‘If Walls Could Talk’

I have just returned home from a most interesting and informative afternoon at Castle Howard, where I attended a presentation from Eleanor Brooke-Peat, the curator of Collections and Archives at Castle Howard, entitled ‘If Walls could Talk’, an introduction to Castle Howards 19^th century interiors.

I arrived at Castle Howard in good time, setting off earlier than I would usually, not knowing what the hold ups might be, especially on the A64. With a little time in hand and as it was a very pleasant and sunny afternoon, I had a stroll around the Walled Garden for twenty minutes or so, as always at this time of year the borders were looking beautiful with huge flowering Alliums and Irises swaying gently in the afternoon breeze, the vegetable plots were all sown with neat rows of lettuce and other vegetables. Even the goldfish in the pond were contently swimming around the gentle trickling fountain, making the most of the sunshine and warmer weather. After several more minutes I headed over to the Grecian room for a cup of tea and register my attendance for the talk.

Following her introduction, Eleanor gave a fascinating insight into the house and all its previous owners, after which she explained about many of the rooms and the types of wall coverings in them, where the wallpaper was sourced from (several from China) and how it was hung (no wallpaper paste here). Some forty minutes or so later we were taken on a fascinating private tour of the house where Eleanor explained about the quality, style and design of the paper. She explained that they have a vast supply of many of the old wallpapers in their archives/storage rooms and was able to compare the quality of that paper to the same wallpaper currently hung on the walls today, and when you think about it some of these papers have been hung on the walls of Castle Howard for well over a hundred years. Many of the papers were very heavily embossed, and much thicker than the wallpaper of today. It was fascinating to learn from Eleanor how light and various pollutants in the atmosphere affect these papers and the safeguards which have been put in place to prevent the wallpapers from deteriorating /fading in the future.

Much of the talk focused on the life and work of the 9^th Earl of Carlisle - George James Howard,1843 - 1911 and his wife Rosalind Stanley 1845 – 1921, known as The Radical Countess, who was a promoter of women's political rights and temperance movement activist. George was an English aristocrat, peer, politician, and painter. He was the last Earl of Carlisle to own Castle Howard.

George James Howard was a highly talented painter, who had Edward Burne Jones and Willam Morris as his close friends. Edward Burne-Jones was a painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and worked with William Morris as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co in the design of decorative arts.

George married Rosalind Stanley in 1865 and they had eleven children. They moved into Castle Howard in 1880, when they embarked on a huge redecoration project which lasted more than twenty years.  It was Rosalind that took over the management and running of the house whilst her husband George was away painting. Much of today’s presentation revolved around Rosalind and her meticulous note taking, auditing, and planning which was needed to run and manage a house of this size. Rosalind was responsible for much of the wall decorations that are visible today. We were shown some of her accounts and audit trails which list much of the wallpaper on the walls and which rooms it was allocated for, some of the wallpaper being purchased from William Morris’s company.

Our tour of the house started at the top of the Grand staircase, and the China landing, were portraits of George and Rosalind are hung, before heading off down a corridor passing through Lady Georgiana’s bedroom and adjoining dressing room, into the Castle Howard dressing room and bedroom, Eleanor explained the ‘Rose branch wallpaper’ in this dressing room was purchased by the 9^th countess from Maples in London in 1884. From here we headed into one of the private rooms the ‘Archbishop’s bedroom’, it features a Japanese wallpaper called “Goose,” which shows stylized flying birds. Over the years, the wallpaper has faded but remains a captivating element of the room. The room’s ambiance is decidedly male, with ornate toiletries displayed on a sideboard and a writing table ready for correspondence.

On leaving the ‘Archbishop’s room’ we had a look around the ‘Admiral’s bedroom’ which features the ‘Howard Indienne pattern’, part of the Watts 1874 furnishings collection. The bed hangings in this room showcase the Howard Indienne design. It was good to have a look around these two rooms which aren’t usually open to the public. We left the ‘Admirals room’ and headed back to the Music room were Eleanor compared the embossed paper on the walls to that of a roll from the archive, the difference in the colour was quite remarkable. We continued our tour stopping in the Museum Room where several ‘rolls’ of wallpaper were laid out on one of the tables for us to have a look at and feel. I was surprised as to how large the rolls where and how thick and embossed the paper was. On leaving the Museum room we passed through the Long Gallery where several items of  the ‘Tony Cragg’s exhibition were on display,  we headed down a flight of stairs to the Chapel where Eleanor gave an interesting and informative talk about the decoration in the Chapel, how the floor was lowered in 1870, and re decorated in the pre Raphaelite style, she went on to explain that the stained glass windows were designed by Burne Jones, and three embossed panels were from a set of eight by William Morris, as well as informing us that the Chapel is still in use today for family baptisms, marriages and funerals. After leaving the Chapel we headed back down the stairs, through the gift shop and back to the Grecian room, where we had the opportunity to ask more questions as well as look at some of the different styles of wallpaper from the archive. This was a most excellent presentation and tour of the house with Eleanor as our guide. A very pleasant and informative afternoon.