Polesden Lacey

The Honourable Mrs. Ronald Greville's home in the glorious hills of Surrey next to the town of Dorking represents all that was wonderful and glittering about the high Edwardian era. That being said, Poleseden Lacey relates a wonderful story of the possibilities in the English nation; from medieval gentry to theatrical elite; the 'little' yellow-ish stately home in the Surrey Hills.

A certain Lady Leslie, according to the National Trust's guidebook, would rather have had raw sewage in her drawing room than Maggie Greville. The Prime Minister A.J. Balfour described her words as honeyed poison. She was a woman of extremes; she was loved by some for her hospitality and fondness of young people; feared and hated by others for her brilliantly honed and sharpened wit. In an age of fearfully self-conscious aristocrats, Mrs. Greville's Scottish industrial background, and a seeming grasping approach to royalty, meant she was regarded by many as parvenu. After entertaining Edward VII at Polseden Lacey late in his reign (the King-Emperor's Royal Suite is not currently open to the public), Maggie became great friends with Queen Mary, and even took a motherly interest in Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (much of her jewellery was bequeathed to the then Queen {1942} and is now included in the Royal Collection). Mrs. Greville was a legendary hostess in her own time. Her parties and suppers were renowned for the high standard of excellence in their execution; her famous baby tongues (lamb) were reserved for occasions when royalty were present. With the alterations she made to Polseden Lacey (1906-1909), as well as her elegant posture and acerbic wit, Mrs. Greville personified all the refinement and hybrid-aesthetics that defined in part the Edwardian Era. She equally carried on the traditions of Polseden Lacey; achievement, aggrandizement, and accessible retreat from London.

The origins of Polseden Lacey can be traced to 1198, when one Herbert de Polseden was known to be selling land in the Surrey Hills. The Lacy family owned the estate late in the fourteenth century; the suffix 'Lacey' would not be used until the late sixteenth century. During the first half of the eighteenth century Polseden was owned by two self-made men named Moore. Arthur Moore was the Lord Commissioner of trade and planning, the director of the South Sea Company, and Comptroller of Army Accounts. His brother, Thomas, worked through the ranks to become paymaster of land forces abroad. Thomas left Polseden to Arthur's son, William, who considerably enlarged the house to include a great staircase and two galleries, along with other glorifying aggrandizements. At William's death Polseden was sold to another military family, The Welsh Gearys. After rising to the rank of Admiral in the navy, Francis Geary enjoyed fourteen years of retirement at Polseden. When he died his son leased the house to the first of its truly famous inhabitants: Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Sheridan was a celebrated playwright, with shares in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, as well as a gifted parliamentary orator. His career in politics was sponsored by none other than that 'other' Spencer girl, the illustrious Georgiana (pronounced in the Cavendish manner: zhor-zhayyna), Duchess of Devonshire. Polesden became for Sheridan a true country retreat, where he relished his role of country squire; entertaining on a grand scale for both friends and local inhabitants. When the opportunity arose, Sheirdan used the £8000 dowry his second wife brought him to purchase the estate (1797 / transaction completed 1804). His friends included the Duke of Wellington, Lord Byron, and The Prince Regent. Indeed, when Sheridan's finances took a turn for the worse, it was this group of friends who helped to lease him a house in Leatherhead while he oversaw the repair of his financial estate. Sheridan had grand plans for the rebuilding of Polesden, not achieving much more than the extension of the long walk during his lifetime.

After his death, Polesden was purchased by a wealthy stationer from Lincolnshire, who commissioned Thomas Cubitt (the developer of Belgravia, Pimlico and Brighton's Kemp Town) to demolish the house and rebuild it in the fashionable neo-classical style (1821-3). The new house comprised adjoining lodges and highly fashionable suites of furniture. It was reported that the total cost of the rebuild totaled £50 000 at the time (an enormous sum).

In 1853 Polesden wa sold to Sir Walter Farquhar, whose grandfather had been physician to The Prince Regent. Between 1902-5, Polesden belonged to Sir Clinton Dawkins before being bought by Mr. & Mrs. Ronald Greville. Margaret Greville used hte money she inherited form her father (the brewer William McEwan) to commission the finest architects of the day to create a comfortable, elegant and achingly refined nest to highlight her taste, talent (as a hostess), and royal connections. It was a matter of poised public relations. Those architects, Mewès and Davis, the Belgian-English partnership responsible for the Ritz Hotel, and prized for their Arts Nouveaux style, concocted a house of a sufficient dignity to house Mrs. Greville's growing collection of art and titled friends. At Polesden, the architects produced a refined hodge-podge of styles, from neo-Classical to Jacobean in such a way as to make them seem inseparable and completely natural. It was a comfortable style, nonetheless elegant and perhaps forbidding to some. Its inherent insouciance exudes an aura of confidence and, above all, wealth. Indeed, Mrs. Greville's larger than life portrait by Carolus Duran, dominating the Picture Corridor, is perhaps the exuberant exclamation point of the entire refurbishment.

And, Mrs. Greville's would be the last stamp to be imprinted upon Polesden Lacey. Upon her death in 1942, Margaret Greville bequethed her Mayfair townhouse along with Polesden Lacey, and her impressive collection of pictures, to the nation. In hindsight, it is Mrs. Greville's accomplishments as a hostess at Polesden Lacey (and elsewhere) that are remembered. However, late in her life Margaret Greville became an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis. This was not uncommon amongst the wealthy landowners of Britain of the time as it represented to them the pinnacle of patriotism. Also, the wealthy assumed Nazis would not deprive them of their money and belongings the way Communists threatened (see the Mitford family saga for elucidation of the politics of the 1930s in Britain). She became friends with the German (i.e. Nazi) ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop, and attended the Nuremberg Rally in 1934. In the end, however, as she lay in her bed at the Dorchester, frail with age, and bombs dropped outside in Hyde Park, she was heard to say that she had warned the Nazi plenipotentary minister: the Nazis may beat the English, but they would never beat the Scots. She died in that bed not long after. Despite these political transgressions, Mrs. Greville goes down in history as the woman who one morning had three kings sitting on her bed, and for giving us all the chance to wander through her treasure-trove named Polesden Lacey.