Ascott House, sometimes referred to as simply Ascott, is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
in the
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
of
Ascott near
Wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...
in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...
, England. It is set in a 32-acre / 13 hectare estate.
Ascott House was originally a farm house, built in the reign of
James I and known as "Ascott Hall". In 1873 it was acquired by Baron
Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (of the neighbouring
Mentmore Towers
Mentmore Towers, historically known simply as "Mentmore", is a 19th-century English country house built between 1852 and 1854 for the Rothschild family in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. Sir Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George ...
estate). The
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...
had begun to acquire vast tracts of land in Buckinghamshire earlier in the century, on which they built a series of large mansions from 1852 onwards. Baron Mayer gave the house at Ascott to his nephew
Leopold de Rothschild, who transformed it over the following decades into the substantial yet informal
country house
image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...
that it is today.
Architecture
Leopold de Rothschild, whose principal country residence was
Gunnersbury Park, used Ascott at first as a hunting box, but realising the limitations imposed by its modest size, in 1874 he employed the architect
George Devey to enlarge it. The present half-timbered house is largely the result of that commission. Devey attempted to design a house that rambled as though it had grown and developed over centuries. The project became a lifetime work for Devey as the house was continually expanded during the remainder of the 19th century. The rambling and climbing shrubs he had planted as part of the design of the façades that
Mary Gladstone described in her memoirs are no longer there.
The style of architecture, which could be described as "English cottage meets
Tudor Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
Manor house" is informal, the ground floor being of red brick, while the floors above are half-timbered. This rustic design no doubt deliberately reflected the house's original intention as a rural retreat and hunting lodge purely for relaxation and pleasure, and contrasted with the family's alternative country home, the more classical and thus impressive Gunnersbury Park. Other Rothschild houses in Buckinghamshire were all designed in the more formal styles of architecture, either the classical renaissance such as Mentmore or that of a French
château
A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...
as at
Waddesdon Manor. The architecture at Ascott was not intended to faithfully reproduce that of an earlier era. Devey was a forerunner of the
Arts and Crafts movement
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
Initiat ...
and had developed a rustic style of his own. Huge bay windows provide views over the
Chiltern Hills. Multiple gables of varying heights with roof lines sweeping to different levels resemble those later designed by the more notable
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...
.
Interior
On the death of Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild in 1937 the house was inherited by her son
Anthony Gustav de Rothschild. He and his wife, the former
Yvonne D'Anvers, enlarged the house further, and were responsible for the present interiors, full of notable paintings and (unusually for a Rothschild house) a large collection of 18th-century English furniture.
The ground floor contains the principal suite of large reception rooms, and while these rooms are furnished with works of art and furniture, they are low ceilinged, and, continuing the informal concept of the design, are in no way intended to be
state rooms. The entrance hall is notable for its large paintings by
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough (; 14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists o ...
,
George Romney, and
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...
and the large work by
George Stubbs
George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Joshua Reynolds and Thoma ...
, ''Five Mares''. The dining room, now decorated with what appear to be Dutch tiles but is in fact ''
trompe-l'œil'', contains a collection of small, mainly Dutch, paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries by such artists as
Aelbert Cuyp,
Adriaen van Ostade and
Jan Steen.
The works of art continue through the common room, with its portrait of a prelate attributed to
Lorenzo Lotto. The Drawing Room today displays a collection of
blue Chinese ceramics with examples from the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
, to the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
which lasted from 1644 until 1911. This room contains the painting of the ''Madonna and Child with St. John'' by
Andrea del Sarto of 1520.
In 1936 the Billiards Room was transformed into a library to house the many volumes amassed by Anthony de Rothschild. One of the most comfortable rooms in the house, its book-lined walls are only interrupted by Gainsborough's full-length portrait of the Duchess of Richmond, and various other masterpieces. Standing on a console table is
Tiepolo's "The Assumption of the Virgin". The room also contains furniture by
Thomas Chippendale and ancient
Chinese ceramics
Chinese ceramics are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. They range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese ...
.
Gardens

The extensive manicured gardens were laid out on the advice of the garden designer Sir
Harry Veitch by Leopold de Rothschild as a wedding present to his wife. A sundial made entirely of topiary complete with Latin numerals proclaims in clipped yew: "Light and shade by turn, but love always".

Closest to the south front of the house are paved areas of gardens in the style of
Gertrude Jekyll, and from these across large areas of lawn are the terraced gardens. The dominating feature of these individual gardens is the clipped hedges,
topiary and flowering shrubs. The largest feature of the garden is the
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
fountain representing ''
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
in her shell
chariot
A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid Propulsion, motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk O ...
attended by
cherubs'', by the American sculptor
Thomas Waldo Story. Story was also responsible for the fountain in the Dutch flower garden. This garden, so named for its displays of tulips in spring, is approached by descending a flight of steps through a
rock garden, complete with dripping
grotto and artificial
stalagmite
A stalagmite (, ; ; )
is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically composed of calcium carbonate, but may consist ...
s. In the centre of the garden Story's tall fountain, crowned by
Cupid
In classical mythology, Cupid ( , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. He is also known as Amor (Latin: ...
supported by dolphins, is surrounded by a formal bedding scheme.
From the entrance front's adjacent garden of topiarised
box
A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...
and
bay trees a long-grassed
avenue, enclosed by a tall beech hedge, leads to the
lily
''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...
pool. This pool, originally created for
skating, is the heart of a
Monet-style garden, complete with a
thatch
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...
ed summerhouse also designed by George Devey.
Cricket ground
Cricket was first played at Ascott House on 28 August 1880, when an eleven brought from London played an eleven selected by a Mr. Tennant, whose players were partly from London and partly from the area surrounding the estate. Leopold de Rothschild was present for this first match. The Rothschild family played a prominent role in the formation of
Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club. Buckinghamshire first played at Ascott House in the 1905
Minor Counties Championship against
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
, playing there regularly once a season to 1979.
The county returned to Ascott in 1998 to play an
MCCA Knockout Trophy match against
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
. Minor Counties Championship cricket was last played there in 2003,
with Buckinghamshire's last venture to the ground coming 2009 in the MCCA Knockout Trophy against
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...
. The ground held a
List A match once, which came in the
2003 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy when
first-class county
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
were the visitors. The match was something of a mismatch, with Gloucestershire scoring a massive 401/7, then bowling Buckinghamshire out for 77 to win the match by 324 runs.
Ascott today

Ascott House, with some of its important
art collection and a small part of the estate, was given in 1947 to the
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...
by Anthony de Rothschild. The National Trust market the property under the name "Ascott". However, as at nearby
Waddesdon Manor, the Rothschild family retain a very close control. The last resident of the house was the son of the donor, Sir
Evelyn de Rothschild, who died in 2022. He added further works of art and ceramics to the collection and much of what is seen in the collection is still privately owned by the Rothschild family.
Sir Evelyn de Rothschild also expanded the estate to its present size of approximately 3200 acres (13 km
2). The estate contains many miles of new road-side tree planting, well-kept hedging, and cropping and planting of new woodland but retains some of the older permanent pasture and small fields. A major new road, the
A505 ploughs through the area between the house and its
Stud Farm
A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word "stud (animal), stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, ...
, but has been disguised by dense woodland planting.
The house retains very much the feel of a private home, and is open to the public in the afternoon of many weekdays during summer.
See also
*
Rothschild properties in England
*
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...
References
Further reading
*Clifford Smith, H (1950). ''Country Life Magazine''. London: Country Life.
*National Trust (1963). ''The Ascott collection''. The National Trust.
External links
Ascott information at the National TrustAscott House*
{{Authority control
Historic house museums in Buckinghamshire
Grade II* listed houses in Buckinghamshire
National Trust properties in Buckinghamshire
Rothschild family residences
Tudor Revival architecture in England
Country houses in Buckinghamshire
Cricket grounds in Buckinghamshire
Sports venues completed in 1880
Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Buckinghamshire
Scheduled monuments in Buckinghamshire