JACK GLOVER: Hello and welcome to the National Trust Podcast.
I'm producer Jack Glover. We hope you're enjoying season
seven and we have plenty of exciting episodes and new
stories still to come.
Today's episode is a bit of a favourite from our archives and
a nod to a mini-series we released a little while ago
called 125 Treasures, which accompany the National Trust
book by the same name.
If you've not heard it before, in this episode called for Horse
on the Staircase, we delve into the world of horse racing and
uncover this treasures hidden criticism of its owner.
The podcast is episode two of the series and is presented by
Alison Steadman.
ALISON STEADMAN: Less than 20 miles from the centre of
Belfast, lies Strangford Lough, the largest sea lake in the
British Isles. As you turn your back on the lough and enter the
Mount Stewart estate, the scents hit you all at once.
Curry, Eucalyptus, and the sweet smell of candyfloss tickle your
nostrils as you wind your way through the labyrinth of garden
rooms, temples, lakes and woodland until you're finally
confronted with the jewel in the crown of the estate Mount
Stewart house, a sprawling Georgian mansion and the resting
place of a controversial treasure steeped in the world of
high stakes gambling and thoroughbred racing.
I'm Alison Steadman and this is 125 Treasures, a podcast from
the National Trust. Episode two The Horse on the Stairs.
FRANCES BAILEY: My name is Frances Bailey, and I'm the
senior national curator for the National Trust in Northern
Ireland. The House is two stories high, built of a very
dark rubble stone.
The great entrance doors in front of me are being opened.
I go under the portico into the entrance hall.
Very welcoming and comfortable. On cold winter days, the fire is
lit. Green walls and a green ceiling. Unusual, but very
effective. And lovely. Comfortable furniture set around
the place.
ALISON STEADMAN: Mount Stewart House has been the home of the
Stewart family, the Marquess Of Londonderry, for over 250 years.
It started life as a relatively modest building, but was
transformed, formed into the imposingly Grand mansion it is
today in the early 19th century.
Largely thanks to the heiress lady Frances Ann Vane-Tempest,
who married its owner, Charles the third Marquess Of
Londonderry, in 1819.
FRANCES BAILEY: There are glass doors on one side of the
entrance hall, opening those now, moving through a little
passageway and into the central hall.
It's an entirely different space. The big octagon in the
centre, double height with a great flat skylight above it.
Pouring light down into the central space.
Columns and pilasters all around, painted a beautiful,
deep greeny blue, set out against the stony colour of the
walls.
ALISON STEADMAN: Frances Anne had inherited her vast fortune
from her father, Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, a politician and
landowner who had a reputation as a heavy drinker and a
gambler. His daughter had more refined tastes, as can be seen
throughout the house.
FRANCES BAILEY: In the central hall, there are four apsis with
sculptures in them. And one of them is Frances Anne
Vane-Tempest. And here she is in classical garb with her eldest
son.
Well, I'm leaving behind the great Central Hall and moving
through these great mahogany doors into the earlier part of
the house built in about 1803.
And turning back on myself, I find myself at the foot of the
great staircase.
Just going up the stairs of the hearth landing and actually all
I can see is, is the hooves of the animal, the grass in the
foreground.
It measures about 6ft by 12ft and it practically fills the
wall of that hearth landing over the staircase.
You have to really stand back from it to understand what the
painting is about.
It's called “Hambletonian, Rubbing Down”.
For me, “Hambletonian, Rubbing Down” is one of the greatest
works by one of the greatest British painters.
And it's, I would think, one of the greatest paintings in
Northern Ireland, certainly within the National Trust
properties.
But it's the force of it’s... it’s composition and it’s story
and the emotion behind it that for me really makes it a
masterpiece.
ALISON STEADMAN: The painting's story begins with Frances Anne's
father, the infamous Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, a man known for
his high living and his love of betting.
And at Newmarket races on March the 25th, 1799, Henry landed the
biggest win of his life.
MIKE HUGGINS: Newmarket’s on the borders of Cambridgeshire in
Suffolk. And it's quite a small town.
ALISON STEADMAN: Mike Huggins is professor of Cultural History at
the University of Cumbria and author of Horse Racing and
British Society in the Long 18th Century.
MIKE HUGGINS: It wouldn't be expected really to have a race
meeting in terms of its size, but it's got by far the highest
status in terms of racing because of the people at the
tracks.
So more and more of Newmarket is occupied by ancillary things for
racing. You know, it's... it's smiths, it's harness makers,
it's breeders. All those other jobs are taking place in
Newmarket.
From that point of view, as the centre of racing in England at
that time.
In terms of sport, racing held the leading position far more
important than things like boxing or cockfighting or any of
the many sports were flourishing at the time. If you imagine the
cup final or in football or any of those things today, it had a
bigger position than any of those.
ALISON STEADMAN: Race day was a huge social event where people
of all classes mingled dances were held and tents were set up
selling food, drink and even sex.
It also involved a great deal of high stakes gambling.
MIKE HUGGINS: Betting in gambling halls, a unique place
in Georgian society, because it's a thing that a lot of
people do in different ways. Even the middling classes would
play cards and invite folk around to play cards together
for small stakes and for the elite, it was a mark of status
and position.
ALISON STEADMAN: For the rich, gambling conveyed the idea that
you were not risk averse. It affirmed your aristocratic
status, showing that you weren't bogged down in the tiresome
nitty gritty of everyday life.
MIKE HUGGINS: The atmosphere on race day is one which is, by and
large, highly masculine, because by and large, the people who go
there are these high status players who are wagering and
betting and drinking and gambling in the coffee house for
cards and dice as well.
Newmarket is attractive for this racing elite who have the best
horses, the thoroughbreds, the most expensive horses.
They make the most extravagant wages and to them a lot of the
fun isn't in a race where several horses compete about
half the races at Newmarket and what they call matches.
Where two men agree together to race the horses against each
other for a specific amount. And other folk will bet on it. But
the two individuals stake an amount. One is going to lose.
One is going to win.
ALISON STEADMAN: And it was just such high profile match ups that
attracted men like Sir Henry Vane-Tempest.
MIKE HUGGINS: He didn't start off rich when he's born in 1771,
he's not that well off but his relatives are!
And bit by bit he inherits very large estates in in the north.
He gets coal mines in County Durham. He is a very, very rich
man. You'd see him as a multi-millionaire nowadays. He
has money to burn. He's become MP for Durham, but he's also a
gambler.
He's rash at times. He's quarrelsome, he's argumentative.
He is not well liked. But it doesn't matter. Why should it
matter? He’s got plenty of money. He can afford to be
disliked.
Because of his racing he becomes a member of the Jockey Club, and
he's. And he's making more and more matches, not just at high
status places like York, but also down at Newmarket.
ALISON STEADMAN: The jockey Club still exists today as the body
that runs horse racing.
In Georgian times It was an elite organization of
exclusively male landowners and MPs who, as the name suggests,
ran the sport like a private club.
They were out in full force at Newmarket that day to witness
one of the greatest match ups of the age.
MIKE HUGGINS: The match itself is between the Sir Henry
Vane-Tempest’s horse'Hambletonian' and Joseph
Cookson's Horse'Diamond'.
But the match itself is set up. The stakes are made. The
previous year in August at York races. And each of them put 3000
guineas on the match.
Interest is generated almost immediately because of the size
of the wager. It's a big wager. It's a very, very big wager.
ALISON STEADMAN: A few years earlier, Henry had decided he
wanted to take his obsession with racing to the next level.
He purchased Hambletonian, the grandson of two superstar
racehorses,'High Flyer' and'Eclipse'.
Today, 95% of thoroughbreds can still trace their lineage back
to Eclipse. The race was a classic North versus South
encounter. Diamond was the pride of the South, while Yorkshire
born Hambletonian represented the North.
MIKE HUGGINS: And of course, the amount of interest in this race
means that there's lots of public interest in the race
itself.
Everyone's reading about it. The papers are full of it and
everyone wants to know what the results are going to be.
ALISON STEADMAN: The crowds descended en-masse.
MIKE HUGGINS: There were so many folk wanted to see the actual
match that first of all, all the accommodation in Newmarket
disappeared very quickly.
Every single coach was booked two weeks before, so the crowds
would have been very large. Everyone wanted to see it.
ALISON STEADMAN: The race attracted feverish expectation
as to which horse would triumph. Hambletonian had only ever lost
one race, but was only the narrow favorite.
MIKE HUGGINS: The races is four miles so it went right out into
the country so people wouldn't be able to see the start unless
they rolled out to see the start.
ALISON STEADMAN: As the starter lowered his flag, the horses
raced off with the spectators who'd ridden up to see the start
riding along behind them.
MIKE HUGGINS: When the race starts and they're both
competing from the onset. But it was only in the last four
furlongs, which is a half a mile from the finish when they really
started to fight and they were both fighting like mad.
Those jockeys were doing everything they could to get
over the line. Buckle on Hambletonian, then there’s
Fitzpatrick on Diamond and they were both doing everything they
could to win.
ALISON STEADMAN: And finally, in the last few strides,
Hambletonian inches ahead and wins by a neck.
MIKE HUGGINS: Everyone's going mad that all the crowds are only
going mad and some are cheering, some are cursing.
ALISON STEADMAN: And no one was more ecstatic than Sir Henry
Vane-Tempest.
But as this was a match, not a race, there was no gold cup at
the end, no trophy to show off.
So Henry decided to commission two paintings from the great
animal painter of the 1700s, George Stubbs.
Stubbs had previously worked for some of the wealthiest families
in the land, like the third Duke Of Richmond and the second
Marquess Of Rockingham.
MIKE HUGGINS: It made sense to commission Stubbs to paint one
or two pictures for Vane-Tempest, then to be able to
display.
So when you have your house party, when guests come in, you
walk into the hall or the dining room or the library. If you've
got your painting that shows your horse the winner of the big
race and the horse, he is a symbol of your status, your
power, your wealth, your position, your ability to own
the equivalent of a Maserati or a Ferrari of the time.
This is a top horse, just like you'd have a top car or a top
yacht nowadays.
FRANCES BAILEY: Henry commissioned Stubbs to paint two
pictures of Hambletonian following his victory against
Diamond and were told that one would represent Hambletonian in
winning the race and will be a remarkable fine likeness of the
horse and of Buckle the rider and the other will represent the
horse rubbing down after the race and is as large as life.
And Vane-Tempest actually advertised this and said that
there were going to be prints made of these paintings and they
were going to be sold. So it was both a way of advertising the
brilliance of his horse and also raising some cash.
In fact, the prints were never done.
ALISON STEADMAN: Henry's plan to make more money may have failed,
but Stubbs managed to produce an artistic work of lasting
significance.
FRANCES BAILEY: Hambletonian rubbing down was painted at the
very end of his career, and in many ways, it sort of
encapsulates everything that his career was building up to.
George Stubbs was one of the great animal painters,
especially horse painters of the 18th century. He was born in
1724, the son of a courier, a leather curer, a leather dresser
in Liverpool.
And he was largely self-taught, but he decided that he wanted to
be a painter, and he announced this to his father, who was a
bit dismayed, I think.
But he persisted, and he became particularly interested in
anatomy, in how bodies worked, whether they were human bodies
or animal bodies.
ALISON STEADMAN: In 1744, aged 20, Stubbs driving ambition led
him to study anatomy at York County Hospital. What may have
attracted Henry to the work of George Stubbs was the anatomical
accuracy of his paintings.
FRANCES BAILEY: He then started to look at the anatomy of
horses, and during the 1750s, he spent about 18 months studying
the carcasses of horses, which he would rig up in a barn, in a
farmhouse, and where he was living for the time and over a
period of weeks, he would dismantle a horse carcass so,
take away layer by layer, and make the most extraordinary
detail drawings of what he found.
And these amazing drawings were to be incredibly influential.
What he really wanted to understand was how horses worked
and to be able to paint them better.
ALISON STEADMAN: In 1766, Stubbs published The Anatomy of the
Horse. Its detailed descriptions and illustration of the equine
body were an immediate success with artists, anatomists,
veterinarians and horse lovers. It became the work of reference
for all those working in the field of equine anatomy.
Fast forward some 30 years and Stubbs is still fascinated by
horses toiling away at the paintings Henry Vane-Tempest had
commissioned of Hambletonian.
In 1800 the painting was presented to Henry.
FRANCES BAILEY: Looking at this painting, what do I see?
The overwhelming presence in the painting is a great racehorse,
and the scene shows him being rubbed down. The horse is
absolutely in the-
In the front register of the painting. It's as though we
could almost reach out and touch him.
And I love the fact also that Hambletonian being so full in
the frame of the painting, the landscape is behind and below
him.
So you look under his his legs, under his stomach to see
Newmarket racecourse, to see the rubbing down house and the
viewing gallery.
And it's as though he's become a sort of colossus, a great sort
of God striding across Newmarket Heath. He's completely
dominating that.
His ears are laid back, his eyes are staring, his nostrils are
flared and he's a fantastic horse in terms of his anatomy,
the gleam of his coat, the power of his muscles, very beautifully
depicted.
ALISON STEADMAN: Stubbs chose to paint the rubbing down painting
first and not the one of Hambletonian actually winning,
the one that Vane-Tempest could have proudly shown off his
version of a gold cup.
But Stubbs wasn't interested in the spectacle of race day.
He was interested in the animals themselves, their personalities
and their stories. When Henry Vane Tempest watched the race at
Newmarket, he saw a tale of a triumphant win worthy of
celebration.
But Stubbs saw something completely different.
MIKE HUGGINS: And the race starts, and they're both
competing from the onset. But it was only in the last four
furlongs, which is half a mile from the finish. When they
really started to fight and they were both fighting like mad!
ALISON STEADMAN: Just yards from the finish line, it's still neck
and neck between Hambletonian and Diamond. The race is too
close to call.
MIKE HUGGINS: Both jockeys were doing everything they could to
get over the line. Buckle on Hambletonian, then there’s
Fitzpatrick on Diamond and they were both doing everything they
could to win.
ALISON STEADMAN: And finally, in the last few strides,
Hambletonian inches ahead and wins by a neck.
Instead of Hambletonian triumphant win in front of
cheering crowds in Stubbs' painting, we see the horse
behind the scenes suffering after running a long and hard
race.
MIKE HUGGINS: In those days, everything you can do to win
means heavy spurring, heavy whipping. Both sides of both
horses will be severely damaged.
ALISON STEADMAN: A writer for the sporting magazine at the
time commented, “Both horses were very much cut with the whip
and severely goaded with the spur but particularly
Hambletonian, he was shockingly goaded. ”
MIKE HUGGINS: There was no need to whip or spur a horse.
The problem was that sometimes these finishes were very close
and both riders really needed to win. Now, when both riders
really needed to win, anything went. And that was not seen as
bad by most people at the time.
There was an early animal rights group, but it was marginal in
society. At that time, gamblers would have expected the jockey
to do whatever had to be done and the horse was almost
immaterial.
The horse was the horse. The bet was the bet. And the bet was
more important than the horse.
ALISON STEADMAN: Stubbs is at pains to capture the physical
toil Hambletonian has just been through.
FRANCES BAILEY: Interestingly, Stubbs has chosen not to show
the marks of the spurs or the whip, but it's his- The flatness
of his neck. He's not standing there with his head up.
He's drained and his head is down and he's gasping for
breath. His mouth is open, his eyes are wide, his ears are
back. He's not a happy horse. And you can see that. You can
see that agitation.
So this is the embodiment of the horse as a sentient being, the
horse with feelings, with emotions, who works brilliantly
with people, but who sometimes people abuse.
And what comes across for me is- is Stubbs empathy for this
fantastic beast, for this very sensitive emotional animal that
has tried its hardest, has done his best, has won an enormous
race, has put everything into it. And actually all the honour
is due to him, not to the owner.
ALISON STEADMAN: We don't know exactly what Sir Henry thought
when he saw the painting, but we get the impression that he was
pretty angry.
FRANCES BAILEY: There's been quite a bit of speculation as to
why Sir Henry Vane-Tempest was not happy and was not prepared
to pay for the painting when it was finished.
And something went badly wrong and nobody quite knows what it
was. But Stubbs, who is owed 300 guineas for the paintings, had
to take Vane-Tempest to court to get the money and the really
frustrating thing is that the court records don't survive.
So we don't know what the arguments were on both sides. So
there's uncertainty about precisely what Henry
Vane-Tempest didn't like'Hambletonian, rubbing
down'.
He did eventually pay for it. But the second painting has
disappeared, if it was ever finished. And that would be
wonderful if somebody could find that in their attic.
I believe this painting deserves to be one of our National Trust
125 treasures, because it encapsulates in so many ways
what we're about. It's about people, about relationships.
It's about the countryside and rural sports.
But more than anything, it's a brilliant painting, and it's
exceptional in its portrayal of this amazing racehorse. And the
way in which he has portrayed Hambletonian in this particular
situation is so emotionally engaging that for me, that is
the real treasure of this painting.
JACK GLOVER: Thank you for listening to this episode of the
National Trust Podcast. To find more episodes and to find our
mini series, go to nationaltrust.org.uk/podcasts or
you can search for National Trust in your favourite podcast
app.
We've also included a few links about 125 Treasures and other
National Trust books, which you can find in our show notes.
We'll be back soon with a new episode. But for now, from me,
Jack Glover. Goodbye.