Curzon of India

A bonus at Kedleston is an impressive collection of riches acquired by Lord Curzon when he was Viceroy of India at the turn of the 20th century. It is comparable in some respects to the collection at Powys of Clive of India, but Clive was of a different age, when the Brits were conquering India, not merely ruling it.

Lord Curzon; in an ivory-carved frame; dozens of such large
carved pieces...

Local weaponry

Silver sedan chair; sitting room furnishings

The Peacock Dress, worn by Lady Mary Curzon, Vicereine
of India, at the 1903 Delhi Durbar, celebrating the
coronation of Edward VII 

Up close; the material is a shining cloth of gold with an
overlapping pattern of peacock feathers in silk and gold
thread on a silk chiffon background; the eye of each
peacock feather is the iridescent wing of a beetle; the
cloth was made in India, the dress then assembled by
House of Worth in Paris (paraphrasing the exhibit
description) (as if I would have a clue...)

Model of the Taj

Nice silver work

Thank-you note from then Prince of Wales for showing us around Delhi...

In-laid table with Curzon motto inscribed: "Let Curzon Holde What Curzon Helde"
(obviously the Inheritance Tax people did not buy this)

Kedleston Hall 2

Can't top that

And now for something completely different department:
a really nice oil portrait, very prominently placed, of one
of the 18th century head housekeepers of Kedleston

Now in one of the two curved galleries, this one the picture
gallery

Detail; note that the floor planks curve perfectly with the walls

And now in the other curved gallery, this one stuffed with curios and specimens

Including this siege mortar found on the estate in the 1750s; left behind by
the retreating Jacobites

View of the frontal grounds and Culpability Brown lakes with bridge, etc.

Back porch view of grounds

The beautiful little 13th century parish church is nestled among the buildings
at Kedleston; it was the only part of the medieval village that wasn't cleared away
to make room for the great house (villages are such eyesores)

Inside it are some marvels of family history...here an Elizabethan tomb

The tomb of the Viceroy and Vicereine

And this the tomb of Richard Curzon, 5th Lord of Kedleston, and wife, died 1275

Interior view

Kedleston Hall 1

Kedleston was the abode of the famous Curzon family, from at least the 1200s, but the house dates only from the mid-18th century. It is one of the great neo-classicals, designed largely by Robert Adam, who had done a Grand Tour and came back with lots of new ideas of interest to people wishing to promote the notion of Empire. It is first and foremost a show-house of majestic proportions, flanked by a family wing and a service/servants wing, both adjoined by beautifully curving galleries. The house also contains the collection of a later Lord Curzon who was Viceroy of India at the turn of the (20th) century. I'll do an additional post on that.

Vicki presents...Kedleston Hall

Curb appeal view

Back forty view, from the ha-ha, showing the main hall and the flanking side
halls adjoined by the curving galleries

Music room

Withdrawing room

Study/library with beautiful old partner desk

And a Gentleman's Reading Chair; so-called
because a lady could not sit in it and read,
when attired

Bedroom

Dining Room

"Hey, careful man, there's a beverage here!"

The major show-piece: the Grand Hall, marble everywhere, classical scenes
everywhere; Hadrian would have been envious

Thus

The other show-piece, the saloon, modeled on the Pantheon
(yes, I need a much larger lens)

Southwell Minster

We spent a couple of nights in Southwell, a Thursday and a Monday, and I did several walks around the old town, looking mainly at its Minster (cathedral).

Southwell Minster from the west; a pretty standard British cathedral in overall
structure and history, though begun a bit later than some of the others

View from nave; well, near the front of the nave...there was very impressive photo
exhibition going on in the back half

Screen, looking into chancel

Elevation: heavy-duty-sized piers, Romanesque arches,
gallery, tiny clerestory with circular window configuration;
wood ceiling

Choir practice in the choir; other side of the great screen, and the organ

In the chapter house

There are some fine carvings of plants in the chapter house;
this is absolutely the only human figure not defaced by
Cromwell's folk

What kind of sick and twisted mind would deface a bunny?
Maybe they thought it was the Easter Bunny and therefore
a religious icon?

On display elsewhere...a 1582 map of Paris

Gifts to the Minster duly noted

Thus; a set of chimes plus, importantly, funding in perpetuity
(at 1693 rates, presumably) for operations and maintenance

Southwell Workhouse

Class-conscious readers of this blog will have observed that many--no, nearly all--of our visits in the UK have concerned the upper-most one per cent--no, the upper-most one per cent of the upper-most one per cent--of the population, economically and historically. And so, in an effort to provide balance, we visited Southwell's famous Workhouse, a trend-setter in early 19th century approaches to community care for the poor, the ill, the widowed, the orphaned, the unfit, and, yes, the lazy and the idle: the Takers.

But first, just a wee bit of background. The 1601 Poor Act provided that each parish would care for its needy, providing funds for a modicum of food, fuel, clothing, etc., enabling said needy to remain in their homes/hovels. This "outside" dole worked for a while. But by the early 1800s, things changed. Machines took away jobs; 200,000 troops returned from the Napoleonic Wars on the Continent; agriculture had its usual up and downs. The demand on parishes increased astronomically. But in Southwell and other places, they had an idea. Why not bring the dole "inside," creating workhouses where the poor could "earn" their keep, where idlers could be separated from the truly needy? The workhouses would be open to all, but upon entering, males would be segregated from females, husbands from wives, children from parents, and all made to work in redundant and unrewarding activities. (Is this what Marx called "alienation"?). The workhouse was to be necessarily unpleasant, thus encouraging people to become productive and to find (non-existent) jobs, and stand on their own feet. Oh, husbands and wives and children and parents could be reunited for an hour on Sunday afternoons. But no more "outside" dole.

Thus the Workhouse at Southwell and hundreds of other places in Britain. One tours this bleak place in the company of an audio-guide and dramatization wherein the agent of the local lord comes to see what is going on. Of course it is all appalling. Only in the last room of the Workhouse is there a display on the history of "welfare" in the UK that puts it all in some historical and political perspective. One should credit the National Trust for trying to tell this sad story at all. But the more recent context might have come earlier in the narrative.

As a WWII buff, I was always perplexed that the Brits unceremoniously dumped Churchill and his order even before all the dead of WWII were buried. It was about the conditions of the poor and the middle class in Britain, and opportunity. They had had enough. Fed up. For centuries. And they had earned better. The new Labour government enacted sweeping social reforms, providing benefits for maternity, unemployment, sickness, widows, and retirement. Great Britain has had free universal health care since 1948. The "outside" approach prevailed. The Workhouses are a monument to human suffering. And to greed and hard-heartedness.

The Southwell Workhouse

Meaningful documentation throughout the Workhouse tour

Ditto

4 oz of meat, three times a week

Our founder, the Reverend J. T. Becher

In the children's classroom

Learning aid

Takers

Thought for the day, every day

Able-bodied mens' work-yard, latrines, and vegetable garden beyond

Dorm