It will be a melancholy moment this month when we say a fond final farewell to Mr and Mrs Clarence, the splendid griffins that have guarded the gates of Knebworth House for over a hundred years. All those years of facing down the bitter north wind, scaring off evil spirits and protecting the inhabitants of Knebworth House by day and by night, without ever once leaving their sentry posts! The blizzards and the blazing sun have taken their toll over the years – the couple have lost their noses, most of their wings – Mrs Clarence once had a lovely long mane of Virginia Creeper that turned a startling red in the autumn, but old age has put paid to that! The plan is that they will spend their retirement in a quiet spot somewhere in the gardens – so they will be on hand should their replacements require any advice on evil spirit repelling…
Their replacements have been genetically modified to look exactly like them – only younger. They could be offspring of Mr and Mrs Clarence, but for the fact that mother and father have been separated by an iron gate all these years, and there is little chance of successfully mating on top of a pillar. So a cherry-picker was hired, an artist sent up, and D.N.A. collected. The youngsters will arrive via Cranbourne Stone in Dorset, and have been made possible by a grant from The Country Houses Foundation. All very good news for the New Year, but there is, of course, a flip-side. The terms of the grant now require that The Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust find some further funds to finish restoring this last section of outer balustrade – which, in this economic climate, is about as tricky as propagating up a pillar!
Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com