Urn to William Somerville in a garden landscape, English School, 18th Century

Painting of an urn erected by Henrietta St.John (Lady Luxborough) in memory of the poet William Somerville of Edstone (1685-1742) in her gardens at Barrells Hall in Warwickshire. Henrietta had been banished to Barrells by her husband Robert Knight, 1st Earl of Catherlough, on the suspicion of infidelity. Separated from her children and virtually a prisoner, Henrietta turned her attention to gardening and poetry.

Three paintings of Henrietta St.John hang at Lydiard House together with pastel portraits of her daughter, Lady Henrietta Knight and her daughter's first husband, Josiah Child.

(H42 X W35)