West Wycombe Park - The Dashwoods of West Wycombe

The Dashwoods of West Wycombe

Sir Francis Dashwood built West Wycombe to entertain, and there has been much speculation on the kind of entertainment he provided for his guests. Judged against the sexual morals of the late 18th century, Dashwood and his clique were regarded as promiscuous; while it is likely that the contemporary reports of the bacchanalian orgies over which Dashwood presided in the Hellfire caves above West Wycombe were exaggerated, free love and heavy drinking did take place there. Dashwood often had himself depicted in portraits in fancy dress (in one, dressed as the pope toasting a female Herme), and it is his love of fancy dress which seems to have pervaded through to his parties at West Wycombe Park. Following the dedication of the West portico as a bacchanalian temple in 1771, Dashwood and his friends dressed in skins adorned with vine leaves and went to party by the lake for "Paeans and libations". On another occasion, during a mock sea battle on the lake, the "captain" of one of the yachts masquerading as a battle ship was nearly killed when he was struck by a cannon ball of wadding fired at him from an opposing ship. Dashwood seems to have mellowed in his later years and devoted his life to charitable works. He died in 1781, bequeathing West Wycombe to his half-brother Sir John Dashwood-King, 3rd Baronet.

Dashwood-King spent little time at West Wycombe. On his death in 1793, the estate was inherited by his son Sir John Dashwood, 4th Baronet, Member of Parliament for Wycombe and a friend of the Prince of Wales, although their friendship was tested when Sir John accused his wife of an affair with the prince. Like his father, Sir John cared little for West Wycombe and held a five-day sale of West Wycombe's furniture in 1800. In 1806, he was prevented from selling West Wycombe by the trustees of his son, to whom the estate was entailed. He became religious in the last years of his life, holding ostentatiously teetotal parties in the West Wycombe's gardens in aid of the "Friends of Order and Sobriety" — these would have been vastly different from the bacchanalian fêtes given by his uncle in the grounds. In 1847, Sir John was bankrupt and bailiffs possessed the furniture from his home at Halton. He died estranged from his wife and surviving son in 1849.

Sir John was succeeded by his estranged son Sir George Dashwood, 5th Baronet. For the first time since the death of the 2nd Baronet in 1781, West Wycombe became again a favoured residence. However, the estate was heavily in debt and Sir George was forced to sell the unentailed estates, including Halton, which was sold to Lionel de Rothschild for the then huge sum of £54,000 (£ 4.4 million in 2012). The change in the Dashwoods' fortunes allowed for the refurbishment and restoration of West Wycombe. Sir George died childless in 1862, and left his wife, Elizabeth, a life tenancy of the house while the title and ownership passed briefly to his brother and then a nephew. Lady Dashwood's continuing occupation of the house prevented the nephew, Sir Edwin Hare Dashwood, 7th Baronet, an alcoholic sheep farmer in the South Island of New Zealand, from living in the mansion until she died in 1889, leaving a neglected and crumbling estate.

The 7th Baronet's son, Sir Edwin Dashwood, 8th Baronet, arrived from New Zealand to claim the house, only to find Lady Dashwood's heirs claiming the house's contents and family jewellery, which they subsequently sold. As a consequence, Sir Edwin was forced to mortgage the house and estate in 1892. He died suddenly the following year, and the heavily indebted estate passed to his brother, Sir Robert Dashwood, 9th Baronet. Sir Robert embarked on a costly legal case against the executors of Lady Dashwood, which he lost, and raised money by denuding the estate's woodlands and selling the family town house in London. On his death in 1908, the house passed to his 13-year-old son Sir John Dashwood, 10th Baronet, who in his adulthood sold much of the remaining original furnishings (including the state bed, for £58 — this important item of the house's history complete with its gilded pineapples is now lost). In 1922, he attempted to sell the house itself. He received only one offer, of £10,000 (£ 405 thousand in 2012), so the house was withdrawn from sale. Forced to live in a house he disliked, the village of West Wycombe was sold in its entirety to pay for renovations. Not all these renovations were beneficial: painted 18th century ceilings were overpainted white, and the dining room was divided into service rooms, allowing the large service wing to be abandoned to rot.

A form of salvation for West Wycombe was Sir John's wife: Lady Dashwood, the former Helen Eaton, was a socialite who loved entertaining, and did so in some style at West Wycombe throughout the 1930s. Living a semi-estranged life from her husband, occupying opposite ends of the mansion, she frequently gave "large and stylish" house parties funded by further sales of land from the estate.

During World War II, the house saw service as a depository for the evacuated Wallace Collection and a convalescent home. A troop of gunners occupied the decaying service wing, and the park was used for the inflation of barrage balloons. During this turmoil, the Dashwoods retreated to the upper floor and took in lodgers to pay the bills, albeit very superior lodgers, who included Nancy Mitford and James Lees-Milne.

Lees-Milne was secretary of the Country House Committee of the National Trust, which had a wartime office based at West Wycombe. Sir John, appreciating the historical importance of the house, if not the house itself, gave the property to the National Trust in 1943, together with an endowment of £2,000 (£ 66.7 thousand in 2012).