The Mansion and Conservatory, from the Grounds.
In close proximity to this, but shut out by a high wall covered with Magnolia grandiflora, are the Forcing and Plant Houses: these occupy three sides of a square. Passing through the upper side, which is a range of span-roofed houses, we find it embraces a Show House (kept gay with flowers the year round), Fernery, Plant, Stove, and Camellia House, in which latter is a plant of the old double white camellia twenty feet across, and rather more than that in height, besides many other fine specimens of those choicest and most beautiful of flowers. Leaving this house, the visitor passes through about two hundred feet in length of Vineries and Peach Houses, filled with their luscious treasures in different stages of growth. Thus the third side of the square is gained. This is another range of span Plant Houses, the centre division being a Rose House, planted chiefly with tea-scented roses. In the centre of this square, and running parallel with the two end ranges, is a large late Peach House, 65 feet long by 24 feet wide: this spans the walk which connects this square with the lower terrace.
At the back of these houses are the Kitchen Gardens, which comprise about four acres: these are well walled, and have a good wall to the south. The soil being a retentive clay, fruit trees, as well as most vegetables, thrive well. Here, also, are extensive ranges of pits used for forcing early vegetables, pot vines, melons, cucumbers, and bedding plants, of which latter about thirty thousand are grown and planted annually. Here, too, are the Orchid House, containing many valuable plants; Gardenia House; and range of Fig Houses. Covering the back wall of the range of Vineries before alluded to, and facing the Kitchen Gardens, are the Fruit Rooms, Mushroom House, Potting Sheds—also the young men’s rooms: these are spacious, and contain every convenience for their comfort. Too much credit cannot be given Mr. Lucas for the manner in which he thus studies the comfort of his employés, both in this and in other particulars.
The most striking feature in the Kitchen Gardens is the Head Gardener’s Cottage. This is a picture of architectural beauty, and, from its elevated position, commands a view of every part of the gardens, as well as most extensive prospects of the surrounding country. Not only has the external appearance of this model cottage been made matter of study, but the interior, also, is replete with every domestic convenience. It is one of the most charming of residences, and its occupant, Mr. Lucas’s head gardener, is one of the most accomplished in his profession. To his good taste and skill much of the beauty and attractiveness of the place is due.
The north side of these gardens is bounded by a newly planted Orchard, containing above a hundred fine standard trees of all the best varieties of apples, pears, plums, &c. This is followed by about two acres planted as a Pinetum, in which are many valuable and promising young specimen coniferæ. This is continued down to the north carriage drive, where it is bounded by a belt of evergreen shrubs, &c. It may not be out of place here to add that the whole of these gardens owe their existence, as well as their present state of high keeping, to their present estimable owner, who has spared no expense in their formation or subsequent management, and whose love of the beautiful, whether in Nature or in Art, is unbounded.
The internal arrangements of the house—which, besides all the customary reception and state apartments and the domestic offices, contains an unusual number of bed-rooms—are all that can be desired, both for elegance and for home comforts; and the furnishing and appointments are such as eminently to entitle Warnham Court to be ranked as a home of taste. Mr. Lucas is a liberal patron of Art, and both here and at his town mansion the walls are hung with pictures of matchless excellence and of great price. They are chiefly by modern, and most of them by British, artists: a list of them would include nearly all the best painters of the age.
The park is some three hundred and fifty acres in extent, the farm occupies about six hundred acres more, and the pleasure-grounds add another fifty acres to the total, so that Warnham Court is a fine and noble property, and one unmatched in its district.
It would ill become us, in any notice of the parish of Warnham, to omit the mention of one of its worthies—Percy Bysshe Shelley. This ill-fated, but gifted, poet was born at Field Place, on Broad-bridge Heath, Warnham, on the 4th of August, 1792. He was the grandson of Sir Bysshe Shelley, Bart., of Castle Goring, who married twice, and had, by his first wife, with other issue, a son and successor, Sir Timothy Shelley, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Pinfold, Esq., of Etchingham, in Surrey: their eldest son was the poet. Percy Bysshe Shelley received his first education from the Rev. Mr. Edwards, vicar of Warnham, and was then sent to school at Brentford, with his young cousin, Thomas Medwin. At thirteen Shelley was sent to Eton. At eighteen, having previously written much poetry, he produced his “Queen Mab;” and in 1810 he entered University College, Oxford. “At the age of nineteen he published a pamphlet embodying the arguments of Voltaire and the false philosophy of that school, which was speedily circulated amongst those in authority.”