Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 306, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1910 — Gaunt House of “Vanity Fair.” [ARTICLE]

Gaunt House of “Vanity Fair.”

Writing on the original of Gaunt House in Thackeray’s first novel “Vanity Fair,’’ C. Van Noorden concludes that this was Harcourt House Cavendish Square, and not, as most commentators incline to believe, either Hertford House, Manchester Square, or Lansdowne House, Berksley Square. Harcourt House, says Mr. Van Noorden, corresponds almost exactly with the novelist’s description in “Vanity Fair." The vast hall, the great gateway, etc., aU are here, while the equestrian statue resolves itself Into that of the Duke of Cumberland, the ‘Butcher* of Culloden, which was removed in 1868 ostensibly to be recast, but has never reappeared. This figure appears ta, Thackeray’s own Illustration of the arrest of Capt. Crawley when leaving Gaunt House, affording another proof of the correctness of this localisation. Harcourt House has now given* way to a block of residential flats. ’—London Graphic.