THE
AMERICAN SPIRIT IN THE
ENGLISH GARDEN
Jean Stone
PART THREE
THE DOLLAR PRINCESSES The close of the 19th century saw a trend for Anglo-American marriages. Having made their fortunes in the New World, the millionaires and billionaires of America – and especially their wives – looked for a way to become part of the exclusive social elite. The popular way to achieve this was to marry their daughters into the British aristocracy. The American heiress would bring with her a substantial dowry, so often desperately needed to underpin a disintegrating aristocratic estate. In 1886, a New York newspaper reported that only two Dukes remained available for matrimony, and these were quickly snapped up: Consuelo Yznaga became the Duchess of Manchester and May Goelet married the Duke of Roxburghe. By 1914, 60 peers and 40 sons of peers had married so-called ‘Dollar Princesses’; most unions motivated by financial need. It is not surprising that many American ladies, wishing to become part of the English social scene, threw their energies into the gardens of their English country estates, which played such an important part in confirming the status of the English aristocratic family.
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CONSUELO VANDERBILT and GLADYS DEACON at BLENHEIM PALACE It was often American mothers who were keenest to launch their daughters into the world of the European aristocracy, and Mrs Alva Vanderbilt, wife of the railroad tycoon William Kissam Vanderbilt, was no exception. She was determined to get a title for her daughter Consuelo; if Consuelo’s godmother, Consuelo Yzanaga, had become the Duchess of Manchester, there was no reason why Consuelo Vanderbilt could not also become a Duchess. Mrs Vanderbilt went to great lengths to achieve her aim. To keep her daughter from her childhood sweetheart and true love, Winthrop Rutherford, she locked Consuelo in the family’s cottage at Newport and bullied her into a marriage with ‘Sunny’, the very elligible, but cash-strapped 9th Duke of Marlborough (1871-1934). *********** Blenheim Palace, The Duke of Marlborough’s country seat, had been gifted by Queen Anne in 1705 to the 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) following his victory at the Battle of Blenheim. This magnificent building was designed by the architect Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) with his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736) and, together, they successfully achieved a palace equal to the grandeur of Versaille. When developing the landscape,Vanbrugh worked with Henry Wise, master gardener to the Queen. Every detail within the proximity of the grand palace was arranged and planted in the symmetrical French formal style, the height of fashion when the 1st
Previous pages: The Water Terraces. Far left: The Duke of Marlborough and his second wife Miss Gladys Deacon on their wedding day in Paris. MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY
Left: Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, Sunny’s first wife. La Duchesse de Marlborough assise by Paul Cesar Helleu. PRIVATE COLLECTION; PHOTOGRAPH BY COURTESY OF RICHARD GREEN GALLERY, LONDON.
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Duke of Marlborough moved into Blenheim in 1719. A little later, when it was foreseen that the Duke was approaching the end of his life, Wise took the decision to transplant fully-grown trees in baskets, and so achieve an instant feeling of maturity that would be appreciated by Marlborough. When he died in 1722 it was left to his widow, Sarah, to direct the work on the estate, which she did with great success. By the mid-18th century, horticultural fashion was changing. Landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-83) was employed to make alterations at Blenheim and create a landscape that would appear completely natural. He swept away the formal geometric planting, and between 1764 and 1774 planted the undulating 2,500-acre parkland with ornamental clumps and fringes of trees including many hundreds of beech trees. The sweeping vista was dramatically transformed and King George III believed the natural landscaping of the parkland of Blenheim to be unequalled. It was also much admired by Thomas Jefferson when he visited with John Adams in 1786. Entering the park through Hawksmoor’s Triumphal Arch from the carriage drive, the visitor comes upon the spectacular features that Brown integrated to compose a magnificent picture. The River Glymme was dammed to form a lake spanned by Vanbrugh’s bridge, and Brown contrived several captivating vistas. The rockwork cascade at the end of the western lake has recently been restored, and many of his plantations have reached a magnificent maturity. The scene is awe-inspiring and a permanent reminder of the triumph of the first Duke of Marlborough and his great victory at the Battle of Blenheim. When the Marquis of Blandford (1756-1840) became the 5th Duke of Marlborough he had not lost the passion for plants that he had enjoyed with such financial abandon at Whiteknights (see earlier chapter) and he continued to indulge in vast expenditure. In his first year at Blenheim he immediately set to work on his new garden and when the gardens of Whiteknights were stripped of their treasures, many of them found their way to Blenheim rather than to the auction
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house. In particular, precious plants from the greenhouses at Whiteknights were transferred to Blenheim’s Arcade rooms, greenhouse, and vineries. The former Duchess’s Flower Garden was planted with choice American hardy species, which were among the Duke’s favourite plants, and the lawn to the east of the Palace once again became a flower garden with 20 oval beds, the planting of which he personally supervised. Since his time at Whiteknights, the Duke had been a disciple of Humphry Repton (1752-1818), and kept the flower gardens separate from the park. During the following years, huge numbers of American trees and shrubs were also moved from Whiteknights to Blenheim. There was further great expenditure when random alterations were made to the grounds and every ornamental bed displayed the rarest and most costly specimens, admired for both their beauty and botanic interest. Indeed, a watchman was housed in a Swiss Cottage, from where he could keep an eye on the valuable planted areas.1 The private garden that had been laid out by the 4th Duke was extended, and a new circuit walk and an elaborate rock garden were created. American plants were introduced and from the walk that led down to the lakeside, the view across the water was towards a terrace planted entirely with American varieties of magnolias, peonies, azaleas, rhododendrons, wisterias and a long line of tulip trees. The import of 9,000 loads of bog earth to provide suitable soil for the plants2 guaranteed success. Unfortunately, the 5th Duke’s continued extravagance eventually depleted his funds and as a result, the Palace and grounds suffered a period of intense neglect and decay. However, though noting some deterioration since his earlier visit, the horticultural writer John Claudius Loudon wrote in his major work Fruticetum Britannicum (1838), ‘Among the planters of arboretums in Great Britain during the 19th century, the first place belongs to George, 5th Duke of Marlborough’. 3 ***********
From that time onwards, the various Dukes of Marlborough have constantly striven to maintain the standard of the parks and gardens and to follow current trends in design and planting. There could be no denying that the upkeep of both Palace and gardens required a fortune. When funds were low, the 8th Duke of Marlborough married the rich American widow Lilian Hammersley. Her fortune paid for the releading of the 14 acres of Blenheim roofs, the installation of central heating, as well as a boat house. Just one generation later and money was again in short supply. So it was that ‘Sunny’, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, went to America in search of a bride and returned with the heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, whose ‘tin’ he desperately needed to spend on his Palace and estate at Blenheim. The settlement was $2,500,000 in 50,000 shares of capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway, on which an annual payment for life of 4% was guaranteed by Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railway Company.4 In November 1896, the couple were married. For Consuelo this was a disaster from the first miserable day until their divorce, by which time she had done her duty and provided the required ‘heir and a spare’. Even after their divorce, the Duke had no qualms about continuing to accept the allowance he had secured, and this was large enough to enable him to continue with his grand plans for the Palace and grounds. Indeed, Blenheim would have been lost without the annual Vanderbilt payment. After Consuelo’s separation from the Duke of Marlborough she busied herself with charitable work in London. She soon found a small stone-built Tudor manor house at Crowhurst, in Sussex, where she could escape to at weekends and enjoy her beautiful garden, which she managed with the help of visiting friends. It was a truly charming country garden, and very different from Blenheim where she had not played an active role in gardening. At Crowhurst there was a sunken garden and pool surrounded by terraces, the air was filled with the scent of herbs
and roses, there was an herbaceous border with a profusion of pinks, blues and purples and ‘in spring the garden was gay with flowering shrubs and blossom of peach and plum.’ 5 Both the Duke and Duchess remarried immediately after the divorce, and Consuelo, happy at last, at least had the satisfaction of knowing that it would be her son who would eventually reap the benefit of her family’s money. Consuelo married Jacques Balsan; at their home ‘Lou Sueil’, in Eze, France, having discovered a passion for gardening at Crowhurst, she created a magnificent garden with the help of the designer Achille Duchêne (18661947), who had been employed by the Duke at Blenheim. Together they created a formal knot garden and steps ingeniously threaded their way from terrace to terrace, rising up steep slopes covered with luxurious seasonal planting; indeed, Lou Sueil was to become one of the great gardens of the Mediterranean. *********** Gladys Deacon was another rich American beauty. She had been left mentally scarred by an incident during her childhood. She was on holiday in Cannes with her four sisters and her mother, who was enjoying an affair with a gentleman by the name of Emile Abeille. The couple were interrupted by her husband, Edward Parker Deacon. Abeille hid behind a settee in vain – he was killed by three shots from Deacon’s gun. News of the tragedy spread quickly around France, England and the United States, leaving even the façade of the marriage in tatters. The murder trial took place in Nice and the jury found Deacon guilty of unlawfully wounding Abeille, but without intent to cause death; accordingly, he was sentenced to imprisonment rather than execution. Edward Deacon subsequently altered his will to exclude his wife and set up a trust for their four daughters; Gladys was provided with an annual income for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, the calamity hung over Gladys; a continuous battle
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ensued over her custody and she was moved from pillar to post. However, even at the young age of 14, she had already set her sights upon the Duke of Marlborough, but when she read of Consuelo Vanderbilt’s engagement to him she determined that she would outdo Conseulo and find herself another Duke. However, in 1897 Gladys, who already by this time had quite a reputation, and had developed a forceful personality, was taken to England to be introduced into London society. And it was in London that she first met the 9th Duke of Marlborough, himself. It was a meeting that had surprising consequences. Quite taken with Gladys, the Duke invited her to visit Blenheim and she became a friend of Consuelo, who in her memoirs wrote: ‘Gladys Deacon was a beautiful girl endowed with a brilliant intellect’.6 Edith Wharton described Gladys as ‘an attractive and eccentric woman’.7 Indeed, Gladys was wonderful company and an asset at any party. As well as becoming Consuelo’s friend, she became the Duke’s mistress. In May 1921, Consuelo and Sunny’s marriage finally came to an end. By June that same year, Gladys became the Duchess of Marlborough. Whilst helped along by annual payments from the Vanderbilt settlement, the Duke continued to work on his estate. Unlike Consuelo, Gladys took an enormous interest in the development of the grounds; watching and photographing every stage, including the arrival of mature trees on horse-drawn carts and the statue of Venus being lowered from a motor vehicle. The avenue in the park beyond the Column of Victory was replanted and the lake dredged. Gladys’ favourite place was the rock garden created by the 5th Duke, where she was often to be found at work dressed in gardening gear. Her deep voice could be heard supervising the gardeners, directing the shifting of rocks, adjusting the placement of steps and organising the planting of the saxifrages to make the most of their mass of yellow flowers. It was her visits to the Rock Garden that released her from the restricting atmosphere of the Palace, and she would frequently eat a picnic lunch at one of the Druid’s tables and distribute tobacco and chocolate to the gardeners. Sadly, due to a series of miscarriages, Gladys’ health suffered and though in 1925 she gave up toiling at the Rock Garden. Even without her attentions it grew to be quite spectacular, though it has long since disappeared. The two Water Terraces commissioned by the ninth Duke from Achille Duchene and built between 1925 and 1930 are spectacular. They were constructed on the west front and are linked by a wall of
The Water Terraces.
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caryatids by Visseau and flanked by tiers of shells. One day when one of the gardeners, Bert Timms of Hanborough, happened to be passing,Visseau called him aside and used him as a model. And so Bert is immortalised in the head and torso of the northernmost caryatid. The faces of the two lead sphinxes that stand on the second of the majestic Water Terraces tell a different tale. The face of the Duke’s second wife, Gladys, is recreated on the pair of winged sphinx by W. Ward Wills, completed in 1930, which stand elegantly brooding over the water gardens against a backdrop of iceberg roses. Gladys was a beauty, her face said to have been of the classical Grecian type. Sadly, she was dissatisfied with her profile and went to a museum to measure the proportions of the faces of classical statues. When she found the noses of the statues continued in an unbroken line from
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the forehead, Gladys decided to have cosmetic surgery to remedy the small indentation at the bridge of her nose. Plastic surgery was then in its infancy, and unfortunately the paraffin wax that was injected into the bridge of her nose eventually slipped down beneath the skin and ran to her chin, causing an unsightly and permanent swelling below the jaw. From that time onward she covered herself with swathes of tulle arranged to disguise this deformity. From the Water Terraces, a driveway leads southward towards the Arboretum, but before reaching the magnificent cedars, the prunus and yews, the eye is caught by the Temple of Diana, built by Sir William Chambers for the 4th Duke in a prominent position overlooking the lake. Beyond the Arboretum is the Rose Garden, now restored, where a delicious confection of roses in
Facing page: A wall of caryatids links the terraces. Right: A lead Sphinx depicting Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough. Below: An ornamental terrace for the Sphinx.
Above: Skeins of roses link the delicate ironwork encompassing the Rose Garden. Right: The Rose Garden.
every shade of red, pink and cream is held in geometrically-shaped beds within a circle. In a central circular bed stands a stone statue of a solitary lady engulfed by a sea of roses. Surrounding this extravaganza is a wrought-iron pergola dressed with roses scrambling over its delicate ironwork, and skeins of roses linking one post to another are underplanted with a froth of blue forgetme-nots.
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Winston Churchill, the son of Randolph Churchill and his American wife, Jennie Jerome, was born at Blenheim Palace and he spent a great deal of time there. It was whilst visiting Blenheim that the dashing young Winston persuaded his cousin ‘Sunny’ to invite Clementine Hozier to join him at small party. Clementine accepted and Winston offered to take her on a tour of the rose garden the next morning; a tour that was repeated in the afternoon. Interrupted by a shower, they sheltered in the Temple of Diana and
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it was there that Winston proposed to Clementine, who later in 1908, became his wife. Needless to say, English rose gardens were to become a passion throughout her life, and many years later she had a traditional formal English rose garden created at their home, Chartwell, in Kent. The Temple of Diana at Blenheim was restored in 1975, Architectural Heritage Year, and plaques to commemorate the event were unveiled by Clementine, Lady Churchill, by this time the widow of Sir Winston Churchill.
Left: The Italian Garden designed by Achille Duchene and the gilded Mermaid Fountain by Thomas Waldo Story. Below: Topiary birds look to the Italian Garden.
To the east of the Palace is an area once known as the 1st Duchess’s flower garden, which in time developed into a Victorian shrubbery. This was replaced at the beginning of the 20th century with a parterre designed by Duchêne, now known as the Italian Garden, though with a decidedly French influence. The private apartments and the Orangery now overlook the quartered parterre, composed of swirling patterns of clipped dwarf hedges and enlivened with roses. Box hedges, punctuated with
studs of topiary and ornamental orange trees, surround the gracious, centrally-placed and gilded Mermaid Fountain, the work of the anglophile American sculptor, Thomas Waldo Story (1855-1915). Sunny and Gladys’ marriage eventually failed, and by June 1931 had deteriorated to a state of hostility; the Duke died in 1934 before they could divorce. Gladys lived on until 1977, sadly spending her last days alone, first living in an isolated cottage, and then in a nursing home.
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The Secret Garden gives a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
The Secret Garden, restored by the present Duke in 2004 to celebrate the tercentenary of the Battle of Blenheim, lies hidden away within the sweeping parkland, and isolated from the formal gardens. Winding paths thread their way along meandering streams; fountains and waterfalls tumble into scattered ponds and only the
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gentle sound of water and birdsong interrupt the silence of the secluded and peaceful setting. Some mature trees remain, and additional ornamental shrubs and trees have been planted to bring springtime blossom and harmonious autumnal hues. Gone is the pomp of the awesome park and formal garden and it is a joy to the
visitor to discover this garden, built on a domestic scale. Today, as well as the historical gardens, there are pleasure gardens, a lavender garden, a maze and a butterfly house, indeed, something to please every member of the family. The Palace and its surrounding landscape continues to be true to the description of
Lady Randolph Churchill upon her first visit in 1874: ‘Looking at the lake, the bridge, the miles of magnificent park studded with old oaks, I found no adequate words to express my admiration and when we reached the huge and stately palace, I confess I felt awed.’ 8
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