HUNTING BOXES AND social life ON EXMOOR
Several large houses were built at the end of 18th century as it became fashionable to have a ‘hunting box’ on Exmoor. The late 18th-century Aclands are said to have cared for little but hunting and had kennels at Highercombe and Jury in Dulverton as well as Holnicote in Selworthy. Both Highercombe and the Musgrave’s house at Stone in Exford, described as a ‘pretty mansion’ in the 1780s, show fashionable architectural features. West Molland house was extended and improved for the Courtenay family, Combe in Dulverton for the Sydenhams, and Pixton for the Aclands. However, the ‘very pretty white house’ of the Aclands was not grand enough for Henry Herbert, later earl of Carnarvon, who married Elizabeth Kitty Acland in 1796. In 1805 Hassell of Exeter completed a new three-story mansion.[1]
Exmoor is not suited to the grand house and grounds to be found in lowland Britain. Pixton, Stone, and Highercombe had no extensive gardens but grounds that blended into the wild landscape. Their owners had their main estates elsewhere. Wealthy farmers like the Lyddons of Edbrooke or the occupants of Ashway and Hele Bridge in Dulverton would have dominated the everyday social and political life of Exmoor. Communities were largely self-contained farming units. However, the opening up of Exmoor to tourism, if only for the wealthy, by end of the 18th century connected those remote communities with the wider world. Fashions and ideas would have come in with letters, books and newspapers, perhaps passed on to their hosts by visitors.
The 19th century saw the building of several large houses and a new group of wealthy capitalists joined the traditional Exmoor gentry. Country houses were built or rebuilt in the late 19th and early 20th-century around Dulverton including Knapp in East Anstey, Hele Manor and The Claw in Brushford, Hollam, Northmoor House, Ashwick with its private theatre, and New Invention in Dulverton. Easy rail access from London for people and commodities, cheap and plentiful coal, and ample servants made life reasonably comfortable and sociable. The First World War, which killed 72 sons of gentlemen and cottagers in eight parishes, brought some change but life at houses like Pixton Park still centred round hunting and house parties. Hunting was the main attraction of Exmoor for wealthy families for much of the 20th century. Many farmers and cottagers also hunted or followed the hunt according to their circumstances although not all local people approved of hunting. In addition hunting provided socials events such as puppy shows, point to point, and hunt balls.
In the 1930s there were up to eighteen indoor servants at Pixton Park, later reduced to eight, four gardeners, a carpenter, and grooms. Unless the Herberts were at their villa in Portofino there would be guests or shooting parties most weekends, driven to and from the station. Hilaire Belloc was a regular visitor and once set his bed alight by smoking. In the 1930s the Fortescues at Simonsbath House, now a hotel, had a butler, valet, ladies maid, housemaids, cook, kitchen maids, scullery maid, and odd job man. They also had a governess and tutor for the children. They had the use of a car and horses and spent much of their time riding and hunting with friends or attending gymkhanas and country shows.[2]
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Mary Suirat Page 2 Exmoor Reference
[1] Swete, Travels in Georgian Devon, 56; SRO, A/AQP 8, 37; Highclere Castle, Q/A1, 3, 26; Snell, F J, ‘A Sacristan’s Commonplace Book’, The Antiquary, xxxv, 137—8.
[2] Som CC, HER; SRO, Exmoor Oral Archive; Kelly’s Dir. Som. (1906, 1939).