A party of 30 AFHS
members met by the River Thames for morning coffee on a dull, rather wet, day.
It was good to meet old friends again plus a few new faces and to be reminded
what a happy, jolly crowd we are.
We walked over the bridge to Eton College to be shown round the school which now
has 1300 boys aged between 13 and 18 years. The pupils wear the distinctive
uniform of black trousers, waistcoat, tailed coat and winged collar shirt. The
school was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. The oldest classroom remains as it
was in its earliest days and has that indefinable, but not unpleasant, smell of
age. In earlier times boys were allowed the use of penknives to sharpen their
quills and many pupils had carved their names on the woodwork including Edwin
Packenham ALDERSON and Charles Henry ALDERSON, the two sons of Baron ALDERSON, a
Chancellor of the Exchequer. We visited the brewery (boys were encouraged to
drink beer because of the polluted water supply), the cloisters and the chapel.
Many famous men were once pupils at Eton including several Prime Ministers,
numerous Members of Parliament and two brothers of Guy Fawkes!
We were most amused to learn that the Duke of Wellington’s brother is buried under the floor - he wanted 500 boys to walk over him each day!
A collection of fine portraits of old Etonians was admired. The portraits were presented by scholars when they left the school. We found the Museum of Etonian Life most interesting.
At the end of our morning tour we returned to our Coffee House passing antique shops and book shops which all give Eton its unique atmosphere. There were lots of cafés and tourist shops and Windsor Castle towered above to remind us that England is indeed the Old Country. The flag was flying from the keep, so the Queen was at home.
Christopher Wren’s old home, now a very nice hotel, is by the bridge which separates Eton from Windsor.
We enjoyed a buffet lunch and coffee together at the River House Café and were then taken in a fleet of taxis to Frogmore. Godfrey had obtained rare tickets for our group to visit Frogmore Garden. The garden is only open on three or four occasions a year and provides charities with the opportunity of raising money for their causes.
The Head Gardener, Mr Neill Dodds, explained that the 35 acre garden surrounding Frogmore House is within the Windsor Home Park and is only a short walk from the Castle.
Frogmore House was built in 1684 and remodelled by Queen Charlotte in 1792. The Queen had consulted “Mr ALDERSON, a Yorkshire gentleman and friend of poet and gardener William MASON”, to plan the gardens. It was, in fact, the Rev. Christopher ALDERSON, who was responsible for the gardens at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire which the Society visited last year. In January 1792 plants began to arrive - 200 birch, 100 laburnums, 600 sweet chestnuts and over a 25 year period Queen Charlotte spent £24,000 (£783,444 in today’s money) on the garden. A Major William PRICE was chiefly responsible for laying out the grounds - a canal shaped into a serpentine stream with the spoil used for the high banks.
Some of the paths are quite wide and today the Duke of Edinburgh practises his driving skills with horses here and the Queen loves taking her dogs around.
There is a wonderful variety of mature trees many possibly from the Rev. ALDERSON’s era, but sadly, no records of pre-Victorian times are available. It is essentially a spring garden, usually at its best in April when the Queen is in residence at Windsor, but with this year’s early Spring we were too late to see the many bulbs and flowering cherries. There were a few rhododendrons but it was mostly the various shades of green that gave balance. The ancient incense cedar tree was a tall thin column of very dark green and nearby three young Robinias had their fresh yellow-green leaves. The sheer variety of trees was amazing and newly planted saplings were already positioned to replace older the trees when they reached their full lifespan. A new method of replacing the surrounding soil, pioneered by gardeners at Kew Gardens, is helping to lengthen the life of the older trees.
We saw two evergreen oaks and a pin oak and also one of the recently discovered Woolemi pines which was found in Australia after fears that it was extinct.
Many of the trees have been presented to the Queen to commemorate special events so Marmaduke ALDERSON asked if it would be acceptable for our Society to present a tree, possibly an Alder, to commemorate the work of Rev. Christopher ALDERSON at Frogmore. Our guide was most enthusiastic and suggested that a plaque should also be included.
There are some interesting buildings positioned at strategic points in the garden. James Wyatt designed a Gothic ruin, there is an octagonal Temple, a thatched Hermitage, a striking 19th century Indian Kiosk of white marble, Queen Victoria’s Tea House and the two mausoleums, one for the Duchess of Kent, Queen Victoria’s mother, and one built when Prince Albert died and where he and Queen Victoria are buried.
There is also a burial ground with 20 or so graves including that of the Duke of Windsor and other royals.
Another memorial is the granite drinking fountain inscribed, “In affectionate remembrance of John Brown, Queen Victoria’s devoted personal attendant and friend, 1883”.
There are wonderful views from the house and it is not surprising that the Royals treasure their garden.
In the evening we met at the Christopher Hotel, Eton, for an excellent meal. Godfrey was given a well deserved vote of thanks. To borrow a well known phrase it really was “A Best Day Out”.
PS: The frogs have left Frogmore but we did see green parakeets!
Yvonne Alderson: Spring Meeting - A Visit to Eton College and Frogmore
There is an early
entry in the AFHS database for Richard ALDERSON, born in London about 1595, who
was at Eton 1608 to 1612, who was a King's scholar in 1612 and left in 1614. He
may have married Mary FORTUNE at St James, Clerkenwell, in 1619. Can anyone
supply any more information about Richard?
Those of us who visited Eton School were shown panelling where the names of the
boys were carved. Those with sharp eyes spotted two names of interest: E. P.
ALDERSON and C. H. ALDERSON. (Edward Pakenham ALDERSON was born about 1828 and
Charles Henry, his brother, was born about 1832. Both were sons of Sir Edward
Hall ALDERSON).
Checking out the books in Windsor Library I found the Eton Boating Book 1816 -
1932. There, in the List of Boats for 1852, I found F. C. ALDERSON in the Lower
Boats listed on “Dreadnought”. In 1853 he was in the Upper Boats listed on
“Prince of Wales” and in 1854 he was still on “Prince of Wales” but now listed
as Captain. On 3 July of that year Eton rowed against an Oxford crew (of old
Etonians) and F. C. ALDERSON was in the Eton crew. (Frederick Cecil ALDERSON was
born in 1836 – another son of Sir Edward Hall ALDERSON).
By 1855 Frederick Cecil was at Trinity College, Cambridge, so on 27 July 1855
when Eton rowed against a Cambridge crew (of old Etonians) he was in the
Cambridge crew. The final entry about Frederick Cecil in the Boating Book was
the list of Etonians who rowed in the University Boat Race (Oxford v Cambridge).
In 1856 Frederick Cecil was in the Cambridge crew which won that year.
Lastly, (from the Boating Book again), in 1896 R. E. ALDERSON rowed in the Eton
Novice Eights – now who was he?