A Strange Inheritance by Michael Hall Review – The National Trust’s LGBTQ History Revealed | History books

WWhen it emerged that the National Trust had put vegan scones on the menu, some newspapers seized on it as a marmalade dropper – or perhaps a strawberry jam dropper – as evidence that the trust had woken up. Wait until they hear about all the gay men and women who helped make the Fund what it is today. The charity’s 5.4 million members and others visit its grand estates for a lovely day out and a tea towel, unaware they are surrounded by the ghosts of these characters. It was revived by Michael Hall, former architecture editor of Country Life and author of books on Waddesdon Manor and the Gothic Revival in Britain.

Some of them, such as the buttoned-up Henry James, who lived at Lamb House, Rye, gave luster to the properties later taken over by the trust. Others introduced features to properties that still delight travelers to this day. Among them are Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, partners in a lavender marriage, who, appropriately enough, created the gardens at Sissinghurst.

The National Foundation was founded in 1895, the year Oscar Wilde was tried for gross indecency. Hall recreates the stifling and hypocritical atmosphere of late nineteenth-century England. London in particular. But did hard-pressed gay Victorians set up the National Trust? Not exactly. It is true that one of its founders, Octavia Hill, lived with a woman. However, Wilde himself “had no direct connection with the organization” and one of Hill’s founders was a Puritan who spent his final years trying to stamp out obscene seaside postcards.

Nevertheless, “The Gay Inheritance” tells a deeply researched and revealing story of our national life centered around a set of deceptively comfortable settings. Hall suggests that Wilde’s portrait of Dorian Gray may have been inspired by the gruesome events that occurred at Clumber, the residence of the Duke of Newcastle, which was now in the hands of the National Trust. E.M. Forster lived at Piney Copse in Surrey, which is also in the credit portfolio. He indulged in daydreams about the “Green Forest,” the semi-mythical forests of ancient Albion with refreshing powers, but also the home of Ban, the master of pagan ceremonies.

After the war, many country houses were transferred to the trust due to dwindling returns on their estates and heavy inheritance tax. In their vast, unheated rookeries, the fingers of the aristocrats were turning the same color as their noble blood. Architectural historian James Lees Milne, whose memoirs are a wasplike inside account of the Trust, had the task of exploiting the Tuff to hand over their title deeds in exchange for remaining, rent-free. He also dealt with what he called “the almost extinct generation.” goodsingles of high to moderate culture, who enjoy money, privileges, and beautiful homes and possessions; “Hall tells us the comic and sad stories of some of these feudal lords, with their galleries of bold patterns and what Les Milne calls ‘their very pure blue suits.’

At times, the author is like an old London scrub, finding strange behavior everywhere. The Arts and Crafts movement was characterized by “crude masculine shyness… [which] They often concealed deeper longings; “A couple of the young men who passed off as society beauties were clearly cross-dressing, but Hall speculates they may have been transsexuals. For a writer who seems to feel past sexual injustices so keenly, he doesn’t care much about the interest of some well-connected gentlemen in the company of boys. And while he strikes a retrospective jab on behalf of gay people, the foundation’s elegant pillars of trust don’t waver much. We only hear about the better class of gays and lesbians. This version of Downton Abbey doesn’t care about life down stairs.”

I make no apologies for returning to the delicious cake that trust has to offer. Like the institution itself, it is familiar and comfortable but not without complexity. Is it the jam first or the cream? “S’gone” or “scoone”? Perhaps this is another case – like gay or straight history – where there is more to the story than a simple binary suggests.