Watch any TV makeover show – and there are a few – and the chances are you’ll hear one designer congratulate another on the “contemporary” look they have achieved. Usually this seems to refer to a sort of anonymous fashion standard that does not take much account of what the owner of the house, garden or haircut actually has in mind, but the majority seem to end up satisfied. The British designer and architect William Burges (1827-1881), however, was an artist for whom “contemporary” was never enough. He managed to retain a highly individual mediaevalist style while riding the bowwaves of the 1860s Victorian Gothic Revival and - provided he got along with his patrons – was happy to include all sorts of touches representing the commissioner’s favourite things. Often these included stylised or realistic designs featuring favourite animals, plants, and historical or mythological figures. Perhaps his most creative work came about through the patronage of fellow medievalist, bookworm, and animal lover, the Third Marquess of Bute (1847-1900). Bute was then the wealthiest citizen in Britain, having made his fortune as a landowner and a South Wales industrialist, and was rich and bold enough to give Burges a freer hand than any other. When they came to rebuild Cardiff Castle in what has been called “a Gothic feudal extravaganza” and makeover par excellence, the friendship between Burges and the Bute family was cemented. If not true naturalists, both were knowledgeable about the natural sciences and exploration and were established animal lovers. The interiors of the castle include hundreds of familiar and exotic beasts among the more mythological elements, and the exterior “Animal Wall” supports some fine sculptures. Some of the animals are placed in more or less meaningful contexts, while others seem to be the results of pure whimsy. Picking them out on a guided tour is one of the pleasures of visiting this extraordinary castle. Particularly for a zoologist, it is satisfying to see how well many of them are realised, and that they include such “unconventional” creatures such as chamaeleons, beetles, earthworms, and several molluscs that are accurate enough to identify. I recently had the privilege of being shown around Cardiff Castle to make a list of the molluscs on show and to try and ascertain some of the sources Burges and Bute might have used. Various molluscs occur in several rooms in different contexts, and also in some of Burges’ other buildings, which are listed below in the manner of a tour. Books about Burges (mainly J. Mordaunt Crook’s 1981 “William Burges and the High Victorian Dream”) allowed me to trace a few more molluscs in the iconography of this most imaginative designer.
On top of Cardiff Castle is the smallish but opulent Roof Garden, which has as its centrepiece a grey bronze fountain. Around its base are realistic reliefs of Mytilus, Ostrea and other seafood, together with a mystery mussel-like bivalve (Figs. 1-4). A hermit crab emerges from a large gastropod, perhaps a Bursa lampas or similar. The inside of the elegant brass garden door sports the first of many snails (Fig. 11) to be found throughout the castle. Burges (or Bute) was evidently fond of the snail motif and they are realised in many different ways (Figs. 8-14). They can probably all be referred to Helix aspersa, though the form and colour are usually dictated by the materials used. The direction the snail faces also affects the way the shell coils. A distinct majority crawl to the left and thus are shown sinistral. Painted snails (Fig. 14) can be seen crawling all over the walls in the large Banqueting Hall. Perhaps the most appealing of all is a tiny mother-of-pearl snail inlaid in the Summer Smoking Room (Fig. 10).
Bute and Burges celebrated their selfstyled scholarship in the stately Library. The only complete Burges interior in existence, the Library is well-stocked with animal designs. The elaborate marquetry of the bookcases (Bute’s books are long gone) includes hermit crabs in Turritella shells as well as the ubiquitous snails (Fig. 12). Near the fireplace is a strong stone relief of a male and female figure, emerging from a well-defined Charonia sp. and a more obscure Turbotype shell and blowing shell-like instruments. The significance of this sculpture, which looks more Classical than most in the castle, apparently remains unclear.
Molluscs are less well represented in the Nursery used by the Butes’ children. The hanging lantern bears silhouettes of the cockle shells from the rhyme “Mary, Mary…” but the lantern is not an original Burges feature. One of the original murals, however, does include an intriguing object at the feet of a rather desperate-looking Robinson Crusoe and Friday (Fig. 15). To me, this odd, isolated detail looks for all the world like a tropical island land snail (the camaenid Amphidromus?) which, in the absence of palm trees or other scenery, creates a feeling of distant wilderness. I may be over-reading things, but is difficult to imagine what else it might represent. Whether Bute, Burges or one of his craftsmen knew of such an object I do not know. Many Amphidromus were in European collections by this time. I am told that the Butes’ daughter, Lady Margaret Crichton Stuart (d. 1954) had a shell collection of note that is mentioned in her correspondence, but the later whereabouts of the collection are unclear.
A definite source is more likely higher in the clock tower, in the Marquess’s “Bachelor Bedroom”. The interior is themed around natural riches: geology, the hunt, and the sea (one mural shows pearl divers reaching some miscellaneous oysters with the aid of a stone weight). In the adjacent bathroom, Bute’s marble bath, made from a recycled antique sarcophagus, also has marine details. The bath’s inlays in copper, silver and brass feature eels and a starfish along with a classic depiction of a female Argonauta in her shell (Fig. 5). Burgess’s original design, kept in the Castle archives (Fig. 6) suggests that alternative designs were only abortive and that a clear picture was in mind. If so, it corresponds very closely with an engraving in Cassell’s 1809 Natural History (Fig. 7), a popular encyclopaedia that Bute or Burges are likely to have known or owned. As Cassell explains, early naturalists were much taken with Aristotle’s claim that Argonauta, “the Paper Nautilus” sailed ship-like over the surface of the ocean using two arms as sails and the rest as oars. Poets like Byron and Pope were similarly inspired. In Natural History, Cassell debunks the myth and describes the real swimming and creeping behaviour, but this may have remained the only illustration of this unusual animal available to Burgess. Equally likely, Burgess may have thought it pleasing to evoke Aristotle’s story - rather than the ugly fact of jet propulsion - as a bathtime daydream.
Molluscs also feature among Burges’ other buildings, not all of which are open to the public, and in the sought-after furniture and tableware he designed. Castell Coch, near Cardiff, was the second mediaeval ruin that Bute and Burges began to renovate, and was used (if rarely) as a summer residence. It has a few snails among the beasts of Aesop in the Drawing Room, but on the whole is less dazzling than Cardiff Castle, the main attraction being its fairytale spires and setting. Burges was not able to finish the interiors himself. Tower House, Burges’ own home in Kensington and still a private residence, is understandably more lavish. Burges’ own bedroom has a marine theme and is dominated by the “Mermaid Chimneypiece” which features carvings of a Fasciolaria hunteria-like gastropod and topped with a carved Hippopus hippopus clam. More stylised gastropods occur on armoires from Tower House and Burges’ “Great Bookcase”, a massive piece with contributions from 13 other artists including Rosetti and Burne- Jones, features a design based on a miscellaneous buccinoid shell. The last work Burges is thought to have finished before his death was a bottle for Lady Bute, finished in silver but made from a “pearl shell” carved with biblical scenes.
Acknowledgement
I am pleased to thank Matthew Williams of Cardiff Castle for information, access to the archives, and for permission to take and use photographs. Cardiff Castle is open to the public most days of the year and holds regular events (there is an entrance fee).