Clotilde Brewster and the Côte d'Azur - Part II
We are pleased to present the second part of a series of four blogposts by Laura Fitzmaurice – author of the forthcoming book Clotilde Brewster: Pioneering Woman Architect – which invite us to join the author as she retraces Brewster's steps through the South of France...
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THE GARDENS OF DR. J. HENRY BENNET - TORRE DI GRIMALDI, NEAR MENTON
In the second half of the 19th century, thanks to Clotilde's great-uncle, Dr. James Henry Bennet (1816–1891), Menton gained popularity as a health resort. Based in London with a successful gynaecological practice, Dr. Bennet was diagnosed with tuberculosis and given a grim prognosis. In 1859, seeking to spend his final days in a beautiful setting, he moved to Menton. To his surprise, he recovered, crediting much of his improvement to the area's warm climate, considered the mildest on the Côte d'Azur. Inspired by his experience, he actively promoted Menton through books and articles. Spending the winter and spring months here, he also established a medical practice and played a key role in shaping the town's public health policies.
Figure 13a: Dr. James Henry Bennet. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque de Cessole, Nice.
In 1860, Menton was purchased by Napoleon III from Monaco for France. For the next two decades, the town transformed into a vast construction site. Major projects included the port, the railway station, 50 hotels, 250 villas, along with the development of sewers, roads, bridges and tunnels. Menton's population expanded from 3,200 in 1860 to 11,000 in 1890.[i]
The British came here in increasing numbers, purchasing villas and creating gardens showcasing exotic plants from all parts of the British Empire. The results did not please everyone. The rapid development likely produced hastily designed homes, not always in the best of taste. Clotilde, having grown up in the historic Italian cities of Florence and Rome, found Menton overly new, artificial, and too sanitized for her liking. She wrote it to her father in November of 1903, “It’s so ugly that it makes one shudder: houses styled after hotels with nails and ceramic blue ornaments wherever they can put them – small round lawns with palm trees – combed, curled and labeled – I would die if I stayed here 15 days with this sunlight, the sea, the rocks and vegetation. It needs dust, disorder, poverty and dirt!”
Dr. Bennet’s own home couldn’t have been more different than the newly built ones in Menton. In 1865, he purchased about 8 acres of land with a ruined medieval tower called the Torre di Grimaldi located about 100 yards over the border. He started by making the tower habitable.
Figure 14: Photograph of Torre di Grimaldi from the Italian side of the border before its restoration by J. Henry Bennet.[ii] Collection of Hugues de la Touche
Figure 15: Dr. Bennet’s villa, the first house in Italy on the Route de la Corniche, opposite the Italian customs. Photographer James Jackson. Circa 1880s.[iii]
Figure 16: Two illustrations of Bennet’s tower and garden from the article The Queen in the Riviera. Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, April 08, 1882; pg. 333; Issue 2240
Figure 17: The pergola at the entrance to Dr. Bennet’s garden, published in 1875.[iv]
Over the next two decades Henry Bennet transformed his home’s rocky slopes into a romantic garden, importing plants from all over the southern hemisphere, propagating them in greenhouses. As described by the Illustrated London Times in 1882, when Queen Victoria visited at Bennet’s invitation, ‘There are two pleasant rooms in the ancient tower, commanding magnificent sea and mountain views; and this garden, which is on the Italian side of the frontier, near the Pont St. Louis, may be esteemed one of the loveliest spots on the face of the earth.’ The tower still exists but unfortunately the gardens do not.
Older and in ill health, Dr. Bennet sold the Torre di Grimaldi and its gardens in 1889 and moved in with his niece Ellen Hearn and her husband at the Villa Saint-Louis. The Hearns had created their own important garden here which is discussed in Part IV of this series of blogposts.
Figure 18: The Grimaldi Tower, view taken from the Italian customs, 1890.[v] Photographer James Jackson. The photograph captures the construction of the villa built on the property by the new owners.
Figure 19: Postcard. View looking toward Grimaldi from Menton-Garavan, ca. 1907-1914. Bennet’s tower is only just barely visible.[vi]
See some more images of Dr. J. Henry Bennet's garden in Grimaldi near Menton, HERE
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NOTES:
[i] Ghersi, R. James Henry Bennet, créateur de la station climatique de Menton. Recherches régionales. Alpes-Maritimes et contrées limitrophes. 2011, no. 197, pp 37-46. Nice: Conseil général des Alpes-Maritimes, Archives départementales. https://archives06.fr/data/recherches_regionales_2011_197_1.pdf
[ii] Image of Torrie di Grimaldi from the Italian side of the border. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3763597137298427&set=gm.1110792370237993&idorvanity=442154343768469
[iii] Villa du Dr. Bennet, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105260339/f65.item.r=%22James%20jackson%22
[iv] BENNET, Henry James. Winter and Spring on the Shores of the Mediterranean: or, the Genoese Rivieras, Italy, Spain, Corfu, Greece, the Archipelago, Constantinople…, Smyrna, Asia Minor…, fifth edition, London, J. & A. Churchill, 1875 http://eng.travelogues.gr/collection.php?view=116
[v] Tour de Grimaldi. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8553847s/f86.item
[vi] Postcard. Menton, vue sur la frontiere, https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.10683171