America’s English Country House Style

The English country house style that roared through the 1980s and ’90s, setting a firm grip on our East End, was far less “English” than one would conjecture. In fact, if it were not for the talent, energy and wealth imported from late 19th-century and early 20th-century America, the English country house style would be just a moldy footnote in the annals of decorating history. The “Dollar Princesses,” daughters of American robber barons, who were made rich through railroads, finance, shipping, tobacco, retail and real estate, were traded by their parents to destitute British men for handsome British titles, and for their palaces, country estates and castles.The most famous, Consuela Vanderbilt, unhappily wedded to the unkind and rather philistine Duke of Marlborough, brought her great fortune to the wastrel nobleman and saved the famous Blenheim Palace from tumbling down around his ears. (Her unhappy marriage was inspiration for Edith Wharton, critical scribe of the Gilded Age, in the book “The Buccaneers.”) The Duke squeezed from Consuela’s fortune a large decorating budget, which he squandered to his own regret on Louis XIV-style splendor.

Consuela Vanderbilt, May Goelet and Emerald Cunard were among the many Americans who transported their American love for fine furniture, tapestries and paintings in historic surroundings to England, where they were among the few who could afford it. In contrast to America’s Gilded Age, England was still suffering from the poor harvests of the late 1870s and its hereditary owners’ inability (or laziness) to adapt to modern times and earn a living. Death duties and taxes, imposed by the Harcourt administration, sounded a death knell to the English aristocrat, not nimble enough to juggle the affairs of his own estate. Quite honestly, it became known, “If an Englishman’s home is his castle, it must be because he married an American.”

In addition to the great fortunes these daughters of moneyed titans brought to the marriage, their popularity was based on other criteria. According to author Clive Aslet, “The American girl … was unreservedly a good thing. She was likely better educated than her equivalent in Europe, where it seemed hardly worth spending money on educating female offspring because their future in life would be assured through marriage. It was thought wrongly, as the popularity of the American girl would prove, that men were put off by signs of cleverness. To the contrary, it was considered delightful that the American girl could converse on a wide range of subjects. The American girl offered a devastating combination of money, liveliness and, quite possibly, looks.”

Along with these qualities, the American girl brought a sensibility of comfort and convenience—so lacking in the drafty, antiquated castles and manors. Again, Aslet comments, “The British boys, brought up in chilly houses with few bathrooms, were toughened at public schools famous for their rigor. Plumbed hot water seemed an extravagance. Far from considering it an indulgence, they preferred servants to carry the water up to zinc baths in their rooms. However stately the corridor, ladies’ maids had to battle, on behalf of their mistresses, for occupation of a bathroom. Americans saw no reason to preserve such a dismal status quo.”

May Goelet, a distant relation of the Goelets who currently own Gardiner’s Island, was the definition of the American girl who had it all, as well as being captivating. After being pursued by numerous “titled” suitors, she married the Duke of Roxburghe and, unusual for the time, enjoyed a successful and happy marriage. With her New York real estate fortune, she restored and modernized the enormous Floors Castle, hiring smart French decorators, creating a home of remarkable beauty and comfort along with terrific Louis XVI-style bathrooms. From New York, May brought a sumptuous collection of period French furnishings. She insisted on craftsmanship of the highest quality, installing Gobelin tapestries overmounted by the exquisite carvings in the Grinling Gibbons mode.

William Waldorf Astor purchased Cliveden, a grand Italianate house close by Windsor. An expat by choice, he settled into an active political life in London as well as restoring and adding on appropriate period wings to another country house, Hever Castle, formerly owned by the family of Anne Boleyn. But life at Cliveden changed after his eldest son, Waldorf, returned with Nancy Langhorne Shaw. A beautiful, famously outspoken divorcee from Virginia, she feminized the gloomy halls with chintz curtains, slipcovers, flowers and books. American comfort and style defined the English country house—languishing from centuries of stodgy moldy decorating. Nancy Astor, a Virginian, was elected Britain’s first female MP and had famous tussles with Winston Churchill.

The most important influence on the English country house style was, without doubt, Nancy Astor’s niece, fellow Virginian Nancy Lancaster, who married two different heirs to the Marshall Field fortune (her first husband died at the age of 22 from a tonsillectomy). Her second husband, Ronald Tree (also a Marshall Field cousin), convinced her to move to England, where they took a lease on Kelmarsh Hall, a large Palladian country house. Young and energetic and undaunted by the scale of Kelmarsh, Nancy redecorated the dreary home with dandelion yellow upholstery, flowered slipcovers and new curtains.

In Oxfordshire, they purchased Ditchley Park, a stately home with a rundown topiary garden and a view of Blenheim Palace. She summoned luminaries of the design world, Lady Colefax, Syrie Maugham and Stephane Boudin of Paris (Jackie Kennedy’s decorator of choice for the redo of the White House). Can you imagine what teachers she had! Synthesizing these different contributions, Nancy and Ronald Tree designed a home of unique warmth and unfussy elegance with rich pattern and bold color. From Ditchley, Nancy’s success was acknowledged and other estate owners asked for her help. The Trees entertained lavishly with great originality, establishing a salon-like atmosphere, attractive to the younger smart moneyed set.

Her third and last marriage, to Major Lancaster, owner of Kelmarsh Hall, was a debacle lasting only three years. Her children were quoted as saying, “She loved Kelmarsh more than she loved Major Lancaster,” and she continued her passion.

Ronnie Tree (husband no. 2), still in good stead with his ex-wife, bought out Sibyl Colefax’s share of Colefax and Fowler, a successful firm with grand connections. Nancy brought her impeccable eye for mixing antiques, great paintings, comfortable soft goods and faded fabrics, flowers and good furniture to the firm. Her partner, John Fowler, brought to the business a distinct knowledge of the 18th century and its fine proportion—an artist’s eye for color, paint, finishes, trompe l’oeil, curtain-making and trims—and the discipline of a seasoned professional. They were an enormous success and their influence is still felt in well-appointed homes across England and the United States—spawning a wide spread of disciples such as Mario Buatta, David Easton and the graduates of the Parish Hadley dynasty.

Though Nancy Lancaster and John Fowler were referred to as the most “unhappy unmarried couple,” their acrimonious relationship was artistically fruitful.

But there were countless other Americans who were both tastemakers and trendsetters, bringing their American vibrancy, fortunes and love of Great Britain to the sagging Empire. Gordon Selfridge, a force of nature, stylishly transformed the retail concept with swagger and panache. Maud “Emerald” Cunard unstuffed the Edwardian swells with a stylish salon that rivaled the glitterati in Paris. William Randolph Hearst swept through with his Hollywood royalty to St. Donat’s Castle, built in the late Middle Ages. Hearst, an aficionado of medieval paraphernalia, had his minions scour England for period rooms, buildings and furnishings until it almost caused Parliament to issue an injunction to stop him from plundering their architectural treasures. The Whitney fortune revived Leeds Castle, one of Britain’s most romantic castles. Baltimore’s Wallis Simpson, of course the cause of much royal commotion, brought an exacting erudite style to Fort Belevedere, a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle. This was the Prince of Wales’ romantic escape from “Buckhouse Prison.” Getty installed himself in one of Henry VIII’s courtier’s palaces. And of course, Lawrence Johnston created arguably the greatest and most intriguing garden in England’s Hidcote Manor, which has launched a thousand copies.

The “English Country House Style,” so beloved here in the United States, owes a huge debt to Americans who funded it, designed it and nourished it through the lens of these Anglophiles’ love of history, elegance and comfort. Ironic though it may seem, without the American infusion, there would be no English country house style as we recognize it today.