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BAIR HALL
Bair Hall is not based on any one real building; it is rather a mixture of different manor houses and castles in Britain.
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"From the distance Bair Hall seemed a jumble of oriels and turrets and chimneys. Lots of chimneys. The bricks blurred into a single rusty-brown, the shades of red, orange and apricot lost just like the delicate blue pattern among them, a diamond-shaped tattoo on the thick hide of the Hall."
From the outside, Bair Hall resembles Compton Wynyates in Warkwickshire, Britain, the home of the Compton family since 1209. The name Compton derives from the name of the place itself: "the settlement in the coombe," for the house is situated in a lovely valley -- in contrast to Bair Hall, which "sat comfortably on its green hill like a fat brown hen on her eggs." The second part of name of Compton Wynyates refers to the fact that the hills around the manor were once used as wineyards.
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Compton Wynyates,
by William Albert Green
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The oldest part of today's manor house dates from the 15th century, but later Comptons also added new bits and pieces to their home. Over the years, the power of the Compton family increased: they were made barons, and the first Lord Compton was one of the nobles who sentenced Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, to death. And under the reign of James I, the Comptons got the title of the Earls of Northumberland.
The library of Bair Hall is loosely based on the library of Alnwick Castle, the home of the 11th Duke of Northumberland.
In the early 19th century the country-house library acted as some sort of informal sitting room, and thus the atmosphere in
the library was comfortable and relaxed -- a perfect place to spend a quiet evening with good friends. Beautifully designed
bookcases held collections of several thousands of books, both old and new. In the library of Bair Hall you can therefore
find the bestsellers of the early 1800s, such as Ann Radcliffe's gothic novels, as well as the ludicrous books the fourth
earl had liked so much, such as Reverend Samuel Wesley's Maggots: Or, Poems on Several Subjects, Never Before Handled (1685).
The lovely blue dining room of Bair Hall can be found in the House of Dun in Scotland, and the great staircase down to
the entrance hall is taken from Kinross House in Scotland.
"One of the softly rolling hills harbored the ice house, another displayed a set of artificial ruins:
the
fourth Earl of Ravenhurst had not just had a fondness for silly books, but also for any other oddities that touched his
sense of humor."
During the first wave of the Gothic revival in the second half of the 18th century, fashionable people had castles built
for themselves or -- like the fourth Earl of Ravenhurst -- had fake ruins erected in their gardens. The fake ruins in the
gardens of Bair Hall were inspired by those of Rousham House in Shropshire.
Return to the Secrets of THE LILY BRAND
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