On 9 July 2025 the BLHS did a trip to Elton Hall.  Barry Jobling recalls the trip in the article below:

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Elton Hall and gardens lie off the A605 just west of Peterborough and 30 minutes north of Buckden, so they make an ideal day trip and that’s where the Buckden Local History Society spent their Summer outing on a hot, early July day. The focus of the day was a private guided tour of the Hall, lasting an hour and a half, but thanks to its gardens, adjacent café/restaurant and garden centre some managed to stay five hours!

The house itself was started between 1470 and 1500 and the present tower and chapel date from that time, being greatly enlarged by a Classic extension amalgamated with the chapel c.1690 and further extended and converted to then current taste in the mid-18 th century. The whole has been in the Proby family from the early 1600s to date with the family still resident. In 1752, John Proby was made 1st Lord Carysfort which title remained with the family until the death of William, the 5th Earl in 1909.

The family inherited or married into wealth which, combined with a love of the arts, meant that they collected a remarkable array of fine art displayed throughout the house and admired by our group of eighteen society members.

The tour started in the steward’s room where we viewed a prison door from Fotheringhay Castle (where Mary, Queen of Scots was executed). We passed through the small chapel en route to the Lower Octagon Room where there was a Gainsborough landscape and a circle of Turner ‘The Shipwreck of the Minotaur’, ancient Egyptian items from a Grand Tour and some fine furniture. The Marble Hall followed, with a stunning portrait of Charlotte, the 5th Countess, c.1890 by John Everett Millais and others of the Proby family and relatives. The Upper Octagon Room contained a very eclectic assortment of items collected by or belonging to the family over many centuries including military regalia and a remarkable wax seal of Queen Elizabeth I on the grant of Elton mill dated 1596. This room also contained Constable’s first landscape of Dedham Vale, 1811 and several superb porcelain place settings.

John Joshua Proby became the 2nd Lord Carysfort in 1772 at the age of 21 and took over and embellished the house again. Being a close friend of the artist Joshua Reynolds, John gave commissions to Reynolds for many family paintings, eight of which are in the Drawing Room surrounded by splendid French Louis XVI furnishings. A small self-portrait of Reynolds was noteworthy. Two other paintings intrigued our visitors; one ‘The Snake in the Grass’ (minus the snake!) allegedly shows Emma Hamilton, Nelson’s mistress, in a provocative, naked pose. The original (with snake), also once in this room, was sold for death duties and is now in the Tate Gallery. Another Reynolds, started shortly before his death in 1792, depicts Kitty Fisher, of the well-known rhyme, ‘Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it…’, both were courtesans of the day. In the unfinished portrait, poor Kitty has no arms!

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The Ante Dining Room and the Dining Room contained significant art work from the 15 th to the 19 th century including the famous ‘Eastward Ho!’ by Henry O’Neil plus many more which we studied in detail.

The house had three historic libraries, and we finished our tour in one containing a rare prayer book of King Henry VIII compiled and inscribed by Queen Catherine Parr c.1545. It also contained signed inscriptions by Henry himself and later Princess Elizabeth.

The semi-formal gardens with most plants in full bloom proved to be a handy size for us to ramble through in a hot half-an-hour, although several stayed for an hour or so, enjoying the shade of the orangery.

Elton Hall is a private home open during the Summer months and several of our number are already planning a return.

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Barry Jobling, 17 th July 2025.