Melbury House is anEnglish country house in the parish ofMelbury Sampford nearEvershot, Dorset.[1] TheGrade I listed mansion is the home of the Honourable Charlotte Townshend, a major landowner in east Dorset, through her mother, Theresa Fox-Strangways (Viscountess Galway), daughter and heiress ofHarry Fox-Strangways, 7th Earl of Ilchester.[2]
Melbury House has been the seat of the Strangways family ofDorset since the estate was acquired in 1500 from William Browning (alias Bruning, etc.) by Sir Henry Strangways (c.1465–1504) who had married his widow.[3][4] The mediaevalmanor house of the Browning family was rebuilt after 1546 by Henry's great-grandson SirGiles Strangways (1528–1562)[5] usingham stone from a quarry nine miles away. Though Sir Giles lived extravagantly and encumbered his considerable estate with debts at his premature death, at Melbury he built a conservative house, "a courtyard with no frills", asMark Girouard described it,[6] "apart from the one gesture of its tower". This remarkable feature, a hexagonal tower, rises near the intersection of three ranges of buildings, filled above the level of adjoining roofbeams with banks of tall arched windows of many leaded panes that offer views in every direction over the rolling landscape of the park and the countryside beyond. Its roof has mockbattlements.
It was altered and extended in 1692 byThomas Strangways (1643–1713), under the direction of a certain "Watson", a local mason-builder who is probably to be identified with John Watson of Glashampton, Gloucestershire.[7] It was further modernized in the 19th century.
The house passed to the Fox family from the Strangways heiress Elizabeth Horner, daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Horner (1688–1741), MP, ofMells Manor in Somerset,Sheriff of Somerset in 1711/12,[8] by his wife Susanna Strangways, eventual sole heiress of her brother Thomas Strangways (d.1726) and a daughter ofThomas Strangways (1643–1713), MP, of Melbury House. In accordance with the terms of his wife's inheritance from her childless brother in 1726, Thomas Horner adopted for himself and his descendants the surname and arms of Strangways. In 1735, at the age of 13, Elizabeth Horner married 31 year-old Stephen Fox (1704–1776) (laterStephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester), eldest surviving son of SirStephen Fox (1627–1716), the firstPaymaster of the Forces, deemed the "richest commoner in thethree kingdoms". In 1758 Stephen Fox alsoassumed the additional surname and arms of Strangways, in accordance with the terms of his wife's inheritance. In 1741 he was raised to thepeerage of Great Britain asBaron Ilchester of Ilchester in the County of Somerset andBaron Strangways of Woodford in the County of Dorset; In 1747 he was createdBaron Ilchester and Stavordale of Redlynch, in the County of Somerset, and in 1756 he was even further honoured when he was madeEarl of Ilchester.[9]
WhenHorace Walpole visited Melbury, he admired the paintings and tapestries in "apartments most richly and abundantly furnished". The pioneer of photographyHenry Fox Talbot was born in the house.[10]Thomas Hardy made use of Melbury House, as "King's Hintock Court", for passing mentions in "The Duke's Reappearance" inA Changed Man and Other Tales and inA Group of Noble Dames, 1891.[11]
The house and its stable yard to the north are Grade I listed buildings.[12]
The landscaped gardens are Grade II* listed in theNational Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[13]
50°51′07″N2°36′10″W / 50.8520°N 2.6027°W /50.8520; -2.6027