Sandleford Priory (country house)
Sandleford Priory is a largely 18th century country house at Sandleford in the civil parish of Greenham in the English county of Berkshire. It incorporates the chapel of a former monastery and is currently the home of St Gabriel's School.
After the old monastery on the site was abandoned by its canons, the estate was given to the Dean and Canons of Windsor. They leased it out as a farm to various tenants before the Kingsmill family from Sydmonton Court converted it into a country house. This was subsequently much extended and elaborated by a later resident, Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu.
Architecture
The present Sandleford Priory is a Grade I listed building in of Grade II listed parkland landscaped by Capability Brown. It was mostly erected around the old priory buildings between 1780 and 1786 by James Wyatt, for Elizabeth Montagu.Residents
Residents have included:Kingsmill family
Three generations of the Kingsmill family of Sydmonton leased Sandleford between 1626 and circa 1715. Bridget Colt, Margaret Woodward, and Anne Forster, three of the seven daughters of Sir William Kingsmill, kt,, by his wife Ann Wilkes, were followed by their nephew John, and then finally his son Henry.- Lease dated, 20 November 1626: Sir Henry Colt, of Colts hall or Greys in Cavendish, Suffolk; married Bridget, fifth daughter of Sir William Kingsmill, knighted, of nearby Sydmonton Court, Hampshire, where on 18 and 19 August 1603 Sir William entertained King James and his Queen;
- By 3 October 1628, the tenant was Sir John Woodward of Weston-sub-Edge. His wife, Lady Woodward, aka Margaret Kingsmill.
- Before 1668, Sir Humphrey Forster, of Aldermaston Court, Aldermaston, sheriff of Berkshire 1619–20; created a baronet in 1620; married Anne, eldest daughter of Sir William Kingsmill, kt. of Sydmonton by Anna Wilks;
- Lease dated, 6 May 1668: John Kingsmill, JP,, educated Trinity College, Oxford, the third son of Sir Henry Kingsmill, kt., of Sydmonton, by Bridget White, of Southwick. They married 20 December 1610. His mother was for over a decade a close friend of the poet John Donne, and John thus may have been named after the poet.
- In the early eighteenth century the Pitt family of Strathfield-Saye were thought by the Lysons and Emily Climenson to have been lessees, possibly during the minority of the sons of Rachel Pitt, aka Mrs John Kingsmill.
William Cradock
- William Cradock of Gilling, Hartforth and Gainford Hall, Gainford, County Durham. In 1715 he married Mary daughter of Gilbert Sheldon, of St Andrew's, Holborn. Their daughter Mary married Gilbert Jodrell, and in turn their daughter Sarah married Robert Child of Osterley Park;
Montagu family
- Edward Montagu, FRS, of Allerthorpe, Yorkshire, a distinguished mathematician, was MP for Huntingdon 1734–1768, son of the Hon. Charles Montagu, MP for Durham, and grandson of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich. He inherited in 1758, on the death of his lunatic first cousin, John Rogers, the coal-mines of the Denton Hall estate, East Denton, Newcastle, Northumberland, which had been bought by their grandfather in 1689 and 1705; he was the leaseholder of the Sandleford estate from 1730. Sandleford had been in possession of the first cousin of his first cousin, Sir Edward Wortley-Montagu, the father of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Sandleford belonged to the Dean and Canons of Windsor, Robert Freind, a Canon of Windsor, the Canon of the Second Stall, from 29 April 1729 to 1737, was father of William Freind whose wife Grace Robinson was sister and co-heir of Edward's wife's cousin, Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby. Meanwhile, Sir Sidney Meadows, Kt., MP, of Conholt, Chute, Andover, was a brother-in-law having married his sister Jemima in 1742;
- Mrs. Montagu, aka Elizabeth Robinson, the blue-stocking, Edward Montagu's wife and then widow. Sister of Matthew Robinson, FRS, MP, Sarah Scott, Charles, MP and Rev. William Robinson who was rector of Denton, 1764–1785, and of nearby Burghfield, 1767–1800, when succeeded by his son Rev. Matthew Robinson. Sir Thomas Robinson, 1st Baronet was a kinsman. Rev. Laurence Sterne married one of her first cousins. Her heir was her nephew, Matthew Montagu, FRS, MP, who succeeded to her estates in Yorkshire and Northumberland, and to Sandleford, in 1800, though he had already been living with her and there for years; In a letter to one of her brothers, dated Sandleford, 9 June 1777, Mrs Montagu wrote about her agricultural relationship with Sandleford.
- Matthew Montagu , MP, FRS, 4th Baron Rokeby, in the peerage of Ireland, from 1829. He was Mrs. Montagu's favoured nephew, under whose wish he took the name of Montagu in 1776, and son of Morris Robinson of the Six Clerks' Office, Chancery Lane, London. Wraxall in his Memoir described Montagu's upbringing by his aunt: At her feet he was brought up, a school more adapted to form a man of taste and improvement than a statesman or a man of the world. Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Francis Charlton of Kent in 1785 by whom he had six sons and seven daughters. A 'faithful follower of Pitt', he was MP for Bossiney 1786–1790, for Tregony 1790–1796, and for St. Germans 1806–1812; Major commandant Newbury voluntary infantry 1803, lt.-col. commandant. 1803. In addition to holding the lease of Sandleford he bought land in the adjacent manor of Peckmore,, a name a mix of Perche and moor; Matthew Robinson may have been influenced by or even employed Humphrey Repton at Sandleford as a result of having seen what he had done for the father of his patron at St. Germans, Lord Eliot of Port Eliot, in 1792–93 and 1802.
Montagu visitors
- Robert Adam, employed by Mrs Montagu in 1765 at Sandleford;
- Hannah More, friend of Mrs. Montagu;
- Elizabeth Vesey, friend and adviser of Mrs. Montagu;
- Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, of Bulstrode Park, friend of Mrs. Montagu;
- William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath;
- Dr. Beattie,, stayed at Sandleford with his son in July 1791;
- George Harcourt, 2nd Earl Harcourt, of Nuneham House, friend and garden adviser to Mrs. Montagu;
- Mary Delany, aka Mrs. Pendarves,, friend of Mrs. Montagu;
- Lancelot Brown, Capability Brown, provided plans for the park and garden in 1781;
- John Spyers,, nurseryman and draftsman, Mr. Brown's surveyor;
- James Wyatt, architect;
- Joseph Bonomi the Elder, architect;
- Samuel Lapidge, took over from Brown in the park and garden. Father of Edward Lapidge;
- William Emes, also took over garden landscaping after Brown's death;
- Sir Richard Jebb, 1st Baronet, introduced Mrs Montagu to the whiskey, a one-horse chair, which she used to get around her scenic acres at Sandleford;
- Miss. Gregory, Dorothea Gregory; wife to Archibald Alison , daughter of John Gregory, sister of James Gregory and mother of Sir Archibald Alison, 1st Baronet and William Alison. Invaluable companion to Mrs. Montagu, especially at Sandleford;
- Rt. Rev. Richard Pococke, Bishop of Ossory and Meath, collected Cedar of Lebanon seeds in Lebanon in 1738, some of which are known to have been planted at Highclere Castle and Wilton House, but probably also at Sandleford and his family's own Newtown House, Hampshire;
- Richard Durnford, Bishop of Chichester, his mother Louisa was a daughter of John Mount of Wasing was born at Sandleford. John Mount was also a grandfather of William Mount,, MP.
- Matthew Montagu was a friend and supporter of William Wilberforce, and thus favoured the abolition of the slave trade. Wilberforce, stayed at Sandleford, 27–28 July 1789:
William Chatteris
At the time of the 1851 census Chatteris and his wife lived in the priory with an indoor staff of 12; butler, footman, under-butler, housekeeper, lady's maid, cook, laundry maid, three house maids, kitchen maid, and a scullery maid.
One of his sisters, Eliza, had married Edmund Arbuthnot of Newtown in 1824, Sandlefords's closest village, which would have been Chatteris' introduction to the area as he took on the lease of Sandleford in 1835. His first wife was Anne eldest daughter of Rt Rev Alexander Arbuthnot, DD, Bishop of Killaloe, and his brother-law Edmund's first cousin. He planted a world-class azalea and rhododendron garden. He died at Sandleford Priory leaving £155,141, his executors were his former half-brother-in-law Sir Charles George Arbuthnot, GCB,, and the Rev. Frances Charles Gosling, vicar in charge of Newtown, 1859–1900. Another half-brother-in-law Sir Alexander John Arbuthnot, KCSI CIE lived at nearby Newtown house;
Later residents
- Miss Agatha Lilian Thynne, Alpin Mac Gregor's niece,, was wife of the 3rd Baron Hindlip, and is hence a great-grandmother of Kirstie Allsopp. Her mother Mary Elizabeth Murray Mac Gregor and father John Charles Thynne, sometime receiver general to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, were living at Sandleford Cottage in 1907,. Her sister Joan E. M. was the mother of John Campbell, 5th Earl Cawdor.
- Mrs. Henrietta Myers, widow of guano and Liverpool shipping merchant Charles Myers, JP, of Botleigh and Swanmore, Bishops Waltham, Droxford, Hampshire, and director of Ismay Imrie & Co, was tenant from before 1898 until circa 1919. Her daughter Evelyn Elizabeth Myers wrote A History of Sandleford Priory, with plates, Newbury District Field Club, Special Publication. no. 1. She had finished it by December 1906 but it was not published until 1931. She had an elder sister called Henrietta Constance. One brother was Rev. Canon Charles Myers, canon of Salisbury Cathedral, another was William Henry Myers, JP, DL, MP, of Swanmore House. Evelyn Myers' first cousin Major William Joseph Myers was a prolific collector of Egyptian antiquities and of Arab glass and wall tiles.
- Major Aubrey Isaac Rothwell Butler,, son of Isaac Butler, JP, of Panteg House, Griffithstown, Torfaen, near Newport. It is claimed that the first sheet steel in Britain was rolled in Staffordshire in 1876 from a bloom made in Panteg by Isaac Butler. Aubrey Butler was sometime manager of Baldwin's Ltd branches in Monmouth & Midlands, Baldwins having taken over the family firm, Wright, Butler and Co Ltd, in 1902. Later he was Sheriff of Monmouthshire, 1924, and by the time of his early death was described as formerly of Sandleford Priory and of 13, Porchester Terrace, London.
- Lady Mary Florence Holt, daughter of the 12th Earl of Meath, by Lady Mary Jane Maitland, daughter of 11th Earl of Lauderdale, and wife to Lt.Col. Harold Edward Sherwin Holt, TD, CBE, MIEE, FRGS, MA; educated at Eton and Magdalen college, Oxford; a mechanical and electrical engineer and inventor; sometime director of Daimler; Lord of the manor of Farnborough; of Ogbeare Hall, North Tamerton, Devon and Hornacott Manor, Boyton, Launceston, Cornwall; and founder member of the RAC and the Society for Psychical Research; hon. lieutenant-colonel in RAF and Hants Carabiniers Yeomanry. Meanwhile, Lady Mary's sister Lady Violet Constance Maitland married the 4th Earl of Verulam in 1909. Lady Mary's brother, Reginald Brabazon, 13th Earl of Meath, married Lady Aileen May Wyndham-Quin, a daughter of Windham Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl. There were two Holt sons: Adrian John Reginald and Geoffrey Brabazon. Lady Mary sold the priory's furniture and outside effects, and presumedly the house in 1947, and St Gabriel’s School opened in 1948;
- Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, of St. Gabriel's School;
Landscape
'Geoffrey count of the Perche and Countess Matilda endowed the Augustinian priory of Sandleford with the church and all the land at Sandleford, together with the wood known as Brademore and with all the land on both sides of that wood that is, bounded by the watercourse known as Aleburn from the bridge at Sandleford to the Alburnegate, then by the road which runs from Alburnegate towards Newbury up to the croft of William the huntsman and on the third side from there along the road to the croft of Robert fitz Rembaldand on the fourth side up to the bridge at Sandleford. The right to build a mill is granted together with an annual sum of thirteen marks of sterling to be taken from the mills of Newbury every four weeks. When the prior dies one of the remaining canons is to be chosen in his place, 1194–1202.'
A typical lease, this one dated 6 May 1668, granted by the Dean and Canons of Windsor to John Kingsmill of Sandleford, scite of the Priory etc all lately in tenure of Humphrey Foster of Aldermaston, in the County of Berks, Bart, and John Harrison of Lincoln's Inn for 21 years at £15 2s. for fishing AND Lease of Sandleford coppices, called Bradmore and Highwood, the first late held by Anthony Childe and the other by Richard Pinfold, and their coppices in the Parish of Migham, in all 68 acres, by the Dean and Canons of Windsor to John Kingsmill of Sandelford, esquire.
Another later but similar lease of the estate, this one dated 31 August 1737, between Edward Montagu and the Dean and Canons of Windsor in summary read: Lease of the scite of the Priory, the farm of Sandelford , and Tydhams and all messuages, tenements in Sandelford and Midgham, Berks, in Burrowghcleere and Sidmanton , in the county of Hants, the meadow called Milmead on the South side of Aborn Streame , – and also fishing in the river Kennett in the parishes Limborn , Enborne and Nubery , by the Dean and Canons of Windsor to Edward Mountague of London, esquire.
If approached and seen from the south, from the Newtown Common or Whitchurch road, the distant prospect of Sandleford, with steep, magnificent and south facing parkland and wooded slopes with the priory itself sitting atop, high, the effect would have been like that of Camelot or Shangdu. The Xandu of Samuel Purchas, as in his 1614 description based on what Marco Polo had reported:
In Xandu did Cublai Can build a stately Pallace, encompassing sixteen miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightfull streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumpuous house of pleasure, which may be moved from place to place.
The parish of Sandleford is, as mentioned above, about 500 acres, most of which is an arcadian farm and woodland that lies to the west of the priory/school. This almost square block is bounded by the River Enborne to the south; on the west by a hedge line that runs two furlongs to the east of the Andover Road which runs north-south through Wash Common; Monks Lane and therefore Newbury to the north ; and the Newtown road, A339 to the east.
Almost the only way into this park is from the west, from the A343, Andover road, past the Roman Catholic church at Warren Lodge, and down the remaining 200 yards of an ancient track flanked by field maple, oak, ash, hazel, ivy, elm, elder, hawthorn, and blackthorn. Around here the cavalry of Prince Rupert of the Rhine lined up before the First Battle of Newbury in September 1643, and near here are the meadows which feature in the beginning of Richard Adams' semi-factual novel Watership Down. At this point the enclosed track ends at the Newbury /Sandleford parish boundary, but the public footpath or former carriage track continues. In previous centuries, in Mrs. Montagu's day, this was the main route to the priory from the west, from places like Bath, Somerset. Here the view quickly opens out, expansively, perspective tricks have been played with hedge and wood edge lines which add to the sense of infinity and space.
Barn copse is passed on the left or north. A hedge line connects Barn Copse to Dirty Ground Copse, and another hedge line from that forms an arrow with the northern edge of Gorse Covert. Comparison of the 1761 John Rocque map with how things now appear suggests a degree of highly clever tweeking of wood and hedge lines to maximise the effect of the landscape took place in the late eighteenth century. In the far distance on the right, to the south, there is Sidown Hill with its brick folly Heaven's Gate, built in 1749 for Hon. Robert Sawyer Herbert, MP, of Highclere, second son of Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, visible at about 60 feet high, and next to that Beacon Hill.
As the track passes through the bottle-neck formed by this hedge and the north-east end of Gorse Covert the viewer then goes through to the next instalment, a first distant prospect of Sandleford Priory itself, and the North Downs, including Watership Down.
The track continues due east passing High Wood and a distant view of Slockett's Copse and Crook's Copse beyond to the left or north. Eventually the track reaches the A339 and the main entrance to the priory/school. Through the heart of this block of 500 acres a small stream runs north south from the top of Crook's Copse, down between High Wood and Slockett's Copse and then having been joined by another smaller stream runs east parallel with the southern edge of High Wood and then turns south again towards the River Enborne.
In 1749 Elizabeth Montagu wrote to her husband from Tunbridge Wells: My Dearest,... I flatter myself the Captain will think Berkshire not inferior to Surry , especially if he bestrides his Arabian steed, and surveys the prospects from Newbury Wash, Greenham &c. When he is tired of mere cows and sheep, and would behold some of those fair creatures, Father Philip's geese,...
Mrs. Montagu's views on landscape, indicating that parks and gardens should be under the care of the cherub Contemplation, are somewhat revealed in a letter to Gilbert West, dated 1753, 25th:
'I suppose you have been at Stowe, where art has exhausted all her powers,
Equel, che il bello, o il caro accresce all' opre
L'arte, che tutto fa, nulla si Scopre
'Such, I am told, is its present state; when I saw the gardens they brought not so much to one's imagination the scenes of paradise, as of that garden, where the sapient king with his fair spouse held dalliance; it is rather a retreat for the proud and victorious, than the philosophic mind; like the poets, it was an Elysian only for heroes; ambition found examples there, and restless emulation fair incitements, but no quiet scenes hushed the passions into peace, and excluded the visions of this world's vanities; which, I take to be the great benefit of the retreat which should put the mind into the guardian care of the cherub Contemplation.
In September 1757 Mrs Montagu wrote to Dr. Messenger Monsey, FRS, ... I assure you we have Groves too at Sandleford, where you may meet your Amante Sposa, Dame Melancholy, as often as you please...''.
Job creation scheme
In July 1782 Mrs Montagu mentioned the high unemployment then found in Newbury and the works going on at Sandleford: The scene is extremely animated; 20 men at work in the wood and grove, and the fields around are full of haymakers. The persons employed on the work are poor weavers who by the decay of our manufacture at Newbury are void of employment, and not having been trained to the business of agriculture are not dexterous at the rake and pitchfork, but the plain digging and driving wheel barrows they can perform and are very glad to get their daily subsistence.Tourist attraction
In a letter dated Deal, 21 July 1786, Elizabeth Carter wrote to her friend Elizabeth Montagu: 'Your letter, my dear friend,... The trouble which you receive from the curiosity of people to see your improvements at Sandleford, is one of the natural embarras des richesses. Nobody plagues me by besieging my doors in carriages, and upon pillions to see my cottage. After all, however, it is very strange how people can be so impertinent, one would think they might at least suspend their impatient curiosity till you were absent'.A year later Elizabeth Carter, in a letter, dated Deal, 22 June 1787, pointed to the music of the groves: ' ... By this time, my dear friend, I hope you are enjoying the music of your groves at Sandleford... '.
Past descriptions of the house and estate
Elizabeth Montagu 1743
In 1743 Mrs Montagu wrote from Sandleford to her old friend the Duchess of Portland and described her new retreat:'...I had a very pleasant journey to this place, where I am delighted to find everything that is capable of making retreat agreeable; the garden commands a fine prospect, the most cheerful I ever saw, and not of shirt distance which is only to gratify the pride of seeing, but such as falls within the humble reach of my eyes. We have a pretty village on a rising ground just before us.'
Where the cottage chimney smokes,
Fast between two oaks.
'Poverty here is clad in its decent garb of low simplicity, but her tattered robes of misery do not here show want and wretchedness; you would rather imagine pomp was neglected than sufficiency wanted.'
'A silver stream washes the foot of the village; health, pleasure, and refreshment are the ingredients that qualify this spring; no debauch, or intoxication, arises from its source.'
'Nature has been very indulgent to this country, and has given it enough of wood and water; the first we have here in good plenty, and a power of having more of the latter, as improvements are undertaken.'
'Here are temptations to riding and walking. I go out every evening to take a view of the country; the villages are the neatest I ever saw; every cottage is tight; has a little garden, and is sheltered by fine trees...'
Survey 1781
A survey of the 619 acre, 2 roods and 17 perches estate made for Mrs Montagu in 1781, by John Spyers on behalf of Lancelot Brown, and used when the lease of 503 acres and 111 acres was sold to William Chatteris on 3 November 1835, shows that in 1835 111 acres were owned outright by the Lord Rokeby on the east side, that 87 acres on the east side belonged to the Dean and Canons of Windsor, and that 416 acres on the west side of the road, with 5 acres belonging to Mrs Colman near the mill. One question regarding this 1781 survey is whether it was a depiction of what work was to be done, as conceived by Lancelot Brown, or more likely exactly how the estate was at the time? Meanwhile, the 1871 map shows the landscape as it might have been embellished by Brown, especially regarding the ponds near Broadmoor and Waterleaze woods. It is also possible that this 1871 map was based on a lost map made by Brown as a result of works undertaken after that 1781 survey.In November 1762 replying to a letter from her husband Mrs Montagu wrote:You are very good in consulting me about the Trees..., which suggests that landscape works had been going on post the Rocque map of 1761 and preceding Capability Brown's involvement post 1781, more in a style as seen at Studley Royal/Fountains Abbey or as painted by people like Jacob van Ruisdael, Antonie Waterloo, or Thomas Gainsborough.
87 acres of coppices on the west side
- Waterleaze and Broadmoor coppice: 41 2 09
- High Wood coppice: 18 3 10
- Upper Moor coppice: 2 01 10
- Lower Moor coppice: 3 1 01
- Dirty Ground: 5 0 17
- Orchard House coppice: 5 2 10
- Wilsons coppice: 4 0 06
- Parting Ground coppice: 5 2 16
- Furze close border: 0 2 16
- Hassocks above Halls mead: 0 2 12.
- Upper mill mead;
- Lower mill mead;
- Mill mead;
- Grabbed piddle;
- Pound meadow;
- Over way cow leaze;
- Upper peat mead;
- Upper eight acres;
- Four acres;
- Ireland;
- Halls mead.
- Great Water leaze 12 2 19;
- The Pond 0 3 24;
- Middle Leaze 14 1 15;
- Upper Moor 13 1 21;
- Lower Moor 11 1 30;
- Fulwars 16 0 33;
- Picked Harts 10 3 24;
- Round Harts 20 2 14;
- High wood close 16 1 0;
- Fatting Leaze 19 3 03;
- Adams ground 20 1 6;
- Parting ground 15 0 22;
- High Field 23 2 28;
- Gravel close 3 1 13;
- Furz ground 28 3 15;
- Newberry grounds,, comprised three fields on the brow of the slope north of Monks' Lane, looking north down towards Newbury, that totalled 40 2 00..
The 1781 survey map also shows the Montagu purchases of coppices and water-meadows at Peckmore and on the north side of the Auborn stream, and its layout before its severe disturbance by the new west-east running A339; re-routed along the river Enborne as a result of two of the old roads to Newbury that formerly crossed Greenham Common south-north being severed when the airport was made circa 1942.
The map also shows a Rick yard; farm yard, with a very large barn; the Green yard in front of the priory; a Wilderness walk; and a Bowling green. The map shows the stream that flows south into the river Enborne which also marked the border of the parishes of Greenham and Sandleford and was to provide the water that formed what is known as Brown's, Woodhouse, and Newtown ponds. Collin's coppice ran just east of the priory's demesne, near where the first ponds were formed. Collin's coppice still exists at the south-western corner of Greenham Common, as does Peckmoor, an arable field now a grazed part of Bunker farm.
Mary Morgan 1791
- Mary Morgan, one of the two daughters of the Ipswich composer Joseph Gibbs, and wife to Rev. Caesar Morgan, DD,, vicar of Wisbech and then Rector of St James' Church, Stretham, Cambridgeshire and a Prebendary of Ely, in her A Tour to Milford Haven, in the year 1791 published in 1795, wrote :
After driving twenty miles through a very pleasant country, and through the pretty town of Newbury, we entered Mrs. Montagu's park, which seemed to have undergone some recent improvements, as the trees were many of them newly planted. The approach to the house is a fine lawn, with sheep feeding upon it. This gives you the idea of beauty blended with utility, which always produces agreeable sensations in the mind...
...In this wing is an elegant dressing-room above stairs. This too has a large bow, on the outside of which there is a very spacious balcony, surrounded by iron balustrades. The balcony commands a distant view of the Hampshire hills, and an extensive diversified country. The small village of Newton in the Valley has an humble simplicity in it, that is agreeably contrasted with the lofty hills beyond it...
...When we withdrew to go to bed, we were ushered up stairs by the major domo, with a wax light in each hand. I found the bedroom lighted up, and a female waiting in it ready to undress me. Mrs M.-- was not conducted into my room, but into a dressing-room adjoining, by a door that opened into a passage. Reflecting on this, to me unusual ceremony, I almost began to fancy myself a bride again; or else, that I was transported into some fairy region, where I was to be waited upon by spirits, that were every where attending without being called for...
...In the dressing-room there was a collection of books; amongst them I found your friend Miss Cornelia Knight's Dinarbas. Here you may amuse yourself in the morning, if you please, till dinner calls you again to society.
The grounds are laid out with the same Attic taste, as the house. Through a great part of them Mrs. Montagu has trained a river, which was little more than a ditch; and means to extend it still further... she has likewise cut a winding path through her plantations. It is a carriage way and is a mile in length. It is also a very pleasant walk, and may serve; 'or for study, or for love' being perfectly secluded. At agreeable distances are benches under the shadow of a large tree, or the shelter of a close hedge interwoven with woodbines and honeysuckles.
When walking in the grounds, I observed an extraordinary degree of cleanliness and decency in the men, who were at work in them. Upon enquiry I found they were all fed and cloathed by her hand. I perceived too that many of them had some great defect, occasioned by age, natural infirmity, or misfortune, being either blind, deaf, dumb, or lame; yet she so paired them, and fitted their employments to their several faculties, that the remaining senses of one served to supply the deficiencies of the other. By this stroke of benevolent ingenuity, though she does not get so much work done, as she would by stronger and abler men; she has the heart-felt satisfaction of making those useful and happy members of society, whom nobody else would employ, and who, but for her, must be dependent upon a parish for an idle and scanty substance. I hope it is not prophane to say, she has made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk.
The whole of this place suggested to me the idea of a Roman villa. There is every thing for use as well as beauty. The farm and dairy are not omitted; they supply the family and table with all things necessary and delicate. In short, there is a style in every part of it, that bespeaks a superior degree of judgment. Nothing is gaudy or superfluous, yet nothing is wanting. Native genius, matured by observation upon what is simply elegant, has guided the hand of the amiable possessor of this enchanting place... Adieu.
A few days later she continued:
: Having before described Sandleford to you, I cannot help observing, that it is a striking contrast to Blenheim. But it is such a one, as when the eye, dazzled with gazing at the sun, falls on the soft green of a beautiful lawn, upon which it may rest for ever without satiety or weariness. At Sandleford the mind is gratified with everything that can render life rational and happy. At Blenheim it is fatigued with contemplating objects, that seem like a golden dream, too gay and too gaudy to be real.
Morgan's list of subscribers shows that Elizabeth Montagu, aka Montagu, Mrs. Portman Square-10 copies., and her nephew, aka Robinson, Rev. Mr. Rector of Coveney, in the Isle of Ely-6 copies.'', evidently appreciated this ebullient description.