Glorious Goodwood: England’s Greatest Sporting Estate and the Dukes of Richmond

Glorious Goodwood:

England’s Greatest Sporting Estate and the Dukes of Richmond

Famous throughout the world as England’s greatest sporting estate, and known for its great Regency state apartments and resplendent art collection, Goodwood has been the home of the Dukes of Richmond for over 300 years. The 1st Duke of Richmond, an illegitimate son of King Charles II, first visited Goodwood to enjoy foxhunting and then purchased the original house for his hunting lodge in 1697. Indeed, sport has been intertwined with the family life on the estate ever since. From foxhunting to cricket, shooting to horseracing, and golf to motorsport, each duke’s passion was practiced on the estate. In addition to its impressive sporting history, Goodwood boasts one of the greatest family art collections in any English country house. Guests of the ducal family would be surrounded by superb English and French furniture, celebrated paintings by Stubbs, Lawrence, and Canaletto, magnificent 18th century Sèvres porcelain, Gobelins tapestries and more.

Curator of Goodwood, James Peill, will take us on a historic journey of Goodwood starting in the late 17th century with the escapades of the 1st Duke of Richmond, through today (with interludes in Brussels and Scotland). He will chart the ups and downs of a great English aristocratic family, their house, and the sports they loved, with insight as to how they responded to challenges over the centuries. He will also talk about the Goodwood sporting tradition that continues today with the annual “Glorious Goodwood” raceweek, as well as the Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival, motorsport events that attract a world-wide following.

Thank you to our co-sponsor: Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA)

Additional support for New York lectures is generously provided by Thomas and Patricia Bain, Dr. Leonora Ballinger, Virginia Brody, Mr. Albert Messina and Mr. Ken Jennings, Linda Pedro, Stephanie Speakerman, The Stoddart Family, John and Phillis Warden, Mr. William Lee Younger, and an Anonymous donor

The Private Dining Room at Goodwood House. ©James Fennell

James Peill ©Daniel Gould Country Life

James Peill

F.S.A., Curator of the Goodwood Collection

James Peill F.S.A. has been the Curator of the Goodwood Collection since 2009. He was brought up in the Welsh Marches and read History of Art at Edinburgh University. He was formerly a Director of Christie’s where he was a specialist in the Furniture Department and an auctioneer. He is the co-author, with the late Knight of Glin, of Irish Furniture (Yale University Press, 2007) and The Irish Country House (Vendome, 2010) and the author of The English Country House (Vendome, 2013). His most recent book is Glorious Goodwood, a Biography of England’s Greatest Sporting Estate (Constable, 2019). He is churchwarden of Chanctonbury Parish, a Church of England parish in West Sussex, and is married with four daughters.