Euston Hall is a

country house 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 Townhouse (Great Britain), town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the cit ...

, with park by

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...

and

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English lan ...

, located in Euston, a small village in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

located just south of

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24, ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is the family home of the

Dukes of Grafton Duke of Grafton is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1675 by Charles II of England for Henry FitzRoy, his second illegitimate son by the Duchess of Cleveland. The most notable duke of Grafton was Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duk ...

The Hall

Euston first appears in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

in 1087 as a manor belonging to

Bury St. Edmunds Abbey The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was ...

. In August 1578,

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

stayed at the manor hall with the Rookwood family on her way to

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

. The owner was a

recusant Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...

and during the royal visit an image of the Virgin Mary was discovered hidden in a hay rick. The estate, in near ruin, was purchased in 1666 by Henry Bennet,

Earl of Arlington Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form '' jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particula ...

and Secretary of State to the newly restored King, Charles II. He constructed a grand house in the French style, built around a central court with large pavilions on each corner. Charles II paid the first of several visits to Euston in 1671.

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's diary, or ...

, the diarist, was amongst the large court that accompanied the King. In 1672 Charles II arranged a marriage between nine-year-old Henry FitzRoy, his illegitimate son by

Barbara Villiers Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine (née Barbara Villiers, – 9 October 1709), was an English royal mistress of the Villiers family and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of ...

, and Isabella Bennet, the Earl of Arlington's five-year-old heiress. FitzRoy was created 1st

Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1675 by Charles II of England for Henry FitzRoy, his second illegitimate son by the Duchess of Cleveland. The most notable duke of Grafton was Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duk ...

in 1675, and the young couple went through a second wedding ceremony in 1679 when Isabella had reached the age of twelve, then the minimum legal age to marry with consent. The Duke and Duchess inherited Euston Hall in 1685. In about 1750 their son, the second Duke, decided to re-model the house and employed

Matthew Brettingham Matthew Brettingham (1699 – 19 August 1769), sometimes called Matthew Brettingham the Elder, was an 18th-century Englishman who rose from humble origins to supervise the construction of Holkham Hall, and become one of the country's best-known ...

, who supervised the execution of

's and

Lord Burlington Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the du ...

's design of

Holkham Hall Holkham Hall ( or ) is an 18th-century country house near the village of Holkham, Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for the 1st Earl of Leicester,The Earldom of Leicester has been, to date, created seven times. Thomas ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

. The domes at Euston were replaced by the low pyramid roofs seen today, and part of the house was refaced. On 5 April 1902, a disastrous fire destroyed the south and west wings and the fine Verrio ceilings. The house was soon rebuilt on the same plan, but later the south wing, and most of the west wing, were pulled down by the 10th Duke in 1952. Euston Hall has a fine art collection, but one

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

deserves special mention. According to the ''Sporting Magazine'', February 1793: "About the year 1735 he

he 2nd Duke of Grafton He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

kept foxhounds at Croydon and went to London very early on the days he hunted. The old Duke used to complain bitterly of the interruption he met with (in crossing the Thames at Westminster) for the delay and inattention of the ferry man, etc., by which he often lost several hours of a fine morning before he arrived in Croydon. To remove this inconvenience he projected a bridge at Westminster, and brought a bill into Parliament for its erection, which was completed in the year 1748." For many years there hung at Euston Hall a contemporary Caneletto of the bridge being built.

The Park

Euston Watermill - External View - geograph

The old park was designed by the diarist

, a noted landscape gardener and an expert on trees, with a canal, straight rides and avenues. His designs for Euston included the walk through the pleasure grounds which can still be enjoyed today. The whole park and river layout was designed by

in 1738, and is considered one of his great works. His temple and entrance archway survive.

worked at Euston intermittently from 1776 until his death in 1783. He remodelled water features for 3rd Duke of Grafton, expanding Kent's system of small lakes & rivulets into a large new lake, Broadwater, with a central island, designed to give views towards the house through trees. He built a

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

to direct water from River Blackbourne into the lake and may have landscaped the river bank in front of Euston Hall & along the river to the south, and planted trees by the lodges on the western boundary of the estate. Euston's watermill was built in the 1670s by Sir

Samuel Morland Sir Samuel Morland, 1st Baronet (1625 – 30 December 1695), or Moreland, was an English academic, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician of the 17th century, a polymath credited with early developments in relation to computing, hydraulics an ...

for irrigation and grinding corn. In 1731, it was redesigned by

to resemble a church, and in 1859 an iron waterwheel was added by

Charles Burrell Charles Burrell & Sons were builders of steam traction engines, agricultural machinery, steam lorries and steam tram engines. The company were based in Thetford, Norfolk and operated from the St Nicholas works on Minstergate and St Nicholas ...

. The Temple (not open to the public) is an unusual octagonal folly designed by

in 1746. It was his last work. It has a magnificent octagonal banqueting hall rising to a dome. The current house and grounds comprise about 110 acres of parkland and 65 acres of pleasure grounds. The landscaping underwent major restoration work in advance of the Capability Brown tercentenary in 2016.Capability Brown tercentenary
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Notes

References

*''The Dukes'' by Brian Masters (2001 ed.) Pimlico.

External links

Official site
* *{{NHLE , num=1376940 Art museums and galleries in Suffolk Country houses in Suffolk English gardens in English Landscape Garden style FitzRoy family Gardens by Capability Brown Grade II* listed buildings in Suffolk Grade II* listed houses Historic house museums in Suffolk Borough of St Edmundsbury William Kent buildings