In the late 1730s Mark Amberley, of the Cottington Place estate in Southshire, England, built a sham castle on his estate. He also built a shell-encrusted grotto, which became home to the obligatory bearded hermit dressed in brown hessian robes. The creation of these follies is detailed in the family archive of letters and diaries, which was explored by a descendant in the twentieth century.
The book looks afresh at the murder of Mark Amberley, who was shot in the head on the very day that he returned to Cottington in 1768, after spending twenty three years in exile after the Jacobite Rebellion. The dust jacket gives a precis of the plot and notes that the story was based on unpublished material. But if one reads on to the end the truth is revealed: ‘Mr Bamford’s novel is, of course, pure fiction as are the statements in the above paragraphs’. The Flâneuse is always delighted to discover fictional follies, and the Amberleys, the murder, the sham castle and grotto are all the creation of Frances Bamford, and appear in his 1946 novel Return to Cottington.
Francis Bamford who was born on the Isle of Wight in 1905, the son of a clergyman. In his twenties he mixed with the Bright Young Things and became close friends with the Sitwell family of Renishaw and Weston. The patriarch of the family was Sir George Sitwell, and when his wife died in 1937 it was feared that Sir George’s eccentricities would no longer be checked by his spouse. Osbert Sitwell asked Bamford, who was then unmarried and in need of funds, to be secretary to his father and to accompany Sir George to his Tuscan castle of Montegufoni. When Bamford asked what the duties were, Osbert’s casual reply was, ‘Well, you must just take Mother’s place.’
In 1939 Bamford described himself as ‘Archivist, Historian and Author’, and by that date he had already published the correspondence of a Georgian lady as well as a history of Edinburgh written with Sacheverell Sitwell and a novel. With the outbreak of war, Bamford joined the Gordon Highlanders (his mother was descended from the Duke of Gordon). As the war progressed, Bamford found himself stationed at Stromness on Orkney. There he used his spare time to write his second novel, Return to Cottington, which was published in 1946 and dedicated to his friend Sir Osbert Sitwell (Sitwell’s signed copy is in the library at Renishaw, his Derbyshire seat).
Readers may wish to read the story for themselves, so we will leave the plot and consider the follies built by our protagonist, Mark Amberley. On the edge of the park at Cottington was a small hill, and upon its ‘flattened crest’ Amberley built ‘an improbable ruin consisting of twelve open arches flanked by two incomplete towers’. Work began soon after he inherited the estate in 1738, and was complete by 1742. As well as improving the view from the dining room, the family visited the folly for ‘pick-nicks’.
With the sham castle complete, Amberley began work on his ‘curious Gothick grotto’. This was a natural cave, in a disused quarry, which was extended to create two rooms – the first highly-decorated with shells and stone seats ‘carved to represent oyster-shells supported upon dolphins’. This led to a second chamber with a fireplace with its chimney ‘carried up through the solid rock’. From the grotto there were superb views to the mansion designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Peter the Hermit took up residence as soon as work was complete.
Perhaps the interior of the Cottington grotto was a little like that at Oatlands in Surrey, although that example was not built until two decades later.
In the late 1730s sham ruined castles were yet to appear in British parks, so if he had only been real Mark Amberley would have been at the forefront of folly building. We don’t know which genuine shams may have inspired Bamford, but perhaps he knew Hagley in Worcestershire…
… or Wimpole in Cambridgeshire.
After the war Bamford was employed as librarian to the Duke of Wellington: in 1950 they jointly published The Journal of Mrs Arbuthnot, based on papers in the Duke’s archive (genuine documents this time). By that date Bamford and his wife Marianne had moved to Ayton, near Berwick upon Tweed, to open an antique shop although Bamford also continued to write. He became known as an expert on Scottish furniture, but his sudden death in 1982 meant that his research was published posthumously a year later. Bamford may also have been camera-shy, as the Flâneuse has failed to find a single photograph of him.
According to the story, the sham castle was still standing when Return to Cottington was published in 1946, although by then it loomed over modern housing built in Cottington’s park. The impoverished Amberleys had sold the estate to the County Council, and the mansion was in use as a maternity home for working class mothers. The grotto was intact, but the walls were carved with the names of young men and women ‘seeking for one reason or another its sombre solitude’. Should she ever find herself in Southshire the Flâneuse will endeavour to discover if any fragments survive today.
Meanwhile…
Researching this post was great fun so the Flâneuse will be raising her glass to a group of friends – Guy Marshall for alerting me to the book; antiquarian booksellers Adam and Marianne Naylor for rapidly posting a copy to the eager Flâneuse; Chris Beevers, Archivist at Renishaw Hall, for help with the Sitwells and Mike Cousins (aka the Garden Historian) for helping with a chronology of sham castles and grottoes.
And thank you for reading. As ever, you can share your thoughts via the comments box at the foot of the page.
