For the latest post for the Georgian Lords, Alyssa Myers, a final year PhD student at the University of Manchester Metropolitan, examining the role of elite suburban villas as centres of politics in the later part of the eighteenth century.
The long eighteenth century saw a surge of villas cropping up around the outskirts of London in areas primarily along the Thames, such as Richmond-upon-Thames and Greenwich. They were frequently used as intermediary spaces for retreat between town and country, especially during the parliamentary season. On occasion, though, villas could also be used for their exclusivity, location and smaller size to host select parties. During active political seasons, it was common for equally political hostesses to hold select days at their London townhouses where visitors could come and go throughout the day in a casual manner. These open days mirrored the Public Days held at country houses, which were geared towards the local elite of the area, to determine political alliances and tease out who might need more persuading.
The 5th duke and duchess of Devonshire were both extremely active in the politics of the late eighteenth century as renowned Whigs who heartily supported Charles Fox. The duchess, Georgiana, was known to participate in politics in an active way beyond what was often seen as appropriate for women.
Devonshire House and Chatsworth were used frequently as stages for garnering (and keeping) political support through hosted entertainments. Mary, Lady Coke, commented on this when she stated that Georgiana:
really is a very good Politician. As soon as ever any young man comes from abroad he is immediately invited to Devonshire House and to Chatsworth – and by that means he is to be of the Opposition. [Chalus, p. 93]
Despite being understood as a more private and exclusive residence, the duke and duchess included their suburban villa, Chiswick House, as part of their political praxis with Georgiana hosting several ‘public day breakfasts’. These breakfasts were intimate, exclusive and hosted illustrious national and foreign VIPs. An example of this can be seen in a newspaper report of 27 May 1783, where guests included the duc de Chartres and other French nobility.
On Sunday Morning, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire gave a most elegant breakfast to a select number of the nobility at Burlington House, Chiswick. The natural beauties of this delightful spot were enlivened on this occasion by the most pleasing decorations that an elegant fancy, controuled by a just judgement, could possibly supply. The trees and shrubberies were hung with festoons of flowers, desposed in easy and unaffected variations. All the figures were ornamented with sashes of roses, intermingled with oranges and myrtles. The company began to assemble about 10’clock, among which the most distinguishable were the Prince of Wales, the Duc de Chartres, attended by the Duc de Fitzjames, and most of the foreign nobility, besides whom were Lords Carlisle, Althorp, Jersey, Melbourne, Duncannon, Herbert, Colonels Fitzpatrick, St. Leger, Ladies Melbourne, Duncannon, with many more select friends of the Duchess’s. The company were entertained with tea, coffee, chocolate, fruits of all sorts, ices, etc. til four o’clock when they returned to town. [London Chronicle]
The Chronicle highlighted the control the hosts had on the guest list with only ‘select friends’ being invited. The breakfast lasted around six hours with guests returning to London after four o’clock: quite the advantage for busy politicians and aristocrats. It comes as no surprise that all the English guests were of the Whig party.
More so, 1783 was an important year politically for the Devonshires. Following the resignation of Lord Shelburne in February, a coalition government led by Charles Fox and his old rival Lord North, took office in April with the duke of Portland as the new Prime Minister. Georgiana used the opportunity of visiting French nobility not only to celebrate the success of the Fox-North coalition taking office, but to continue to rally supporters as the coalition lacked royal support and was viewed from the outset as unlikely to survive. The opportunity arose as early as December of that year to bring the ministry down over the controversial East India bill, enabling the king to replace Fox and North with William Pitt the Younger.
Eight years later in 1801, Pitt resigned from office in March and was replaced with Henry Addington. Fox returned to the political scene following Pitt’s resignation and supported Addington in advocating for peace with France (which was achieved through the Treaty of Amiens that October). That summer, the Devonshires held three other public breakfasts at Chiswick. The first breakfast held on the 20th of June was described in detail, and the duke of York was listed as guest of honour.
On Saturday, at Chiswick, was attended by a small circle of her Grace’s family and friends. The day being beautiful rendered the delightful villa and grounds another Paradise… Two tables, forming a triangle, were laid out for forty, in an elegant saloon adjoining the library. The breakfast consisted of lamb, veal, hams, fowls, chickens, with prawns, &c. The desert pines, strawberries, cherries, &c… It was three o’clock before the company began to assemble, and four before the principal part arrived in different carriages…
A few minutes after four o’clock the Duke of York came in a post-chariot and four… The company sat down to table, the Duke of York’s band, in full uniform, playing several favourite pieces of music. Soon after five the company returned to the lawn, and several little parties went on the serpentine lake, where they were rowed by Gentlemen adepts in that healthful exercise. After perambulating through the walks till seven o’clock, the illustrious and distinguished visitors departed. At eight o’clock the Duchess of Devonshire followed. [Morning Post, 22 June 1801]
Being reported in the Morning Post, there was clearly an element of publicity to this breakfast as the newspaper specialised in reporting on fashionable society after merging with the World and Fashionable Advertiser in 1794. The notice was placed in the newspaper’s ‘The Fashionable World’ column alongside the upcoming events for the week. There were around forty guests in attendance, which was especially striking to the ball held for the entree to society for her daughter, another Georgiana known as Little G, at Devonshire House in London the previous summer, where the duke and duchesses’ youngest daughter Harriet reported 1,800 guests in attendance [Chatsworth Archives, C55/1520]. The party only lasted around four hours, with everyone again departing for London immediately after. The event was framed as for family and friends, though was clearly still a select event for those in the Devonshires’ and duke of York’s immediate Whig circle.
This blurring of the boundaries between sociability and politics would have been one of the key advantages of the villa for political discourse. While Chiswick was in many ways exceptional because of the rank and political proclivity of its owners, other suburban villas played various roles in politics. For example, Jemima Yorke, marchioness de grey, described her and the earl of Hardwicke’s Richmond villa as the ‘best News-mongering place that can be in these curious & critical Times’ [5 November 1756, Bedfordshire Archives, L30/9a/2/p.148]. This was a sentiment that was later echoed by Horace Walpole about his own suburban villa, Strawberry Hill [Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, xi. 29]. The aristocracy primarily used their villas as an escape from London politics; however, the same qualities that made the villa an ideal retreat also made Chiswick House the perfect space for hosting exclusive political events for what the Post went on to call ‘the illustrious and distinguished visitors.’
AM
Further Reading:
E. Chalus, Elite Women in English Political Life c.1754–1790 (Oxford, 2005).
A. Foreman, The Duchess: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (London, 2008).
“This research was funded by the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council”
