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Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne (/ˈɡlaɪndbɔːn/) is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundred years old and listed at grade II.
"There had been a manor house at Glynde Bourne (as it was often spelt) since the fifteenth century", but the exact age of the house is unknown. Some surviving timber framing and pre-Elizabethan panelling makes an early 16th-century date the most likely. In 1618, it came into the possession of the Hay family, passing to James Hay Langham in 1824. He inherited his father's baronetcy and estate in Northamptonshire in 1833 which under the terms of his inheritance should have led to him relinquishing Glyndebourne, but as a certified lunatic he was unable to do so. After litigation the estate passed to a relative, Mr Langham Christie, but he later had to pay £50,000 to persuade another relative to withdraw a rival claim.
Langham Christie's son, William Langham Christie, made substantial alterations to the house in the 1870s. First, a brick extension hid its 17th-century façade, while ornate stonework and balustrading was added. Then, in 1876, the architect Ewan Christian was engaged to install bay windows and add decorative brickwork to give the house the Jacobethan appearance which can still be seen from the gardens today. Some of the exterior of the older parts of the house can be seen from the driveway next to the theatre.
Langham Christie was the son of one Daniel Christin, a Swiss of obscure origins who anglicised his name to Christie on entering the army of the East India Company. According to frequently published accounts, Daniel Christin joined the Bombay Engineers rising to the rank of major, and the family fortune was made when he was given a hoard of gems by a Sultan in thanks for Christin preventing his troops from pillaging a harem.
Unfortunately none of these claims finds ready support in the records of East India Company or indeed in any accounts of the period. The rank of major seems to have been a later invention. There was indeed a Major Christie of the Madras Engineers, however he was shot dead by a Cossack near the river Aras in 1812, some three years after Daniel Christie had died. In his will, Daniel Christie refers to himself as formerly a captain in the service of the English East India Company under the presidency of Bombay, there being no mention of higher rank or of an engineering connection. The Christie family pedigree cites Daniel Christie's dates of promotion, first to Lieutenant in 1781 and to Captain in 1783, however no records to support these claims have been offered or traced thus far.
The only Daniel Christie to be found for this period in the East India Company records is a surgeon's mate of the Sixth Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry. The Christie family pedigree claims that in 1782 Christin served in the war against Hyder Ali in Mysore. That Hyder Ali died in that year and that there was extensive looting by East India Company soldiers from Ali's palace, as was commonplace throughout the Anglo-Mysore Wars, is perhaps suggestive.
Whatever the truth regarding his origins, rank or source of sudden wealth, Daniel Christie undoubtedly returned to England with a fortune estimated at £20,000 (equivalent to about £35 million in 2021 values), and his second marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Purbeck Langham, ultimately brought Glyndebourne into the Christin/Christie family.
John Christie obtained the use of the house in 1913 after the death of William Langham Christie, his grandfather. He came into full legal possession of the estate in 1920. Among other renovations, he added to the house an organ room, 80 feet (24 m) long, in the process almost doubling the length of the south façade of the house. This room contained one of the largest organs outside of a cathedral in the country. It was built by the firm of Hill, Norman & Beard Ltd (bought by Christie in 1923). After the Second World War, John Christie made a gift of sections of the soundboards, pipes and structural parts to the rebuilt Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks (which had been destroyed in the Blitz); the case and console remain at Glyndebourne.
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Glyndebourne AI simulator
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Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne (/ˈɡlaɪndbɔːn/) is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundred years old and listed at grade II.
"There had been a manor house at Glynde Bourne (as it was often spelt) since the fifteenth century", but the exact age of the house is unknown. Some surviving timber framing and pre-Elizabethan panelling makes an early 16th-century date the most likely. In 1618, it came into the possession of the Hay family, passing to James Hay Langham in 1824. He inherited his father's baronetcy and estate in Northamptonshire in 1833 which under the terms of his inheritance should have led to him relinquishing Glyndebourne, but as a certified lunatic he was unable to do so. After litigation the estate passed to a relative, Mr Langham Christie, but he later had to pay £50,000 to persuade another relative to withdraw a rival claim.
Langham Christie's son, William Langham Christie, made substantial alterations to the house in the 1870s. First, a brick extension hid its 17th-century façade, while ornate stonework and balustrading was added. Then, in 1876, the architect Ewan Christian was engaged to install bay windows and add decorative brickwork to give the house the Jacobethan appearance which can still be seen from the gardens today. Some of the exterior of the older parts of the house can be seen from the driveway next to the theatre.
Langham Christie was the son of one Daniel Christin, a Swiss of obscure origins who anglicised his name to Christie on entering the army of the East India Company. According to frequently published accounts, Daniel Christin joined the Bombay Engineers rising to the rank of major, and the family fortune was made when he was given a hoard of gems by a Sultan in thanks for Christin preventing his troops from pillaging a harem.
Unfortunately none of these claims finds ready support in the records of East India Company or indeed in any accounts of the period. The rank of major seems to have been a later invention. There was indeed a Major Christie of the Madras Engineers, however he was shot dead by a Cossack near the river Aras in 1812, some three years after Daniel Christie had died. In his will, Daniel Christie refers to himself as formerly a captain in the service of the English East India Company under the presidency of Bombay, there being no mention of higher rank or of an engineering connection. The Christie family pedigree cites Daniel Christie's dates of promotion, first to Lieutenant in 1781 and to Captain in 1783, however no records to support these claims have been offered or traced thus far.
The only Daniel Christie to be found for this period in the East India Company records is a surgeon's mate of the Sixth Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry. The Christie family pedigree claims that in 1782 Christin served in the war against Hyder Ali in Mysore. That Hyder Ali died in that year and that there was extensive looting by East India Company soldiers from Ali's palace, as was commonplace throughout the Anglo-Mysore Wars, is perhaps suggestive.
Whatever the truth regarding his origins, rank or source of sudden wealth, Daniel Christie undoubtedly returned to England with a fortune estimated at £20,000 (equivalent to about £35 million in 2021 values), and his second marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Purbeck Langham, ultimately brought Glyndebourne into the Christin/Christie family.
John Christie obtained the use of the house in 1913 after the death of William Langham Christie, his grandfather. He came into full legal possession of the estate in 1920. Among other renovations, he added to the house an organ room, 80 feet (24 m) long, in the process almost doubling the length of the south façade of the house. This room contained one of the largest organs outside of a cathedral in the country. It was built by the firm of Hill, Norman & Beard Ltd (bought by Christie in 1923). After the Second World War, John Christie made a gift of sections of the soundboards, pipes and structural parts to the rebuilt Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks (which had been destroyed in the Blitz); the case and console remain at Glyndebourne.
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