Flora Delanica #2 Rock Rose

Flora Delanica #2, the Rock Rose by Becky Brown

Becky’s

A rock rose thrives in a harsh, dry climate, perhaps a good flower to recall Mary Granville's childhood in a family down on their luck.

Mary's Uncle George---poet and peer.

George's wife had inherited Longleat estate

where Mary lived for a few years.

Mary Granville who grew up to be our Mrs Delany was a peripheral member of the British nobility, the peerage, through her relation to the Marquesses of Bath.

A View of Longleat House, Jan Siberechts, 1675

Home of the Marquesses of Bath

In 1700 when she was born 163 people were considered peers in a Britain with over 8 million inhabitants. Relatives of peers had distinct positions, bound by law and tradition. Mary held no honorific title such as Hon. or Lady, but she was "gentry" an exalted birthright that carried her through life in a class-bound society

Mary's kin on the front stairs

Her father Bernard Granville (1668-1723) as the third son of a second son also held no honorific title. He was an army officer, a career often chosen by the younger sons of aristocratic families who could not inherit. Bernard, as was his duty, deferred to his older brother George, Lord Lansdowne, who supported his dependent family members. Bernard and wife Mary turned their eldest daughter over to their richer, higher-ranking relatives at Longleat.

Rock Rose by Denniele Bohannon

Becky’s

Becky’s

Lord Lansdowne was a poet of some reputation at the time. He was also a Stuart partisan, as noted last month, opposed to the Hanoverian king. Despite the family's Catholic sympathies Mary was raised as a Protestant and a very pious one at that.

The Tower of London, about 1700

Uncle George etched his name and a poem in a window here.

When Mary was 15 and living in London Uncle George was accused of treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years. His family was in such disfavor that everybody's financial and political future was in peril. Mary's family retreated to the country in Gloucestershire. 

Longleat (pink star) is in Wiltshire.Mary's parents lived in semi-exile

at Buckland Manor in Gloucestershire (green star).

Buckland Manor hotel

You can stay at Mary's temporary home in the Cotswalds, Buckland Manor---

and perhaps it is still available for booking.

My Rock Rose. The plan is to set these on point.

I think I forgot to flip my patterns over.

Found the perfect fabric to fussy cut for Broderie Perse.

I believe I should buy more Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric.

Mary recalled exile in her autobiography, regretting lost friends and the "universal gaiety I parted with when I left London." Her mother was dejected to "so great a degree as to prejudice her health" but her father exerted himself to entertain the four children. Mary seems to have inherited his "excellent temper, great cheerfulness and uncommon good humour." She spent her days practicing French, doing her "work" (needlework), drawing and cutting paper collages, her lifelong enjoyment. 

A closet is a small room, not what we think of as a storage area.

After Uncle George's release from prison he invited his niece to live at Longleat, generosity that would come at a price.

Mary Delany's Rock Rose (Cistus Formosus)

See the collage here at the British Museum:

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/8-mary-delany-cistus-1960/

The Block

#2 Rock Rose

Another way to look at it.

Applique on the diagonal to an square cut 10-1/2" or on the vertical center of a rectangle cut 9-1/2" x 12-1/2".

One Way to Print the Pattern:

Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".

Click on the image above.

Right click on it and save it to your file.

Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". Note the inch square block for reference.

Adjust the printed page size if necessary.

Block #2 in wool

Nan Phillips

Longleat & Marquess in the 1980s

The family keeps Longleat going today with tourism money from a Safari Park. 

The 7th Marquess of Bath died of Covid19 in 2020 at the age of 87.

A Rock Rose

Cistaceai are perennials that grow in shrubs in dry rocky gardens, native to the Mediterranean.

Becky Brown's detail, Rock Rose

A yellow variety.

A Little More Mary Delany
Each month you get another collage for inspiration.

She did almost 1,000.

Narcissus Poeticus

The Poet's Narcissus

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1897-0505-595

Further Reading 

Ilyse Moore's #2 Rock Rose

Mary Delany's letters and a short autobiography were edited & published decades after she died by her niece Lady Llanover as Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany in six volumes (later condensed to three.) Read online using these lengthy links.

Volume 1

https://books.google.com/books?id=Cj1gGSrMNoAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Autobiography+and+Correspondence+of+Mary+Granville&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiw2IeW2YHpAhWGbs0KHbFkBZsQ6AEwAXoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=Autobiography%20and%20Correspondence%20of%20Mary%20Granville&f=false

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015064798294&view=1up&seq=20  

Preview

https://books.google.com/books?id=AOuCaLNkDaEC&pg=PA462&lpg=PA462&dq=beggards+hut+delville&source=bl&ots=QvVKEG_tQu&sig=ACfU3U2duHLvukcB-viAQ8ErxIozYP78Ow&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxjdLszYHpAhWQW80KHbZrCJ4Q6AEwBnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=beggards%20hut%20delville&f=false

Volume 2

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89097319388&view=1up&seq=1

Volume 3

https://books.google.com/books?id=5jIDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082332747&view=1up&seq=15

Shopping

A South African winery has used some of Mary's collages as wine labels for their Botanicals collection.