The Devonshire House Set

We recently welcomed Carol to the Discover Buxton team who has been a freelance Blue Badge tour guide since 2013, having first qualified here in Derbyshire in 1992. She has managed tours all over the U.K. from the Isles of Scilly to Orkney, Buckingham Palace to Chatsworth House. She has however spent a great deal of time in London and particularly likes to show the links between Buxton and the capital city.

This is a piece she has recently written explaining that connection.

Firstly, an introduction to William Cavendish, 5^th Duke of Devonshire (1748-1811). This is a new bronze 7’6” high statue, designed by sculptor Denise Dutton of the local landowner and man who bankrolled the transformation of Buxton in the 18^th Century. It is part of the multi-million pound re-development of Buxton’s famous Crescent, which saw its long and eagerly awaited completion this summer inbetween lockdowns. 

The campaign to commemorate the life of the Duke, whose descendants still live at the Devonshire’s country estate at Chatsworth House near Bakewell, was spearheaded by local couple Bob and Sheila Barratt. The bronze figure depicts the Duke in everyday business clothes, at a time in his life when he was busy redesigning Buxton, where he owned a lot of land, with the aim to put the town on the map as a fashionable and elegant Georgian spa and rival other well-known spa destinations, particularly Bath. His statue stands by the centrepiece of his plan – the Crescent, designed by John Carr of York and completed in 1789. Next, allow me to introduce a very elegant lady.

Georgiana, 5^th Duchess of Devonshire, born Georgiana Spencer in 1757 at Althorp in Northamptonshire. The couple were married in 1774 and their nuptials were  billed as the top society wedding of the year. So much so, that the bride’s mother, Countess Spencer, was fearful that the Church in Wimbledon, where the wedding service was to take place, would be besieged by over-eager gatecrashers keen to see the bride and groom and invited celebrities of the day!

Sadly, the Duke and Duchess proved to be ill-matched. The Duke, several years older than the Duchess, was said to be taciturn, cold, aloof and indifferent to his beautiful young wife. The Duchess, in contrast, was vivacious, gregarious, politically aware, hugely popular and something of a style icon. As a trend setter, she was the first to sport a towering, three foot high hairdo. This infamously impractical hairstyle once also carried a model of a ship in full sail! Many comparisons have been drawn between Georgiana and her world famous 20^th century Spencer descendant, Diana, Princess of Wales. The marriage appears to have been unconventional, unhappy, tumultuous and the subject of much gossip and scandal. The couple divided their time largely between their two main residences, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire and Devonshire House on Piccadilly in London.

With no railway or motorway, travel between the two houses involved a three-day tortuous journey by horse and carriage. The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, due to their position as leading members of the British aristocracy, were also the undisputed movers and shakers of Georgian high society and an invitation to one of their glittery gatherings at the palatial Devonshire House was the hottest ticket in town.

While her indifferent husband lived the life of a leading aristocrat and political figure of the era, frequenting exclusive establishments such as Brooks’s and White’s Gentlemen’s Clubs on nearby St James’s Street, the Duchess occupied her time as a political activist, campaigning for the Whig Party, which was extremely rare for a woman at that time. She also redesigned the gardens at Chiswick House by the River Thames in West London, wrote prolifically and generally cemented her reputation as the ‘Hostess with the Mostest’.

Thus, the Devonshire House Set was born! So, next, dear readers, I want you to picture the scene – it’s around 1780, it’s a late autumn evening on Piccadilly, a bustling and very fashionable main thoroughfare in the heart of Mayfair in Central London’s West End, known then as the ‘Polite End’. Close by are St James’s and Jermyn Streets, where high society shop at fashionable outlets such as Fortnum & Mason (established in 1705 by a footman in the employ of Queen Anne and where the Scotch Egg was invented in 1738), boot makers Lobb, hat makers Locke & Co and wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd. Incredibly, you can find and visit some of the businesses frequented by the Duke and Duchess along St James’s Street today.