Russell House, Broadway and Francis Millet
The following article appeared in Vogue, 1st October 1915: Beautiful Broadway - in Worcestershire
‘In Tudor Days a Road of Inns - Now the Setting of a Cosmopolitan Colony of Artists and Musicians. Fringed by the purple Cotswold Hills in the country known to all Americans who motor to Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick, lies Broadway in Worcestershire, noted for its beautiful old Tudor Street, its gardens, and its colony of artists. Situated one hundred miles from London, Broadway has been famous since Charles II’s time, when it was the only “changes horses” point for all coaches between Worcester and Town. The village consists of one long generous street, bordered with typical seventeenth century houses and cottages, back of which are walled gardens filled with forgotten Elizabethan flowers and box and yew. Among the Americans attracted to this out-of-the-world corner is …Mrs. Frank Millet, whose husband, the delightful artist and man of rare social charm, was lost on the “Titanic” … she has long made her home at Broadway, in the lovely old “Swann Inn” - a famed coaching inn in the time of Charles II, now known as “Russell House.” Mr. and Mrs. Millet were among the charter members of the artist colony at Broadway.
The little Tudor village has fame of later date, for it is rich in Pre-Raphaelite associations. Rosetti, Burne-Jones, Walter Pater, and William Morris used to gather here and discuss ideals in a Norman tower on the Cotswold Hills, plainly visible from the village. Among the Royal Academicians who have felt the charm of this picturesque English village have been Alma- Tadena, John Sargent… Musicians and writers, too, add their salt to the Broadway community; among them Sir Edward Elgar, Sir James Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle…
The historic interest of the old “Swan Inn” attaches itself to Mrs. Millet’s residence “Russell House.” In no place in England perhaps has the spirit of a byegone day been retained with so clever and artistic a development modern comfort and luxury.’
Prior to living in Russell House, Francis Millet, his family and the colony of artists, lived at Farnham House on The Green in Broadway which they had leased for a year prior to moving to Russell House in 1886.