If you saw Knebworth House in Episode 4 of the Netflix show “The Gentleman”, what were you doing watching such nonsense? And no, the mad old boy running around naked at the beginning was not a cameo from me. We, of course, love Knebworth House being used in movies and TV shows, however silly they might be, because movies provide a repair fund to tackle those restoration projects which, even if they are not the urgent ones, make such a big difference to visitors’ experience of the House.
A good example is this wallpaper, which was recently restored thanks to funds from film work. Film work can be problematic for wallpaper, because it doesn’t like the mist that Directors of Photography like to use to add atmosphere to a room. So it has been a particular pleasure to see this example recently restored with film funds. Rather than reprinting the wallpaper, the work is done by repairing the paper and stenciling back the pattern. This piece is from the 1840s and displays the Lytton family motto, ‘Hoc Virtutis Opus’.
I have always struggled to make sense of this motto – it translates along the lines of ‘This is Virtue’s Work’, and I have never really understood what that means. Not like the Cobbold motto, ‘Rebus Angustis Fortis’ – ‘Courage Through Adversity’ – which I have always found a very helpful mantra. But recently we found the origin of ‘Hoc Virtutis Opus’, and now, suddenly, it makes sense. It is about good deeds extending beyond one’s lifetime. It is from Virgil’s “The Aeneid” and the full quote translates as, “To each his day is given; man’s brief and irretrievable time runs by; but to prolong life’s fame with great deeds, this is virtue’s work.”
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH
