The home guard

BEYOND BORDERS: In the second of our series on some of the region’s great country houses, Sheena Hastings explores Georgian elegance and the reality of keeping afloat when times are tough at Newby Hall and Gardens. Pictures by Gerard Binks.

ICHARD Compton remembers his grandfather, Major Edward Compton, being such a hands-on chatelain that he would get stuck in, using his white hanky to wave the visitors into their parking spot.

When not arranging cars tidily the Major could often be seen working at the plant stall, talking to the punters about what might suit their gardens at home and selling them some of the same species that made his property so famous and popular with garden lovers from as far afield as the US and Australia.

The Compton family have lived at Newby Hall near Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire since 1748, when the estate was bought for Richard Compton’s ancestor William Weddell through an uncle’s legacy.

Weddell was a man of great taste and discernment and a prominent member of the Society of Dilettanti, a group of educated and aristocratic young men with a passionate interest in the art, architecture and culture of the ancient Romans and Greeks.

He was determined to turn Newby into a fitting setting for the fabulous artefacts collected on his travels, and soon Robert Adam was involved in remodelling the 17th-century building.

Adam’s greatest creation at Newby is a statuary gallery with central rotunda in the style of a Roman house. John Carr of York would later reorientate and remodel the east front of the house and add the north and south wings.

The house and estate (now 6,500 acres) passed down through forebears called Robinson and Vyner before reaching Major Edward Compton, who inherited in 1921, then Robert (Robin) Compton and now Richard, who came into the house and estate in 1997.

Richard and his wife Lucinda, a furniture restorer, and three children call the north wing of Newby Hall their home. It has none of the immense grandeur of a Castle Howard or Harewood House; its style is Georgian elegance on a human scale – and it’s chock full of treasures.

The visitors’ book reveals many a comment along the lines of “I can imagine myself living here...” from fans who’ve fallen for the nine Gobelins tapestries, the Chippendale furniture, William Weddell’s curious collection of chamber pots and the stunning array of classical statues and busts.

They marvel too at the contrasts between the various different areas of garden that cover 25 acres and meld into a coherent whole – from Sylvia’s Garden (described by one prominent horticulturalist as “like opening a woman’s knicker drawer”) to the world-renowned Cornus collection,