Cobham Hall parent, Mrs Frankau, has been in touch to share with us her family’s delight at finding Cobham featured in a new board game they played recently with friends.
Billed as ‘the ultimate strategy board game about adventure, intrigue, and flowers’, newly launched ‘Botany’ is a game in which players take on the role of a Victorian Era flower hunter, exploring the world in search of fortune, fame and adventure as they collect new plant specimens.
We were all very excited to learn that Cobham Hall features on one of the game boards. “The game’s designers used open-source photos to illustrate the game and clearly thought Cobham would be (and is!) a grand estate for the players,” explains Mrs Frankau.
Interestingly, it was a dedicated plant collector who was responsible for creating the Cobham Hall we know today. Back in 1558, William Brooke (the 10th Lord Cobham) made Cobham Hall – then a Norman manor house – his principal residence. He set to work creating a ‘rare garden’ in the grounds, using plants collected from all over the world. These were divided into square and rectangular plots, separated by a gravel path, on what is now North Lawn (behind T Block) and were visited by Queen Elizabeth I herself. It was after her second visit, in 1573, that William embarked on a building programme to be able to accommodate his Queen more appropriately, building the grand Tudor wings we know and love today – and which now feature in ‘Botany’.
Our immense thanks to Mrs Frankau for sharing news of our home’s inclusion in this new game.