Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the first Baron Farnborough of the first creation (named after Farnborough in Bromley). For the first Baron Farnborough of the second creation (named after Farnborough in Hampshire), see
Erskine May, 1st Baron Farnborough
.

Earl Temple
and Lord John Townshend
Succeeded byWilliam Vesey-FitzGerald
Personal details
Born2 January 1760 (1760-01-02)
London
Died17 January 1838 (1838-01-18) (aged 78)
NationalityBritish
Political party
Tory
Spouse
Amelia Hume
​
​
(m. 1793; died 1837)​
Alma materEmmanuel College, Cambridge

Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough,

FSA
(2 January 1760 – 17 January 1838) was an English politician and connoisseur of the arts.

Early life

Born in London, he was the fourth surviving son of West Indies merchant Beeston Long and his wife Sarah Cropp. A senior branch of the family of Hurts Hall in

grand tour between 1786 and 1788, exploring Rome and laying the foundation of his art collection under the tuition of James Byres
.

Political career

Long was a friend of

Privy Council
.

The following year his house at Bromley Hill in Kent was the location for negotiations between Pitt and Addington, in which he was the chief intermediary. When Pitt returned to power in 1804 Long was made a lord of the Treasury (1804–06) and then chief secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1805–06). During his brief tenure in Dublin he was prevailed upon to visit Anne Devlin, a co-conspirator in the republican rising Robert Emmet had staged in the city in July 1803, imprisoned in the tower of Dublin Castle. He was so appalled by the condition in which he found her that he arranged her immediate release.[6]

Long took office in the Portland ministry as paymaster-general of the forces after Pitt's death in 1806, a post he retained until 1826 when he retired from politics. He was offered the

Tories
, and he was the author of pamphlets on the French Revolution (1795) and the price of bread (1800).

In 1820

Elgin marbles, and was a founder of the British Institution in 1805. He acted as intermediary in 1792 between Pitt and Humphry Repton over improvements to the former's grounds at Holwood, and in 1799 when the Altieri Claudes were brought to England, they were first exhibited to English connoisseurs at Long's house in Grosvenor Place. In subsequent years he maintained a high profile in connection with his public patronage of the arts. A committee of taste was appointed in 1802 to supervise the erection of monuments to the heroes of the Napoleonic wars, of which Long was chairman, and in 1809 the responsibilities were extended to the repair of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster, with money voted by parliament. Long was consulted on everything from the need for a fig-leaf on the heroic statue honouring the Duke of Wellington, that had been subscribed for by the ladies of Great Britain (1821), to the appropriate order for the facade of the privy council offices in Whitehall
(1824).

Retirement from politics

Long's political ambitions were modest, though his retirement was nevertheless, a reluctant one. His reputation as an arbiter of taste led in 1834, to the opening of a campaign for the establishment of an Institution of British Architects, by way of an open letter to Lord Farnborough. He was an active trustee both of the

Jeffry Wyattville
, from the formation of the Grand Corridor to the heightening of the keep, and he also made a sketch-plan in 1823 for the sunken garden below the east terrace.

Only a few miles from Pitt's at Holwood, Long's own country villa at Bromley Hill in Kent was an elegant enlargement of an earlier house which he bought in 1801. He and his wife were amateur artists and architects, and provided their own designs for the improvement to the house. The extensive grounds were progressively improved to create a much-admired garden which by 1809 offered two picturesque walks, each a mile long, and a distant view of the dome of

Vandyck, Canaletto, Teniers, Mola, Cuyp
, and others.

Lady Farnborough

Long married in 1793

Amelia Hume, eldest daughter of the prominent art collector Sir Abraham Hume, 2nd Baronet, by Amelia, daughter of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham. A watercolourist and garden designer, she completed her formal classical education with a visit to Italy, prior to her marriage. She designed the celebrated Italianate grounds at their country residence Bromley Hill, which subsequently became the main source for her sketches. Reputed to be the favourite pupil of Thomas Girtin, her early work is distinguished by a broad topographical style, and later work was influenced by Henry Edridge and Dr Thomas Monro. She died 15 January 1837, and a London newspaper[8]
reported that her husband Lord Farnborough was "dangerously ill in consequence of a shock occasioned by the death of his lady". He never properly recovered his health, and died a year later. There were no children from the marriage.

Further reading

References

  1. ^ "Long, Charles (LN779C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Rochester – Ryedale". Archived from the original on 19 December 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ^ "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Mayo – Minehead". Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Waterloo – West Looe". Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Haslemere – Herefordshire". Archived from the original on 29 October 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ISBN 9781905483211
    .
  7. ^ "No. 18259". The London Gazette. 17 June 1826. p. 1478.
  8. ^ The Examiner (London, England), Sunday, 22 January 1837; Issue 1512

Sources

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Rye
1789–1796
With: William Dickinson 1789–1790
Lord Hawkesbury 1790–1796 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Midhurst
1796–1801
With: Sylvester Douglas 1796–1800
George Smith 1800–1801 		Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
 Member of Parliament for Midhurst
1801–1802
With: George Smith 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Wendover
1802–1806
With: John Smith 		Succeeded by
Viscount Mahon
George Smith
Preceded by
George Wood
Richard Penn
 Member of Parliament for Haslemere
1806–1826
With: Lord Garlies 1806–1807
Robert Plumer Ward 1807–1823
George Lowther Thompson 1823–1826 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Chief Secretary for Ireland
1805–1806 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Hon. F. J. Robinson
1813–1817 		Succeeded by
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