Category: Uncategorized

Country house festivities that celebrate both Christmas and history are taking place throughout England this year. Whether you choose to spend Christmas in the 16th century or early 19th century, there’s a venue that can provide the authentic feel of holidays past. 

Polesden Lacey (above) in Surrey was once owned by Mrs. Ronald Greville DBE, who was the daughter of Scottish brewing magnate. The grounds boast a gorgeous, walled rose garden, while the house, once also owned by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was the venue for the honeymoon of the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Today, visitors can enjoy Mrs Greville’s collections, displayed in the reception rooms and galleries as they were at the time of her celebrated house parties. Cecil Beaton called Mrs. Greville “a galumphing, greedy, snobbish old toad,” though it was said that her servants were devoted to her.

The dining room at Polesden Lacey

The tree at Muncaster Castle

Carol singers and roaring fires will all be part of a Chilston Park Christmas, and mulled wine and mince pies will be served after Midnight Mass. Have breakfast served to you in bed whilst you open the presents delivered by Father Christmas through the previous night. In the afternoon, you can explore the acres of grounds and return in time to hear the Queen’s speech.

Foodies should head to the Manor House Hotel near Bath. The 14th Century manor house will be awash in twinkling white lights and  you’ll be welcomed to the hotel with Afternoon Tea.

Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland – title created 1766. Additional titles include: Earl Percy, Earl of Beverley, Baron Warkworth.

History: Part of the original Norman Conquest set, the Percy family have been dominant in their part of the country for centuries. The family pile, Alnwick Castle, has been featured in Blackadder and  stand in as the Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films. The present Duke recently sold a Raphael painting to the nation for £22 million, a deal which attracted controversy because of the use of Lottery funds. But he’s also been buying treasures, as well. Or, rather, returning treasures to their proper homes. On the telephone during a recent Sotheby’s sale, the Duke of Northumberland acquired a piece of ancestral porcelain – a Meissen plate painted with a seated wolf surrounded by flowers, which finally sold for £36,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £15,000-20,000. This follows on from his acquisition of another plate from the service in Part I of the sale last November. Both of the rare Meissen plates are from the ‘Hanbury Williams/Duke of Northumberland’ service dated 1748-1750 which had been a gift from Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams in 1748, and probably passed to the then Earl of Northumberland in 1756. Today, all but a few pieces from the service remain on display at Alnwick Castle, and now these two items will be reunited with them.

The newly-refurbished Alnwick Garden has become a major tourist attraction and in 2009 the Duchess was  appointed the new Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland.

Holdings: With 132,000 acres, Syon Park in West London and a substantial art collection, he is valued at £300 million and ranked No. 178 on the latest Rich List.

Andrew Russell, 15th Duke of Bedford – Additional titles: Marquess of Tavistock and Baron Howland.

History: The first Duke fought on both sides in the Civil War and was ennobled after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In 1552, the duke received Covent Garden and seven acres of land in London. The 14th duke  gave up most of his holdings in Bloomsbury to the University of London in 1953, but the present duke still has the power to raise the rents in Fizrovia and owns 23,000 acres of land and prime central London real estate. The family has made Woburn Abbey a major tourist attraction and the present duke is busy refurbishing much of the London estate.

For a look at the fascinating life of Mary, Duchess of Bedford, above, click here.

Holdings: Valued at £489million. Owns 23,000 acres and prime central London real estate.

Edward Fizalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk – date of creation 1483. Additional titles: Earl of Surrey and Baron Maltravers.

History: As England’s senior duke, Norfolk carries the hereditary title of Earl Marshal. As such, he plays an important role in running state occasions. The family’s royal links stretch back centuries and theirs is the only Catholic dukedom. The present Duke’s wife, Georgina, stands in for the Queen at rehearsals of the State Opening of Parliament. The new formal garden at Arundel was conceived ain 2008 as a light-hearted tribute to Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), known as ‘The Collector,’ who died in exile in Padua during the English Civil War. Lord Arundel was the first of the great English art collectors, whose antique marbles are now at Oxford, and the library at the Royal Society; but the magnificent Van Dyck and Mytens portraits and some other objects commissioned or collected by him form the basis of the collection now at Arundel Castle, while his retrieval of lost family estates, titles and honours after the disasters of his ancestors’ executions and attainders in the previous century were instrumental in the revival of the Norfolk family.  The present Duke’s eldest son and heir, Henry, the Earl of Arundel, 22, is a promising Formula Three driver. You can watch a 1937 Pathe film of the previous Duke and Duchess of Norfolk returning to Arundel after their honeymoon here.

Holdings: Half his 30,000 acres are in leafy West Sussex, while the family also owns a ten-acre parcel of Lon
don valued at £100 million in 2001.

The Dukes: (from left to right) 1. James Graham, 8th Duke of Montrose; 2. David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland; 3. John Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset; 4. Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland; 5. Andrew Russell, 15th Duke of Bedford; 6. Edward Fizalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk; 7. Torquhil Campbell, 18th Duke of Argyll; 8. Maurice FitzGerald, 9th Duke of Leinster; 9. Murray Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St Albans; 10. Arthur Wellesey, 8th Duke of Wellington.

In celebration of its 300th birthday last year, Tatler magazine rounded up some of the UK’s twenty-four surviving Dukes to a lunch in St. James’s, and ten accepted the invitation. Some of the remaining twenty-four Graces were either living abroad or too frail to make the journey. The group who attended was still the largest gathering of dukes since the Coronation of 1953 and until 1975 a quarter of the dukes were all related to each other, through either bloodlines or marriage. They are apparently still thick as thieves – the water served at the luncheon was bottled at the Duke of Marlborough’s estate, Blenheim.

Here is an introduction to those ducal guests and a bit on their family history.

James Graham, 8th Duke of Montrose – date of creation 1707. Other titles include Viscount Dundaff and Lord Aberuthven, Mugdock and Fintrie. The current Duke is also Chief of the Graham clan.

A look at an 1871 issue of The Academy is enough to sum up the family’s historical importance. It reads in part – Mr. Frascr reports on the highly important muniments belonging to the Duke of Montrose. They include charters from King William the Lion, and subsequent Scottish sovereigns to successive representatives of the family of Graham. The papers relating to the first Marquis of Montrose embrace the correspondence with him of Charles I. and II., Queen Henrietta Maria, Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, James Duke of York, Prince Rupert, Prince William of Orange, and others. The letters of Charles I., which are nearly all holograph, were written from various places during the Civil War, and show the great difficulties in which the king often found himself. The correspondence of his sister, Elizabeth of Bohemia, is marked by her characteristic wit and vivacity. The papers connected with the trial of Montrose and his companions, the depositions of witnesses concerning his invasion of Scotland, and the battle of Tippermuir in Perthshire; the petitions of the Ecclesiastical Courts for the execution of his imprisoned adherents; the acts and proceedings of the Privy Council and the Committee of Estates to enforce subscription to the Covenant, all throw strong light on the condition of Scotland in those stormy times. There is also an extensive correspondence of the first Duke of Montrose, who was greatly instrumental in accomplishing the Union between Scotland and England. In addition to the Montrose Papers proper, the present duke possesses the Lennox and the Menteith collections, which are scarcely of less historical importance.

Holdings – 8,800 acres valued at around £1 million in 2001.

.

David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland – date of creation 1703. Additional titles: Marquess of Granby and Baron Roos of Belvoir.

History: While the main seat, Belvoir, is a magnificent 365-room pile with an underground railway and £100 million of art, the family also owns Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest medieval and Tudor manor houses. A previous Marquess of Granby (later the third duke) was a popular soldier and helped many of his men with their retirement, hence the number of pubs called the Marquess of Granby. The present castle is the third incarnation of the property. In 1799 the Fifth Duke of Rutland, then aged 21, married 20 year old Elizabeth Howard from Castle Howard in Yorkshire. She said that she would prefer to have a more traditional castle with towers, turrets and battlements, and so in the following thirty years the previous castle was rebuilt to the very fine Gothic Revival Castle that stands there today, complete with a great deal of fine Regency furniture, and a fabulous collection of fine art.

Holdings: Ranked 474th in the latest Rich List, he is valued at £115 million. Estates across Leicestershire (12,000 acres), Derbyshire (10,000 acres), Cambridgeshire (4,000 acres) and Lincolnshire (2,000 acres).

John Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset – date of creation 1547. The family pile is located in Maiden Bradley, Somerset, but is being rented out at £50,000 a year. The Duke runs the estate from a smaller house in Devon.

History: He is a descendant of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife. The first Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, was Jane’s brother. The family owns the fourposter oak bed in which Edward VI is said to have been conceived. To read about the life – and execution – of the first duke, click here.

Holdings: Around 5,000 acres of Somerset, including several villages.