Wilton House

I was in a nasty car accident in the winter or spring of 1994 ( I can't remember which now). My car was totaled and my knee was scarred for life, but I also received a small settlement from the insurance company of the other driver. I put a down payment on the good old Merkur, but decided to blow the rest of the money on a trip to England and Scotland. My mom did not approve, but, hey, I was young and impetuous.

So, Debbie and I planned a trip to England and Scotland. Actually, I remember saying where we should go, and Debbie did all of the hard work (calling hotels, etc.). We had a wonderful time and made a lot of funny and happy memories, and I took many cool pictures that I rely on for my graphics. I recorded many of those memories in a travel journal, so I will mention that from time to time. This was especially exciting to me because we had a chance to choose where we would go. I spent a few weeks in England after college, but I had little time on my own (although I did take a few tours that I will discuss in another entry). One of the places I especially wanted to visit was Wilton House, the home of the Pembroke family for over 400 years.

For those of you who have followed my academic career, you will remember that the subject of my master's thesis was Mary Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke (1561-1621). She is also the aunt of my dissertation subject, Lady Mary Wroth. I won't bore you with the details of my study, but Herbert was the sister of Philip Sidney, the great Renaissance courtier and poet. The siblings were very close, and Mary edited her brother's work after his early death. Mary was married at a young age (15) to the 43 year old Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Although the family owned many houses, Wilton was their main country seat, and it is believed that Mary often wrote here, and Sidney is believe to have written some of his Arcadia here. Mary was also the mother of the 3rd Earl, William Herbert, who was the love of Wroth's life and the father of two of her children. Yes, they were kissing cousins, and, no, this is not West Virginia.

Like many of the great houses of England, Wilton was once an abbey that was dissolved by Henry VIII. It was at that time that the house and grounds came into the Herbert family. The house that the Countess would have known was mostly burnt down in 1647. The house was rebuilt by Inigo Jones and, after his death, his nephew John Webb. The house is important both historically and architecturally for many reasons. The house contains many valuable works of art, including a number of Van Dycks and other paintings by Rembrant, Lely, and Reynolds. Perhaps the most breathtaking room in the house is the Double Cube room. This room is 60 feet in length, 30 feet wide, 30 feet high, and hung only with Van Dyck portraits. For you Jane Austen fans, you would recognize this room, and its sister room the single cube room, from the pivotal scene in Sense and Sensibility where Willoboughy disses Marianne in front of everyone at a fancy London ball. Another beautiful architectural element of the house is the Palladian bridge pictured below, designed by the 9th Earl. It was closed due to preservation efforts, and, as you can see, some lady ruined my picture by planting herself on the lawn.

The house is sparse on artifacts relating to the Countess, although this may be due to the fire. The contents of the house do include a painting of The Death of Sir Philip Sidney at the Battle of Zutphen in 1586, and a lock of Queen Elizabeth's hair with a poem by Sidney. If memory serves me, there was also a lithograph of the Countess on the lower floor. However, as a Herbert scholar, I was disappointed in the lack of hoopla about the Countess. The best piece of history related to the Countess that I saw was in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where there is a miniature of the Countess that the current Earl gave to the Crown in lieu of taxes in the 80's.

In my journal, I am in quite a rage about the lack of attention to someone I cared so much about; I even threatened to send a copy of my thesis to the present Earl! I never did, thank goodness. Regardless of my disappointment, Wilton is a beautiful house with lovely grounds that is truly one of the treasure houses of England. This could be a day trip from London, although we stayed in a strange bed and breakfast (that was really someone's house) with some sort of spa contraption in the middle of the bathroom and a number of confusing shower heads in the shower. I was quite upset about that in my journal also. We took the train to Salisbury and the bus to Wilton, but I'm sure the web site has adequate directions.