Footnotes

• Provenance: Corby Castle, Cumbria
  
  Purchased from: W.F.Greenwood & Sons Ltd, Harrogate, June 26th 1957, £190.00.
  
  The first recorded building at Corby incorporated in the present house, was a 14th century Pele tower probably erected by Sir Richard de Salkeld who was granted the manor of Corby by Edward III. The property was purchased during the reign of James I by Lord William Howard, third son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, who was executed to his association with Mary Queen of Scots. Thus began the unbroken succession of Howard owners of Corby and its link with England's premier Dukedom. William Howard settled in Cumberland after his marriage to the heiress Elizabeth Dacre known as 'Bessie with the broad apron' because of her vast possessions in the North of England. They lived in great state at Naworth Castle near Carlisle and Corby was bought for their second son, Francis, brother of the Howard whose descendants, as Earls of Carlisle, were seated at Castle Howard in Yorkshire.
  
  In the 18th century Corby became widely known for the naturalised garden laid out by Thomas Howard in the 1720's. This 'Arcadian' landscape was one of the first of its kind to be planned and planted in a manner which came to be recognised as a distinctly English contribution to the history of gardening, as it sought to blend classical buildings and statuary into a 'natural' framework which was, in fact, carefully articulated to provide vistas, walks, rides and surprise incidents. Such is the garden at Corby, containing a tempietta, statues, a cascade and a grotto, and taking full advantage of the picturesque qualities of the site high up on a bend of the river.
  
  From the exterior, the present house, is unequivocally a classical building, it was transformed by Henry Howard in 1812 into a solid late Georgian mansion encased in locally quarried red sandstone and surmounted by the Howard's lion crest of the south and east fronts. The house incorporated a staircase from the early 18th century and possibly some rooms from the mid-18th century. The earlier origins of the house can also be detected in the unconventional plan of the interior, where the 14th century tower and the 17th century wing are absorbed into the new house. The principal contents of Corby Castle where sold in a contents sale by Phillips Edinburgh, 18 May 1994.

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Category: Furniture / Fine Furniture and Works of Art

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