October | 2018 | Angelyn's Blog

In 1823, a Bond Street printer published a collection of ghost stories collected by Mr. Jarvis, Esquire. Chronicling visitations from those who have passed on is considered a dubious business. But Jarvis protests the dead have a reason to speak to us:

“..to keep alive in the memory of mankind, the persuasion there are more things in heaven and in earth than are dreamt of in the school of athiestical philosophy..”

— Accredited Ghost Stories, J. Andrews (publisher) 1823

One ghost delivered a message so poignant that even a queen was impressed, and Prinny gained a playmate.

Major Blomberg was posted to Dominica during the War in the Colonies. The expected time of his arrival from England had long since passed and the island’s British governor and staff were growing impatient over the delay. One evening, the governor was interrupted in his study by a servant, claiming the major had finally arrived.

The spire at haunted Huntingdon College. The institution was named for Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, and cousin to Dominica’s governor.

Blomberg seated himself across from the governor’s desk without ceremony, rumpled, impatiently waving off the lingering servant. When they were alone, the major commanded his astonished host to seek out two orphans upon his return to England.

They are my children, the major said, the result of a secret marriage. He gave express details of their location in Dorsetshire, and where their fortune may be found. Rising, he begged the governor to take guardianship of them. No entreaty could persuade him to remain, no demand could compel him to explain himself further.

He merely withdrew, saying, ‘Adieu! You will see me no more.’

The good major shouldn’t have been seen at all. His ship was never to arrive.

When news reached Dominica that Blomberg’s ship had sunk, killing all aboard, it was clear that something very odd had taken place in the governor’s island residence. In spite of this, the man took his task seriously, and sought out the children upon returning to England. He found them in the village the ghost specified. He found their inheritance, and their papers, in a red Morocco case.

Just as the ghost specified.

“This tale was related to the late Queen Charlotte, and so deeply interested her she immediately adopted the son as the object of her peculiar care and favor. He was brought to Windsor, and educated with his present Majesty, of whom he has through life been the favourite, the companion, and the friend. “

The spectre of Queen Charlotte may have photo-bombed a wedding selfie taken at Wiltshire’s Bear Hotel.

Happy Halloween!

The bergère- a low, comfortable chair. The term means shepherdess in French. In England, they called these easy chairs barjairs–or burjairs. They were first popular in the early part of the eighteenth century.

One can almost see a buck of the ton sprawled upon this exquisite piece of furniture. He would naturally stretch his nankeen-covered legs out, displaying his physique to advantage in negligent contrast.

The Northumberland bergère is on display at the V&A Museum in London, along with other remnants of the now-vanished Northumberland House. The following is a bill of sale from the manufacturer:

‘2 bergeres, from the antique, of your Graces aburra wood, highly polished, & richly carved & gilt with ornamented trusses, foliage leaves, scroll sides, &c the tablet back, & seats stuffed with the best horsehair in canvas, standing on brass socket castors.
£225 16s
To covering the seats, backs, & tablets of the bergeres with grey silk, lined with calico, & finished with silk gimps, & cord in suit £5 18s’

The Northumberlands also commissioned special covers in leather for the chairs, to protect such expensive pieces when the house was closed up. Not just any old Holland covers would do for Their Graces when they were not in residence.

The chair was designed by Benjamin Dean Wyatt, eldest son of architect James Wyatt. His clients, besides Their Graces of Northumberland, included the Prince Regent, the Duchess of Rutland and the Duke of Wellington.

His work on Lancaster House is the subject of this blog’s post from several years ago.

From the 1820s to the 1830s, Wyatt was responsible for a mini-revival of the Rococo, which had fallen out of favor decades before. As you can see, the bergère, while styled in the classical Grecian design, sports gilded scrolling .

Recalling the good times of the ancien régime.

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland were married in 1817 in Northumberland House, which they renovated extensively during the late Regency. They had no children, so their energies were devoted to many and varied aspects of British public life, which, like their chair, live on today.