Lot 1866: Cyril Boler (1895-1978), View of Lavington Park,

Cyril Boler (1895-1978), View of Lavington Park, Petworth, West Sussex, later Seaford College, watercolour, signed and dated 1942, 35.5cm x 53cm.Illustrated. The Lavington Park estate was bought in 1589 from the executors of the last Fitzalan Earl of Arundel by Giles Garton, who shortly afterwards built a house. The property passed by the marriage of his grand-daughter to Robert Orme and, through their descendants, to John Sargent, MP for Seaford and Queensborough, who rebuilt Giles Garton's house in 1790-4. In 1841 Lavington was inherited by Sargent's eldest grand-daughter, who in 1833 had married Samuel Wilberforce, later to become Bishop of Oxford and then of Winchester. A younger grand-daughter married Henry Edward Manning, the Archdeacon and Rector of Lavington who later became Archbishop of Westminster and Cardinal. In about 1900, following the deaths of Bishop Wilberforce in 1873 and later of his wife, the estate was acquired by James Buchanan, later ennobled as Lord Woolavington, who extended the house. The estate was sold again in 1936 to the Wallace family, Mrs Wallace being a daughter of Sir Edwin Lutyens. The property served as Commando headquarters during the Second World War (the time at which this view was painted) and in 1946 was bought by the Rev C E Johnson for the present owner, Seaford College, which was founded as a school in 1884. English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest