Biography of Anne Russell Countess Bristol 1620-1697

John Evelyn's Diary. 18 Aug 1688. The house, or rather palace, at Althorpe [Map], is a noble uniform pile in form of a half H, built of brick and freestone, balustered and à la moderne; the hall is well, the staircase excellent; the rooms of state, galleries, offices and furniture, such as may become a great prince. It is situated in the midst of a garden, exquisitely planted and kept, and all this in a park walled in with hewn stone, planted with rows and walks of trees, canals and fish ponds, and stored with game. And, what is above all this, governed by a [her daughter] lady (age 42), who without any show of solicitude, keeps everything in such admirable order, both within and without, from the garret to the cellar, that I do not believe there is any in this nation, or in any other, that exceeds her in such exact order, without ostentation, but substantially great and noble. The meanest servant is lodged so neat and cleanly; the service at the several tables, the good order and decency-in a word, the entire economy is perfectly becoming a wise and noble person. She is one who for her distinguished esteem of me from a long and worthy friendship, I must ever honor and celebrate. I wish from my soul the [her son-in-law] Lord (age 46), her husband (whose parts and abilities are otherwise conspicuous), was as worthy of her, as by a fatal apostasy and court-ambition he has made himself unworthy! This is what she deplores, and it renders her as much affliction as a lady of great soul and much prudence is capable of. The Countess of Bristol (age 68), her mother, a grave and honorable lady, has the comfort of seeing her daughter and grandchildren under the same economy, especially [her grandson] Mr. Charles Spencer (age 13), a youth of extraordinary hopes, very learned for his age, and ingenious, and under a Governor of great worth. Happy were it, could as much be said of the elder brother, the [her grandson] Lord Spencer, who, rambling about the world, dishonors both his name and his family, adding sorrow to sorrow to a mother, who has taken all imaginable care of his education. There is a [her granddaughter] daughter (age 17) very young married to the [her grandson-in-law] Earl of Clancarty (age 20), who has a great and fair estate in Ireland, but who yet gives no great presage of worth,-so universally contaminated is the youth of this corrupt and abandoned age! But this is again recompensed by my [her grandson-in-law] Lord Arran (age 30), a sober and worthy gentleman, who has espoused the [her granddaughter] Lady Ann Spencer (age 21), a young lady of admirable accomplishments and virtue.

Survey London Volume 4 Chelsea Part II. In the account in the Architectural Review (May, 1911) I have summarised the later history of the house as follows:-"After the great house had been occupied during the Commonwealth by the Parliamentary Commissioners, Sir Bulstrode Whitlocke and John Lisle, the second Duke of Buckingham regained possession. Lost to him, through his debts, the house ultimately passed (1674) into the hands of the trustees for George Digby, Earl of Bristol, and his Countess sold it in 1682 to Henry, Marquess of Worcester, afterwards Duke of Beaufort, the house remaining in his family until 1720. It was during this period, about the year 1699, that Kip's beautiful view of the mansion - now called Beaufort House - was published, a priceless record of the property, so ruthlessly defaced and destroyed by Sir Hans Sloane after he purchased it in 1737. Mr. Randall Davies, whom I have followed in the account of the occupants of the house, has printed the interesting conveyance of the property to Sloane, and if its description is carefully collated with the information in Kip's view, one is struck by the wonderful accuracy of the latter. Here is the great house as shown by Thorpe, its lodges and its forecourts, the wharf, with its brick towers east and west, the orchard and 'one garden environed with brick walls … and a terrace on the north end, with a banqueting house on the east end of the terrace,' as well as 'one great garden … extending from the terrace and banqueting house into the highway on the north.' This banqueting house is alike in detail to the sketch of 'a summer house, Chelsea,' in the Smithson collection of seventeenth-century drawings, now in the possession of Colonel Coke. But valuable as is the representation of the great house, the print has much more information to give us. The great park is there shown in all its original beauty; the Duke of Beaufort's stables and yard, since converted into the historic chapel and burying ground of the Moravians is to the west; and nearer the river the beautiful Jacobean house of Sir Arthur Gorges (our sole evidence of its character and design) and the house and gardens of the Earls of Lindsey. And to the east, below the wide area of Dovecote Close, laid out as a huge kitchen garden, are the fine pleasure grounds of Danvers House, which had been destroyed but three years before the drawing was published.".