Welcome to Biltmore, the spectacular home of the Vanderbilts in Asheville, North Carolina – although it may seem hard to imagine this fairy-tale mansion as a family home, when it has a total of 250 rooms! Ready to see inside? It’s even more impressive than the French chateau-inspired exterior suggests… Here is one of my…
Continue reading ➞ Visiting Biltmore, the North Carolina home of the Vanderbilts
Happy New Year! And as well, happy new decade! I’m excited to get researching and blogging for the year and have lots of ideas – but I wanted to start off the year by looking back at some of my favourite historical sites I’ve visited in 2019… Jane Austen House Museum, Chawton I’ve loved Jane…
Wallington is a beautiful William and Mary period country house in the Northumberland countryside – the house as seen today, including the beautiful big clock tower you walk underneath as you enter the grounds, was largely remodelled by Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, who had inherited the house from his party-loving and debt-ridden uncle, Sir William…
Continue reading ➞ Pre-Raphaelites, Dragons and a Cabinet of Curiosity: A Visit to Wallington
Every year, Chatsworth House – somewhere you probably recognise from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, 2008’s The Duchess (the tale of the real ancestor of the current owners, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, wife of the fifth Duke) and 2013’s Death Comes to Pemberley – puts on the most beautiful Christmas displays around the house.…
2018 is a special year in British Women’s History: it marks the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, when, for the first time, some women were eligible to vote. This moment in history has provided the opportunity for many heritage sites and organisations to reflect on the stories of women and their achievements:…
Continue reading ➞ Belton House: A Celebration of Creative Women
Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury by Unknown Artist, probably 17th century based on a work c.1590, oil on canvas (on display Montacute House, NPG 203) Elizabeth Talbot, or, as she is more commonly known, Bess of Hardwick, was born into a Derbyshire gentry family that became increasingly impoverished and subjected her childhood to hardships, but…
Continue reading ➞ Dynastic Strategist, Architectural Patroness and Businesswoman: Bess of Hardwick
Sudbury Hall will always be one of my favourite country houses to visit as it is so close to home (it is another lovely Derbyshire country house), so I have very vivid memories of visiting (including a school trip when I was five in which I fell in love with this 1920 portrait of Violet,…
Continue reading ➞ Portraits, carvings and Pemberley: Sudbury Hall
