Agnes Jekyll

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Dame Agnes Graham Jekyll, DBE (1860/1861 – 1937) was a British artist, writer and philanthropist.

The daughter of William Graham, Liberal MP for Glasgow and patron of the Pre-Raphaelites, she had a literary and artistic childhood. Following her marriage to the Hon. Herbert Jekyll (soldier, public servant and wood-carver) she lived at Munstead House in Surrey.

Her gift for friendship and organisational skills made her an excellent hostess. Mary Lutyens described her house as the apogee of opulent comfort and order without grandeur, smelling of pot-pouri, furniture polish and wood smoke.

Created DBE for her involvement in numerous good causes, Lady Jekyll (as she had also become) first published Kitchen Essays (1922) in The Times of London 'in which she was persuaded to pass on some of the wit and wisdom of her rare gift for clever and imaginative housekeeping'.