Episode 6. Daisy, Countess of Warwick

SYNOPSIS

Frances Evelyn ‘Daisy’ Greville, Countess of Warwick was a long-term confidant of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and familiar with the intrigues of higher society through the ‘Marlborough House set’. The music hall song, ‘Daisy, Daisy’ is thought to comment wryly on her life-style. She became the Countess of Warwick when her husband succeeded to the title but her own ancestral home was Easton Lodge in Essex. In 1895, Robert Blatchford, editor of the left-wing Clarion poured scorn on the financial waste of a luxurious ball she held at Warwick Castle. Daisy travelled to London to confront him and his patient answers converted her to socialism.  Thereafter Easton Lodge attracted a progressive circle, with H G Wells resident in the grounds and Labour politicians visiting regularly. She appointed socialist vicars, Ernest Maxted, Conrad Noel and Percy Widdrington to the livings in Essex of which she was the patron.

GUEST

Maggie Stevens lives in the village of Tilty, whose vicar Ernest Maxted on May 10, 1910 told a gathering in Thaxted on the eve of the arrival of Conrad Noel: ‘I have chastised you with whips. One is coming who will chastise you with scorpions’.  Maggie is the Secretary of the Tilty Archaeology & Local History Group which was established in December 2011 ‘to acknowledge and encourage people’s interest in the archaeology and local history of Tilty and the surrounding area’.

Maggie’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded at her home on 9 August 2019.