In the early 18th century very few people had travelled to Greece, then in Turkish hands and a dangerous place to go. The Greek World was a remote ideal, known through its literature and Roman copies of Greek art.
Greece stood for an ideal of beauty, pure philosophy and Liberty. The revival of interest in Greek architecture in the second half of the 18th century was the inspiration for new thought and revolutionary ideas.
Shugborough stands at the centre of this revolution. Thanks to recent research Thomas Anson is emerging now from the shadows he might himself have preferred, as a quietly influential figure.
THE SOCIETY OF DILETTANTI
Thomas Anson is listed nineteenth in the list of members of the Society of Dilettanti which was drawn up on the 6th March 1736. He joined at the same time as a Cheshire friend, William Degge, whose brother Simon had joined the Royal Society with him in 1730.
The Society had been founded by Sir Francis Dashwood and other travellers in Italy including Charles Sackville, Earl of Middlesex and Lord Boyne, in 1731. At first it was a club for gentlemen who had visited Italy though Horace Walpole said the real qualification was that they were drunk. It only gradually started to promote serious interest in the arts of the classical world. There are no records of Thomas Anson’s involvement with the Society, and yet the evidence of his support for James “Athenian” Stuart suggests he was a key figure in encouraging the Greek Revival.
James Stuart, later known as “Athenian Stuart”, and Nicholas Revett announced their plans to travel to Greece and measure and draw Greek architecture in 1748. They travelled to Greece in 1751, via Venice, where Sir James Gray, the British Resident, nominated them for membership of the Society of Dilettanti.
The first volume of the Antiquities of Athens (not published in 1762, and subscribed to by both Thomas and George Anson) illustrated mainly smaller late classical buildings which, by chance or design, were suitable for copying as garden monuments, or to supply features for other architectural projects.
After his return to London, in 1755, Stuart began to attract patrons who were excited by the idea of commissioning work based on his drawings. Kerry Bristol in an article in Apollo (2000) writes:
“Without doubt, the most important of these patrons was Thomas Anson of Shugborough.”
THE FIRST SPARK OF THE GREEK REVIVAL
The first building in the authentic Greek Doric style, regarded as the beginning of the Greek Revival, is Stuart’s garden temple at Hagley. The first mention of the plan for this is in a letter from Lord Lyttelton, of Hagley, who had been secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1751) to Mrs Montagu, the leading hostess of intellectual and artistic London society, in October 1758.
Lyttelton writes that Stuart “is going to embellish one of the Hills with a true Attick building, a portico of six pillars, which will make a fine effect to my new house, and command a most beautiful view of the country.” (3)
J Mordaunt Crook in his classic 'The Greek Revival' says 'the date is sacrosanct.'
It is the beginning of a new way of looking at the world. This single sentence also demonstrates another enormously important fact. The Greek Revival is inseparable from romanticism. The elegant Temple at Hagley was not only intended to be picturesque in itself, but was also was to be a point from which to view the landscape. Classical and romantic attitudes are combined. Greek Revival buildings sit in a romantic landscape. Even if they are fanciful, and if their owners imagine themselves to be 18th century shepherds and shepherdesses, they are looking at the real world, even if they remodel their own parks. An essential part of the Greek tradition is Arcadia, the ideal wilderness, reinvented in England and inspiring people to look again at real wildernesses - travelling to more remote places. The 'back to nature' mood of Rousseau is part of this, and so is the desire for liberty leading through the French Revolution to Lord Byron dying in the Greek War of Independence.
This small building has a central place in history. It may seem that Thomas Anson and Shugborough have been beaten to it in the race for new ideas.
However, extraordinarily, the same letter reveals that Stuart had visited Hagley in the company of Thomas Anson. (2)
It seems that Thomas Anson had introduced Stuart to Lyttleton, resulting in the building of this iconic building – and sparking the whole Greek Revival movement.
This is the earliest record of Stuart and Anson together. There is no way of knowing how soon after Stuart’s return to London in 1755 they had met, or whether Anson had known Stuart before he set off on his travels in 1751.
The Hagley Temple was actually built in 1759 by Sanderson Miller, who also worked at Wimpole for Lord Hardwicke.
Thomas may have introduced the plasterer Francesco Vassalli to Lyttleton. Vassalli, had made the fine ceilings in the Library and Dining Room in 1748/9 and was described as living in the neighbourhood of Shugborough by Philip Yorke in a 1763 journal entry. He had worked on Hagley Hall itself from 1754(3) and in various Midlands houses, as well as Wimpole, probably, in the face of the evidence, introduced to his employers by Thomas Anson, just as Stuart seems to have been.
The first collaboration of Stuart and Peter Scheemakers was the monument to George Augustus, third Viscount Howe, in Westminster Abbey. The choice of artists was in the hands of Howe’s younger brother Richard, later Admiral Lord Howe. He had sailed with Anson on his circumnavigation in the 1740s. It may have been Admiral Anson who suggested the collaboration to Howe, but it was likely to have been Thomas Anson who first brought Stuart, as designer, and Scheemakers, as sculptor together.
Scheemakers had almost certainly worked for Thomas Anson on the Shepherds Monument in 1748/9 and it is very possible that Anson had introduced him to Stuart and instigated their long and successful partnership too.
STUART’S MONUMENTS AT SHUGBOROUGH
The Doric portico at Shugborough is almost identical to the one at Hagley. It was originally the entrance to the kitchen garden, (a doorway is visible on old drawings) and it was built a year later than the Hagley Temple, in 1760. Curiously, a letter from Lady Anson to Thomas asks him, on Stuart’s behalf, for the quantity and dimensions of Doric columns already in store. (See THE SHEPHERDS MONUMENT)
Architecturally correct Doric columns are the indicator of the authentic Greek revival style and it is a mystery how there should already be some at Shugborough.
THE ARCH OF HADRIAN 1761 onwards
The first building to be based on the drawings Stuart and Revett made in Greece (not published until 1762) was the Arch of Hadrian at Shugborough. An estimate for the construction of this, from builder John Hooper, is dated November 1761. It cost £282 /14s/1d (2)
Lady Anson had died in 1760, and George died in 1762 and the Arch became their memorial.
The Marchioness Grey wrote, in August 1763:
“We have been this Morning through a very Stormy Wind on one of the Neighbouring Hills that commands a very fine prospect, & on which is erected a triumphal Arch out of Mr Stuart’s Athenian designs & under his Direction. A most beautiful Structure that has been long begun, but will now I understand (by a Drawing Shewn but not mention’d) be applied to a different purpose from what could be first intended.”
Scheemakers carved the “trophies” as memorials to Lord and Lady Anson.
In August 1764 Stuart wrote to Anson:
“Scheemakers is very happy that you approve his Trophies. He says he cannot take less than 800l & wishes to have the (as he hinted to me) to have the payment completed as he is about purchasing the house he lives in…” (1)
The medallions on the lower stage were added in 1769, as Stuart writes to Anson 7th June 1769:
“Mr Scheemakers has modelled one of the medallions for the Arch & I am much pleased with it, Neptune & Minerva are establishing naval discipline – he is pleased with it himself.” (1)
THE GREEN HOUSE 1763/4
Stuart’s Orangery, or Green House, which may have been based on a Thomas Wright greenhouse of 1750, was begun in 1763. Philip Yorke wrote to his father, Lord Hardwicke, in August 1763, having arrived at Shugborough with Thomas from a visit to Hagley:
“The place has received many embellishments since I saw it in 1748 & the owner is still improving it both within doors and without – I cannot help comparing it with the Virgin’s Chappel at Loretto – wch remains in its original State an ordinary Brick Edifice, whilst the superstition of its Votaries has surrounded it with one of the finest & most costly churches wch the Romish religion has to boast of – Thus Mr Anson has left his small Family Hall, little drawing room & narrow passage, but added to them on each wing Apartments wch are fitted up and furnished with all the Elegance & Ornaments wch the Arts of Italy & the Magnificence of China can afford. He still meditates further Additions to the House, in order to gain more room for guests and is enlarging the Offices. In his Garden he is laying the foundation of a handsome Green House, designed by Stewart, and in his Grounds he is erecting an Arch of Portland Stone…..”
The letter goes on to describe the Poussin relief of the Shepherds Monument.
The Green House was a showplace for sculpture as much as for plants, as the 1767 anonymous poem describes:
“….the ravish’d eye
Surveys he miracles of Grecian art
In living sculptures, godlike shapes & forms
Excelling human!”
The statues include Flora “first protectress of this place”, “the sculptured forms of Demigods or heroes” and the poet comments:
“nor shall the learned eye deem here misplaced
A smooth Adonis, thy transcendent form.”
The Note at the end of the poem explains:
“Adonis, Thammuz & Osiris are the Greek, Phenician & Egyptian names for the same person. His statue is not misplaced in a Green house because under all these denominations he is looked upon by the best Mythologists as the Power of Vegitation: particularly the Vegitation of corn: whence in the fable that six months he lieth in Prosepine’s lap, that is, whilst the seed of corn continueth underground; & the other six months, that is Spring & Summer he lieth with Venus.” (5)
This piece of comparative mythology brings to mind Erasmus Darwin as a possible author – though this predates by fifteen or twenty years his epic poems on the natural world.
The work displayed included modern statues, presumably based on classical originals, of Hymen and Narcissus.
In 1770 a mural of by Nicholas Dall, who painted several views of the house and landscapes in the 1760s and 1770s, was installed in the Orangery.
Stuart wrote to Thomas (25th September 1770):
“The subject for the Green house is a view of the temple of Minerva Polias with the Caryatides, on the principal ground, & in the distance he has introduced what remains of the Odeum of Pericles, both of them Subjects engraved for my second volume….The water fall, with the scenery accompanying it, he has contrived with great ingenuity. I think it will have a wonderful effect, it must astonish &delight every spectator.” (3)
THE TOWER OF THE WINDS
The Tower of the Winds was begun in 1764, based on the Horologium of Andronikos Cyrrhestes, in the old agora in Athens. The original building had relief carvings of the winds on its eight sides, but the Shugborough example seems to have had painted panels.
It was converted into a dairy at the end of the century.
Joseph Banks, later President of the Royal Society, but then a young botanist, visited Shugborough in 1767 and thought the Tower of the Winds was “no better than an octagonal pigeon house”, but the basic design was frequently repeated in variations, including one by Nicolas Revett at West Wycombe for Sir Francis Dashwood.(2)
THE LANTHORN OF DEMOSTHENES
The Lanthorn of Demosthenes was planned in 1764. It is interesting to discover that Thomas Anson was responsible for the positioning of the monuments. In June 1764 Stuart wrote:
“I cannot figure to myself where the lanthorn of Demosthenes can be placed to more advantage than on the spot you showed me near to the Ladies seat. I long to know the spot…
“Pray is the place for the lanthorn of Demosthenes any where by the Canal & near the fine Clump of Trees Just at the Angle, pardon my inquisitiveness. I cant help thinking about it.”
By Canal, Stuart must mean one of the artificial waterways, now lost, which included Wright’s cascades and colonnaded bridge. Other Wright landscapes, in Ireland, include “canals”. The Trent and Mersey canal was not built until 1770, but the Lanthorn was already standing (without its tripod and bowl) in 1767 when it is mentioned in the anonymous poem.
By the end of Thomas Anson’s life Shugborough was fascinatingly varied landscape, of follies, waterways, statues and wildernesses. Even the expanses of grass were, as Sir John Parnell wrote in 1769, 'fertile to a great degree and bespangled with the finest flowers which grow naturally in fine meadows.' (11)
15 ST JAMES SQUARE
After Lord Anson’s death in 1762 Thomas inherited Moor Park, which he sold for £25,000 and Admiral Anson’s London house, 15 St James Square.
This provided the opportunity for Anson’s largest commission from Stuart. The old house was demolished in 1763, but construction of the new house took three years. It was the first stone fronted house in St James Square and the first house in London to use elements from Stuart’s Antiquities of Athens, both externally and internally.
In June 1764 the first floor was reached.
Stuart wrote:
“The grand function of wetting the first floor was performed last Saturday when upward of 50 men had their bellies full of Beef pudding and Ale and your health was drank with very cheerfull huzzas, the Masters treated themselves and I had the honor of being president” (5)
Scheemakers worked extensively on details for 15 St James Square at the same time as his work at Shugborough, including volutes for capitals based on the Temple of Minerva Polias which also featured on the paintings by Dall in the Green House.
In September 1766 Stuart wrote to Anson, about the servants: “the insolence of your people is insurportable.” (6)
The house was completed in 1766, by which time Thomas Anson was the ratepayer. Stuart was very proud of the building writing that it was “a topic of much conversation among the Connoisseurs in Architecture.”
In April 1768 Lady Shelburne’s diary records that she had attended a “breakfast and concert” in honour of Mrs Montagu at 15 St James Square, “ a very fine house, built and ornamented by Mr Stuart.” (5)
The society hostess and “Queen of the bluestockings” Mrs Montagu became another of Stuart’s patrons. He built Montagu House for her between 1775-82. She had been visiting Hagley hall in 1758 when Thomas and Stuart were there planning the Doric Temple for Lord Lytteton.
The Music Room at 15 St James Square still survives. Music was important to Thomas Anson and a violinist and composer, Antonin Kammell, was a beneficiary in his will. Kammell was a pupil of Tartini, and performed in J C Bach and C F Abel's London concerts in 1766 onwards, which were organised by Mrs Cornelys, a one time lover of Casanova, He is likely to have have been involved with the 1768 concert and seems to have been Thomas's 'composer in residence.'
Kerry Bristol’s article, in Apollo (2000), argues that many of Stuart’s commissions in other places owed their origins to introductions by Thomas Anson of which Hagley Park was the first. A major commission for painted interiors came from Philip Yorke, by then 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, in 1766. Other commissions came from Sir William Bagot, Thomas Anson’s friend and neighbour. Stuart also be Surveyor to the Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, thanks officially to Lord Anson, but no doubt originally due to Thomas.
SEE: THOMAS ANSON AND A NEW WORLD
