Quebec House

I'd passed Quebec House several times on the bus, but never actually stopped off to see inside it.  So today I decided to make up for that omission.

Quebec House is owned by the National Trust, and was the former childhood home of General James Wolfe, with whom most people immediately associate the Plains of Abraham and the gaining of Canada as a British colony in 1759.

The house is at one end of the village of Westerham in Kent, and although comparatively small, is full of interest as an example of a family house in the early eighteenth century.   The house itself is much older and was presumably built for letting, but because no-one really famous ever resided there, there are no records of its occupants prior to the Wolfe family.

The house came to the National Trust in an unusual way.   A Canadian devotee of General Wolfe bought the property for a museum; his widow left the property to the Canadian Government who, realising the problems of looking after a museum in England, offered it to the National Trust.

Unfortunately, not many mementos of General Wolfe are in the house.   He died young and unmarried at the battle of Quebec; his mother when she died distributed the family's possessions amongst many different people, and although quite a lot exists, it is all in other hands.

When I was there, there was a lot more than usual in the house.   The young James Wolfe had been great friends with the young son of the Squerryes family, who lived on a large estate at the other end of the village, and they in fact have many items connected with him, including portraits, books etc.    Squerryes Court is currently being refurbished, and so they have loaned some of their items to the museum for the duration of the works.

But among the permanent items are the white robe in which James Wolfe's body was wrapped for transportation back to England, and replicas of his uniform and weapons.

There was also a opportunity to try some of the eighteenth century cakes in the kitchen, where "Mrs. Wolfe" was busy baking.

A house that is very much worth a visit.