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Former residents
The Lumsden years
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Earlscliffe in the early part of the 20th century at the time of Sir John
Lumsden
The following letter was written to the Irish Times on June 22 1987:
| LANDSCAPING A GARDEN
Sir - It was with great interest that I read in the weekend supplement of
June 13th, "One man's way to achieve beauty without backache", written by
Ella Shanahan. And I feasted on the beautiful picture. |
| It might be of some interest to keen gardeners to know that
approximately 56 years ago my father, the late Sir John Lumsden, bought
Earlscliffe from the late Dr Ella Webb. As this superbly sited place of
seven acres was virtually shrubless and flowerless, my father set to, to
landscape and transform the garden. He had many shrubs planted, not,
unfortunately, as beautiful as Dr Robinson's present ones. He also planned
several terraces, and in the centre of the main picture one can just glimpse
one of the "points" of the St John Cross (my father being the founder and
first commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade in the Republic of
Ireland), the building of which gave my father enormous pleasure. |
| It was indeed God-sent, that such a skilled artist as Dr Robinson should
have bought, nurtured and improved Earlscliffe's garden as he has, and I
feel greatly indebted to him, as I greatly loved and appreciated the 18
years I lived there, up to my marriage in 1939. - Yours, etc., |
BETTY L'ESTRANGE,
Lisnalurg House, Sligo |
Betty was born Betty Florence Lumsden on 4 October 1909. She
married Captain Christopher Carleton L'Estrange on 21 October 1939.
[1]
More recently (2006), a grand-daughter of Sir John, Margery Stratton has been
in contact. Margery was born and brought up in a small town in Pennsylvania, but
spent a memorable year in Earlscliffe in 1935/6. Here is an extract from a
recent correspondence with her.
| Because I was 12 when I arrived at Earlscliffe and everything about it,
the people, the servants, the location was so different than my home in a
small town in Pennsylvania everything stands out in my memory.
The paths, and the lawn outside the "Morning Room" facing the Irish Sea
are pretty much the same. A putting green was on the lawn and I have many
photos of the house and grounds. My father and I arrived on July 21, 1935
and every evening sherry was served on the lawn and we all took our turn at
putting while nibbling on cheese crackers and nuts (and I probably drank
barley water with lemon squash with a squirt of soda as I was the 12 year
old granddaughter). The view of Dublin Bay was so beautiful and when Dad's
brother in law Douglas Latta arrived from Ayr to be with his wife Aunt Norah
and their two children, Jennifer (4) and Stuart (2) shepherded by a Scottish
Nanny, we would all watch from the boat from Scotland going to Dun Laoghaire
where he would be met by Grandpa (Sir John) Lumsden or another member of the
family as Betty Lumsden still lived at home (she was one of the twins and
was about 26 years old). Actually Betty was studying piano at the Royal
Academy of Music in London and home for the summer and at holidays. Aunt
Norah spent the entire summer there and the Nursery was over the Morning
room and during that time Grandpa lived in his "hut" on the hill above the
putting green. Granny (Caroline Kingscote Lumsden) had her "hut" across the
lawn under the palm tree with a view of the sea. (Now I believe the house
faces East and if so then the Baily Lighthouse was Northeast and the sound
of the foghorn was a nightly background noise. Another foghorn was south of
the Needles.)
In that household were the cook Katie, and parlormaid, Winnie who later
married the chauffeur, David, and Mr. and Mrs. Barnes who lived in an
apartment between the main house and the barn/courtyard. Mr. Barnes was in
charge of the garden and Mrs. Barnes made butter, took care of the chickens,
and I have no idea who milked the cow which was out in the pasture. Ninnie
was the woman who came to the Lumsdens when Grannie was expecting her first
child (my father) born in 1897. She stayed with the family her entire life
and was an excellent seamstress and made all the clothes that I wore to
school etc.
When we visited Betty's daughter Stella (L'Estrange) Durand, an Episcopal
priest who lives in Wicklow in the town of Kiltegan and then Caroline
(L'Estrange) Hamilton I learned a lot more -- but they are just a few years
older than my eldest son, Bill, who turned 60 in July. The Christmas of 2005
Caroline sent us a book about the Guinness family and we learned so much
more about Grandpa from that book. |
 The book that
Margery was referring to was "The Goodness Of Guinness" by Tony Corcoran,
published in 2005 by Liberties Press ISBN 0-9545335. This book is an
"illustrated social history of the St James's Gate Brewery, including in-depth
discussion of the major contribution made by the Guinness company to the welfare
of its staff and the wider community." [2]. It
contains many stories about Sir John Lumsden and his work at the brewery.
Margery has sent us a fascinating story of Earlscliffe in the 1930s and has
given us permission to publish some of the stories. These will be published
soon.
Read more about
To learn more about the history of the Robinson Garden at
Earlscliffe, read the following page:
Disclaimer. Parts of the data found in these history pages has been
derived from sources currently available on the internet. In researching the
previous owners of Earlscliffe, certain assumptions have been made as to the
validity of this internet data. If you believe that some of this data is
inaccurate, please use the contacts page to let us
know.
This page was last updated on
24-Feb-2008 .
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