In 1917 Tabley House was home to Cuthbert and Hilda Leicester-Warren and their children Margaret and John. That summer twelve year old Margaret and ten year old John made the folly tower, on a tiny island in the lake, their own private domain. On Saturday 7 July, with ‘due pomp and ceremony’, the tower was declared open for the season.
N.B. If you haven’t seen last week’s post you might want to catch up on the history of the tower here.
The family had a number of boats on the lake including a motor-launch called ‘Rainbow’ and a sailboat called the ‘Ark’. These vessels transported the family to the tower which was equipped with a ‘suitable supply of furniture, cups, saucers and plates’.
Formal invitations were sent to guests staying with their parents at Tabley House, requesting the pleasure of their company at the tower. Margaret (1905-1964) was the hostess on these occasions and styled herself the ‘Chatelaine of the Tower’. As John (1907-1975) wrote in 1918:
In the Boat we go to see
The Chatilaine [sic] who owns the key
Of the Tower on Tabley Lake
Then she gives us all a cake.
In the summer of 1918 the motor launch was out of action because of wartime petrol restrictions, so transport was only by the more ‘antiquated’ means of sail or oar.
Timetables for the boats to the lake were published to help guests make plans, and happily in 1919 the petrol restrictions were relaxed, and ‘Rainbow’ was back in action.
The visitors were invited to ascend to the rooftop viewing platform or perhaps try to catch a fish or two. After tea and cake was served they were asked to contribute to a visitor’s book called The Tower Book. Some praised the picnics (which sometimes included ‘excellent meat pies’) and others added poems or sketches.
One guest, T.W. Turner couldn’t resist mentioning his artist namesake, who had painted the tower a century earlier:
O lovely Tower, O limpid lake
For thee my feeble pen I take:-
See there the oaks and wavy beeches
Beautify the farthest reaches:
See here the sparkling wavelets beat
Upon the stones beneath one’s feet:
Right well might Turner near this spot
Call for pencils and paint pot.
In July 1920 Margaret was given a birthday present of a new tea service for use at the tower. The children kept the tower spick and span with a housekeeper’s box of brushes, and at the start of the 1921 season they ‘stained’ (painted) the upper room.
Sadly the book ends with the close of the 1921 season and we don’t know if the summer excursions to the tower were continued. Lord Bathurst contributed the final drawing to the book after a ‘turn round the lake’ with the children’s father in 1921.
Margaret was painted by Philip de Laszlo in 1927 when she was almost 22 and making her debut in society. Little brother John inherited the estate in 1954 and was the last member of the family to own Tabley. He had never married and hoped the National Trust would take on the estate after his death, but his offer was declined as there was no endowment to support the estate. In short, under the terms of Lieutenant Colonel John Leicester-Warren’s will the estate then passed to the University of Manchester.
The University of Manchester sold the wider estate, including the lake and tower, to the Crown Estate and sadly there is no public access. But you can see the house and artworks – see the Tabley House Collection website.
All images other than the portrait are taken from The Tower Book (D 5524/8/5) and are reproduced by kind permission of Cheshire Archives and Local Studies.
There’s a comments box at the foot of the page and your thoughts are always welcome. Thank you for reading.
Judy Popley says:
What a magnificent piece on Tabley and its owners. I was there only yesterday and have just become a friend of Tabley. Margaret was so beautiful and John, like his neighbour, Maurice, Lord Egerton were both bachelors. Tatton went to the NT. Sadly at the same time as John wanted to leave the estate to the Trust, Dunham Massey was also bequeathed but with a dowry. The rest, they say, is history! The university sold the estate, park, properties and farms to the Crown for £43m. Since their ownership they have continued to break the estate up and are selling all the old farms off for development. Sad to see.
Editor says:
Thank you Judy. I’m delighted you visited Tabley House before the season ends. It is so overshadowed by Dunham Massey and Tatton Park and deserves more visitors. But a huge shame that the Crown Estate does not allow public access to the mere and views to the tower at close range.
Moira R says:
Thank you a well researched piece. Very fortunate to have discovered the documentation. Have to echo a stunning portrait of Margaret. We live near to Petworth so now I’ll visit to see the picture of the tower. Your pieces are always an interesting read. Keep up the good work ! Yes , great shame about N.T. not being able to adopt the estate.
Editor says:
Hello Moira and thanks for your kind comments. It was great to be able to feature masterpieces by the likes of Turner one week, and then the charming drawings from the Tower Book the next. Enjoy seeing the Turner at Petworth (and all the other treasures there).
Julia Abel Smith says:
What a glorious portrait. De Laszlo captures Margaret’s energy and beauty quite delightfully. He is so good at painting diaphanous fabric.
I see that Margaret married Sir Oliver Leese, an important soldier, and died in her 60’s.
Editor says:
Good morning Julia. Isn’t she lovely. The portrait captures the spirit of the young lady who had such fun at the tower.
archaeogail says:
The Tower Book is amazing! What a find! Such an incredible & unique archival record of the tower’s use in the early C20th & such fabulous drawings! I visited Tabley for the first time earlier this year on a beautiful summer’s day, saw the Turner painting, & absolutely loved it. I agree, what a shame it’s not visited more (the limited opening hours don’t help though) & that there’s no access to the tower. Thanks to your wonderful blogs we get to learn more about it! Bravo!
Editor says:
Good morning Gail. So pleased you liked the post – I confess my heart skipped a beat when I first saw The Tower Book. Tabley House and its collections deserve more attention: I’m delighted that you enjoyed your visit and can help spread the word.
Susan says:
A wonderful portrait, and how interesting that Margaret is holding a book, or collection of papers, in her hand, in the manner of C18 portraits showing noblemen holding the drawings of their new country seat. The page we can see looks like a water colour painting. Possibly even depicting a tower, surrounded by water?? Perhaps too much to hope for, and by the age of 21, as a young lady of marriageable age, she would have had other interests – although I think she did have an interest in art in later life, and published books on artists??
Editor says:
Hello Susan. It is a wonderful painting, and I love how her face shows some real vivacity unlike some of the more aloof and glacial portraits of the time. It would be wonderful to think that she is holding a view of her beloved tower. The Margaret Leicester Warren who was a writer was a generation earlier – it took me some time to separate their two lives.