Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects, based on artefacts in the British Museum and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as a series of 15 minute talks, captured the imagination of many people. The History of Charterhouse in 100 Objects is based on a similar concept, exploring the artefacts remaining in our Museum store. Object 36 has now been added to the series.
Object 36: Sporting Fashion
This decorative waistcoat is one of a pair of 18th century embroidered waistcoats worn by the last owner of Cowdray Manor in West Sussex. It has a series of round small buttons down the centre, around which is a decorative floral design consisting of roses, and two lower pockets decorated with roses and foliage. Below each pocket are two racehorses with riders, galloping and poised to jump a fence.
Cowdray House burned down in October 1793 and its owner, George Browne, eighth Viscount Montague, drowned that same week, aged only twenty-four: he was travelling in Europe with his friend, Charles Burdett, on the 18th century equivalent of a stag weekend before his wedding. Despite warnings from local fishermen, the two young men attempted to ride a fishing dinghy over the Rhine Falls at Laufenburg and perished. Cowdray House was being refurbished in readiness for the wedding and the fire was accidentally started by carpenters working in the north gallery. The house was never rebuilt and remains as a romantic ruin in the Cowdray Park estate.
This double tragedy was rumoured to be the fulfilment of a local legend. A monk had cursed the Browne family with destruction by fire and water for taking Easebourne Priory at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. The Montague male line died out with the eighth Viscount and the property passed to his sister; her two sons were drowned in a tragic boating accident and the Cowdray estate was sold.
The flamboyant waistcoat perhaps reflects its young owner’s love of sporting excitement. We do not know how this beautiful garment found its way into the Charterhouse Museum, but it is quite likely that the Museum’s founder, the Revd Gerald Davies, purchased it. Despite being a man of the cloth, Davies (G1864, BH 1873-1905) was a passionate racing expert who regularly attended Derby race meets and wrote for sporting newspapers. He was the founder of the Charterhouse Museum and contributed many artefacts to it. The racing horses on this waistcoat, together with its unique history, would undoubtedly have appealed to Davies.
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