Juniper Hall
French Revolution
Fanny was in the service of the Queen when the French Revolution started bubbling in 1788. King George was initially sympathetic to Louis XVI’s plight personally. But public opinion was divided as well as the political parties. Two other factors affecting the attitude of the Royal household were the state of the finances of England after the American War and then the King’s first bout of insanity. On 27 October 1789 after the King seemed to have recovered and the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, Fanny wrote to her father:
“Nor is it possible to think more of our escape, than of the sudden adversity of the French. – Truly terrible and tremendous are revolutions such as these…the demolition of this Great Nation, which rises up, all against itself, for its own ruin – perhaps.”
Fanny’s friend and admirer Edmund Burke, one of the prosecutors in the trial of Warren Hasting had time to write “Reflections on the Revolutions in France” published in 1790 in which he condemned a divinely appointed monarchy believing that the people had the right to depose an oppressive government but not the way it had been done in France. He argued for gradual constitutional reform not revolution. In response to this came the famous Thomas Paine declaration of the “Rights of Man”.
Dr. Burney wrote to a friend in September 1792, “I can neither think, talk, or write about anything else than the abominations of France…Is this the end of the 18th century, so enlightened and so philosophical?”
On a trip to Suffolk in 1792 Fanny met some French aristocrats who had managed to escape to England. Mme de Genlis and Duc de Liancourt were mentioned at length in her letters; one favourably and the lady most unfavourably. In October 1792 the Convention in Paris declared all émigrés outlaws and began sequestration of their property in France.
Juniper Hall c. 1844, Sketch in Dorking Museum
Rental of Juniper Hall to the Constitutionalists
Fanny started to get news from her sister Susan and the Locks about the French émigrés coming to nearby Juniper Hall. In September 1792 Susan wrote to Fanny with news of the recent arrivals:
“We shall shortly, I believe, have a little colony of unfortunate (or rather fortunate, since here they are safe) French noblesse in our neighbourhood.”
Juniper Hall had been leased and the cottage at Westhamble was reluctantly (until Mr Lock offered to put up the money) rented to Madame de Broglie, who had made a fourteen-hour Channel crossing in open boat with her small son.
In November 1792, Susan went to call on her new neighbours for the first time:
“Mrs. Lock had been so kind as to pave the way for my introduction to Madame de la Chàtre, and carried me on Friday to Juniper Hall”.
The party at this time consisted of M. de Montmorency, (who led the abolition of titles in the Assembly on 4th August 1789), Louis de Narbonne (obliged to resign as minister of war), the comtesse de la Châtre and her lover Jaucourt. (“a warm defender of my favourite hero M La Fayette” Susan commented).
A new arrival is Alexandre d’Arblay, former aide-de-camp for Lafayette, who Susan describes as:
“true militaire, franc et loyal”.
Susan wrote to Fanny that
“It gratifies me very much that I have been able to interest you for our amiable and charming neighbours.”
In reply to Mrs Lock’s pressing invitation to come to meet their new friends, Fanny wrote:
“Your French colonies are truly attractive: I am sure they must be so to have caught me – so substantially, fundamentally the foe of all their proceedings while in power.”
Stained-glass windows on the staircase at Juniper Hall, by Harry Stammers (1902 – 1969). Fanny is surrounded by admirers of her novel Evelina and Alexandre is presenting a cabbage from his garden to Fanny.
The House
Juniper Hall, was a substantial red-brick mansion, tucked at the bottom of a wooded hill with gardens looking out across fields and woods towards Box Hill; cedars shaded the entrance.
The house had originally been a coaching inn, the Royal Oak Alehouse. Sir Cecil Bisshopp (d.1779), who purchased the estate in 1762, had it converted into a residence, adding two wings, a classical portico and tall arched windows. In 1779 the estate was sold to Mr David Jenkinson, an affluent lottery-keeper, who built himself a new house on the down opposite Norbury; no doubt he was pleased to find suitable tenants..
The drawing room, decorated with delicate plasterwork in Robert Adams style, thought to be the work of Lady Templeton, a gifted amateur artist who worked with Wedgwood. Swags and garlands, in white and gold and pastel colours, frame sculpted panels of showing classical scenes. The centrepiece is a tall carved fireplace in grey and white marble. The plaque on the wall above represents “Friendship comforting Affliction”, one of Lady Templeton’s favourite themes.
Susan wrote in particular about about a few of the new friends:
Susan wrote in particular about about a few of the new friends:
M. de Narbonne, (Louis Marie Jacques Amalric, comte de Narbonne-Lara (August 1755 – 17 November 1813)
Of M. de Narbonne’s abilities we could have no doubt from his speeches and letters whilst ministre de la guerre which post he did not quit until last May. By his own desire, he then joined Lafayette’s army, and acted under him; but on the 10th August, he was involved, with perhaps nearly all of the most honourable and worthy of the French nobility, accused as a traitor by the jacobins, and obliged to fly from his country.
M. d’Arblay (Alexandre Jean-Batiste Piochard d’Arblay (13 May 1754 – 7 May 1818)
Madame de la Chatre received us with great politeness…A gentleman was with her whom Mrs Locke had not yet seen, M.d’Arblay. She introduced him, and when he had quitted the room, told us he was adjutant-general to M. Lafayette, maréchal de camp and in short the first in military rank of those who had accompanied that general when he so unfortunately fell into the hands of the Prussians; M. d’Arblay was the officer on guard at the Tuileries the night on which the king, etc., escaped to Varennes, and ran great risk of being denounced, and perhaps massacred, though he had been kept in the most perfect ignorance of the king’s intention.
However, not having been one of the Assemblée Constituante, he was allowed, with four others, to proceed into Holland, and there M. de Narbonne wrote to him. ..begging him to come and live with him….
He had arrived only two days before. He is tall, and a good figure, with an open and manly countenance; about forty, I imagine. : a “true militaire, franc et loyal” says Susan.
They were all loyal to the King who, according to Narbonne, “had no faith in himself and in consequence distrusted everyone else”. They believed in a constitutional monarchy.
Susan described a conversation with M. d’Arblay…“I lamented the hard fate of M. Lafayette, and the rapid and wonderful revers he had met with, after having been, as he well merited to be, the most popular man in France. This led M. d’Arblay to speak of M. de Narbonne, to whom I found him passionately attached. Upon my mentioning the sacrifices made by the French nobility, and by a great number of them voluntarily, he said no one had made more than M. de Narbonne; that, previous to the Revolution, he had more wealth and more power than almost any except the princes of the blood.
For himself, he mentioned his fortune and his income from his appointments as something immense, but I never remember the number of hundred thousand livres, nor can tell what their amount is without some consideration…”
Madame de Staêl (Anne Louise Germaine de Staêl-Holstein (April 1766 – 1817) joined them in December after the birth of her son by M. de Narbonne, but named Albert Stael von Holstein, in Geneva. She was the daughter of Necker who has been Chancellor to Louis XVI and although only 26 she was already famous for her intelligence, wit, writing, lifestyle.
Mme de Stael took a great interest in Fanny and they were close friends for some time until Dr Burney got wind of the friendship and warned Fanny about the reputation of Mme de Stael. Fanny who was always influenced by her father and who was rather prudish, dropped the association. (There was a BBC Radio4 drama a couple of years ago called “When Fanny met Germaine”.)
M. de Talleyrand (Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, prince de Bénévent, Bishop of Autun) (Feb 1754 – May 1838)
Came to London to persuade England to remain neutral when France was fighting with other European countries. He left London after the storming of the Tuileries Palace in June 1792 and joined Mme de Stael at Juniper Hall.
In a letter to Mrs Lock, Fanny says:
“The next day they all came, just as we had dined, for a morning visit, – Madame de Staél, M. Talleyrand, M. Sicard, and M. d’Arblay..”
M. de Talleyrand opened, a last, with infinite wit and capacity. Madame de Stael whispered me, “How do you like him?” “Not very much,” I answered, “but I do not know him.” “Oh I assure you,” cried she, “he is the best of the men.”
But very soon Fanny was writing:
“It is inconceivable what a convert M. de Talleyrand has made of me; I think him now one of the first members, and one of the most charming, of this exquisite set: Susanna is as completely a proselyte. His powers of entertainment are astonishing, both in information and in raillery…”
Princesse d’Henin (Adelaide-Félicité-Henriette) (1750-1822)
Princesse d’Henin and her lover M. de Lally Tollendal (described by Fanny the Cicero of the French Revolution) were also in residence. The Princesse and Fanny maintained their friendship for many years, in Paris and together they fled to Brussels in 1815. The Princesse was the aunt of the Marquis de la Tour du Pin whose wife Lucie wrote a wonderful account of her life Journal d’une Femme de Cinquante Ans. (Caroline Moorehead has written an excellent book Dancing on the Precipice – Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution)
But it was to M. d’Arblay that Fanny was most attracted and he to her. So started his ardent pursuit which ended in their marriage.
Fanny writes to her father:
“M. d’Arblay is one of the most singularly interesting characters that can ever have been formed. He has a sincerity, a frankness, an ingenuous openness of nature, that I had been unjust enough to think could not belong to a Frenchman. With all this, which is his military portion, he is passionately fond of literature, a most delicate critic in his own language, well versed in both Italian and German, and a very elegant poet. He has just undertaken to become my French master for pronunciation, and he gives me long daily lessons in reading.”
My Trip to Juniper Hall
Juniper Hall was well marked as it is owned by the National Trust and is used as a Field Studies Council residential centre. It had all the hallmarks of an educational institution slightly run-down rooms filled with temporary chairs, screens, desks. But when we explained that we would like to see the famous ceiling, we were taken along by a charming assistant who knew nothing about the French emigrés Constitutionalists who had lived there in 1793. We roamed around outside and looked up to the Broadwood Tower which we had seen from another angle on Box Hill
