- 5/16/2025
Hidden Treasures of the National Trust 2025 episode 1
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Every year, millions of us flock to the houses and gardens of the National Trust,
00:11taking a step back in time to delve into our history.
00:16How they did it, you know, in them days, amazes me.
00:19Whether in the grandest residence...
00:22Visitors always say, oh, I could live here.
00:24...or a modest farmhouse.
00:26To open up the house when it's just you, it just tingles with excitement.
00:31But out of sight is a hidden world...
00:34I like to see all the secret nooks and crannies behind the scenes.
00:37...where an army of dedicated experts...
00:40Oh, my word, look. I'm slightly lost for words.
00:44...and devoted volunteers...
00:46Quite intimate with it, really. Can I say that?
00:49...are battling to save treasured objects.
00:52Look at that.
00:53It's history, isn't it? You're putting history together.
00:56Making new discoveries...
00:58Ooh, this might be it.
01:00...quite genuinely excited...
01:02...that tell the history of us all.
01:05These objects have stories to tell, and their stories should be heard.
01:14This time, the retreats of three literary legends.
01:20The miniature mementos that inspired one of the world's best-loved children's authors.
01:26This tiny little cradle.
01:28Got to be the cutest picture in the whole book.
01:31The final chapter in a mystery surrounding an enigmatic writer.
01:37You're just seeing different numbers each time.
01:40This really is a strange one.
01:43And the room that became the heart of a master novelist's home.
01:48What started out as a retreat became everything, the centre of his life.
01:59This is the vegetable garden at Hilltop.
02:01We've got some lovely lettuces, peas, parsley, some radishes.
02:06We've got some lovely flowering leeks here.
02:08Great for bees and butterflies and stuff like that.
02:11People go, oh, it's just like my grandad's.
02:13My grandad had an allotment, or he had a little garden with vegetables and stuff in it.
02:17It's just such a beautiful place to work. I love it.
02:20When we get days like this, it's just an absolute joy, you know.
02:23You can see why Beatrix Potter liked it, can't you?
02:26In the heart of the Lake District, high above Esthwaite Water,
02:30in the village of Nearsawrie, is the countryside escape of Beatrix Potter.
02:39Property curator Katie is a lifelong fan.
02:43I grew up reading Beatrix Potter, and I have been coming to Hilltop since I was a child.
02:49So to be able to open up the house when it's just you, it just tingles with excitement.
02:56Hilltop was Beatrix Potter's rural retreat, a special sanctuary for her,
03:02where she created some of her most famous and beautiful works.
03:06The celebrated author and illustrator of 23 children's stories,
03:11most famously The Tale of Peter Rabbit,
03:14Beatrix Potter's affection for the lakes began when she was just a girl.
03:19Beatrix and her family started coming to the Lake District in 1882,
03:23and she falls in love with it.
03:27There is something that becomes embedded in her nature, so she returns again and again.
03:34In 1905, Beatrix took her holiday romance to the next level.
03:39Still living in the family home in Kensington, London,
03:42with the proceeds from her early works, she bought the small farmhouse and its land.
03:48When she comes here, she has this incredible period of production.
03:53Over eight years, she writes 13 different books, and they are hugely popular.
03:59It's a constant whirl of ideas.
04:03And the joy of working at Hilltop is that you can see immediately
04:08where the house inspired these beautiful little books.
04:12So we're going to scamper upstairs, and it's here in The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
04:17you see Tabitha Twitchett standing in front of the clock,
04:20looking anxious, wondering what's happened to her son Tom Kitten.
04:24And you have another moment on the landing,
04:27where Samuel Whiskers brings up the rolling pin to make the dough to cover the little kitten.
04:34I remember visiting for the first time and having that moment of absolute terror,
04:38standing on this landing, the menace of this rat, and it's going to eat the little kitten.
04:45And it's not just in the house that Beatrix's characters are brought to life,
04:50whether senior gardener Pete likes it or not.
04:53One of the most common questions I'm asked is, are you Mr McGregor?
04:59A little boy and his mum came in a couple of weeks ago, and I was working away here,
05:04and he said to his mum, he said, Mummy, did that man kill Peter Rabbit?
05:08And I was like, no, I wouldn't do that.
05:12And my beard's not long enough anyways.
05:16Beatrix's tales inhabit every corner of Hilltop,
05:20nowhere more so than in one of the upstairs rooms.
05:25Beatrix Potter's Doll's House is one of the star items of our collection,
05:30and for many of our visitors, it's the reason why they come.
05:34If we open the doors carefully, I can show you inside,
05:38and you can have a peek at what makes it so special.
05:43What makes Beatrix's Doll's House extraordinary
05:47is that it's packed to the rafters with treasures she used to illustrate
05:51one of her most beloved tales.
05:54The tale of Two Bad Mice takes place in a beautiful doll's house
05:58that is subsequently disrupted by two very mischievous mice,
06:03Tom Thumb and Hunker Munker.
06:05They go into the doll's house, and there's a door,
06:08When they realise that the food isn't real, they go on the rampage.
06:12They smash up the puddings, they throw things in the fire.
06:16Yeah, they cause all sorts of mayhem.
06:19I think the Two Bad Mice remains popular
06:22because it's got that anarchic quality.
06:25And miraculously, over a century since Beatrix's mischievous mice ran amok,
06:30over 70 of the miniature objects in the doll's house
06:34After Beatrix's mischievous mice ran amok,
06:37over 70 of the miniature objects are still together under one roof.
06:42This one is the birdcage with the little bird that swings inside it.
06:50And then this tiny little cradle.
06:56The ham. It's just so beautifully painted
07:00with the fat and the succulent-ness of it.
07:04Like all well-loved homes, regardless of size,
07:07the fixtures and fittings have started to show their age.
07:12You have the fading on the wallpaper.
07:15The wicker baskets have broken.
07:18And some are within a whisker of being lost for good.
07:22The sofa, you can see it was silk,
07:25but when silk ages, it becomes very brittle, and it shatters.
07:29After more than 70 years without major conservation,
07:33the house and its contents now need a makeover.
07:37It's a huge challenge, but if we don't do it now,
07:40there will be a point where it can no longer be on public display.
07:45What room do you want to start with?
07:48Today, the removals team are in.
07:52Cradle? I'll take it.
07:54We're packing up every single item, from the forks to the birdcage.
07:58We look after huge houses, we look after big estates.
08:01We look after tiny ones like this,
08:03and it's the same teams that are going to be looking after this house
08:07that look after our big houses.
08:09The reason that we're doing it at this time
08:12is that it's going to be part of an exciting new display at Hilltop.
08:16It's a bit worse for wear.
08:18Can I get a little tissue cloud, please?
08:21Ideally, we don't want it to be moving around too much as it transports.
08:25What we want to do is bring it back
08:27to how it looked when Beatrice Potter owned it,
08:30to make sure that it's robust for the future
08:33and that we can continue to display it for visitors to enjoy.
08:36This will be the first time
08:38these tiny items have ever left their Lake District home.
08:42So many people absolutely adore Doll's House and all of the little bits.
08:46I'm trying not to think too much about the pressure at all.
08:50It's really, really exciting,
08:52but I won't lie, there is quite a lot of anxiety and sleepless nights
08:57Beatrice Potter's Doll's House is a unique, precious treasure.
09:00I can't wait to see it back.
09:07The natural world and rural landscapes have always inspired writers.
09:12However, I think these landscapes become more potent, more significant
09:17when they actively need a place to retreat and escape to.
09:21Places that give a sense of peace and a sense of solace.
09:26A place where they can simply be themselves.
09:29This is Clouds Hill. This is a lovely view of the cottage.
09:34Hidden deep in the Dorset countryside sits a humble dwelling,
09:39once refuge to one of Britain's most enigmatic writers and military figures.
09:49He said it was odd looking without the windows on the front,
09:53but he grew to love it.
09:55He said it was somewhere where Lawrence's feet touched the ground briefly
09:59as he sort of sped through the world.
10:02Clouds Hill was the retreat of T.E. Lawrence,
10:07also known as Lawrence of Arabia.
10:10A real giant of the 20th century.
10:15Lawrence of Arabia, the most romantic British figure of our time.
10:19The exploits of few British soldiers are the stuff of greater legend
10:23than those of Colonel T.E. Lawrence.
10:26This young Oxford Don has become familiar with the language,
10:29life and character of the nomad tribes.
10:32During the First World War, when just in his twenties,
10:35he led an Arab force in their fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire,
10:40then a German ally.
10:42Under Lawrence's daring leadership, they constantly attacked and disorganised the enemy.
10:46On his return home, the now famous image of Lawrence
10:50as the dashing war hero in flowing Arab robes was established.
10:55Lawrence was the celebrity of the moment.
10:58He cut this incredibly iconic figure.
11:02It just caught the imagination of the public.
11:05And Lawrence wasn't yet ready to close the book on his time in the desert.
11:11In 1919, he'd begun writing his wartime memoir, Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
11:19There was practically nothing that Lawrence couldn't do if he turned his mind to it.
11:23He was an incredible writer, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
11:27It's a masterpiece of literary artistry.
11:31To work on the final revisions, in 1923, Lawrence took on Clouds Hill,
11:38a dilapidated four-room cottage lost in the woods.
11:43As soon as you walk in, it hits you.
11:46You know, it's like, oh, yeah, proper open log fire.
11:50Just how it would have been.
11:52Keeping Lawrence's flame alive is welcome team leader, Tony.
11:58Got a day bed, not a bed for sleeping.
12:00In truth, Lawrence rarely slept in the cottage,
12:03and when he did, he'd often pick a patch of floor and just sleep on the floor.
12:08One of the things Lawrence took from his life out in the Middle East
12:12was this minimalist existence that he admired in the Bedouin people.
12:18He didn't mind hardship.
12:21There was no kitchen, cook over the fires or cook outside.
12:25He only wanted the things around him that he absolutely felt he needed to live.
12:31No sink, and there's no toilet.
12:34Lawrence had five acres of land that he'd use and a shovel outside the door.
12:40So, let's go upstairs.
12:43The lack of a loo doesn't worry Clouds Hill's current occupant either.
12:48We have a bat that comes in occasionally and is known to make a bit of a mess.
12:53Also undercover, safe from the uninvited but protected bat's midnight movements,
13:01is one item that stands out amid Lawrence's Spartan surroundings.
13:07Under here we have the tuque.
13:10It's the star of the show here.
13:13I like to think it reminded Lawrence of when he was a youngster,
13:17perhaps as a young army cadet.
13:20This painting of a young soldier, known also as Picture of Grey,
13:25hangs in pride of place above the fire.
13:30The National Trust
13:36It's very special that the National Trust looks after the belongings
13:40of these interesting and famous people,
13:43and we get a sense of their life through the things that they lived with,
13:48whether that's books or ornaments or, what excites me, is their painting collections.
13:55John, along with Senior National Conservator Becca and Painting Conservator April,
14:01are meeting Cultural Heritage Curator Catherine.
14:05It works really well in this room, doesn't it?
14:07It does.
14:08I mean, it has this amazing freshness and brightness and wateriness to it.
14:13The way the light is hitting the buttons and the waves and the back of the figure's neck,
14:18it feels so specific to a particular moment.
14:21The team is gathered to help solve a long-standing puzzle
14:25about the identity of the seated figure.
14:28And that is, does it represent the young Lawrence?
14:31At first glance, the soldier's profile appears to look just like Lawrence's,
14:36especially around the nose and the chin.
14:39Lawrence had a very distinctively shaped head,
14:42and there is a resemblance in this picture, definitely.
14:46However, there's a hitch.
14:49Though it's thought to have been completed in 1921,
14:53research carried out by the Clouds Hill team
14:56has revealed Lawrence and the artist Henry Scott Tewke didn't meet until 1922.
15:03But there is a theory as to how the soldier bears such a striking resemblance to Lawrence.
15:09One of the questions is whether this painting was retouched by Tewke at a later date
15:15in order to change the profile of the face to resemble Lawrence.
15:20If you look closely, there's something strange going on.
15:23There does seem to be a different consistency to the colour and texture of the paint
15:27around the chin and the nose compared to the rest of the painting.
15:31A slightly taupey green seems to have landed around the jawline.
15:38He's doped in a little bit, hasn't he?
15:41And that's not all that's causing confusion.
15:45So one of the first things you check on a painting is the signature and the date,
15:50while the name on the picture is really clear.
15:53So we've got H.S. Tewke with the dark lettering onto a pale background.
15:59Which is very characteristic.
16:01Annoyingly, the date isn't clear at all.
16:04The date is a paler colour.
16:06It's quite hard to read.
16:07It looks as if it wasn't put on at the same time as the signature.
16:10And just with the naked eye, it's not quite telling us the full story, is it?
16:16But after many years, there's now a chance to shed some light on the mystery.
16:23We want to understand the relationship between Tewke and Lawrence better,
16:26and we want to see if there's anything in this story
16:29that it was substantially repainted to look more like Lawrence.
16:33I mean, I've wanted to do this research for a long time now.
16:37April will need to clean the painting before any analysis takes place.
16:42Oh, look.
16:43And she isn't hanging around with her initial assessment.
16:47There's evidence of the resident bat sat on there.
16:50Look, bat excretion.
16:53Do you know that a little bat lives here?
16:56Whether he's been sat on the edge of the painting or in the rafters above,
17:00I quite like the fact that it's a lone bat, and Lawrence was alone in this place.
17:06It could be quite tricky, actually, with bat guano to deal with.
17:12Cheeky bat.
17:16Back at her studio, April discovers the bat's lack of bathroom etiquette
17:21has caused more damage than first thought.
17:25The bat has actually urinated on the painting,
17:29and it's left these splashes, drip marks.
17:33Basically, the droppings contain uric acid,
17:36and that is really not good news for the painting.
17:39And there lies the problem, because the acidity from the urine
17:42just sort of eats into the top surface of the paint.
17:45It's something that we don't really want. It's really not good.
17:49April's only hope of removing the bat urine without harming the painting further
17:54is to use an enzyme-based solution.
17:57So they're just trying to use something to sort of neutralise the acidity.
18:01These two are particularly disturbing to me, because it's on a darker area.
18:06Let's try this one.
18:10The problem is, the longer it stays on there, the worse it gets.
18:14One of the things I like about my job is it's so varied.
18:17You don't know what you're going to be faced with,
18:20but I try and give every single object the same care and attention.
18:24April's work should halt any further deterioration of the surface,
18:29leaving her to focus on whether the soldier really is T.E. Lawrence.
18:34I'm itching to look at it under the microscope, analyse it further.
18:39You never know what you might find or discover.
18:45We tend to think of writers and great artists
18:48needing to live in splendid isolation, far away,
18:51in their garret, creating great works of art,
18:54but actually that's not always the case.
18:57Some artists want to be amongst company.
19:00Their writing comes from other people.
19:03The last thing they want to be is alone,
19:06and the last thing they want to be is uncomfortable.
19:11Opening up the house when I come in, it's really nice.
19:14It feels like the house is waiting for you.
19:17In the job for just a year, Collections and House Officer Kirsty
19:21is a relatively new character in this house's story.
19:25It's a really welcoming and warm house.
19:27I love being in there on my own.
19:31It's that really lovely Georgian style
19:33with the high windows and the high ceilings.
19:36Visitors always say, oh, I could live here.
19:38Everyone always feels like they're ready to move in.
19:43Sitting pretty on a cobbled street in rye East Sussex is Lamb House.
19:50130 miles along the south coast from Clouds Hill,
19:54it's been a retreat and a home to several writers.
19:58The first, a titan of late Victorian fiction, Henry James.
20:05That's him above the fireplace. He loved it here, yeah.
20:10American-born Henry James is today recognised
20:14as one of the great early modern novelists,
20:17thanks to books like The Portrait of a Lady and The Bostonians.
20:22But by the 1890s, with his popularity on the wane,
20:26his decision to turn to theatre to revive his career proved calamitous.
20:32One particular play, Guy Donville, is received terribly badly,
20:36and this must have confirmed all his fears that he was no longer relevant.
20:41And you can understand why, perhaps,
20:43he's looking to move out of London society,
20:46just to get away from that sense of being a failure.
20:50Fortunately, a chance to escape his predicament was about to present itself.
20:56So Henry James was visiting a friend who showed him a picture of Lamb House,
21:01and he fell in love with it.
21:03He'd fallen in love with England,
21:05and now he fell in love with what he saw at the centre of rye
21:09was a quintessential English house.
21:13Henry James moved from London into his new Sussex retreat in 1898.
21:20Encouraged by the success of The Turn of the Screw the same year...
21:24The lovely flowers from the garden.
21:26..his new home would revitalise his literary fortunes.
21:30So this has always been known as the Green Room,
21:33and this is where Henry James did his writing.
21:39Henry James wrote some of his most influential
21:42and significant pieces of literature at Lamb House.
21:46The Wings of a Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl.
21:49It's a really peaceful space. You've got the windows on both sides.
21:53You've got the beautiful view of the garden,
21:55so it's just a really nice space to be in.
21:58The other rooms give us a sense of the man and his daily life,
22:02but the Green Room, more than any of the rooms,
22:05represents Henry James and why he's here.
22:09But as any owner of a period property knows,
22:13they come with a particular set of challenges,
22:16one of which has left the Green Room distinctly off-colour.
22:20Damp is potentially a very big problem for any historic house.
22:23When you have damp, you very quickly get mould
22:26and that will quickly cause damage to a collection.
22:29So we're having some repair work done.
22:31All of the plaster's been stripped off and been left to dry out,
22:35and so now it's ready to be able to repoint it with the correct material
22:39and then plaster and paint it again.
22:42Unfortunately, because of this damage,
22:44we've had to have the Green Room closed for the last year,
22:47which is a shame because it's really the heart of the Henry James story in the house.
22:52So being able to have the room open again to the public will be fantastic.
23:00As the first coat of lime plaster goes onto the wall inside...
23:05..outside, the cause of the damp is being tackled by specialist builders.
23:10This is some sunsit.
23:14We're removing the old sand and cement mortar.
23:17It shouldn't be in there in the first place, really.
23:19Like back in the 70s, they thought it was much better than the lime,
23:23being harder, but it turns out that it's not.
23:26Certainly for a period property like this, it's not.
23:30We're a small family-run business.
23:33My wife does admin and my two sons work with me on a daily basis.
23:39I tend to prefer doing something peaceful, slow, painting,
23:44whereas he prefers more technical things.
23:47As a boss, I'd like to think I'm quite good, actually.
23:50I don't get any complaints, let's put it that way.
23:56Working in historical buildings like this is a lot more interesting
23:59than going to work in a modern house.
24:01It is great, you get to work in some really nice houses,
24:04lovely locations.
24:06My wife has read some of the books, a lot of ghost stories, I think.
24:11We're also part of history, putting it all back together again.
24:14That's the nice thing about it.
24:16It's quite satisfying to know that we've had a hand
24:19in maintaining these properties,
24:21and they're going to be standing for years to come.
24:24But Henry James's writing room won't be complete
24:29until the return of one extremely special item,
24:33currently under wraps in the workshop of furniture conservator Graham.
24:43This is a French 19th-century secretaire from Lamb House,
24:47owned by Henry James.
24:49The bookmatching on the veneers down the front
24:52is indicative of a well-made piece.
24:54The handles are gilded brass, as it would have really shone out.
24:58This secretaire is the pinnacle of that period.
25:01When you see the craftsmanship and you see that beautiful veneer work,
25:04in its day it would have been an expensive piece.
25:07This Rolls-Royce of writing desks helped spur Henry James on
25:12to pen several of his great works.
25:15The main secretaire is with the drawers and a fall,
25:19which is what you write on.
25:21And the pigeonhole compartment actually fits within the cabinet,
25:25and the mirrored section sits above to form the architectural piece.
25:30When I'm working on pieces,
25:32you try and imagine how people may have used it.
25:34Imagine him with a blotter and a nice ink pen.
25:37So many objects you look at and you do sort of think,
25:39I'd love that. Would I have it in my house?
25:41Probably a bit too big, but it's a lovely piece of furniture.
25:44But the years of wear and tear since Henry James last wrote at it
25:48have taken their toll.
25:50You've got areas where it's faded,
25:53and then there's a patch that was put in here.
25:57It's nearly 200 years old, so, yeah, it needs a bit of work doing to it.
26:01This is going to be quite a challenge.
26:04And the stakes couldn't be higher.
26:07The fact that Henry James had it in the room with him
26:10when he was writing tells you an awful lot
26:13about how important that desk actually is.
26:15If it was important to Henry James,
26:17it's incredibly important to us to have this desk restored.
26:22Graham has already patched two sections of lost veneer
26:26and is now dipping into his box of tricks to make them vanish.
26:31I'm mixing some watercolour.
26:33See how that colour looks.
26:35Hopefully, then, when I put that on there...
26:40..that is going to blend in.
26:42When you're working on a piece,
26:44it's very much a process of little by little, labour and love.
26:48Obviously, being water, it takes a little time to dry normally.
27:00Now it's dry, I can see it's still too light.
27:05If it goes too dark, you've got to go right back to the beginning
27:08and start again.
27:1040 years of experience, hopefully,
27:12that will enable me to see that I'm about right.
27:15Working on a nice piece of furniture,
27:17you're repairing something historically important
27:20and you're preserving something for the future.
27:23It's a huge responsibility.
27:26I'll just feather that through to make sure it's all right.
27:29Getting closer.
27:31Every year, the National Trust repairs and conserves hundreds of items
27:37from the country's great estates.
27:40Many end up here at the Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio
27:45at Knoll in Kent.
27:48Today, the contents of an entire house have arrived
27:52in just a handful of containers.
27:55I'm really excited because we've got so many boxes to look into
27:59and then, of course, we've got the amazing doll's house behind us.
28:03Studio lead Emma is throwing the house-warming party.
28:07Oh, look at that.
28:10We have a house in miniature.
28:12Oh, we've got the pears and the oranges.
28:16Oh, there's the ham.
28:18Oh, and look at this gorgeous plate.
28:21It's a bit like Christmas, going into your stocking.
28:24Another item comes out and another item comes out.
28:27So delicate.
28:29And look at the candles. They've got their little wicks on them.
28:32We have glass chandeliers, oil paintings.
28:35Look at that. How gorgeous.
28:37We've got furniture, ceramic vases.
28:40Oh, look. Cutlery.
28:43Absolutely minuscule. Amazing.
28:46You name it, it's in this house.
28:48Just like a real house,
28:50we need many people to look after this tiny house.
28:53So, yeah, we've got a lot to do.
28:57The Tale of Two Bad Mice exhibition at Hilltop is just weeks away
29:02and after over 70 years on display,
29:05Emma has assembled a crack team of specialist conservators
29:09to tackle the refurb of the doll's house and its miniature contents.
29:15Years of dirt.
29:17Also, many of these items are incredibly fragile.
29:20And, yeah, some of them are broken, worn, repaired.
29:24It's just a mammoth task.
29:28The items of furniture were more than just props
29:31for one of Beatrix's book illustrations.
29:35The Tale of the Two Bad Mice really holds two stories in its pages.
29:40The one about Hunkamunka and Tom Thumb causing mayhem,
29:44but also, more clandestinely, the story of Norman and Beatrix
29:48and how their relationship blossoms.
29:52Norman Warne had been Beatrix's editor
29:55from her very first book, Peter Rabbit.
29:58Gradually, their relationship became romantic
30:01and by the time she began Two Bad Mice in 1904,
30:05he was intimately involved in her creative process.
30:09Norman really understood how important accuracy was within her work
30:13and so he goes to Hamleys and orders doll's house food and furniture
30:19and sends them to her for her to copy
30:21and she is delighted by these trinkets,
30:23so delighted that she keeps them for the rest of her life.
30:28121 years later, some of Norman's miniature gifts
30:32have been sent on to the Trust's textile conservation studio
30:37in Blickling, Norfolk,
30:39where the repair of the doll's house settee
30:42is in the hands of conservator Jane.
30:45It's a lovely item.
30:47The detail's quite amazing.
30:50But the silk on the settee is very, very fragile.
30:54It's fragmenting and could easily be knocked off
30:57and we don't want to lose any more of the original material.
31:01With the little settee's future hanging by a thread,
31:05Jane first needs to patch the bare spots.
31:08And I have dyed some silk.
31:11It is a good match to the original
31:13and now I'm going to put this into the settee.
31:18It looks like even if you just breathe on it, it's going to break off.
31:22There's a piece there that's completely detached.
31:25There's not a lot of structure left in that.
31:28I don't often work on such tiny items in the studio.
31:32It's very fiddly.
31:34You want to shrink your hands down to be the same size.
31:38What I need to do now is fix this in place along the front.
31:43I don't often use a needle quite as small as this one.
31:47I am a fan of Beatrix Potter.
31:49I suppose my favourite, this is being a textile conservator,
31:53my favourite is the tailor of Gloucester.
31:56It's so tiny.
31:58I love the idea of the mice busy there
32:01stitching away with all these lovely fabrics.
32:04The edges of the original silk are too delicate to sew into,
32:08so Jane is using a specialist adhesive film
32:12to secure them to the patch.
32:14I'm not really looking forward to this part of the process.
32:17It's going to be quite tricky.
32:20You don't want it to stick in the places that you don't want it to stick in
32:24and tear the original silk.
32:29I've got my piece that became detached.
32:34We want to keep as much of the old silk.
32:37That's part of the object.
32:39I like doing fiddly things, but this is extremely fiddly.
32:43It helps if you've got a steady hand.
32:47Hold your breath.
32:51And we're there.
32:53So far, so good.
32:55Just one final step.
32:57Basically, it's like a mini iron, which will melt the glue.
33:05So now the original silk is very secure.
33:08It's not going to flake off, so I'm very happy with that.
33:12This would smarten any room.
33:15The doll's house furniture would tragically become tokens
33:19of an unfulfilled love.
33:22Just weeks after Beatrix and Norman were engaged, in 1905,
33:27he fell ill and died, suddenly,
33:30from a form of leukaemia at the age of 37.
33:34Beatrix, who would wear her engagement ring for the rest of her life,
33:38bought Hilltop three months later.
33:41I think there was true heartbreak.
33:43This chance of happiness that she had has sadly been cut.
33:47It's ended.
33:48When she purchases Hilltop very soon after Norman's death,
33:52she's making her own chance.
33:54Hilltop, because it has that sense of permanency for her,
33:57becomes her place of work, where she sketches
34:00and where she writes the next set of her little books.
34:04But Beatrix's Cumbrian cottage
34:08offered her more than just an opportunity to write.
34:12Young ladies of her kind of standing
34:14weren't expected to ever get their hands dirty.
34:17They did embroidery and found a suitable husband.
34:20That was their aim in life, I think,
34:22or that was what they were told was their aim in life.
34:25But Beatrix was completely different.
34:27So when she bought this place, it was like,
34:29wow, here I go, I can make my own garden now.
34:31And rather than produce some kind of really grand stately home garden,
34:36she just wanted a little cottage garden like everybody else.
34:39She says, I've begged, borrowed and stolen plants
34:42from every garden in the village.
34:44She wasn't bringing Kensington to the Lake District.
34:47She was making a home for herself in the lakes themselves,
34:50and she wanted that to feel as real as possible.
34:54While it's tragic that she couldn't do that with Norman,
34:57it's really powerful that she carved that path for herself
35:01to a place of retreat and comfort
35:03and a place where she found happiness.
35:07Like Beatrix, T.E. Lawrence too had found a place he could write in peace.
35:14But his cottage in the woods also served another purpose.
35:18So few pictures of Lawrence, moving or still, are in existence,
35:22owing to his dislike of publicity during his lifetime.
35:25It was a difficult time for Lawrence.
35:28He was very, very famous,
35:30but he was trying to escape the prying eyes of the public.
35:34He just wanted to be left alone.
35:36To make sure of that, in 1923,
35:39Lawrence began to lead a remarkable double life.
35:43Having ended the war as a colonel,
35:45he now enlisted at Bovington Army Base in Dorset,
35:49under the pseudonym Private T.E. Shaw,
35:53leaving the other men oblivious
35:55that their fellow soldier was Lawrence of Arabia.
35:59At Bovington camp, he spent this regulated life
36:02living with the rank and file,
36:04but he did need somewhere where he could go
36:07and allow his mind to roam free.
36:10And Clouds Hill fitted the bill perfectly.
36:13It was very close to Bovington camp.
36:15He could get there on his Brough motorcycle,
36:18would just spend the evening there, read, think and write.
36:23Though Lawrence had retreated from the spotlight,
36:26he retained his acquaintances in the art world,
36:30one of whom was Henry Scott Tewke,
36:33painter of Picture of Grey.
36:36Tewke was a really famous artist in Lawrence's day.
36:40He exhibited every year at the Royal Academy in London.
36:43He was best known as a painter of marine subjects
36:47and the characters in the Cornish fishing towns.
36:50But nowadays, he's best known for these figures
36:53of naked young men and boys on a beach in Cornwall,
36:57swimming in the sea.
36:59The picture of the young soldier undressing
37:02is thought to have been painted in 1921.
37:05Now, with the back damage taken care of,
37:09April's task is to find out whether it was retouched
37:13to look like Lawrence after the men met in 1922.
37:17Well, I like being a detective as a conservator.
37:20Wanting to know more is a natural part of what we do.
37:24To help with the investigation,
37:26she's brought in technical art historian Kate
37:29and her deceptively retro-looking camera.
37:33The idea of infrared is to penetrate
37:36the upper surface of the paint.
37:38It can show you an awful lot about changes
37:41that were made to the paintings.
37:43Sometimes it's incredible and you can see
37:45whole other compositions are underneath.
37:47We really hope that this analysis will tell us
37:51whether Tewke has changed his composition
37:54or made some alterations.
38:03Every time that whirring goes through,
38:06it's updating, building up the grid.
38:10You have this anticipation
38:12because you don't know what you're going to see underneath.
38:16It's looking at something that nobody's seen
38:19since the painting was made,
38:21so it's quite a privilege, really.
38:25Any retouching made to the soldier's jawline
38:28should now be ready for inspection.
38:32You can see that the canvas texture
38:35is quite apparent in the face,
38:37so that tells us that this is quite thinly painted.
38:40The chin is denser in infrared and darker,
38:43so that looks like it's been worked more,
38:46but there's nothing that jumps out
38:49that says that is a later retouching.
38:53The scan reveals that Tewke hasn't overpainted
38:57or altered the face at a later date.
39:00It all appears to be created in one sitting.
39:04The infrared image has revealed
39:07the painting wasn't retouched by Tewke,
39:10but can it uncover once and for all when he completed it?
39:15The artist's name is definitely done
39:18in a different manner to the date, isn't it?
39:21It's fainter, but we're not seeing
39:24a different date underneath in the infrared.
39:27It's not what it would have been when he wrote H.S. Tewke.
39:31Something's happened to it, it's been changed, hasn't it?
39:34You're just seeing different numbers each time.
39:37At this stage, we really just have no idea
39:40of when it was actually painted.
39:42This really is a strange one.
39:48Over a century since Henry James lived and wrote at Lamb House,
39:53keeping up appearances is still of utmost importance.
39:58It all seems to be going in quite nicely.
40:01It's coming up beautifully.
40:03And volunteers Judy and Jane
40:06are more than happy to roll up their sleeves.
40:09I don't need a gym class today.
40:11I had told myself retirement was going to be a time
40:15for new experiences.
40:17No duty is ever a chore.
40:19It's just a delight to spend a few hours in this lovely house.
40:24Though he had retreated to his new Sussex home,
40:27Henry James wasn't about to retire into seclusion.
40:32This was a real opportunity for him to rethink his life,
40:36but not completely lose a sense of the society
40:41that he'd formerly built up.
40:43He wasn't walking away from that at all.
40:45He's a man, as a writer, who needed to be around people.
40:49Henry James lived alone as a bachelor at Lamb House,
40:53but was never short of company,
40:55eagerly throwing open the doors
40:57to his social circle of literary heavyweights.
41:00So all these pictures are people who were friends with Henry James
41:04who visited the house at one time or another.
41:07Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Kipling, Bernard Shaw.
41:13He was a popular man.
41:15Virginia Woolf describes it as being like a cramped hotel.
41:20It's as if the whole world came to Rye.
41:24This is not a house of retreat.
41:26It's a house that's in the centre of everything.
41:30And the room that was at the heart of Henry James's life at Lamb House
41:35is finally getting its first lick of paint.
41:38It's been a lot of stop-start.
41:40Ended up an extra coat of plaster, hence why it took so long to dry.
41:46No surprise it's the green room, so the colour we're putting on is green.
41:51But not just any green.
41:53It's a special water-based paint
41:56that'll allow the lime-plastered walls to breathe.
41:59We know that during Henry James's time it was painted green,
42:03so it's great to redecorate how it would have been when Henry James was using it.
42:07We're on the last stage now.
42:09We should be finished in the next day or so.
42:12And we're really pleased with the outcome.
42:15I think it looks great.
42:17If Henry James walked in there now,
42:19I'd like to think he wouldn't notice any difference.
42:23Graham's hoping Henry James would be just as chuffed with his handiwork.
42:28I've put in probably 15-plus patches
42:33and probably been about 20 areas of colouring.
42:39When you're working on a piece, you're not trying to take it back to when it was new.
42:43You don't want to over-restore it.
42:45You've got to try and preserve the history of the object.
42:48It's got to be sympathetic to the piece.
42:50I'm applying the wax to make those repairs blend in and less visible
42:55because they've had a lot of work done to them.
42:59It's lovely to see it looking as it should.
43:02It's like cleaning your silver.
43:04I think the house team will be pleased to be reunited with a much-loved piece.
43:13At Beatrix Potter's Lake District retreat,
43:16after over 300 hours of conservation work,
43:19the item, intimately connected with one of her most cherished stories,
43:24has finally returned.
43:26The Doll's House has been hugely missed.
43:28It's such a beloved part of Hilltop.
43:31So it's extraordinary to have it back home and looking amazing.
43:36The grand opening of the Tale of Two Bad Mice exhibition is just days away.
43:43Ready? One, two, three.
43:45But with the Doll's House unfurnished, what came out must now go back in.
43:51We have ten different boxes and everything has its own specific little space.
43:56It's like an object Tetris.
43:58Hopefully, we'll get everything back in place without any hiccups.
44:02Fortunately, there are photos to make sure everything,
44:05down to the last tiny teaspoon, goes back exactly where it should.
44:11We are going to start putting the objects back in
44:14and we're going to work from the back to the front.
44:18There is a huge amount to do.
44:20It may be planned and we've got great people working on it,
44:23but that doesn't take the stress away from it.
44:26We're going to start with the two portraits and they have been transformed.
44:30The team at Knoll have cleaned every single pasted gem
44:34so that they now sparkle beautifully.
44:36So that one lives here.
44:41All these little objects have all gone on their own little journeys
44:45and have been restored so beautifully.
44:47Seeing them looking their best and also having them back together again,
44:53they just sing.
44:54Looking particularly resplendent, the green silk settee.
44:59Wow. Oh, that is a difference.
45:02That is a difference.
45:04This is a joy to see it looking so much healthier.
45:07Really dramatic on such a tiny scale.
45:10It's lovely to have it back there underneath the pictures.
45:14The team have done an incredible job.
45:16But with the exhibition about to welcome its first guests,
45:20both houses, small and big, need to be spick and span.
45:25We will be hoovering, cleaning, polishing.
45:29There will be very little sleep
45:31and we'll be working probably right up to the wire,
45:33but we'll get it done and it will look amazing.
45:38It's now known Picture of Grey wasn't retouched,
45:43so to try and finally solve the mystery of whether it depicts T.E. Lawrence,
45:48John has come to Tate Britain in London.
45:51He's hoping the artist himself left a clue in their archives.
45:56So this is Tuke's Register of Paintings,
45:59which is a sort of account book of all of the pictures that he produced
46:03in his own handwriting.
46:05This is really helpful because it tells you the title,
46:09when it was exhibited, how much the picture sold for and who bought it.
46:13And it's compiled in chronological order.
46:16Lawrence and Tuke first met in 1922,
46:20so John is hoping to find that date
46:23alongside Picture of Grey's entry in the register.
46:26Portrait, F.G. Bowles, holiday.
46:30On this page we've got Playmates,
46:33exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1909.
46:36Oh, and here we are.
46:38Picture of Grey,
46:40and it's described as an RGA soldier seated on the beach.
46:45This is it.
46:46But I can't see anything on this page with the date of the work.
46:50It's really intriguing.
46:52The date may be missing,
46:54but John does know the paintings are listed in order of completion.
46:59So I'm seeing, at the top of the page,
47:02Morning Splendour, exhibited at the RA in 1922.
47:07The fact that the Picture of Grey is listed after Morning Splendour
47:11tells us that it must have been finished in 1922 or after.
47:16So for us that fits quite nicely
47:18with what we know about Tuke and Lawrence meeting in 1922.
47:23All this is like getting us closer and closer to the truth.
47:27But if the figure is Lawrence,
47:30why did Tuke call the painting Picture of Grey?
47:34So we have Picture of Grey,
47:36but there is something peculiar about it.
47:39The name Grey is written with quotation marks around it,
47:43and then later Tuke has added beneath it Small Bathing Picture.
47:48When the original owner of the painting died,
47:51Grey in quotation marks bought these two for a fiver!
47:56So you would immediately read the name Grey as a pseudonym.
48:00And this use of pseudonyms is a feature of Lawrence's life.
48:05He'd adopt a new name in order to be anonymous
48:08or to leave something behind.
48:10So if he was using this name Grey in 1922,
48:14that would make a lot of sense.
48:17So for me, it's beyond reasonable doubt
48:20this is Lawrence buying a painting that he'd modelled for,
48:24painted when Tuke and Lawrence met in that summer in Cornwall in 1922.
48:33After so many years of speculation and myths,
48:37it's really good to be able to say, yeah, this is Lawrence.
48:44Lawrence bought the painting of himself in 1926,
48:48the same year the first edition of his Seven Pillars of Wisdom
48:52was published to great acclaim.
48:55He would, though, only ever write one more book.
48:59In 1935, Lawrence was killed in a motorcycle accident
49:03on a Dorset country lane.
49:06I don't think we'll ever get to the real roots of the man.
49:11He was a one-off.
49:13Incredibly complex, incredibly talented.
49:17But he was an enigma.
49:21At least one of the puzzles that surrounded Lawrence
49:24has now been solved.
49:26And at his simple refuge in the woods,
49:29the painting that meant so much to him
49:31can finally be seen for what it really is.
49:34It's amazing.
49:36It's really satisfying to have got to the bottom of this mystery
49:40because it's such an important picture in the house
49:43because it represents what was most important to T.E. Lawrence.
49:47Now fully bat-proof,
49:49the painting can be rehung above the fireplace.
49:52I'm pleased with the end result.
49:54Putting all these different measures into place
49:57to protect the painting for future
49:59and knowing that other people can come and get a glimpse
50:02into the life of Lawrence, see this beautiful painting.
50:05Yeah, I think this is one of my favourite pictures
50:08in the National Trust now.
50:10The way the water gets that much more translucent along the shore,
50:14I didn't feel like I could sense that before.
50:18For Lawrence, though,
50:20the painting was more than just a pretty picture.
50:23There is a kind of romantic connection
50:26to an earlier part of his life.
50:29It's almost like having a snapshot.
50:32Because it's not, here's a picture of me on my wall.
50:36It's more of like a memory of an encounter with an artist that he loved.
50:41We often talk about Lawrence backing into the spotlight.
50:44He sought out the great world and to achieve a lot,
50:49but then was always pushing back on the consequences
50:53for his own privacy and his own personal life.
50:57So the fact that he appears prominently in the picture
51:01and at the same time is only obliquely present
51:05encapsulates that ambivalent relationship with his own fame
51:09and his appearance in the spotlight.
51:12So he's sort of present and not present,
51:14which is kind of where he wanted to be in life.
51:23In Rye, it's an important day in the story of Lamb House.
51:28The renovation of the Green Room is complete
51:31and the team are returning it to how it was in Henry James' day
51:35over a century ago.
51:38Lots of people who come to visit Lamb House are real Henry James fans
51:41and what they really want to see, of course,
51:43is the room that he did his writing in.
51:45So it's really important to us that we try and get this right.
51:48It's been a long journey.
51:50It's been closed for a long time, the room,
51:52and there's been a huge amount of work done.
51:54So it is really exciting for the room getting put back into place.
51:59Returned and rejuvenated is Henry James' writing desk.
52:04The secretary has been away for a while,
52:06so it's wonderful to have it back in where it should be.
52:09Our goal in putting the room back together
52:11is we want to really make it feel like a place where Henry James was writing,
52:15as if you've wandered in while he's been working.
52:18We really want to try and create that feeling.
52:21Although his escape to Rye was born of crisis,
52:24Henry James found true contentment at Lamb House.
52:28He would continue to write and entertain here for the rest of his days.
52:33It's a place of great joy for him in his later years.
52:39What started out as a retreat became everything, the centre of his life.
52:46Come on in.
52:48Here we are.
52:51Wow.
52:53Oh, my gosh.
52:56The green room looks absolutely amazing.
52:59The paint looks fantastic.
53:01All of the furniture looks just wonderful to be back in place.
53:04I'm so proud of the team and of the work that we've done.
53:08And standing tall, back where it belongs, Henry James' secretaire.
53:14Such a beautiful piece of furniture.
53:16It is, yeah. It looks absolutely glorious.
53:18Rich. Oh, it's amazing.
53:20That's the magic of a conservator, isn't it?
53:23Unreal, yeah.
53:24Graham's done an amazing job with the secretaire. It looks fantastic.
53:27I'd like to think that Henry James would be delighted with it, absolutely.
53:31So great to have it back where it should be.
53:34This is what really tells people that this was Henry James' writing room.
53:39Having the secretaire back and the green room restored,
53:42in a little way we're doing what Lamb House did for Henry James.
53:46Giving a chance for a renaissance.
53:54And at hilltop, there's light at the end of the tunnel
53:58for the Tale of Two Bad Mice exhibition.
54:02So this is a custom-made rig.
54:04It consists of 47 fibre-optic cables,
54:08which will really allow us to illuminate every single object
54:12in Beatrix Potter's doll's house.
54:15The bright spark ensuring it looks its best
54:18is national conservator and lighting specialist Dom.
54:22It's very fiddly, trying to find a better angle
54:26and remove shadow, just tweaking things.
54:30It is fun working in a doll's house.
54:32This will really bring it to life.
54:37Nine years after the publication of The Tale of Two Bad Mice,
54:41Beatrix put down even deeper roots in the Lake District
54:45when she married local solicitor William Heelis.
54:49Though she would write only six more books at hilltop,
54:53her life would be busier than ever.
54:56In a way, she almost sheds Beatrix Potter and becomes Mrs Heelis.
55:02Mrs Heelis becomes one of the most knowledgeable
55:05and respected sheep farmers in the area.
55:08And Mrs Heelis buys up farms and lands
55:11to make sure it's protected from development.
55:14And she grows this incredible knowledge,
55:17not only of the geography, but also the local traditions, folklore.
55:22Even in her final days,
55:25this landscape is what brings her comfort and solace.
55:29Beatrix died in 1943.
55:32In her will, she bequeathed hilltop,
55:35along with over 4,000 acres, to the National Trust,
55:39laying the foundation for today's Lake District National Park.
55:46We can't underestimate how much we owe to Beatrix Potter.
55:51We have these unencumbered, incredible vistas to enjoy
55:56because she had the foresight to think about saving them.
56:00So Beatrix, in a way, saves the lakes
56:04in the way the hilltop saved her.
56:11Ahead of its public opening,
56:13the Tale of Two Bad Mice exhibition
56:16is now ready to unveil to the excited house team.
56:20And here it is!
56:24It's been a huge amount of effort,
56:26and I can't wait for you guys to see the turning of the lights.
56:30Dom, will you do the honours?
56:32There is great anticipation.
56:34How is it going to look?
56:363, 2, 1...
56:42Oh!
56:48Oh!
56:50Amazing.
56:52Now it's all lit up. It looks completely different.
56:56I'm overwhelmed. I'm really overwhelmed.
56:58Stunning.
57:00To have it lit, just looking so pristine and beautiful,
57:05I am so proud of what we've done.
57:07Oh, there's so many good things.
57:09The little bear cage.
57:11The ham.
57:13I never even realised there was water in here.
57:15Obviously, that's my favourite thing.
57:18I mean, what's not to love about it?
57:21Many of us grew up with Beatrix Potter's little books,
57:25reading her stories of mischievous little creatures.
57:28But there is so much more to Beatrix.
57:31Being able to see her this clear is mind-blowing.
57:36And this exhibition shows some of the complexities
57:39of a multifaceted person.
57:42The loss, the joys, and the resilience that she had.
57:46This is why these beautiful items are even more priceless,
57:50because they help us tell the story of a truly remarkable woman.
57:59Next time...
58:01Everybody on that wall! This wall!
58:03..uncovering 400 years of family legends...
58:07It's actually really exciting. It feels like a discovery.
58:10..in two vastly different houses.
58:13Family histories are important to us,
58:15whether we're a member of the elite or a coal miner.
58:18..both with hidden histories...
58:20I'm feeling quite emotional, actually.
58:22..coming to light.
58:24If there is potentially an interesting story,
58:26then it's absolutely brilliant.
58:56.
Recommended
58:58
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