Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire

Hartwell House is a country house in the village of Hartwell in Buckinghamshire, southern England. The house is owned by the Ernest Cook Trust, has been a Historic House Hotel since 1989, and in 2008 was leased to The National Trust. The Grade I listed house is Jacobean with a Georgian front and Rococo interiors, set in a picturesque landscaped park, and is most famous as the home of exiled French king Louis XVIII in the early 19th century.^[1]

Location[edit]

The house is about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the village of Stone along the A418, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the centre of Aylesbury, the nearest large town, which is about 40 miles (64 km) from the centre of London via the A41.

History[edit]

The property was first mentioned in the Domesday book and belonged to William Peverel.

The core of the present house was constructed in the early 17th century for the Hampden family and then the Lee family. The Lees, an old Buckinghamshire family, acquired Hartwell c.1650 by marriage into the Hampdens. Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Sir Christopher Lee are amongst their descendants.

Between 1809 and 1814 the owner of the house, Sir Charles Lee, let the mansion to King Louis XVIII of France. The arrival of the impoverished king and his court at Hartwell was not a happy experience for the mansion, with once grand and imperious courtiers farming chickens and assorted small livestock on the lead roofs. Louis’s wife, Marie Josephine of Savoy died at Hartwell in 1810 and is the only French queen to have died on English soil. After her death, her body was carried first to Westminster Abbey, and one year later to Sardinia, where the Savoy King of Sardinia had withdrawn during Napoleonic occupation of Turin and Piedmont; she is buried in the Cathedral of Cagliari. The King signed the document accepting the French crown in the library of the house, following the defeat of Napoleon.

In 1827, Dr John Lee, an astronomer, inherited the house from the unmarried Revd Sir George Lee. During his ownership, the British Meteorological Society, now the Royal Meteorological Society, was founded in the library in 1850. Revd Nicholas Lee inherited the house when his brother, Dr John, died on 25 February 1866 at Hartwell. William Henry Smyth, who had helped with the design of the telescope and cupola that Lee had installed, described the house and the Hartwell Observatory established there, in Ædes Hartwellianæ: Or, Notices of the Manor and Mansion of Hartwell (Printed for private circulation, by J.B. Nichols and Son, London, 1851).^[2] Many of the illustrations in the book are by Smyth’s wife Annarella and by his son-in-law, Rev. Prof. Baden Powell.

The house remained a private residence until 1938, when, at risk of demolition, the estate was acquired by the philanthropist Ernest Cook and the contents sold off by public auction. The estate passed to the Ernest Cook Trust when it was founded in 1952.

In the 1960s the house became a girls’ finishing school, then was let in the 1980s to be run as a hotel. The house was converted and became part of the Historic House Hotels group. Its proximity to Chequers means that it has frequently been the host of international and government summits and meetings.

Description[edit]

The Jacobean north front of the house is constructed of ashlar and has a projecting porch with a bow window above. At each end of this facade are two flanking canted bays, each with a double height oriel window. Immediately on each side of the porch are two large windows of the hall inside. Hiding the roofscape is a parapet with vases erected in 1740.

Between 1759 and 1761, architect Henry Keene substantially enlarged and “Georgianised” the house, and built the east front with its canted bay windows and a central porch in the Tuscan style. Inside, the great hall has stucco panels, and three reception rooms with rococo chimneypieces.

The 1980s conversion to a hotel was overseen by the architect Eric Throssell who created a new dining room in the style of Sir John Soane, by enclosing the former 18th-century open arcaded porch. The former semi-circular galleried entrance vestibule became an inner hall. Throssel was also responsible for the design and recreation of the cupola crowning the roof.

Gardens[edit]

The 90 acres (36 ha) of gardens at Hartwell were laid out by Capability Brown c.1750. The North Avenue is a grand vista through trees planted in 1830, sadly today terminated by the ever encroaching town of Aylesbury. The gardens are reminiscent of nearby Stowe, with statues, an obelisk and ornamental bridge.

The Hartwell Estate currently covers 1,800 acres (7.3 km²) of farmland surrounding Hartwell House.

Hartwell’s Egyptian Spring is a folly built in 1850 by Joseph Bonomi the Younger, an Egyptologist. It is an alcove seat on the western side of Lower Hartwell opposite a small spring. The stone pylon bears the Greek inscription “ΑΡΙΣΤοΝ ΜΕΝ ΥΔΩΡ”, translated as “Water is Best”,^[3] attributed to Thales.

Acquisition by the National Trust[edit]

In September 2008 the National Trust acquired a long lease of the house from the Ernest Cook Trust (until 2111).^[4] The gift had been under discussion for almost 30 years and in 1997 the National Trust accepted restrictive covenants over all three properties. The house and grounds were gifted the Trust by the directors of Historic House Hotels (HHH).^[5] The house continues its present use as a hotel under the existing HHH management. Three National Trust directors joined the HHH board and all profits will go to Trust funds to provide for the long-term care of the three houses.