The Herries Family and the Building of St Julians, Underriver, 1819-1837

THE HERRIES FAMILY AND THE BUILDING OF ST JULIANS, UNDERRIVER, 1819-1837 MARGARET BATES AND DAVID KILLINGRAY There is a substantial scholarly literature concerned with the English country house. However, the primary focus has been mainly on larger houses and estates and on architectural styles, interior design, and the estate-owners impact on the social, economic and political life of the locality. 1 In the past few years a number of scholars have looked at the costs and processes of building English country houses, both large and small.2 This article is a contribution to that latter area of enquiry and is concerned with a single house, St Julians, Underriver, built for John Charles Herries in 1820-1 and then remodelled in the years 1836-7.3 St Julians, one of the first two-storey country houses to be built in the Jacobean style, stands in a fold of the sandstone ridge, a mile and a quarter south of Sevenoaks and to the east of the Tonbridge road as it descends Riverhill. It is on land over 500ft commanding a fine view south-eastward across the Weald. The house, originally designed by John B. Papworth for John Charles Herries in 1819, was subsequently extended to plans drawn-up by James Pennethorne in 1835. Although Papworth's plans are extant, few records appear to have survived of the original building work on St Julians. However, there is considerable detail on the process and costs of remodelling and extending the house to Pennethorne's plans in the Herries family papers, although the correspondence is largely one-sided.4 The house and garden, both designed by Papworth, was in a sheltered position below the brow of the sandstone ridge. Although welldrained and with an adequate supply of water from local springs, the scarp slope was subject to small land slips. There were nearby building materials, including deposits of Kentish ragstone on the estate, and brickfields just north of Sevenoaks in the Darent valley. The soil was sandy and more suited to pasture (as the Herries soon decided) than to arable cultivation. 273 i MARGARET BATES AND DAVID Kll..LINGRAY N i SEVENOAKS #Knole ' t / / \ \ \ St Jui/ans♦ • Kettle Farm \ \ '-. * Rumstead Underrlver To Tonbridge Map 1. Sevenoaks and St Julians. The Herries family The Herries family came from the Scottish lowlands having an estate at Hallsdyke, near Lockerbie, in Dumfries. By the mid eighteenth century various members of the family were actively involved in banking and commerce, both in Britain and the Low Countries. Two members of the family are central to the building of St Julians. Robert Herries (1773-1845), born in Scotland, became head of the London banking firm of Farquhar, Herdes, & Co., founded by his father, with 274 THE BERRIES FAMILY AND THE BUILDING OF ST JUL/ANS, 1819-37 offices in St James's Street; he never married but had close ties with his family, and particularly with his cousin, John Charles Herdes (1778-1855). John Charles had a distinguished career as a civil servant, specialising in financial affairs. As Commissary-in-Chief from 1811-15, he reformed the system of supplying Wellington's troops in the Peninsular and during the final campaigns against Napoleon, in the process co-operating closely with Nathan Rothschild which probably also served his own financial interests.5 J.C. Herries was widowed in 1821, after a marriage of seven years, and left with six infant children to bring up. The death of his wife Sarah, in childbirth, his son wrote, dealt 'a blow from which it was long before he recovered and which had an unfortunate effect upon him as a public man, by removing one of the inducements to frequent society and to form connection which would have been useful' .6 Nevertheless, in 1823 he entered Parliament as the Tory member for the treasury borough of Harwich and in 1827 was favoured by King George IV as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Goderich's coalition ministry. This royal interference introduced an unsettling influence in the cabinet. It was an unhappy and short-lived government. Herries quarrelled with Huskisson over the appointment of Althorp as chairman of the finance committee, and Goderich resigned as Prime Minister.7 As a result Herries' term as Chancellor was brief, from September 1827 to February 1828, during which time he did not appear before Parliament. Robert Herries, like his cousin, was a High Tory and both men viewed with considerable concern the social and economic changes of the third and fourth decades of the century and the growing demands for political reform. As pressure for parliamentary reform increased, Robert recorded in 1831, that 'I take the gloomiest view of our prospects, and nothing will less surprise me than I should live to see a complete overthrow of everything'. And advocates of change were on their doorstep in Sevenoaks for, as Robert reported that same year, their immediate neighbour, Multon Lambarde, had declared himself 'a decided Reformer'. The Building of St Julians A country estate near to the metropolis was highly desired by members of the gentry class involved in government, in the professions and in commerce. Sevenoaks, within thirty miles of the capital, offered a range of large houses and parklands, and also some smaller ones, most set in attractive countryside. Hasted, writing two decades earlier, had described the town, with its elevated position, as in 'a healthy, pleasant situation, remarkable for the many good houses 275 MARGARET BATES AND DAVID KILLINGRAY throughout it, inhabited by persons of genteel fashion and fortune, which make it a most desirable neighbourhood'. 8 It is not known when the Herries were first attracted to the ridge south of Sevenoaks as a possible site for a 'Mansion', the term they often gave to their house. The site was leased from Multon Lambarde and in 1821 a further lease, for 14 years, was taken on the neighbouring St Julians farm. Eleven years later J. C. Herries bought the site on which his 'mansion' stood, along with 100 acres of land, from Lambarde. The price paid is unknown.9 By 1835, he held over 200 acres including the adjoining lands of Rumshott (Rumstead) Farm and part of Kettle Farm which he purchased that year from Lambarde for £12,340. The Berries cousins appear to have thought first about having a house built on the site of St Julians, or Rosebank as Robert called it, sometime in the spring of 1817 or 1818.10 In early 1819 Robert wrote to his cousin: As to Rosebank, I have thought of it often and often I assure you; & the whole scene, as it burst upon me on that beautiful first of May that we were there, before my eyes at this moment. I shall like of all things to go there with you again &, if possible bring the building project to bear. There is much pleasure in planning things of this kind, as in executing them, perhaps more, and if I was 10 or 15 years younger, it is a pleasure that I should have no objection to spin out a little. But at my time of life, if I am to build a house with the expectation of ever living in it, I do not think I have a year to lose. I should therefore set about it instanter. Robert's proposal to his cousin John Charles was for a 'treaty that would suit us both very well', that 'you grant me a lease of your estate for my life ... and I agree, as a Premium for this lease, besides paying you the same rent that you get from your present tenants, to lay out a certain sum, we will suppose £2000, in. building a house upon it, which house of course the moment I pop off ... will be all ready for you to pop in'. Included in the site was a cottage in which Robert occasionally lived during 1819-21 while St Julians was being built, for, writing to his cousin in the Autumn of 1821, he described the 'view, as I sat this afternoon at the door of the old cottage, [as] quite enchanting - the glorious descending (not setting) sun, and the whole of the opposite Hop Gardens filled with figures of the most picturesque description in the act of hop picking ... '. Although of one mind about having a house built at St Julians, Robert and John Charles had different ideas as to the kind of house that they wanted. Robert's idea was for 'something quite simple and unpretending, a mere farm house in short, having the exterior appearance (as far as it might be possible to give that) of an old one, 276 TIIE HERRIES FAMil.,Y AND THE BUILDING OF ST JULIANS, 1819-37 casement windows and all that sort of thing, the inside comfortably arranged but quite plain'. His idea of accommodation, which he thought too simple for John Charles needs, was for 'two moderate sized Parlours, with a Hall big enough to hold a Billiard Table, above stairs three best Bed Rooms & a dressing room, with 2 or 3 Servts Rooms would be all I should wish for'. The building could be designed in such a way, argued Robert, 'as to admit of being added to at a future period, if you should chuse (sic) it'. He urged John Charles to 'get some professional man to give you at once a Plan and Estimate - and if the stones are to be dug upon your own estate, do you set about digging them'. The ragstone was dug but a year later Robert was concerned that none of it had been squared into shape at all. Now you know there must be a certain number for the outside, prepared in this way, & if you have not issued any orders to that effect I hope you will do so. Building stone will always be useful for somethin􀀺 or other, therefore there can be no great harm in having them quite ready. Robert's calculation was for a house that would cost between £2-3,000, certainly no more than the higher figure, and he hoped that finding and cutting building stone on the estate would help to reduce costs. Negotiations were entered into with John Buonarotti Papworth (1775-1847), the architect. Robert, ever cautious with money, referred to Papworth as a 'less great man' than other possible architects and thus cheaper to employ. Papworth drew up plans and submitted them to the Herries later in 1819. Robert sketched his own plans and then made several alterations to those produced by Papworth to the extent, he told his cousin, 'that I fancy he is sick of me & that he has turned himself over to you'. The discussion over the design and also the cost - Papworth held his price at £3,000 - delayed a start to the building in that by the Autumn of 1819 only the ground had been staked and no foundations laid. It cannot have been easy for Papworth dealing with two clients with different ideas about the same building. By July 1820 a further set of plans replaced those earlier drawn-up by Papworth. Papworth's design was for a villa landscape covering 15 acres with a two-storey country house built in the Jacobean style, of yellow brick and with a clay-tiled roof.11 Included with the plans were a thatched dairy, stable block, laundry, ice-house, an oast house, a summer house, and a walled kitchen garden. The house was to be approached by two coach roads from two lodges, the higher part of one of the routes landscaped to afford a clear view across the Wealden countryside. Papworth placed St Julians within 'the existing field and woodland landscape, using his own principles of landscape design'. 12 277 s:: > ::0 Cl ► ::0 m -l c::,> @ (/) N > -.J 8 00 >0 < 6 􀀃 􀀄 Cl 􀀅 -< Fig. I The remodelled St Julians. a sketch and watercolour by Henry M. Crompton, June 1840. THE HERRIES FAMILY AND THE BUILDING OF ST JULIANS, 1819-37 By the middle of 1821 work on building the house was well under way, the builder being Henry Barrett. 13 Sometime during that year Papworth was informed that since his last visit 'the two bows are completed in what respects the Bricklayer', that 'most of the rooms in the Chamber floor in what respects the Plasterer is brought to a close', and that 'the mouldings of the draw R, Ceiling of Staircase are now in hand etc' . 14 St Julians was completed by the autumn of 1821. According to Papworth's brother, Wyatt, the house 'was a moderate size cottage orne, of a homely Gothic character, and included Offices, etc; the grounds which were of large extent, were also laid out by him'. 15 Robert appears to have kept a close eye on the building process and had various site meetings with Papworth. For example, in August 1821 he wrote to John Charles that I came to meet Pap. on Tuesday morng at his particular desire, in order to settle definitively about the Plumbers work & some other little matters that he wished to discuss with me on the spot. I have, upon his suggestion, determined to alter the line of the earthenware Water Pipes, and this & two or three other little Jobs will detain me here for some days longer. A week later Robert was still at Sevenoaks taking an active interest in the final touches to the house and also the garden, concerning himself with seeds for the lawn and 'innumerable little points upon which questions arise, as to Window Shutters, Locks & fastenings, levelling ground, & above al1 in the water closet & Hydraulic Department generally'. The supply of water to the house and gardens was to remain a problem. The water from the spring - the Rum, as Robert calls it - which he had planned to use for an ornamental stream, became affected with a green scum both on the surface and the bottom, and about this, he wrote, 'I know not what to do'. The spring was connected to a fountain, with a vase and pedestal, and could be 'turned on or off, in one minute, whenever you choose; and there is nothing to prevent it playing constantly, if you like, as there is no water wasted on that account'. An idea of the interior of St Julians is provided by Robert's description, a decade after it was built, of how the bed-rooms might be allocated to John Charles' family in July 1832. Robert suggested the 'pink room' for John Charles as it was the largest room 'for you to write in as well as sleep in', for which the lighting could be improved by having 'the blank window to the east made into a real one'; Laker, John Charles' manservant, could occupy the adjoining dressing room. The 'Buff room' could be occupied by Isabella (John Charles' sister), the 'Green Room for the 3 Girls', with Miss Walker, probably the 279 MARGARET BATES AND DAVID KlLLINGRAY children's governess, in the 'Blue room', 'young Charles' could be in the 'White room' with 'the adjoining ditto with 2 Tent Beds' for 'Wm & Edwd'. Servants and attendants could be accommodated in the three-bedded garrets, in the room over the kitchen, and in the cottage. If guests came then the billiard room 'now that the Table is away, would make a dormitory for half a dozen, but besides that, there are two rooms above stairs, (which have both been used occasionally) ' The daily financial affairs of the gradually expanding St Julians estate, of the adjoining farm, and the subsequent remodelling of the house, were largely handled by Robert Herries, the banker, who lived in the house. John Charles Herries' life revolved around his political activities mainly in London; while his cousin lived at St Julians, he leased nearby Montreal Park from Lord Amherst who was away in India, from 1823-28. Robert, on the other hand, effectively retired from day-to-day involvement with his bank in 1816, was clearly delighted to be able to move out of London and to live in the country either in Sidmouth or Lynmouth in Devon, or at St Julians. John Charles thought of St Julians as a country house to which he could occasionally retreat; by contrast Robert viewed it with a commercial eye and was firmly determined that the estate should be run on profitable lines. Running a country house and an estate was rarely without its worries. From his correspondence Robert often appears pessimistic about the national economy and the political condition of the country. And like many farmers throughout the decades of the 1820s-30s he had every reason to be concerned about the poor economic performance of agriculture. His letters also reveal a concern over how the estate was to be managed, the further acquisition of land, and the commercial activities of his neighbours. There is relatively little said about St Julians although he was always anxious to preserve the view from the house, describing with some concern the 'Havoc' of a 'fall of timber' after neighbour Squire Woodgate had marked up for felling '614 of his best oaks', some of which were close to the boundary of the Herries land. Extending St Julians John Charles' plans, discussed with his cousin in late 1831, were for St Julians to be extended so that, in Robert's words, it was 'sufficiently large for your family'. Robert's income was inadequate for the work so he urged John Charles to treat the house more as his own rather than renting places in London and elsewhere, and to invest in 280 THE HERRIBS FAMILY AND TIIE BUILDING OF ST JULIANS, 1819-37 expansion. When this was done Robert would move to the cottage in the grounds. 'I pray you then', he wrote, 'take the matter into your consideration. I think􀁩 Plan (I say nothing of the effect exteriorly) is so simple, & would be so easy of execution, that the expense could not be very great - under £2000 I shd think - and the very next Summer, if you chose, might see it begun and finished.' However, Robert also argued whether John Charles might 'not manage to put up your family in the House at St Julians as it is. With the addition of the two new garrets that I contrived, we now make up 14 beds. Two smaller garrets might be got, with a convenient enough access, on the western side.' If accommodation was required for servants, Robert argued, this could be provided by 'raising the roof of the Stables a very few feet'. No extension work was carried out on the house in the next two years although in late summer 1835 Robert Herries was still insisting that the 'cottage will answer my purpose quite well - it will give me a pied a terre whenever I wish to go there, & that is all I want'. Sometime in mid 1835 John Charles entered into discussions with James Pennethorne to draw up plans for alterations to St Julians. 16 Sketch plans were delivered in August and by mid September the architect had come down to Sevenoaks for a second visit in order 'to measure and draw out proposed alterations and additions'. This was followed by further consultation with John Charles who drew up plans of what he wanted done at St Julians to which Pennethorne suggested a detailed discussion on estimate of costs before proceeding. John Charles' discussions on costings with Pennethorne, included the quarrying and carting of stone. The ever cautious Robert was concerned over the size of the proposed house and he also had in mind longerterm costs when he wrote to his cousin in August 1835: 'Though your income may entitle you to a larger house, this will most likely not be the case with those that come after you. And what is your son to do with a large house that he cannot afford to live in?'. Pennethorne submitted his plans in November 1835. To the original house were added four bed rooms, two drawing rooms, a Chamber floor, and in the attic two good rooms and two secondary rooms, with two old rooms enlarged and the staircase 'made good'. 17 Robert Herdes was critical of Pennethorne's plans for the interior, although if they suited his cousin 'that is enough', but, he wrote, I cannot help finding fault with the Exterior. which I must say I think exhibits any thing but good taste. The thing is altogether over done. Instead of the chaste Elizabethan, it is in fact a Jumble of that sort of bastard Gothic that has sprung up within the last 20 or 30 years. Mr Pennithorne's decorations are such as might do for an Abbey upon a large scale, but would look very affected in my opinion in a moderate 281 MARGARET BA TES AND DAVID KILLINGRA Y sized Gentleman's House. I do hope you will prune away some of these exuberances, otherwise depend upon it we shall get laughed at. In particular Robert disliked the size and shape of the window bays that, he thought, were out of proportion to the house. Indeed the window bays are 'oversized and the handling of the window mullions and transoms not authentic', so it may be that their size and the large areas of unimpeded glazing show that John Charles and his architect 'were more concerned to take maximum advantage of the view than to strive for stylistic authenticity'. 18 Robert suggested that P. F. Robinson - 'the only man who has done anything in this style without overdoing it' - might look at the elevations and 'fill up the same outline, after his fashion'. 19 Until the moment when the work was about to begin Robert was still proffering advice, urging 'additional breadth to your new dining room', the cost of two extra feet on rafters etc being 'hardly worth consideration'. Pennethorne's 'Specification of Sundry Works' proposed for St Julians ran to 24 pages. The initial work to the original house involved shoring up the floors and roof to the south front and to the north west and south east angles of the building previous to taking down walls and a chimney in order to insert girders. New footings were to be of concrete with one-sixth lime. Cyclopean blocks were to be at the foot of the walls. Bricks were 'to be hand burnt Clamp Brick sound & of a uniform shape'; 'Mortar to be composed of Stone Lime and Sharp Sand in the proportion of one third lime to two thirds sand for inside walls'; 'Main Drains to be properly traped [sic) with York Stone'. The timbers to be used were stipulated 'to be of the best Memel, Riga or Dantzig fir or Red Pine free from sap or shakes & the Oak to be of English growth, the Deals of the best Yellow Christiana'. The specifications then went on to detail work to be carried out in each new room. The roof was to be slated with 'Countess Slating' fixed with copper nails. Pennethorne estimated that the overall cost for the new house would amount to £3,000, 'perhaps a trifle more'; bricks could be had at 34s. per thousand plus 5s. cartage. Provisional estimates for labour, undated but probably early 1836, suggested a total of £2,700 made up as follows: 'Digger, Bricklayer, Mason & Slater' £871 Os. 111/:ui.; 'Carpenter, Joiner & Glazier' £1,405 ls. 8½d.; 'Plasterer' £129 6s. 3d.; 'Plumber' £130; and 'Smith' £29 lOs. The pulling down and removing of materials was estimated at fifty pounds, while alterations to outbuildings totalled £110; old materials, presumably stone and timber recycled from the original building, were credited at £114 18s. lld. Building work on the house began on Monday 3 May 1836. Pennethorne appointed as Clerk of Works, W. Smith, who was 282 THE HBRRIES FAMILY AND THE BUILDIN'G OF ST JULIANS, 1819-37 paid two guineas a week plus his travel expenses and lodging at the nearby White Hart Inn. The contractor was Thomas Jackson, with an address at No. l Wharf, Commercial Road, Pimlico; it was agreed by John Charles that payments were to be made on a monthly basis, but this was dependent upon a satisfactory report from Pennethorne on the building work. Two local bricklayers, Marchant and Grover, both identified by Robert as 'very intelligent' men, were employed on St Julians, as were other Sevenoaks artisans and labourers. Within ten days the work was well under way with Pennethorne reporting the arrival of two loads of timber and also 'the Irons for the Roof', with the 'Bath Stone work' getting done over three large Gothic windows, and the 'floor boards are all ready & drying & the Doors of the Chamber floor are all made'. However, later that month Pennethorne visited St Julians and his report was far less encouraging. Building work had been done contrary to his instructions with the south and front wall of the house pulled down but the back shored up 'insufficiently', although, he said reassuringly, no 'serious injury bas been done'. I am, he wrote, 'very sorry to say that I found the work going on in a very unsatisfactory manner, so much so that I discharged Mr Smith as totally incompetent & inefficient & am to go down again next Monday with a new clerk of the works'. The replacement clerk, Humphreys, proved to be little better. By December 1836 Rpbert Herdes was describing him as 'a thorough rascal' and 'a very clever fellow but an uncommon rogue', and who, 'after bullying everybody has set his wits to cheat whom he could'. Humphreys failed to send Pennethorne the weekly reports required on the building work. According to Robert Herries he even tried to override Pennethorne's authority by claiming that he had the ear of John Charles Berries. Pennethorne regularly inspected and approved the work at St Julians as it progressed and reported by letter to John Charles Berries. The inspection involved coming down from London on a number of occasions, a journey of several hours each way either by the stage or on horseback. Pennethorne provided a schedule of building work: the house was to be roofed by the end of July; the conservatory ready for installation on 1 August; and all plastering completed and the upper floor boards laid by the twentieth of that month. Work on the house was to be completed by 10 September. At the end of July he reported that 'rapid progress' had been made. The stone work on the windows was well in hand and would be finished by the end of July; 'the gables commence on Monday morning and the Chimney tops are in hand'. Pennethorne's correspondence also gives some insight into relations between the architect and the artisans 283 MARGARET BA TES AND DAVID KILLIN GR A 'Y 284 0 M °' ..., "' ,: 􀀅 :, .., vi ('I eii ii: THE HERRJES FAMILY AND THE BUILDING OF ST JULIANS, 1819-37 employed on the house. On the recommendation of the slater ('who is a very intelligent man', recorded Pennethorne) 'slates were to be cut to one size exactly and then laid on boards instead of battens'. This would slightly increase costs but provide a better roof. Pennethorne's plans allowed for a Gothic conservatory; John Charles decided on an iron framed structure which cost nearly £1,100, four hundred pounds more than a wooden frame. This was premanufactured by D. & E. Bailey of Holborn, London. A 'Hotwater Apparatus' was to be installed to heat the conservatory, consisting of a cast iron boiler with double furnace and iron pipes laid in trenches and covered with open work plates. Glass for the conservatory came from the Plate Glass Company, London, sheets 23 x 13in., at a cost of 16s. lld. each although this seems not to have included cost of cartage and breakage. In September 1836, Charles John Berries, the eldest son of John Charles and a student at Cambridge, rode to Sevenoaks from where he reported 'The house is quite roofed in and all the outside plumber's work is finished' .20 However, the early rapid progress on the house was not matched by later work. By December 1836, Robert reported arriving at St Julians in pouring rain, 'so desirous was I of having the first view from the point where the mansion must necessarily first meet the eye of strangers'. He left his carriage and 'walked deliberately down the coach road to the Cottage Gate, & there it burst upon me in all its splendour'. The house was 'far from finished' with 'scaffolding still up in all directions', 'workmen swarming about, and the whole alentour such a mess that you are ankle deep in mud trying to effect an entrance', and the conservatory had not arrived from London. The next day, having inspected the house, he wrote to John Charles expressing some disappointment. The main fault that I have to find with it is just this - that setting aside its shewy appearance, the House altogether is upon that sort of scale that I should say no man who has not 5000 a year to spend, could think of living in it. I must say I should myself have preferred something of a more modest kind, that one could have looked to your posterity living in, after you are gone, & that could have given no occasion for any ill-natured remarks in the mean time. The conservatory arrived by waggon from London on 15 December and men set to work to assemble it the next day.21 By evening 'the whole erection [had] been accomplished - there is only the glazing to be done'. Robert did not like it: 'I would have had it correspond precisely in character with the windows of the dining and drawing room with which it ranges - which I think would have had a far better 285 MARGARET BATES AND DAVID Kil..LINGRAY effect'. He also had concerns about the extent of the flooring of the conservatory with 'Yorkshire paving', and determined to leave a border for plants in order that the building should not become a greenhouse. Pennethorne, who was then at St Julians, assured Robert Herries that the place would be clear of workmen, 'with the exception of 2 or 3 finishers', by Christmas day. Lead or plumbing work to seal roofs was completed by mid March 1837 while plastering and painting of the interior continued with James Eastwood, a Sevenoaks painter, having 5 Painters at work. They are today giving the second coat to the Conservatory. James Inglefield [a Sevenoaks stone mason] put up the Chimney piece of the Hugger Mugger, & that of the Library, last week. The Dining Room one, he begd to keep for another week, in the hope of getting the stains more effectually eradicated. Lastly, Messrs Marchant & Grover have begun their operations upon the Gateway. Marchant had also begun work on the courtyard tower, 'giving the top a plain moulding only, as you desire', and openings for additional lights for the hall were made. As the decorating and finishing were being completed the final bill for extra works on the house was submitted in the form of a 20-page itemised account from Thomas Jackson, the contractor. The amount was £1218, which included an additional claim by Jackson for £182. Several months earlier Pennethorne had expressed to John Charles concern about Jackson who, he wrote, 'appears to have lost his promptness in business'. Jackson indeed does seem to have been charging more than it actually cost the bricklayer, Daniel Grover, to carry out work involving Portland Stone. John Charles agreed to pay a final additional total of £1050, writing in aggrieved tone to Pennethorne complaining 'on the great differences between the estimates and Mr Jackson's charges'. Pennethorne, having to rely on the honesty and sound sense of those appointed to supervise the dayto- day building work, was caught in a triangular dispute between contractor, clerk of works, and suppliers as to who should be paying for what and when. The trouble, he wrote to John Charles, is 'that Humphreys cannot serve both you and him [Jackson] and I am quite satisfied in my own mind he is now going from one to the other telling all the falsehoods he can invent, determined to injure me in every way'. John Charles was not completely satisfied with the construction work and, in the early March 1837, he demanded that the three stone parapets over the front bedroom windows be reduced. This was done by sawing through the stone work, 'a slow and tedious' job which 286 THE HERRJES FAMILY AND THE BUILDING OF ST JULTANS, 1819-37 took several days. Robert was not pleased with the result and he thought that his cousin had 'overdone the thing'. His view was that in architecture ... proportion is every thing & I am inclined to think that if an architect were now called in he would decide that the relative proportions are not so just as they were before. The main fault, as I have said from the beginning, is in the mean character of the windows. If they had been of better proportions, in other words, higher, & thus have occupied more space, all would have come right.22 Robert reported in mid March that the work on reducing the three parapets was finished. 'The difficulty has been to get Eastwood, who seems always to have more business than he can get through, to come and do the Plumbers part. He is however at work upon it today, himself'. The plumbing work on the roof was completed within the week, just in time as snow fell covering the surrounding countryside with a white coat. External work on the house was finished by the end of March 1837, but three upstairs rooms 'have all got Plaster's work still to be done on them, to make good the Ceilings in the recesses'. Additional lights to the Hall had to be installed, on John Charles' instructions, and Marchant 'set about the Courtyard Tower ... giving the top a plain moulding only, as you desire'. In late March Pennethorne asked Jackson for the key to the house and instructed him 'to remove all his materials from the premises', but this had not been done nearly two weeks later. It seems that the architect was not being served well by his contractor. Work continued outside where several men were employed layingout the grounds around the house. Work on the terrace occupied a number of men for several weeks, as they removed the fountain and relayed the pipes to it. 'Then there is all the Ground outside to be regulated - the part you intend for Shrubs must be dug, & in other places, on each side the road, the turf will require to be taken up & relaid.' Robert listed the schedule of work which included his plans for the arrangement of the terrace (again he had an eye to economy and enclosed a sketch of how this might be more cheaply executed), a 'new Coating' for the road 'from the Lodge downwards', gravel to be brought, stones cut in the quarry and then broken, turf for the terrace, and 'all the Iron Hurdles to move - & to fix & to be new tarred. These are all jobs that must be done, therefore is it not just as well to do them at once, & have done with them?' Robert engaged more labour - 'good men are to be had just now, but in another month they will be at poling & other Hop jobs' - 'for otherwise you will have the place in an untidy, unfinished state, all the summer'. 287 MARGARET BA TES AND DAVID Kil,LINGRA Y The house was ready for occupation towards the end of 1837. Robert, writing from Dumfries in August, said that 'I am longing to hear whether you have got into the Chateau, or if your Women kind on inspection pronounced the thing to be impossible'. The removal of J. C. Herries' furniture to the newly remodelled St Julians was a major task. Robert's advice was to secure the services of a professional remover. As a gauge of the cost he cited his own experience of moving to Lynmouth twenty years earlier. Then he employed two vans each drawn by 'two broken-down stage coach horses ... and each Load weighing about a Ton, they went the 200 miles within the week; and to the best of my recollection the charge was £40 (about £1 for every Cwt) which I did not think unreasonable'. In Spring 1838 John Charles set about moving his goods and chattels into St Julians and had consulted with a local man, Young, about using his wagons to help with the removals, to which Robert responded by stressing the value of hiring proper vans for the whole job 'which will have springs & the van people are more accustomed to the loading of furniture as well as securing it against damage from rain ... '. Some time in 1837 St Julians was insured at the Guardian Insurance Company, the house for the sum of £3,000 and the furnishings for £1,000.23 As the house was occupied so wood and coal were needed for cooking and for heating. It was not uncommon in the period to have open fires burning in every main room of a country house. Most important was that chimneys drew well and did not smoke. The estate provided some firewood but the main fuel was coal. This the Herries had drawn in their own wagons from the Medway wharf at Tonbridge six miles to the south, with the purpose of keeping their cellars full. A lodge to St Julians was built in 1840 and Robert recommended that sufficient space should be allowed for 'turning in, owing to the breadth of the road', and he accompanied this advice with a small drawing of how he thought the gate should be positioned. The Herries family lived at St Julians until the early twentieth century, the house and its surrounding estate, extended and consolidated by John Charles, totalling over 2,000 acres by 1910.24 From 1951 the house was greatly altered, 'with engaging informality and tact' ,25 by the Architects Co-Partnership, to form what is now the St Julians Country Club. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writers are grateful for the help and advice given by Dr Jean V. Stirk, Mrs Kristina Taylor, Mr Ian Walker, Mr Roy Goodship and Mr 288 THE HERRIES FAMILY AND THE BUILDING OF ST JUUANS, 1819-37 John Newman; also to Mr Eric Keys for photographic work, and to Mrs Elizabeth Purvis and Mr Andrew Lister of Sevenoaks Local Studies Library. ENDNOTES 1 J. Franklin, The gentleman's country house and its plan 1835-1914 (Beckenham, 1981). H. A. Clemenson, English country houses and landed estates (London, 1982). 2 See R. Wilson & A. Mackley, Creating paradise: The building of the English country house 1660-1880 (Batsford, 2001), and 'How much did the English country house cost to build, 1660-1880', Economic History Review, LII, 3 (1999), 436-68. 3 The name St Julians was used for this area for several hundred years before 1820; see Sevenoaks Library, D794, Gordon Ward, 'The legend of St Juilan de Magnavil'. 4 The main collection of Herries papers is in the Centre for Kentish Studies, Sevenoaks branch (CKS-S). U543/E7. A smaller collection of 55 letters, mainly from Robert Herries to his cousin, John Charles Herries from 1819-1844, is in the possession of Dr Bates and will soon be deposited with the CKS. They are quoted extensively throughout this paper. 5 For Herries' financial dealings with Nathan Rothschild see Niall Ferguson, The World's Banker. The history of the House of Rothschild (London, 1998), 92-100, 144-6 and 155-9. Ferguson suggests that the Rothschilds were able to exert some influence over Herries in mid 1814, because they knew that he had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a student in Leipzig (1797). Herdes had recently married in February 1814, and the matter certainly would have been sensitive. 6 Edward Herries, Memoir of the Public Life of Right Ho11. John Charles Herries, 2 vols (London, 1880),19-20. Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 91, January-June 1821, 283. 7 Herries' Memoir is less a biography and more a defence of his father's role in the dissolution of Goderich's ministry. See also Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1891), vol. XXVI, 255-8. 8 Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (2nd edn, Canterbury, 1797); reprint edn, Wakefield, 1972, vol. Ill, 61. 9 The Herries papers do not contain any information on the purchase of the land. The land had been owned by Multon Lambarde, but his papers do not provide relevant documents (CKS-S U962). IO Rosebank was also the name of the house where Robert was born in Dryfesdale, Dumfries; see Parish Register of Births and Baptisms, dd. 29 July 1773. St Julians is recorded as 'Rose bank' in Pigot & Co's, Lo11do11 Commercial Directory 1828-29 (London, 1829), 651, and in the London & Provincial Directory for 1834 (London, 1835), 866. 11 Royal Institute of British Architects, London. (RIBA). Papworth papers. PaFam/1/1/1-2. The design for St. Julians (RIBA. PaFam/1/1/1-2) is reproduced in David Jacques, Georgian Gardens: The reign of nature (London, 1983), I 88. 12 The authors are grateful to Kristina Taylor for a copy of her 'Talk on the significance of St. Julians, Sevenoaks', nd. 13 According to George McHardy, Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the RIBA. Office of J. B. Papworth (London, RIBA, 1977). 14 RIBA. PaFam/1/1/1-2. S. Gildawie to J.B. Papworth, nd. c. mid 1821. Presumably Gildawie was the clerk of works. 289 MARGARET BATES AND DAVID KILLINGRAY 15 Wyatt Papworth, John B. Papworth Architect to the King of Wurtemburg: A brief record of his life and works (London, privately printed, 1879), 46. J. B. Papworth designed a number of villas and gardens in the counties near to London; he wrote Rural Residences ... Interspersed with Some Observations on Landscape gardening (London, 1818), and Hints on Ornamental Gardening (London, 1823). 16 A copy of Pennethorne's unsigned plans are now displayed on the wall of St Julians Country Club. At the time Herries was living in Carlton Gardens, and he was also godfather to one of Pennetborne's sons. Recently Pennethorne had been one of the 96 unsuccessful architects to submit plans for the rebuilding of Parliament. See Geoffrey Tyack, Sir James Pennethorne and the making of Victorian London (Cambridge 1992), 33. Pennetborne's correspondence with John Charles, and various others of bis papers relating to the work, are regularly quoted in the rest of this paper (collected at CKS-S U543/E7). 17 Pennetborne's fee would probably have been the standard architect's commission of five percent of the total cost plus travelling expenses; Franklin, The Gentleman's country house, 124. 18 The authors are grateful to Mr John Newman for this suggestion in a letter of 8 June 2002. 19 By the 1830s such interference by one architect with another's design would have been deemed unprofessional. Robinson was a well-known domestic architect from c. 1815; see Howard Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (London, 1995). 20 Then twenty-one, he followed his father into a career in finance eventually becoming Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue; he was unmarried and died at St Julians in 1883. 21 Franklin, The Gentleman's Country House, 63-5. 22 The newly remodelled house was also disliked by Will am Sawrey Gilpin, who took it upon himself to advise improvements and to enclose sketches in a letter to the Herries which, Robert retorted, was 'somewhat impertinent'. 23 Robert's co-director of the bank, Farquhar, was both proprietor and a director of the Guardian Insurance Company. 24 See PRO IR58/85857/47, for the valuation under the Finance Act 1909-10. 25 John Newman, West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth 2nd ed., 1976), 589. 290