ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

      Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith, which eventually became Elizabeth Craven's home, dated back to Stuart times. The house was built in c.1625-6 for Sir Nicholas Crispe (1598-1666), a local merchant whose family money came from the brick-making trade. This business flourished because the area West of London was rapidly expanding during this period. Throughout his career he was a stout royalist, which brought him some gains and some severe losses. Sir Nicholas Crisp, Bt., line engraving by Robert Hartley Cromek, published 1 May 1795 by T. Cadell & W. Davies, after an unknown artist. NPG D13876        Crispe's house was in an elegant fashionable, Dutch style and built solely of bricks, with no timber structure. This was an innovation in its time. It overlooked the river, less for the purpose of a pretty view than that of transporting heavy goods by water.       In 1628 Crispe purchased most of the shares of the Guinea Compa...

Who started the Mile High Club? Maybe you think that this is a twentieth century idea. Until recently, so did I. Aeroplanes were invented in the early twentieth century and quite soon after they were invented somebody came up with the idea of the Mile High Club. Sex in the stratosphere sounded like an original idea for adventurous people and so much more exciting than just a hotel bedroom. Of course that was before seat belts were made compulsory. But it seems the Mile High Club was invented in Georgian times by the 4th Earl of Cholmondeley (pronounced Chum-ley) one of the most notorious rakes and libertines of Elizabeth Craven's time. She undoubtedly knew him - she mentioned him in her Memoirs - and he mixed in the circles of the supreme rake, Georgie-Porgie the Prince of Wales. Elizabeth Craven knew Lord Cholmondeley from her girlhood, when he was one of the eligible young men who were invited to her home to meet her and her elder sister, Georgiana, along with Lords Tyrc...

       We've all come across articles we disagree with from time to time but some are just so inaccurate that the unwary public needs to be warned against them.        Elisabetta Marino's article "Constructing the Other: Reconstructing Herself" - A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople by Lady Elizabeth Craven" in the book The West in Asia and Asia in the West: Essays on Transnational Interactions, edited by herself and Tanfer Emin Tunc (1)  is one of these.        The blurb claims, "This collection of new essays examines the “transnational turn” in cultural studies between Asia and the West. Drawing on literature, history, culture, film and media studies, scholars from a range of disciplines explore the constructs of “Asia” and “the West” and their cultural collision."  Hmmm. Well, most of the collision I can find is with the facts.              I will not carp too muc...

Brandenburgh house from The Beauties of England and Wales by John Britton. The text of this allegory is preserved in the British Library. The original edition is simply entitled "Prelude," and it is not attributed in the catalogue to Elizabeth Craven. However, there can be no doubt that she is the author. It appears to be the first work of Elizabeth Craven's that was performed in her celebrated private theatre at Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith, Middlesex in what is now London.  The work can be firmly dated to 1793 because of its allusions to the outbreak of war between Britain and France, and also from its verses dedicating the theatre to the Muse Thalia, and pronouncing a benediction over it. The text below has been edited and corrected. Brandenburgh House from the River Thames. The theatre is visible on the left of the picture.   An Allegorical Masque, performed at Brandenburgh House in 1793, written by Elizabeth Craven, Margravine of Ans...

In the anthology Poems on various subjects , edited by Thomas Tomkins in 1804, we find “A Prayer for Indifference” by Mrs Greville.[1] Sweet airy being, wanton sprite, That lurk'st in woods unseen, And oft by Cynthia's silver light Trip'st gaily o'er the green; Oh! deign once more t'exert thy power; Haply some herb or tree, Sov’reign as juice of western flower, Conceals a balm for me. I ask no kind return of love, No tempting charm to please: Far from the heart those gifts remove, That sighs for peace and ease. Nor peace nor ease the heart can know, Which, like the needle true, Turns at the touch of joy or woe, - But, turning, trembles too. Far as distress the soul can wound, 'Tis pain in each degree: 'Tis bliss but to a certain bound; Beyond, is agony. Take then this treacherous sense of mine, Which dooms me still to smart: Which pleasure can to pain refine; To pains new pangs impart. Oh, haste to shed the sacred balm, My s...