House & Family History: Delville was the home of the famous Mrs. Delany, noted for her exceptional needlework, shell-work and paper flowers. Mary Delany, nee Granville, was born at Coulston, Wiltshire, a niece of the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne. Her parents were Colonel Bernard and Mary Granville. In February 1718 she was forced into an unhappy marriage with Alexander Pendarves; after Pendarves's death in 1724 Mary remained a widow, living with her aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Stanley. During a trip to Ireland she met Dr. Patrick Delany, an Irish clergyman; in 1743 she wed Dr. Delany, in what proved to be a loving and successful marriage of shared interests and mutual support. In 1754 Dr. Delany died at the age of 83, leaving Mary a widow for the second time. During her second widowhood Mary spent a lot of time with her good friend the Dowager Duchess of Portland (the duchess was an amazing collector, putting together a famous museum of objects that included the Portland Vase). Mrs. Delany and the Dowager Duchess shared a keen interest in botany, often taking long walks to look for specimens. It was during the time she lived with the Dowager Duchess that Mary became acquainted with two well-known botanists of the time: Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Her friendship with the noted botanists encouraged Mary's interest in botany, the result of which was the strong botanical foundation on which her flower paper-cuttings are based. In 1771, Mary began to create cut-out paper art, which is what she is primarily remembered for today. Using hand-colored tissue paper, her works were exceptionally detailed and botanically accurate depictions of plants. Calling them her "Paper Mosaiks" [sic], she created over 1,700 miniature botanical treasures in the last years of her life. When the Dowager Duchess died, King George and Queen Charlotte took Mrs. Delany in, giving her the use of a small house at Windsor, together with a pension of £300 a year (Mrs. Delany had become known to the queen through her paper-cutting art). After moving into a Windsor cottage Mrs. Delaney became an increasingly important presence in the lives of the king and queen. In support of her work, the king decreed that any unusual or beautiful plants "…should be transmitted to Mrs. Delany when in blossom." After her death 10 volumes of her botanical creations were inherited by Lady Llanover, the daughter of Georgina Mary Ann Port. Lady Llanover, who died in 1896 at the age of 94, bequeathed these volumes to the British Museum, where they can be seen today in the Enlightenment Gallery at the Museum. In 1980, a descendant of Mary Delany's sister Anne, Ruth Hayden, published a book on Delany's work: "Mrs. Delany and Her Flower Collages," which was reissued in 2000 as "Mrs. Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers." In 2009 the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, opened an exhibition entitled "Mrs. Delany and Her Circle," which traveled to Sir John Soane's Museum, London, in 2010.

House Listed: Demolished

Park Listed: Destroyed

Past Seat / Home of: Dr. Patrick and Mrs. Delany, 18th century.

Current Ownership Type: Demolished

Primary Current Ownership Use: Demolished

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No