Women and the British Country House - Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies, University of York

An Interdisciplinary Conference hosted by the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies and Castle Howard

14 - 16 May 2004

Women and the British Country House, 1650-1900

Speakers include: Elaine Chalus, Mark Hallett, Deborah Kennedy, Lawrence Klein,Judith S. Lewis, Christopher Ridgway, Amanda Vickery, Susan Whyman

Conference convenors: Ruth Larsen, Jane Rendall

During 2004 the Yorkshire Country House Partnership is hosting a series of interlinked exhibitions, Maids and Mistresses, that will celebrate the lives of the women of the country houses of Yorkshire. In order to mark this, the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York and Castle Howard are hosting an international conference: Women and the British Country House 1650-1900. This three-day event will bring together research from both the academic and heritage communities, in order to consider current approaches to the study of women and the British country house.

Conference themes include the roles women played in the family, in social and political arenas, and in the design of both the domestic interior and the landscape. The position of women as servants or employers will be highlighted, as will their representations in literature and art. Female experiences of charity, religion and travel will also be considered. Plenary lectures will examine the representation of women by Sir Joshua Reynolds, gender and politics in the country house, and Mother/Son relationships at Castle Howard.

The conference will take place at The King's Manor, York, and at Castle Howard. During the day at Castle Howard there will be opportunity to visit the house and an exclusive trip to the mausoleum. Please note that the number of delegates that we can accommodate is strictly limited, and so spaces will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

Programme

Friday 14 May: King's Manor, University of York.

10.30-11.00 Registration and Coffee

1100.-12.15 Introduction and plenary:
Mark Hallett (University of York): Reynolds' Women

12.15- 1.15 Lunch

1.15-2.45 Parallel Panels

Serving the Country House
Jane Hamlet (Royal Holloway) "The Source of all Comfort": the nanny in the country house, 1850-1910.

Virginia Arrowsmith. Service at Brodsworth Hall.

Estates and Gardens
Adam Smith (Normanby Hall). Catherine Duchess of Buckingham and Normanby: Maternal Care and Estate Administration

James Lomax (Temple Newsam). Temple Newsam. A Woman's Domain.

The Country House in Context: Religion in Eighteenth Century England
Nigel Aston (Leicester). Lady Elizabeth Hastings at Ledstone: religion and the country house in early eighteenth century England

Emma Major (University of York). The Country House and the Millennium

The Country House in Context: Literature
Karen Lipsedge (Kingston). Women, Closet Culture and Richardson's Clarissa

Harriet Guest (University of York). The Country House in the Novels of the 1790s.

2.45-3.15 Tea

3.15-4.45 Parallel Panels

Short papers: Nineteenth Century Aristocratic Women
Sandra Pollard (Open University). Louisa Marchioness of Waterford

Gerardine Mulcahy (Burton Constable). Mary Barbara Chichester (1800-76) A Soldier's Wife'

Melissa Gallimore (Harewood House). Lady Louisa Thynne and the Victorianisation of Harewood House and Gardens

Michael Moss (University of Glasgow). Evelyn Stuart wife of the 3rd Marquess of Ailsa (c 1850-1888)

Estates and Gardens
Deborah Kennedy (St Mary's University). The Countess of Hertford and the Poetry of the English Landscape.

Peter Denney (University of York). Sandleford Priory. Plebeian Politics, Polite Culture and the Brownian Landscape Park

Country House In Context:
Joanna Geyer-Kordesch (University of Glasgow). Lateral Thinking: Women, Nature and Science in the Country House and Garden.

Caroline Dakker. Women and artistic patronage

Domestic Interiors
Lucy Peltz (NPG). 'Reading in Detail: The Gendered spaces and practices of antiquarianism in the late eighteenth century'.

Richard Johns (University of York). 'Sabine room' at Chatsworth

5.00 - 6.15 Taste, Gender, Power and the Elite Interior. Chair, Amanda Vickery
Hannah Greig, (AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior). 'The Seductions of the Sofa: Representations of Misconduct, Gender and the Domestic Interior in Eighteenth-Century Adultery Trials'.

Douglas Fordham (Columbia University, NYC). "Making Conversation in the Indian Country House: Johann Zoffany and Arthur William Devis in Calcutta"

Lawrence Klein (Emmanuel College, Cambridge). 'Taste, Architecture and the Whig Elite in Early Eighteenth-Century England'

6.30- 8.00 Early evening reception

Saturday 15 May: Castle Howard

10.00- 10.45 Great Hall: reception

11.00-12.15 Chris Ridgway (Castle Howard) Plenary.
'Mothers and Sons: Maternal-Filial Relations at Castle Howard'

12.15-3.30 Lunch and Tours of house and mausoleum.

3.30 -3.45 Tea

3.45-5.00 Parallel Panels

The Country House in Context: Death and Memory
Ruth Larsen (University of York). 'Letters from the dead to the living': women's
responses to death and dying in the eighteenth-century country house.

Kate Retford (Gonville and Caius). Russell's Comfort: Lady Rachel Russell and Family History at Woburn.

Domestic Interiors
Valerie Krips (University of Pittsburgh). Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron: the practices of ironing in the country house.

5.00-6.00 Return to York

20.00 Dinner

Sunday 16 May: King's Manor, University of York

9.15-9.45 Coffee

9.45-11.15 Parallel Panels

Domestic Interiors
Susan Whyman. Strategies for country house living

Paula Byrne. Women and Theatricals in the country house

The Country House in Context: Women, Education and Politics
Clarissa Campbell Orr (Anglia). Rational Religion and Aristocratic Feminism c. 1700-1800: some themes and contexts

TBC

Gardens and Estates.
Sandra Dunster (University of Nottingham). Women and Property in Nottingham.

Catriona Kennedy (University of York). 'A duty to protect and serve': Elite Irish women's responses to rebellion and repression on the country estate in the 1790s

Creating the Country House.
Nicole Pohl (University of Northampton). 'An Emblem of Themselves': The Country House as Utopia

Lucy Jessop. 'The government wife and the Baroque country house'.

11.15-11.45 Coffee

11.45-1.15 Parallel Panels

Domestic Interiors
Stana Nenadic (University of Edinburgh). A 'Melancholy Magnificence' and the Search for Comfort: Elite Women's Perceptions of the British Country House c. 1700-1820.

Judith Schneid Lewis (University of Oklahoma). When a House is Not a Home: Elite Women and the Emotional Geography of the Country House

Gardens and Estates
Stephen Bending (Southampton). Retirement and Disgrace: women, gardens and the language of retirement

Kerry Bristol (University of Leeds). The Yorke Connection

The Country House in Context: Travel and the Empire
Christopher Christie (Manchester Met.). Women, travel and taste in the eighteenth-century house.

Joanna de Groot (University of York). Gender, Art and Empire in the Country House: the work of Constance Lady Wenlock

1.15-2.15 Lunch

2.15-4.00 Final plenary and discussion:
Elaine Chalus. "A great Lady in the Country": gender and politics in the eighteenth-century country house.