VII - Trevelyan Triptych: A Family and the Arthurian Legend

Summary

Direct lineal descent from King Arthur has been claimed by and for sundry English monarchs, Henry VII, Elizabeth I and Charles I among them. More recently the egregious Arthur Pendragon has declared himself a re-embodiment of that king, while Laurel Phelan, a Canadian, reportedly learns through regressive therapy that she is a reincarnation of Queen Guinevere. Less aspirational perhaps than all of these, but still exceptional, is the Trevelyan family’s claim of descent from a knight of Arthur’s Round Table.

From comparatively modest beginnings in Cornwall, the Trevelyans rose to prominence through a series of advantageous marriages which gave them the major estates of Nettlecombe in Somerset and Wallington in Northumbria. For two centuries their menfolk, distinctively intellectual, radical and somewhat puritanical, were largely benevolent landlords at home and yet played leading roles as public administrators, politicians, historians and natural scientists, while their wives brought into the family a complementary artistic prowess revealed in collections, enlightened patronage and personal skill in the fine and applied arts. This article will trace how three members of this remarkable family took up the Arthurian legend and made significant and very individual contributions to its recreation and reinterpretation through widely different media in the twentieth century.

Mary, Lady Trevelyan (1882–1966)

Mary, more usually known as ‘Molly’, was born Mary Bell into a family of wealthy ironmasters who were important patrons of the Arts and Crafts movement. Her grandfather, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, and two of his children had all commissioned Philip Webb to design their new houses, and William Morris to supply decorations therein. Her father, Sir Hugh Bell, had by a previous marriage another daughter, Gertrude, who would become a leading Arabic scholar and explorer, while his second wife, Florence, the mother of Molly, wrote novels and plays.

Many women of the family also displayed very considerable needlework skills. Among the commissions Isaac Lowthian Bell gave Morris was one for a series of five panels based on the theme of Chaucer’s The Romaunt of the Rose, for which Edward Burne-Jones supplied the composition and figure drawings. These embroideries were then worked in silk, wool and gold thread on a linen ground by Lady Margaret Bell and her daughters Florence and Ada Phoebe, exercising great skill and patience over a period of eight years.