Coleorton 2023 Calendar - March

Monuments to literary greats in the grounds of Coleorton Hall.

Coleorton Hall has been the seat of the Beaumont family since 1424 via Thomas Beaumont's marriage in 1413 to Phillipa Maureward, the only heir of Sir Thomas Maureward, an important landowner in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Dorset. From then on the Beaumont family were Lords of the Manor at Coleorton and established Coleorton Hall as their base in Leicestershire. In early 1800s Sir George rebuilt Coleorton Hall and spent a number of years creating extensive gardens, with te help of William Wordsworth the poet. Sir George and William Wordsworth created several monuments within the garden to celebrate their literary and artistic heroes. This photo shows the busts of Shakespeare and Milton and an avenue of trees leading to a memorial tablet with an inscription commemorating Francis Beaumont, a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher. Francis Beaumont was born in 1584 at Grace-Dieu.

The inscription is a Poem for Francis Beaumont by William Wordsworth

Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound,
Rugged and high, of Charnwood’s forest ground,
Stand yet, but stranger! Hidden from thy view,
The ivied ruins of forlorn GRACE DIEU.
Erst a religious House, which day and night,
With hymns resounded and the chanted rite;
And when those rites had ceased, the Spot gave birth
To honourable men of various worth;
There, on the margin of a streamlet wild,
Did Francis Beaumont sport, an eager child;
There, under shadow of the neighbouring rocks,
Sang youthful tales of shepherds and their flocks;

Unconscious prelude to heroic themes,
Heart-breaking tears, and melancholy dreams
Of slighted love, and scorn, and jealous rage,
With which his genius shook the buskined stage.
Communities are lost, and Empires die,
And things of holy use unhallowed lie;
They perish; - but the intellect can raise,
From airy words alone, a Pile that ne’er decays.

Read more:

Coleorton Heritage Group

Tel: 01530 440000 Email: enquiries@coleortonheritage.org.uk