Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, UK - Historic house and gardens, Ancestral home of Poet Lord Byron

Historical House and Gardens - Ancestral Home of Poet Lord Byron

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Byron and Newstead Abbey

Byron and Newstead Abbey

Byron and his dog, Boatswain by John Rawson-Walker (courtesy of a private collection)

Newstead had been the Byron family home since 1540 when Sir John Byron acquired it from Henry VIII. When the poet inherited the mansion it was empty and partly ruinous. The gardens were a wilderness. Financial difficulties had forced his great-uncle to sell off the contents of the house - even the fireplaces were auctioned off. Byron's legacy did not include any money to repair or furnish the dilapidated Abbey. He could not afford even the minor repairs which he ordered to be carried out soon after he moved in. For economy's sake, he re-decorated and furnished only some of the smaller rooms and was obliged to leave the rest semi-derelict. As Byron's friend William Harness later recalled:

...a straggling, gloomy, depressive, partially-inhabited place the Abbey was. Those rooms, however, which had been fitted up for residence were so comfortably appointed, glowing with crimson hangings and cheerful with capacious fires, that one soon lost the melancholy feeling of being domiciled in an extensive ruin.

During his brief residence at Newstead Byron established an eccentric household well-suited to his bachelor days. The two largest rooms, the Great Hall and the Great Dining Room, had been cleared out and abandoned since before Byron was born. Lacking the means to restore them to their former glory, the poet used them for sporting activities. Portrait of Byron's dog Boatswain

There he and his university friends practised fencing, boxing and pistol shooting. From his student rooms at Trinity College he brought his gilded bed and a tame bear.

The bear roamed the Abbey in the company of Byron's other pet animals, including several large dogs, tortoises and a wolf. The wine cellar was well-stocked with good claret and the library contained many fine books - for, Byron spent much of his time at Newstead reading and writing.

Here he lived, at various times, until the autumn of 1814, shortly before he married. By this time, financial pressures had forced him to put Newstead up for sale, but it proved difficult to find a buyer.

Finally in 1818 the estate was purchased for Ł94,500 by Thomas Wildman, a friend from Byron's school days. Wildman spent a further Ł100,000, an enormous sum at that time, refurbishing Newstead Abbey and its grounds.

Since Byron's death in 1824, the Abbey has attracted thousands of visitors from all world who come to see the poet's former ancestral home.

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