The Stately Homes Of England

Album: Operette (1928)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • On page 392 of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for April 1827, appears a poem, The Homes Of England. It begins:

    THE stately Homes of England,
    How beautiful they stand!
    Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
    O'er all the pleasant land!


    Felicia Hemans (1793-1835) wrote these words, which one hundred and two years later were appropriated by Noël Coward thus for a humorous ditty:

    The Stately Homes of England,
    How beautiful they stand,
    To prove the upper classes
    Have still the upper hand


    "The Stately Homes Of England" features in Operette, which opened at the Manchester Opera House on February 17 the following year, and ran for 132 performances, closing at His Majesty's Theatre, London, on July 9. For Coward, this was fairly disappointing. In the original show, it was performed by Kenneth Carten, Ross Landon, John Gatrell and Hugh French as four lords, but Coward himself recorded the song.

    The day after its premiere, an advertisement on page 19 of the Times read:

    Noel Coward sings songs from his new musical play - "Operette" Dearest Love and Gipsy Melody The Stately Homes of England and Where are the songs we sung.

    Although foreigners, especially Americans, considered Coward to be the epitome of the (upper class) English gentleman, he was by his own admission born into "genteel poverty", and this song, which he recorded with the His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra conducted by Francis M. Collinson, might be seen as his taking a gentle swipe at Britain's landed gentry, and more particularly its ruling class (not necessarily the same thing), hence its reference to the playing fields of Eton, on which, according to the Duke of Wellington, the Battle of Waterloo was won. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Mike Scott of The Waterboys

Mike Scott of The WaterboysSongwriter Interviews

The stories behind "Whole Of The Moon" and "Red Army Blues," and why rock music has "outlived its era of innovation."

Justin Timberlake

Justin TimberlakeFact or Fiction

Was Justin the first to be Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher? Did Britney really blame him for her meltdown? Did his bandmates think he was gay?

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet SprocketSongwriter Interviews

The "All I Want" singer went through a long depression, playing some shows when he didn't want to be alive.

Devo

DevoSongwriter Interviews

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing.