'iiMi

windows

an indication

and

placement and are scattered across tke

exterior, mali^ng

it

di|jficult to

determine

where tke jloors are and how they are

u'ltkm a room

in an area of the Atlantic

Coast where

summer

brings a flood of

tourists.

line ujp

oj^a'kere

tke jloors are. Here, they vary in size

anonymity

sticky

Ms. McKim, an independent filmmaker and screenwriter, selected

Mark Simon and Leonard Wyeth from

the architectural firm of Center-

brook, headquartered in Essex, Connecticut, to design a house for her that

j^laced

would be informal and would work well when entertaining numerous

257

Facincj north across

aahle

window

to tKe

dimna room

258

Long Island Sound,

this lively facade lias

that covers a hedroom halcony

and an

helow. In front of the dinina room

an extended

entrance, one of six,

is

weekend

guests. Their solution

was

a structure that

redefines Gothic images in twentieth-century terms.

a dec\.

Packed with surprises,

it

forces

all

who

experience

it

to reevaluate their preconceived notions of space

embraces

and ornamentation.

try that gives

The

solitarv house, positioned

its

surroundings.

It

now

bluff overlooking the sound, has

fortably into

on

windswept

settled

com-

was constructed

in

a variety of forms,

oval living

way

room

round en-

to a hall that in turn leads to an

sited diagonally to the axis of the

house and dropped several

height.

opening to

feet to

rectangular dining room,

it,

create extra
too, at an an-

approached by ascending several steps leading

1988, with a storage shed to one side attached by a

gle,

roofed walkway. Echoing nearby Gothic Revival

out of the living room. This in turn leads into a

houses,

exudes

it

Gothic feeling

as well as in its use

in its eccentricity

of architectural elements, such as

is

square kitchen. The master bedroom, on the sec-

ond

floor,

is

oval in shape, with a

peaked window

extended roof, gabled and peaked windows,

and small balcony looking out to Long Island Sound

and polvchromed brackets running around the wide

and the Connecticut shore beyond. The unexpected

a steep

cornice under the eaves.

The gray rough-hewn

trim that distinguishes the facade

twigwork found

in

is

stick

reminiscent of

Adirondack cabins, recalling the

strong heritage of American craftsmen.

The

cedar-shingled exterior, with

mix of shapes and

their positioning creates a sense of

exploration in a house that refuses to take

itself too se-

riouslv.

Referred to bv editor and writer Martin

Filler as

ran-

"a wittv tribute to the eccentric seaside architecture

domlv arranged assortment of pointed windows

of the late nineteenth century,"^ this Fishers Island

and

lively

its

irregular stickwork,

its

which decorates

six

weekend cottage

has achieved that delicate balance

portes cocheres and balcony, hint at the cottage's

between

complex

past yet very contemporary.

interior. Inside, the

c/he \arat peal^(i

master

cony

m the ovc\

extends out o^\\\i

u'all

lo^orm a bav. -A small

bal-

\)tdiroom.

as tfiouah

vcm^ovc

it'itfi

YCQ]icis\rom

xixni^om
It.

swdtf^^aXXiYmm

c/he kead board oj^the

bed repeats tke iisxan of the stick^or\<^

four-bedroom house

playful

and functional, reminiscent of the

NOTES
Opener.

Hussey, "Houghton Lodge

John Ruskin, The Stones of

Venice

(Boston: Estes and Lauriat,

1851

7.

53), 2:181.

Part
1.

Part

I.

Horace Walpole, On Modern Gardening: An

New

Essay by Horace Walpole

1.

York: Young Books, 1931), 38.

2.

Walpole, On Modern Gardening, 42.

3.

George

Museum

of Fine Arts, 1976),

&

inburgh: A. Kincaid

&

J.

5.

Terence Davis, The Gothick

Taste

Pleasure of Ruins

Horace Walpole, A

Kirgate, 1784), Preface,

(London: Weidenfeld and Nicol-

7.

From

Walpole to Bentley, Correspondence, 35:148.

8,

1747, Cor-

8.

376.

Through England (Westminster:

of Mr. Horace Walpole

by Thomas

iv.

with Cyrus Redding in

Life

(Cranbury, NJ: A.

9. Charles

and

Letters

c.

1837, quoted

in

of William Bedford of Fonthill

S.

Barnes

&

Rest:

A View of English An-

Co., 1974), 124.

Locke Eastlake, A History of the Gothic

Longmans, Green and

Society Publications, 1757), 271.

12. Barbara Jones, foi/ies anJ Grottoes

Villa

Hill Press, Printed

Linda Hewitt, Chippendale and All the

tiques
Travels

f the

(London: William Heinemann, 1910), 299.

10. R. Fish, The Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener (1864):

Camden

a conversation

Lewis Melville, The

son, 1953), 27.

Bishop Richard Pococke,

Description

(Twickenham, England: Strawberry

spondence, 35:148, Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT.

1.

Horace Walpole to Henry Seymour Conway, June

6.

Horace Walpole to Richard Bentley, September 1753, Corre-

(Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dick-

in The Guardian (1713).

7.

9.

(New

respondence, 37:269, Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, CT.

Alexander Pope, essay

Rose Macaulay,

18301870

in America,

Bell, 1762), vol. 3.

6.

8.

Trust

Bros., 1858), 2:354.

4. Ibid.

of Kames), Elements of Criticism (Ed-

190.

2.

Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life, Mr. Gilfl's Love Story

don: Putnam, 1927; reprint, 1967), 130.

Home

A National

Follies:

Cape, 1986), 153.

inson University Press, 1975), 14.

Lord Karnes (Henry

(April 10, 1951):

Meulenkamp,

4. Christopher Hussey, The Picturesque: Studies in a Point oJView (Lon-

5.

Life

III.

York: Harper

133.

Country

Jane B. Davies, The Gothic Revival Style

(Houston:

"Back to Nature," Avenue Magazine (February 1989):

2. Kelli Pryor,

J.

I,"

Wim

Headley and

GuiJe (London:

(1780; reprint,

3.

Gwyn

Revival

Co., 1872; reprint, Leicester

and

(London:

New York:

Leicester University Press and Humanities Press, 1970), 44.

(London: Constable, 1953), 18.

10. Davis, Gothick Taste, 56.

PartlL
1.

John Papworth, Designs for Rural Residences (London: R. Acker-

mann, 1818, 1832;

reprint, Farnsborough:

Gregg

Humphrey Repton,

Observations on the Theory and Practice of Land-

(London:

James Chambers, The

J.

1.

in

Mark Girouard,

(London: W.

Norton,

1985), 242.

15, 1958): 1065.

IV.

Rose Macaulay,

Pleasure of Ruins

2.
I

Mark Bence-Jones,

Gavin Stamp and Andre

Leicester University Press and Humanities Press, 1970), 43.

4.

Kenneth Clark, The Gothic

6.

(New

York: Harper

Quote from The

260

An

Revival:

& Row,

Statesman

Essay in the History of Taste,

1962), 94.

(May

15,

1815), in Christopher

I,

Ireland

English

House

vol.

(London: Burke's Peerage, 1978), 24.

1860-1914 (Boston: Faber and

3rd ed.

(London: Weidenfeld and Nicol-

Burke's Guide to Country Houses,

Locke Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival (London:.

Longmans, Green and Co., 1872; reprint, Leicester and New York:

4. Charles

5.

"Alscot Park, Warwickshire," Coun-

son, 1953), 441.

Taylor, 1803), 138.

English House

(May

try Life

Part

scape Gardening
3.

Quoted

International,

1971), 25.
2.

1.

3.

Mark Girouard,

Goulancourt,

The

Faber, 1986), 20.

"Cardiff Castle, Glamorganshire," Country

Life

(April 6, 1961): 760.

5.

Olive Cook, The English House Through Seven Centuries (Wood-

stock,

NY: Overlook

Press, 1983), 293.

Part
1.

2,

TechnoIoa\ and

St//e5

2.

Longman, 1833),

V.

William Picrson,

(New

Jr.,

American Buildings and Their

the Picturesque: The Corporate

Architects, vol.

and the Early Gothic

York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 2:384.

Alexander Jackson Davis, Rural Residences

1837, 1838; reprint.

New

York:

DaCapo

(New

4.

5.

William Pierson,

2, Technology

(New

Styles

and

American Buildings and Their

Jr.,

York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 2:420.

Part VII.

Press, 1980).

Calder Loth and Julius Trousdale Sadler,

3. Ibid.

1.

Gothic Architecture in America

Pierson,

6. A.

J.

Jr.,

American Buildings and Their

Downing, The

Architects,

Architecture of Country Houses

Appleton, 1850; reprint,

New

3023.

(New

York: D.

York: Dover Publications, 1969),

Dover

I'illas

New

and Cottages (1855; reprint.

York:

Publications, 1970), x.

5.

Downing, 295.

(New

York:

American Gothic:

Random House,

Origins,

Its

(Houston:

Museum

Triumphs

7.

8301 870

8.

Its Trials, Its

Jr.,

John Claudius Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm, and

Architecture

Villa

and Furniture (London: Longman, Brown, Green and

9.

New

York Times,

Sytle,

34.

September

Quoted

Revival:

An

1988, Architec-

Essay in the History of Taste,

York: Harper & Row, 1962),

(New

9.

Sow

Barbaralee Diamonstein, American Architecture

in

York: Rizzoh, 1980), 126 27.

Leland M. Roth, A Concise History of American Architecture

& Row,

&

Martin

(New

1979), 359.

Penelope Hunter-Stiebel, Of Knights and

Rosenberg

of Fine Arts, 1976), 6.

The Only Proper

Kenneth Clark, The Gothic

York: Harper

1975), 82.

Estes and Laurait,

View column.

(New

2. Jane B. Davies, The Gothic Revival Style in America,

3.

Loth and Sadler,

3rd ed.

Part VI.

Wavne Andrews,

Style:

York Graphic Socictv,

of Venice (Boston:

John Ruskin, The Stones

tural

6.

1.

The Only Proper

Jr.,

New

York:

1851-53), 2:225 26.

4. Paul Goldberger,

7. Ibid.

9.

2.

3.

Calvert Vaux,

(New

1975), 112.

388.

8.

Architects, vol.

the Early Gothic

York: the author,

4. Ibid.
5.

and

the Picturesque: The Corporate

(New

Spires

York:

Stiebel Gallery, 1989), 8.

Filler,

"Gothic Getawav," House and Garden (June 1989):

105.

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GLOSSARY
.\n extension at the east

Apse

end of

church, usually semicircu-

w ith

a domed or vaulted ceiling.

A curved structural support that spans an opening.
A parapet w all w ith notched edges.
Battlement
Board and batten
A sheathing for frame buildings made up
lar,

narrow

strips of

w ood covering

of wide

the connecting

projecting support under cornices, eaves, windows, and

balconies used as a decorative element or for structural support.

Castellated

Having battlements and turrets

like

those of a medieval

The

east

end of

church, close to the

altar,

reserved for

clergy and choir.

Corbel

or vault.

England

in the late eigh-

window s,

projecting block, usually of stone, that supj)orts a

Notched edge topping

Crenellation

pic

tower w

edges of pinnacles, spires, roots, gables,

Dado

all.

carved, ornamental foliate projection used along the

The lower portion

ol

etc.

an interior wall trom lloor to around

waist height.

Fan vault

rool projection housing a

highly decorated fanlike

typical of the Perpendicular

beam

its

turesque design.

Dormer

castle.

Chancel

rustic building popular in

clustered chimneys, and often thatched roofs, noted lor

Crocket

Cottage orne

joints.

Bracket

decorative molding, usually used as a terminal element.

teenth and early nineteenth centuries, having gables, bay

Arch

vertical boards with

Cornice

Einial

An ornament,

Gothic

w indow.
webbing of ribs within

a \aull,

style.

frequently leallike, placed

at

the top ot a

tower, spire, or gable.

263

Flying buttress

projecting masonry arch against an outer nave

is

used

element topping

as a decorative

a gable, buttress, etc.

wall that strengthens the wall bv applying counterthrust against the

Polychrome

pressure of the yault.

sonry created with banding of contrasting colored brick or stone,

Gable

form created by the juncture of two sloping

triangular

typical of the

roof lines.

arch that comes to a point

at its

apex.

ditch lined with stones to contain livestock, eliminating

Kih

down

ed

ceiling.

rain.

\\a.\

the sides of

windows

Also called a drip molding or a label

pointed

window

support dividing
axial

volume

glazed window.

by side

The

area, often triangular,

supporting glass in a Gothic

An

Ogee arch

arch introduced around

posing S curves that

window

story,

Pier

solid

plaster with

between the

side of an arch

it.

window or used

for

ornamenting

screens, walls, buttresses, and gables.

Transept

gles,

projecting structure.

Turret

end of a building.

section of a church that intersects the nave at right an-

forming

Trefoil

a cross

and furnishing space for small side chapels.

A three-lobed
A small tower

cloverlike pattern.

sometimes extending from the corners of

building.

elongated ornamental projection.

.\r\

Pinnacle

composed of two op-

300,

decorative element found above doors, windows, and

fireplaces, or at the gable

Pendant

to a point.

bay window, generally extending from an upper

supported by

Pediment

come

in a vault-

Decorative curvilinear pattern in the form of mullions

Tracery

aisles.

Oriel

composed of cement or

and the vertical supports enframing

ot a church, usually flanked

band

ornamental form.

Imitation marble,

Spandrel

carriages.

marble chips or other colored material.

characteristic of early English

Gothic.

The main,

was used to shelter

decorative cloverlike pattern consisting of four lobes

A round

Scagliola

A narrow

covered areawav attached to a building, usually

structural element or decorative projecting

Roundel

molding.

\ave

Quatrejoil

projection, frequently rounded in form, extend-

and doors to throw off

MuUion

joined together.

ing across the top and part of the

Lancet

multicolored design, such as a pattern in ma-

large house, that originally

the need for a fence.

Hood molding

High Victorian Gothic, 186S-1880.

Porte cochere

An

Gothic arch

Ha-ha

Having

Vault

support designed for vertical pressure.

.\n

arched ceiling of stone or wood.

An ornamental carved board

Vergeboard

attached to the edge of a

gable roof. Also called a bargeboard.

small turretlike Gothic structure, usually pointed, that

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Art and Architecture Collection, Miriam and
sion of Art, Prints and Photographs,

Astor,

The

Lenox and Tilden Foundations:

Christopher Hyland: 19091; Louisiana Division of Historic Pres-

D. Wallach Divi-

Ira

New

York Public Library,

ervation. Photographs:

Donna

Fricker: 194; L\Tidhurst, a property

of the National Trust for Historic Preservation: 185 (below), 189

13, 18, 22, 31, 50, 93, 170,

re-

(Rod Bradley); John Mahoney: 178-81, 198, 210-12, 214-17,

served: 8, 142 (above); Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library,

222-25, 227-29, 249; Collection David and Larry Marshall. Pho-

17576; Copyright Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. All rights

Columbia University
(above),

in the City of

172, 240; Courtesy Baker:

Ashville, N.C.: 242 (above);

New

York:

166,

236-37; Biltmore

Brunschwig

&

Fils

tograph: John Mahonev: 143 (center and right), 200-01;

169, 171

York Historical Society: 168, 195 (above, George

Estate,

&

County. Photograph: Richard Creek: 243; Royal Arts Foundation,

R.I.

Photograph: Christine Eagan: 242 (below); Royal

Commission on the Historical Monuments of England: 97; Royal

10-11, 32-38,^9

Institute of British Architects.

Copyright British Architectural

54-57, 62-71, 74-77, 80-83, 88, 94-96, 98-99, 104-32,

brary/RIBA: end paper, 133

(right),

91;JacquesDirand: 251-55; Michael Dunne:

133

Co., San Francisco:

Commission: 195 (below); Preservation Society of Newport

Newport,

of The Right Honourable The Lord

Dickinson: 39 (right); Courtesy Dillingham

(left),

cal

134 35, 16465; Courtesy Cooper-Hewitt

Museum: 84-85; Courtesy

Hall and Son,

N.Y., c.1905), 238, 244, 245 (John Gillies); Philadelphia Histori-

Archives: 16-17,

4647, 171 (below); drawing by Georgia Chambers: 241; Courtesy Clarence House:

P.

New-

(left),

136, 143

(left),

2,

144-63, 182-84, 185 (above), 186-88,

202-09, 218-21, 230-35, 250; Photographic Collection Florida

State Archives: 247; Nigel

Hudson:

15,

24 30,

40^5, 58-61,

72 73, 78-79, 100 02; Timothy Hursley: 256-59; Courtesy

264

Preservation of

New

England

139;

.Antiquities:

The Society

Li-

for the

213; Ursus Prints:

140-41, 142 (below); Vineyard Museum/Dukes County Historical

Society:

20,86

226; The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University:

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senior editor at House Beautiful, Kathleen

Mahonev

home

brings to the subject her expertise in

furnishings, color, and design. She lec-

tures around the country

on trends

furnishings and has judged

competitions.

New York

the

Mahonev

is

in

home

numerous design

member of

an active

Board of Directors of the

Inter-

national Furnishings and Design Association

Michael Dunne

pher

an international photogra-

is

w'ith offices in

work

London and

New York.

His

has been featured in House Beautiful and

Colonial
in the

Homes among other publications, both

United States and England,

Some Other Abrams Books

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY DECORATION:
DESIGN AND THE DOMESTIC INTERIOR
IN

ENGLAND

By Charles Saumarez Smith

388

illustrations, including

189

plates injull color

NINETEENTH-CENTURY DECORATION:
THE ART OF THE INTERIOR
By Charlotte Gere

500

illustrations, including

REGENCY DESIGN

BUILDINGS

250

plates injull color

1790-1840:

INTERIORS

GARDENS

FURNITURE

By John Morley
471

illustrations, including

Jacket Jront:
aviary.

The Ring,

132 plates injull color

built

in

776

as

an

Photograph: Michael Dunne

Jacket back:

The Eastnor

Castle drawing

room

of 1849, designed by A. W. N. Pugin. Photograph: Michael

Dunne

Harry N. Abrams,

Inc.

100 Fifth Avenue

v.rk,

t'nnica

N.Y 10011

m Japan

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:BN

D-flim-33fll-D
90000

780810"933811