The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

July 26, 2014

July 26, 1938

Leave us dawdle today around an English garden, labeled historic. The pictures below are from Easton Lodge, part of the estates of the wealthy and beautiful heiress. Daisy, Countess of Warwick (December 10,  1861 to July 26, 1938).





Probably the drawing above shows the estate before the 1847 fire which was quite destructive. The photos below are from the restored estate, a National Trust property, and I cannot ascertain precisely where the west wing of the mansion is. That is of interest to us since Daisy Warwick at the end of her life lived in the west wing of the estate. Here is how the website puts it:

In 1918, another fire severely damaged the Jacobean wings of the house. The fire is thought to have been started by one of the Countess’ pet monkeys.....the Countess, having been widowed in 1924, eventually moved into the West Wing where she remained with her beloved animals until her death in 1938.

Here are some pictures of a restored Easton Lodge at Little Easton, Great Dunmow, Essex-











Her ONDB biographer sums up the picture we now have of the Countess:

Daisy Warwick has received a mixed press. Treated as a minor figure of fun by labour historians, she has been dismissed as 'ridiculous or hypocritical or both' ...Her earlier manifestation, as a society beauty and mistress of the prince of Wales, had by the late twentieth century become a glamorous tale of romance in high society rather than one of squalid adultery. She was the subject of a scholarly biography, published in 1967, which attempts to understand the entirety of her extraordinary career. Disorganized and contradictory, hazy about the truth, enthusiastic and passionate, she flitted from lecture platform to newspaper column, from cause to cause; but despite considerable pressure to conform she never wavered in her belief in the virtues ....of socialism.

Her scandalous political attitudes have overshadowed the countess's extreme love for animals. Here is how her biographer Margaret Blunden sketches Daisy's last years.
In The Countess of Warwick: A Biography (1967). Blunden quotes from an article published in the late 1930s  by the Daily Express, about the Countess:

The countess lives at the Lodge in strict economy, surrrounded by peacocks, homeless ponies, pigeons, numerous Persian cats, and an assortment of dogs.

Here is the younger Lady Frances, Countess of Warwick, called 'Daisy':  



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