Regency Estates: Mount Edgcumbe

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Mount Edgcumbe c. 1869

Bending the footstep through yon solemn shade Where the thick trees obscure the darken d glade And gloom and melancholy over spread The wide and waste dominion of the dead See marble busts and fallen urns around With broken columns cover all the ground While the dim shadows from o er arching trees The leaves scarce rustling to the passing breeze Bespeak the mausoleums silent cell Where Death and Ruin in grim triumph dwell E en now may Fancy through the twilight glade Mark where illusive phantoms secin to fade Excerpt from “Mount Edgcumbe: A Poem” by Cyrus Redding (1811).

With a country park spreading over 860 acres on the Rame Peninsula in South East Cornwall, Mount Edgcumbe House was the home of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. Said to have been built in the 1500s in the Tudor style, it was revolutionary for its design prompting views out into the landscape rather than inward (https://www.mountedgcumbe.gov.uk/visit/history/). The distinctive red of the house is owing to the local Staddon Grit. Carved granite was used for the facings, and the leaded windows are in ogival (curved to a point) are spread orderly through all sides of the facade to give a stately appearance (https://www.mountedgcumbe.gov.uk/visit/house/).

Still today, you can take a variety of trails and walks around the Park or enjoy the gardens.  During the Regency, this was a popular destination open generally to the public on Mondays or by permission on other days.  Here is a description from an 1812 guidebook (A Walk Round Mount-Edgcumbe):

The mansion an oblong building with octagonal towers at the four corners stands on a platform on the side of the hill commanding beautiful prospects from its northern and eastern fronts It was erected about the year 1550 but the towers being originally small and inconvenient were pulA
led down and re built in their present form The door and window cases are of granite or moorstone as also the flight of steps ascending the slope to the principal front A modern wing has been added but is so concealed as not to deform the regularity of the building or interfere with its general character of antiquity The only access to the principal door of the house on the northern side is up the lawn which is rather steep but a road is carried along the avenue from the lower Lodge to the foot of the hill whence winding to the right it leads by an easier ascent through pleasing glades bordered with stately chesnut and other trees to the southern or back front From hence we shall take two distinct walks the first comprising the Upper tour round the Park and more distant parts of the place the second the Lower or home circuit round the
Pleasure Grounds marking their several connections and how the whole walk may be shortened taking in a portion of both

The guidebook goes on to describe the Park and the many vistas and walks where not only could you encounter breathtaking views, but also the ruins of a tower with a large gothic window, a “neat thatched” cottage with a room for resting, and pleasure grounds with an ampitheatre, Temple of Milton, gardens, an Orangerie, and a Doric alcove.

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