Lowther Castle

The house was largely built between 1806 and 1814 for William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale and designed by Robert Smirke in his first major commission.

[3][4] The house was closed by the Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale in 1935 and partly used as a tank training range during World War II.

[6] The original settlement at the site was founded in 1120 by Dolfin de Lowther, a nobleman descended from Danelaw Viking conquerors.

He incurred a large debt to the father of William Wordsworth and refused to pay it despite numerous requests from the family.

When Sir James Lowther died in 1802 and William inherited his fortune he immediately refunded the money to the Wordsworth family with interest.

in thy majestic Pile are seen Cathedral pomp and grace in apt accord With the baronial castle’s sterner mien"[12] Lady Augusta Lonsdale, William's wife, was also a patron of the arts, and she kept an album in which some of the poets visiting Lowther Castle wrote verse.

[13] Robert Southey, another famous poet, was also a frequent visitor at the castle and he too wrote in Lady Lonsdale's album.

The sun those wide spread battlements shall crest, And silent years unharming shall go by, Till centuries in their course invest Thy towers with sanctity.

He painted the recently acquired work called “Lowther Castle – Evening” which hangs in the Bowes Museum.

George Macartney, when visiting the summer retreat of the Chinese emperor in Chengde in 1793, could compare the magnificence of what he saw only with Lowther Hall: “If any place in England can be said in any respect to have similar features to the western park, which I have seen this day, it is Lowther Hall in Westmoreland, which (when I knew it many years ago) from the extent of prospect, the grand surrounding objects, the noble situation, the diversity of surface, the extensive woods, and command of water, I thought might be rendered by a man of sense, spirit, and taste, the finest scene in the British dominions.”[16] In 1839 Mrs Harriette Story Paige visited Lowther Castle with Daniel Webster, a famous American politician.

He had a passion for exploration and when he obtained his fortune he spent much of his time aboard his two steam yachts making long voyages to far parts of the world.

He had a scientific interest in the sea, and his careful studies of the behaviour of the Gulf Stream were important enough to be published by the American Hydrological Department[clarification needed].

She has been described as “one of the professional beauties, a select group of a half-dozen society ladies who like the super models of today were constantly talked about and whose portraits were on sale to the public.

"[26] The marriage was not considered to be a success, as St George was constantly away travelling and Gladys was caught up in a social set which did not meet with his approval.

Gladys often entertained at Lowther Castle and one of her visitors was Lillie Langtry, who was said to be the mistress of King Edward VII.

“Lady Gladys Herbert and Later Countess of Lonsdale was superbly beautiful, with brilliant colouring and the features and carriage of an ideal Roman Empress.

As we wisked through the Park and the impressive walls of Lowther loomed before us she intimated that the one thing she was most anxious for me to see was the emu strutting about the grass.

Their assessment of his character proved to be correct, as the following year he invested a great deal of money in cattle in America.

The couple then lived near Oakham and Grace became pregnant but suffered a bad fall while hunting and lost the baby.

[29] In August 1895 the Kaiser visited Lowther Castle for some grouse shooting, and the imperial flag flew over the house.

During the First World War he helped to found the Blue Cross animal charity, where his chief role was as a recruitment officer of both men and horses.

His brother Lancelot, the 6th Earl, inherited the estate in 1944; but because of Hugh's large debts he was forced to sell many of the family's treasures.

After he returned from World War II, he said “it was a place that exemplified gross imperial decadence during a period of abject poverty".

[30] The forecourt became pig pens; and the concrete on the south lawns that the army had laid he used as a base for a broiler chicken factory.

In 2005 the estate formed an informal partnership with the Northwest Development Agency, English Heritage, Cumbria Vision and the Royal Horticultural Society to regenerate the site.

A report in October 2018 summarised the situation at that time as follows: "The part-demolished castle shell and the wrecked garden have been resurrected with impressive energy and conviction.

Work on the 130-acre garden was continuing in mid-2019, based on plans by Patrick James and Dominic Cole, under the guidance of designer Dan Pearson and the castle's current owner Jim Lowther (son of the 7th Earl of Lonsdale).

[40][32] One of the projects is the Garden in the Ruin, a new phase after the 2015 plantings, including Hydrangea aspera Sargentiana and Parthenocissus henryana.

The new Rose Garden had already received 1,250 eglantine roses, underplanted with brunnera, Galium odoratum and Chaero-phylum hirsutum Roseum; in spring 2019, 6,000 perennials were added, white Geranium macrorrhizum White-Ness, Calamintha sylvatica Menthe and Brunnera macrophylla Betty Bowring and Narcissus poeticus and Camassia leichtlinii alba.

[32] Lowther Deer Park hosts the music festival Kendal Calling, and Born Survivor, a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) obstacle run.