24. Burghley House:


This is one of the largest and grandest of Elizabethan Age stately homes (16th Century) and is near Stamford in Lincolnshire. It is 1 mile from Stamford, 20 minutes north of Peterborough on the A1. It has come down largely as it was built over 500 years ago! It is the ancestral home of the Cecil family, Lord Exeter. The land Cecil obtained to build Burghley House had been confiscated by the Crown under Henry VII from the Abbot of Peterborough. Burghley estate was granted by Elizabeth I in gratitude for his political services to her, and further lands and gifts came to him throughout his career with her. Indeed Burghley House was designed and built by William Cecil, Lord Exeter, Lord High Treasurer of Elizabeth I (1588-1603) between 1555-1587. Cecil was not an aristocrat in the beginning. He was middle class at most. He used his position as her Private Secretary, then Lord High Treasurer to build Burghley House to show his power and elevated social status. This image issue was a major purpose of the building on many of these stately homes by courtly families. His position in Elizabeth’s court was actually the head political official, making him an early version of a Prime Minister.

Prior to Elizabeth’s ascension in 1558, William Cecil had to walk a fine line in the religious turmoil that followed Henry VIII’s death. Mary Tudor (Mary I) believed he was an ally of her illegitimate sister, Elizabeth, and he kept a low profile. He could have lost his court appointment and his life. With the ascension of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth in 1558, his fortunes soared. He became her Private Secretary, and her Lord High Treasurer, and later many other high positions in the Tudor court.

Burghley House was built with 35 major rooms on the first 2 floors! There are another 80 lesser rooms, plus corridors, washroom, storage rooms, etc. Cecil originally built the house in the shape of the letter ‘E’ in gratitude to his Queen, Elizabeth I. The house is so vast that the lead roof stretches for ¾ of an acre and when it was renovated, starting in 1983, it took 10 years to complete. The house sits in the center of an agricultural estate of 10,000 acres!

The vast fortunes of the Cecils were combined in the 1700’s when they married into another vastly wealthy aristocratic and propertied family, the Cavendishes, the Dukes and Duchesses of Devonshire. The combined resources were partly used to lead the vogue of Grand Tours of Europe and the Ancient world to bring back to Burghley priceless art, sculpture, gold, silver, porcelain, tapestries…, most of which are still there to be seen today. The estate has magnificent gardens designed by Capability Brown. Prior to her ascension in 1837 Princess Victoria and mother Charlotte, Duchess of Kent stopped here on one of her grand tours before Victoria assumed the throne.

The Cecil family still lives at Burghley. Miranda – a direct descendent from the 1st Lord Burghley –, her husband Orlando and their four daughters administer the estate on behalf of the Burghley House Protection Trust, established by her grandfather to ensure the preservation of the House and its contents for generations to enjoy in the future. This is a must see!! Income comes from visitors, large scale agricultural farming, active renting of homes and properties owned on the estate to other people, corporate events and a very active hospitality to movies, such as ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

23. Buckingham Palace:


This Palace is the official London residence of the Sovereign. It is the setting for state occasions and royal entertaining and a major tourist attraction. Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew have offices in the Palace.

Today the Palace sits in the middle of roaring traffic in the middle of London. The site in the Middle Ages was part of the Manor of Ebury, a marshy area fed by the Tyburn River which still flows below the courtyard and south wing of the Palace. Edward the Confessor at one point owned the site. William the Conqueror gave the site after 1066 to a French officer and he bequeathed it to the monks of Westminster Abbey.

In 1531 Henry VIII took the Hospital of St. James (later St. James Palace) from Eaton College and took the Manor of Ebury away from Westminster Abbey in 1536. The site was thus back in Royal hands for the first time in 500 years since William the Conqueror gave it away. For over a century it passed from renter to renter and fell into decay. The freehold rights were bought by the Duke of Buckingham in 1702, and the beginnings of the present Palace began in 1703. It was originally known as Buckingham House, a large townhouse built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 and bought by George III in 1761 . Indeed, it was sold by Buckingham’s descendent, Sir Charles Sheffield in 1761 to George III for 21,000 pounds, as a private residence and retreat for his family and himself, especially for his Queen Charlotte, hence the first name ‘The Queen’s House’. St. James Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence during this century, until the dawn of the 1800’s. Note even today ambassadors must be formally accredited by ‘the Court of St. James’, but it is at Buckingham Palace that they present their credentials to the Queen.

Buckingham Palace was enlarged over the next 75 years with 3 wings going up to surround a central courtyard. The front façade of the Palace, so well known by tourists, was added in late 19th and early 20th Centuries

It is with the ascension of Queen Victoria in 1837 that Buckingham Palace became the official Royal residence. Victoria moved here from Kensington Palace when she assumed the throne in 1837. Later in life she abandoned it as cold and too close to dangerous London, in favor of Sandringham and Windsor Castle. Life in the Palace in Victoria’s day (1837-1901) was not comfortable. The fireplaces smoked so badly they had to be let to die down, consequently the members of the court usually were freezing. The ventilation was so bad the interior stank. So dirty and poorly organized was it that Prince Albert, after his marriage to Victoria in 1840 set himself coldly to reorganize the household and staff and make changes to design faults.

By 1847 with Victoria and Albert’s growing family, another wing had to be added at the back enclosing the central quadrangle. The large East front facing the Mall, with the balcony where the Monarch greets the people was added too. Victoria loved to dance and she loved music. Mendelssohn, Straus and other major composers played for her at the Palace.

With the Prince’s death in 1861 she withdrew into a widowhood that would last until her death in 1901 and she left Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle, and Osborne House. For many years the Palace was rarely used, even neglected. She was forced by public opinion to return to London decades later, but avoided Buckingham Palace at all costs. For much of the year it remained shuttered.

When Victoria, his mother, died in 1901, Edward VII breathed new life into the Palace. He oversaw a clean sweep of the Palace removing the ‘clutter of her long reign’ and insisted on brightening it up with a new decorating scheme of cream and gold. The Palace with its Grand Staircase, Marble Hall, Ballroom… again became the focal point of the British Empire and of London society. Edward’s redecoration has not been changed in 100 years. Many of the reception rooms today are furnished with items of the Chinese regency style brought from the Royal Pavilion at Brighton and from Carleton House with the death of George IV.

Next to the Palace is the Royal Mews, which houses the royal carriages, including the Golden State Coach, first used for the opening of Parliament by George III in 1760 and is still used today. The horses used in all ceremonies are housed here too.

The Mall (Palm Mall) stretching down toward the Palace from Admiralty Arch was designed by Sir Aston Webb and completed in 1911 as a worthy approach to the large memorial to Queen Victoria immediately in front of the Palace. The word comes from a game, Pall Mall, like cricket that was played on a pitch laid out by James I in the early 1600’s. His son, Charles I had a large aviary installed at the front of the Palace to the right. This is the origin of the road ‘Birdcage Walk’ now in the area.

The garden is the largest private garden in London, originally landscaped by Capability Brown. The artificial lake, completed in 1828 is supplied with water from the Serpentine in Hyde Park. During WWII the Palace was bombed 7 times! It was a deliberate target. The Nazis felt its destruction would demoralize the nation. The most serious hit was to the Royal Chapel in 1940 & one fell in the quadrangle while George VI and Elizabeth were in residence.

It is a working Royal Palace. To get some idea of the number of events the Queen hosts per year, note that more than 50,000 people visit each year as guests to banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and royal garden parties. It is the home of not only the Queen and Prince Philip, but also of the London home of HRH Andrew Duke of York and Edward and Sophie the Earl and Countess of Wessex, and the offices of the Royal Household. Some 450 people work at the Palace.

The size of the Palace today seems large. It has 19 state rooms, 52 principal bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. But compared to the Russian palaces in St. Petersburg and a Tsarskoe Selo, the Papal Palace in Rome, the former Palace of Whitehall and the Forbidden City in Beijing, it is small.

Technically Buckingham Palace is the monarch’s property, not the State’s. All the art and furnishings etc. inside it are held in trust for their successors and the nation as part of the Royal Collection, owned by the nation. The Queen’s Gallery, near the Royal Mews on the site of the former Royal Chapel destroyed by the WWII bombing is open all year to view these items. In 1993 to pay for the repairs to the fire at Windsor Castle the Palace’s state rooms have been open to the public in August and September.

See www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page555.asp for directions and more information on tours, contents and its history.

22. Brocket Hall:


It is the ancestral home of William Lamb, Lord Melbourne (March 15, 1799 – November 24, 1848) with a most intriguing historical past. It is located at Welwyne in Hertforshire and sits on 543 acres, only 45 minutes from London. It is one of the finest stately homes in Great Britain.

Its first owner was a giant in 19th Century politics and Court position next to the Sovereign. Lord Melbourne was born in the Melbourne’s London mansion Melbourne House, Piccadilly; first entered Parliament on January 31, 1806 and made his maiden speech on December 19, 1806. His wife, Lady Caroline Ponsonby had a scandalous affair starting in 1812 with Lord Byron and he divorced her in the 1825. He was became Prime Minister in 1834 and remained in office until 1841, being the closest of personal advisors and friend of the young Queen Victoria after her ascension in 1837. It was he who made her ascension as a teenage so successful in those first early years for her. She was a close friend and confident all his life, almost like a father to her. He died a Brocket Hall in 1848 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Today Brocket Hall is a sumptuous golf and residential Estate Hotel, catering to high end visitors and corporate events. It has a marvelous website with a video giving a virtual tour of the property and estate buildings. A must see!!

The Hall has a magnificent virtual tour website: http://brocket-hall.brocket-hall.co.uk/. Telephone contact is: +44 (0) 1707 335241 and email is: events@brocket-hall.co.uk.

21. Broadlands:


This is the ancestral home of Henry John Temple, Lord Palmerston located in Romsey, Hampshire in the Southampton area on the south coast. The house was virtually rebuilt starting in 1767. Originally it had been part of the property of Romsey Abbey that had been sold at the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. It is interesting, the stately home and lands of Beaulieu, ancestral home of the Montagu family is only ½ hour west in the New Forest and it’s lands, and some buildings also were originally part of an abbey purchased by them when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in England.

Lord Palmerston was born at this estate in October 1784 and descends from the Irish branch of the Temple family. He attended Harrow School and entered Parliament for a pocket-borough, Newtown, Isle of Wight, in June 1807. He was Secretary of State
from 1809 -1828. He was a statesman of the old English aristocratic type. He was a hawk on foreign policy, strongly expanding British interests and possessions as far afield as Hong Kong. He was a strong enemy of slavery. He and Lady Melbourne made their London mansion the center of society in London. He belonged to Brook’s Club, Traveler’s Club and Athanaeum Club in the Pall Mall area of London.

He had no children and the title became extinct when he died in October 1865. Despite his wish to be buried on his property in Romsey Abbey, he was given a State funeral and is buried in Westminster Abbey. The property of Broadlands went to Lady Melbourne’s second son by her first marriage, Baron Mount Temple and then to her granddaughter, Evelyn Asheley (1836-1907), who married the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.

More recently it has been owned by Lord Mountbatten of Burma, uncle to Queen Elizabeth II. Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales spent there wedding night there. It is now an estate of the National Trust and open to the public. It raises significant funds for its upkeep through tourism, weddings, concerts, festivals and the rental of the 150 properties it owns and rents/leases on the public open real estate market. It is open from 1-4 P.M. Monday to Friday. Contacts are: http://www.broadlands.net/; telephone: +44 (01794) 505010; e-mail: adm@broadlands.net.

20. The Royal Brighton Pavilion:


This is a former Royal residence in Brighton, England on the south coast. It was built in the early 19th Century as a seaside resort for the Prince Regent, later King George IV. Its style is called Indo-Saracenic, prevalent in India for most of the 19th Century. The Prince Regent’s doctor said the salt air would be good for his gout. Being a discreet distance from London, he could also enjoy his dalliances with his mistress Mrs. Fitzberbert. He may have married her secretly much against his father, George III’s, wishes and the fact that her being Catholic, made it illegal.

He began build the Pavilion in 1803. Between 1815 and 1822 it was redesigned as it looks today. After George IV’s death in 1830, King William IV stayed at Brighton from time to time. However, on Queen Victoria’s last visit there in 1845 she and Albert were bothered by crowds and the government intended to see it. It was this experience that motivated them to build a private home, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for more privacy, not far away off the coast from Southampton. The Pavilion was sold to the town of Brighton for 53,000 pounds. During WWI it was used as a hospital, especially for wounded Hindu and Sikh soldiers. In 1970 it was the set for the movie: ‘On A Clear Day You Can See Forever’. The Pavilion is open to visitors, banquets, weddings, conferences, education purposes.

See http://www.royalpavilion.org.uk/ for directions and more information.

19. Blickling Hall:

This magnificent Jacobean mansion is located in Blickling, Norwich, Norfolk. It is said to have been owned by the Boleyn family from the end of the 15th Century. It is even rumored that Anne Boleyn’s headless body rove it aimlessly. It has a marvelous garden and is especially known for its Long Gallery, fine tapestries, paintings and rare books.

The mansion and garden are available for weddings, conferences, festivals.
Contact: phone: 01263 738030; e-mail: blickling @ nationaltrust.org.uk; website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/.


18. Blenheim Palace:





This magnificent historical jewel was originally built as a gift from Queen Anne and the nation to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough for his victories over the French and Germans at the end of the 18th C. The name of the Palace is the name of a major German battle location. A grateful Queen Anne granted Churchill the former Royal manor of Hensington and the location of the former Woodstock Palace and lands for this new Palace, and Parliament voted a staggering 240,000 pounds to build it. The architect was Sir John Vanbrugh and was built from 1705 – 1724.

Unfortunately as John was continually away on other campaigns his difficult Duchess Sarah, once very close friend of Queen Anne and her Lady in Waiting, began to quarrel. The final quarrel in 1711 resulted in the money stopping, the fall of Churchill’s career and them both having to go into exile. She was a difficult woman who caused tremendous destruction, most especially for the long suffering and undeserving John Churchill. They could return to England only the day after Anne’ death on August 1, 1714.

The Palace is unique. It is the only non royal home to be called a Palace. It is at once a private home, a national monument to Churchill and a mausoleum – John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough is buried in the Chapel in the Palace.

It has been the home of the Churchill family for over 300 years! Winston Churchill was born here. As the generations unfolded successive Dukes made additions and some spent money foolishly. At the end of the 19th Century it was saved from ruin only by a fortuitous marriage. The 9th Duke, Charles Churchill had inherited a near bankrupt dukedom in 1892. He negotiated a marriage with American railway magnet family, the Vanderbilts, to marry their daughter Consuelo. The final price her father had to pay was the equivalent to $300,000,000 in today’s dollars plus 50,000 shares in the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railroad Company. Charles told Consuelo on the way from the wedding he loved another woman and hated anything not British. Consuelo apparently disliked him too, but the family and Blenheim was saved financially.

The present Duke is John Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill, the 11th Duke of Marlborough. As has been the custom he and his family live for part of the year in the same suites the 1st Duke John and Sarah had lived in. I met him on a private tour I had of the family quarters when he was at home.

To pay for the enormous taxes and upkeep of the Palace the businesses that have been developed have been outsourced to the Sodexto Prestige Corporation. People now stay in the State Apartments and pay to do so: Corporate events and weddings; there are concerts and a wide variety of events in the gardens and vast lawns. Many motion pictures have been shot at Blenheim, for example, ‘Barry Lyndon’, part of ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, ‘The Four Feathers’,’ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’. The Palace, and such unique features in the gardens as the huge maze, attracts thousands of tourist visitors each year. This is a must visit! It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Winston Churchill is buried within site of the Palace in which he was born, in the village of Bladon. Another must see!!

See http://www.blenheimpalace.com/ for directions and more information.


17. Birkhall:


This is the private residence of HRH Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in Scotland on the Balmoral Estate. It was formerly occupied by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother until 2004 and is not open to the public. It was purchased by Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria, from the Aberdalgie family in the early 19th Century.

See www.princeofwales.gov.uk/personalprofiles/residences/birkhall for more information and directions.