Cliveden is an Italianate
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
and estate at
TaplowTaplow is a village and civil parish within South Bucks district in Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the east bank of the River Thames facing Maidenhead on the opposite bank. Taplow railway station is situated near the A4 south of the village....
,
BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Set on banks 40 metres (131.2 ft) above the
River ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, its grounds slope down to the river. The site has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor.
As home of Nancy Astor, the house was the meeting place of the
Cliveden setThe Cliveden Set were a 1930s right-wing, upper class group of prominent individuals politically influential in pre-World War II Britain, who were in the circle of Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor...
of the 1920s and 1930s - a group of political intellectuals. Later, during the 1960s, it became the setting for key events of the notorious
Profumo AffairThe Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
. During the 1970s, it was occupied by
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
of California who used it as an overseas campus. Today owned by the
National TrustThe National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
, the house is leased as a
five-star hotelStars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...
run by von Essen Hotels.
"Cliveden" means "valley among cliffs" and refers to the dean or valley which cuts through the estate to the west of the house. "Cliveden" has been spelled differently over the centuries, some of the variations being Cliffden, Clifden, Cliefden and Clyveden. The 375 acres (151.8 ha) gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. There have been three houses on this site: the first, built in 1666, burned down in 1795 and the second house (1824) was also destroyed by fire, in 1849. The present Grade 1 listed house was built in 1851 by the architect
Charles BarrySir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.- Background and training :Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster...
for
George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of SutherlandGeorge Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland KG , styled Viscount Trentham until 1803, Earl Gower between 1803 and 1833 and Marquess of Stafford in 1833, was a British peer....
.
Present house
Designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1851 to replace a house previously destroyed by fire, the present house is a blend of the English
PalladianPalladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
style and the Roman Cinquecento. The Victorian three-storey mansion sits on a 400 feet (121.9 m) long, 20 feet (6.1 m) high brick terrace or viewing platform (only visible from the South side) which dates from the mid-seventeenth century. The exterior of the house is rendered in Roman cement, with terracotta additions such as
balusterA baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
s, capitals,
keystoneA keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight. This makes a keystone very important structurally...
s and
finialThe finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed decoratively to emphasize the apex of a gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods...
s. The roof of the mansion is meant for walking on and there is a circular view, above the tree-line, of parts of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire including Windsor Castle to the South.
Below the balustraded roofline is a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
inscription which continues around the four sides of the house and recalls its history; it was composed by the then prime minister Gladstone. On the West front it reads: "POSITA INGENIO OPERA CONSILIO CAROLI BARRY ARCHIT A MDCCCLI" which translated reads: "The work accomplished by the brilliant plan of architect Charles Barry in 1851." The main contractor for the work was
Lucas BrothersLucas Brothers was a leading British building business based in London.-Early history:The business was founded by Charles Thomas Lucas and Thomas Lucas . They were the sons of James Lucas , a builder, of St Pancras, London...
. The clock tower next to the house is in fact a disguised
water towerA water tower or elevated water tower is a large elevated drinking water storage container constructed to hold a water supply at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system....
.
In 1984-6 the exterior of the mansion was overhauled and a new lead roof installed by the National Trust, while interior repairs were carried out by Cliveden Hotel.
Early history
Cliveden stands on the site of a house built in 1666 designed by architect
William WindeCaptain William Winde was an English gentleman architect, whose Royalist military career, resulting in fortifications and topographical surveys but lack of preferment, and his later career, following the Glorious Revolution, as designer or simply "conductor" of the works of country houses, has...
as the home of
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of BuckinghamGeorge Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
. But before Buckingham's purchase the land was owned by the Mansfield family and before that to the de Clyveden family.
The details are recorded in a document compiled by William Waldorf Astor in 1894 called "The Historical Descent of Cliveden". It shows that in 1237 the land was owned by Geoffrey de Clyveden and by 1300 it had passed to his son, William, who owned fisheries and mills along the Cliveden Reach stretch of the Thames and at nearby Hedsor.
The document also shows that in 1569 a lodge existed on the site along with 50 acres (202,343 m²) of land and was owned by Sir Henry Manfield and later his son, Sir Edward. In 1573 there were two lodges on 160 acres (647,497.6 m²) of treeless
chalkChalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
escarpement above the Thames. It was on this impressively high but exposed site that Buckingham chose to build the first Cliveden house.
Buckingham pulled down the earlier buildings and chose William Winde as his architect. Winde designed a four-storey house above an arcaded terrace. Today, the terrace is the only feature of Buckingham's house to survive the 1795 fire. Although the Duke's intention was to use Cliveden as a "hunting box" he later housed his mistress Anna, Countess of Shrewsbury there. A contemporary account of Buckingham's antics with Anna is recounted by
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
in his diary of the period.
1st Earl of Orkney
After Buckingham's death in 1687 the house remained empty until the estate was purchased by
George Hamilton, 1st Earl of OrkneyField Marshal George Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney KT was a British soldier and Scottish nobleman and the first British Army officer to be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. The son of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, he fought for William of Orange in Ireland and the Low Countries...
in 1696. Orkney became a general in the
Battle of BlenheimThe Battle of Blenheim , fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. Louis XIV of France sought to knock Emperor Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement...
(1704) and later governor of
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, then an English colony, without ever setting foot on American soil. The Earl employed the architect
Thomas ArcherThomas Archer was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Archer was born at Umberslade Hall in Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire, the youngest son of Thomas Archer, a country gentleman, Parliamentary...
to add two new "wings" to the house, connected by curved corridors. Although an almost identical arrangement exists today, these are later reconstructions, the originals having been destroyed in the fire of 1795. All that remains of Archer's work inside the house today is a staircase in the West wing.
Orkney's contributions to the gardens can still be seen today, most notably the Octagon Temple and the Blenheim Pavilion, both designed by the Venetian architect
Giacomo LeoniGiacomo Leoni , also known as James Leoni, was an Italian architect, born in Venice. He was a devotee of the work of Florentine Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti, who had also been an inspiration for Andrea Palladio. Leoni thus served as a prominent exponent of Palladianism in English...
. The landscape designer
Charles BridgemanCharles Bridgeman was an English garden designer in the onset of the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres and avenues to a freer style that incorporated formal, structural and...
was also commissioned to devise woodland walks and carve a rustic turf
amphitheatreAn amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
out of the cliff-side.
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Between 1737 and 1751 the estate was leased to
Frederick, Prince of WalesFrederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...
by Orkney's heirs after his death. Frederick was the son of
George IIGeorge II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
and the father of George III. After falling out with his father, Frederick used Cliveden to enable him to withdraw from life at the royal court. At Cliveden he established a family home for his wife Augusta and their children.
It was during the Prince's tenure of the house that
Rule, Britannia!"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740...
(an aria by the English composer Thomas Arne) was first performed in public in the cliff-side amphitheatre at Cliveden on 1 August 1740. It was played as part of a
masqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
to celebrate the third birthday of his daughter, Augusta.
It is believed that it was at Cliveden in 1751 that the Prince received a blow to the chest from a cricket ball while playing in the grounds; the resulting infection proved fatal.
After his death, Frederick's family left Cliveden and the estate was once again used by Orkney's heirs until the night of 20 May 1795 when the house caught fire and burned down. The cause of the fire was thought to have been a servant knocking over a candle.
Sir George Warrender
After the fire of 1795 the house remained a ruin for the first quarter of the 19th century until, in 1824 the estate was purchased by
Sir George Warrender, 4th BaronetSir George Warrender of Lochend, 4th Baronet PC, FRS was a Scottish politician. In 1799, he succeeded to his father's baronetcy. Due to his lifestyle, he was nicknamed Sir Gorge Provender....
. To rebuild Cliveden, Warrender selected
William BurnWilliam Burn was a Scottish architect, pioneer of the Scottish Baronial style.He was born in Edinburgh, the son of architect Robert Burn, and educated at the Royal High School. After training with the architect of the British Museum, Sir Robert Smirke, he returned to Edinburgh in 1812...
, a Scottish architect, and decided on a design for a two-storey mansion designed with entertaining on a grand scale in mind.
George, 2nd Duke of Sutherland
Warrender died in 1849 and the house was sold to the Sutherland family, headed by the second Duke. Sutherland had only been in possession of the estate for a few months when, in the same year as his acquisition the house burned down for the second time in its history. The cause this time appears to have been negligence on the part of the decorators.
The Duke was prompt in commissioning the architect
Charles BarrySir Charles Barry FRS was an English architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens.- Background and training :Born on 23 May 1795 in Bridge Street, Westminster...
to rebuild Cliveden in the style of an Italianate villa. Barry, whose most famous project is arguably the Houses of Parliament,
WestminsterWestminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, was inspired by the outline of the two earlier houses for his design. The third (and present) house on the site was completed in 1851-2 and its exterior appearance has little changed to this day. The 100 feet (30.5 m)-tall clock tower, which is actually a water tower (still working to this day) was added in 1861 by the architect
Henry CluttonHenry Clutton was an English architect and designer and a student of Edward Blore and also worked with William Burges.-Work:* Battle Abbey, Sussex* Cliveden, Buckinghamshire* Hoar Cross Hall, Staffordshire...
. Also around this time another architect,
George DeveyGeorge Devey was a British architect, born in London, the second son of Frederick and Ann Devey. Devey was educated in London, after leaving school he initially studied art, with an ambition to become a professional artist...
, was commissioned to build half-timbered cottages on the estate along with a dairy and boathouse.
After the duke's death in 1861, his widow Harriet continued to live at the house for part of the year until her death in 1868, after which it was sold to her son-in-law Hugh Lupus, Earl Grosvenor, later 1st Duke of Westminster.
1st Duke of Westminster
Westminster was one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the period so it is understandable that he would want to contribute to Cliveden's architecture. Among his additions to the house and gardens are the porte cochere on the north front of the mansion, a new stable block and the
dovecoteA dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
, all designed by Henry Clutton.
Astor era
In 1893 the estate was purchased by the American billionaire William Waldorf Astor (later 1st Lord Astor) who made sweeping alterations to the gardens and the interior of the house, but lived at Cliveden as a recluse after the early death of his wife. He gave Cliveden to his son Waldorf on the occasion of his marriage to Nancy Langhorne in 1906 and moved to
Hever CastleHever Castle is located in the village of Hever near Edenbridge, Kent, south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century...
.
The young Astors used Cliveden for entertaining on a lavish scale. The combination of the house, its setting and leisure facilities offered on the estate - boating on the Thames, horse riding, tennis, swimming,
croquetCroquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
and fishing - made Cliveden a destination for film stars, politicians, world-leaders, writers and artists. The heyday of entertaining at Cliveden was between the two World Wars when the Astors held regular weekend house parties. Guests at the time included:
Charlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
,
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Joseph Kennedy,
George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
,
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
,
Amy JohnsonAmy Johnson CBE, was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s...
, F.D. Roosevelt, H.H. Asquith, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia),
A.J. BalfourArthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
and the writers
Henry JamesHenry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
,
Rudyard KiplingJoseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, and
Edith WhartonEdith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
. The tradition of high-profile guests visiting the house continues to this day, largely due to the house's conversion into a hotel.
Also at this time the entertainer
Joyce GrenfellJoyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...
, who was Nancy Astor's niece, lived in a cottage on the estate. She also entertained injured troops in the hospital on the estate during World War II.
At the outbreak of
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Waldorf Astor offered the use of some of the grounds to the
Canadian Red CrossThe Canadian Red Cross Society is a Canadian humanitarian charitable organization and one of 186 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies....
for the building of a hospital – the HRH Duchess of Connaught Hospital – which was dismantled at the end of the hostilities. In September 1939 with the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Waldorf Astor again offered the use of the land at a rent of one
shillingThe shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
per year to the Canadian Red Cross and the
Canadian Red Cross Memorial HospitalThe Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, was a pre-war civilian hospital and a centre for research into rheumatism in children...
was built to the designs of
Robert AtkinsonRobert Atkinson, OBE was an English architect primarily working in the Art Deco style.Atkinson was born in Wigton, Cumberland and studied at University College, Nottingham before studying abroad in Paris, Italy and America. He was a talented draughtsman and worked for C.E. Mallows from 1905...
. After the war the hospital's main focus was as a nursing school, a maternity unit and a rheumatology unit until the hospital closed in the early 1980s.
In 1942, the Astors gave Cliveden to the National Trust with the proviso that the family could continue to live in the house for as long as they wished. Should this cease, they expressed the wish that the house be used "for promoting friendship and understanding between the peoples of the United States and Canada and the other dominions". With the gift of Cliveden, the National Trust also received from the Astors one of their largest endowments (£250,000 in 1942 which is equivalent to £ today). The Astors ceased to live at Cliveden in 1968, shortly after the
Profumo AffairThe Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
and Bill Astor's death.
Interior
The interior of the house today is very different from its original appearance in 1851–52. This is mainly due to the 1st Lord Astor who radically altered the interior layout and decoration c. 1894–95. Whereas Barry's original interior for the Sutherlands had included a square entrance-hall, a morning room and a separate stair-well, Lord Astor wanted a more impressive entrance to Cliveden so he had all three rooms knocked into one large one (the
Great Hall). His aim was to make the interior as much like an Italian
palazzoPalazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...
as possible, which would complement the exterior. The ceiling and walls were panelled in English
oakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, with Corinthian columns and swags of carved flowers for decoration, all by architect Frank Pearson. The staircase newel posts are ornamented with carved figures representing previous owners (e.g. Buckingham and Orkney) by W.S. Frith. Astor installed a large sixteenth-century fireplace, bought from a Burgundian chateaux which was being pulled down. To the left of the fireplace is a portrait of Nancy, Lady Astor by the American portraitist
John Singer SargentJohn Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
. The room was and still is furnished with eighteenth-century tapestries and suits of
armourArmour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
. Originally the floor was covered with Minton encaustic tiles (given to the Sutherlands by the factory) but Nancy Astor had them removed in 1906 and the present flagstones laid. Above the staircase is a painted ceiling by French artist Auguste Hervieu which depicts the Sutherland's children painted as the four seasons. This is the only surviving element of Barry's 1851–2 interior and it is believed that Lord Astor considered it too beautiful to remove.
The French Dining Room is so called because the eighteenth-century
RococoRococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
panelling (or boiseries) came from the Chateau d'Asnieres near Paris, a chateau which was leased to
Louis XVLouis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
and his mistress
Madame de PompadourJeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
as a hunting lodge. When the panelling came up for sale in Paris in 1897, the 1st Lord Astor recognised that it would exactly fit this room at Cliveden. The gilded panelling on a turquoise ground contains carvings of
hareHares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...
s,
pheasantPheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...
s, hunting dogs and
rifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s. The console tables and buffet were made in 1900 to match the room. The main dining room of the house until the 1980s, today it is a private dining room with views over the Parterre and Thames.
The second largest room on the ground floor, after the Great Hall, was the drawing room which today is used as the hotel's main dining room. This room, which has views over the Parterre and Thames, was redecorated in 1995 by Eve Stewart, with terracotta-coloured walls, gilded columns and
trompe l'oeilTrompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...
shelves of books. The ceiling is painted to resemble clouds and three Bohemian glass chandeliers hang from it. The portraits in the room include the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, the 1st Lord Astor, and Miss Mary Hornack by Sir
Joshua ReynoldsSir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
.
Also on the ground floor is the library, panelled in cedar wood, which the Astors used to call the "cigar box", and, next door, Nancy Astor's
boudoirA boudoir is a lady's private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning "to be sulky" or boudeur, meaning "sulky".- In architecture :...
. Upstairs are five bedrooms and on the second floor another five. The East wing was and still is guest accommodation, whereas the West wing was domestic offices but in 1994 these were converted into more bedrooms. The National Trust tour only includes the Great Hall and French Dining Room.
Cliveden Hotel
In 1984 a hotel company – Blakeney Hotels (later Cliveden Hotel Ltd) – acquired the lease to the house. Led by chairman John Lewis and managing director John Tham (husband of Railway Children actress
Jenny AgutterJennifer Ann "Jenny" Agutter is an English film and television actress. She began her career as a child actress in the mid 1960s, starring in the BBC television series The Railway Children and the film adaptation of the same book, before moving on to adult roles and relocating to Hollywood.She...
) they restored and refurbished the interior. Rooms are furnished with Edwardian antiques and the house is run in a similar style as it would have been when Nancy Astor was chatelaine.
In 1990 they added the indoor swimming pool and spa treatment rooms in the walled garden, complementing the existing outdoor pool. Also in 1990 a new 100-year lease was granted to run from 1984. In 1994 the conversion of the West wing from domestic offices to provide more bedrooms and two boardrooms (Churchill and Macmillan) was completed. There are 37 bedrooms in total, two dining rooms (the Terrace Dining Room and Waldo's ), and four private dining rooms. Bedrooms are named after previous owners and guests (e.g., Buckingham, Westminster). Three rooms are licenced for civil ceremonies and each year many couples are married at Cliveden. The hotel also lease Spring Cottage by the Thames, one of the key places in the
Profumo AffairThe Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
, and offer it as self-contained accommodation.
The hotel was listed on the
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
for a period of time in the 1990s (as Cliveden Plc). This company was bought in 1998 by Destination Europe, a consortium led by billionaire Microsoft CEO
Bill GatesWilliam Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
. In the early years of the 21st century the lease was acquired by von Essen hotels.
In 2007 Cliveden Hotel claimed to offer the "world's most expensive sandwich" at £100GBP. The von Essen Platinum Club Sandwich was confirmed by
Guinness World RecordsGuinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
in 2007 to be the most expensive sandwich commercially available.
The hotel's insignia is that of the Sutherland family and consists of a
coronetA coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. Unlike a crown, a coronet never has arches.The word stems from the Old French coronete, a diminutive of coronne , itself from the Latin corona .Traditionally, such headgear is – as indicated by the German equivalent...
with interlaced "S"s and
acanthusThe acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration.-Architecture:In architecture, an ornament is carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to...
leaves. It can be found on radiator grills in parts of the house. The hotel's motto is "Nothing ordinary ever happened here, nor could it."
Gardens and grounds
The estate extends to 375 acres (1.5 km²) of which about 180 acre (0.7284348 km²) comprise the gardens, the rest being
woodlandEcologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
and paddocks.
The formal
parterreA parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
to the south of the house is one of the largest in Europe at 4 acres (16,187.4 m²). It consists of clipped
yewTaxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
pyramids and wedge-shaped beds edged with box hedging and filled with catnip and seasonal planting. The Long Garden consists of
topiaryTopiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be...
in the form of corkscrew-spirals, peacocks and box hedges and was designed by
Norah LindsayNorah Lindsay was a socialite garden designer who between the World wars became a major influence on garden design and planting in the United Kingdom and on the Continent.- Biography :...
in c.1900. The Water Garden was laid out by the
1st Lord AstorLieutenant-Colonel John Jacob Astor, 1st Baron Astor of Hever DL was a British military officer, statesman, a newspaper proprietor, and a member of the prominent Astor family...
in c.1900 and features a
pagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
, on an island, bought from the
BagatelleThe Château de Bagatelle is a small neoclassical château with a French landscape garden in the Bois de Boulogne in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris...
estate in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The planting there is mostly spring-flowering:
cherry treeCherry Tree may refer to:* A tree that produces cherries* An ornamental cherry tree that produces cherry blossomsPlaces* Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania, a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States* Cherry Tree, Oklahoma...
s, bush
wisteriaWisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...
s and giant
gunneraGunnera is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants, some of them gigantic. The genus is the only member of the family Gunneraceae.The 40-50 species vary enormously in leaf size...
s. The original Rose Garden, designed by Sir
Geoffrey JellicoeSir Geoffrey Jellicoe was an English landscape architect, garden designer, Architect and author.Jellicoe was born in Chelsea. He studied at the Architectural Association in London in 1919 and won a Rome Scholarship in 1923 which enabled him to research his first book Italian Gardens of the...
for the Astor family in the early 1960s has since suffered from rose disease and has been replanted as a "secret" garden of herbaceous plants. The planting in the
herbaceous borderA herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. The term herbaceous border is mostly in use in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth...
s in the forecourt was designed in the 1970s by the National Trust advisor
Graham Stuart ThomasGraham Stuart Thomas OBE , was an English horticulturalist, artist, author, poet and garden designer.He was born in Cambridge and studied in the University Botanic Garden at Cambridge University...
. The west-facing border features "hot"-coloured flowers (red, yellow, orange) and the east-facing border is planted with "cooler" colours (blue, pink and white).
There is a lime tree avenue either side of the main drive to the house. Cliveden holds part of the
National Plant CollectionThe NCCPG National Plant Collection scheme is the main conservation vehicle whereby the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens can accomplish its mission: to conserve, grow, propagate, document and make available the resource of garden plants that exists in the United...
of
CatalpaCatalpa, commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia....
. In 1897 the 1st Lord Astor imported a section of a Californian redwood and had it installed in the woods. At 16 in 6 in (5.03 m) across it is the largest section of a Sequoia gigantea in Britain. The woodlands were first laid out by Lord Orkney in the eighteenth century on what had been barren cliff-top; they were later much restocked by Bill Astor but suffered badly in the
Great Storm of 1987The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the night of 15/16 October 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France...
. The National Trust continues the re-planting of the beechwoods.
Maze
The original Cliveden
mazeA maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
, commissioned by Lord Astor in 1894, is undergoing restoration, after having lain overgrown and inaccessible since the 1950s, with a view to opening it to the public in 2011. It will be replanted with 1,100 six-foot-tall
yewTaxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
trees.
Temples, pavilions and follies
The earliest known garden buildings at Cliveden were both designed by Giacomo Leoni for Lord Orkney; the Blenheim Pavilion (c.1727) was built to commemorate Orkney's victory as a general at the
Battle of BlenheimThe Battle of Blenheim , fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. Louis XIV of France sought to knock Emperor Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement...
. The Octagon Temple, situated two-hundred feet above the Thames, was originally designed as a
gazeboA gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...
and
grottoA grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
but was later converted by the 1st Lord Astor to become the family
chapelA chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
. Its interior and dome are decorated with colourful mosaics by Clayton and Bell representing religious scenes. The
pagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist,...
in the water garden was made for the
Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867The Exposition Universelle of 1867 was a World Exposition held in Paris, France, in 1867.-Conception:In 1864, Emperor Napoleon III decreed that an international exposition should be held in Paris in 1867. A commission was appointed with Prince Jerome Napoleon as president, under whose direction...
and was purchased by the 1st Lord Astor from the
BagatelleThe Château de Bagatelle is a small neoclassical château with a French landscape garden in the Bois de Boulogne in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris...
estate in Paris in 1900. In the woods there is a small
flintFlint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
follyIn architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
thought to date from the mid-nineteenth century.
Sculpture collection
One of the features of the gardens is the large collection of sculpture, most of it acquired by the 1st Lord Astor from 1893 to 1906. The shell fountain, known as the Fountain of Love, greets visitors at the end of the lime tree
avenue__notoc__In landscaping, an avenue or allée is traditionally a straight route with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each, which is used, as its French source venir indicates, to emphasize the "coming to," or arrival at a landscape or architectural feature...
up to the house. It was sculpted by
Thomas Waldo StoryThomas Waldo Story was an English/American sculptor, art critic, poet and literary editor. He was born in Rome in 1855 to William Wetmore Story. He was raised and educated in England. In 1883 Thomas Waldo Story married Ada Maud Broadwood the eldest child of Thomas Capel Broadwood and Mary...
, (American, 1855–1915) in Rome in 1897 and was commissioned by Lord Astor for this site. It features a large
CarraraCarrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara , notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence....
marble shell supporting three life-size female figures attended by
cupidIn Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
. The "Tortoise" fountain near the parterre was also made by T.W. Story at around the same time.
In the forecourt there is a collection of eight marble Roman
sarcophagiA sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...
, some of which date from c.AD 100 and were bought by Lord Astor from Rome.
The Queen Anne Vase at the end of the Long Walk is said to have been given to Lord Orkney by
Queen AnneAnne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
in the eighteenth century and consists of a tall
urnAn urn is a vase, ordinarily covered, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed pedestal. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s...
on a plinth decorated with the Greek key pattern.
At the far-end of the parterre is a 20th-century copy of a bronze group entitled The Rape of Proserpina (Italian, c.1565), bought by W.W. Astor from Italy. The original is now housed in the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
.
The well-heads and oil-jars found throughout the gardens came from Venice and Rome respectively.
Borghese balustrade
The largest sculpture in the grounds, technically in two parts, is the 17th-century Borghese Balustrade on the parterre. Purchased by Lord Astor in the late 19th century from the
Villa Borghese gardensVilla Borghese is a large landscape garden in the naturalistic English manner in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums and attractions. It is the second largest public park in Rome after that of the Villa Doria Pamphili...
in Rome, it is crafted from
TravertineTravertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs, especially hot springs. Travertine often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, and cream-colored varieties. It is formed by a process of rapid precipitation of calcium carbonate, often at the mouth of a hot...
stone and brick tiles by Giuseppe Di Giacomo and Paolo Massini in c.1618-19. It features seats and balustrading with fountain basins and carved eagles.
"Cliveden snail"
In 2004, a colony of small Mediterranean land snails of the species
Papillifera bidensPapillifera papillaris, also known as Papillifera bidens, is a species of small, air-breathing land snail with a clausilium, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Clausiliidae, the door snails...
was discovered living on the Borghese Balustrade. Presumably this species, new to the English fauna, was accidentally imported along with the balustrade in the late 19th century, and managed to survive the intervening winters to the present day.
Film and television
- In the 2004 film Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds is a 2004 science-fiction adventure film loosely based upon the television series of the same name of the 1960s, directed by Jonathan Frakes....
, Cliveden is used as the location for Lady PenelopeLady Penelope Creighton-Ward is the London Agent for the secret organisation International Rescue in the hit television series Thunderbirds...
's house, 'Creighton-Ward Mansion'.
- The house is featured in the 2005 film Mrs. Henderson Presents
Mrs Henderson Presents is a 2005 British comedy film directed by Stephen Frears. It stars Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Kelly Reilly, and Will Young in his acting debut.-Plot:...
.
- The house and grounds are featured in the 2001 Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
film Yaadein
- In the second Beatles film, Help!
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
(1965), the scenes that were supposed to be in Buckingham Palace were filmed at Cliveden.
- The house appears in the film Don't Lose Your Head
Don't Lose Your Head is the thirteenth Carry On film . It features regular team members Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims. French actress Dany Robin makes her only Carry On appearance in Don't Lose Your Head. It was released in 1966...
, from the Carry-On genre of 1960s films.
- Horse and carriage sequences in The Card
The Card is a short comedic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911, . It was later made into a 1952 movie starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark. It chronicles the rise of Edward Henry Machin from washerwoman's son to Mayor of Bursley...
(aka The Promoter) (1952) starring Alec Guinness were filmed on the drive.
- The Thames at Cliveden appears in both Chaplin (1992) and Carrington
Carrington is a biographical film written and directed by Christopher Hampton about the life of the English painter Dora Carrington , who was known simply as "Carrington"...
(1995).
- Cliveden's panelled library stands in for a priest's New York study in the 2008 film Made of Honor
Made of Honor is a 2008 American romantic comedy film directed by Paul Weiland and story written by Adam Sztykiel . It was produced by Neal H. Moritz and was released by Columbia Pictures in North America on May 2, 2008...
.
- A UK lottery
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
advertisement portrays a man running around on the grounds at Cliveden.
- Cliveden was featured as part of a reward on the UK television show The Apprentice.
- In 2000 the BBC Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow is a British television show in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979...
used the grounds as a venue for a valuation day.
- Cliveden was also feaured in the film The Yellow Rolls Royce with Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey “Rex” Harrison was an English actor of stage and screen. Harrison won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards.-Youth and stage career:...
, George C. ScottGeorge Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
, and Shirley MacLaineShirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
.
- Scandal (1989), story of the Profumo affair.
- The main gates appear in the 1978 film Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 1, 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The book...
.
- The interior and exterior of Spring Cottage appears in ITV's Cards on the Table
Cards on the Table is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 2 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year...
, (2005).
- The French Dining room stands in for a hotel bedroom in Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 action-mystery film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon...
(2009).
Literature
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- In Chapter 12 of Three Men in a Boat (1889), Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat.Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London...
describes Cliveden Reach as "unbroken loveliness this is, perhaps, the sweetest stretch of all the river ..."
- In Boogie Up the River (1989) Mark Wallington retraces Jerome's journey to mark its centenary, with the Thames at Cliveden described in Chapter 5.
- The poet Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
wrote (c. 1730) of the Duke of Buckingham's affair with Anna, Countess of Shrewsbury: "Gallant and gay in Cliveden's proud alcove/The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love."
- Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
describes the first house in A Tour Through England and Wales (1726).
- Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
in his 1948 novel The City and the Pillar: "The Cliveden-Churchill Set are too well entrenched and I shouldn't be in the least surprised if they created some sort of dictatorship that could never be thrown off without a revolution."
Other Clivedens
There is a late colonial-era mansion named after Cliveden in
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, better known as the Chew Mansion of note in the 1777
Battle of GermantownThe Battle of Germantown, a battle in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War, was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania between the British army led by Sir William Howe and the American army under George Washington...
.
Further reading
- Astor, Michael, Tribal Feeling, London,1963.
- Coates, Tim, The Scandal of Christine Keeler and John Profumo: Lord Dennings Report 1967, London,2003.
- Fox, James, The Langhorne Sisters, London, 1998.
- Hayward, Allyson, Norah Lindsay: The Life and Art of a Garden Designer, London,2007.
- Jackson-Stopps, Gervase, An English Arcadia, London, 1992.
- Keeler, Christine, The Truth at Last: My Story, London, 2002.
- Lacey, Steven, Gardens of the National Trust, London, 1994.
- Rose, Norman, The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Exclusive Fraternity, London, 2000.
- Sinclair, David, Dynasty: The Astors and their Times, London, 1983.
- Stanford, Peter, Bronwen Astor: Her Life and Times, London, 2001.
External links