Firle Place

To Firle Place, near Lewes, yesterday with The Irish Peers’ Association.

The Gage family have lived there since 1440 and over 584 years have acquired porcelain from Sèvres, furniture including two fine Chippendale display cabinets, probably bought to display the porcelain, and an exceptional picture collection. including works by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Van Dyck, Raphael, Puligo, Zoffany, Guardi and Teniers. Those are just a few highlights of what is truly a treasure house.

“This monumental group portrait of the Nassau-Siegen family is significantly dated 1634, when van Dyck made a brief visit to Brussels because of his guild. Count John (1583-1638) was a member of the family of the Princes of Orange, who led the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. However, around 1610 he changed sides (and religions) to become a general in the service of the Regents of the Spanish Netherlands.” (Emma Oliver, Firle Place website)

It is the largest van Dyck in England because somehow the two children on the right were forgotten and a strip of canvas had to be added to accomodate them. It came to Firle by a circuitous route including a reference to “spoils of war”.

The core of the house is Tudor but in the 18th century a Georgian extension was wrapped around it to make the house bigger. This is clad in Caen stone and gives the house the aura of a French chateau. The picture above shows the Georgian exterior looking through to the Tudor core across the courtyard.

The Gages took a more prominent role in public life than the Bellews. Sir John Gage, who built the Tudor manor, made Firle Place his principal home and held many high offices, including Constable of the Tower and was an executor of Henry VIII’s will. He had Henry to stay at Firle and was appointed Vice-Chamberlain to the King. At that time there were forty liveried servants. Sir John also served as a key figure in the dissolution of the monasteries in Sussex.

In spite of the last sentence the Gages were staunch Catholics – there was a priests’ hole an essential feature of recusants’ architecture. It was easier to remain Catholic in Ireland and it was not until the 20th century that, for now anyway, the Bellews of Barmeath became Church of Ireland. The Gages lasted until the 18th century when the heavy financial penalties of being Catholic outweighed their religious conviction and they became and remain C of E.

Firle opens to the public later this month. Yesterday it was opened for us. The Gage family joined us for drinks and a picnic in the garden before two expert guides took us around the house and its treasures. It is close to Glyndebourne, I saw the controversial wind turbine from an upstairs window, and a visit would fit in well before going on to the opera.