The Vyne

The Vyne
The west front
Type	Country House
Location	Sherborne St John
Coordinates	51°18′25″N 01°05′19″W
OS grid reference	SU 63627 56816
Area	Hampshire
Built	1500–1520
Rebuilt	17th, 18t and 19th centuries
Architect	John Webb
Owner	National Trust
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	The Vyne
Designated	26 April 1957
Reference no.	1296972
Location of The Vyne in Hampshire

The Vyne is a 16th-century country house outside Sherborne St John, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. The house was originally built for Lord Sandys, King Henry VIII's Lord Chamberlain. Today, though much reduced in size, the house retains its Tudor chapel, with stained glass. The classical portico on the north front was added in 1654 by Inigo Jones's pupil John Webb and is notable as the first portico of its kind in English domestic architecture.

During the mid-18th century, The house belonged to Horace Walpole's close friend John Chaloner Chute; he designed the principal stair hall which contains an imperial staircase of such theatricality, that its grand scale belies its true small size.

The Vyne was bequeathed by its final owner, Sir Charles Chute, to the National Trust in 1958. It is a Grade I [[listed building.

History

The Vyne stands on the site of a medieval manor of the same name; the origins of the name are debatable. One theory claims the name originates from the title of a Roman road station "Vindomis." Another view is that it was the site of of the first domestically grown vines in England - whatever the origin, the name first occurs on a medieval document dated 1268.

What is known as fact, is that in the fourteenth century the original house was the manor of Sherborne Cowdray held by the Fyffhide family. Following the death of Sir William Fyffhide the manor was tenanted to Gregory of Basingstoke until 1370. at this time, the house was described as comprising "a hall, adjoining chambers and the grange and chapel at the house."

In 1386, the manor passed, through marriage, into the Sandys family; in 1420, again through marriage, it passed to the Brocas family, and in 1488 passed once more back to the Sandys. The Sandys are the family most closely associated with the early documented history of the mansion.

The medieval stained glass in the chapel was commissioned by the 1st Lord Sandys for a nearby chantry chapel. It was brought to the house in the 18th century.

At this early stage in its history, the house and its precincts were often referred to a the Vyne Green. It's likely this is because the small manor, its detached chapel and assorted outbuildings were arranged around a square - much like a village green. This assortment of buildings were gradually linked to form one large dwelling, the origins of the present house.

The Sandys rose to power under the early Tudors. The most notable member of the family being the 1st Lord Sandys, a dedicated royal servant and courtier, who reached the zenith of his career when appointed Lord Chamberlain in 1526 - a position he held until his death in 1540. He is credited with transforming the medieval manor from a fairly modest dwelling to a vast mansion befitting his rank.

Following the death of 1st Lord Sandys in 1540, successive generations of the Sandys held the manor and continued to pay court to the Tudors. William, the third Lord Sandys, entertained Queen Elizabeth I at the house twice, in 1569 and again in 1601. However, shortly after this visit, Lord Sandy was imprisoned and fined £5,000 for joining the Earl of Essex insurrection and the house passed temporarily into the hands of the crown.

The house was restored to the family, but their fortunes were in decline and no member was to hold high office again. During the Civil War the house was occupied by Colonel Henry Sandys. He fought on the side of the Royalists, however, following the fall of the nearby Royalist Basing House, the Vyne was occupied by Parliamentarians. Colonel Sandys died of his wounds following the Battle of Cheriton. Nine years later, in 1653, his son sold The Vyne to an upwardly mobile solicitor, Chaloner Chute.

The Chute Family

Ground floor plan.

First floor plan.

The Chute Family were to own The Vyne from 1653 until the mid twentieth century, and it is they who are largely responsible for the house as it appears today. The Vyne's purchaser, Challoner Chute, chosen Speaker of the House of Commons on 27 Jan 1659, instigated at The Vyne a program of demolition and rebuilding. Sweeping away much of the Sandys great Tudor mansion and transforming what remained onto a smaller classical house. At first glance, Chute's chosen style resembles Palladianism; a form of architecture which had briefly been popular on England before the Civil War, but following the cessation of the war had been dismissed as Royalist architecture. Indeed, Inigo Jones who had introduced the style to the English court had been captured at the fall of nearby Basing House, and taken prisoner, naked and humiliated, from the house as it was looted. So it is surprising that Chute, a prominent Parliamentarian, chose to rebuild his house in an unfashionable style, but also chose as his architect, John Webb, a former pupil of Jones.

Architecture

16th century

Precise details of William Sandys new house at The Vyne are vague. Recent archaeological research at the site has indicated a vast mansion spreading northwest from the present house, built around four courtyards - this would be consistent with better documented houses also belonging to high ranking Tudor courtiers. The author Maurice Howard in his book, The Vyne, suggests that the house, may have rivalled Hampton Court, the palace of the King's favourite, Cardinal Wolsey. This view seems ot be confirmed in the writings of the sixteenth century antiquarian John Leland who described the house as "one of the most princely houses in goodly building in all Hampshire."

Work began in 1500 and it can be reliably assumed that by 1510 The Vyne was a sizeable and comfortable mansion because in that year Sandys entertained King Henry VIII during his royal progress. An inventory drawn up in 1541 describes the house as having 57 "named rooms" - implying there were innumerable more nameless rooms. Of the rooms named and known was a long gallery, one of the earliest of such galleries to be found in an English house - the house also contained a series of small parlours and bedrooms which afforded the house's occupants a degree of privacy not common in Tudor houses at the time. Much of the fine linenfold panelling which lined these rooms remains today still in situ in the oldest parts of the house.

17th century

Imedialtly upon purchase, Chute embarked on a radical redesign, by sweeping away the Base Court of the former house and all its precincts to the north - the area occupied by lawns and the lake today. Leaving only one wing of the Sandys' house containing the Long Gallery, the hall and reception rooms. The Tudor asymmetrical mullioned windows were removed and replaced by classical rectangular windows in stone frames, these pierced the walls at regular intervals providing near, but not precise symmetry. At the centre of the north front, Webb created a portico, the first of its kind on a private house in England. The instant appearance was Palladian - yet this is not really the case - in no way did it resemble the Palladianism of Charles I's reign, exemplified by the Banqueting House, Whitehall and the Queen's House, Grenwich, or even the later Palladianism pioneerd by Lord Burlington where the portico was an essential feature was still seventy years away.

Even if Webb had wished to create a truly Palladian house in the spirit of Inigo Jones, conversion from a Tudor house, rather than complete rebuilding rendered Palladianism impossible. The nature of the existing building confined Webb's classicising to attempting a cohesion and unity appearance rather than design. One of the greatest obstacles to any attempt at true symmetry was the blue diapering the red Tudor brickwork, this created huge lozenge patterns in the walls which could never symmetrically match the newly installed even placed windows.

Webb's portico is built of rendered brick with Corinthian capitals of Burford stone. Its design, however, has anomalies, which are not consistent with the work of such an experienced architect. It has "abrupt" side opening; these are rectangular and bricked rather then more conventionally arched and plastered while the pediment itself is made of painted wood rather than stone. The architectural commentator Nigel Nicolson advocates a view that the portico was not finished as Webb intended. . Whatever the architectural merits of the portico, it is important as the first on any English house. The impression of symmetrical Palladianism was further enforced by the screening by trees of the chapel wing at the eastern end of the house; these remained in situ until the nineteenth century.

18th century

Chaloner Chute did not live to see his rebuilding completed. A century later, his (find out what descendent) embarked on a process of "gothicisation." (is that a word). In this process he was influenced by his friend the great intellectual, Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford. Walpole was an art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician. His own country home, Strawberry Hill, near London, he designed himself an an innovative romantic Gothic style, a style later named after the house. This was thirty years before the Victorians popularised the Gothic revival style.

Ironically, many of the alterations executed under Walpole's advice, were features which had been removed during the classicising of the mansion - replacement of battlements and towers. However, the chief alterations were to the chapel and in the best romantic Gothic style - the creation of a tomb house adjoining it. That the tomb house was dedicated to a man buried elsewhere and no one was to be interred in a vault beneath was seen as no impediment to the creation of a mausoleum which would add to the calculated Gothic atmosphere of the chapel and house. Walpole, as the leading contemprary arbiter of good taste, was in no way allowed to have his head; many of his suggestions for architectural reform at The Vyne went unheeded.

19th century

During the 19th century, the house underwent minor changes and alterations. A sense of uiformity was given by the addition of bay windows to the two extending wings of the south front. This geave the unsymetrical south fromt a the classical cohesion it had hitherto lacked. Here Walpoles influence is stronger than anywhere other in the mansion. At his instigation, towers were replaced by gables and

Interior

Ground Floor

• The Chapel
• Dining Parlour
• Saloon
• Large Drawing Room
• Further drawing Room

Terracotta medallion of the Emperor Probus in the Stone Gallery.

The Stone Gallery occupies the entire space beneath the long gallery. The architectureal historian Mark Girouard has advance the theory that this gallery was originaly an open loggia, a summer alternative to the indoor galler above. If the Vynes's lower gallery was open, it would have been a precedent to the open gallery connecting the wings at Hatforeld House built at the conclusion of the 16th century. What is known for sure of the Stone Gallery is that it was already single gallery during the 18th century, howver, it's Tudor style ceiling is beleived to date only from the 18th century as does the gallery's Portland stone and marble floor.

An important feature of the Stone Gallery is the terracotta medallion of the Emperor Probus which is inset above the fireplace. Made in Italy, probably by Giovanni da Maiano, it is one of the oldest such medallions in Britain. Such medallions were to become a common external decorative feature during the shortlive English Renaissance period, similar medallions can be seen in the walls of Hampton Court Palace, while at Montacute House, the former principal entrance from has several circular recesses designed for such medallions which never materialised. While it is possible this medalion may have decorated the walls of the Sandys grand mansion at The Vyne, there is no conclusive proof. It is not isted in an inventory of 1754 and there is speculation that John Chute acquired it following the demolition of the Whitehall's Holbein Gate.

Girouard P100 - open logia etc - thats not mentined elsewhere - very good bang on about Renaissance and Italian influences

First Floor

The staircase is almost theatrical in its baroque chiaroscuro treatment of light, limited space and persective.

The first floor is reached by an imperial staircase. At the centre of the house, it occupies a space once a hall in the original Tudor house. The staircase was built between 1769 and 1771. Horace Walpole had recomended its instalation, howveer, John Chute eschewed Walpoles favoured Gothic and after a great deal of consideration of alternative styles designing himself a staircase in Palladian style. The stairs are considered one of the notable features of the house. Taking every advantage of the comparatively small space confining them a single flight rises to a gallaried half landing from which four further short flights rise rise to a collonaded landings and galleries. The overall effect is almost theatrical in its treatment of light, space and persective.

• The Oak Gallery has been described as one of the most famous rooms in England. In truth, it isn't on of the most famous, but it remarkable; this is because as part of the Sandys mansion, it is beleived to be one of the earliest long galleries in England.Within a few years of its completion, mmost Tudor mansions of note were to have such a room - used for entertaining, exercising and display, their very length became a matter of competition and pride and the dimensions of the long gallery at The Vyne were soon exeeded (better find out what they are). The early date of the gallery, and its inded use, as solely for ecercise, is confirmed by the fact that it leads nowhere - one enters at the nothern end and has no choice but the exit by the same door. Later galleries, such as that at Montacute had rooms leading off, almost as though they were corridors, while in other houses they would connect the house with a distant wing, chapel or even a church.

The room is lined, floor to ceiling, by over 400 linenfold panelling decorated with badges, crests and monograms. It seems though, that the Sandys display of theor wealth in their long gallery was not as large as some of their contemporaries, an inventory of 1547, reports that the room was devoid of pictures and barely furnished.

The original mullioned windows have been replaced by classical sashes, howver, the necessary cutting and alteration to the panelling during the alterations is not apparent. During the 19th century the panelling was coated with gesso and painted brown, this shas been described as an "outrage" During the twentieth century, explorations into removing the paint were found to be not only too expensive, but liable to damage the panelling itself. In the mid-nineteenth century, the length of the room was slightly increased bu the addition of a bay window at its southern end. At the same time the gallery was given a new floor and the rope patterned moulding on the plaster ceiling was given greater emphasis by a grained paint.

• Tapestry Room
• Library
• Bedrooms

Grounds

During the eightenth century, the grounds were landscaped on the newly fashionable natural parkland style exemplidfied by the work of Capability Brown and later Humphrey Repton. A small stream passing close to the huse was dammed to form a lake

References

• Girouard, Mark (1978). Life in the English Country House. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300022735.
• Halliday, F. E. (1967). Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Howard, Maurice (2005). The Vyne. London: The National Trust. ISBN 978-1-843359-022-4. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
• Gervase Jackson-Stops,, and James Pipkin (1987). The Country House Garden: A Grand Tour. London: Pavilion Books Ltd. ISBN 1 85145 441 1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

Further reading

• Chute, Francis. (2005) The Chutes of the Vyne: An Illustrated History of the Chute Family and Their 300 Year Connection with Stately Home The Vyne at Basingstoke in Hampshire. Woodfield Publishing. ISBN 978-1903953921

External links

• The Vyne information at the National Trust