Author: Kristine Hughes

A TOUR GUIDE IN ENGLAND – KNEBWORTH HOUSE

Our next stop was Knebworth House, a Gothic fantasy straight out of a Hammer Studios horror movie. In fact, there was a movie being filmed there during our visit, the grounds covered in booms and trailers, lights and cables. Unfortunately, a confidentiality agreement had been signed and so we weren’t allowed to know which film. Quite a few movies have been shot here over the years, including The Canterville Ghost, Jane Eyre, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The King’s Speech. 

 

Knebworth House is one of England’s most colourful stately homes. It is remarkable for having been in the same family – the Lyttons – for more than 500 years and for its romantic exterior complete with turrets, domes and gargoyles, which conceals a red brick house dating from Tudor times. Its roots lie with Sir Robert Lytton, a friend of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond.

Lytton fought with Tudor at Bosworth in 1485, when the Tudor dynasty was formed and Henry seized the throne as Henry VII. As his patron efforts were successful, so Lytton prospered. In 1490 he bought the medieval fortified house at Knebworth and over the rest of his life he transformed the castle into a large and comfortable residence, suitable for a man in high standing at court.

The Tudor version of Knebworth was made of brick – then an expensive and fashionable material – and featured large mullioned windows. The mansion stayed essentially unchanged for the next 3 centuries, but by the time Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton took control in 1810 the old house was in dire condition.

Lady Elizabeth started the transformation of Knebworth into a Gothick fantasy castle. But her son, Edward Bulwer Lytton, distracted her attention from the house. He married against her wishes, so Elizabeth cancelled his allowance. In order to make ends meet and maintain his lifestyle as a society dandy, the young Edward turned his hand to writing novels and plays.

 

Other notable family members included Constance Lytton, the Suffragette and her father, Robert Lytton, the Viceroy of India who proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India at the Great Delhi Durbar of 1877. There is a Jacobean minstrels gallery hovering above the hall, where Charles Dickens liked to hold amateur theatricals when he visited. Of the other ebullient, eccentric rooms, perhaps the most interesting is the study, left as it was when Edward Bulwer-Lytton used it as his writing den. One of the more peculiar objects in the room is a large crystal ball, into which the writer would stare for hours at a time, waiting for inspiration to strike. The House has also been visited by Queen Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and many more.

Click here to watch a video of our walk to Knebworth House and to meet our guide, Edward Lytton Cobbold.

 

A TOUR GUIDE IN ENGLAND – THE AUDLEY END KITCHEN GARDENS

by Kristine Hughes Patrone

When I left you in the last post, our group had made our way to the Audley End Kitchen Garden for a tour with the gardener. The Kitchen Garden offers over 120 varieties of apples, 40 types of pears, 60 kinds of tomatoes plus many more fruits and vegetables. It also has an Orchard House where peaches and figs are grown in pots, in the same way that they were in Victorian times.

Instead of my going on about our tour, I’ll let you experience it for yourself. Click here for Part One (5:57) of our tour. You’ll find the link to Part Two below.

Click here for Part Two (6:54) of the garden tour.

 

WIN A NUMBER ONE LONDON TOUR!

Congratulations to Karen Feder, lucky winner of a place on our English Country House Tour!

Karen entered the raffle at the Barbara Vey Reader’s Weekend in Milwaukee on April 29th and will now be joining the tour group for an eight day tour of country houses in September.

More chances to win a place on one of our tours are coming up. Sign up to our newsletter in order to be the first to know about upcoming tour giveaways! Newsletter link can be found in the right sidebar – good luck!

A TOUR GUIDE IN ENGLAND – AUDLEY END

by Kristine Hughes Patrone

Our next stop on the Visit Britain Familiarization Trip was Audley End, where we were able to tour the 1880’s servants wing and the gardens. I was thrilled to be able to see the extensive domestic offices, as Audley End is on the itinerary for Number One London’s 2018 Upstairs/Downstairs Country House Tour.

At Audley End, costumed characters bring the House back to its Victorian heyday and allow visitors to discover what life was like below stairs by meeting the Victorian workers in the stables, service wing, nursery and coal gallery. During our tour, we’ll also come face to face with the cook, Mrs. Crocombe, as she prepares a meal for the family, bump into the stablehands while they’re grooming the horses, and meet Governess Miss Dormer as she organizes the children for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making our way outside, we headed out for a tour of the Kitchen Garden, which is managed according to organic principles. The Kitchen Garden offers over 120 varieties of apples, 40 types of pears, 60 kinds of tomatoes plus many more fruits and vegetables. It also has an Orchard House where peaches and figs are grown in pots, in the same way that they were in Victorian times. The kitchen garden also has pumpkins and squashes still to be harvested as well as herbs and leafy vegetables such as spinach and cabbage.

Videos of our tour of the Kitchen Garden coming next time.