Kristine Hughes – Page 83 – Number One London

Speaking of Bridget Jones

Tis the season for Bridget Jones what with Bridget Jones: The Musical set to hit the West End in 2012 and Christmas being right around the corner. Yes, Christmas. You know you’ll be watching Bridget Jones’s Diary during the holidays just to see those awful holiday sweaters again. Well, we can’t wait. You probably can’t wait, either, so here’s the movie trailer to get you into the spirit of things. Click here to watch.

For Sale: Bath, England

Well . . . I’ve been looking at property listings again. And I’ve found one that’s a right pip, and also offers fantastic views of the city of bath. As the property listing tells us:

Rainbow Wood House, which is unlisted, was specially designed and built in Jacobean revival style in 1897 for the Mallett family, who at the time owned most of the land around Rainbow Woods, including what is now the Bath Clinic and Rainbow Wood Farm. Rainbow Wood House, which is unlisted, is positioned in a spectacular hillside position that affords complete privacy being located a quarter of a mile from the nearest road, Widcombe Hill. Surrounded by mature trees and its own gardens, the house is so secluded that very few Bathonians know the property exists.

The Malletts were well known in Bath and London for their antique business and donated many of their properties and much of their land, including the farm which adjoins Rainbow Wood House, to the National Trust. The present owners acquired the property from the Mallett family in 1980 and are only the second family to reside at the Rainbow Wood estate.

Rainbow Wood House is constructed of Bath stone under a tiled roof and has an array of splendid features from the stone mullions to the gables and bronze, iron and steel framed windows. The reception space is exceptionally impressive having many ornate features that adorn the walls and ceilings in many of the rooms. Of particular note are the half panelled reception hall, a magnificent Edwardian staircase, the fully panelled Oak Room and numerous hand carved doors and original fireplaces. Rainbow Wood House has an interconnected North Wing, which provides substantial additional self-contained accommodation that lends itself to becoming an integral part of the main house. This wing houses the magnificent oak panelled gallery, which is currently used as a snooker and games room.

The house has a gas fired central heating system throughout, with radiators in all rooms including the workshop and attic, modern electrics, a modern alarm system and outside security lights. All main services are connected.

The estate gardens and grounds that encircle Rainbow Wood House are sensational. The extensive lawns are defined and embellished with carved stone features and balustrades and a range of herbaceous borders and mature trees. There are a number of ornamental ponds and a fountain, a central walk leading to the stone built Gothic Temple and a large, original stone walled garden having an abundance of fruit trees. On the top lawns there is a hard tennis court. There is also a two acre grass paddock with wrought iron ‘estate’ fencing..

Ancillary accommodation includes a three bedroom lodge built in the same style as the main house, and a two bedroom gardeners cottage.

The principal outlook is to the south and west overlooking its own gardens, National Trust fields and woodlands and there are far-reaching views over the city towards Bristol and the distant Welsh hills. Despite the seclusion of its position, the house is less than a 5 minute drive from the centre of Bath. In all, the estate has about 13 acres.

Guide price £5,500,000 – Freehold

For complete details, visit the Savills Bath website.

From the Pen of Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole

To John Chute, Esquire.

Paris, Oct. 3, 1765.

I don’t know where you are, nor when I am likely to hear of you. I write at random, and, as I talk, the first thing that comes into my pen. I am, as you certainly conclude, much more amused than pleased. At a certain time of life, sights and new objects may entertain one, but new people cannot find any place in one’s affection. New faces with some name or other belonging to them, catch my attention for a minute—I cannot say many preserve it. Five or six of the women that I have seen already are very sensible. The men are in general much inferior, and not even agreeable. They sent us their best, I believe, at first, the Due de Nivernois. Their authors, who by the way are everywhere, are worse than their own writings, which I don’t mean as a compliment to either. In general, the style of conversation is solemn, pedantic, and seldom animated, but by a dispute. I was expressing my aversion to disputes: Mr. Hume, who very gratefully admires the tone of Paris, having never known any other tone, said with great surprise, “Why, what do you like, if you hate both disputes and whisk?”

Palace of Versailles

What strikes me the most upon the whole is, the total difference of manners between them and us, from the greatest object to the least. There is not the smallest similitude in the twenty-four hours. It is obvious in every trifle. Servants carry their lady’s train, and put her into her coach with their hat on. They walk about the streets in the rain with umbrellas to avoid putting on their hats; driving themselves in open chaises in the country without hats, in the rain too, and yet often wear them in a chariot in Paris when it does not rain. The very footmen are powdered from the break of day, and yet wait behind their master, as I saw the Duc of Praslin’s do, with a red pocket-handkerchief about their necks. Versailles, like everything else, is a mixture of parade and poverty, and in every instance exhibits something most dissonant from our manners. In the colonnades, upon the staircases, nay in the antechambers of the royal family, there are people selling all sorts of wares. While we were waiting in the Dauphin’s sumptuous bedchamber, till his dressing-room door should be opened, two fellows were sweeping it, and dancing about in sabots to rub the floor.

Louis, Dauphin of France

You perceive that I have been presented. The Queen took great notice of me; none of the rest said a syllable. You are let into the King’s bedchamber just as he has put on his shirt; he dresses and talks good-humouredly to a few, glares at strangers, goes to mass, to dinner, and a-hunting. The good old Queen, who is like Lady Primrose in the face, and Queen Caroline in the immensity of her cap, is at her dressing-table, attended by two or three old ladies, who are languishing to be in Abraham’s bosom, as the only man’s bosom to whom they can hope for admittance. Thence you go to the Dauphin, for all is done in an hour. He scarce stays a minute; indeed, poor creature, he is a ghost, and cannot possibly last three months. The Dauphiness is in her bedchamber, but dressed and standing; looks cross, is not civil, and has the true Westphalian grace and accents. The four Mesdames, who are clumsy plump old wenches, with a bad likeness to their father, stand in a bedchamber in a row, with black cloaks and knotting-bags, looking goodhumoured, not knowing what to say, and wriggling as if they wanted to make water. This ceremony too is very short; then you are carried to the Dauphin’s three boys, who you may be sure only bow and stare. The Duke of Berry looks weak and weak-eyed: the Count de Provence is a fine boy; the Count d’Artois well enough. The whole concludes with seeing the Dauphin’s little girl dine, who is as round and as fat as a pudding.

In the Queen’s antechamber we foreigners and the foreign ministers were shown the famous beast of the Gevaudan, just arrived, and covered with a cloth, which two chasseurs lifted up. It is an absolute wolf, but uncommonly large, and the expression of agony and fierceness remains strongly imprinted on its dead jaws.*

I dined at the Due of Praslin’s with four-and-twenty ambassadors and envoys, who never go but on Tuesdays to court. He does the honours sadly, and I believe nothing else well, looking important and empty. The Due de Choiseul’s face, which is quite the reverse of gravity, does not promise much more. His wife is gentle, pretty, and very agreeable. The Duchess of Praslin, jolly, red-faced, looking very vulgar, and being very attentive and civil. I saw the Due de Richelieu in waiting, who is pale, except his nose, which is red, much wrinkled, and exactly a remnant of that age which produced General Churchill, Wilks the player, the Duke of Argyll, &c. Adieu!

* More from Walpole on the Beast in a letter to the Hon. H.S. Conway, October 6, 1765: Yes, the wild beast, he of the Gevaudan. He is killed, and actually in the Queen’s antechamber, where he was exhibited to us with as much parade as if it was Mr. Pitt. It is an exceedingly large wolf, and, the connoisseurs say, has twelve teeth more than any wolf ever had since the days of Romulus’s wet-nurse. The critics deny it to be the true beast; and I find most people think the beast’s name is legion, for there are many. He was covered with a sheet, which two chasseurs lifted up for the foreign ministers and strangers.

Musing About Chatsworth House

Chatsworth House, home to the Cavendish family since 1549, has been labelled the ‘Palace of the Peak’ and features more than 30 rooms, a large library and magnificent collections of paintings and sculpture. Additionally, the grounds include a 105-acre garden and a park on the banks of the river Derwent. Recently, and apropos of absolutely nothing, I was musing about Chatsworth and concluded that it remains my personal favourite when it comes to Stately Homes. There are many reasons for this:

1. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, once lived there.

2. So did the Duke and Bess Foster.

3. When you arrive at Chatsworth House on a visit, you’re likely to be cautioned to mind the present Duchess’s chickens, who are allowed to wander, willy nilly, in the grounds.

4. During a visit to Chatsworth House in 1843 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Orangery in the grounds (above), designed by Joseph Paxton, served as the inspiration for Prince Albert’s idea for the design of the Crystal Palace.

5. Chatsworth House features the hands down, absolute best gift shops. Seriously good. There are six of them. All with different themes and goods. Go prepared and bring an empty carry-all with you. Trust me on this.

6. You can gaze upon the Gainesborough portrait of Georgiana (see Number 1 above), which has a long and twisted history. For the full story, click here to read a previous blog post about the theft of the painting. And by the way, you can purchase a print of the image directly from Chatsworth House by clicking here.

7. The trompe l’oeil door and violin in the State Music Room painted by artist Jan van der Vaart circa 1723. Your first glimpse of the masterpiece will be from afar. Bear in mind that the inner door, the violin and bow and the silver knob from which they appear to be “hanging” are all an illusionist painting.

The next time you’re in or near the Peak District, I urge you to visit Chatsworth House. If you’ve already been, make a return visit and take in all that you missed the first time around. In the meantime, you can watch a stunning slideshow of Chatsworth House images here.

Speaking of Bridget Jones . . .

And really, these days who isn’t speaking of her? Not only is Bridget Jones 3 in the works, there’s soon to be a musical based on the story. Tapped to play the lead role in Bridget Jones: The Musical, actress Sheridan Smith is currently enjoying pigging out in order to gain weight for the role, unlike Renee Zellweger, who emphatically said that she wasn’t willing to gain a pound when Bridget Jones 3 goes into production.

A svelte Zellweger at LAX on July 9

Sheridan said: “I can just eat what I want. At the minute I’ve been eating burgers and it’s great. I’m not really one for eating salads anyway, but the fact that I have to put on weight is even better.

“There will be a lot of dancing, that’s the thing – it’s just wondering whether you can keep it on doing eight shows a week. But I’ll eat loads don’t worry!

“Chocolate, cakes burgers, pizza, the lot. All my favourite foods. Jamie Oliver would kill me for saying things like that wouldn’t he?!”

British pop star Lily Allen was chosen to write the music for the show and recently confirmed to Britain’s Elle magazine that she is almost finished writing the songs, and that we can expect the musical to hit in London’s West End in 2012. The play will be scripted by Bridget Jones author Fielding and produced by Working Title.

No concrete word yet on who will playing Mark Darcy or Daniel Cleaver. Stay tuned . . .