From the hotel website:
“Dating back to the 1800s, Meudon was once home to Falmouth’s famous Fox family. The Foxes were Quakers who owned many different properties in and around Falmouth, including nearby Glendurgan and Trebah. Their passion for the living splendour of exotic gardens led them to create a valley paradise here. Howard Fox – a Falmouth shipping agent – joined together with the wealthy banker and MP, Edmund Backhouse, to transport plants from far-flung reaches of the globe.”
ref: “But my guess is that you will want to see this garden fully and that means a walk down the wooded valley all the way to the private beach on Bream Cove. Originally created in 1815 by Robert Were Fox, the sub-tropical garden includes rare plants, shrubs, and trees “using specimens from the earliest RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) expeditions up the Yangtze and the Himalayas”. Many of the giant Australian tree ferns came from Australia as ballast. As the Meudon literature say, “They were planted in our valley while we were still sending prisoners over there”. Now fully restored, the woodland garden will be a treat to explore and enjoy”
ref: Edmund Backhouse, a Quaker and MP for Darlington, came to Meudon in 1864. He married Juliet Fox and inherited Trebah House and Gardens. Backhouse combined his wealth and connections with Howard Fox, shipping agent of Falmouth and his Packet (mail) ships, to bring plants home.
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It would be interesting to know when the Fox family acquired Meudon. In the 1880’s (or before) to the mid 1890’s a rather eccentric lady lived there called Miss E A Barclay, was she related to the Foxes? There is a description of her in the British Newspaper Archives”
“Miss Barclay at Meudon was an “advanced” woman for those times and often could be seen in her low carriage smoking what would have been a cheroot or perhaps a full-bodied cigar. She had an interesting lisp, and looked quite mannish'”
From Western Morning News 12 August 1936, under the heading “West Country Memories of Long Years ago, etc.”
She died in about 1895 as there was an advertisement for the sale of the Library of Miss Barclay of Meudon Vean comprising upwards of 1,400 volumes….. In 1860 the first drinking fountain was opened in Falmouth and Miss Barclay was the first to drink fro it!
Miss Elizabeth Anne Barclay 1834-1859 was the daughter of David Barclay whose sister was Lucy Barclay 1783-1859. Lucy married George Croker Fox 1784-1850 and in the 1851 Census she was living at Grove Hill, Falmouth, as a widow aged 67 together with her niece Elizabeth Ann Barclay aged 16. Miss Barclay of Meudon was connected to the Fox family.