A Little Bit of Switzerland in Regency England!

Nicola here. When I was a student in London, I lived near the Finchley Road. This was one of the main roads that led North out of the centre of London and it was often very busy with traffic. At one large roundabout there was a sight that always struck me as very odd: A Swiss chalet in the middle of the road. It was a pub and it was called, perhaps unsurprisingly, “Swiss Cottage.” The roundabout and the nearby underground station were named after it, and for such a busy and modern place it looked total incongruous.

I didn’t realise then that when the original “Swiss Tavern” was built there in 1804, it was part of a
larger fashion for recreating Swiss landscapes in England and elsewhere as part of the Romantic movement. Yes, as is often the case, the poet William Wordsworth had a hand in bringing back the idea of “Swissness” as something that represented freedom and beautiful scenery. In 1790 he and a friend took a walking tour of Switzerland and he was awestruck by the landscape and also by a scale model he saw of Lake Lucerne, the mountains and the alpine cottages. He brought home the idea of creating little Switzerlands in the English countryside.

The craze for Swiss cottages lasted a long time, from the Georgian period right up to the Edwardian. By the 1830s it had taken root in America as well as in England, and also spread to other countries.  The Koerner House in Spokane is an example of this style from the Edwardian era but as early as 1838, James Fenimore Cooper’s characters in the novel Home as Found complain of “Swiss Cottages” appearing on the banks of the Hudson as part of a building boom in New York. Cooper had hiked in the Swiss Alps himself and seen the real thing. He thought the copies were kitsch!

In England there are still a lot of these curious buildings around once you start looking for them. Often they were built by aristocrats looking to create fun places to entertain or to live in when they were pretending to be poor country folk. At Endsleigh in Devon there is a chalet built for the 6^th Duke and Duchess of Bedford that was designed in about 1815 by Jeffrey Wyatville, complete with an Alpine garden, and furniture “a la Suisse” with wooden chairs and platters, hornspoons etc. Humphrey Repton landscaped the surrounding woodlands to make the area look more Alpine as well.  The main room, which was used by the Duke and Duchess for picnics and shooting lunches, opens out onto a veranda perched high above a steep clearing in the forested Tamar River valley.

Over in Cahir in Ireland, Lord and Lady Cahir also jumped on the Regency bandwagon and asked John Nash to design an ornamental Swiss cottage where they could entertain their guests. As with the 18^th century Queen’s hamlet at Versailles in France, these picturesque cottages were also popular as places where the aristocracy could pretend to be simple rustic peasants – 18^th and 19^th century cosplay! Often they would have dairies and other “working” farm buildings so that the Queen or Duchess could dress as a milkmaid and milk a cow if they felt like it. I can only imagine that if you were a bona fide peasant, you would have laughed at rich people playing at being poor – or perhaps thought they should try it for real. Thatched roofs were an important feature of many Swiss cottages built in England to add to the country feel of them; in reality of course, thatch looks gorgeous but can be more of a fire risk and is susceptible to decay. It’s also a perfect home for birds and rodents!

Just down the road from me is the cutest Swiss cottage imaginable which was built in about 1850, allegedly by Lord Barrington who wanted a replica of a chalet in which he and his wife stayed on their honeymoon in Switzerland. So romantic if true!

Jesse Watts-Russell went one better when he re-built the village of Ilam in Staffordshire – the entire village is in Swiss style. Again it was constructed in the early 19^th Century and Jesse chose the design as he felt that the surrounding countryside of the Peak District had an alpine feel to it. However he didn’t do it for entertainment or to pretend to be poor; he was a philanthropist who had inherited a fortune from his soap manufacturer father and wanted to put it to good use. He also built the village hall and funded the school as part of his good works.

The Swiss garden at Shuttleworth is a gorgeous creation. It was designed by Lord Ongley in the 1820s at his home of Old Warden Park in Bedfordshire. The site was originally clay soil and completely flat but he had it transformed into Alpine foothills with mounds, ponds, serpentine paths and shrubberies, a Swiss Cottage, an aviary, huge trellises arching over the lawns, a thatched tree seat, complete with sentimental poem etched into a marble slab and a nearby melancholy walk and tiny chapel with a stained glass window. Small but beautifully ornate cast-iron bridges, an Indian Kiosk and a fine Grotto, which was later transformed into the Fernery completed the site. The garden is the only complete example of a Regency Romantic landscape in the UK and, as such, is of great historic significance. Like Jesse Watts-Russell, Lord Ongley also remodelled the local village in the same Swiss Picturesque style.

It’s lovely that there are still so many Swiss-style buildings, villages and gardens about the place to explore. They might not fool us that we are actually in Switzerland or even in a place that looks very authentically like Switzerland (it would take more than English snow to make them look real) but they are charming and an intriguing insight into a fashion that goes right back to the Georgian era. You can imagine Regency aristocrats, fresh from their travels, keen to spend their fortunes on re-creating their experiences at home. After all they didn’t have a holiday photo album! Or perhaps they longed to be free of all that wealth and responsibility and be a simple farmer – if only for a day!

We all love Regency romance but are you a Regency Romantic? Are you enchanted by the idea of wandering through an Alpine garden or staying in a Swiss cottage? What would be your ideal Regency setting - grand house, gorgeous garden, Regency cottage by the sea, or all of them?

 

Comments

[Mary T]

Very interesting post. I read a lot of Regency Romance novels, but I can't recall (off the top of my hear) any descriptions of an Alpine garden or Swiss cottage. A lot of the novels I read describe "Follies" erected on great estates. Usually, in some sort of garden. It seems silly to me to erect some useless building when you already have such lovely surroundings. I assumed they were some sort of status symbols.

When reading the novels, I'm really more focused on the characters and the story. But I also realize the surroundings add a lot to the story. I don't really have a favorite setting - like them all.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nicola, I had NO IDEA that Swissness was a thing in the Regency and beyond. It does make sense that Wordsworth had a hand in creating it. I enjoy exploring such unusual places and don't make judgments about their worthiness. I suppose I'd go for Regency manor house-large but not humongous--by the sea and with a gorgeous garden. I wouldn't even mind if it was Swiss style!

[Patricia Franzino]

Hi Nicola, I like all of them. I didn't know the aristocracy had this odd indulgence called Swissness.

They are very beautiful houses for such a ridiculous pastime to create this atmosphere.

The wealthy get bored and need to have toys, whether it's in the past or present.

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Mary! Like you, I can't recall coming across a Swiss Cottage in any Regencies so I was surprised to discover how popular the fashion was. There's definitely a plot there for an author, I think!

[Nicola Cornick]

That sound a perfect combination, Mary Jo! Yes, it's interesting that the Swiss style was so popular and yet we don't hear that much about it. I also feel a bit slow not to have noticed so many Swiss-style houses about the country! A fascinating glimpse into the era that isn't that well known.

[Nicola Cornick]

That is so very true, Patricia! Creating elaborate Swiss gardens just for entertainment or to pretend to be poor seems ridiculous to us - to much time on their hands (and too much money to burn) as my grandmother would have said!

[Lil]

One of the problems with building Swiss chalets and fantasy farms where they don't belong is that while they may look pretty they also look fake, especially once the fad has passed. There is a house near me that looks like a Tuscan villa—ochre stucco, huge planting urns, a drive lined with umbrella pines. On its own, its an attractive building. The problem is that it is set in a suburban neighborhood of wood-shingled ranch houses surrounded by maple trees and rhododendrons so it just looks weird.

[Shelagh]

Some of those pretend chalets look gorgeous but it was the Regency garden that sent me off to find out more. Now I wish I lived in England so I could visit it. Meanwhile, I do love a good Regency novel though, off the top of my head, I don’t recall too many mentions of Swiss chalets in those I’ve read.

[Kareni]

I wonder if the love of things Swiss extended to more interest in fine chocolate making. (The important things in life....)

What an intriguing and informative post, Nicola. Thank you! To answer your question, I am happy with all the Regency settings you listed above.

[Karin]

One of the neighbors in my hometown was a carpenter and woodworker. He was German but also had spent time in Switzerland. The house he built in New Jersey looks very much like your photo of the Koerner house in Spokane, the same dark wood, and that wooden balcony railing with cutout designs. He had a brook going through the property, so he built a little fish pond, where he used to raise trout! And then he built another house, almost identical to his own, for another neighbor down the street! I've been in both, and really coveted them terribly. I've always preferred cottages and an English style cottage garden to any mansion.

[Nicola Cornick]

Unusual buildings do tend to stick out like a sore thumb, don't they, Lil! Maybe that's one reason aristocrats were always remodelling their houses once a fashion had moved on!

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Shelagh! The Regency gardens are superb, aren't they. I can't wait to visit Shuttleworth Swiss Garden. I wonder whether the fad for Swissness has passed authors by?

[Nicola Cornick]

Ah, that might explain everything, Kareni! Swiss chocolate would be the best reason to visit and to recreate Swissness back in England!

[Nicola Cornick]

Those houses sound amazing, Karin. What a talented guy! I love the idea of the trout pond as well. Very quirky! I'm with you - whilst I'd love to have a parkland to exercise the dogs, the cottage gardens are my favourite too.

[Laynis]

What a great tidbit of knowledge. I’ve read hundreds, of not thousands of historical romances taking place in the Georgian, regency and Victorian eras, and had never heard about this trend. I have read about the follies, attempting to imitate Greek and Roman temples, the crocodile furniture and the whole Egyptian influence too. But never about the Swiss. Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Laynis, yes you do hear a lot about the fashion for classical styles and the Egyptian influence and even the Prince Regent's interest in all things Scottish, but I'd never heard of Swissness either! Intriguing!