How The Amberleys Acquired The Home<\/u><\/p>\n
In an online document titled the Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin, the Amberley couple didn\u2019t originally own or live in Ravenscroft. Sheila Turcon states, \u201cThey visited Ravenscroft for the first time on 14 April. It was then owned by a Mr. Morris. Amberley liked it at once but his wife Katherine did not\u201d (11). Out of desperation for a place to live, they bought the home and moved in with their children Frank and Rachel (Bertrand wasn\u2019t born yet). Ravenscroft: A Center of Radicalism against British Norms<\/u><\/p>\n Russell\u2019s childhood in the home was cut short due to his parent\u2019s subsequent deaths during his adolescence. However, Ravenscroft or Cleddon Hall as it is now called, was known for very radical inhabitants. His father was \u201can atheist and his mother was having a relationship with his tutor inside the home and with the full knowledge of her husband. In other words, it was an open marriage\u201d (Norwood). They definitely went against the grain as far as what would have been socially acceptable in 19th<\/sup> century Britain. Norwood also points out that the Russells supported \u201cbirth control\u201d (Norwood).<\/p>\n Life in Ravenscroft<\/u><\/p>\n In the book, Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921, <\/em>author Ray Monk states, \u201cGenerally, though, life at Ravenscroft for the first year of Bertrand Russell\u2019s life was quiet and even idyllic\u201d (8). The family largely kept to themselves, but \u201cthey did often visit relatives at various country homes\u201d (Monk 8). However, despite the relative quietness of Russell\u2019s early life, his parents had unconventional views on Christianity and the dominant religious and political views of the era. On this note, Bertrand Russell\u2019s older brother, Frank, states, \u201c\u2018I do not remember ever being taken to church or having the name of God inflicted upon me\u2019\u201d (Monk 8). Russell\u2019s parents were pretty much eccentric, fun loving people who went against the grain of what was socially acceptable. In Caroline Moorehead\u2019s book, Bertrand Russell: A Life<\/em>, she notes that the Russell-Amberley family participated in \u201cotter hunts and croquet parties, cottage flower shows and the picking of bilberries\u201d (12). The Russell children were allowed to run around and do whatever they wanted so long as they were \u201cuseful and independent\u201d (Moorehead 13). Frank, the oldest and most independent, was said to have \u201cclimbed on to the roof and hide if anything displeased him\u201d (Moorehead 13). Rather than punish him, Bertrand\u2019s parents instead instructed the \u201cgoverness that he be \u2018kept back\u2019 but not contradicted\u201d (Moorehead 13). An omen coinciding with the dark times at Ravenscroft came in the form of the Amberlys\u2019 visit to a \u201cremarkable medium\u201d (Monk 8). The medium they visited, Mrs. Acworth, performed a \u201cs\u00e9ance in which the spirit of Janet Chambers spoke through Acworth to John. Janet Chambers was the former lover of John who he might have married had she not died suddenly in the autumn of 1863\u201d (Monk 9). Nothing bad came of this encounter, but the next spirit was considered to be \u201cJames II, that figure of contempt for all true Whigs\u201d (Monk 9). For point of reference, James II was a Roman Catholic and John and Katherine were vehemently against Catholicism and especially due to their political affiliation as Whigs. In any case, the Amberleys\u2019 ridicule of the spirit may have cemented a bad omen for the Amberley family\u2019s lives in Ravenscroft.<\/p>\n The End of the Good Life<\/u><\/p>\n The Amberley family was first struck hard by the death of John Stuart Mill, a philosopher, economist, and all around liberal. He was also heavily admired by Jon and Katherine and later became their friend and eventually the \u201cgodfather to Bertrand Russell\u201d (Monk 9). This struck John Amberley hard to the point that he experienced an \u201cepileptic seizure\u201d the first step of his later depression and eventual death (Monk 9). The next issue to rock Ravenscroft was the arrival of Douglas Spalding, the new tutor for Bertrand\u2019s brother Frank.<\/p>\n The Strange Antics of Douglas Spalding<\/u><\/p>\n Douglas Spalding committed several actions that certainly upended the once relatively normal atmosphere of Ravenscroft. In regards to these actions, Moorehead states, \u201cSpalding rapidly turned the drawing room and library into a barnyard, allowing his experimental chickens to wander at will and insisting on keeping a hive of bees indoors\u201d (13). Based on Monk\u2019s textual observations, the family and their guests were not welcoming of Spalding\u2019s experiments and considered him \u201ca nuisance and a rather sinister, grotesque figure\u201d (10). However, John and Katherine accepted his scientific endeavors and participated in a unique relationship with the man.<\/p>\n The \u201cLove\u201d Triangle in Ravenscroft<\/u><\/p>\n Now the extent of the relationship between Katherine and Douglas is perceived differently between Monk and Russell himself. In The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell<\/em>, Russell considered the relationship as more a sign of pity for Spalding\u2019s condition than a genuine love. He states:<\/p>\n Apparently upon grounds of pure theory, my father and mother decided that although he ought to remain childless on account of his tuberculosis, it was unfair to expect him to be celibate. My mother therefore allowed him to live with her, though I know of no evidence that she derived any pleasure from doing so. (Russell 10)<\/p>\n Again, aside from Bertrand\u2019s parents, none of the people living in the house seemed to have much of a favorable opinion of Douglas Spalding so there might have been some bias towards the man on Russell\u2019s part. I say this because in Monk\u2019s book, as \u201cJohn\u2019s sicknesses progressed while the family visited Rome, Katherine and Spalding visited museums and galleries together\u201d (11). There is no proof of whether Katherine had feelings for Spalding as he did for her but at the very least, she consented to sleeping with him on occasions and her husband was perfectly fine with the arrangement.<\/p>\n Death of the Family and Bertrand\u2019s Departure from Ravenscroft<\/u><\/p>\n Bertrand first left the home when a case of \u201cdiphtheria spread among the family\u201d (Moorehead 14). While he did not get sick, his mother and sister both died of the affliction. A year later, Bertrand\u2019s father died after a long battle with sickness and depression and Spalding was one of two originally tasked with caring for Bertrand and his brother Frank until his grandmother discovered what had went on in the home and took them away to Pembroke Lodge. Spalding, already severely sick from tuberculosis, died soon after and Bertrand was never permanently situated in Ravenscroft ever again.<\/p>\n How Ravenscroft became Cleddon Hall<\/u><\/p>\n Graham Norwood states, \u201cThe philosopher lived there sporadically until the Twenties, after which the property was rented out and slid into disrepair\u201d (Norwood). Also, based on Russell\u2019s autobiography, he knew when the home\u2019s name was changed and he pronounced Cleddon Hall as \u201cGleddan Hall\u201d (Russell 10). The name of the house was \u201cchanged sometime between 1876 and 1887 and was later bought by Arthur Bosanquet who kept it in his family until 1957\u201d (Turcon 12). The house had since been bought on and off but there was a brief time in 1953 when \u201cRussell visited the property and remarked that the house was in good repair but the grounds had not been kept up\u201d (Turcon 12). The last buyers of the home made extensive repairs to the house\u2019s foundation as no one had kept up maintenance of the home since the buyers after Bosanquet had it last. Since the year 2012, the house has no longer been put on the market.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Works Cited Page<\/p>\n \u201cBertrand Russell.\u201d BBC, 15 Dec. 2008, http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/wales\/arts\/sites\/bertrand-russell\/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2017.<\/p>\n Moorehead, Caroline. Bertrand Russell: A Life<\/em>. Viking, 1992.<\/p>\n Monk, Ray. Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921. <\/em>The Free Press, 1996.<\/p>\n Norwood, Graham. \u201cBertrand Russell\u2019s Childhood Home Could Be Yours: Bertrand Russell\u2019s Childhood Home is for Sale, reports Graham Norwood.\u201d The Telegraph, <\/em>14 Aug. 2012, http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/finance\/property\/9475349\/Bertrand-Russells-childhood-home-could-be-yours.html.<\/p>\n Russell, Bertrand. The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell.<\/em> Little, Brown And Company, 1951.<\/p>\n Turcon, Sheila. \u201cRussell\u2019s Homes: Ravenscroft.\u201d Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin<\/em>, no. 145, 2011, 11-13, http:\/\/www.bertrandrussell.org\/nl\/BRSB_145_Web_Public_Summer2011.pdf.<\/p>\n Carrington Onwuzuruike Dr. Carpentier Modern British Literature 24 November 2017 Site of British Modernism: Ravenscroft Introduction Ravenscroft was the childhood home of philosopher Bertrand Russell. More specifically, it is located in Trelleck, a village situated in Monmouthshire, a county in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3896,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monmouthshire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/british-modernism-undergraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nExamples of Great Times at Ravenscroft<\/u><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\nFig 1. \u201cLord Amberley, Russell\u2019s father.\u201d N.d. Bertrand Russell: A Life. By Caroline Moorehead. New York: Viking, 1992. Print.
\nFig 2. \u201cKate Amberley, Russell\u2019s mother.\u201d N.d. Bertrand Russell: A Life. By Caroline Moorehead. New York: Viking, 1992. Print.
\nFig 6. \u201cRussell\u2019s Birthplace, Ravenscroft, Monmouthshire.\u201d N.d. Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921. By Ray Monk. New York: The Free Press, 1996. Print.
\nFig 7. \u201cThe Amberleys, Frank and Rachel outside Ravenscroft.\u201d N.d. Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921. By Ray Monk. New York: The Free Press, 1996. Print.
\nFig 8. \u201cKate and John Amberley in the study at Ravenscroft.\u201d N.d. Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921. By Ray Monk. New York: The Free Press, 1996. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"