The Hogarth Press

The Hogarth Press

And speaking of The Persephone Post...

They recently published a painting called The Printer c. 1915 by Laura Sylvia Gosse (1881-1968) and asked: "Can anyone tell us if this unwieldy looking machine is the same kind of thing as the 'small handpress' Leonard and Virginia Woolf bought in Holborn one March afternoon in 1917 in order to set up the Hogarth Press?"



Well it was not as large and unwieldy as the image in The Printer, but it was a good-sized platen jobber, probably the Minerva. There is some confusion as Leonard Woolf wrote in a letter that he believed the press was an "Eclipse model" which was a much smaller press.



The actual Hogarth Press press now resides at Sissinghurst Castle. When Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson bought Sissinghurst, Leonard and Virginia gave them the press as a housewarming gift. It was the first piece of furniture installed at Sissinghurst.

Virginia Woolf Setting Type: ink and graphite drawing, n.d. Richard Kennedy

Richard Kennedy began working at the Hogarth Press at age 16 and worked there from 1926 to 1930. In the above drawings, Virginia Woolf is seen setting the type for Herbert Palmer’s poems. In 1972 Kennedy compiled his memories and drawing of that time into a book entitled, A Boy at the Hogarth Press.

During the heyday of the Hogarth Press 525 books were published. Of those books only a scant 34 were actually published on the platen jobber. The rest were published by commercial publishers.

If you are interested in the Hogarth Press, J.H.Willis published an exhaustive study entitled Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers: The Hogarth Press, 1917-41.

Sissinghurst

When last we spoke of Vita Sackville-West, she had lost Knole for her failure to be born male. With no home of her own, she set out to make one. And a fine job she did. Together with her husband, Harold Nicholson, they purchased Sissinghurst and set out to make it their own. Now, as we know, most British families do not have the wherewithal to keep these big, elaborate, estates operating in the twenty-first century. The days of master gardeners working for $300 a year are gone. The solution to preservation is often a crass commercialization. Like Knole, Sissinghurst's only avenue of preservation was the National Trust.


Vita's grandson, Adam Nicholson, still has living privileges at Sissinghurst, a place he lived as a child. Nicholson is married to cook and gardening expert, Sarah Raven. Together, they pitched an idea to the National Trust to rebuild the working farm at Sissinghurst to provide income (not to mention it would make a great series for television and a fine book).

I have a very romantic relationship with Sissinghurst. It bears my favorite room, Vita's writing room in the tower. I love the idea of living at Sissinghurst, though for Adam it was no big box of chocolates. Vita died before he could remember her and she was a bit of a pill when she was young, so I am sure as a "woman of a certain age" she was even pillier. As lovely as these old houses look with their vaulted ceilings and grand rooms, you know they are freezing cold most of the year. I believe the writing room in the tower must have been cozy, but the though of actually living in one of these big estates leaves me cold... literally cold!

As someone who has an old farm, I was very interested in Adam Nicholson's efforts to bring back the working farm. An endeavor such as that always seems so romantic, but the reality is far more work and money than one could ever imagine.

Mostly, I just like to see pictures of Sissinghurst.


At Cookbook Of The Day, we are featuring Sarah Raven's In Season, so you can find out what might be on the table when you visit Sissinghurst.

Inheritance

Knole in 1709

The Bolter had caused such a scandal that it is no wonder her great-granddaughter had never heard of her. In fact in Sackville family lore, she is rarely mentioned. What the Sackville's inevitably talk about in every generation is their family estate, Knole.

The Venitian Room

In fact, the current custodian of the Knole legend, Robert Sackville-West, has written a history of the house entitled, Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackville's.



Knole got it's start in 1456 at the hands of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, and was passed and leased and rented for 100 years until finally in 1605 the Crown sold it to Roland White for approximately 221 pounds. Two days later he sold it to Thomas Sackville for 2,500 pounds. For the next thirteen generations, Knole would remain in the hands of a single family, though not without some excitement.

Knole is probably best known for the one Sackville who did not receive Knole as an inheritance, Vita Sackville-West. Vita would write one of the best books on English country houses about Knole.


Vita was completely enamored of her stately home but, at the time, the laws of primogeniture prevented her from inheriting the house. When her father Lionel died in 1930, the estate passed to her uncle, Charles. If there was to be any solace from her loss, Vita was immortalized in Virginia Woolf's Orlando, as the title character who was able to transcend gender.

Knole in the 1920's

Here is a brief "tangled family tree" interlude...

Charles (1870-1962)
Vita (1892-19620
Idina (1893-1955)

...were all contemporaries.

Knole in the 1920's

Charles, in an attempt to keep Knole viable, turned most of the property over to the National Trust.

His title would go to his son Eddy. (At this point I will tell you that there is a wonderful bio of Eddy by Michael De-la Noy, because he is such a lively character. In fact, Nancy Mitford made him into Uncle Davey in The Pursuit of Love. Which makes one wonder, if the Sackville's hadn't been around, would Nancy Mitford have become a writer?... but I digress.)

Childless, Eddy passed the title to his nephew Lionel who fathered five daughters, and you don't have to ask Vita what that meant, so Lionel's nephew, Robert, became the current 7th Lord Sackville and the author of Inheritance.

Knole today

In an age when most large family estates in England have long since been sold to rock stars and sheiks, it is somewhat comforting to see Knole in the hands of the public.