Belvoir Castle
The Duchess of Rutland is speaking to Royal Oak audiences this Spring! Details about her first lecture, on February 4 in Charleston, SC, are below. More information on upcoming lectures to follow.
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown changed the face of 18th-Century England. He created landscapes with moving hills, serpentine rivers, and expansive lakes that beautifully interact with the country estates and mansions for which they were made. The National Trust proudly cares for many Brown properties such as Ickworth House, Stowe and Croome.
Rutland Castle Saloon
2016 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Capability Brown and celebrations are planned across England, including an ICOMOS conference in September featuring drone photography taken by Royal Oak’s 2015 Horan Fellow, Justin Kegley. (Learn more about Justin’s project: HERE)
Of the 170 projects Capability Brown executed in his lifetime, 150 survive in England today. But as of 2015, that number has gone up to 151. Amazingly, in 2015, after 235 years, Capability Brown plans for the garden at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire—the home of the Dukes of Rutland for over 1,000 years—were discovered hidden in the castle archives. The plans were drawn up by Brown himself for the 4th Duke of Rutland in 1780. Brown died in 1783 before the project could be fully realized, but a smaller scheme based on the design was later implemented. While it was always purported the plans were a Brown design, nothing could be confirmed until now.
Determined to leave her own mark on Belvoir Castle, Her Grace, the 11th Duchess of Rutland has set out to finish Brown’s vision for Belvoir Castle. The Duchess told the Daily Mail, “We’ve been left this amazing plan, and I feel a huge responsibility to leave something behind so one day people can say, ‘She set out to finish what was started.’”
Royal Oak is delighted to welcome the Duchess of Rutland to Charleston in February to kick off The Drue Heinz Lectures 2016 spring season. Her Grace first spoke to Royal Oak audiences in 2010 and we’re thrilled to have her back to discuss the development of the Belvoir gardens and the breakthrough discovery of the lost plans. She will offer a visual tour of the Pleasure Grounds – the formal terraces, woodland and spring gardens which have been painstakingly restored to coincide with the tercentenary of Capability Brown’s birth. Each lecture will be accompanied by a book-signing of Capability Brown and Belvoir Castle: Discovering a Lost Landscape, just published in 2015 to document this incredible discovery.
Charleston Lecture:
February 4, 2016
6:15 p.m. Reception and Book-signing, 6:45 p.m. Illustrated Lecture
The Confederate Home & College, 62 Broad Street
$45 Royal Oak and Preservation Society Members, $60 Non-Members
For more information and to register for this lecture, please call: 800-913-6565, ext. 201
Duchess’s other lecture dates:
May 23- New York, NY
