Andrew Kearne, seems likely to have been the sculptor at Lamport, Northamptonshire. He is known to have been working at Lamport when a chimneypiece was carved, with Vertue recording that he “carv’d many Statues for Sr Justinian Isum” at Lamport.
Vertue, MS 23.069, in “Vertue I”, 98. He is further recorded as being a competent sculptor in stone, and brother-in-law to Nicholas Stone.
He created the lioness for the York Watergate (see below), and also a chimneypiece for Castle Ashby, not far from Lamport. Mark Girouard, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architecture 1540 – 1640, (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2021), 188, 285.
See also BDS, 683; Spiers, “Nicholas Stone”, 31.
info above from -
The Development of Tudor and Stuart Garden Design in
Northamptonshire.
J. M. Steane
Boughton. (SP896814) This is probably the finest formal garden layout in England. The original scheme was carried out by Ralph Montagu, the first Duke, between 1684 and 1709 and then it was modified and extended by his son, John, second Duke, appropriately called "the Planter" in the 1720s, 30s and 40s.
It had survived to such a remarkable extent largely because no one spent much time at Boughton between 1750 and 1900.
The inspiration was mainly French (vistas, parterres, fountains) with a strong dash of Dutch (canals). Ralph Montagu had 'been Charles II's ambassador at the courts of Versailles and St. Cloud, and doubtless this was where he "formed the ideas in his own mind, both of buildings and Gardening".
With the aid of his gardener, a Dutchman called Van de Meulen, and money from the dowries of two of the richest women of the kingdom, Ralph laid out over a hundred acres in the pattern of Le Notre: branching radial avenues, water in straight geometric canals, parterres, a cascade, ponds and fountains.
As early as 1694 Charles Hatton wrote, "Here is great talk of vast gardens at Boughton: but I heardmy lord Montagu is very much concerned that ye water with wch he hoped to make so finefountains hath failed his expectations". There were two sources of water for the fountains. The highest pool which still survives South of the house, the Lily Pond, was fed from Warkton and provided a piped supply of water to the four fountains in the parterre seen in Stukely's plan and to those in the three pools at the West end shown on Delahaye's detailed survey of 1712 and Brasier's survey of 1715.
The other source of water was a spring to the North-east of the house and a water course from Boughton wood: the former filled the Grand Etang, a rectangular earthen basin now dry and grassed over, which supplied the three fountain pools in the long garden to the North of the parterre. The latter flowed into the Dead Reach, a long arm which was dug from the river Ise to a point below the Grand Etang.
Morton, in his description published in 1712, mentions "below the Western front of the House ... three more remarkable Parterres: the Parterre of Statues, the Parterre of Basins, and the Water Parterre: wherein is an octagon basin whose circumference is 216 yards, which in the middle of it has a jet d'eau whose height is above 80 feet, surrounded by other jet d'eaux.
On the North side of the Parterre Garden is a small wilderness which is called the "Wilderness of Apartments", an exceeding delightful place and nobly adorned with basins, jet d'eaux, statues, withthe platanus, lime tree, beech, bays, etc., all in exquisite form and order". 47
The river Ise itself was canalised to frame the West end of the parterres. A right angle was dug taking the canalised river parallel with the Western approach avenue; at the corner was a short arm known as the Boat Reach.
A further right angle led the river South of the Wilderness to the Cascade. Here the water was stepped down the cascade into the Starpond.
In 1974/5 the sluice was renewed at this point, the water level of the Ise raised and the Star pond re-excavated. An elm sill was found at the top of the cascade. The stone cascade steps and surrounds of the pond were exposed.
A ceramic spigot, possibly one of the fountain spouts, and a number of elm pipes also came to light.
Lord Halifax wrote from Bushey Park in 1710 "I desire you would write to Boughton to Monsr Vandermulen to send me an exact account of the cascade, viz., how many feet the water falls, the dimensions of the steps, the breadth of each step, the distance from step to step, and, if he can, to make such a draft of the whole, by a scale, as we may follow the example as far our ·ground admits of it".
Morton mentions that "to the Southward of the lower part of the Parterre Garden is a large wilderness of a different figure, having ten equidistant walks concentrating in a round area, and adorned also with statues.
In one of the Quarters is a fine Pheasantery. The larger trees upon the side of the walks have eglantine and woodbine climbing up and clasping about the bodies of them". A number of minor water ways crisscross, creating islands which seem to have formed osier beds. In winter these can still be traced in the standing water of the partially flooded field.
The elaborately planted and ornamented parterres which figured on Stukeley's Westward view from the house of 1706 and the long garden by the side of the Dead·Reach were swept away by the second Duke in the 1720s.
The Broad Water, a great rectangular pond about 200 metres East-west and 160 metres North-south, was dug and now occupied the space of the lower parterre with three fountains. The mount was built by William White from the upcast. This has ramped sides and is 70 metres by 75 metres at the base and 43 metres at the top.
Stukely designed a mausoleum to be placed on the top in 1742. This was never carried out.
The gardens were adorned in both phases of construction with statues. Thomas Drew, one of the masons, set up pedestals in the figure garden and the octagon. In the inventory made in 1709, the year of Ralph Montagu's death, there were listed 10 lead statues, 7 marble statues and 14 large vases. There are only two left now, probably those shown on Stukeley's drawing of 1706.
In the garden by the pool at Glendon Hall are two groups on impressive pedestals which came from Boughton, probably brought by the Booths who were the agents at Boughton in the 18thand 19th centuries.
They are Aeneas and Anchises, Hercules and Cacus, attributed to Andreas Kearne.by Rupert Gunnis
The second Duke seems to have directed operations in the first years, helped by Booth theagent, Joseph Burgis who was paid £250 a year for looking after the gardens, William White and George Nunns, the Kettering surveyor. In the late 1720s Bridgeman was employed and a bird's eye view attributed to him is found in the Gough volume in the Bodleian library with Bridgeman's plans.
One of the Duke's undated letters to Booth says "I wish you could get Mr. Bridgerhan to go down with you to see the ground of the Parke in order to see the scheme I proposed" .
J. M. STEANE.
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