When Elizabeth Gaskell
first mentioned
Capesthorne, in a
letter dated 12th
May 1836, she had
lunched there and
found it ‘such a
beautiful place –
not the house
which is rather
shabby but the
views from the
park’. However,
a year later, Davies
Davenport who was MP
for Cheshire, died and his
son set about remodelling
the house to the plans made
by Edward Blore, architect
to William IV and Queen
Victoria. In 1851 when
Elizabeth Gaskell met the
architect and his wife at the
house she was still not
impressed as she believed
Mrs Blore was only interested
in the value of the jewellery
and objets d’art.
Elizabeth Gaskell did seem to
enjoy the company of Mrs
Davenport when she visited in
November 1849:
‘Monday I go to Mrs
Davenport’s, Capesthorne – a
place for an artist to be in – old
hall, galleries, old paintings etc.,
and such a dame of a lady to
grace them: you would
long to sketch her, it
and them.’
In a later letter
she added –
‘I admire Mrs
Davenport more
the more I see of
her. She is such a
queenly woman’.
Caroline Anne
Davenport had
become a widow in
1847 and became a close
friend of Elizabeth, sometimes
visiting her in Manchester. When
she became engaged to Lord
Hatherton she begged Elizabeth
to go to Capesthorne to help her
through emotional farewells and
present giving. It is very likely that
Mrs Gaskell would have been very
familiar with the Davenport family
history. A fine Romney portrait of
Caroline Davenport’s mother-inlaw, Charlotte, was sold to the
National Gallery in Washington
for £60,000 in 1926. She was the
lady, who having been bored by
her chaplain’s sermon one Sunday,
said to him the following week,
‘We will not trouble you for a
further discourse this morning’.
Readers of Gaskell’s ‘My Lady
Ludlow’ will recall that aristocratic
lady using almost the same words.
In 1850, there was a grand rural
fête at Capesthorne on Whit
Monday to raise money for
Capesthorne Hall, Cheshire, West Elevation showing the Paxton Conservatory, 1843, Edward Blore, architect
by kind permission of Capesthorne Hall, photograph by George Littler/Peter Spooner
Macclesfield Public Baths and
Washhouses. Amusements
included archery, cricket, boating,
fishing, military bands and a book
stall; for the latter Elizabeth
Gaskell contributed a booklet of
two stories: The Sexton’s Hero and
Christmas Storms and Sunshine.
The Reverend Edward Weigall
wrote A Whitsuntide Ramble to
Capesthorne Hall. He was a hard
working vicar of Hurdsfield, near
Macclesfield. Elizabeth so admired
him that she later recommended
him for a better rewarded
position, knowing he had only
£150 a year and seven children to
support, but he declined the offer.
Capesthorne
The large conservatory, at Capesthorne, that linked the house to the
chapel was built about 1845 by Joseph Paxton, some years before his
Crystal Palace of 1851. Elizabeth enjoyed a visit there one Sunday, when
children‘… came into the beautiful conservatory to be taught, and are
clean wholesome country – looking children in the midst of camellias &
sweet scented geraniums – the chapel through the conservatory a
parlour with low luxurious sofas, a fire place – how easy it seems to be
good compared with a long wet tramp down to a close school-room,
full of half – washed children – that’s very wicked is it not?’ After
dinner children and a choir sang ‘in a green bower’.
It was likely that on this visit to
Capesthorne, Elizabeth met Lady
Janet Kay Shuttleworth, of
Gawthorpe Hall, who was related
to Mrs Davenport. Elizabeth was
particularly interested in her
because Lady Kay Shuttleworth
was an acquaintance of the writer
Charlotte Brontë. In August the
same year, Lady Kay Shuttleworth
invited both Elizabeth and
Charlotte to stay with them at
their holiday home near
Ambleside. The two writers had
already corresponded and
exchanged books. This meeting
led to their friendship and
eventually to Elizabeth writing her
important biographical account of
the life of Charlotte Brontë.
Elizabeth must have greatly admired Capesthorne’s gardens for she
wrote to Lady Kay Shuttleworth in June 1851:
‘Is Mrs Davenport with you? If she is I have a request which I should like
to make to her. if the granting it will not be against her rules; we have a
gardener, for whom we [have] a great respect, as he does a great deal of
good amongst the poor etc; I find he has a great wish to see the gardens
at Capesthorne, and I should be glad to know if this is ever permitted’.
Later when Mrs Davenport remarried and went to live at Teddesley
Park, in Staffordshire, she was intrigued to meet the gardener who had
once spent a year in Persia working for the Shah. She wrote an account
of his experiences for Household Words.
(Above) Portrait of Caroline Anne Davenport
by kind permission of Capesthorne Hall,
photograph by George Littler/Peter Spooner
Portrait of Charlotte, wife of Davies Davenport
III, copy of original by George Romney
by kind permission of Capesthorne Hall,
photograph by George Littler/Peter Spooner
The Entrance Hall, Capesthorne, circa 1843
by kind permission of Capesthorne Hall,
photograph by George Littler/Peter Spooner
The Paxton Conservatory, circa 1845, by James
Johnson by kind permission of Capesthorne Hall,
photograph by George Littler/Peter Spooner