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Lady Boothby and other occupants of Rose Mount

To those who, like myself, had a personal acquaintance, at a later period, of Lady Boothby, it may be of interest to know that celebrated actress used to visit the Dundases at Quarry Castle years before she became a resident at Rose Mount - a house within a stone's throw of the Castle That lady will be remembered firstly as Miss Macnamara, secondly as Mrs. Nisbett, and lastly as Lady Boothby. Her ladyship lost her mother, her only brother and a sister in quick succession, and this had so depressing an effect on her mind as to induce her to remove from St. Leonards to Norwood. I shall not easily forget the melancholy tones in which this once cheerful and fascinating lady said to me "I am come back to take away some few things of importance, and to bid a last adieu to your beautiful St. Leonards, which now, alas, hath no charms for me." "Forgive," she added, "these involuntary tears, for those have passed away for whom I cared to live, and I shall never re-enter Rose Mount after this day." And I believe she did not; for in a few weeks her soul had taken its flight to another sphere. Her Ladyship died on the 16th of January, 1858 at the age of 46 years, and her remains were brought to St. Leonards to be interred in the small cemetery of that parish. She was the widow of the baronet, Sir William Boothby, and her maiden name was Louisa Cranstown Macnamara. Her brother, Frederic Augustus, was two years the junior of his sister, at whose residence (Rose Mount) he died on the 20th of October 1856, and was also buried at St. Leonards. Her Ladyship's mother, Jane Eliza Macnamara, resided with her daughter at Rose Mount, but died at Worthing. Her Ladyship's sister, Mrs. Price (whose husband was serving in India) occupied apartments, one room of which I am now writing in; and well do I remember her son, a lad of about ten years of age, accompanying me to get two pails of water from Beaney's Well in Western road. It was during the severe winter of 1854-5, when all the water mains were frozen, and when, in only lifting a pail from the well, the bail of the said pail was completely frozen to my hand, the severance of which tore off some skin and left a mark for several weeks after. Mrs. Price died, in 1857, a few months before her sister, and this was the last drop that filled her ladyship's cup of sorrow to overflowing. Well might she exclaim "All those have passed away for whom I cared to live". Rose Mount was occupied by Lady Boothby about 12 years, and it being her own property, the house was altered for the greater convenience of receiving invited company to occasional private theatrical representations.

This reminds me that after Lady Boothby's death, the house was tenanted by F. H. Brandram, Esq., and when I also recollect that I purchased from Mr. Brandram's library shelves at Rose Mount, among other books, several well-thumbed Shakespeare's and others’ plays, and that the late Mr. Brandram was a popular dramatic reciter, I get the idea that Rose Mount was a sort of dramatic home.

After Mr. Brandram quitted Rose Mount, it was tenanted same seven or eight years by Mrs. Foster, and since about 1881 to the present time, 1896, by the Rev. J. Wright.

Having been drawn by associations away from Quarry Castle to Rose Mount, I think I ought to return to the former to say that when the next occupant took possession the name was altered from Quarry Castle to that of Quarry House. Sir Woodbine Parish had been a frequent visitor to St. Leonards when the town was young, and at length took up his abode at 2 West Ascent. Some overtures, he once told me, were made by himself for the lease of the mansion and grounds, but he was forestalled by the Hon. W. Dundas. He, however, occupied the premises in the summer of 1853, and afterwards purchased the freehold from Mr. Burton. In the first year of his occupancy Sir Woodbine was elected on the Board of the St. Leonards Commissioners, in the room of Robert Hollond, M.P. He continued a member of that body for twelve years, resigning the same in 1865. He took a practical part in the successful efforts to secure the Archery Grounds from being sold for building purposes, and interested himself in many other ways to benefit the town. Sir Woodbine was about 57 years of age when he became a permanent resident at St. Leonards, he having been born on the 14th of September, 1796, and his father being the Mr. Woodbine Parish who was Chairman to the Scottish Board of Excise. He entered service in the pay of Government when he was only 15 years of age, his first employment being with Mr. Herries, when Commissary-in-Chief, in 1812. He was sent to Sicily in 1814; and after being present at the restoration of the King of Naples, was ordered to Paris, and employed there with Lord Castlereagh during the Congress for the settlement of Europe in 1815. He was appointed to the clerk-ship in the Foreign Office in August, 1817, and accompanied Lord Castlereagh to the Conferences of the Allied Sovereigns at Aix-la-Chapelle. He accompanied his lordship to Hanover, when in attendance on George IV. in 1821. He was sent to Buenos Ayres as Commissioner and Consul-General in 1823; was appointed Plenipotentiary to the Provinces of Rio de la Plata in 1824, and concluded with them the first treaty, whereby the independence of the new South American States was recognized and upon the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1825 was made Chargé d’Affairs. He obtained, in October, 1828, the ratification by the Argentine Republic of the preliminaries of peace with Brazil, establishing the independence of the State of Uruguay, under British mediation: He returned to England in 1832, and upon the abolition of his office as Consul-General, was granted a compensation allowance.

Before quitting South America he concluded a convention securing full indemnities to British sufferers from the Brazilian war, and he also obtained the release from Paraguay of all the British and other foreigners who had been for many years forcibly detained there by Dr. Francia, receiving the thanks of the French and other Governments. He was the last of the Knight-Commanders of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphie-Order, having been knighted, in 1837, shortly before the death of William IV. He had been a Fellow of the Royal Society since March, 1824; was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (of which he was some time vice-president), and member of other learned institutions. He married in 1819 the only daughter of Mr. Leonard Becher Morse, of Norwood, who, after having a family, died in 1833. He married again in 1844, his second wife being Louisa, a daughter of John Hubbard, Esq., and sister of the Right Hon. J. G, Hubbard, M. P.; also sister of Miss Hubbard, who still resides at St. Leonards. Sir Woodbine was married to his second wife in 1844, the same year that I took to myself a similar domestic partner; and he was born on a 14th of September, which was a day and month corresponding to the death-day of a son of mine. As a further coincidence, I am writing these memoirs, undesignedly, on the 52nd anniversary of the said two weddings.

Sir Woodbine died on the 17th of August, 1882, so that he was within a month of completing 86 years of life, His remains were interred at Fairlight, where there had been previously deposited his son, George Woodbine, aged 19 years; his third daughter, Mary Ann, wife of the Rev. John Martin Cripps, aged 32; his daughter, Nina, Louisa, aged 30; his brother, Henry Headley Parish, aged 73; and his sister, Eliza Parish, aged 72. Lady Parish survived her husband four years and a half, and died on the 21st of March, 1887, since which time Quarry House has been sold, and is now occupied by W. F. M. Copeland, Esq. Of the chief mourners who followed Sir Woodbine's body to the grave at Fairlight, there have since died, his relict, Lady Anne Parish; his sons, Admiral Parish and Capt. Parish; his son-in-law, the Rev. J. Cripps; and his brother-in-law, the Hon. J. G. Hubbard; also the brother of the last-named, Mr. Egerton Hubbard; the Rev, Canon Crosse; the Rev. C. L. Vaughan; the Rev. J. A. Hatchard; and Mr. Wheatley. Of the family still surviving there are Sir Woodbine’s son, the Rev. W. D. Parish, vicar of Selmeston, Sussex: his daughter and her husband, Lady and Sir Ughtred J. Kay-Shuttleworth, Mr. Frank Parish, and Mr. Arthur Parish.

Quarry House was beautifully situated, with a commanding view both of the sea and the Subscription (now the Public) Gardens. It was built of stone, quarried on the spot, and in the Tudor castellated style, surrounded by pleasure grounds, within which were shrubberies, a vinery, and lawn terrace. There was also a stable and a coach-house, the whole covering more than an acre of ground. The principal apartments were reception rooms, two drawing-rooms, a very large dining-room, library, boudoir, a circular tower, and about a dozen bedrooms.

Harry Hook's "Tabernacle" & West Ascent - Accident at the Church &c &c

At a very short distance from Quarry House and a still shorter space from Quarry Cottage, namely, on the site of the present swimming baths, built for Mr. Tottenham, there used to be a wooden hut, to which was attached a good sized bell, which latter served the double purpose of ringing the quarry-men and other men to their work and meals on week-days, and of tolling the worshippers to Church on Sundays. This was, of course, before the real church was built, and when the services were held in the St. Leonards Assembly Rooms. The hut in question was owned and occupied by a Mr. Hook, and was afterwards removed to Norman road, where its owner built the house now numbered 61, and placed his more primitive domicile in the rear. There, I believe, it still remains, not in its original character of ‘Harry Hook's Tabernacle, but as a memento, nevertheless, of one who has long since gone to his rest.

Close to Harry Hook’s “Tabernacle” was built a row of houses called West Ascent, some of which houses were erected in the year 1831, and the remainder in 1833. It was originally intended to continue the range of houses in West Ascent to the top of the hill, uniformly with the opposite range known as East Ascent, but the design was interfered with by the erection of the -