ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

Benham House, sometimes called Benham Place or Benham Park, at Speen near Newbury in Berkshire, is a Georgian country mansion that was built in 1774-6 for William, 6th Baron Craven, husband of Elizabeth Craven the author. The Cravens owned several estates in Berkshire and their name has been given to many streets - and pubs - in the Newbury area. William, 6th Baron Craven painted by James Northcote                       Elizabeth was deeply attached to Benham House because it was built to her taste and wishes. The Craven family had owned the estate at Benham, originally called Benham Valence, since 1620, when the first Lord Craven bought it from Sir Francis Castillion. His father, Giovannie-Battista Castiglione, received the manor of Benham Valence as a gift from Queen Elizabeth I, to whom he had been tutor in the Italian language.     The Tudor house burnt down in 1774 and was replaced with one in the...

Soon after Elizabeth Berkeley married William Craven in 1767 he inherited the title of Lord Craven and this ancestral home, Coombe Abbey, near Coventry in Warwickshire.  This tinted drawing taken from the South side was published in 1810, by which time Elizabeth Craven's son had inherited Coombe Abbey. The house stood in a beautiful deer park, part of which still exists. This much earlier drawing done by Daniel King in 1656 shows the structure and layout of the building very clearly. Coombe Abbey was, like so many English aristocratic country houses, constructed out of the ruins of a pre-Reformation monastery. The Gothic cloister of the original monastery is still clearly visible in the central quadrangle of the building. The pointed arches of the windows and regular pattern of vaulting from an original covered walkway resemble what you would see in a convent in Italy or in many Oxford and Cambridge colleges today.     The Tudor additions make the buil...

Elizabeth Craven was an English traveller and writer who deserves to be better known. She was born in London in 1750, at the height of the Georgian era, and died at Naples in 1828. She wrote plays, novels, poems and letters in English and sometimes in French.  She was a witty, satirical social observer with a keen interest in the rights of women. A new biography published by Vernon Press sheds light on many fascinating details of her writings and her life, with its many events, friendships, scandals and love affairs.  The portrait shown here on the cover picture is by Ozias Humphry and is in the National Portrait Gallery although it is actually owned by the Tate.  The exact date is unknown. There are no records of Humphry meeting her until the 1790s, but the piled-up hairstyle and costume would be more characteristic of  c1780, when Craven was aged thirty. The painting captures her refined features and intelligence, with a hint of playfulness in the smile. ...