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Aldous Huxley was a writer and novelist, best known for his groundbreaking dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was born in Godalming in 1894, and while he spent most of his life living in London, Oxford and Los Angeles, his ashes are interred in the family grave in Watts Cemetery.
Aldous Huxley's grave in Watts Cemetery
George Frederic Watts was an avid supporter of the protection of birds and he painted several works on the subject including A Dedication, which shows a weeping angel standing over slaughtered birds, and The Wounded Heron, which was his first work accepted for inclusion at the Royal Academy. This birdbath sits atop his grave in Watts Cemetery as a memorial to his love of animals.
Birdbath at Watts's memorial
Before George completed his equestrian sculpture, Physical Energy, George took on the subject of horses in several paintings. A Patient Life of Unrequited Toil - on display in Limnerslease - shows a serene grey horse standing within a meadow of flora local to Surrey and expresses Watts's sympathy for the suffering of animals. You can also see the original Physical Energy weather vane on display at Limnerslease.
Though forgotten by history for a period, Mary Watts's reputation as a designer and ceramicist has been revitalised in recent years. Visit the Mary Watts Gallery at Watts Studios to see her intricate and symbolic works, including the design for the Pelican Rug, sold by Liberty & Co., which is now in the main sitting room at Limnerslease.
Inside Limnerslease house
Watts's original marble carving of Clytie was his only sculptural subject exhibited during his lifetime. It was praised retrospectively as a precursor of the New Sculpture movement, and when Watts sent George Eliot a cast in 1870, she called it 'The finest present I ever had in my life.' The marble version will be on display in England's Michelangelo and visitors can see a beautiful terracotta version of Clytie in the gardens in front of Watts Gallery.
Compton Potters' Art Guild, Clytie in the Sunken Garden, early 20th century, terracotta
The sheer scale of George Frederic Watts's major sculptural works, Physical Energy and the Memorial to Alfred Tennyson, can often overwhelm visitors to the Sculpture Gallery. However, the wooden case along the wall of this gallery is home to an array of small-scale treasures including plaster casts of arms, legs and hands to models for Tennyson's head.
Hand casts in Sculpture Gallery