Downhill House

Downhill House was a mansion that was built in the 18th century for Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, in downhill at Castlerock in County Londonderry ( Northern Ireland). A large part of the building was destroyed by fire in 1851, but rebuilt in the 1870s again. After the Second World War, the building fell into disrepair.

Downhill House is today as part of Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple to the National Trust.

History

After he became in 1768 an Anglican Bishop of Derry, Frederick Hervey was the beginning of the 1770s the work on his property Downhill Demesne near the village of Castle Rock on the north coast of Ireland in order. Downhill House was built by the architect Michael Shanahan, possibly James Wyatt and Charles Cameron were involved in the early phase of the design. The construction of the house and the adjacent Mussenden Temple cost about £ 80,000. Original main entrance to the property was the Lion 's Gate, which was actually two Snow Leopard, sign holders, guarded the coats of arms of Hervey. In 1784, this entrance through the Bishop's Gate was replaced. The interior of the house contained frescoes, statues and paintings by several famous artists.

After Hervey's death in 1803 the estate to his cousin, the Reverend Henry Bruce, who had managed this even earlier, during the absence Hervey fell. Henry Bruce's sister was Frideswide Mussenden, for the Mussenden Temple had been built and was after her death to her memorial.

Downhill was spared from the heavy destruction that wreaked of violent hurricane in the night of 6 to 7 January 1839 in Ireland, but in 1851 a fire destroyed a considerable part of the house, including the library. Frederick Hervey had a large collection of artworks collected, which were kept in Downhill and another house that he had built in Ballyscullion. The fire destroyed the works of great artists such as Correggio, Dürer, Murillo, Rubens and Tintoretto, although there are reports that most of the images were saved.

The reconstruction of the building lasted from 1870 to 1874 and was carried out under the direction of John Lanyon, who worked predominantly based on the original plans, but also undertook some changes to the room layout and equipment.

During the Second World War, members of the RAF were in the house. The Bruce family owned the house until 1946; In the following years it was demolished except for a part of the walls and sold the land. The National Trust acquired it in 1980, after he had acquired the Mussenden Temple back in the 1940s.

The opinion of contemporaries was divided. On one hand, the location and the design of the building as " spectacular " example of the aesthetic idea of ​​the sublime were called. On the other hand, wrote a visitor in 1801 on the site:

"It is impossible not to regret the misapplication of so much treasure upon a spot where no suitable Desmesne can be created ... where the salt spray begins to corrode this sumptuous pile of Grecian architecture, and the imagination anticipating the distant period weeps over the splendid ruin, a sad monument of human folly. "

And another, Edward Wakefield, said in 1812 that he had " never seen such a bad house on such a large plot of land ."

For real property also includes a pigeon house, walled gardens, a Belvedere for Hervey's daughter and a mausoleum for his brother George Hervey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland there are over 1000 documents that relate to the family Hervey Bruce and range from the mid-18th century to the early 20th centuries, including detailed information about downhill.