Foxghyll Country House, Ambleside

Sketch of Foxghyll by Dora Wordsworth in 1831

Rental notice for Foxghyll in 1820

Robert Blakeney (1758-1822) appears to have made substantial alterations and additions in the early 1800s to an existing much older house which was on the site.[3] At this time the house was called Fox Gill. Robert was a friend of William Wordsworth who lived in the nearby house Rydal Mount and in 1814 Wordsworth wrote to him mentioning the windows in the house he was building.[4] Robert was a wealthy property owner who came from Whitehaven. He was the son of Captain George Augustus Blakeney and in 1780 married Elizabeth Burrows. His second wife was Margaret Edwards who he married in 1814. In 1820 he decided to rent the house and he placed an advertisement in the newspaper which is shown.

The person who responded to the advertisement was Thomas De Quincey, the famous writer. He and his family rented the house from 1820 until 1825. It was at Foxghyll that he wrote his autobiography “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”[5] which is still widely quoted today.

In 1825 Mrs Letitia Luff, a friend of William Wordsworth and his family bought Foxghyll.[6] She was the widow of Charles Luff, an old resident of Patterdale, who had died in Mauritius in 1815.[7] The Wordsworths made many visits to her at the house and in 1831 Dora Wordsworth, who was the daughter of William made a sketch of Foxghyll which is shown.

The Tithe map of Rydal shows that by 1838 Hornby Roughsedge (1782-1859) was the owner and occupier of Foxghyll. He was a wealthy landowner from Bentham and became a magistrate for Westmorland. He and his wife Margaret Hodgson (1793-1867) lived in the house until Hornby’s death in 1859. Their daughter Elizabeth also lived with them until her marriage in 1841.

William Edward Forster

After Hornby died in 1859 the house was let for some time and in about 1870 it was bought by William Edward Forster (1818-1886) who made major additions to the building. He was a notable politician who introduced an important Education Act. He was born in 1818 at Bradpole in Dorset. His father was William Forster who was famous for his work in abolishing slavery and his mother was Anna Buxton, a friend of Elizabeth Fry.[8]

In 1850 he married Jane Arnold who was the daughter of Thomas Arnold, an educator and historian who lived at Fox How which is near Foxghyll. She was also the sister of Matthew Arnold the famous poet who inherited the neighbouring Fox How house. William and Jane had no children of their own but adopted four children of Jane's brother William Arnold after he died in 1859. Two of them later became famous. Hugh Arnold Forster who was a politician and writer and Florence Arnold Forster who wrote a diary in which she mentions Foxghyll.[9]

The biographer of Forster describes the love that he had for Foxghyll. He said.

“This happy nook, between lake and hill, became his place of refuge and recreation whenever the labours and anxieties of public life weighed too heavily upon him. It was not solitude, however, which he sought at Foxghyll. Throughout his life he had delighted in the society of those dear to him, and in his country home it was his chief pleasure to share with his family the enjoyment of the beautiful scenery which lay within easy reach of his door. No other spot on earth could ever replace Wharfeside, the home of his manhood and married life, and the scene of his first great struggles and successes, in his affections ; yet, from 1873 onwards, it was to Foxghyll that he naturally turned for relief and sunshine, and the mountains and lakes of Westmoreland became almost as dear to him as the familiar hills of Yorkshire and the busy valleys around Bradford.”[10]

William died in 1886 and left all of his property to his wife Jane.[11] She owned the house until her death in 1899 and it was then sold to the Elletson sisters.

Emily and Margaret Elletson were maiden ladies who had inherited property in Pilling.[12] They were the daughters of Daniel Elletson (1806-1856)[13] of Parrox Hall, Preesall. The sisters are listed in both the 1901 and 1911 Census as living at Foxghyll with three servants. Margaret died in 1921 and Emily in 1928.

In 1939 Gladys Mary Barber (1888-1947), a widow bought Foxghyll. She lived there until her death in 1947. From 1958 until 1965 James Peter Blackledge lived at the house and then moved to Cote How in Ambleside.

• Foxghyll Country House website