Guido Beduschi
@gg_beduschi
Credits: Courteen Hall, Roger Tame
Being a history student, I have always been writing for this journal history articles, and for all of them I researched collecting material from books and on the Internet. This time it was all different: I had the opportunity to be a witness to History, the great history of a family, which the very family I was visiting, told me. Last November I had the chance to experience a taste of Old England: I had the pleasure to meet some people who truly embody an old-fashioned world that still survives in these modern times.
It all began with a small silver cup.
This object, which led me on this adventure, was given to me by my grandmother after having used it for almost 50 years as her pen holder. The cup has the peculiarity of being completely embossed, and among its decorative patterns emerges a coat of arms with a motto in Latin inscribed underneath it. It was the motto itself, “Vigila et ora”, that allowed me to easily find out to whom the coat of arms belongs to. And only in a interconnected world such as ours, it could be so simple: in fact, it was sufficient to type the Latin words into Google, accompanied with “motto” and “coat of arms”.
Among the results of this very superficial search, there was the link to the digitalization of a 1832 “Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of British Empire”, in which the motto was associated, with the same coat of arms embossed on the cup, to a line of Baronets: the Wakes of Northamptonshire. With a second search, I discovered not only that the history of this family was as old as that of England, dating back, in fact, to the times of the Battle of Hastings (1066), but that the line of Baronets continued till the present day in the person of Sir Hereward Wake, 14th Baronet. I then found the web page of the house, Courteenhall, where the family lives; the estate, apart from being a farm, now hosts events and offers a location for photo shoots and filming. Through this very web page it is possible to contact the Estate Office for enquires: “Well”, I thought ‚“I certainly have an object of enquire”. I wrote an email describing the cup, and attached a photo to it, not really relying on receiving an answer – what happened next would prove me wrong.
Days within sending it, I received an email from Mr Charles Wake, who confirmed my deduction by telling me that the emblem and motto really belonged to his family, but he could not help me with its origin, and since he was leaving for a fortnight he could have made some research only after that. I thanked him and considered the whole story over, but two days later I received another email, this time by Sir Hereward Wake, 14th Baronet in person:
Dear Signor Beduschi
It is most kind of you to send us a good coloured photograph of the small silver cup in your possession, which I am thankful and delighted to see. I will shortly be celebrating my 98th birthday and have spent many years collecting and preserving items and information regarding the Wake Family, which will surely be of interest to my descendants.
I understand my son Charles has replied to you and confirmed that it is indeed the Wake Family Coat of Arms with the Wake Knot above and the Motto below. Naturally, I wonder how your family came to own this cup? As to its Wake history, I am afraid I cannot shed any light on it.
Obviously you might well be interested in the Wake Family history which goes back 700 years. The Family home is Courteenhall, near Northampton and you can read more and see photographs on the website: www.courteenhall.co.uk
If you should be travelling to the UK in the near future, nothing would please Lady Wake and me more than to welcome you here at The Old School House.
Please just email or telephone us.Best wishes
Hereward Wake
It was a real surprise, and I was indeed deeply impressed by such enthusiasm over the matter.
Surely there was not an interesting story behind how my family came to own the cup, since it was simply purchased almost 50 years before by my grandmother, in an antique shop in Milan. But what I could do was consult an expert for trying to determinate the period and the place where the cup had been crafted. It resulted that it had been made in Germany, in the mid of the XIX century in the town of Hanau (the home town of the Brothers Grimm), once very famous for its silversmiths.
On the other and, I thought that I could not possibly miss the occasion of visiting the Wakes, thus I soon decided to go to England, bringing with me the cup. It was all quickly arranged: I would go to visit my cousin Giulia, who presently lives in London, then together we would travel via Northampton to Courteenhall for a lunch with the Wakes.
On an early morning of late November, my cousin and I left London to Northampton: it was a sunny day, unusually warm for the season. We briefly visited the town before going to meet at 12.30 with the Wakes, at Courteenhall.
The taxi left us inside the Wake’s estate, in front of the Old School House where Sir Hereward and Lady Wake live. To welcome us arrived Lady Julia Wake, accompanied by a black Labrador and wire-haired dachshund. She introduced us to her husband that was waiting for us in the living room. Sir Hereward was sitting on armchair nearby a window from which you could see Lady Wake’s garden. He is 98 years old, but easily seems 10 years younger, and, as he likes to say, he has not retired yet. He was born in 1916, during the Great War, and when he was my age (21), Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” was unveiled at the Great Exhibition of Paris… Immediately, he asked us to excuse him for being slightly deaf, since an Italian grenade exploded not far from him during the war in North Africa. My cousin and I were sorry to hear that, but so was Sir Hereward, for having fought against the Italians the whole war.
At this point, I showed him the cup, which had been the whole trip in a pocket of my blazer – a thing that really astonished him. Lady Wake told us that the knot over the blazon is called the “Wake Knot”, and that some years ago it was found carved on the stone placed over the entrance of a Crusaders castle at Askelon (Ascalon) in the Holy Land. Askelon has been frequently mentioned in these last years because of the war that is tearing this land apart. Sir Hereward added that the place was also quoted in the Old Testament.
The Wake family’s history, is indeed as old as the one of England.
And it goes back to the Norman Invasion, as the Wakes are reputedly descended from Hereward the Wake (c.1035 — c.1072), a Saxon hero of the resistance to the Norman conquest of England, which ended with the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The first Baronet, Baldwin, was created by King James I in 1621, while the second baronet, loyal to king Charles I (later executed in 1649), was imprisoned by Oliver Cromwell and died in captivity. Coming to much closer times, the 13th baronet, Sir Hereward Wake’s father, was a Major general of the British Army, and fought in the Boer War (1899–1902), and in both the World Wars (in the First he even gained a high military decoration by the Kingdom of Italy). Finally, in 1959 the first English motorway, the M1, was built through the properties of the Wakes: it seems that the link between the history of this family and the history of England continues to stay strong.
Next, they told us that they had a surprise for us: and that very moment a lady appeared. She was one of the families carers, and she was Italian! Might have been a coincidence but the Wakes really love Italy, and they told us that they have visited our country many times, and that an aunt of Lady Wake owned a house in the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately they have only visited the Milan airport.
Sir Hereward remembered the late kings of Italy, the Savoias, and wondered what had happened to them. He told us that he was quite attached to the British royal family, that Her Majesty the Queen was truly a beautiful person, and that he was very fond of her. They asked me and my cousin Giulia many question about Italy, our families, and ourselves. We told them that our grandparents used to travel very often to London, and Lady Wake commented that it was a pity that nobody found out about the cup before. Sir Hereward asked me if I had any military training – I had to admit that I haven’t.
He and Lady Wake had lived for many years in the main house, the Hall, which we would have visited with the rest of the estate after lunch, but they moved about ten years ago to the Old School House. The name of the house came from the fact that it originally hosted a Free Grammar School, built in the second half of the XVII century. In the Hall now lives one of their grandsons with his wife and children, who were unfortunately not at home at the moment. Their son Charles, who answered first to my email, also lives on the Estate.
Soon the lunch was served, and we moved to the dining room. Sir Hereward wanted to have the silver cup with us on the dining table, so it was placed near the centrepiece. An excellent English lunch had been prepared: roasted ham, sided by sweet red cabbage, and potato gateau. The main course was followed by a fruit salad accompanied by sour cream. We finished with a cheese plate. One of them was a French cheese, which, for a misunderstanding, had not been kept in the fridge how it should have been, so it was quite melted. Sir Hereward refused to eat it, asking if I also brought cheese in the pocket of my blazer. We drunk some good red wine, all except Sir Hereward, who told us that he doesn’t drink alcohol at all, not even a glass of whiskey. Having reached such an old age, this must have some relation with it.
After lunch we had coffee back in the living room. Quite unexpectedly, Sir Hereward told me that he would like to give me a book he made with a historian about the history of his family, but since it was quite voluminous he did not want to insist. I told him that I would have been honoured to have it, and eventually I went with Lady Wake to collect a copy from Sir Hereward’s office. He then added a dedication to me, which made the present even more special. He said that although his father always told him the contrary, at first he did not care much about the history of his family, and that only later in his life would he come to understand the importance of it. For this reason he decided to record it in a book – and I have to admit, an excellent history book it was, illustrated with numerous pictures. Sir Hereward worked for a long time on this book, and it has the right to be a source of pride for him. I think he was glad to give it to me, knowing my interest and enthusiasm for History, the same interest and enthusiasm that brought my cousin and me to Courteenhall, adding a new (modest) page to the Wake’s history book.
We were finally ready for the walk through the property. Sir Hereward drove his British racing green golf cart, and he wanted me to go with him; while the “two Julias”, Lady Wake and my cousin Giulia, would follow us walking. While sitting next to him, Sir Hereward stretched over my legs his plaid blanket: we were ready to go.
In my life I would have never expected to be driven around by a person of 98 years old.
The reality is that Sir Hereward is still an excellent driver. We followed a lane in the direction of the main house, the Hall. While driving Sir Hereward told me the history of the estate: although the Wake family has been in South Northamptonshire since the thirteenth century, Courteenhall has been owned by his family only since 1672, while the main house, the Hall, was only built in 1791. Meanwhile, we arrived in front of a beautiful Palladian building, and Sir Hereward told me that they were the old Stables. The building dated back to 1750, and it had been built in accordance to the sober and elegant taste of those times. Because of that, once that the Stables were finished, it seemed that the horses lived in a much nicer house than the humans! This was the reason why Sir Hereward’s great, great grandfather, the 9th Baronet, ordered to demolish the antique manor house (which dated back to the XVI century) in order to build a more decent residence, the present day Georgian style Hall.
We then continued quickly through a vast green meadow in the direction of the old Church (which dates from the XII century), where some members of the Wake family are buried. Suddenly we had to stop: the lawn was cut by a fence, behind which a flock of sheep was grazing. We turned around, in the direction of the Hall, and we stopped in by a big and beautiful tree: Sir Hereward told me that it had been planted by The Queen Mother in person, on her visit to Courteenhall. He added that The Queen Mother was also a beautiful person, and that he was very fond of her as well.
At this point we were met by “the two Julias” and we passed through a gate that brought us to the Arboretum. It was a 5 acres garden that Sir Hereward and his father (the 13th Baronet) created by planting trees of every kind and from all over the world, establishing an internationally renowned botanical garden with over 250 rare species. We started exploring, and at each tree which Sir Hereward considered of any importance, he told me the name and its provenience: in the arboretum are present trees from Tibet, Mesopotamia, and Siberia among numerous other places. We suddenly stopped under a very tall cypress, and Sir Hereward explained to me that these beautiful trees have the bad habit to double their pointed end, and, when such event occurs, it is necessary to cut down the new pit, before the tree is spoiled. He asked me to look at the top of the tree, which was indeed very tall, then he wanted me to guess the way he cut down the tip, which some time before was growing. Feeling the suspense, he revealed to me that he shot it down with his hunting rifle.
While driving back to the Old School House, Sir Hereward told me that I was very lucky to have such a beautiful cousin, and that I really looked like an Englishman, with no beard but a decent haircut… and of course decently dressed.
Finally, we arrived to the house, and it was time to return to Northampton to catch the train back to London. Lady Wake insisted to give us a lift back to town, and not being able to dissuade her, we accepted. Before leaving, Sir Hereward told me that he would have bought the cup from me, but he did not think that I actually wanted to sell it. Moreover he liked the fact that the cup passed from my grandmother to my mother, and then to me. He told me to keep it, and to take care of it. They invited us to come back, in summer, to meet the rest of their family – a thing that would please my cousin and I much, although they insisted that the pleasure would be all theirs. We were now ready to leave, of course not before than having signed the house’s guest book.
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