An idea to develop the potential historical links between gardens associated with three great granddaughters of the Victorian doyenne and garden maker of Ditchley Park, Henrietta, Viscountess Dillon (d.1862): Venetia Stanley (later Lady Montagu) (1887-1948), Lady (Clementine) Churchill (later Baroness Spencer-Churchill) (1885-1977), and Lady (Mary) Trevelyan (1881-1966) mentioned in my 2019 lecture ‘Ditchley and Cliveden, a case of relative values?’ rapidly came unstuck on further exploration.
Venetia Stanley’s contribution to her cousin, Clementine Churchill’s garden at Chartwell is well known. What I’d hoped to find was a link to Mary Trevelyan (née Bell), creator of a lesser known but attractive garden at Wallington, Northumberland. Unfortunately, Mary doesn’t appear in Stefan Buczacki’s thorough and engaging 2016 biography of Venetia, My Darling Mr Asquith, The extraordinary life and times of Venetia Stanley. Nevertheless it would be interesting to learn more about the garden Venetia made with input from Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), at Breccles Hall, near Thetford, because it was almost contemporaneous with Reggie Cooper’s early projects. It too entailed introducing a modern garden to an ancient house (Breccles however was in much better condition than Reggie’s purchases). They also had a mutual friend in Lady Cynthia Asquith (1887-1960).
While pursuing this link with Lutyens I recently discovered that he made some alterations at 96 Cheyne Walk for Reggie’s mother, Lady Cooper, in 1918. The commission is included in the list of Lutyens’s works included in the catalogue to the 1981 exhibition Lutyens, The work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944).