Continued
Hello Ladies and Gentlemen. I am your upstairs guide and will take you through the last part of the house. If you have not been paying attention, then please descend the stairs and start again.
.here
for part two and
here
for part one.
We have now reached The Upper Hall via the Short Gallery. Here is displayed the only modern piece of art work in Newstead Manor.
This was painted by the wife of the present Earl’s Grandfather, the Losing Duke ( he lost the Dukedom and a lot of other things- especially his glasses. ). He was an inveterate gambler and one night,wagered Newstead Manor, on the turn of a card He lost. But, as his wife was spying on him though a hole in the floor, ( the manor was in a pretty dire state by then ), she managed to retrieve his IOU and save the manor. His 'punishment' was to have her ‘modern artwork’ displayed around the house. Sadly ( or not ) only this one remains. It is an oil painting of the path under the White Horse at Uffington*
1Berkshire where the Losing Duke met his end. He lost his seat. Yes...it was from a white horse.
The jewellery box is made from the Thuya root - an exotic North African wood. It contains no jewellery of any note ;) Take note burglars!
Turning left, we enter the master Bedroom. This is a study in blue and cream and was first created by the wife of the third Earl in the early 18th century. The mirror, chair and pelmet were all created by Grinning Baboon ( see previous post ) on his days off.
Lady Emulsion, wife of the fourth Earl, painted these pieces cream with blue scumbling and added gilded touches. She was a gifted amateur painter and painted the Toile de Jouy *
2 scenes all around the walls. She didn’t paint the whole wall, she had sixteen children instead.
The chandelier is modern and is based on a Venetian one. British Home Stores in Little Venice in London.
The fitted wardrobes were added in the late 18th century by Chippendale Newstead. Lady Emulsion was long dead by then so she never got her brush to them. It’s interesting to speculate what she might have done had she lived to be over two hundred.
At the base you can see two small depressions in the carpet. This is where the 1920 attack of carpet beetle revealed the heretofore unknown priest's hole*
3 in the bedroom floor. The space is very tiny indeed. The Newsteads of the 16th century were a fairly unruly lot. They had no truck with priests of any denomination and would dispose of them...forever.... under the bedroom floor. They still do- if any of them come calling. ;)
Actually - the space left by the old wardrobe and we haven't got round yet to doing the carpet.
The two candlesticks are English, and Derby porcelain c. 1800, the two cherub corbels are Chinese and resin c. 2000.
The collection of white Parian*
4 ware jugs above the bed are the collection of the wife of the of the eighth Earl. In her lifetime her jugs were much admired. ;)
Parian ware jugs by Portmeirien
On the window ledge can be seen Lady Inebriana’s, wife of the seventh Earl, collection of pill boxes. Most are Limoges, Minton or Coalport. Others are by that famous maker Charity shop. In these she used to keep her Liver pills;
her headache pills, her vertigo pills, her hair of the dog pills, and her “ I’m definitely giving it up” pills.
The Three Toile pictures were acquired by the present Lady Newstead from Oxford Market. They show the process of making wine; piling up the raw material; treading the grapes and then getting drunk. Appropriate for the boudoir of Lady Inebriana. The frames are all 19th century. They are restored with emulsion paint and gilt cream. But not water glided. ( See previous post ).
The chest on chest is 19th century walnut and once housed all the shirts of the shirty Earl. It now houses the socks of the twelfth Earl who has written a history of this piece of clothing entitled, The Joy of Socks.
The Early Victorian woven seat chair to the right of the bed is made of Papier Mache. It is decorated with mother of pearl and gilded tendrils. The house staff say it’s a b***** to dust! So they don’t.
The little bedside lights are a pair and were found in a junk shop. The man who sold them to the present Countess, thought they were plastic. He was wrong...they are Mercury glass and cut crystal. Silly man!
Please press no further in to the next room but stay this side of the red rope. Thank you.
You are now looking into the En Suite created by the eleventh Earl from a dressing room. It is not yet finished but has a state of the art shower ( in a state ) and a late 19th century Art Nouveau*
5 towel rail. It needs some Art Nouveau towels to go on it. This room is a work in progress but there hasn't been much progress.
Leaving the Master bedroom we might enter the Haunted bedroom. Or we might not. Those of a nervous disposition might like to go to the Gift shop instead.
Our ghost is a poltergeist and can throw a real tantrum. It seems this room can never be kept tidy. ;) I will just open the door and see if he is....no no....not a good.... What....?
Well, just a peek then.
Actually the guest room is the dumping ground for everything at the moment :0
This room was decorated in the eighteenth century in a mixture of pink and blue. The ghost alternates between blue moods and gay pink ones.
On the bed you will see several of the many, many, many 'embuggeries'*
6 executed by the second Countess, Obsessiana . She was Spanish and never did get the hang of the English language.
We shall leave this room quietly as the ghost doesn’t like to be disturbed, any more than he is.....
Across the hall we enter the Study. Here is the hub of the Manor. The Apple Mac computers house all the Manor’s files and all the major work of the estate is done here. All blog writing and creating, all fiddling about with paper and fabric.
The chair upon which several successive generations of Newstead behinds have reclined, is one of a pair and is a Regency (c. 1812 ) Lyre back design. The tenth Earl was a tiny man so several cushions had to raise the seat so he could reach the desk. The present incumbents haven’t had the heart to change them. He became incontinent in his later years and was known as the Wee Earl.
The desk upon which the computer resides, is the work of the famous Trompe L’oiel*
7 artist, a member of the sinister*
8 Irish, branch of the family, Connart Newstead. It mimics an inlaid desk of the early 18th century and is entirely created in paint. It’s varnished with Shellac. The present Earl was heard to say recently “Just shellac...it’s wearing off.”
The study also houses many of the books the Library cannot hold. They are divided in to sections. Horticulture, which is the passion of the present Earl, History, the passion of the present Countess and Tripe, which is the passion of the dog.
Here we will also find many exceptional trompe l’oiel works of art, again by Connart Newstead - or we would if we could find them. They are so clever we have never actually discovered them. ;)
We think this might be one
And this one too.
Passing the airing cupboard, decorated in a pleasing shade of Marrow and Small's paint -linen, we enter the Mediaeval Bathroom. This is the oldest part of the house and was extensively modernised in 1980..
The walls are hand marbled..thousands of marbles were collected by the mad Shirty Earl - well he did lose his marbles, and these were used on the bathroom walls. The picture frames are empty because the Losing Duke lost the paintings which were in them, owing to a poor hand whilst playing Whist. Of course...all the pictures were by Whistler.
The floor is planking from the decking of the Golden Hind, Drake’s*
9 famous ship. The second Earl served with him on his circumnavigation of Brackley Lake. The walls are tiled with tiles of a mediaeval design, rescued from the abbey and the pelmet was made with pages from an illuminated manuscript which used to grace the library, until the Shirty Earl decided to tear it up as being obscene, in the mid 19th c. ( Queen Victoria has a lot to answer for ).
You can see some of the pages referred to, if you stand on your head, hook your feet over the basin and peer up into the recesses of the window, on good day, when the moon is....
What? Too dark?
Ah well.
You want to see them now?
Oh well alright then.
The chest is made up of pieces of torn up manuscript too. These were recovered from the old Abbey which stood on this spot before the Reformation. The present house was built by the First Lord, Shifty Newstead and the land and abbey was given to him by Henry Vlll for services rendered. < wink wink>.
This chest shows the Seasons of the Year and what Mediaeval peasants had to do in each ( oh dear! ) and the signs of the Zodiac. Upon the lid is a fine rendering of the Estate’s mediaeval pigs...Tamworths. Once known as Brackloons, these pigs were stolen by the First Lord Tamworth and renamed. They never grew quite as fat in that part of the Midlands.
On the wall is an early pair of Jack in the Green plaques in terracotta. These stare at you as you lie in the bath and their eyes are said to follow you around the room. Many generations of Newsteads have attested to the efficacy of these two as items of fertility. Lady Emulsion, wife of the fourth Earl “spent a very long time upon her toilette” ( quote from Celia Fiennes*
10 diary - she too stayed here in the very early 18th century and is said to have commented upon the fienne garden.) Lady Emulsion had 16 children, you will recall.
More disturbing are the corbels in the ceiling. Rescued from York Cathedral and destruction at the Reformation. These two faces leer at you when you are sitting at your ease, prompting the legend of the disappearing loo paper. Well, you’d laugh too.
These two hide dents in the ceiling where lights have been removed...really
The toilet seat was once wood, but owing to some strange Mediaeval quirk, changed overnight to blue. Some stately homes have their screaming skulls or their ghostly opening doors. Newstead Manor has The Blue Loo.
The gift shop is reached as you descend the stairs and the toilets ( should you be in need after your visit to the leering Mediaeval bathroom), is located just off the Grand Hall. This room too, is worthy of note. The Ninth Earl spent quite a long time in Northern climes, on his Not So Grand Tour, ( the estate was broke by then ), eventually settling in Sweden, where loos were holes in the ground. When he returned he brought a few items with him....amongst them a collection of painted Dala Horses*
11 and a really lovely tea towel. He made sure that never again would he have to squat.
The French Mirror in this room is green. It wasn’t painted so, it just goes green with the damp. ;)
The Ninth Earl had the window pelmet made by the visiting Swedish artisan, Carl Larsson,*
12 whom he had invited to Newstead Manor and who became so famous in his own country at the end of the 19th century. This item is probably one of the most unusual in the whole house. Shan’t tell you why. Meet me behind the Yew hedge in the parterre*
13 in five minutes with a fiver in your hand and I’ll show you why.
The tea towel...... the real picture
Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen, for your company on this guided tour. Please leave by the back door where you may visit the tea room and spend lots of money. May I add that we do not re-use our tea leaves.... more than twice.
We hope you have enjoyed your trip around our beautiful and historic home.
Please come again. You may nip round the front and come in again...but please remember to pay for your ticket.
And bring your friends and even more money with you next time!
:)
Explanations
*1. Uffington - a big hill in Berkshire with a chalk horse. Beautiful but deadly. It's said that if you stand on the eye, turn around three times and fix your eye on Uffington church spire and make a wish...it will come true. It did for the 10th Countess. ;)
*2. Toile de Jouy is a fabric invented in the 18th century. It's full of people doing rural things. But not those things. No.
*3 A Priest hole is a cunningly hidden small space made in the fabric of a building to hide Roman Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of them are still there. What did you think it was?
*4 Parian ware is unglazed white porcelain. It's very expensive and we wonder why because it's less laborious to make. Much like a lot of modern art I suppose.
*5 Art Nouveau. A type of curly art popular at the end of the 19th century. It appears everywhere on mirrors, fabric, wood carving and on towel rails.
*6 Embuggeries. Embroideries if course. But it's such a good word we had to type it twice.
*7 Trompe L'oiel- the art of deception. It's there but it isn't there. It's flat but not really. Hard to explain.
*8 Sinister - just means left handed. The female branch. But in this case... it means what you think.
*9 Sir Francis Drake was the first "Hello sailor" to circumcise the world in his little ship The Golden Hind in the 16th century.
*10 Celia Fiennes was a 17th century diarist and traveller. If she didn't stay there...it wasn't worth noting. Most places weren't.
*11 Dala Horses are little stylised painted horses from the Dalarna region of Sweden. You can buy them in the gift shop. No need to steal ours.
*12 Carl Larsson. Famous 19/20th century artist and prolific parent. He painted all his children and his wife several times, but no amount of thinners could get it off. :)
*13 Parterre. A little garden divided up into little parts by paths and small hedges. Give me the fiver now (or you'll never find your way out ! )
