REMINISCENCES OF SEDBURY BY MISS DIANA LATHAM[10]
My cousin Eleanor Anne Ormerod was the youngest of a family of ten—seven
brothers and three sisters—all clever, energetic creatures, and gifted
with a strong sense of humour. A large family always creates a peculiar
atmosphere for itself; it also breaks up into detachments of elder and
younger growth, and the elder members are beginning to take places in
the world before the younger are out of the schoolroom. Eleanor’s eldest
brother was a Church dignitary while she was still a child, teased and
petted by her young medical student brothers, and the darling of her
elder sister Georgiana. The father and mother of this numerous flock
were both remarkable people. Mr. Ormerod, historian and antiquary,
always occupied with literary or topographical research, was an autocrat
in his own family and intolerant of any shortcomings or failings that
came under his notice. He could, however, on occasion, relax and tell
humorous stories to children. The family discipline was strict; the
younger members were expected to yield obedience to the elders, and it
was said that the spaniel Guy (he came from Warwick), who ranked as one
of the children, always obeyed the eldest of the family present. My aunt
had a large share of the milk of human kindness added to much practical
common sense and a touch of artistic genius in her composition; it was
from her that her daughters inherited their eye for colour and dexterity
of touch. Mr. Ormerod was a neat draughtsman of architectural subjects,
but my aunt had taste and skill and a delight in her own branch of
art—flower painting—that lasted all her life.
Sedbury Park (plate I.) was a beautiful home; the house, a handsome
family mansion with comfortable old-fashioned furniture, good and
interesting pictures, old china, and a splendid library, afforded also
ample space for its inmates to follow their various hobbies, and many
were the arts and crafts practised there at various times. The
carpenter’s bench, the lathe, wood-carving, electro-typing, modelling
and casting for models each had their turn, and in all this strenuous
play Eleanor had her full share. Society played a very secondary part in
life at Sedbury; calls were exchanged with county neighbours at due
intervals, and there was some intimacy with Copleston, Bishop of
Llandaff, the Bathursts of Lydney Park, and the Horts of Hardwicke. But
though Mr. Ormerod attended to his duties as magistrate, and went duly
to meetings of the bench at Chepstow, he was quite without sympathy for
field sports and the pursuits of his brother magistrates. He was
absorbed in his own studies, and something of a recluse by nature.
* * * * *
[Miss Ormerod has herself written of the elaborateness of the
arrangements and the great formality which were associated with the
regular county dinner party, the chief method of entertainment at
Sedbury sixty years ago. She referred to the anxieties experienced lest
the coach should not arrive in time with the indispensables including
fish—“the distance of Sedbury from London involving twenty-four hours or
more of transmission in weather favourable or otherwise.” Miss Ormerod
continues:—
“One very important matter in the far gone past times in the arrangement
of the dinner table, was the removal of the great cloth and of two
cloths laid, one at each side, just wide enough to occupy the uncovered
space before the guests, and long enough to reach from one end of the
table to the other. The removal required a deal of care and dexterity,
and I do not think it was practised at many other houses in our
neighbourhood. When the table was to be cleared for dessert of course
everything was removed, including the great tablecloth itself—one of the
handsomest of the family possessions, and of considerable length when
there were the usual number of about eighteen or twenty guests. The
operation was performed as follows:—The butler placed himself at the end
of each strip successively, and a few of the house servants or of those
who came with guests along each side. The butler drew the slips in turn
and the servants took care there should be no hitch in the passage of
the cloths, and so each was nicely gathered up.
“But the removal of the great tablecloth which was the next operation
was a more difficult matter. The great heavy central epergne of rosewood
had to be lifted a little way up by a strong man-servant or two, whilst
the tablecloth was slipped from beneath it and the cloth was started on
its travels down the table till it came into the hands of the butler,
who gathered it up. The beautifully polished table then appeared in full
lustre. The shining surface sparkled excellently and presently reflected
the bright silver and glass and the fruit and flowers with a brilliance
which to my thinking was much more beautiful than the arrangement of
later days.”]
* * * * *
The annual visit to London was a great delight to my aunt, who enjoyed
meetings with her own family and friends, and visits to exhibitions, &c.
Her husband had always occupation in the British Museum, and her
daughters took painting and other lessons. Mary, the eldest, was a pupil
of Copley Fielding; Georgiana (plate XXVII.), and Eleanor later, had
lessons from Hunt and learnt from him how to combine birds’ nests and
objects of still life with fruits and flowers into very lovely pictures.
Both were excellent artists with a slight difference in style:
Georgiana’s pictures had great harmony of colour and composition;
Eleanor’s had more _chic_. Hunt was a very touchy little man—almost a
dwarf—and if by any chance my aunt did not see him and bow as she drove
past he cherished resentment for days after. At Sedbury driving tours or
picnic excursions to the ruined castles and other objects of interest
(plates V., XVI., XXV.), in the neighbourhood were frequent, and the
sketches that resulted were often reproduced as zincographs. Now and
then a tour abroad was achieved, but such tours were few and far
between. The beautiful copy of Correggio’s “Marriage of St. Catherine”
which ultimately became Eleanor’s property, was acquired on a visit to
Paris and the Louvre.
This self-contained family life did not lead to the marriage of the
daughters, and three only of the seven sons married—one very late in
life. Mary, the Princess Royal of the family, was the centre of the
first group—herself and four brothers; Georgiana that of the second,
consisting of two brothers older than herself, one younger, and Eleanor.
Georgiana was a most lovable person; she always believed in her younger
sister’s capacity and in her projects, which were not approved of nor
taken seriously by some of her elders, and could not have been carried
out until after the break up of the home on the death of Mr. Ormerod.
Meantime, the naturalist element in Eleanor was free to lay up knowledge
for future use, and her country life gave leisure and opportunity for
observation of bird, plant, and insect life, to say nothing of reptiles.
Any snake killed on the estate was brought to Eleanor, and if it was
remarkable for size or beauty she took a cast of it to be afterwards
electrotyped, or had it buried in an ant-hill in order to set up its
skeleton when the ants had cleaned the bones. The casts, which resembled
bronze, were sometimes attached to slabs of green Devonshire marble, and
made handsome paper weights. Wasps were at one time a subject of special
study and interest to her brother Dr. Edward Ormerod, and she and
Georgiana once conveyed a wasp’s nest to him at Brighton. I believe he
did not allow the wasps to exceed a certain number, out of consideration
for the neighbouring fruiterers.
The premature deaths of Edward and William, physician and surgeon, were
heartfelt sorrows to the two sisters nearest in age. If Eleanor’s lot
had been cast in later days she might have become a lady doctor of
renown; she had many qualifications for the medical profession and a
liking for domestic surgery; she had strong nerves and inspired
confidence and used to say that she never went a journey without some
fellow-passenger going into a detailed account of all her ailments.
Besides strong nerves she had strong eye-sight and a delicate but firm
touch. Her brothers did not encourage anatomical studies, but she could
prepare sections of teeth and other objects for the microscope as
beautifully as any professional microscopist. Some of my cousins were
strong sighted and very short-sighted, and much inclined to be sceptical
as to my long-sighted vision.
My last visit to Sedbury was in the autumn of 1853 in company with my
step-sister Margaret Roberts, then just beginning to try her powers as
an authoress. Eleanor must then have been twenty-five or twenty-six, but
was considered to be quite young by her family, and in some respects was
really so. She no longer played such pranks as embarking in a tub to
navigate the horse pond, but her fine dark eyes would shine with
mischief, and she was the licensed jester to the family circle.
[Illustration:
PLATE V.
RUINS OF TINTERN ABBEY, MONMOUTHSHIRE.
_Frith photo._
]
The routine of life at Sedbury usually began, on the part of the younger
members of the family, with a walk after breakfast prefaced by a visit
to the poultry yard and greenhouses. Georgiana was chief hen-wife, and
kept an account of the eggs and chickens. The park, lying on high ground
between the Severn and the Wye, had beautiful points of view and fine
timber, and there were lovely views beyond its precincts. “Offa’s Dyke”
ran through a corner of the estate, and the discovery of some Roman
pottery in its neighbourhood had given my cousins much occupation in
sticking broken fragments together and re-building them into vases
(plate XI.). Our most beautiful walk, rather too long for the morning
strolls, was to the “double view,” a projecting promontory above the Wye
where the river curves and from whence a lovely view is visible both up
and down the stream. From the morning walk we always brought back
something from hedge or field for my aunt to draw as she lay on her sofa
with her drawing table across it. She was then in failing health, but
still able to draw, and she used to make studies of flowers in pencil on
grey paper, touching in the high light with Chinese white. Each drawing
when finished was shut up in a large book, and there kept until some
gathering of the family took place, when the drawings were produced and
a lottery ensued, each person choosing a drawing in turn according to
the number on the ticket they had drawn. I have a book of these
beautiful drawings (plate VI.) which I greatly prize. In her youthful
days she had painted in oils, and there were some fine copies of Dutch
flower pictures in the drawing-room made by her. In later life the care
of her large family left scant time for Art, but she cherished it in her
daughters, and it was again a resource in her advanced age. The great
sculptor Flaxman was a friend of her father and had encouraged her
youthful efforts in Art. She had amazing industry and had copied many of
his designs on wood as furniture decorations.
[Illustration:
PLATE VI.
PORTION OF NORMAN WORK FROM CHEPSTOW PARISH CHURCH.
_From a drawing by Mrs. Ormerod, 1844._
(_p. 6._)
]
Georgiana and Eleanor usually had some painting or other industry on
hand, or copying to do for their father. In the afternoon we often took
a drive and were taken to see Tintern or the Wynd Cliff or some other
point of interest. After dinner we sat in the library, a fine room with
a splendid collection of books shut up in wire bookcases. Each member of
the family had a key to the imprisoned books, but a visitor felt that to
get one extracted for personal use was rather a ceremony. The beautiful
illustrated books were brought out for the evening’s entertainment and
then safely housed again. On Sundays we walked or drove to Tidenham
Church, a “little grey church on a windy hill” (plate VII.). We took a
walk in the afternoon, and in the evening Mr. Ormerod read a sermon in
the library to us and the servants. Such was the routine of life that
autumn at Sedbury. At the time of our visit, the Gloucester Musical
Festival was going on, but there was no thought of going to hear it. In
later years Eleanor possessed a good piano and studied the theory of
music, but I think that was prompted by her general cleverness and
activity of intellect rather than by any special gift for music. She was
teaching herself Latin during our visit, and as time went on she
acquired other languages. She made beautiful models of fruits by a
process of her own invention. A collection of these was sent to an
International Exhibition at St. Petersburg and she acquired sufficient
knowledge of Russian to correspond with the department of the Exhibition
receiving them.
After the break-up of the Sedbury home, consequent on the death of Mr.
Ormerod, who survived his wife[11] for many years, Mary bought the lease
of a house in Exeter and settled there for the rest of her life; the two
younger sisters took a house for three years in Torquay, where we were
then living as well as their, and our, old and beloved uncle, Dr. Mere
Latham. Wishing to be nearer London, they removed to Isleworth and some
years later to Torrington House, St. Alban’s, where they spent the
remaining years of their lives.
DIANA LATHAM.
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