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Houghton Hall
Houghton Hall lies 9 miles west of Fakenham. It was
the country mansion of Sir Robert Walpole - the first
English Prime Minister and was designed by Colen
Campbell and Thomas Ripley.
Houghton Hall
The prolific letter writer Sir Horace
Walpole (1717-1797) lived at Houghton Hall but was not
over enamoured with Norfolk. Here is an extract from a
letter addressed to George Montagu written on March
25th, 1761. The 'Gray' referred to in the letter is his
friend the poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771) - with whom he
was educated at Eton and at Peterhouse, Cambridge - and
who wrote the famous poem Elegy in a Country
Churchyard. The tone of the letter is somewhat
morbid.
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'....Here I am at Houghton! and alone! in this spot where
I have not been in sixteen years! Think what a crowd of
reflections! - no Gray, and forty churchyards, could not
furbish so many: nay, I know one must feel them with
greater indifference than I possess, to have patience to
put them into verse. Here I am, probably for the last
time in my life, though not for the last time - every
clock that strikes tells me I am an hour nearer to
yonder church - that church, into which I have not had
courage to enter, where lies that Mother on whom I
doted, and who doted on me!' |
Both Sir Robert and Horace Walpole are buried in the
church of St. Martin's which lies within the grounds of
the hall; there are no memorials to them.
St Martin's Church,
Houghton Hall © Jim Rowe |
Houghton is another example of a Norfolk
deserted village and
was moved when the hall was originally being
constructed. The new village - begun in 1729 and consisting of ten pairs of cottages - was arranged along
opposite sides of a new street.Some commentators have
suggested that it was the 'emparking' here at Houghton
which inspired Oliver Goldsmith's famous long poem
The Deserted Village. However, Alan Davison - an
expert in abandoned communities - claims that the poet's
'Sweet Auburn' was actually based on Nuneham Courtney in
Oxfordshire. |
Links:
Houghton Hall |
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