Victorian and Edwardian Cobham, 1835-1914 |
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Cobham Hall grew in fame during this period, and became established as one of the great houses of Kent and the destination for an ever-growing number of sight-seers. The appearance of Cobham in Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers (1836-37) cemented its growing reputation as a house from the days of ‘Good Queen Bess’, set in a magnificent deer park, and which contained an outstanding collection of Old Master paintings.
For most of this period the Lord of Cobham was John, 6th Earl of Darnley (1826-1896) who undertook little in the way of major works to either house or grounds, which by now had attained full maturity. The agricultural depression of the 1880s affected the Cobham Estate, and from this point onwards, the Darnley fortunes were in decline. Two of the Victorian earl’s sons succeeded in quick succession between 1896 and 1900: and the newly-introduced death duties placed further burdens on the estate and collections. Not all was in decline, however.
Cobham had long been famous for its cricket: the 4th earl had led a team, and a pitch with pavilion had been created just to the east of Lodge Farm. The 8th earl, when young, had led an English team out to Australia in 1882-83: their defeat resulted in the creation of cricket’s holy grail, the Ashes, which were for a long time kept at Cobham. For the first time since the 4th earl’s day the grounds were enriched with exotic planting, especially in the Northern Pleasure Grounds. The 8th countess, assisted closely in this phase of embellishment. In economic terms, however, the estate suffered from the agricultural depression which commenced in the 1880s, and the art collections began to be sold off.
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