Unexpected and Glorious!
Goodwood House, home of the Duke of Richmond
In 1697 an illegitimate son of Charles II purchased Goodwood House as a hunting lodge. Charles, 1st Duke of Richmond was the 13th, and last, of the illegitimate children Charles II fathered with a string of mistresses. Born in 1630 and named after his father, he was the son of Charles’s French mistress, Louise de Keroualle. Goodwood House has been in the family ever since and all bar one duke, and including the current 11th Duke, has been named Charles. The exception was the 9th Duke, Frederick, who was the second son but inherited the title in 1935 from his father, his older brother Charles having died in action in the 1st World War, in 1919. It is to Frederick that all fans of the Goodwood Revival Festival owe thanks for it was his brainchild, combining a need for the estate to make money and his love for motor sport, to hold an annual event dedicated to motor sport.
Visits to Goodwood House are via a timed house tour which you can choose to follow with an afternoon tea in the old ballroom. I parked in the ample car park to the right of the house and, I think correctly, walked over the lawned area in-front of the house. I entered the grand, double-depth entrance hall, complete with a colonnade consisting of 6 full with 2 half pillars on either side which give the impression of a continuing corridor. Three portraits by Stubbs decorated the walls, depicting hunting and shooting scenes from the estate, alongside numerous other portraits including ones of the family’s ancestors, Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles II’s parents. I was greeted by Sheila, who would be the guide for the 1:40pm house tour onto which I was booked, and she directed me to the Music Room, along with the other guests, to wait for the start of the tour.
Our first stop was the triangular courtyard, accessed at the back of the entrance hall. We stood underneath a modern colonnade facing the original hunting lodge, the Garter Star displayed over its front door, the 1st Duke having been made a Knight of the Order of the Garter at just 9 years old by his father. Inside there were more treasures; furniture gifted to Louise de Keroualle by Charles II, a painting of Charles II with Louise in the background, and two landscapes showing the front and back views from Richmond House in London, now demolished. In the front view I was excited to see remnants of the old Whitehall Palace including the Holbein Gate. The River Thames with St Pauls and Monument can be seen in the painting of the back view. These were all within the Hunting Lodge’s Long Hall but before we departed this, the oldest part of the house, there was a second room to visit, the Tapestry Drawing Room, designed for the 3rd Duke of Richmond by the famous architect James Wyatt, in the 1770s. It was created specifically to house four Gobelin tapestries which had been gifted to the 3rd Duke by Louis XV of France, when he served as British Ambassador to the French court, and is the only room to have a decorated ceiling in the house.
Five Privy Council meetings have been held here since 1908, making Goodwood House host to the highest number of such meetings in any private house. Even amongst the beauty of the room the fireplace surround caught my eye, it is unlike any I had seen before, a creation by the sculptor John Bacon and completed in 1777, great to look at but no good for resting one’s glass at parties (perhaps that was the point).
Back in the main house, we entered a room that felt completely out of place in an English country house, yet was no less impressive for its very anomalousness. The Egyptian State Dining Room, with scagliola walls of gold and black (which gives the look of marble) and furniture and fittings reflecting the trend for everything Egyptian, was created for the 3rd Duke in the early 1800s. A comment by Edward VII, a frequent houseguest in the early 20th century, that he did not much like the decor of this room prompted a redecoration in a more classical Georgian style. Thankfully the original walls and fittings were preserved, merely covered over with panelling of paint and the room has now been carefully restored.
We then walked back through the Front Hall and to the other side heading into the Red Hall where paintings and artefacts saved from a fire which destroyed their London house, in 1791, are kept. It is a delightful mix of portraits of the family and Battle of Waterloo memorabilia. The 4th Duke was present but not on the battlefield as his duties were to organise the defence of Brussels should Napoleon’s forces break through. One of my favourite items in the room is a painting of a ball, hosted by the 4th Duchess, in Brussels, on the 15th June 1815. It’s an evocative scene, everyone dressed up and enjoying a ball as if at peace, and yet during the evening word arrived that Napoleon’s forces had advanced quicker than anticipated. Men began to quietly take their leave to return to their units, many still in dress uniform as there was no time to change. The Battle of Quatre Blas was fought the following day and Waterloo 2 days after that, at which the British, famously, won. As a thank you for the Ball, the Duke of Wellington gifted Napoleon’s campaign chair to the 4th Duke and Duchess of Richmond. A replica can be seen on the Red Hall, the original is in the duke’s study, and still in use!
Our last but one stop on the tour was my favourite, the Yellow Drawing Room. Its colour could be described as sunny, it is bright without being garish and does the job for which it was designed, to display royal and family portraits, perfectly. I could imagine myself in here sipping tea, quite happily. Which was a perfect thought to turn my mind to because after a look at the Cards Room, named as such because Edward VII liked it for the pastime, which displays the family’s Sèvres porcelain collection, it was time to go to the Ballroom for Afternoon tea.
The food was equalled in excellence by the service and, as a solo guest, I was made to feel welcome and looked after.
Thank you very much to the marketing team at Goodwood House for inviting me to tour the house and enjoy afternoon tea, it was a great day out for a history enthusiast like myself and I thoroughly recommend people book a visit.
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Until next time, take care!
Philippa 💜
