Disjointed Visions

Abstract

In 1792 the old Sussex family of Shelley had known respectability and occasional distinction for over 400 years, and another name seemed likely to be added to the roll of worthy country gentlemen when in the junior branch of the family a son and heir, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was born on the fourth of August. His birthplace, where he lived for nineteen of his thirty years, was a country house two miles north-west of Horsham, Field Place in the parish of Warnham. There his father, Timothy Shelley, had settled in 1791 after marrying Elizabeth Pilfold. Field Place still stands much as it was then, a solid homely mansion built and roofed with the rough grey Horsham stone, which after brief weathering begins to look like the lichen-coated natural outcrop. To the south and west of the house, beyond a ha-ha, lies the landscaped park, with two lakes cut in the clay and a variety of trees — cedar, cypress, pine, oak and chestnut — planted singly, or arranged in clumps and avenues. A splash of brighter colour is provided by the flower gardens, for which Field Place is now most famous.¹ Hidden glades, soft turf, flowers, pleasing vistas across the park, vivid reflexions of house, trees and clouds in the sheltered lakes — all combine to make Field Place a rare delight on a summer’s day.

Full of great aims and bent on bold emprise.

Thomson, Castle of Indolence