Alice Ridgway, Archivist
January 16th marked ‘Blue Monday’ the most melancholy day of the year. However, mine was brightened by discovering some charming drawings in the William Shute Barrington archive.
The archive contains correspondence, plans, plant lists, sketches and paintings between 1920-1940 relating to the gardening career of Viscount William ‘Bill’ Reginald Barrington (1873-1960). After a career in the military, Barrington restored and redesigned gardens at a number of stately homes in East Sussex and further afield. His gardening philosophy aimed to give the illusion that a garden had existed forever, stating that ‘its relationship to the surrounding fields, hills and buildings should have a naturalness borne of scrupulous attention to detail’.
The letters I found were sent by Guy Roderick Falkner, an unknown gardening friend of Barrington. They thank him for his plant cuttings and hospitality and give short updates about his horticultural projects. My favourite drawing features two cartoon birds – most likely a depiction of the tame pair of starlings that lived with Barrington alongside his partner, Violet Gordon Woodhouse.
Barrington’s eccentric home life is detailed in the biography of the harpsichordist and socialite Violet Gordon Woodhouse ‘Violet – The Life and Love of Violet Gordon Woodhouse.’ Here, we learn that starlings were accompanied by pigs and a pet blackbird named Titus. Barrington lived with Violet and her husband Gordon, transforming the gardens of the various stately homes they inhabited including Southover Grange, Nether Lypiatt Manor and Armscote House.
The correspondence, plant lists and sketches in the Barrington archive help to give us a sense of the elite gardening community in the South of England during the first half of the 20th century. As an avid socializer and plant swapper, Barrington received letters from Vita Sackville West and Lawrence Johnson thanking him for rare plant cuttings and inviting him to visit their own gardens, Sissinghurst and Hidcote Manor, to share ideas.
Their lively household no doubt made an impression on Falkner. His own self-portraits that illustrate his letters depict him in a contrasting serene, homely setting. In one, he is planting a cutting whilst smoking a pipe, in another, he is surrounded by potted plants whilst relaxing in an armchair by the fire.
Despite the joviality of the household, Violet describes Barrington as ‘grumbling and smoking on the sofa surrounded by packets of bulbs’, suggesting that the gloom of winter can permeate the happiest of households whilst spring bulbs wait to bloom!
