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The wholly suburban and institutional surroundings which characterize Strawberry Hill today have done much to conceal the close link that once existed between Walpole’s famous Gothic villa and its setting. More crucially for architectural history, they have obscured the topography of the land which Walpole found when he arrived at the site in 1747, and which played an important part in the future developments at Strawberry Hill. Indeed, it can be argued that the situation as he found it tended to encourage the retention and accretive development of a pre-existing structure as described above by Peter Guillery. Having decided on retention, the topography and pattern of land ownership seem to have made almost inevitable the asymmetrical plan, created from 1758, which has earned Strawberry Hill a place in architectural history. Finally, the timing of these developments can be seen to have been greatly influenced by Walpole’s progress in land acquisition.
1 Crook, J. Mordaunt, ‘Strawberry Hill Revisited’, Country Life, 113 (7, 14 and 21 June 1973), pp. 1598–1602, 1726-30, 1794-97. 1886 (p. 1598)Google Scholar.
2 Clark, Kenneth, The Gothic Revival: an Essay in the History of Taste (London, 1962), p. 34 Google Scholar.
3 The first part of this article arises from a Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England survey carried out in 1993 to improve National Monuments Record holdings and to inform deliberations at a point when the Walpolean house was largely vacant. A report (NMR Buildings Index No. 92314) discusses the early parts of Strawberry Hill in greater detail than is presented here.
4 Walpole, Horace, A Description of the Villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, at Strawberry-Hill near Twickenham (1784), in The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Oxford, 5 volumes (London, 1798), 11, p. 399 Google Scholar.
5 Horace Walpole’s letters to Sir Horace Mann (5 June 1747) and Henry Seymour Conway (8 June 1747) in The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, ed. Lewis, W. S., 48 volumes (New Haven, 1937–1983), XIX (1955), p. 414 Google Scholar; XXXVII (1974), pp. 269-70. These are, in part, conceits based on the fact that Mrs Chenevix was a ‘noted toy-woman’ (Walpole, Description, p. 399), that is a dealer in ‘objets de goût’.
6 Strawberrry Hill Accounts, A Record of Expenditure in Building, Furnishing etc. Kept by Mr Horace Walpole from 1747 to 1795, ed. Toynbee, P. (Oxford, 1927)Google Scholar. The basic and most authoritative study of the building hitherto is Lewis, Wilmarth Sheldon, ‘The Genesis of Strawberry Hill’, Metropolitan Museum Studies, V/1, 1934 (1936), pp. 57–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 The annotated version of the sketch reproduced here is in the Lewis Walpole Library. There is an unannotated version, in a letter of 13 August 1783 from Walpole to Edward Edwards (British Library, Stowe MS 755, f. 81.), and a conflated version, drawn by Walpole on a back end-paper of one of his books. (Lewis Walpole Library, Horace Walpole’s copy of [Halifax, George Savile, marquess of] Miscellanies historical and philological . . . London, 1703. Hazen number 2010.)
8 Bentley, Richard (altered by Chute, John with annotation by Walpole, Horace), Elevation of the North Entrance of Strawberry Hill, c.1753 (Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Connecticut)Google Scholar, reproduced in McCarthy, Michael, The Origins of the Gothic Revival (New Haven and London, 1987), Fig. 97Google Scholar.
9 Photographs in the possession of St Mary’s University College, Twickenham.
10 Woolston, J., View of Strawberry Hill, 1754 (Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Connecticut)Google Scholar, reproduced in McCarthy, Origins, Fig. 83.
11 Walpole, Description, p. 399.
12 Tipping, H. Avray, ‘Strawberry Hill, Middlesex’, Country Life, 56 (5 and 12 July 1924), pp. 18–25, 56-64 (Fig. 1)Google Scholar.
13 Amongst these was Colley Cibber, around 1720. Walpole, Description, p. 399.
14 Accounts, p. 23: Walpole, Description, p. 399.
15 Lady Townshend upon seeing the house in 1747, as quoted in Crook, ‘Strawberry Hill Revisited’, p. 1598.
16 Walpole to Mann (circa August 1748), Correspondence, XIX (1955), p. 497 Google Scholar.
17 Walpole to Mann (7 June 1748), Correspondence, XIX (1955), p. 486 Google Scholar: Accounts, p. 1.
18 Accounts, p. 44.
19 Walpole to Mann (circa August 1748), Correspondence, XIX (1955), p. 497 Google Scholar.
20 Walpole, Description, p. 421.
21 Walpole to Mann (12 June 1753), Correspondence, xx (1960), p. 382 Google Scholar.
22 Walpole to Mann (5 June 1747), Correspondence, XIX (1955), p. 414 Google Scholar.
23 Walpole to Mann (12 June 1753), Correspondence, xx (1960), pp. 379-82Google Scholar.
24 Bold, John, ‘Privacy and the Plan’, in English Architecture: Public and Private, ed. Bold, J. and Chaney, E. (London, 1993). pp. 107-19Google Scholar.
25 Walpole to Richard Bentley (18 May 1754), Correspondence, xxxv (1973). pp. 173-74Google Scholar.
26 Walpole to Bentley (31 October 1755), Correspondence, xxxv (1973), p. 259 Google Scholar.
27 Accounts, p. 128 and plates ix and xx.
28 Accounts, p. 11.
29 The attic is absent in a drawing of c.1753 by Bentley (see note 8). Nevertheless, it must have been part of the building works ofthat time because of the survival of wallpaper behind a short flight of stairs formed in 1758-59 leading to the attics over the Holbein Chamber (information kindly supplied by Michael Snodin).
30 McCarthy, Origins, p. 63.
31 Summerson, John, Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830, 5th edn (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 403 Google Scholar.
32 Walpole to Mann (25 February 1750), Correspondence, xx (1960), p. 127 Google Scholar.
33 Walpole to Mann (10 January 1750), Conespondence, xx (1960), p. 111 Google Scholar.
34 Walpole to George Montagu (1 October 1747), Correspondence, IX (1941), p. 52 Google Scholar.
35 Walpole to Montagu (28 September 1749), Correspondence, IX (1941), p. 102 Google Scholar.
36 Walpole to Mann (4 March 1753), Correspondence, xx (1960), pp. 361-62Google Scholar.
37 Worsley, Giles, ‘The 1740s: the Lost Decade’, The Georgian Group Journal(1991), pp. 21–25 Google Scholar.
38 Binney, Marcus, Sir Robert Taylor (London, 1984), pp. 39–54 Google Scholar.
39 Walpole to Mann (12 June 1753), Correspondence, xx (1960), pp. 379-82Google Scholar.
40 McCarthy, Origins, pp. 66-67.
41 Macauley, James, The Gothic Revival 1745-1843 (Glasgow and London, 1975), pp. 40–55 Google Scholar.
42 Ballantyne, Andrew, ‘Downton Castle: Function and Meaning’, Architectural History, 32 (1989), pp. 105-30 (p. 114)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
43 The present grounds of St Mary’s University College preserve the extent of Walpole’s pleasure grounds as well as that of some of his meadowland to the south. House building has covered the riverside meadows and transformed the area to the north and west of the house. See Willson, Anthony Beckles, Strawberry Hill: A History of the Neighbourhood (Twickenham, 1991)Google Scholar.
44 Walpole to Mann (Dec. 26, 1748), Correspondence, xx (1960), p. 16 Google Scholar.
45 Beckles Willson, op. cit., p. 10. Note 60 below.
46 Accounts, pp. 48-50.
47 Two manuscript maps at Syon House also show the area, but devoid of building. Ralph Tresswell’s (1607) shows the field without enclosures. Moses Glover’s (1635) shows a number of enclosures in the area of Walpole’s riverside meadows.
48 The Hampton Court Road was also called ‘The King’s Highway’ (Beckles Willson, op. cit., p. 9). The Teddington Road (now Strawberry Vale) was also called (in 1754) Summet Lane (Syon Manor Court Books (Greater London Record Office), Acc 1379/44, p. 85b) and (in 1770) Teddington Gulls (Beckles Willson, loc. cit.).
49 Walpole to Mann (30 Sept. 1784), Correspondence, xxv (1971), p. 532 Google Scholar.
50 During restoration works in 1983 a brick-lined structure, probably a well, was discovered under the paving at the extreme north end of the Little Cloister. Predating Walpole’s occupation, it sets a limit for the course of the road.
51 Accounts, p. 4, Nov. 28 1752: ‘Mr Ash for a Hedge, Ditch and Piece of Ground’. Syon Manor Court Book, Acc 1379/44, p. 9: 6 July 1753, out-of-court surrender by Thomas Ash of a ditch together with a hedge in Fern Hill shot, 82.5 feet long by eight feet wide. For the nursery see Beckles Willson, op. cit., p. 37.
52 Walpole to Mann (Dec. 26, 1748), Correspondence, xx (1960), p. 16 Google Scholar.
53 Walpole to Montagu (18 May 1749), Correspondence, IX (1941), p. 83 Google Scholar.
54 See (i): Accounts, pp. 49-50; (ii) Syon Manor Court Books, Acc 1379/43 0749-52). pp. 44. 44a, 46, 46b, 47b, 57, 68, 68b, 98b, 99, 137, 206, 238b; Acc 1379/44 (1753-57). pp. 6b, 9, 67, 85b, 122b, 174; Acc 1379/45 (1758-63), pp. 81, 147, 188, 242, 448b, 450, 476; Acc 1379/46 (1763-67), pp. 65, 181, 182, 185; (iii): Twickenham Poor Rate Books, Twickenham Local History Library, vols 1-2.
55 Lewis Walpole Library, MS, Advice to my successors at Strawberry Hill, 3 June 1771. This hitherto unpublished manuscript, and those in the next two notes, were kindly brought to my attention by Anthony Beckles Willson.
56 Lewis Walpole Library, MS, Advice to my successors at Strawberry Hill, July 1785.
57 Lewis Walpole Library, MS, Advice to my successors at Strawberry Hill, Feb. 28, 1784.
58 Accounts, pp. 47-48. Syon Manor Court Books, Acc 1379/43, pp. 44, 44a, 47b. It consisted of: (1) cottage or tenement and outhouses with one and a half acres ‘whereon a windmill formerly stood’, in Fern Hill shot, with the Hampton Court Road on the west; (2) quarter acre of meadow, in Strawberry Hill shot; (3) cottage or tenement in Strawberry Hill shot, Spark Mead Ditch to the north, with halfan acre, and a halfan acre of garden ground and meadow, in Fern Hill shot, the latter perhaps adjacent; (4) quarter acre ‘customary land’, in Strawberry Hill shot, Hampton Court Road to the south; (5) Customary cottage or tenement with a quarter acre ‘thereto adjoining and belonging’, in Strawberry Hill shot, with Fern Hill to the south; (6) ‘All that end and part of a rood (quarter acre) of land containing three roods’. To the north a cottage adjoining Hampton Court Road, to the west land of Loyd an infant’; (7) quarter acre ‘in a meadow called Biddle Mead otherwise Spark Mead’ in both the further and hither south fields, i.e. straddling the Spark Mead Brook; (8) Three quarters of an acre of arable meadow or pasture ground, in Fern Hill shot, Hampton Court Road to the west. Mrs Chenevix’s house and garden were probably represented by plots 5 and 6. In 1700 plot 5 belonged to one John Ticknor, who can perhaps be identified with the Earl of Bradford’s coachman (Syon Manor Court Books, Acc 1379/36).
59 Accounts, p. 48.
60 Accounts, pp. 1-6.
61 Probably plot (1) in note 60. In August 1749 Walpole paid Mrs Chenevix for ‘a piece of Land, the Barn, Lawyers &c’ (Accounts, p. 2).
62 A barn-like farm building survived until at least 1783, when it was shown in an etching by Edward Edwards entitled Farm Yard and Printing House at Strawberry Hill. (Accounts, plate VIII).
63 Walpole to Mann (5 July 1747), Correspondence, XIX (1955), p. 414 Google Scholar.
64 Twickenham, Samuel Lewis, 1784; Twickenham MS map, C.J. Sauthier, 1786/7; MS survey map of the Strawberry Hill estate, c. 1791, Lewis Walpole Library (Lewis, op. cit., p. 85); MS survey map of Strawberry Hill estate, A. Barham, 1797 (Accounts, p. 192); Twickenham enclosure award map, 1818; Twickenham, Thomas Warren, 1846; 25″ O.S. map, 1863/4.
65 Cf. Thomas Warren’s map, made in 1846, and the O.S. map of 1863/4. The latter shows Lady Waldegrave’s substantial changes to the grounds. An undated MS sketch map in the Lewis Walpole Library sketches out the new course of the road.
66 See above, note 60, plot 3.
67 Accounts, p. 7. Barham’s map, 1797, gives the area as 3 roods and 28 perches, the 1818 enclosure map as one acre 24 perches. The purchase does not appear in the Syon Manor Court Books.
68 McCarthy, op. cit., pp. 74-76.
69 Walpole to Mann (9 Sept. 1758), Correspondence, XXI (1960), p. 238 Google Scholar.
70 Accounts, p. 9. Walpole to Montagu (22 July 1761), Correspondence, IX (1941), p. 379 Google Scholar. McCarthy, op. cit., p. 73. The account entry for the Holbein Chamber includes payment for ‘balconies to that building’ (Accounts, p. 8).
71 Walpole to Chute (4 Nov. 1759), Correspondence, xxxv (1973), pp. 110–11 Google Scholar.
72 Müntz left Walpole’s employment in November 1759 (Muntz to Walpole (12 Nov. 1759), Correspondence, XL (1980), p. 169). Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill (Twickenham, 1980), p. 35.Google Scholar
73 Walpole did not visit Thornbury Castle until 1774 (Walpole to Cole (15 Aug. 1774), Correspondence, 1 (1937), p. 344), but may have known it from other sources.
74. The blocked-in east bay of the Tribune, its roughcast rendering intact, was revealed during restoration work in 1983. The top of the Tribune south bay is visible in the corridor which serves the bedrooms above the Great North Bedchamber.
75 The bedchamber was begun in 1771 and paid for in 1772 (Accounts, pp. 12-13). The tenant of the cottage, Richard Franklyn, died in 1765. The new garden was made and the cottage demolished and rebuilt in 1769. A house surviving on its site (‘Harptree’, Waldegrave Road) preserves the cottage porch and perhaps other parts of the cottage structure (Beckles Willson, op. cit., pp. 37-38). A watercolour by William Pars shows the flower garden in about 1780 ( Wainwright, Clive, The Romantic Interior: the British collector at home, 1750-1850 (New Haven and London, 1989), fig. 54, p. 70 Google Scholar).
76 Accounts, p. 1 (‘Aug. 10 1748: Pd for the new Kitchen, Alterations to the Cottage & Work to the New Room’).
77 Accounts, p. 5.
78 Walpole to Mann (4 Aug. 1757), Correspondence, XXI (1960), p. 120 Google Scholar; Walpole to Strafford (13 Sept. 1759), Correspondence, xxxv (1973), p. 296 Google Scholar.
79 Walpole to Strafford (30 Oct, 1759), Correspondence, xxxv (1973), p. 298 Google Scholar.
80 Accounts, pp. 5, 7.
81 Syon Manor Court Books, Acc 1379/44, p. 174: settled out of court on 29 Sept. 1756, one acre in Strawberry Hill Shot ‘with a cottage or tenement thereon built with the appurtenances’. Lloyd, aged 14, was admitted to the land on the 18 April 1750 (Syon Manor Court Books, Acc 1379/43, p. 57).
82 See above, note 60, plot 6.
83 22 Geo. II c.44 (Accounts, Appendix B).