The Ultimate Downstairs Tour Inside Our 500-Year-Old Manor

[00:00:00]Hi everybody, and welcome [music] back to our YouTube channel. And today, we are going to give you, tada, drum roll, the ultimate [music] manor house tour. And this is not just history, is it?

[00:00:10]>> The point of this tour is not simply to give you all the dry facts, but actually to talk a little bit about how we live here at Mapperton because that is much more fun.

[00:00:20]>> And also, it's it's a question that so many of you ask because we're open to the public 8 months out of the year. So, we have four tours a day, and that's a lot of people getting through the house.

[00:00:30]And people are like, "Where do you guys live? Do you use that house?

[00:00:33]Um, is it just sort of like, you know, sectioned off just for the public?" No, we actually use these rooms, and we're going to give you some fun stories, um, on some, I don't know, some experiences that we've had in the rooms.

[00:00:44]>> Anyway, here we are standing outside the front of the house. Now, this is Mapperton House. It was built originally in the 1540s, and some people think my family has been here since then. That is not true. My grandfather sold a much larger house in Cambridgeshire, outside Huntington, called Hinchingbrooke, and moved here in the mid '50s. He downsized, if you can believe it.

[00:01:08]>> [laughter] >> And, uh, and of course, he chose somewhere that is just astonishingly beautiful. The setting of Mapperton is the thing, but the house itself. So, this is we call it a Tudor-Jacobean house, but it's also [music] got some Georgian bits as well. It's a mix of all the centuries and architectural styles.

[00:01:27]>> And a little bit, let's just remember that what connects [music] the house >> There's a bit of There's a Victorian wing.

[00:01:33]>> There's actually a Victorian wing here.

[00:01:35]>> It's not very [laughter] big, though.

[00:01:37]>> It's not, but it's >> we're we're standing here in in front of the Jacobean front. Now, this wasn't originally the front of the house. It was on the other side. Um, and, uh, the Richard Brodrepp, was it No, was it Richard Brodrepp the first or second?

[00:01:49]Was it >> Richard Brodrepp the second.

[00:01:51]>> Second. There were four Richard Brodrepps, if you can believe it. And there is his coat of arms up above.

[00:01:57]>> And it And we should say that it passed through um the same family, but through the female line several times since basically the 15th century. So, there was a medieval core here, and that was the Brett family. And then through marriage um one of the the granddaughters married a Morgan, and then the Morgans built the house that you the Tudor house that you see today.

[00:02:17]And then again through the female line, you get all these Richard Brodribbs. And they again built, as Luke just mentioned, the Jacobean front.

[00:02:24]>> So, Bretts, sometimes known as Bretts, >> Yep.

[00:02:27]>> Morgans, Brodribbs, all four Richards, Comptons, who built the Victorian wing.

[00:02:33]>> That's exactly right. So, they all What's so cool is each generation added I mean, obviously >> each century.

[00:02:39]>> each century, sorry.

[00:02:40]>> Family.

[00:02:41]>> Each family added something, and that's what's so extraordinary.

[00:02:43]>> But it went down through the female line until 1919.

[00:02:48]And that was when it was bought by the widow of a wealthy Dutch banker. Her name was Ethel Labouchère. She laid out the garden as well. Anyway, I think we've probably talked enough about the outside. [music] Let's get in.

[00:03:02]>> Now, what's interesting is not only did Ethel Labouchère, who Luke mentioned, um bought the house in 1919, create the wonderful gardens between 1920 1927, but as soon as you walk into the house, she was like, "Oop, I'm going to put my coat of arms right here." because she then uh did a wonderful through the dining room, the entrance hall, and the hall here, fantastic arts and crafts ceiling.

[00:03:24]But she put her coat of arms and this always got to me. In red, you can see it says, "I dread God."

[00:03:34]>> I dread God. But then underneath, for those classical scholars, it says passibus citis sed aequis. And that means with swift but equal steps. So, she dreads God, but with swift but equal steps.

[00:03:49]>> Most people will the finished videos on our YouTube channel, but what you don't always see is everything happening behind the scenes. Whether we're filming in the house or the gardens or out in the wildlands, we're constantly charging our cameras, our batteries, our microphones, our phones, our laptops.

[00:04:08]And today, we're filming in several different locations across the estate.

[00:04:12]So, of course, I brought the Jackery Explorer 2000 V2 along with us. So, here in the manor, we're charging camera batteries ready for the next part of the shoot. Then, we're out in the gardens filming content, and it's so useful, you guys, having power exactly where we're working rather than constantly having to run back to the house. And of course, once we head into the wildlands, there aren't exactly any convenient plug sockets. So, having portable power with us means we can keep cameras, phones, and all of our equipment charged while we're out and about filming. And if you've watched our channel for a while, you'll know I spend quite a bit of time at our 18th century pool. Whether I'm filming a cold swim, taking photographs, or working outdoors, it is so useful having somewhere to charge everything between shoots. So, from the manor to the gardens to the wildlands and of course, even the pool, it's become a really practical part of our filming setup here at Mapperton. Thank you to Jackery for partnering with us on today's video.

[00:05:14]>> She has the smallest coat of arms here, and she's also got the only coat of arms with a stork, yeah, which is quite exciting cuz we may have storks coming to Mapperton.

[00:05:23]>> There's a lot of bird statuary in [music] the gardens as well.

[00:05:26]>> That's true. They're mostly herons. And this is entirely fake because most people would come in here and think, "That looks like a Tudor ceiling." But it's not, it's 1920s arts and crafts, as as Julie said. And that is because where we're standing is where the great hall came. This was partitioned in order to create this smaller entrance hall, and indeed the dining room on this side.

[00:05:48]Anyway, this is where when people come to Mapperton and we have a drinks party, everybody throws their coats on this side.

[00:05:56]>> we do have when we remember >> That's true. If we remember. We'll we'll have a We'll have a coat hanger over here.

[00:06:02]Um and there's a little bit of milling about that goes on in here, but then we're sort of swiftly off into other places.

[00:06:08]Now, are we going to go that way or this way?

[00:06:09]>> Ooh, here. There's a tour actually going on right now.

[00:06:11]>> So, I think we'll go this way.

[00:06:20]>> So, [music] this is one of the rooms that the public sees. There's two rooms.

[00:06:23]We just entered into that one from the entrance hall. And then this leads into really >> Wait, wait, wait. Show people.

[00:06:28]>> Oh, okay.

[00:06:29]>> Cuz they don't normally get to see this.

[00:06:31]Do this. Um oh, yeah.

[00:06:33]>> Yeah, I know. This door original door.

[00:06:37]>> This would This was an original outside door. And of course, now it is incredibly grand because it leads to the lavatories.

[00:06:44]>> That's right. So, when we have dinner parties in the din- in the dining room, these are the loos that people use. And I think it's quite amazing cuz we actually have two loos down here. I think they're rather smart.

[00:06:55]>> [laughter] >> And of course, down here, this was where the servants side of the house was. So, this door would have been closed. You have the butler's pantry on this side, and everybody else would have been at the back of the house. Now, interesting question, where do we live today?

[00:07:15]We live in the servants' quarters at the back of the house most of the time.

[00:07:20]Sometimes we'll come forward, but mostly And up here, you've got the fantastic old bell system. So, if I pull the doorbell, one of those stars is going to start shaking from side to side. And I remember in the time of my grandfather, when he used to have a butler here, if we all got in terrible trouble as children if we were in our bedrooms and we pressed the bell button because he'd have to come upstairs and go down again, and we would just be laughing. But, anyway, no no butler today, sweetie.

[00:07:49]I'll come if you press the bell. I'll come and bring you a tissue.

[00:07:52]>> I love the one that says owner bedroom.

[00:07:54]Who's that? Your grandfather or Mrs. Labouchere?

[00:07:57]>> my grandfather.

[00:07:57]>> Wow. Yeah, that is extraordinary.

[00:08:01]It just has here It has Lord Hinchingbrooke's room.

[00:08:05]That's your grandfather. Kitchen, passage, lower toilets, main entrance, chapel bedroom, chapel dressing room, attic, dining room, cellar, main passage first floor, bathroom, chapel, attic, dining room, cellar. Pretty cool.

[00:08:21]That Again, these are just lovely pieces, and they've probably been sitting there ever since your grandfather lived here.

[00:08:29]>> Right. Now, back into the dining room, where I am discovering lots of new things, because >> Are you?

[00:08:34]>> the last time I came in here, there were different pictures on the wall. Julie has done a reshuffle.

[00:08:41]>> And we don't know who he is. By the way, >> Oh, we don't know who he is.

[00:08:44]>> No.

[00:08:45]>> So, why is he hanging on the wall if we don't know?

[00:08:47]>> Because this one came from Hinchingbrooke. I went there to bring back some of the pictures that were still on loan. So, we still have a really good relationship with Hinchingbrooke House, the original family ancestral seat. It's now a school, and your father had loaned some of the pictures.

[00:09:00]>> like >> I brought them back.

[00:09:02]>> pompous judge, don't you think?

[00:09:04]>> I don't know.

[00:09:05]>> Or something like that. I just would not want to be in his court.

[00:09:07]>> there. Sleuths out there. I >> Work work out who this guy is. This chap over here, I I do recognize.

[00:09:14]>> That's cuz he's your great great great grandfather.

[00:09:20]So, this is George's grandfather.

[00:09:24]>> And his name is >> John.

[00:09:26]>> John. This is another John. There are many many Johns >> seventh Earl of Sandwich.

[00:09:31]>> in the Montagu family. So, this is John, seventh Earl of Sandwich. My father was John 11th Earl of Sandwich.

[00:09:40]>> Yes.

[00:09:40]>> And there was of course the fourth Earl who was also John and his son I think was also a John.

[00:09:48]>> Earl was >> So there have been many Johns. Anyway, he's a fine looking John. He looks rather kind of lush. This is where we have had over the years lots of fantastic family meals. So Christmas, we've got two more um leaves for the table. So this table expands and it means that you can insert extra parts so you can you can fit more people. These aren't the original dining chairs and the truth is I'm not so sure about them. We got them quite recently on loan and then for one reason or another they ended up staying here. Remember?

[00:10:28]>> Yes.

[00:10:28]>> But there are 15 of them or 16 of them which means we can fit that many around the table whereas before we only had about eight or seven and a half.

[00:10:37]>> And the reason if you're wondering why the reason that table is set is just because we do house tours here as I mentioned outside and house guides really like coming in here and showing people that the table set. Now I know that this is not exactly right but I just sort of piled it on.

[00:10:53]>> Well maybe people can spot the Ralph Lauren [snorts] tableware.

[00:10:58]>> That's right.

[00:10:59]>> Because >> Americana in here.

[00:11:01]>> is this is an American table setting except of course for these heavy lead goblets that actually you could do your weights with these they're so heavy can't you?

[00:11:10]>> Everything else is mine.

[00:11:11]>> Everything else is yours. Now I was just saying that we extend the table out. It might be quite fun to show people. It's a Georgian dining table and it came with this fantastic middle leaf.

[00:11:23]Um but of course sometimes we need to go even further and that isn't enough. So guess what? One day the wonderful Raymond, who's been here forever, pulled out a piece of chipboard >> Yep.

[00:11:38]>> and turned it in to our third leaf. So, if we're really struggling, we'll put that up. Truth is, we'll normally put a tablecloth over it.

[00:11:46]>> Well, we were >> So, nobody can tell.

[00:11:48]And we keep meaning to get another leaf made, Julie, don't we? It's one of those things that's always on the list.

[00:11:54]>> For 3 years.

[00:11:55]>> No. No, 5 years.

[00:11:56]>> Okay, 5 years, yes.

[00:11:57]>> It's on the list, it just never gets done like so many things.

[00:12:00]>> Once upon a time, there was a clear theme to this room, and it was a naval theme, and everything in it was naval.

[00:12:07]And then my dear wife brought all these things back from Hinchingbrooke, and you scuppered it, which is a naval term, of course. But, interestingly, if we come over here, these um these tell the story of a very important battle in British history, which is between um a ship called the Lion and a ship called the Elizabeth. The Lion was the British ship, and the Elizabeth was the French ship, and that French ship was carrying Bonnie Prince Charlie from France to Scotland for the Jacobite Rebellion. And um unfortunately, we didn't manage to stop him. So, uh it was a failure, but it's rather wonderful the way this portrays the different moments in that battle. And then moving on over here, this is thought to be a model of a ship called the Royal James. And the Royal James was the flagship that my ancestor, the first Earl of Sandwich, commanded. He was admiral, he was one of the admirals of the fleet. And this was the ship that he went down in, famously, in the Battle of Sole Bay. What they would do was produce these models in order to test the designs before they actually built the ships themselves. And even though this obviously has lost its mast and its spars and its rigging and all those things, it's still got some wonderful decorative carving with gilt on it um at the front here. And it's a really important ship model from that period. Of course, Britain was at the height of its naval powers and uh this was this was part of the reason that we were able to produce these incredible designs.

[00:13:56]>> So, pretty much actually, Luke, moving on to the next room. I mean, it is still navy. The seventh Earl was in the navy, first Earl. It's just this chap that we just don't know.

[00:14:07]>> So, of course, my memory of this room as a child was coming here in the '70s and '80s when my grandfather was still alive. And he would sit there.

[00:14:17]The The table would sometimes not even have this middle leaf, so it would be quite small.

[00:14:22]Everything was laid immaculately. He had a full silver service out. He had three different glasses.

[00:14:29]And he would come down in black tie every evening for dinner served by his butler on his own. So, that was the world in which he lived in.

[00:14:39]>> Yeah.

[00:14:40]>> I mean, I do wear black tie occasionally, but I don't think you'd be very happy if I >> No.

[00:14:46]>> got up and dressed for dinner every every night. But you would you would sit here, Julie. You could you could be there and I could be there.

[00:14:51]>> So, here's my story. I don't know if you're going to remember this. Oops, sorry. I don't know if you'll remember this, but when we were just married, it was one of my first times um coming down here and celebrating Christmas.

[00:15:06]And I wore a hat in this room.

[00:15:09]>> You wore a hat to lunch?

[00:15:11]>> To Christmas lunch.

[00:15:12]>> That wouldn't have gone down well. Every day at lunch.

[00:15:14]>> And here we are. Your mother said to me, "You must take your hat off for Christmas lunch." So, I said to your mother, "Well, Well, really cold. Is there any way you could turn up the heat? And she said, "No, you can keep the hat on then." And that was it. And for the rest of our Christmases in here, she never said you had to take your hat off, and I never asked her to turn the heat up.

[00:15:35]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, that is that is rather brilliant.

[00:15:38]And of course we have Christmas lunches, we have Easter lunches, we have dinners and dinner parties, and we have our grand historic tools in this room where we have those fabulous meals with invited guests um who come and stay with us for 5 days. So, this is a room that that gets used a lot. It's got a lot of history. It's got a lot of memories for us. And um and I also remember as a child coming here, and we used to have not these electric things here, but they had they had little um paraffin heaters underneath, and I used to play with the heaters, and um and probably set the place on fire or or nearly did a couple of times.

[00:16:20]>> Right.

[00:16:21]>> Um anyway, this this is the dining room.

[00:16:23]>> I really I really like this, and um usually I was looking up to see on the chandelier if there are any sort of remnants from our party party poppers from Christmas that there's not, sadly.

[00:16:32]Usually there's something, you know.

[00:16:34]>> And again, we have a we have a fake Tudor ceiling, again arts and crafts from the 1920s put in by Ethel Labisha.

[00:16:41]>> And the oak paneling that you that you see here was put in by Richard Broderick II.

[00:16:46]So, he did all the wonderful oak paneling. Okay, let's move on to the room that we probably use the most.

[00:16:53]>> [music] >> So, this is the room, don't you think, Luke, that we use the most? Not set up like this because it is set up for tours. We should have a We should do a dinner in >> We should definitely do a dinner in here because this is an oak refectory table, and it is not normally here. This is normally set up with sofas and comfortable things to put things on. And of course we are standing in the hall, sometimes known as the great hall here at Mapperton. And once again, it has a fake Tudor ceiling. Um though this time, one of my favorite stories about this from is of course that there are these extraordinary beams that cut across. So you look up at this and you assume that's some very grand oak covered with plaster. But of course that's not true at all because in the 1920s, they had invented the rolled steel joist or girder. So these are actually covering up steel girders, which which we are really grateful to Ethel Labouchere for because it means the house probably won't fall down anytime soon. The whole house was rebuilt with those. But this room has so many interesting things.

[00:18:07]>> Cromwellian chairs date back to definitely the first Earl of Sandwich.

[00:18:11]>> these are these are these are from Hinchingbrooke. And this one over here >> Another repair.

[00:18:16]>> still got some hay in it because that's what you used to stuff these chairs.

[00:18:22]This is 17th century hay. Can you believe it? I can put a bit in my mouth.

[00:18:26]>> Wait, don't do that. Why would you do that?

[00:18:28]>> [laughter] >> Oh my god.

[00:18:31]>> So.

[00:18:32]>> What is that?

[00:18:34]I want to pick out first and foremost um the chair. So this is the Dutch burgomaster chair and this is the chair that supposedly King Charles II sat in when we just talked about Edward Montagu, your forebearer, who became the first Earl of Sandwich.

[00:18:49]Um he was given a >> He was over there. I keep looking for him and he's gone.

[00:18:52]>> He's there.

[00:18:53]>> He's there?

[00:18:53]>> He's there. He doesn't know this, you know. I mean I'll surprise you.

[00:18:56]>> Okay.

[00:18:56]>> You're Okay. So everybody, this is the chair. It's fantastic. It's you know, lovely carving etc. etc. But the chair pad had well, it had tapestry on it.

[00:19:08]Carry out.

[00:19:10]And it was in kind of not bad and it was in a bad way. So, when Emma Telford, who restored the peacock tapestry, came here a couple months to deliver the peacock tapestry for me, I showed her this and she said, "Okay, let me take it back to my workshop and I'll see what I can do." So, she's taken it back and guess what?

[00:19:31]You're not going to believe this. We've got a decision to make. This is the tapestry the embroidery here is cut from the tapestries here and pieced together.

[00:19:43]>> So, it's not So, it's certainly not the original textiles that were on there.

[00:19:46]>> We've got to decide if we just want to recover it, take off those Comment down below of what you think we should do.

[00:19:53]There's like it's in five different sections and then maybe put it on the other tapestries, which are now There's six of them underneath the bed.

[00:20:00]Eventually, I hope they get, you know, um restored like the peacock tapestry and then we recover it ourselves.

[00:20:06]>> Wow. Wow, that is exciting. I mean, we could always, you know, just um stick some rather fancy modern fabric on it.

[00:20:13]>> No, I think we could get some silk damask on it. You could get some silk damask and put it on that. We We need to discuss.

[00:20:20]>> Now, next to the chair here and this, of course, is a very important chair, as Julie says. Um and there is some uncertainty about the stories. By the way, I've always noticed that somebody some painter must have been painting the ceiling somewhere and spilled a chunk of paint >> Or something. You think so?

[00:20:37]>> chap's head.

[00:20:38]>> know if it's paint. I think it's almost as if it's Cuz why wouldn't it have gone into the crevices?

[00:20:44]>> Anyway, um moving on from the chair, one of the favorite my favorite things in this room is the Nib grandfather clock.

[00:20:52]Look at this thing. Can you believe that this was built 300 years ago and it still tells the time beautifully. And I'm going to do a test now. This This is not staged. I'm going to look at my fancy Apple Watch and see what the time is on it and whether cuz I I wound this about 3 weeks ago.

[00:21:14]>> Right.

[00:21:14]>> Okay. My watch is showing >> Yeah.

[00:21:19]>> 3 30 >> 3 >> 3 2. Now, it's coming up to 3.

[00:21:25]>> 3 >> And that is showing 3:32.

[00:21:29]So, maybe it's lost about a minute in all of that time, which is astonishing.

[00:21:34]>> No, I didn't >> So, you don't In order In order to wind this, we have >> it up. Oh, I didn't know that.

[00:21:39]>> We have to take the top off.

[00:21:40]>> What?

[00:21:42]>> Yeah.

[00:21:43]>> Here, let me do the joke.

[00:21:44]>> This slides out.

[00:21:45]>> knew that. I never knew this, by the way. I had no idea.

[00:21:49]I never >> Slide this out.

[00:21:50]>> I've never I never knew that this happened. Here, you just would go wind the clocks, and actually your dad did it for a really >> This is quite a big deal. So, and then in here, you you can see his name.

[00:21:58]You've got the weights, and you can see that they're coming to the end. They're all the way down.

[00:22:03]>> Look at your little snake.

[00:22:04]>> So, what I've got to do They They were the Knibb brothers. There were three of them in Oxford.

[00:22:10]And this was This was John Knibb.

[00:22:13]And they made these astonishing They made other clocks as well. They made the clocks for Oxford colleges. They made watches.

[00:22:20]And um And by doing this, we lift the weights.

[00:22:24]>> And of course, this would have been at Hinchingbrooke as well with the first at the time of the first Earl of Sandwich.

[00:22:30]Yes?

[00:22:31]>> And then, yeah. And then, there we go.

[00:22:33]So, Johannes Knibb um Oxonia fecit, so made >> And what's really interesting that I just spotted this is Do you know this?

[00:22:42]It's been screwed to the paneling.

[00:22:44]>> To keep it there.

[00:22:45]>> To keep it there so it doesn't Yeah, look at look at I didn't know that, either.

[00:22:48]>> Yeah, that's very That's very sensible.

[00:22:50]That's in case sort of riotous people sort of bump into the poor grandfather clock >> Wow.

[00:22:56]>> on the way over. Okay. Anyway, so >> know that that's how you did it.

[00:23:00]>> So, there we go.

[00:23:00]>> Gosh.

[00:23:01]>> Um and it's got a lovely chime as well, as some of you will know. Other things in here, my father always used to go on about this this um Renaissance table um and he would always say, "Well, it's got nothing to do with our family at all, but it's just rather beautiful."

[00:23:15]>> I I love this story.

[00:23:17]>> don't draw attention to it.

[00:23:18]>> Okay, so this is Paulina Peeps.

[00:23:20]>> ugliest portrait in the house. This this picture deserves to be buried at the end of the garden. It it it No, I'm sorry. It's a Paulina because she may have been a fine gentle lady.

[00:23:32]>> I'm sorry.

[00:23:32]>> Um and and some of the some of the lace is reasonably exquisite, but but look at her face.

[00:23:38]>> Okay. He just wasn't good at faces, that's all. So here we go. Here's the story. I got a email from um a chap who lives in Devon, which is obviously the neighboring county to Dorset, and he said, "I'm um a widow and my wife was part of the Peeps family and she has this portrait and she, Paulina Peeps, is um the mother to Edward Montagu, and I thought this would be a nice place to house her." So I said, "Sure, I'll head down." And he was in his 80s, so I brought him some Maperton Cube. Went to um his house and we sat outside, we had he gave me a tour of of his, you know, lovely um little house. Not little, but I mean like lovely house. And then we somehow ended up getting this into the car, but what's really fascinating, I just want to point her out. And I when I brought her back, I didn't tell anybody, by the way. Didn't tell him, nobody knew I went. It's like what I did in the dining room. I just sort of hang pictures. So I and I have to say, all the house guides really, really like her. And the story around her, which is really quite sad, is this. So she was married to Sidney Montagu, who was the father of Edward Montagu the first, who eventually became the first Earl of Sandwich. But do you know that Edward was not the firstborn son. So they moved to Hinchingbrooke in 1627.

[00:25:00]And Edward was born in 1625, but his younger brother had died um drowning Sorry, his older brother, Edward's older brother, died um in a moat.

[00:25:15]>> That's right. In the previous house that they were in.

[00:25:17]>> house that they were in.

[00:25:17]>> And she, of course, looks She's probably like a terribly devout She Puritan holding her Bible. And >> And look at the lace work. And look at there's like >> Listen, I agree. You You come in closer and you can see that there's actually see >> that poor.

[00:25:32]>> Yeah. And and and look at the lace down there as well. But But But in the round we should we should turn it round the other way. Well, over here, just to talk about family stories, we've got a wonderful photograph of my grandmother who um looks like a society dame there, doesn't she? And of course, this was a grand ball at Hinchingbrooke. Um and she would have hated it because she she No, no, she would have, though, because she was a bohemian. She had no interest in aristocratic life at all.

[00:26:06]All she wanted to do was go and paint and hang out with the trendy people of the time like Auerbach and Lucian Freud >> And all those fun in there.

[00:26:14]>> All those cool people. Th- This was the um This was the night that she lost the family jewels.

[00:26:22]>> What?

[00:26:22]>> Yeah.

[00:26:23]>> Oh.

[00:26:24]>> So, the night of the grand ball at Hinchingbrooke >> She was wearing she lost >> So, whatever she's wearing there, you can see necklace and rings and all sorts of things, they were all lost. And years afterwards, she used to go to a clairvoyant to try and help her remember where they were. Okay, over here we have the first Earl of Sandwich in an important portrait by Lely.

[00:26:49]And I always think that he's not quite framed, you know, a bit of me wants to kind of move the frame over here and sort of put it round. I think that's cuz we're all so used to taking photographs and thinking we've got to do things perfectly.

[00:27:02]Um maybe at some point there was going to be something up in this corner. It's a wonderful, wonderful portrait. He's very young. Um and of course he was incredibly young when he took on a lot of responsibility. He took over the running of Hinchingbrooke aged only 16, 17. Um and at 17 he was also a colonel in the New Model Army under Cromwell, commanding a regiment of 100 men. Can you believe it? Um but he went on to have a very impressive career.

[00:27:34]>> Yes, and I was just going to say one more thing about this lovely overmantel, even though it has the date 1604, it was not put in here in 1604. This was when this room was remodeled, where they wrote um it's in my book, Secrets of an English Country House, what they spent, they lent, what they I can't remember >> You can't start telling a story about a famous inscription.

[00:27:57]>> Do you know it?

[00:27:58]>> And not remember the inscription.

[00:27:59]>> It's behind here, apparently.

[00:28:01]>> one that's good. It might be. This was put in by the Comptons.

[00:28:04]>> Yes.

[00:28:04]>> Um and it came from Melplash Court, which is another manor house not far from here. I've always felt rather sorry for Melplash, and it's though we should give it back. It also doesn't quite fit because this ceiling was brought down.

[00:28:17]If you look at the arch over here, you can see that the original height of the ceiling was much higher, but to fit these these steel joists and to fit this new Arts and Crafts ceiling, they obviously had to lower everything and um >> But do you know what the inscription is behind here, if there is one?

[00:28:33]>> I'm going to have to remind myself.

[00:28:35]>> It is something around that. This is our collection, which is really exciting, actually.

[00:28:40]>> This collection is not in great shape, is it? We have got so many awards this that they're all crowding each other out.

[00:28:47]>> [laughter] >> Look at that.

[00:28:48]>> I know.

[00:28:48]>> go. They're mostly Julie's, of course.

[00:28:51]>> not.

[00:28:51]>> But but I helped I helped with one or two.

[00:28:54]>> Well, I think this one should go over there cuz they're matched each other.

[00:28:57]So, this is the archive volunteering award for the Alberta research project that we won in 2024. Then this was when my channel my other channel was called American Countess. It's now American Countess for passing 200 subs and we're almost at 300 subs.

[00:29:10]>> And I'm passing 100.

[00:29:11]>> Yeah, but that was for passing You get a You get a silver >> for each 100.

[00:29:15]>> For each 100 Well, you just only get one for 100,000 and the next one is a million. So, I'm still a long way off, but getting there. Then, of course, last year we won the Historic Houses Diversification Award at 2025, the inaugural award for that, and that's for all of our digital pioneering. Then we've got Mapperton Live for passing 100,000 subscribers. We're almost at 200,000. We're this close to 200,000.

[00:29:37]So, if you're watching this right now, >> Like, subscribe.

[00:29:39]>> Subscribe sub sub subscribe. Then we have our not other channel, but notice how YouTube has sort of >> YouTube, what are you thinking?

[00:29:48]>> Look how small that is.

[00:29:49]>> They They clearly now have so many people at 100,000, they're having to economize on the plaque.

[00:29:54]>> But our other channel, Castles and Tiara's, which is repurposing our historic house episodes from American Countess, we put it out on here, and we >> It's done very well.

[00:30:03]>> It's done very well.

[00:30:04]>> And then this is really my parents' award for the nation's finest manor house that was received in 2006 when Country Life magazine ran a competition.

[00:30:14]And um it was voted on >> better.

[00:30:17]>> as being the nation's finest manor. And once you are the nation's finest manor, you are forever the nation's finest manor cuz they ain't making any new ones.

[00:30:27]>> That's correct.

[00:30:28]>> That it has to be.

[00:30:30]>> [music] [music] >> So, we're we're coming into the drawing room, and you You see we have this roped off. That's because we are open to the public and so we keep these ropes up because there are four tours a day, which I mentioned previously. But this is I think the smartest room in the house.

[00:30:51]>> Well, it's got the grandest furniture and some of the best pictures. Um kicking off with the pictures, of course, we have this Joshua Reynolds portrait of the fourth Earl of Sandwich in his peer's robes. And I don't know if you can see, but you've got obviously what would have been a wonderful silk robe with ermine at the top and then his little coronet. Just Just notice the other side. Well, no.

[00:31:19]>> maybe not that one.

[00:31:20]>> It's not that >> [laughter] >> one. That one looks a lot grander than the one that we've got. Anyway, I always think he looks rather smug in this portrait, rather pleased with himself.

[00:31:31]He's probably done something incredibly important. For example, he might have um just um been appointed as first sea lord. That was a very important uh position in the government. And um he's really decked to the nines, isn't he? And he, of course, was married um once to to to Dorothy, whom we don't have a portrait of. Instead of Dorothy, and I feel rather bad about this, his mistress, Martha Ray, is sitting in the middle there. And um that was his his mistress whom he discovered as a young singer. In St. James's Park, he heard her singing and thought, "Who is this fine lady?" And then he became her patron and then all sorts of other things happened.

[00:32:23]>> All sorts of other things. So, I will also point out because these are dotted around the house, um upstairs and downstairs.

[00:32:30]And these are these wonder These are by William Hayes and they're the wonderful depiction of You can see the date here 1776 William Hayes of these exotic birds. Now interesting going through the archives I read an account that um Hinchingbrooke had an aviary. So when you walked in cuz it was once a nunnery before the eighth Earl closed off that you know you walk in and then there was that courtyard where um that was open and it was an aviary and so >> With lots of exotic birds.

[00:33:02]>> birds because Martha Ray >> He liked exotic birds, wasn't she? She's quite exotic herself but she liked exotic birds and that might have been why one of the reasons why Hayes created all of these >> That's my my discovery from the archives.

[00:33:15]>> Martha of course met an untimely end.

[00:33:18]She was shot by an ex-lover who had had tried to woo her away from the fourth Earl of Sandwich here but I think Martha knew which side her bread was buttered on and didn't didn't fall or succumb to the charm a second time of James Hackman who was then immediately arrested and hanged within two weeks and it was a very salacious story of the time.

[00:33:50]>> I'm going to point out something in here because we do use this room but interesting >> much taller than me.

[00:33:55]>> I know I'm on the sled here but do you notice do you notice any you know cushions that might look a bit different and smarter?

[00:34:02]Mhm.

[00:34:02]>> I I think I may do.

[00:34:04]>> Thank you. Thank you. That would be me.

[00:34:05]>> Yeah. So >> be me.

[00:34:07]>> So here we go. Is that is that it? Have I picked the right one? I hope I >> All of them.

[00:34:10]>> I hope I've picked the right one.

[00:34:12]>> What have you had them re-recovered?

[00:34:15]>> No. So anyway when I was in here shooting for my book >> You realized that the cushions were in such a bad state.

[00:34:22]>> And Malcolm came with a bunch of cushions and then I said can I buy them from you cuz they worked perfectly.

[00:34:29]>> So there's lots of other things to talk about in here. We can't do all of them now.

[00:34:31]>> you doing the this of the furniture?

[00:34:32]>> Well, yes, this is this is known as the Nile Suite.

[00:34:36]And this suite of furniture, so you've got the the bookcase over here, another bookcase over there. You've got a card table over there. And you've got a desk there and a >> So cool.

[00:34:46]>> side table here. These commemorate the Battle of the Nile, which was an important British victory in 1798 with Nelson in command. And so you can see at the top here, you have these wonderful carved sphinxes.

[00:35:04]Um we don't know exactly who made this furniture. It's it's from It was It was probably in the kind of school of of Gillow of Lancashire.

[00:35:16]Um but it is it is some of the finest furniture in the house and and people come from a long way to look at it. I have noticed something, Julie.

[00:35:26]>> Well, look at it. This is says Luke, "Happy Christmas. Love Gay." That's from Abigael.

[00:35:30]>> Abigael.

[00:35:30]>> Yeah.

[00:35:31]>> So um So what I have noticed, Julie, cuz Julie is in charge of restoration in the house, aren't you? Yeah.

[00:35:38]>> Yeah.

[00:35:38]>> And conservation.

[00:35:39]>> What have you noticed?

[00:35:40]>> Well, I mean, come on.

[00:35:42]>> Well, I've noticed lots.

[00:35:42]>> Look over here.

[00:35:44]This poor sphinx has fallen >> No!

[00:35:47]>> fallen off his perch.

[00:35:49]>> Oh my gosh!

[00:35:50]>> So he needs a bit of needs a bit of >> I'll glue it. I'll glue it.

[00:35:53]>> glue that. I'll glue it.

[00:35:54]>> No, no, no, no, no, not not Blu Tack.

[00:35:55]>> No, no. Well, do do do do do do. Anyway, there it goes up there.

[00:35:59]So this room actually we use a lot for Christmas because roughly uh in that area there we is where we put the Christmas tree and um >> [snorts] >> and I do remember as a child coming down here, huge Christmas tree, lots of presents, and an absolute desperation to get out of the long and boring lunch at the Christmas table and get in here and pull apart our presents and of course um our children have done that and I hope that our grandchildren will do that as well.

[00:36:35]As we come this way I always [snorts] think this is something worth looking at.

[00:36:40]These are gaming chips. Now some people may know that the story of the sandwich has two flavors.

[00:36:47]Um there's the flavor that we prefer as the family and then there's the flavor that others seem to go for which of course is to suggest that that magnificent gentleman the fourth Earl was an unstoppable gambler and therefore he would gamble through the night and he needed a bit of bread to hold his meat to stop him from soiling his cards.

[00:37:08]Now some supporting evidence for that is that this is actually a gaming table.

[00:37:14]Um but of course this is much later than him. We do know that his original card table is still in the town hall in Huntington in um Cambridgeshire. So that's possible and then we have these extraordinary gaming chips.

[00:37:31]So if you look in here I think I think this is one of the the sort of unsung treasures of the house.

[00:37:38]Within here these are these are all made um I think they're either Japanese or Chinese. Somebody might have a better idea but each one of these chips and there are hundreds of them has engraved on it in immaculate detail the family coat of arms.

[00:37:59]And you cannot quite believe that so many of these were carved so delicately out of mother of pearl for the gaming table. Yeah these these might easily be these this is a Victorian quill. Well that this one hasn't been used.

[00:38:17]That this one >> has been used.

[00:38:19]>> on the other hand >> Exactly.

[00:38:21]>> It >> almost certainly a quill that has been used and you can see the ink >> Yes.

[00:38:28]>> at the end of of the nib. So, you had your ink >> Yeah.

[00:38:32]>> reserve which might have been here and you would have written inside of something like this. Here we go. Look, this actually got some >> [snorts] >> There we go. There we got some of my grandfather's old writing paper. I haven't seen this for ages. And here you go.

[00:38:47]And so, you might easily have had previous owner or the sandwich writing away in ink. And this is the bit you're going to miss.

[00:38:54]>> Mhm.

[00:38:55]>> And then after that, you need to blot the ink so it doesn't smudge. Right.

[00:39:01]Well, there's so much more to talk about. We haven't talked about the books, any of the lots of the pictures, this lovely Hogarth. Oh, we'll we'll come back and do it again.

[00:39:11]>> Also, can I just point out like going through this tour has been really helpful for me. There's so many drawers that I still need to go through. So, comment down below if you want me literally while he was like talking about I don't even know what you're talking about. I was off in my own little world and there are drawers that I need to go through. So, if you want to see a video about that, we can just one day go through all the drawers. I literally I know that that sounds crazy. I haven't been through half or even more than half of the drawers here and especially in this wonderful furniture.

[00:39:51]>> Right. There is so much more to see in the drawing room that will have to happen another time. This of course is the staircase hall, one of the most important rooms of the house with lots of family portraits and it's something we're going to cover in the second part of this tour because we just don't have time today. But, we will do it when we do the rest of the house. Into the library. And I think today we shouldn't talk so much about the library as it is today. This is the room that I remember as a child coming to and my grandfather being seated at an enormous desk over there.

[00:40:26]And he had a big chair. In fact, he would sit on the Burgermeister's chair.

[00:40:31]And quite often I know, can you believe it? Not great. And then in here he used to have a television.

[00:40:40]>> What?

[00:40:40]>> Yeah. So, he'd open he'd he'd open that cupboard and he had a big TV. For those days, it was a big TV. And so, he'd be able to sit here and he'd be sort of writing his stuff, paying his bills, watching television right there. And the other thing to know about my grandfather is he was quite obsessed with technology. When he lived at Hinchingbrooke, he was the very first person to install an internal telephone system. So, all the rooms had phones.

[00:41:09]And when he came here, he became one of the first people to play around with computers. So, he'd always have the latest computer. And I remember as a child having to show him how to switch the thing on. Anyway, um there's a there is another funny story about my grandfather here cuz this was all an open fireplace. This wonderful Tudor fireplace.

[00:41:26]This overmantel again it's come from Melplash and it's James the First. Um so, it's not really linked to the house at all. Another thing that we probably >> Again, it's royal coat of arms. But do you think it was brought I can't remember when this was brought over.

[00:41:40]It's >> At the same time. Compton to the Comptons because they owned both.

[00:41:44]>> Right.

[00:41:45]>> and they owned Maples and Melplash. One day, my grandfather was at his desk. He had the fire on, watching television and smoke started rising.

[00:41:56]And if you come over here, you can see that a log had fallen out of the fire onto the timber floor and started burning.

[00:42:07]And I think it was actually the housekeeper who who discovered it.

[00:42:10]>> this.

[00:42:11]>> And um and saved the day. Anyway, this room is now given over to Julie's wonderful exhibition. It's still got, obviously, the library or part of the library of family books, some very important books over there, particularly the first Earl's journals, which we've talked about before, and we can come back to.

[00:42:30]>> But, I did So, this room means a lot to me because when I was getting it ready for the exhibition space, um, I cleaned the entire Rococo ceiling. It took me 16 hours in total. You probably watched that video.

[00:42:42]>> It's beautifully clean still.

[00:42:44]>> Clean because there's no fire in here.

[00:42:45]>> I know.

[00:42:46]>> It's not going to get dirty. That's the problem.

[00:42:48]>> So, I was up at I put the scaffolding in here, cleaned all of that. We painted it one color.

[00:42:54]And then, which we liked. By the way, Mylands, they gifted us the [music] paint, and we did really like it. And then, like 6 months later, they came out with this whole other color chart. And we were like, "Oh my gosh, this is the perfect color." It's got a bit of It's got a bit of like leather color to it.

[00:43:08]Do you see? That's why we really liked it. There's a hinge of something.

[00:43:10]>> It brings out It brings out the leather >> bindings, and it brings out, again, the the lovely stone on on the around the fire surround. But, it's brilliant, right?

[00:43:20]>> much smarter.

[00:43:21]>> It's just when this is made into a library, and we do, again, we've got concerts in here, so we do use this room [music] when it's not on tour. We use it for concerts. It is really lovely, but it's lovely as it is. The question is, are we going to do an Alberta exhibition next year, or do we just go back to it being a library that people tour? What do you think?

[00:43:39]>> That is an open question, and probably not one we will decide [music] today.

[00:43:43]>> won't.

[00:43:44]>> But, um, anyway, I think that concludes most of the downstairs tour. In fact, probably only about half of it.

[00:43:52]But, we've got more next time. We've got more upstairs, and importantly, we're going to go backstage. So, we're going to go to the back of the house where we actually live, and, uh, share with you all of the wonderful treasures and architecture of this extraordinary place.

[00:44:09]>> Thank you all for joining [music] us. Be sure to like and subscribe cuz we'd like to get to 200,000 and turn notifications on.