Highclere Castle

by Carole Holt

Highclere Castle - England

Today Highclere castle is more like a palace than a castle, this is because it was redesigned by Sir Charles Barry, if you think that the design of the house is familiar that is because Sir Charles Barry designed the 'Palace of Westminster' known as the Houses of Parliament London.

Highclere is the home of the 7th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon ( about a month ago the 7th Earl died leaving two sons). The house started its life as a castle. I was allowed to see a copperplate drawing of the old castle but unfortunately I was unable to take a photograph of the copperplate. There is nothing left standing of the original castle. The oldest part is the 'Walled Garden', which was once planted with fruit trees when it was the Bishop of Winchester's home in 1218.

Highclere Castle was given to Robert Herbert the second son of the Earl of Pembroke who died in 1769. The eldest son was given Wilton House, the family home. The first Earl of Carnarvon house, which was built for him in the grounds of the park, was a large square mansion .

One of the first things Robert Herbert did on acquiring the land was to ask the world famous Capability Brown to redesign the land into a perfect park. To acquire this perfect park and uninterrupted, perfect view from the house, Capability moved an entire village. A friend of the first Earl was the famous 18th century seed collector, Bishop Stephen Pococke. On one of his trips to Lebanon, he brought back some Cedars of Lebanon seed. These beautiful trees can be seen in the garden today.

The 2nd Earl of Carnarvon was also very interested in the parkland and gardens and grew azaleas and rhododendrons as well as plants from the Himalayas. In the 18th & 19th century having the finest house and gardens was a status symbol. The gardeners were expected to grow all the fruit and vegetables for the house not just ordinary English fruits but exotic fruits, oranges and lemons as well as figs. The Orangery heated greenhouse was a place to show guests the exotic fruits, as they walked around the formal and informal gardens.

It was the third Earl who had the house remodelled by Sir Charles Barry in 1839-42 after he had finished building the Houses of Parliament. The outside of the house is a real Early Victorian mix in parts, the windows a type that could be classed as of Elizabethan type, there are touches of Georgian but it is very Gothic in its overall outlook. The 3rd Earl acquired the desk and chair that was made for Napoleon Bonaparte in 1827. It now sits in the library. The desk and chair are very ornate in Regency and Egyptian decorations (I asked if I could photograph the desk and was told no! As I looked at the desk I wondered what wonderful tales it could tell if only it could speak.).

The 4th Earl of Carnarvon employed Thomas Allom to redesign the interior of the house; he designed the rooms in the Gothic style with painting by Gainsborough, Van Dyck and school (Van Dyck would paint the face and perhaps hands with general outline and the school would fill in the rest). Schools or workshops were used a lot by painters with a large commission of works. There are also paints by Reynolds and Beechey in the house.

Of all the Earls perhaps the 5th Earl is the most famous and one I am sure everyone knows about, this is the Earl who, with the famous Egyptologist Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. On entering the tomb he was stung by a mosquito. He became ill with blood poisoning and died, as did his little dog back in England who also dropped down dead. The family was so worried about the curse from the tomb that when his body was returned to the family for burial from Egypt, the family chose a piece of land that was as far from the house as possible and still be on the Earl's property; the plot is on farmland a long way from the house and its gardens.

I could find very little about the 6th Earl, I was told by one of the house guides that the family was very concerned that the curse could have been passed on to members of the family.
When I was there the 7th Earl was still alive and was the racing manager to the Queen. The Earls of Carnarvon have been breeding and racing horses for over 100 years, and have a Trophy room in the cellar with many cups, rosettes and photos of the 100 years of breeding and racing. Opposite the Trophy room is the Egyptian Room, the room deep in the cellar had a feel of being put there for the tourists.

For anyone interested in history and gardening, the house and grounds are well worth a visit. I would personally not take children as there is very little for them to do and they could very easily get bored. You are not allowed to touch anything or take photos inside the house. We did not see the grounds at their best as it was raining, so if you go, choose a fine day as there are beautiful walks around the parkland.