Cobham Hall: the House and Gardens

COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS TIM TATTON BROWN Cobham Hall is one of the largest and finest great houses in Kent. It was built in at least five main campaigns between about the midsixteenth century and c. 1840 and contains some exceptional features. Surrounding the hall is an equally fine and interesting parkland landscape, though very many of the mature trees were destroyed in the great storm of October 1987 and the gales of January l 990. Much important documentation (State Domestic Papers, papers at Hatfield House and in the Mellon Collection at Yale University and other material) exists for Cobham Hall, as well as an important group of estate maps (in the Centre for Kentish Studies), but this has never been systematically studied. Important work on various aspects of the documentation has, however, been done over the last century or so. and this has been listed in the references given below. It is particularly surprising that the huge Elizabethan house, which is reputed to have cost Lord Cobham £60,000, has been so little studied. The most intensive research to date has concentrated on the achievements of the 4th Earl of Darnley over a fifty year period of intense activity ( 1781-1831 ). This building work is mainly by James Wyatt and the Reptons and it completely transformed much of the house and grounds. THE SITE There must have been a fine house on the present site Uust under a mile north-east of the parish church) from at least the middle of the sixteenth century, but no remains of the main house are visible above ground. When Queen Elizabeth came to Cobham in July 1559: 'a blanketing house [was] made for her maiestie in Cobham parke, with a goudlie gallerie thereunto composed all of greene with several I devices of knotted flowers supported on each side with a faire row of hawthorn trees, which nature seemed to have planted there on purpose in summer time to welcome her maiestie and to honour their lord and maister. 1 This must have been a temporary structure in the park. TIM TATTON-BROWN The earliest centre of the manor of Cobham was probably on a different site, and it seems quite a strong possibility that the original manor house was situated south of the parish church. 2 In 1362, when the College of Chantry priests was founded in that area by John de Cobham, third baron, the site may have been surplus to requirements. 3 Whether the new Cobham Hall, north-east of the village, was first built at this time or later cannot be known without archaeological excavation. John de Cobham, the third baron and a great soldier, was also building a large new castle at Cooling in the 1380s and this remained the principal residence until the mid sixteenth century. 4 He possessed many other manors in the area. George Brooke, 9th Lord Cobham, had acquired the King's manor in Rochester (i.e. the earlier Cathedral Priory) in 1550- I, and in l 558 sold it back to the Dean and Chapter just before he died. By then he had apparently already started to demolish it.5 The materials may have been used for a new house at Cobham, perhaps being built in the 1550s. The site of Cobham Hall is in a shallow chalk dry valley at about 300ft above sea level,6 and its situation before all the major landscaping work around the hall took place is best shown on Thomas Norton's estate map of 1641.7 Just to the north of the hall, a natural 'sandhill' 8 rises to a little under 400ft, while to the south-east the ground in the park rises to William's Hill, at about 430ft. The huge Darnley mausoleum was built on top of this latter hill in 1783, and the rivers Thames and Medway are both visible from the top. To the north-east, the ground falls away for about a mile until it reaches the north-east corner of the park (2½ miles west of Rochester bridge )9 at about 225 feet. Along the north side of the park runs the old Roman road from London to Rochester. Until 1924, however, when this became a major new 'arterial road' (the A2), it was only a minor road. The main medieval and later route from Rochester to London ran further north via Chalk and Gravesend, while the old main road from Cobham to Strood and Rochester ran south of Cobham Hall, past Lodge Farm and the Darnley Mausoleum. It is still a public footpath, continuing the line of Lodge Lane, though cut off now by the M2. Geologically, the area is covered by the sands (with some clays and pebble-beds) of the Lower London Tertiaries, which in turn overlie the Upper Chalk. 10 Very large loose boulders of Sarsen are common in the area, and these boulders were collected up and used particularly in the early nineteenth century to make features in Lady Darnley's garden (see below). There is no evidence that any of the Sarsen boulders came originally from prehistoric 'Megalithic' monuments 2 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS like Kit's Coty in the Medway valley. 11 It should also be noted that the so-called 'British Oppidum' on the hill to the north of the Hall is in fact a natural feature. C. Roach Smith12 and later writers were confused by the conduit and settling ponds on the east, and thought they were defensive earthworks.U This myth has been perpetuated by the Victoria County History, 14 and all successive editions of the Ordnance survey maps (where much hachuring is shown). To the west of this hill, however, a late Roman villa has been found, and was excavated in 1959-60. 15 LORD COBHAM'S NEW HOUSE As is well-known, the earliest documented parts of the main house date from the last two decades of the sixteenth century, and consist of two huge east-west wings about 220ft long (including the corner turrets). The maximum overall width (including turrets) is 200ft (Fig. 1). There is no doubt, however, that these two wings flanked an earlier main block on the east. Holinshed' s Chronicle tells us that in about 1582 William Brooke, I 0th Lord Cobham, began: the statelie augmenting of his house at Cobham Hall, with the rare garden there in which no varietie of strange flowers and trees do want.16 It has also been suggested, on the basis of the few dates on the building, that the south wing of the house was built first in the 1580s, followed by the north wing in the 1590s. 17 Though these dates may reflect the dates of the completion of the wings, it seems highly likely that both wings were designed and started at the same time in the early 1580s. The plan of the building also suggests that Lord Cobham' s architect originally designed three new ranges around a Great Court on the west side of the existing house. The plan of the new ranges forms a square with the turrets at the outer corners, and the main doorways in the centre of each of the sides. Today there is no apparent evidence for a west range, and the formal gardens in the area in between the north and south ranges (laid out first, only in 1801 when the Coade stone vases were placed there) have a rectangular shape and a centre to the west of the original centre. A plan of the 1770s and the large-scale estate map of 1749, however, shows the stub-ends of a west range (containing staircases) adjoining the north and south ranges where the pairs of chimneys are now situated, 18 and a close examination of the brickwork in this area show that the bricks 3 s------------- 220 feet------------.....:. r; ''11 11,, ,',1 ,, ,, I, ,J I II FP ?GREAT DINING ROOM ! bil 'T' l l I I r,- I I I I ' I I I 1 1 I I 11 I I 11 l I I I I I II I I I I ? I I II JI 11 I I I I - I I I GREAT :'r,--J I I 􀀃1.J 1/ COURT 􀀂I i/ 􀀅a.-1: 1 1 I I I I I / 1 I 1------ 120 feet l I '1,,I II II porch THE GREAT STAIR GREAT HALL 'THE OLD BUILDINGS' ·1' I 0 0 high plinth ?KITCHEiN RAtiJGE ?mid 1 6th c􀁞􀁟tury 11 II IIII 0 KITCHEN COURT N 0 50 Fig. 1 Reconstructed plan of Elizabethan Cobham Hall. 100 feet mens TT-B del HAJ stair COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS below the chimneys are different and do not course through. These final stub-ends seem to have been removed by the 1780s and replaced at the end of the eighteenth century by the existing pairs of twin chimney stacks. 19 It should be noted that these are the only stacks on the inside of the building; all other stacks are on the outside walls. A west range in this position would also give a perfect square for the internal court with sides of 120ft. Added confirmation that there was a west range comes from the discovery in 1968 by Mr Alfred Baker of sixteenth-century brick wall foundations 'about two feet down' in the centre of the court on the west side when a builders' trench was dug 'midway between the two wings'.20 The most likely solution to this problem is that the centre of the west range was demolished in about 1663-5 to reveal Peter Mills' new west front for the hall range (see below). It is also a possibility that the very large porch on the south side of the north range was moved here from the centre of the cross range when it was remodelled in thel660s. Only archaeological excavation and possibly further documentary evidence can confirm this. The earliest depiction of the house is on Thomas Norton's estate map of 1641 , 21 but it is difficult to make out whether he is depicting a west range to the house. Symonson's map of Kent of 1596 does, however, appear to depict a courtyard building, albeit in a tiny vignette. Before William Brooke, I 0th Lord Cobham, died in March 1597 much of the north and south (and presumably the west) ranges must have been completed. The south range was probably the Cobham's own private lodgings (with garderobes in the south side turrets). Seventy years later these were the private rooms and 'closets' of the Duke and Duchess of Richmond. Lord Cobham's arms and initials (W.C.) and those of his wife Francis (F.C.), who died in 1592, can be found on cast lead rainwater heads on both ranges. The huge porch is dated 1594, and made of many different stones, including Caen, Kentish Rag, Bethersden Marble, and a shelly Jurassic stone. It sits on a low Portland stone plinth which was possibly introduced when the porch was moved in the 1660s. In November 1591 Lord Cobham obtained permission from King Henry IV of France 'to transport from the city of Caen, 200 tons of stone for building' .22 This stone, as we have seen, was used in the porch and bay windows and fine doorways, though a lot of Kentish ragstone was also used in the porch and windows and for the top of the plinth. Earlier, Caen stone and Reigate stone may have been reused from Rochester Priory (see below). Only later work introduced Portland and Bath stone. After Lord Cobham's death, his son Henry Brooke, who succeeded as the 11 th and last Lord Cobham, continued the work. He probably 5 TIM TATTON-BROWN completed most of the main work before his attainder and imprisonment in 1603. The date 1599 can be found on the large carved mantlepiece, now in the Great Picture Gallery, and in 1601 we have a complete estimate by R. Williams, Lord Cobham's agent or steward, for all the works to be carried out at Cobham Hall during the six summer working months that year. 23 The nine main items listed are: I. First the building of the foureth turrett according to the Modell agreed upon by your Lord alreadie. 2. The making of the Staier and half paces of stone. 3. A newe doore case to be made & sett up in the newe parlor. 4. The flouring of the same parlour with deale boordes. 5. The plastering of the same parlour over hed with suche kinde of work as it shall please your Lord to sett downe. 6. The plastering of the great staier over hed. 7. Adore to be made at the hed of the staier into the olde building of brick and timber [presumably the earlier range to the east see below). 8. Joyners work to be doen in the great chamber and the Lodging adjoyning to the Queenes Chamber. 9. The couvering of 3 turretts with lead. This shows that all the main work was concentrated on finishing the north wing, particularly at the east end where the great staircase is situated. The estimate also says, at the end: Your Lord must resolve what and how muche you are pleased to have doen by Giles de Whitt either upon som newe Chymney piece or upon my Lord your fathers tombe that the poore man have some worcke to get wherewithal] to maintaine and susteyne him self. A slightly later letter from the agent (dated 30 March 160 l) tells us that 'a newe bargain for the maiking of 2 chymney peces for the 2 chambers next to your newe chappell' was being made. 24 Giles (or Jellis, as he is also called) de Whitt was clearly a Flemish sculptor who had been brought in by Lord Cobham to make his father's tomb and some very elaborate fireplaces. (The tomb was apparently never made.) It is also possible that de Whitt had been employed earlier at Cobham, as there is another very similar fireplace dated 1587 (from the south wing, but now in Wyatt's 'cloister'). He may also have designed and carved some of the elements in the elaborate 1594 porch. The 'Queen's chamber' was probably an especially fine room on the first floor at the west end of the north range. This room has a fine fireplace and a large bay window with fine views westwards (though the latter has been rebuilt). The small single storey addition to the north side of the west end of this range, which is slightly later in date, 6 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS leads to the corner turret. It might have been built as a private back access to the Queen's chamber and may be the 'Lodging' mentioned above. Because of all the later alterations, it is very difficult to reconstruct the interior arrangements of the Elizabethan house, though it seems likely that the first floor of the north range with its magnificent fireplaces (all probably in situ) was designed as a group of royal apartments (with a 'great chamber' in the centre), while the south range contained Lord and Lady Cobham's own suites of rooms. This sort of arrangement with King's and Queen's lodgings was developed to its fullest at Hatfield a few years later. 25 At Cobham, the royal lodgings were never used by Queen Elizabeth, but a few decades later (in I 625) Charles I came here with his new bride. 26 They had spent the previous night at the Royal Lodging at St Augustine's in Canterbury which had been granted to the I 0th Lord Cobham by Queen Elizabeth in I 564. Lord Cobham' s large London house was at Blackfriars, and Queen Elizabeth did sleep there for one night in June 1600. The east range of Lord Cobham' s house, which is probably that called 'the olde building' in I 60 I, was rebuilt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (see below), but it still contains a Tudor doorway (to the vestibule lobby) and some earlier windows in the southern half of its east wall (originally external, but now looking into the long back passage). The plan drawing of this range in Vitruvius Britannicus also shows four blocked windows in the east wall of the ground floor of the great hall (later the Gilt Hall or Music Room).27 Running eastwards from the north end of the east range was another Elizabethan range. This is now the kitchen range, but it was perhaps originally a fine set of lodgings. The range is first shown on the 1718 estate map,28 and its plan is accurately drawn on the 1749 estate map.29 It is an L-shaped range (i.e. enclosing a back court, or kitchen court, on three sides), and has a square tower at its north-east corner. On the south, or courtyard side, of the kitchen range is a fine early brick wall with horizontal zigzag diapering in blue headers in the brickwork. The lower windows in this wall (partly masked by a later porch) are probably restored original windows, as soft Reigate stone (perhaps reused from Rochester Priory - see above) can be seen in the jambs behind cement repairs. The upper windows are, however, later insertions. The back wall of this range has been very considerably restored in the early nineteenth century. However, patches of early brickwork are still visible all the way along the walls, as is a very high plinth, which continues on the west side of the north-east turret beyond an original west facing doorway. The latter is now blocked, and well-above modern ground level. 7 TIM TATTON-BROWN There can be little doubt that ground level in the whole of the area north of the kitchen range was lowered in the early nineteenth century (there is an 1831 date-stone over the north entrance to this range), and that this north wall was underbuilt in new brickwork at the same time. There may only have been a terrace here in the original range, or the ground level at this point may generally have been higher. In the northeast corner of the kitchen court (i.e. in the angle between the two arms of the L-shaped range) is an original stairtower. Despite later alterations, including the raising of the original head of the Elizabethan doorway in its west side, it still contains many of the original windows with brick jambs and hood. The range to the south of this has been very heavily restored, but its rear wall shows much sixteenth- century work right up to the eaves. Perhaps the finest original brickwork in the whole of the kitchen range is on the north side of the north-east turret. Here can still be seen some very fine diaper decoration in blue headers. It is probable that these north and east ranges around the later kitchen court pre-date the main large ranges to the west, and were constructed in the 1550s to 1570s. This suggests that Lord Cobham's original house here was planned with its main rooms (hall, etc.) to face east and with a lodging range on the north and east. In the later eighteenth-century west and south walls of the kitchen court, various Elizabethan doorways have been reused by Wyatt. The doorway on the south side of Wyatt's south range. which is dated 1789, is also a reused Tudor doorway. LATER ALTERATIONS TO THE HOUSE For nearly sixty years after Lord Cobham's downfall, no major work appears to have been carried out at Cobham Hall. The house and estate were granted to the Scottish Duke of Lenox in 1612, -10 and it is possible that some new work was done on the building soon after 1633 when James, the 4th Duke came of age. He is known to have spent considerable sums on enlarging the park in the later 1630s. 3' In 1641, as a very close friend of the king, he was created Duke of Richmond (in the peerage of England) as well. The following year all his estates were sequestered by Parliament. In 1648 John Webb proposed for the 4th Duke a complete Palladianizing of the whole house.32 Nothing was done, however, during the Commonwealth and the 4th Duke died in 1655. Earlier writers have attributed this scheme, and in fact the new west front itself (of the cross range), to Inigo Jones. This misattribution was started by Colin Campbell, who in Vitruvius Britannicus ( 1717)3 · 1 says: 8 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS Cobham Hall in Kent was the seat of the Dukes of Lenox and Richmond, now of the Lady Theodosia Blyth and John Blythe Esq. Tis an ancient fabrick, and has one front by Inigo Jones, with a Corinthian Pilastrade, and an attick of the highest proportion and balustrade: the great hall is two stories high. [John Blyth, or Bligh. became Earl of Darnley in 1725.) When Charles Stuart, the 6th and last Duke of Lenox and Richmond, succeeded in I 66 I, he contracted with Peter Mi 11s, a city bricklayer, for a new central block. As Sir Howard Colvin has shown, Peter Mills had already designed a large stone Commonwealth house, Thorpe Hall, and his contract with the 6th Duke was to rebuild the cross-wing, design north and south staircases and embellish parts of the north wing. 34 An account of between 1663 and 1665 by his agent or steward, Sir Charles Bickerstaffe, gives: for the Crosse Buildings, and other worke, and materialls used and done at Cobham costing £2,688. The work on the west front must have been carried out fairly rapidly as the lead boxes for the downpipes on either side are dated I 662. This date was also originally on the parapet. The work was done by the mason Sweete and the bricklayer Allenby, and their work can clearly be seen in the fa􀂊ade of the first two storeys. The form of the original casement window can easily be reconstructed because the scars for the central mullion and the transom (as well as the holes for the glazing bars) can still be seen in the sides and top of the window. The top storey (and probably the window cornices), as we shall see, dates from over a century later. Particularly striking are the four large Corinthian pilasters, the big central doorcase with Tuscan columns and half-pilasters, and open segmental pediment above. The plan and fa􀂋ade in its original form is depicted in the second volume of Vitruvius Britannicus ( 17 I 7),35 and this shows that not only were the bays on either side of the centre of only two storeys (with a hipped roof with dormers above), but also that the central attic and all the windows were redesigned later. After completing the fai;ade, Mi I ls went on to work on the interior. The Great Hall, which retained its great height, became the 'Gilt Hall' in 1672 when the sumptuous plasterwork ceiling, by Mr Piggot, was finally gilded. It was later (after much more decoration was added - see below) considered, for what it is worth, to be the finest room in England by George IV. Other late seventeenth-century interior work is not so easy to isolate because of later alterations. But Mills' dado and iron balustrade can be seen on the north staircase, and the rail in the south staircase may 9 West Park West Pork TIM TATTON-BROWN O 100 200 feet lllllPll!P I mens TT-8 del HAJ deer fence ■ 16th to mid-18th century fflj late 18th/ early 19th century Fig. 2 Block plan of Cobham Hall, showing all building phases and surrounding garden walls. 10 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS be his (though completely rebuilt here in the late eighteenth century). Most of the ballusters were carved at this time by Richard Clear, as were various black and white marble chimney surrounds.36 In 1672, when the Duke died, a complete schedule of all his goods, in a room by room survey, was made.37 This is extremely useful as it gives a detailed picture of the Elizabethan house with its late Stuart modifications, but before all the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century changes. It is also worth noting that in 1673 the Duke was assessed, for hearth tax, for forty chimneys or hearths at Cobham. There were originally 12 chimneys in each of the main east-west ranges, and 16 in the cross-wing (some of these may be purely ornamental). This does not include the chimneys in the wings around the north and east sides of the kitchen court. There is then another long gap, and only one major piece of work can perhaps be dated before Sir William Chambers's work of the late l 760s. This is the creation of a small terrace immediately outside the south front and beyond it a large new coach house and stables. In between was made a formal court with an oval-shaped drive. On the east and west sides were flanking walls with gates in the middle. The new buildings to the south of the main house were created sometime between 1718 and 1749, as the estate maps tell us.38 The main block on the south side of the new court was of three storeys with the top storey within a gabled roof. It is most clearly seen in Bayly's later eighteenth-century engraving in the first edition of Hasted. 39 This building, and the one behind it on the south-east, were demolished in 1794 after Wyatt's new stables and coach house had been built. The terrace wall outside the south wing of the main house, also acted as a passage in front of the basements, and round windows in it to light this passage can still be seen. The large ground floor windows were also extended downwards to make French windows, and the symmetry of the south front was also slightly broken up when some windows were moved sideways (some into chimney breasts). The terrace is not shown on the 1749 map and one rainpipe head is dated 1757; the only apparent indication we have for the date of this work. It should also be remembered that from the late sixteenth century until 1794 this south front always faced onto the stable yard and not onto the gardens; hence the lesser importance of the doorway, dated 1584, in the middle of the south side. For the last two centuries this doorway had led out, via a broad flight of steps, into a formal garden. In 1725 the Blighs from Rathmore in Ireland were made the Earls of Darnley after having inherited Cobham Hall, and the work mentioned above was probably carried out by the 2nd Earl, Edward Bligh, who had also succeeded to the English Barony of Clifton.40 In 1766 John 11 ·, TIIVI TATTON-BROWN Bligh, the 3rd Earl, got married to an heiress (he had succeeded in J 747). Soon afterwards he may have consulted Sir William Chambers, and, for a decade or so after 1767, much new work was carried out.4' First a complete new top storey was added to the central crosswing, and new cornices and sash windows were inserted. On the west front the new red brickwork matches quite well. but closer inspection shows the new brickwork on either side starting immediately above the lintels of the second floor windows. This break is now more obvious because much of the pointing in the brickwork has been eroded. However, it is clear that a new false jointing was imposed on the 1660s brickwork at this time to make it look the same as the new late eighteenth-century neat Flemish bond work above. The central attic was also completely rebuilt, and at either end of the fac;ade, small 'Elizabethanizing' gables were created with shields on them having the letters 'D' and 'C' (Darnley and Clifton; the earls of Darnley were also Barons Clifton). The windows immediately beneath these shields are also the only ones in the whole fa􀂹ade to have fancy scrolled tops.42 At the back of the cross-wing, the third storey can also be seen with a row of nine large sashed windows. All the rainwater heads here are dated I 770, and the parapet above is surmounted by four pairs of new chimney stacks. At either end of the cross-range are triple chimneys on half-shaped gables, and all these chimneys rise to just above the level of the tops of the four Elizabethan corner turrets. The long two-storeyed passage along the back of the cross-range was probably added some time later in the late 1790s (i.e. in Wyatt's time). Unlike the main range, it has mock Elizabethan mullioned windows. The porch and corner stair-turrets, and perhaps the first floor passage (later the Portrait Gallery), appear to have been added a little later than the ground floor passage. Internally various other works are documented in the I 770s. Thomas Varley supplied chimney pieces in 1773 for the south wing, which was being transformed. The through p assage, 'Fruit Room' and 'Lady Darnley's Drawing Room' were all remodelled at this time. 'India' paper was acquired for the Audit Room in the same year, and the Blue Damask room (over the vestibule in the cross range) and neighbouring dressing-room were also given hand-painted 'India' or Chinese wallpapers. Since 1767 George Shakespear, carpenter, builder and architect had been employed at the Hall on various structural works. This phase of work culminated in 1778-9 with the magnificent additional work in the Gilt Hall. Richard Westmacott the Elder supplied a fine white marble chimney piece and much very fine plasterwork was added. Small galleries on yellow scagliola marble columns were also added at either end of the hall in 1778, and an 12 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS organ was installed in the north gallery the following year. Shakespear rather than Sir William Chambers was acting as supervising architect throughout this time, though John Harris suggests that 'the style seems unquestionably to be Chambers' .43 The rest of the decoration in the Gilt Hall, the lower wall decoration, is Wyatt's of 1791-3. The 3rd Earl of Darnley died in 1781, and soon after the succession of the 4th Earl, James Wyatt was called in for a consul£ation. His first work (as specified in the 3rd Earl's will) was to design, in J 782, the huge mausoleum on the hi II top (William's Hill) to the south-east. It was built in 1783-4, but is said never to have been used. Edward Hasted, however, in his contemporary History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent44 says: on an eminence in the park, about a mile from the house is a costly mausoleum, built pursuant to the will of the late earl. as a burial place for himself and family, which being finished, his body. which was deposited in the church, was brought hither, and laid in it. Wyatt did not start work on the main house until after 1788 when the 4th Earl came of age.45 In 1789 he built a brand new south range to the kitchen court as servants' quarters. This appears to have been made of reused earlier bricks. There are also several reset Elizabethan doors in the range, but all the windows are mock-Elizabethan and are made of Portland stone. In the following year Wyatt went on to build the new stables and coach house. This was constructed on the south-east around a new stable yard, and significantly it was in July 1790 that Humphry Repton was first called in and produced a 'Red Book' .46 Among various ideas, Repton showed the effect of stuccoing the whole house 'to create uniformity' (never done!) and of demolishing the old stables, farm buildings and other out-buildings to the south of the main house. This was duly done in 1794, after the farm buildings (granary, milking house, etc.) had been relocated at Lodge Farm. In 1791 he totally remodelled the vestibule on the south side of the Gilt Hall, and as we have seen, he then went on to finish the decoration of the lower parts of the Gilt Hall, and the state rooms on the first floor at the south end of the cross-wing. In 1798, the decision was taken to remove the main entrance to the house from the west side of the cross-wing to a new semi-Gothic 'cloister' on the north. This new north entrance consists of a porte-cochere with a bridge above to allow direct access from the north terrace to a new doorway at first floor level beneath the north-east Elizabethan turret. The portecochere is dated 1801 on its east side, but was apparently built from 1802-4. All of this tied in with Repton' s landscaping and garden work in the surrounding area. Wyatt then went on to totally remodel 13 TIM TATTON-BROWN the north range, helped in later years by Humphry Repton's two sons, John Adey and George Stanley. The great north staircase was rebuilt in I 807, while the neighbouring large dining room and huge I 33ft long (picture) gallery above with vestibules at either end, were remodelled in I 806-8. To the west of the dining room a 'Gothic' chapel was created in 1812-14 but never consecrated. The 'Gothic' cloister and several of the remodelled rooms were then provided with a collection of marbles from Italy that the 4th Earl had acquired. 47 It is difficult to separate out all the work of James Wyatt from that of Humphry Repton's eldest son, John Adey Repton, who was an architect with antiquarian tastes. He first worked at Cobham soon after 1800 when he became a partner with his father. He particularly I iked 'Queen Elizabeth's Gothic', and after Wyatt's death in 1813, he was able to indulge his tastes to the full. Just before 1820, he was joined by his younger brother George Stanley Repton who had just left John Nash's office (Humphry Repton had died in 1818). J. A. Repton's most notable work is the plaster ceiling in 'Queen Elizabeth's Bedroom' and the 'Gothic' decoration in the new Chapel (1813- 14 ). He also designed various small buildings around the Hall, like Thong Lodge ( 1816), north-west of the park. Both Rep tons appear to have designed their father's 'memorial' called 'Repton's Seat' (1818- 20), while George alone seems, at the same time, to have redesigned the 'West Library" (in the cross-wing, south of the vestibule).48 After the death of the 4th Earl in I 831, no other major architectural works were undertaken at Cobham Hall for over a century and a half. The death of the 9th Earl in 1955 marked the end of an era. The house, which was in very poor condition, was sold to the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works in 1959. The contents had been sold by auction two years earlier. With monies from the Land Fund, the house was extensively repaired, and in 1963 it was conveyed to the Westwood Educational Trust, who still own it, subject to restrictive covenants in favour of the National Trust. Since then various new buildings have been erected by the Westwood Educational Trust, starting with the classroom block on the north terrace in 1965, and culminating in 'Brooke House'. 'New House' and the' Activities Centre', within and just outside the south wall of the walled kitchen garden. Other works have been carried out on the main buildings. These include the 'arching over' of the passage way between the kitchen court and the stable yard, and the building of an upper storey over the south-east corner stables, beyond the coach house. A large boiler house and swimming pool building has been added behind the latter, and many other minor works have been carried out to adapt the buildings to school needs. 14 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS THE PARK AND GARDENS The park and garden landscapes at Cobham Hall were surveyed by Kedrun Laurie in 1984 for the Cobham Hall Heritage Trust, so these will be only briefly covered here. The garden walls and ancillary buildings, particularly those close to the north and east sides of the house (Lady Darnley's garden), were not, however, closely examined and, as several of these were to be affected in 1990 by the proposed new buildings, they are dealt with in more detail below. ,,,,/' ,; N e 7 , /?conduit ,/ WARREN HILL road to Rochester - brick pit PEGGY TAYLOR'S HILL COBHAM PARK to WIUW,!'S HIU ----.. (mousolem 1783-4) Fig. 3 Mid eighteenth-century plan of Cobham Hall and park. 15 O', . "' Part of George Russell's Map of Cobham Hall, 1718 (CKS U565 P3). (See also Fig. 3) PLATE I I I, 􀀁 0 0 􀀊 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS There was an important deer park at Cobham from at least the later Middle Ages, but details about it are not documented until the mid-sixteenth century. At this time, also, we first hear about 'the rare garden in which no varieties of strange flowers and trees do want'. This must be the large walled garden to the north of Cobham Hall, which is labelled 'Old Garden' in Russell's map of 1718 (Plate I). This garden, which is also depicted on the 1641 map, had 'the Ould Parke' to the east. The brick walls of the 'Old Garden' which must have encompassed a considerable area have now almost totally disappeared (Fig. 2). Only on the south side (in the lower part of the main north terrace wall) and in the south-east corner (the east side of Lady Darnley' s garden - see below), does the surviving rough English bond brickwork suggest that these are fragments of the original wall. The other walls had already been demolished by the middle of the eighteenth century .49 However, using the scale of rods on the I 718 map it is possible to roughly reconstruct the position of the missing walls (Fig. 2).50 The 1718 map also shows a smaller walled garden in the south-east corner of the main garden (now roughly Lady Darnley' s garden) and an icehouse just outside the old garden to the east. From the north-east corner of the old garden a 'conduite pipe' is shown curving away around Windmill Hill to 'Brewes Ponds' to the north. A 'Fountain House' is also marked. This system of running water to the old garden (and the house) was probably created in the late seventeenth century; 51 its designer may have been Sir Charles Bickerstaffe (1632-1704) the 6th Duke of Lenox and Richmond's agent, who lived at Cobham Hall.52 Hasted tells us that in 1685 he designed a conduit for Rochester, Chatham and Strood, bringing water from the foot of Holborough Hill. The 1718 map also accurately shows many other interesting features (including the bowling green to the west of the house, and the Vineyard, well to the south beyond Lodge Lane),5·' but the one problem is the way the walled 'orchard' is shown on the plan to the south-east of the house.54 Its position does not seem to match that of the surviving kitchen garden, the east and south walls of which are also of rough English bond work of early date. One can only assume that George Russell, the cartographer, has made a mistake. To the north-east of the orchard, Russell shows a 'Barn' in 1718, but this too has gone by 1749, as has the north wall of the orchard. Russell's map shows many other features in the park, including great avenues radiating out from the west front of the house, and there can be little doubt that his map shows the park and gardens as re-organised by the 6th Duke in the late seventeenth century. The main changes of the mid-eighteenth century include the removal of the 'Old Garden' to the north, as we have seen, and the 17 PLATE lI 􀀁 /l II . 􀀂 ::j 00 􀀃 0:, ;:,:, 0 􀀄 z Part of Charles Price's Map of Cobham Hall, l749 (CKS U565 PS) COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS conversion of the walled orchard to a kitchen garden. A rectangular sunk-fence (ha-ha) was also created outside the west front with, beyond it, a semicircular line of trees that linked the ends of the avenues. Some time between 1749 and 1758, a fine new Flemish bond wall was built across the northern side of the kitchen garden with a terraced bank along its north side, thus creating a higher area in Lady Darnley's garden, as it was called only later, from which one could look over the wall into the kitchen garden. New walks across and around the inside of the walls of this garden were also established. There was still a formal garden below the terrace wall immediately to the north of the house. Formality still prevailed (Fig. 3 and Plates 11/111). Only with the arrival of Humphry Repton in 1790 did things start to change in a big way. All the great avenues, except that to the southwest, were cut down and curving lines and paths replaced the straight ones. The kitchen garden walls survived, but plantings (trees and shrubs) within curved areas outside them were carried out. Two large lobes, called 'Pleasure Grounds', were pushed out to the north and south of the house and all these areas were fenced off from the deer park. Repton himself tells us that when he began, Cobham Hall was: exposed to the cattle on every side except towards the east where a large walled garden intervened. 55 He then 'enveloped the whole premises in plantations, shrubberies and gardens', which included a flower-garden with a fountain and some statues. The final state in which he left the grounds, he also describes in detail:56 The house is no longer a huge pile standing naked on a vast grazing ground. Its walls are enriched with roses and jasmines; its appartments are perfumed with odours from flowers surrounding it on every side; and the animals which enliven the landscapes are not admitted as an annoyance. All around is neatness, elegance and comfort; while the views of the park are improved by the rich foreground, over which they are seen from the terraces in the garden, or the elevated situation of the appartments. Many small buildings were erected in the pleasure grounds; a dairy and rustic cowshed to the south and a menagerie and summer house to the north. Other buildings like Brewer's gate and the pump house57 were rebuilt as 'Gothic' features in the landscape (Fig. 4). 19 TIM TATTON-BROWN PLATE III • . ... .... .... Western part of Charles Sloane's Map of Cobham Hall, 1758 (CKS U565 P6) 20 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS LADY DARNLEY'S GARDEN The most complex area, however, was the new garden created for Lady Darnley to the north of the kitchen garden. This was called 'an irregular flower garden' by Repton, and he worked on it from the late 1790s until 1816.58 The garden then went on being slightly altered and developed throughout the nineteenth century. Early in the twentieth century it acquired a Japanese garden at its west end, and even today an attractive garden has been recreated in this area under mature chestnut and beech trees. The landform of Lady Darnley' s garden has. however, been little changed since it was landscaped on the south in the mid-eighteenth century, and on the west by Humphry Repton around 1800. The garden itself is terraced into the northern hillside, and outside its walls on the north and east, shrubberies were planted. no doubt to protect it from north-easterly winds. In the north-west corner the earlier Elizabethan walls were buried by large amounts of spoil and earth, brought from landscaping operations to the north. This created a steep bank into the garden from the Menagerie garden on the north-west. Immediately north of Cobham Hall, a new main entrance drive was created in the early nineteenth century. Above this a 'regular antique terrace garden· was created which had direct access from the first floor of the house (see above). By 1812, a wide east-west gravel walk had been created on this terrace which culminated at its west end in a 'bastion' with fine views of the west park. The east end of this terrace culminated in a smaller bastion on top of the bank overlooking Lady Darnley's garden. Today only the stone paving of the latter bastion survives. The balustrades (possibly of iron) have gone. but traces of where they were fixed can still be seen in the paving. On the south-east side of this. steps in the bank (still intact) lead down into the garden, and just south of this the original, northern terrace wall was partly demolished and partly buried in Repton's bank. Immediately to the west of this, a door was cut in the terrace wall in 1792 as an entrance to a new icehouse. To construct this icehouse, a large hole would have been made behind the wall within which the brick barrel-vaulted entrance passage and brick dome of the inner chamber were built. On completion, the whole structure would have been covered by a modern rock garden. The south-west end of Lady Darnley' s garden was originally protected from the drive down into the stable-yard by a high wall, but this was demolished at its northern end in the early 1960s. The southern part of this wall still survives. It is made of rough Tudor 21 THE MOUNT MMEADOS1 W lodge Lone TIM TATTON-BROWN Rustre Lodgo N e PEGGY all d TAYLOR'S 􀀍/ fhe e Hl.l deer WMdomess) fence Repton•s seat DEER PARK (5:la ocres, wllh obout 600 follow deor) MIOOI.E PARK Fig. 4 Mid nineteenth-century plan of Cobham Hall and park. brickwork (mostly of header bond) with a large crested top. In the extreme south-west corner of the garden, the wall-top curves down where the land falls away. About 30ft west of this is a second wall (built in about l 790 to lead the carriage walk into the stable y ard). This wall has also recently been destroyed at its north end. On the north side of Lady Darnley' s garden are the remains (now unroofed and awaiting repair) of the aviary building (or summer house).59 This was apparently converted from a greenhouse in 1799 and given a new flint-faced 'classical' fa􀁦ade. In the eighteenth century it looked southwards down a straight path which ran right across 22 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS both this garden and the kitchen garden. A blocked gateway on this line can still be seen in the middle of the mid eighteenth-century wall dividing the two gardens. To the east of the aviary a large group of sarsen stones marks the entrance to a 'grotto' (in fact a brick barrelvaulted chamber behind the terrace wall) which was created here for Lady Darnley in about 1830. In the north-east corner of Lady Darnley's garden is a small ·exedra' area, which now contains a slab-memorial to 'Tatty and Billy' (presumably the graves of two Darnley dogs). This 'exedra' is shown on both the 1749 and 1758 maps at the end of a wall running along the east side of the garden. It may originally have contained steps from the 'old garden' to the north. All the walls around this area (including the main north and east walls of the garden) are made of rough English bond red brickwork, and must date from the late Tudor period. The east garden wall has several vertical breaks (cracks) in it, while the top of the north garden wall is built up with later brickwork using a Flemish bond. It probably dates from the early eighteenth century (Fig. 2). Just inside the east wall of the garden is a fine little Ionic 'temple'. It was designed by Sir William Chambers for Ingress Abbey in the 1760s and brought to Cobham and re-erected here in 1820. The south-east corner of Lady Darnley's garden is now a very overgrown derelict area. Until the I 960s, however, it contained a fine south-facing orangery building on its north side. Sadly, this building was demolished in about 1965, and only the lower part of the ruined back wall with flues survives. This is also an Elizabethan wall in rough English bond brickwork. At its west end, the wall is thickened up on the north side, while at the east end, it is the south side that is thickened up (and rendered) for the back wall of the orangery. This must have been done to make the orangery, which was built before 1789, face due south. A small fragment of the east wall of the orangery (and the south-east corner) also survives, and this is exactly aligned on the east wall of the kitchen garden. The 1749 plan shows these walls as continuous. Only a scar now shows the position of the west wall of the orangery. As has already been stated, the south side of Lady Darnley's garden contains a steep bank with, beyond it, a fine mid eighteenth-century Flemish bond red brick wall. This wall has been pierced fairly recently near to its west end to make a new driveway through it. Running along the top of the bank on the south side of the garden is a recently created pergola or trellis walk.60 This terminates at its east end at a fine mid first-century AD Roman marble seat.61 The seat, which has elegantly decorated sides and arms, was no doubt one of the many pieces which the 4th Earl acquired from Italy. Other classical and 23 TIM TATTON-BROWN neo-classical figures were also placed in the gardens in the early nineteenth century, but today only a few of the pedestals survive. Towards the west end of Lady Darnley's garden, a large pond has been created. It backs onto the bank in the north-western corner of the garden and is lined with bricks (many of them wasters) and cement. This is probably the flower pond that the estate accounts tell us was built in 1803. On its north-east side is a water tank, while above the back wall of the pond (on the north), it is overlooked by a Sarsen tri li thon. Cobham Hall, and its surrounding grounds, are therefore a remarkable example of how huge sums of money were spent over a 300-year period by a small number of aristocrats in order to keep up with the fashions of the time. For the century or so after 1840 it remained the great house of the Earls of Darnley, but without any more building work. Due to the Second World War and death duties, this rapidly came to an end in the mid 1950s, but the magnificent house and much of the its surrounding landscape survive to this day as a fine and much loved girls' school, run by the Westwood Educational Trust. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The first version of this survey was commissioned by the school at the suggestion of English Heritage in April 1990. The writer is extremely grateful to the school authorities (and especially to the bursar at that time, Commander P. K. Anthony) for all their help. It has been a privilege to investigate such a magnificent building, and such an interesting surrounding landscape. The writer is also exceptionally grateful to John Newman for commenting so helpfully on an earlier draft of this survey, and for giving him copies of his notes (and some of the drawings) relating to Cobham Hall in the Mellon Collection at the Yale Centre for British Art at New Haven, Connecticut. Howard Jones very kindly drew up the figures from the writer's rough originals. NOTES 1 See Holinshed's Chronicle continuation by Francis Thynne (1587). Vol. lll, 1510. 2 For Cobham Manors. see A. A. Arnold. 'Cobham and its manors, etc.', Archaeo!ogia Cantiww. 27 (1905), l 10-135. ·1 For Cobham College, see A. A. Arnold. 'Cobham College', Archaeologia Cantic11w, 27 ( 1905). 64-109 and A. Vallance, 'Cobham Collegiate Church', Archaeologia Cantiana, 43 ( 1931 ). 133- I 60. Also for excavation work at the College, see P. J. Tester, 24 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS 'Notes 011 the Medieval Chantry College al Cobham'. Archaeo/ogfo Cw11iww. 79 ( 1964). I 09-120. 4 See W. A. Scott Robertson, 'Cooling Castle', Arclweo/ogia Cm11h111e1. l I ( 1877), 128-144. For the Cobham family, see now N. Saul, Death. Arr and Memory i11 Medieval England, the Cobham family and their mo11umen1s, 1300-1500 (2001 ). 5 See Archaeologia Cantiana, 24 ( 1900), 76-79. 6 See Ordnance Survey I :25,000 (second series) Sheet TQ 66/76 { 1974). 7 Centre for Kentish Studies, U565 PI. Though already on this map, 'the Ould Parke· has been greatly expanded into a large new park. The earlies\ depic1ion of \he old park at Cobham is on Christopher Saxton's map of Kent. Sussex and Surrey ( I 575 ). 8 It is called 'Sandhil! · on the 1758 estate map (CKS, U565 P6). On the 1718 estate map (U565 P3) it is called 'Windmill Hill', and this is probably the site of the windmill shown 011 Philip Symonson's map of Kent in 1596. and John Speed's map of I 6 I 0-11. 9 See R. H .Hiscock. 'The road between Dartford. Gravesend and Strood', i\rt'ha<'· o/O/,/ia Ca111ia11a, 83 ( 1968). 229-247. The north-eastern corner of the park has most recently been disturbed by the building of the new railway line to the Channel Tunnel. and by the new access roads to the star! of the M2 motorway. 10 See H. G. Dines, S. C. A. Holmes and J. A. Robbie, Geolog_,. <,(the Cou11rry around Chatham (1954) and the Geological Survey sheet 272. New Series. 11 See notes by A. F. Allen and J. H. Evans, Arclweo/ogia Ca11tia11c1. 81 ( 1966), lvi-lvii. 12 See C.R. Smith, 'The British Oppidum al Cobham·, Arcltaeo/ogia Cw11iwru, 11 (1877). 121-2. 1.l Col. 0. E. Ruck's survey of I 905 of the earthworks was used hy the V .C.H. (sec 14). 14 Victoria County History, Kerl/, I (1 908), 392-4. 15 See P. J. Tester, 'The Roman Villa at Cobham Park, near Rochester', Arclweolo/.(ia Cantiana, 76 ( 196 l ). 88-109. Mr Tester's excellent appendix to this article (pp. 105-9) finally sorted out this confusion. 16 Quoted in 'Cobham Hall', Archaeo/ogia Cantiana, 11 ( 1877), lxv-xc. This anonymous article (probably by the editor, W. A. Scoll Robertson) is an excellent early account of the building quoting most of the original documentary sources. 17 See, for example. John Newman's accounl in The Buildin}!,S of England: W!'SI K<'nl and 1/ze Weald (2nd edition, 1976), 231-6. 18 Now no. 879 in the Mellon Centre (a copy was kindly shown to the wri1cr by John Newman) and Charles Price's map of 1749 (CKS, U 565 PS). In the bollom right hand corner of the 1758 map (U565 P6) there is an elevation of the west front of lhc house. This shows the west ends of them in the north and south ranges, as well as, apparently, the stub-ends of the west range with casement windows in them. 19 Another drawing at the Mellon Centre (no. 822, also shown to the writer by John Newman). is signed by John Covell and mentioned by Shakespear. It is an illuslration of the south side end of the north range, showing how George Shakespear proposed to tidy up the elevation after the demolition of the staircase projection. Four new blank windows (2 up and 2 down) are shown. These still exist. but are no longer blank. Bayly's later eighteenth-century view of Cobham Hall from the west. published in E. Hasted's History and Topographical Survey of the Cou111y of Ken/ (first edition, 1799), shows the new windows but no chimney stacks in this position. h also shows the original shaped gables at the ends of each of the wings. The I 790 Repton • Red Book' also shows no chimneys here, and the earlier gables. 25 TIM TATTON-BROWN 20 Note by A. Baker, Archaeologia Cantiana, 83 ( 1968), 271-2. 21 See note 7. 22 British Library, Lansdowne Ms. 255, No. IOI quoted in Archaeologia Cantiana, 11 ( I 877), Ix vi. The mixture of material in the porch reflects the group of materials in the fireplaces inside the house in the late sixteenth century. 23 State Domestic Papers of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 283, no. 64. quoted in ibid., lxvii. 24 State Domestic Papers of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 279, no. 94, ibid. 25 See Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House: a social and architectural history (1978), 114-5. 26 See M. Toynbee, 'The weddingjourney of King Charles I' ,Archaeologia Cantiana, 69 (1955), 75-89. 21 Colin Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus (1717), vol. ii, 29-30. 28 CKS, U565 P3. 29 CKS. US65 PS. 30 By letters patent of King James I, on 13 August 1612. The main details and value of the whole estate at this time are published in Archaeologia Cantiana 11 ( 1877), lxxxiv-lxxxvi. 31 See Lady Elizabeth Cust, 'James Stuart, Duke of Lenox and Richmond, of Cobham Hall', Archaeologia Cantiana, 12 (1878), 49-105. 32 See J. Harris, 'Cobham Hall', Archaeol. Joum., 126 ( 1970), 274-6. A single sectional drawing survives at Worcester College, Oxford (III. 15). 33 See note 27. 34 See H. M. Colvin, 'Peter Mills and Cobham Hall', in H. M. Colvin and J. Harris (eds.), The Country Seat: Essays in Honour of Sir John Summerson ( 1970), 42-7. 35 See note 27. The west front is also drawn, probably more accurately, in the bottom right-hand corner of Charles Sloane's map of 1758 {CKS, U565 P6), though its north and south ends are masked by the remains of the west range (see note 18). 36 Harris 1970, op. cit. (see note 32), 275. 37 Published in full in Archaeologia Ca11tia11a, 17 ( 1887), 392-408. 38 See maps by Russell of 1718 (CKS, U565 P3) and Price of 1749 (CKS, U565 PS); also the fine mid l8th-century plan in the R.l.B.A. library. 39 See note 19. 40 See E. Hasted, The Historical and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (second edition, 1797), III, 420-422. 41 Harris 1970, op. cit. (see note 32), 275. Much material relating to all the later eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century work can be seen in the Mellon Centre. John Newman kindly provided the writer with copies of his notes on this material. 42 Bayly's late eighteenth-century engraving (note 19 above) does not, however, show these gables and shields, so they may have been built by W yatt or Repton's sons. At the same time a grand stone coat-of-arms was put over the centre. This is now in fragments in the gardener's yard (along with the terms from 'Repton's seat'). 43 See note 32 above. All the material in the Mellon Centre seems to confirm that it was Shakespear, not Chambers, who was the architect. 44 Hasted, op. cit. (see note 40), 404. 45 Prom this date, much detailed accounting still survives in CKS, US6, as well as in the Mellon Centre. 46 The original is in anonymous hands, but a copy exists at Cobham Hall. 26 COBHAM HALL: THE HOUSE AND GARDENS 47 See American Journal of Archaeology, 20 ( 1955), 133 and 63 ( 1959), 149-50. The collection was sold by Sotheby's on 23 July 1957, on the premises, but several items still remain at Cobham Hall. 48 This work has been studied by J.M. Frew and see also his Oxford University D.Phil. thesis { \ 976) on James Wyatt. See also C. E. M. Atkinson, 'The late 18th and early 19th century alterations at Cobham Hall, Kent' (Cambridge University School of Architecture, unpublished essay). 49 They are not shown on the 1749 map (note 18 above). 50 The north wall is about 37 rods long, with the west wall 33 rods and the east wall 4 l rods. George Russell, the cartographer, was the first head of Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester, so was no doubt a good surveyor. 51 See J.E. L. Caiger, 'The pumphouse of Cobham Hall estate', Archaeologia Callliana, 84 ( 1969). 161- l 74. Also Peter Tester in note l 5 above. 52 As suggested by Kedrun Laurie in her unpublished Hisrorirnl Sun•('_\', 67-8. 53 Only the latter is shown on the later eighteenth-century maps. 54 Both this and the stepped wall immediately to the south-east of the house .ire probably the same as on the 1641 map. 55 See H. Repton, Fragments on the Theory and Practice if Landscape Gardening ( l 816). 56 Quoted in, and see, D. Stroud, Humphry Rep/on ( 1962) and E. Hyams. Capability Brown and Humphry Rep/on ( 1971 ), 145. 57 See note 51 above. The site of Brewer's gate has just been obliterated by the new Channel Tunnel rail link (see Archaeo/ogia Ce111rie1na, 119 ( 1999), 214). 58 Documented details of many of the changes in the garden can be found in Ke