Tag Archives: Highclere Castle

Browning at Downton Abbey: The Rest of the Story

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As the new season of Downton Abbey begins, I thought I should bring you up to date on the discoveries that have resulted from my investigation into Robert Browning’s visits at Highclere Castle.

My curiosity about Browning at Downton Abbey led me to begin a correspondence with David Rymill, archivist for both the Hampshire Record Office and the Highclere Estate. Mr. Rymill’s research revealed that there were three previously unrecorded Browning letters among the Earl of Portsmouth’s archives, a carte de visite of Browning in an album of photographs from Highclere Castle, and four signatures of Robert Browning in the Castle’s guest books.

Among the three letters from Robert Browning are two letters to Lady Portsmouth, Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert, first daughter of Henry John George [Herbert], 3rd Earl of Carnarvon. She married Isaac Newton Fellowes Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth and became Lady Portsmouth.The other letter is to her daughter, Lady Catherine Henrietta Wallop, who married the Right Honorable Charles George Milnes-Gaskell.

These letters, which are part of the Wallop Papers in the Hampshire Record Office, were provided by the Earl of Portsmouth through David Rymill.

Robert Browning to Lady Portsmouth, 14 May 1877

Courtesy of the Earl of Portsmouth

Robert Browning to Lady Portsmouth, 14 January, 1870

Courtesy of the Earl of Portsmouth

Robert Browning to Lady Catherine, 26 May, 1887

Courtesy of the Earl of Portsmouth

Lord Carnarvon gave permission for Mr. Rymill to send the Armstrong Browning Library scans of Robert Browning’s signatures in the Highclere Castle guestbooks. These occur on December 13, 1869, November 16th and 21st of 1873 and March 10, 1878. This discovery has already helped scholars more accurately date Robert Browning’s chronology.

Highclere Castle Guestbook, 13 December 1869

Courtesy of the Earl of Carnavon, Highclere Castle Archives

Highclere Castle Guestbook, 16 November 1873

Courtesy of the Earl of Carnavon, Highclere Castle Archives

Highclere Castle Guestbook, 21 November 1873

Courtesy of the Earl of Carnavon, Highclere Castle Archives

Highclere Castle Guestbook, 10 March 1878

Courtesy of the Earl of Carnavon, Highclere Castle Archives

A signed photograph of Robert Browning  was also discovered in an album among the castle archives, and a scan was graciously forwarded to the ABL from Lord Carnarvon.

Courtesy of the Earl of Carnavon, Highclere Castle Archives

 I would like to express my sincere thanks to David Rymill. On December 2, Cynthia Burgess, Librarian/Curator of Books and Printed Materials at the Armstrong Browning Library, and Pattie Orr, Vice-President of Information Technology and Dean of University Libraries, Baylor University, were joined by Mr. Rymill as they attended a ceremony at the grave of Robert Browning in Westminster Abbey, commemorating his death on December 12, 1889, one hundred and twenty-four years ago.

Who knows what connections the new season might bring to light?

Melinda Creech

 Notes and Queries:

Can anyone add additional information about the signatures in the guestbooks or the other photographs on the album page?

Browning at Downton Abbey: Conversations at Highclere

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by Melinda Creech

The conversations at Downton Abbey propel the plot and leave us curious to know how the relationships will unravel or be knit together. Of course, many of the most interesting conversations occur in the hallways and behind doors in the servants’ quarters. However, some take place when the men gather by themselves after the meal in the smoking room. Others unfold as the visitors and residents stroll across the lovely grounds of Highclere Castle.

The Smoking Room in Highclere Castle

The Smoking Room in Highclere Castle [http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/about-us/the-state-rooms.html]

Robert Browning found himself engaged in these conversations. The Political Diaries of the Fourth Earl of Carnarvon, edited by Peter Gordon (2009), contends that “Carnarvon’s greatest pleasure . . . was discussing literary matters with distinguished authors.” The conversations in the smoking room, according to Thomas Hay Sweet Escott in Anthony Trollope: His Public Services, Private Friends, and Literary Originals (1967) sometimes involved Browning and often focused on the literature of the Classics. The smoking room clientele included Lord Carnarvon, Browning, Anthony Trollope, J. R. Green, J. R. Seeley, Charles Kingsley, and H. P. Liddon and resembled “Cicero’s country-house parties at his Tusculum.”

Browning, however, also enjoyed those strolling conversations on the grounds. Lady Knightley in The Journals of Lady Knightley of Fawsley, edited by Julia Mary Cartwright (1915), has this recollection of a conversation with Browning at Highclere.

Talking to remarkable people is certainly very hard work! Here I have been divided between Count Beust and Mr. Browning nearly all day. The occupation, amusement, or whatever you like to call it, has been a walk and luncheon at a little house by a lovely lake. Mr. Browning is as different from his poems as anything one can imagine — a loud-voiced, sturdy little man, who says nothing in the least obscure or difficult to understand!

Perhaps it was just such conversations that caused Robert’s weariness as described by his sister, Sarianna Browning, in a letter dated December 1, 1869, to her dear friend in Paris, Joseph Milsand. She says: “Robert is with the earl of Carnarvon at Highclere castle since Saty [Saturday]. He will stay a few days longer but soon gets wearied.”

How delightful to imagine Robert Browning sitting in the smoking room at Highclere discussing Homer, strolling the grounds unveiling his poetry to Lady Knightley, or participating in a shooting party.

Be sure to check back later this week for the next installment in the Browning at Downton Abbey series!

Sarrianna's Letter to Joseph Milsand

Sarianna’s Letter to Joseph Milsand dated December 1, 1869 [Photo courtesy of Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University]

Browning at Downton Abbey: The Shooting Party

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A Shooting Party scene from the set of Downton Abbey

A scene from the Christmas shooting party from Downton Abbey [http://rikravado.hubpages.com/hub/downton-abbey-isis-view-future-plot]


by Melinda Creech

The season two finale for Downton Abbey, entitled “Christmas, 1919,” showcased a shooting party at Downton Abbey. As Alastair Bruce, historical advisor for Masterpiece, explains in a supplemental video, the shooting party had several purposes. Of utmost interest to the participants was the social import of the event. It was an opportunity to see and be seen by the elite of the society, and often required the tailoring of a new wardrobe. The harvesting of game during the shoot supported the community’s needs, providing Christmas gifts of food for the participants, residents of Highclere, and the staff. The shoot also contributed to the ecological balance of the one thousand acre estate.

Browning’s involvement in the shooting party is a little unclear. The Political Diaries of the Fourth Earl of Carnarvon, 1857-1890, Colonial Secretary and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, edited by Peter Gordon (2009), indicates: “as a member of a shooting party there in 1873 Browning was able to claim in a single day 218 pheasants, 40 hares, 20 rabbits, and 1 partridge.” Gordon obtained this information from a letter from Robert Browning to Sarianna Browning, dated November 20, 1873. However, Browning writes to his sister, Sarianna, that “the main party of men are gone out to shoot” while he has “been walking in the park and after luncheon, shall begin again.” As almost a postscript in the last line of the letter he adds: “5 o’clock/ Day’s sport, (5 guns)—218 pheasants, 40 hares, 20 rabbits, 1 partridge.”

Whether as an attendee or a participant, Browning, no doubt, enjoyed the shooting party at Highclere, November 15-22,1873.

Shooting Party at Highclere Castle

Shooting Party at Highclere Castle [December 1895] with Lady Almina (center) and the Prince of Wales in attendance. Do you recognize any other famous faces?