Constance Villiers-Stuart

Constance Mary Villiers-Stuart (née Fielden, 1876 – 1966) was an English garden historian, journalist, water-colour painter and suffragist. She published the first full length study of Mughal Gardens and campaigned for New Delhi to follow an Indian town plan.

Early life Villiers-Stuart was born Constance Mary Fielden in 1876. She was raised at the Georgian Beachamwell Hall in Norfolk, until it was destroyed by fire in 1903. She was an heiress of a large fortune which had been generated from her families Lancashire based cotton production business.

Fielden married Patrick Villiers-Stuart, a soldier in the Royal Fusiliers, in 1908. They moved to British India, after his posting, in January 1911. They had one daughter, Patricia Villiers-Stuart. Her research was published in the 1913 book, Gardens of the Great Mughals, which was the first full-length book on Mughal Gardens and launched their historical study. She was the first to discuss the Persian term chahārbāgh and to interpret it as a "large garden divided by four waterways". Her book also included sketches and watercolour paintings, and she had photographed an ornate marble swing in the gardens of the Deeg Palace. The result was the famous Mughal Garden of what is now Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India.

Death and legacy Villiers-Stuart died in 1966.

In 2018, the Beachamwell Local History Group gave a talk on Villiers-Stuart's life called "Constance Villiers Stuart in India: From Beachamwell to Bharatpur."