The entrance to Cliveden, top, the shell fountain and the 1668 date.
Story & Photos By Stan
Wawer
It was the proverbial dark
and stormy night. The wind whistled across the great expanse of lawn and
gardens that extended down to the River Thames. Rain battered the windows. I sipped
a glass of Ruinart French champagne as I sat in front of a flickering fireplace
reading Stephen King’s “Bag of Bones.”
It was the worst storm in 12
years in the United Kingdom, and here I was with my wife at Cliveden House, a
half-hour out of London, in a perfect setting to write a great mystery novel.
The Sir Percy Blakeney suite
was our second-floor sanctuary. It overlooked the gardens and the Thames. Sir
Percy, the infamous Scarlet Pimpernel, was made famous in the novels created by
Hungarian novelist Baroness Orczy (1865-1947). It was Sir Percy who gave his
name to the hotel group, Blakeney Hotels Ltd., which once ran the Royal
Crescent as well as Cliveden House and the Sloane Club London. The Relais &
Chateaux resort is now privately owned.
Cliveden House is in Taplow,
Berkshire County; a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle. History prevails at
Cliveden — from George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, to Lord and Lady
Astor (the former American Nancy Langhorne who died in 1964).
Guests at Cliveden can play
indoor and outdoor tennis, go boating, ride horses, hike, swim, do some clay
pigeon shooting, archery, fishing, golf (two local courses are available to
guests including the prestigious Lambourne Golf Club) and enjoy the complete
spa experience. If you so desire, you can even learn to play polo at Ascot Polo
Club. I’m persona non grata on the polo field. The sport discriminates against
lefties. I could play but I would have to play right handed.
The gorgeous outdoor pool
within the Pavilion was commissioned by Lord Astor for Lady Astor to deter her
from swimming in the River Thames. An indoor pool compliments it; complete spa,
six treatment rooms, fully equipped gymnasium and separate men’s and ladies’
steam rooms and sauna.
A stoic porter, who welcomes
you with a tip of his bowler, greets Cliveden guests at the main entrance. Once
you get passed the registration desk, you are standing in the great hall, with
its grandiose fireplace, portrait of Lady Astor as a young woman, statues and
portraits of other former Cliveden residents. The library also has a fireplace
and a view of the gardens and Thames. It is the site of afternoon tea, a
British staple.
One of Cliveden’s main
attractions is Spring Cottage. It derives its name from the nearby mineral spring
that was a favorite picnic spot for Frederick Prince of Wales in the 18th
century.
When the Duke and Duchess of
Sutherland purchased Cliveden in the mid 19th century, the Duchess
added the cottage and created a riverside paradise. The Duchess was Queen
Victoria’s favorite lady-in-waiting, and it was at Spring Cottage, in the
small, elegant retreat, that they could talk alone. Spring Cottage sleeps six
and runs from $3,057 a night. Spring Cottage, lovingly restored under the
strict supervision of the National Trust, is available as a romantic hideaway.
Upon arrival, guests find hampers of wine, spirits and luxurious provisions a
their disposal, all included in the price.
The Duke of Buckingham
bought the Cliveden estate in 1666 and built the original house. He employed
architect William Winde to design a tall house over a massive terrace platform,
an arrangement that was likened at the time to villas at Frascati to the east
of Rome.
On our walk around the
grounds, my wife and I came across a duelist’s sword and a date, 1668, marked
with stones in Cliveden’s southeast lawn. This emblem, we later learned,
commemorates the duel between the second duke of Buckingham and Lord Shrewsbury
at Barn Elms, near Putney.
The Duke found Cliveden
convenient for political intrigue and a life of scandal. He had a reputation of
being immoral, a wit and a literary figure. The Duke also was King Charles II’s
most influential minister.
Villiers had a mistress, the
Countess of Shrewsbury. On her account, or in her honor, depending on your
point of view, he fought a famous duel in which he killed her husband, the Earl
of Shrewsbury.
The second duke of
Buckingham died in 1687. A George Villiers painting hangs in Cliveden’s great
hall, on the same wall as a portrait of Lady Shrewsbury.
Following Buckingham’s
death, several leading families and Frederick, Prince of Wales, occupied
Cliveden; Frederick from 1737 until his death in 1751.
On the second day of our
stay, my wife’s arthritis forced us to use the elevator to our second-floor room.
Hopefully, the elevator (lift) has been repaired since our stay. The tiny
elevator (three’s a crowd) was slow and stopped with a jolt. By our third trip,
we figured out the timing. We braced ourselves for the stop by spreading our
arms and legs and putting pressure against the front and back walls of the
lift. It gave us a good laugh and startled a maid when the door opened, while
helping us to keep our minds off the weather.
In 1850, the renowned Sir
Charles Barry designed the existing Cliveden House for the Duke of Sutherland.
Barry also created the House of Parliament and reconfigured the 1679-built
Highclere Castle in Newbury. Highclere is used as the set for the popular
“Downton Abbey,” which appears Sunday evenings on PBS. The Duke purchased Cliveden
from the estate of Sir George Warrender the previous year but soon afterward
the house was destroyed by fire.
Barry’s rebuilding
reasserted the Italianate character suggested by the 17th-century
terraces on the south side. The house is built in brick, faced with Roman
cement and ornamented with terracotta capitals, balusters and finials. It is on
376 acres of parkland so incredible that the National Trust suggests it is one
of the top 10 gardens in England. In 1942 Waldorf, Second Viscount Astor, presented
Cliveden and its grounds to the National Trust.
Dining at Cliveden is an
elegant affair. The Boudoir and the Tote Room, just off the great hall, has
enough ambiance to last a lifetime, with a view of the rear gardens and the
Thames. The splendid French dining room has one of the finest examples of
original examples of Madame de Pompadour 18th century paneling
outside of France. Cliveden also has Waldo’s and the Cellar Dining Room — an
original house cellar — restored during the 1890s by the Astor family. It is an
unusual room with great character and atmosphere.
If you do not want to put on
that coat and tie one night, you can get casual dining at Feathers, an
authentic English pub a quarter-mile down the road and across the street from
Cliveden. Feathers has superb fish and chips and Guinness on tap. Queen
Victoria refused to eat at Feathers during her stay at Cliveden — too common.
It was off limits to her staff. My wife and I loved the place.
As you wind up the road from
the main entrance, you will come upon the Shell Fountain or Fountain of Love.
William Waldorf Astor commissioned the fountain in 1897 from his fellow
American, the fashionable sculptor Thomas Waldo Story. Story had a studio in
Rome (where Lord Astor spent many years as US minister) and executed a number
of sculptures for Cliveden. According to Lord Astor, the female figures around
the massive Siena marble shell are “supposed to have discovered the fountain of
love and to be experiencing the effects of its wonderful elixir.”
Long Garden is an Italianate
arrangement of formal topiary and statues laid out by Lord Astor around 1900.
At the end of Long Garden the ground begins to slope westward across an open
glade whose focus is the Blenheim Pavilion, designed around 1727 for Lord
Orkney, who had been one of the Duke of Marlborough’s generals. Its architect
was the Italian immigrant Giacomo Leoni.
Farther down the slope
toward the river there survives the grass amphitheater, which seems to have
provided the setting for the performance in 1740 of “The Masque of Alfred,” in
which Thomas Arne’s “Rule, Britannia” was first sung.
There’s a set of steep steps
leading down to the Thames that can leave you breathless. If you do fitness
infomercials, you probably can make it down and back without assistance. I
tried, but I quit less than halfway up. I sat on one of the steps and refused
to move until my wife called me a wimp. I do not recommend crawling up about 50
steps.
The architect Henry Clutton
added the ornate clock tower in 1861. It was based on a design by Sir Charles
Barry for Trentham, the Duke of Sutherland’s house in Straffordshire. Later,
the first Lord Astor had the bronze sculptural enrichments added to the clock
faces.
The south terrace remains
much as it was built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1668. From the terrace you
look out at the parterre and the Thames. To the west of the parterre, on the
slope toward the river, the first Lord Astor laid out an Italianate sculpture
garden in 1902. It had tufa walls, a mosaic pavement and numerous fragments of
ancient sculpture. In 1917-18 this garden was adapted as a cemetery for those
who had died in the Canadian Red Cross Hospital (which had been built on the
Cliveden estate). It is now known as the War Memorial Garden.
Lady Astor was one of England’s
great hostesses. She invited a number of famous people to Cliveden, including
such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, T.S. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and
socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Her son Bill (William) lived
at Cliveden but got involved in the 1961 Profumo scandal. Albeit Bill Astor was
exonerated from any wrongdoing, the scandal took its toll on him and he died in
1966. John Profumo was England’s Secretary of War. He had an affair with
Christine Keeler. Keeler and Mandy Rice Davies frequently attended parties at
Spring Cottage, which were thrown by Stephen Ward, a friend of William Astor.
Profumo’s affair took place
while Keeler was seeing a Russian diplomat. The ensuing scandal led to the
eventual downfall of Harold McMillan’s government.
Cliveden has a high price
tag but it is a place of overwhelming charm and a fascinating history.
If you go
Prices at Cliveden range
from $415 to $2,592 a night. For information or reservations go to the website
at www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/index.aspx.
Getting there: British Airways flies from LAX to London Heathrow.
Economy (lowest) fare online is $1,043 roundtrip; $6,622 business and $19,227
first class.
Virgin Atlantic from LAX to
Heathrow online is $945 economy and $5,883 upper class.
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