0:00:03 > 0:00:05The British are known
0:00:05 > 0:00:08for their enduring love affair with our landscape.
0:00:09 > 0:00:10Some would say
0:00:10 > 0:00:14that our obsession with the rural dream comes with a question...
0:00:14 > 0:00:17if we could, would we choose to live in it
0:00:17 > 0:00:21and if money was no object, what sort of house would we have?
0:00:21 > 0:00:24You get the breeze off that sea, you smell the cutting of grass
0:00:24 > 0:00:25and the farmers working.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28You're just in a part of merry old England and it's lovely.
0:00:28 > 0:00:29There we are.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33For almost 120 years, Country Life magazine
0:00:33 > 0:00:36has been aspiring to capture the elusive soul
0:00:36 > 0:00:37of the British countryside.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39This is the place of dreams.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42This is the place where people just sit back
0:00:42 > 0:00:43with their cup of tea
0:00:43 > 0:00:47and they dream that they can live in a place like this.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51It's a weekly bible for the middle and upper classes.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54When I was 11 my father inherited, um,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56a very crumbling stately home in North Yorkshire
0:00:56 > 0:00:58and we had no heating
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and literally hip baths catching leaks in the corridors.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03Its readers may aspire to the status
0:01:03 > 0:01:05of a large house in the country...
0:01:05 > 0:01:10When I drove down the avenue, I could feel the magical energy
0:01:10 > 0:01:12and power of this house.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Within an hour of arriving, I'd made the offer to buy it.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19..but with just 18% of us living in the countryside
0:01:19 > 0:01:22and the majority residing in cities, towns and suburbs,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26many of us are increasingly divorced from a rural way of life.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29- DOGS HOWL - They nearly eat a cow a day.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31A whole cow a day.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Yeah, they eat a lot of meat.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36We spent a year seeing cottages, manor houses and castles
0:01:36 > 0:01:39through the eyes of the magazine
0:01:39 > 0:01:43and discovering the reality behind the rural dream.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50Come on, Danny Boy. Come on, then.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit. Sit!
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Sit, you horrible little dog.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56Come on, then. Oi!
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Milton Manor in Oxfordshire first featured in the magazine in 1948.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07The present owners have agreed to another article being written
0:02:07 > 0:02:10to celebrate a very special anniversary.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13250 years ago this year, um,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15the Barrett family bought this property
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and the person who bought it
0:02:17 > 0:02:19is a really remarkable and interesting figure.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23Bryant Barrett. And he's a London merchant.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27He makes fabrics with gold in them
0:02:27 > 0:02:29and he has a shop on The Strand.
0:02:29 > 0:02:30And he buys Milton Manor
0:02:30 > 0:02:34and he expands it as a family seat, because he is vastly wealthy.
0:02:38 > 0:02:39And who lives there now?
0:02:39 > 0:02:44Well, um, a descendant, uh, Anthony Mockler-Barrett...
0:02:44 > 0:02:46Well, actually, that's wrong.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49- Um, what is...? Annie, is it Mockler?- Mow-ckler.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53Giddle up, giddle up, giddle up. Giddle up! Giddle up, giddle up...
0:02:53 > 0:02:56He is a great enthusiast for its contents.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00And this one is Arabella and the other one,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03what is the other little one's name? Um,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06really they're not much use for anything, these tiny Shetlands.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10So just ornamental, to amuse children, really.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Where do you want to go, through the back, or...?
0:03:12 > 0:03:14Yes! That sounds lovely, wherever you like.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Through there or in the house?
0:03:16 > 0:03:18In the house, shall we go in the house? We'll come in the house.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22All right, I'll close the door to this lavatory.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25- That's your famous lavatory. - Probably don't want a shot of that.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Well, he has a partner, uh, Gwenda, who was formerly an actress.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32She worked in the early days of television.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35This is the old part of the house, 1663 here.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Cos Tony's great-great-great grandfather
0:03:38 > 0:03:40built on the wings in 1764.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45She's a comedienne and she worked, amongst others,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48I believe, with Tony Hancock and also Benny Hill.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52It's a beautiful room.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Well, this is Strawberry Hill Gothic, of course.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58When we came here, this room was covered in 1952
0:03:58 > 0:04:00Sanderson's wallpaper.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04And it took me 20 years to persuade Tony to get rid of it.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08'24 years ago, yes, we moved in,'
0:04:08 > 0:04:12on the death of Tony's mother. He inherited the house then.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14How many bedrooms have you got?
0:04:14 > 0:04:16There are about 10 bedrooms.
0:04:16 > 0:04:1810 to 12 bedrooms, but they're all big, you see,
0:04:18 > 0:04:23so you can't really... One big room with two single beds in.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25Because being a Catholic, Tony's mother
0:04:25 > 0:04:28never had double beds in the bedrooms.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32This is my mother over here.
0:04:32 > 0:04:38This portrait of her when she, when she came out as a deb,
0:04:38 > 0:04:40um, and that was,
0:04:40 > 0:04:45that was her looking, er, slightly touched up, one feels.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48She sort of started collecting teapots
0:04:48 > 0:04:50and then people started giving her teapots.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52She was a fervent monarchist,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56so she collected coronation teapots particularly.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58Did you ever give her one?
0:04:58 > 0:05:01Do you know, I don't think I ever did.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03Not one.
0:05:04 > 0:05:05Too late now.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12The house tells the story
0:05:12 > 0:05:15of the association of a particular family with a particular place.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18This is the nursery where we spent most of our childhood,
0:05:18 > 0:05:19the four of us and Nanny.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23That was me, my sister's christening.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26One of the things that is so fascinating about it is that,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28of course, the house is interesting architecturally,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31but the continuity and contents
0:05:31 > 0:05:34make this house exponentially more interesting.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38This is the will of Bryant Barrett's father, Nicholas Barrett.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42To the parish of St Clement Dane.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45And this is our...living room, really.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46It's a lovely bright room.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Well, this is a morning room, of course,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50it gets the sun in the morning.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53What's very unusual about it is that it is possible,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55through Bryant Barrett's manuscripts,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59to come very close to not only a particular person,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02but also to a perspective on the world.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05There you have the details of a marriage settlement.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09In that sense, you're stepping straight back 250 years.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11That is really exciting.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13- At least, I find it exciting. - HE LAUGHS
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Anthony is the 9th generation descended from Bryant Barrett.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22As the eldest son, he inherited Milton Manor in 1990.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26This is the family conversation piece
0:06:26 > 0:06:29that my mother insisted on having done.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32We were all forced to come in one by one
0:06:32 > 0:06:37and sit here for hours, which for children was a bit of a strain.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41But I think we hated it less than my father, who really loathed it.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43But my mother insisted on doing it.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46He put up with quite a lot.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48Um, particularly in his old age,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50having to sit in the little sitting room
0:06:50 > 0:06:53huddled over a little stove, uh,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56cos it was the only warm room in the house.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58Tony's mother wouldn't have fires in the house.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01She said it was bad for the furniture.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04So everybody who came here was frozen.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08In fact, some chap spent a whole Christmas in the airing cupboard
0:07:08 > 0:07:11because it was the warmest place in the house!
0:07:13 > 0:07:15So, yes, this is,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19this is a way of bringing visitors up and getting an "ooh".
0:07:21 > 0:07:22Anthony and his forbears
0:07:22 > 0:07:27have been established at Milton Manor for two and a half centuries.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Making the tenant at King John's Hunting Lodge
0:07:29 > 0:07:31appear a relative newcomer.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37Why can't pinks work in my garden? They just don't work.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Nor does lavender, I can't make it grow.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42And the bloody rabbits.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45Can't win, you can't win in a garden.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49- Can you win in a house, in a room? - Yes, cos it's static.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51HE LAUGHS
0:07:52 > 0:07:53Nicky Haslam
0:07:53 > 0:07:56has rented his country home from the National Trust
0:07:56 > 0:07:58for a mere 30 years.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Why is the Englishman's home his castle...
0:08:03 > 0:08:05- do you think?- Is it?
0:08:05 > 0:08:09I suppose we, more than almost any other nation,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12prize our own nest...
0:08:14 > 0:08:16..because we've been so lucky to have had them
0:08:16 > 0:08:18for so long, undisturbed.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21We haven't had revolutions that burnt down country houses.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23- DOORBELL RINGS - 'There's always been that sort of,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26'having a nest of your own is very English.'
0:08:26 > 0:08:30- Oh, you are on time. - Thanks very much.- How wonderful.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32- Nicky, hi, I'm Bella. - How nice to see you...
0:08:32 > 0:08:35Arabella Youens, the property editor of the magazine,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37has come to interview Nicky
0:08:37 > 0:08:40about his eclectic approach to decorating a home.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44The violin is a chocolate box from Vienna sprayed white.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47I just collect white, anything white like that.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51I found the lamp in the gift shop at the Louvre on the top shelf.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53- Tat? - And this goblet came from Moscow.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55I quite like inexpensive things,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57- I don't have anything valuable here at all.- No.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00- Well, you've got some... - And I love souvenirs, I love,
0:09:00 > 0:09:03I love remembering where I found things.
0:09:03 > 0:09:04- And is that your mum? - Yep, my mother.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07- It's fairly unflattering too. - Oh, really?
0:09:07 > 0:09:09- It isn't over flattering. - Well, that's pretty unusual.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13- She looked quite like that, yeah. - Is there somewhere I can sit? - Anywhere you like.- Just anywhere?
0:09:13 > 0:09:16I think something will resonate really well with Country Life
0:09:16 > 0:09:20readers, who I think have sometimes been a bit nervous
0:09:20 > 0:09:23of the idea of interior design.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25A lot of our readers will have lots of, um,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27- furniture that they've inherited. - Yeah.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Um, invariably quite a lot of brown furniture,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32which certainly the younger generation, my generation, you know,
0:09:32 > 0:09:34don't know what to do with it.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37- Paint it white.- Paint it white. Brilliant, I love that.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39- Even if it's the finest mahogany. - Yeah.
0:09:39 > 0:09:40BELLA LAUGHS
0:09:40 > 0:09:42I've read Country Life, I suppose, all my life
0:09:42 > 0:09:44cos we came to my parents' house in the country
0:09:44 > 0:09:46and we used to pounce on it when it came
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and it was the bible of...
0:09:49 > 0:09:51English life in, the...
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Well, especially after the war I remember it.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55And it was very thin
0:09:55 > 0:09:57and black and white covers.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Actually, if you read the property section of old Country Life,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02you see sort of mansions in, I don't know,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05in Hertfordshire with 800 acres of land
0:10:05 > 0:10:08going for £4,000, you suddenly realise what,
0:10:08 > 0:10:09what life's all about.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11CORK POPS AND CHEERING
0:10:13 > 0:10:15First published in 1897,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18the magazine can sell over 60,000 copies a week
0:10:18 > 0:10:20when it's a special edition.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23- Thank you very much indeed. - This is the "Best of British" issue.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27We work on an issue every week but this has been the big, er,
0:10:27 > 0:10:28the big issue this year.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31And what are you thinking as you open that box?
0:10:31 > 0:10:34- What are you hoping? - I'm hoping there's not some absolutely ghastly mistake.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37It's like an exocet, a mistake comes out at you
0:10:37 > 0:10:39and that's what I'm slightly looking for at the moment.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42What we've sort of done here is that we tried to get...
0:10:42 > 0:10:45This is the variation of the great houses.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47So, you know, we've got sort of Castle Howard,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49- a modern house in Hampshire. - I have a vision of the Queen...
0:10:49 > 0:10:51I don't know whether the Queen does read it,
0:10:51 > 0:10:53but it's my sort of fantasy that the Queen
0:10:53 > 0:10:54sort of having her, you know,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57sitting there with her toast and marmalade
0:10:57 > 0:10:58on a Wednesday, reading the magazine.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00The magazine certainly wouldn't,
0:11:00 > 0:11:02wouldn't have entered in my terraced house in north London.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04It is upper class.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07It's an upper class magazine, it always was.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09I mean, all those bits in Country Life that go on,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11you just think of Downton Abbey,
0:11:11 > 0:11:15well, the ancestry of that goes, that type of thing goes back
0:11:15 > 0:11:17to Jane Austen and the great house
0:11:17 > 0:11:19and the mythology of the great houses.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21It all runs all through Country Life,
0:11:21 > 0:11:22runs through our literature.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27And then I think it counts for the fascination with the past
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and old things and even desire, always,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34to be deeply rooted in the past, in continuity and tradition.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40And what do people make of the house when they come to it?
0:11:40 > 0:11:44They usually love it. They always describe it as being very lived in.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49National Trust stuff, you know, is always immaculate, isn't it?
0:11:49 > 0:11:53I think they quite like seeing rather shabbier sort of...
0:11:53 > 0:11:55rooms and things like that.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57- Hello, Gwenda. - GWENDA LAUGHS
0:11:57 > 0:11:59- And Anthony...- Thank you for coming, it's great of you to come.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03- Couldn't be a better day, couldn't be a better day, very hot. - It's lovely.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05Lovely to see you, Anthony. Nice to see you.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08- Right, lovely, come inside. - Thank you so much.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Shall we look at this? Cos, I mean, I've never seen a complete,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13um, a complete set. Are these all the same?
0:12:13 > 0:12:16All hand-painted in 1791, of the house.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20- So by looking at this...- 'The house still has all its contents.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23'You know, that is truly extraordinary.'
0:12:23 > 0:12:24Capability Brown...
0:12:24 > 0:12:27'The interiors are full of marvellous things.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30'Things that if they were taken away from the house
0:12:30 > 0:12:32'would be a quarter of as interesting.'
0:12:32 > 0:12:36So this is Mary Belson, the first wife here.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Which I think is a lovely painting, don't you, John, this one?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40It's really, it's a really...
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Yes, and this is Winnifred Easton, his second wife,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44as I say, no good looker.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48But very good at child bearing.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50And very rich.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53This is, uh, Bryant Barrett's
0:12:53 > 0:12:55business accounts,
0:12:55 > 0:13:00"A general inventory of all my effects in 1767.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02"Due from the King,
0:13:02 > 0:13:05"£301.16.7."
0:13:05 > 0:13:08So why the decision to move out
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and have a big, sort of status symbol in the country?
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Well, the English have always been fascinated,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18you know, we may make our... Wherever we make our money,
0:13:18 > 0:13:20lots of English people, British people,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22like to invest that in the countryside.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26They like to have a country seat. It's, it hasn't changed!
0:13:26 > 0:13:29You've got one long curtain and one short curtain.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Is that a particular style?
0:13:31 > 0:13:34No, that was because we had one pair of long curtains
0:13:34 > 0:13:36and one pair of short curtains,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38uh, because we took down the other curtains
0:13:38 > 0:13:41and we've never got it together again.
0:13:41 > 0:13:42GWENDA LAUGHS
0:13:44 > 0:13:47When Anthony was a child, the house had a staff of six.
0:13:47 > 0:13:52Now he's down to one gardener and a part-time cleaner.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54This is my office.
0:13:54 > 0:13:55I've got four tables
0:13:55 > 0:13:57and the idea was each would concentrate
0:13:57 > 0:14:01on a different aspect, you know, farming or cottages
0:14:01 > 0:14:04or house opening, or whatever it might be.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06And it hasn't actually worked out like that.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08I really wish I could afford a secretary.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11- Are you computer literate? - Absolutely not.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14There's not a computer in the house.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20In recent years, Milton Manor has fallen on more testing times.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28What are the challenges of keeping a house like this alive in 2014-15?
0:14:28 > 0:14:32You need a good woman around, really, to do, you know, cleaning,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34cooking, that sort of thing.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36Um, ironing.
0:14:36 > 0:14:37GWENDA LAUGHS
0:14:37 > 0:14:40- Gardening, cleaning one's shoes... - Gwenda, are you getting that?
0:14:44 > 0:14:46What do you say to that?
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Well, I'm completely astounded.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51I didn't even know Tony had noticed I did either of those things.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54THEY LAUGH
0:14:54 > 0:14:56For all Anthony's bluff humour,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59Milton Manor's future is looking bleak.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05You do need to sort out the money, this is the trouble.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09The various bills and taxings and that's what Tony does.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Muddle them up, you get...
0:15:13 > 0:15:14Um...
0:15:16 > 0:15:18- Bloody hell... - ANTHONY MUMBLES
0:15:21 > 0:15:23The readers of the magazine are obsessed
0:15:23 > 0:15:26with country houses and it's the first place of call
0:15:26 > 0:15:28if you're looking to buy a grand one.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33This is a £9 million house...
0:15:33 > 0:15:35in Sussex.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37It's rather beautiful.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40And you've got seven million on the Cote D'Azur.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45£9 million place in Notting Hill, but now we are in,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47there's New York, Florida, Miami...
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Everybody dreams of, well, many people dream of country life
0:15:50 > 0:15:52and I guess they start out with
0:15:52 > 0:15:55a wish-list of ten things they want to achieve.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58So there'll be a certain look, a beautiful facade
0:15:58 > 0:16:02down a lovely leafy lane, peace and quiet, water, beautiful gardens.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05You know, lovely accommodation, bedrooms, all the things you want,
0:16:05 > 0:16:08tennis courts, swimming pools, staff accommodation.
0:16:08 > 0:16:09However grand they want to live.
0:16:09 > 0:16:10Uh, but inevitably,
0:16:10 > 0:16:14if they achieve seven out of those ten things, they've done very well.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26Kinross House looks the dream home to many.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29It's an architectural vision conceived in 1685
0:16:29 > 0:16:32by Sir William Bruce, a royal courtier.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37When the house was sold over three centuries later,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40it was in dire need of restoration
0:16:40 > 0:16:43and a modern saviour with deep pockets.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46It was meant to be.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49It was a matter of destiny.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52I mean, I couldn't have imagined just a number of years ago seeing
0:16:52 > 0:16:55a property, uh, I owned on the front page of Country Life.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Absolutely wonderful.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01Kinross House has featured in the magazine five times
0:17:01 > 0:17:05since 1912, such is its architectural significance.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08"The interest of Kinross House
0:17:08 > 0:17:11"extends far beyond the stately building which represents,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15"at its best, the art of Sir William Bruce,
0:17:15 > 0:17:17"its architect and first owner."
0:17:17 > 0:17:18There it is.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21"The estate on which it stands includes Loch Leven
0:17:21 > 0:17:24"and its island with a castle
0:17:24 > 0:17:27"where Mary Queen of Scots languished a prisoner."
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Clive Aslet has returned to write about the spectacular
0:17:31 > 0:17:37renovation which was completed in just 18 months by the new owner.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40I had absolutely no intention of buying the house.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44In fact, until 45 minutes before I actually arrived,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46I didn't even know I was coming here.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Within an hour of arriving, I made the offer to buy it.
0:17:50 > 0:17:51We shouldn't really be coming by car,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54we should be coming by some other means, really.
0:17:54 > 0:17:55Because this is like...
0:17:55 > 0:17:58a piece of music which you should be enjoying in time.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Thank you. Thank you very much.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09- Hello, Clive. How are you? Good to see you.- Hello.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12- Good, well, let me show you round.- Thank you very much.
0:18:12 > 0:18:13A number of people have come through
0:18:13 > 0:18:15and said, "My God, you've put a new floor down."
0:18:15 > 0:18:17- Yes.- No, Sir William Bruce put this floor down.- Oh.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21- Some time after 1683, during the building of the house.- Right.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23It's exactly the same floor.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27I have seen Kinross House described as the coldest house in Scotland,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30because I think there were six or ten radiators in the whole property.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32- When you came? - When I came, yeah.- Wow.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35And there are now more than that just in the entrance hall.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38- But you don't have underfloor heating or anything...?- No...- No.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40- Too far. - THEY LAUGH
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Donald Fothergill is the chairman of the UK's oldest
0:18:43 > 0:18:45and largest lift-making company.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48He bought Kinross House for £4 million
0:18:48 > 0:18:52and spent a further 13 million on restoring it.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54When I drove down the avenue...
0:18:54 > 0:18:57three or four years ago, whenever it was,
0:18:57 > 0:19:02I could feel the magical energy and power of, of this house.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05I was just drawn to it like a magnet.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10I immediately knew that there was a partnership with me,
0:19:10 > 0:19:11the house,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13perhaps even Bruce himself.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17I felt an overwhelming urge to finish what he had started.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20- And that's the great man himself. - And there he is.- There he is.- Gosh.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23And he's in a sort of dressing gown or something.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26- Yes, it looks like a sort of kimono. - Kimono, yes, it's a wonderful silk.
0:19:26 > 0:19:27I know.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33It's a very compelling image because it shows him
0:19:33 > 0:19:39obviously as he wanted himself to be portrayed in this, uh,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43easy, rather artistic way, with his lace at his neck,
0:19:43 > 0:19:48but actually in this very striking and colourful sort of, uh,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50dressing gown.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53This is one of the, um, Montgomerys, here we are.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Wonderful.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59- Bruce's grand salon.- A knock-out room, isn't it?- Yeah.- In every way.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01I always felt, when I bought the house,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04was the sense that there was Bruce
0:20:04 > 0:20:06- wanting me to finish the house off. - Yes.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It's wonderful to see these things being done,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11because for a lot of the time when I was editor of Country Life,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13everything was going wrong with the countryside.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18And now...wonderful to see a great success.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20This is the dining room.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23This table, which is solid mahogany, was purpose built for this room.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27- Oh, gosh!- I won't tell you the price, it's embarrassing.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30Some people might look at it and think, "Why on earth?"
0:20:30 > 0:20:34But, fortunately, somebody had the vision to see it,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38to realise this is such a very beautiful and precious house
0:20:38 > 0:20:41and to secure its future, really, for the next 150 years.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46I never realised how much dust a tapestry can accumulate.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50We had about three sugar bags worth of dust that came out of it. Quite extraordinary.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54CLOCK'S GEARS CLUNK
0:20:54 > 0:20:58The whole thing is a drama unfolding through space
0:20:58 > 0:21:01and, if you like, through time as well.
0:21:01 > 0:21:03Does that mean he had a big ego?
0:21:03 > 0:21:06Oh, he...he would've had a colossal ego!
0:21:06 > 0:21:09You have to have a huge ego to build a place like this.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15These little cupboards
0:21:15 > 0:21:17were actually built by Sir William Bruce.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21What they used to be were the little closets
0:21:21 > 0:21:23where they would nip off and go to the loo.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26So they ran the height of the building
0:21:26 > 0:21:30and we've now turned those little old loo closets into...
0:21:30 > 0:21:33mechanical and electrical services distribution.
0:21:33 > 0:21:39And do you think Donald's got something of William Bruce in him?
0:21:39 > 0:21:43Well, I think that everybody who makes a fortune,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47and you need a fortune to do this kind of thing,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50I suspect they do have things in common.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52They have to have a lot of vitality.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55And he was the top man practically,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58or certainly one of the top men in Scotland,
0:21:58 > 0:22:00and he was building this to establish a dynasty.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04A simply enormous pressure vessel,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06boiler...
0:22:07 > 0:22:11..hot-water tank, pump control system,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and, I don't know if you can squeeze back here,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17but, uh, probably a few more gubbins to look at.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20It really does resemble a ship's boiler room.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22It's a great industrial work of art.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26- So, Donald, do you know how all this works?- Absolutely not.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28But I know somebody I can ask and who can,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30so I think that's the key point.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35Sir William Bruce's fate was not to create a dynasty.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37The building of Kinross defeated him.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42He fell from royal favour and died a pauper with no known grave.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45It seems incredible he had no grave.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Poor, poor, poor Sir William Bruce.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51But, no, of course, this is his memorial
0:22:51 > 0:22:53and this is why we're here talking about him.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58- Do you sense him around at all? - Oh, definitely. Oh, definitely.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04I tend to fall in love with and buy places that I actually connect with.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Whilst I don't want it to let it...to let it get the better of me,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09like it got the better of Bruce,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12you have to have the passion, uh,
0:23:12 > 0:23:15to see a project, particularly one of this size,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17through and make it work.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28420 miles south of Kinross,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31the troubles facing Anthony and Gwenda at Milton Manor
0:23:31 > 0:23:34may well be getting the better of them.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37There's no big budget to keep the place going.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42So I've just spotted, uh, that lovely creature out there. A llama?
0:23:42 > 0:23:45- No.- It's an...- Try again.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50- A large poodle?- No, looks like a large poodle. It begins with an A.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52- Alpaca?- Yes.- Yes. Well done.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54An alpaca. A sheared alpaca,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57which is why it looks like a poodle at the moment.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00- It's been clipped.- Why do you have an alpaca?
0:24:00 > 0:24:03- Well, you know, why not? - HE LAUGHS
0:24:03 > 0:24:07In 2014, the Grade I listed manor
0:24:07 > 0:24:10was put on English Heritage's at risk register.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12They have a statutory role
0:24:12 > 0:24:15to protect buildings of national importance
0:24:15 > 0:24:18and were alarmed by the poor state of the decaying windows,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21the chapel roof and cornices.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Life in the country is not a pastoral idyll,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29it's, uh, it's full of little challenges
0:24:29 > 0:24:31that sort of mount up all the time.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34So one starts putting one's head in one's hands
0:24:34 > 0:24:36and thinking, "I've had enough of this."
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Tell us about the challenge you've got with English Heritage.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43Oh, don't get me on to English Heritage.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47Um...those blank, blank, blank!
0:24:47 > 0:24:51Censor that remark!
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Right, this is a sort of appeal to the public
0:24:56 > 0:24:59over the head of the bureaucrats, one might say.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02"Milton Manor is a Grade I listed building,"
0:25:02 > 0:25:07which, of course, English Heritage actually did the listing.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09"Recently, it was put on the 'at risk' list
0:25:09 > 0:25:15"to the astonishment and, indeed, indignation of the owners,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20"who...whose family has been here for 250 years this year."
0:25:20 > 0:25:24So since 1764 to 2014.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27It was like a dagger to my heart.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29When there's a dagger to one's heart,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32I suppose one wants to plunge it in someone else's back
0:25:32 > 0:25:34- and extract it. - SHE LAUGHS
0:25:34 > 0:25:36"The first they heard of it
0:25:36 > 0:25:40"was when they read the news in the local paper.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44"Who by? The querulous quangocrats of English Heritage."
0:25:44 > 0:25:49"What exactly is it at risk of, falling down?
0:25:49 > 0:25:55"Hardly. Being blown away? Hardly. Submerged? No."
0:25:55 > 0:25:57What exactly are they trying to do?
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Sort of close the building down, force me to sell it? You know.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06Technically, if repairs aren't done in time,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09the local council has the power to compulsorily purchase.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The trouble with English Heritage
0:26:12 > 0:26:16is they're concerned with the fabric of a house,
0:26:16 > 0:26:18and they're not really at all concerned
0:26:18 > 0:26:20with the people who live there.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24They couldn't care less if it's a Russian oligarch preserving this place.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28As long as it's sort of chocolate box perfect
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and all the shutters are painted and there's no cracks in the ceiling
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and their ruddy inspectors
0:26:34 > 0:26:37can come round and take little photographs with,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39not with great big cameras like yours,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43but with tiny little things of every crack and thing in the ceiling.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45That just puts one's back up.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47- Have you anything to add? - BOTH LAUGH
0:26:47 > 0:26:50I don't think it's necessary for me to add anything.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55Anthony may grumble,
0:26:55 > 0:26:59but English Heritage have helped save over 400 historic houses
0:26:59 > 0:27:02since they were founded in 1983.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06And do you feel much better for having had the opportunity
0:27:06 > 0:27:08to express yourself in this way?
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Moderately better. I mean, I wish it had never happened.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19It's a bit of, yes, an Englishman's home is his castle,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23and he can put what he likes at the castle gates.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25This is a terrible thing to ask you,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28but have you ever thought of selling?
0:27:28 > 0:27:31My mother's ghost would come to haunt me
0:27:31 > 0:27:35for the rest of my life if I ever considered such a step.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38- Oh, that's true.- So, that's rejected almost immediately
0:27:38 > 0:27:40for fear of the supernatural.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Anthony may not want to sell the manor,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49but he's going to have to do something to save it.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01200 miles west of Milton lives Nicky Philipps,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06whose family have been in residence in Picton for over 700 years.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09They too have had to make some harsh decisions
0:28:09 > 0:28:11to keep the roof on their castle.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16Well, this is Picton. It's been in the family since 1260.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18We are about as far west as you can get, actually.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23We are six miles from the south Welsh coast.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26How old were you when you first came here?
0:28:26 > 0:28:27Oh, I mean, I was a baby.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34I really spent most of the summers in my childhood here.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36My grandparents were living here.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39I remember it being very enormous as one does when one's that big.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44So how much land do you have?
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Well, the farm is 1,200 acres, but that belongs to my mother,
0:28:47 > 0:28:53so it's... The trust really just has the 45 acres of...of garden.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56And then the sort of thing you'd expect round a castle,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00just a lot of flat lawn that needs mowing every ten minutes.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02- Did you come up here with your sister?- Uh-huh.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Sunbathing, tinfoil.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07You know what teenagers are like.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10You lie on tinfoil, you get twice as brown,
0:29:10 > 0:29:12- or rather twice as red. - NICKY LAUGHS
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Well, it's a Norman castle.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18I can almost see the water if I cut the trees down.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21I mean, no wonder they built these places so high,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23you could see people coming for miles.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28And who would the Philipps have been trying to keep out?
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Um, probably the Welsh.
0:29:31 > 0:29:32NICKY LAUGHS
0:29:37 > 0:29:38This is the chapel.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42We sat in these boxes.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44Um, you do slightly disappear.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49NICKY LAUGHS
0:29:49 > 0:29:54This is the vestry where my sister signed the book at her wedding.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00It's actually my grandfather's bathroom,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03because his bedroom is on one side and my grandmother's bedroom is on the other.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07My grandmother built dress cupboards here which...
0:30:07 > 0:30:09I mean, talk about sacrilegious. I think that's why God
0:30:09 > 0:30:12probably hasn't looked after Picton as well as some other houses.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14CLOCK CHIMES
0:30:15 > 0:30:20Back in 1986, Nicky's grandparents faced the unimaginable prospect
0:30:20 > 0:30:25of losing Picton and took steps to protect its survival.
0:30:25 > 0:30:26CLOCK STRIKES
0:30:26 > 0:30:30My grandparents made it into a trust,
0:30:30 > 0:30:34really to keep the roof on and to keep it going.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38I think a lot of people were doing it at the time, you know.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42Because the tax was so bad in those days,
0:30:42 > 0:30:44I think they ran out of options.
0:30:44 > 0:30:45They ran out of money.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48And so if you open your house to the public and the gardens,
0:30:48 > 0:30:50you do get tax breaks.
0:30:50 > 0:30:51CHATTER
0:30:51 > 0:30:56On the scale of a lot of big houses, this is really quite small.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59You still do need to have staff, you need help.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02You know, you look at the size of the fireplace.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05I mean, you could get through half the log basket in one evening.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09That's my grandfather, painted by Graham Sutherland.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12And that's a really lovely portrait. He looked exactly like that.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16And this one is extraordinarily good of my grandmother.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19But...we feel in the family
0:31:19 > 0:31:22that he didn't like her terribly.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25He sort of muddled her head up with a lot of foliage,
0:31:25 > 0:31:29as if to say, you are less important than your background.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33Here. Come on, babe. Come on. Up here. Up here. Come on. Come on.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35Good girl. Good dog.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37Despite owning a cluster of turrets,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Nicky still paints for a living.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43She now commands upwards of £20,000 a portrait.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46- No, no, no, no. Sit.- She has featured in the magazine
0:31:46 > 0:31:51and her spaniel Lola appeared on the frontispiece page in 2009.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53Stay.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56- NICKY LAUGHS - Lolee! Stop it.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59Come on, up here. Up here. Good girl. Sit. Sit.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Sit.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05The Queen and Prince Philip came in 1968,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07they were opening some new tanker
0:32:07 > 0:32:11and they came on Britannia and came up here for lunch.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14- And was that their last visit?- No.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18No, she was here the other day. It was really exciting.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Uh, she did a...a visit to south Wales,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23and this was care of the council,
0:32:23 > 0:32:28and the Lord Lieutenant actually recommended Picton
0:32:28 > 0:32:31as somewhere to...to have lunch.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33So, in fact, they organised the lunch in there.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37But I sat on her table and she suddenly looked at me very directly
0:32:37 > 0:32:40and said, "Are you still painting?" Cos I painted her a couple of years ago.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43I think she'd obviously been briefed but, you know,
0:32:43 > 0:32:45- I like to think she remembered that. - NICKY LAUGHS
0:32:45 > 0:32:50- I don't suppose you get much time with the Queen when you paint her, do you?- You get three hours.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Which actually is quite a long time, isn't it?
0:32:52 > 0:32:54I had three hour-long sittings.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56Stay.
0:32:56 > 0:32:57Stay.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04BARKING
0:33:10 > 0:33:13The Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray
0:33:13 > 0:33:18is one of 176 remaining foxhunts in England and Wales.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23Over 120 foxhounds live in its original 18th-century kennels
0:33:23 > 0:33:26along with huntsman Sage Thompson,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29who is tied to his cottage through his job.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33We start in the kennels at six, they go up to exercise,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35probably this time of year we're probably taking 'em,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38yeah, probably about three mile at this time of year.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41And then as the summer goes on, we build the work up.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43By the end, before we start autumn trail hunting,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47they'll be doing six, seven, eight mile in the morning to get them,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50mainly to get them fit and to get their pads hard.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52The ground in the summer months is very, very hard,
0:33:52 > 0:33:54if you don't harden their feet off,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58when they start to hunt they scuff the top of their pads off
0:33:58 > 0:34:00and become very foot sore.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02HORNS BLARE
0:34:02 > 0:34:05BARKING
0:34:07 > 0:34:10The magazine's deputy editor, Rupert Uloth,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13regularly rides out with the Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray,
0:34:13 > 0:34:16it's his local hunt.
0:34:16 > 0:34:17It's very, very historic,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21because it is the scene of something called the Grand Chase.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25And the Grand Chase still, although it happened in 1739,
0:34:25 > 0:34:30is still the longest recorded foxhunt in history - 57 miles.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32The huntsman still lives in the house
0:34:32 > 0:34:35that was provided for the huntsman then.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38So it's...it's a real sign of continuity.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Still very much a part of the fabric of the countryside.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Ever since I was a young boy at 10 or 11 years old,
0:34:45 > 0:34:47I first went out with a pack of foxhounds
0:34:47 > 0:34:50and something just must've clicked inside of me.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52That's what I wanted to do.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55Come on, boy. Statesman.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57Obviously, I'm the top dog in the pack,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00they've got to respect what I say. No means no.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03There can't be any other way with a pack of foxhounds.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05If you say no, it means no.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Grafton. Grafton. You've had one, Rebel.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12- So do you know the names of all these hounds?- Yeah, every single one of 'em.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17That's Boswell. And the white dog beside him's Halifax.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20The dog right out in the middle is called,
0:35:20 > 0:35:22now you've got me, um, Gramby.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25Gramby! Gramby! Good boy. Gramby.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27I must admit the older I'm getting,
0:35:27 > 0:35:31I am struggling to get the names as quick as I used to when I was a young man.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34I think I must be struggling from Alzheimer's or something.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37- BARKING - Here!
0:35:37 > 0:35:40A lot of people will think that hunting's been banned
0:35:40 > 0:35:43and they won't understand why hunting carries on.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45I know, it's interesting. I mean, there is this Hunting Act,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48which prevents hunting with a whole pack of hounds,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51but there are all sorts of exemptions.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56Sage's hunt, like all others, is not allowed to chase foxes.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Instead the hounds follow a scent trail laid by a hunt member.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02It makes it much more awkward
0:36:02 > 0:36:05because there are many more rules to comply with.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08And it's had a bit of a negative effect in fox control.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11What is amazing is how these hunts have managed to carry on.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13BARKING
0:36:14 > 0:36:17The magazine gives a voice to people
0:36:17 > 0:36:20who are fighting to keep rural traditions alive.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24Repealing the Hunting Act is a campaign it supports.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28- Just put one foxhound stood up... - Yeah, stood up.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30..enormous on the page.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34- What about the breeding of the foxhounds over the last...- And the occasion. Yes.- Yeah.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39- Hello, Sage.- Good morning, sir. How are you?- Very well indeed. Good to see you.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41- Are you summering well?- Very well indeed, thank you.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45- Come to see the puppies?- Yes, I'd love to.- Come on, let's go and have a look. Let's go and have a look.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47- How are they?- Yeah, no, they're doing well, sir.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49We've got three litters on the ground so far.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53I think my mission in writing a hunting article
0:36:53 > 0:36:57is not just for the diehards who...who go hunting everywhere.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Of course, they're important...they're very important as well.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03- They look well for the summer, don't they?- They look very well, don't they?
0:37:03 > 0:37:06I want to try and include as many of the readers
0:37:06 > 0:37:09about the pageant of hunting,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11portray it through the characters I meet.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15I think it's a sort of compelling subject, even if it's not something you do yourself.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18Come on, Garter. You know who this is, he's hunted with you many a day.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20- Yeah, you have, haven't you?- You're a good girl, Garter.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23- Do you remember we had Gadget and Garter?- That's right, yes.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27- Yeah. OK.- Hello, little boys and girls.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31- Look at those.- Lucky enough, there's six bitches and four dogs.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33- Wonderful.- So it's...it's the right ratio.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36- Normally, it's the other way round. - Yeah, that's exactly what we want.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39They always seem to have more dogs in a litter than they do bitches.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42And people start being too soppy with them, like this.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45- Yeah, but to be quite honest, it doesn't affect 'em.- Doesn't it?- It doesn't affect 'em.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49You'd think it would do and make 'em soft, but they're not really a soft animal really,
0:37:49 > 0:37:51they're quite tough creatures.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01They nearly eat a cow a day. A whole cow a day.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Yeah, they eat a lot of meat.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06I know you think a cow's big, but by the time you take his stomach out,
0:38:06 > 0:38:11his head off, his feet off, there's not...actually a lot left.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20Hunting a wild animal with a pack of hounds was banned in November 2004,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23as many thought it was a barbaric practice
0:38:23 > 0:38:26and are determined it should remain illegal.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31The day of the ban, we actually met outside the kennels here.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35There probably was somewhere in the region of 1,000 people there.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37And as soon as I got on my horse
0:38:37 > 0:38:40and I stepped foot out in front of all those people,
0:38:40 > 0:38:43the emotion just took over.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46And for a man of, how old was I, 30...
0:38:46 > 0:38:5038 something like that, to cry in front of all those people,
0:38:50 > 0:38:54and I did cry, nothing I can do about it.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56I was just emotional.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58BARKING
0:38:58 > 0:39:01It was very, very, very sad. I thought this was the end.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04Get out! Get out! Go on!
0:39:04 > 0:39:07I thought, "That's it. What on earth are we going to do now?
0:39:07 > 0:39:09"All these lovely hounds are going to be put down."
0:39:11 > 0:39:13But here we are nine years later
0:39:13 > 0:39:17and our hunt and a lot of the hunts are going from strength to strength.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20You know, people are just so passionate about it.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24Come on, Leila. Where are you? Leila?
0:39:35 > 0:39:37WHIRRING
0:39:37 > 0:39:41The reason I'm doing this is because I'm impatient, very impatient.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44I think probably any watercolourist
0:39:44 > 0:39:46would...would be horrified.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50But it helps me speed up so I can get on to the next layer of water colours.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54Annie Tempest is the resident cartoonist in the magazine,
0:39:54 > 0:39:59weekly portraying the comings and goings of life in Tottering Hall.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01Dicky is my father.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Daisy and Freddy are my children.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07- And I use them at any age.- But Dicky and Daffy are always the same age?
0:40:07 > 0:40:11- They're always the same age, yes. - And how old are they?- I'm not telling you.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Dicky's my dad, he keeps very quiet,
0:40:16 > 0:40:21he has his opinions and you can see in his face that he doesn't agree with her but he won't say it.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24He'll just, you know, "Have another glass of wine, dear."
0:40:24 > 0:40:26He's reading the Telegraph.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Or is it the Times he reads? I'm not quite sure.
0:40:29 > 0:40:30Actually, real Dicky Tottering
0:40:30 > 0:40:33went through a stage of reading the Guardian. Ohh!
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Daffy was based on a neighbour in Norfolk who I admired hugely,
0:40:37 > 0:40:41she was just a very fun woman, always drinking too much gin and tonic.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44And she loves being in her bed with all the dogs on top.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46You know, she's normal, she's a person.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50- She's got good legs, though, hasn't she?- Yes, yes.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52But that's very... An English body type,
0:40:52 > 0:40:58very nice thin legs and a big fat middle, you know.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00And her bosom is splendid, isn't it?
0:41:00 > 0:41:02Ever descending.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06She's...she's very like country people.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09She's straightforward, pragmatic and gets on with life,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13and doesn't cry over spilt milk and expects the grandchildren to behave.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15And what's their house like?
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Well, it's Tottering Hall.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22When I was 11 my father inherited a very crumbling stately home in North Yorkshire.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26And we had come from Africa, so we were used to heat and we had no heating.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30Literally, hip baths catching leaks in the corridors and stuff.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32Yeah, half an inch of snow on the billiard table one morning.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36It's now a very smart rental, if you've got a lot of money.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40"Fancy a top-up of red, Veronica?
0:41:40 > 0:41:44"Oh, you poor thing, I forgot you're driving. Better stick to white, then."
0:41:44 > 0:41:46It was an overheard comment.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50How on earth do people without horse boxes
0:41:50 > 0:41:52manage to take their bottles to the bottle bank?
0:41:52 > 0:41:55And that's another real comment I've heard.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58What does living in the country mean to you?
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It means no traffic jams.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04It means... Well, look out of my window.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06Who's got an office like this in London?
0:42:06 > 0:42:08I am very much a country girl.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11Nature's everything to me. It's my religion, if you like.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13I'm not religious in the formal sense,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17but if I need some kind of solace I'll go for a walk.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20I hear the corn popping.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24And I...I notice how a thistle head,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27you know, from one day to the next changes.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32When I was very stressed as a younger person, I didn't see it.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36And I almost remember the day that I suddenly became open to nature,
0:42:36 > 0:42:41and it was... And so now I...I so appreciate it.
0:42:41 > 0:42:42I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46I'll go out into my garden in a minute and have a break
0:42:46 > 0:42:48and I will smell the rose.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51I'll stick my face in it and sniff it. And I just love it.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53So I couldn't live anywhere else,
0:42:53 > 0:42:55I've created paradise here.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57BELL CHIMES
0:43:11 > 0:43:15Wardington Manor. It's got a very good history.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18It started off as a 14th-century nunnery.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23Externally, it's very beautiful in a sort of mellow, Cotswold stone way.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27It's not of any great sort of architectural significance.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31But I think the most amazing thing about it is its interior
0:43:31 > 0:43:34and this incredible plasterwork which, you know,
0:43:34 > 0:43:38you really aren't prepared for, I've never seen anything like it.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42I remember coming through this door and seeing the plasterwork
0:43:42 > 0:43:44and, quite frankly, thinking, "Oh, my God!"
0:43:44 > 0:43:47Because I didn't actually see the detail,
0:43:47 > 0:43:49but the more I've got to know and see the house,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52it's...it's so full of fun,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56that actually the more I've lived with it, the more I've grown to love it.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59The plasterwork was created by society beauty
0:43:59 > 0:44:05and romantic craftswoman Molly Walters in the early 1920s.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07Some of it has enormous chevrons,
0:44:07 > 0:44:09which zigzag up the walls in these really bold patterns,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12and then at other places a little delicate character,
0:44:12 > 0:44:17a little...animal or a face or a bird or something,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20surrounded by patterns or shapes.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Though any surface was...was game for a bit of plaster.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Walls, cornices. Yes, you name it,
0:44:26 > 0:44:29whenever there was a gap,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32fill it with plasterwork. If in doubt put some plasterwork there.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36Throughout her life men were charmed by Molly,
0:44:36 > 0:44:42including the first Lord Wardington, who employed her and her husband Randall Wells
0:44:42 > 0:44:45to carry out the decoration on his newly-purchased manor.
0:44:45 > 0:44:49With this particular story, I'm telling the reader
0:44:49 > 0:44:53the whole history of this rather wonderful and enigmatic house.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55Since I've started researching it,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58I've sort of opened up some wonderful avenues
0:44:58 > 0:45:01and some fascinating characters.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03And I've got completely obsessed
0:45:03 > 0:45:06by following every little detail I can find out about it,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09because it's just sort of gripped my imagination.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12Oh, my goodness! Isn't it amazing?
0:45:12 > 0:45:14I mean, I know what you mean,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17somebody said it's a bit like being in a wedding cake.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20And there is the feeling of being smothered by this icing,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23cos it really covers every surface.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26I think possibly this could be a wheat sheaf
0:45:26 > 0:45:29and there's the pears or maybe quinces and apples
0:45:29 > 0:45:33and the sort of whole abundance of...of nature, I suppose.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37There's a real delicacy about all the flowers
0:45:37 > 0:45:40and then the sort of exaggeration of some of the elements.
0:45:40 > 0:45:46And this wonderful creature playing her lyre or whatever it is, and the lovely little boots.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50So it'd be wonderful if we didn't have to have this glass,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52but with children kicking balls and things,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56I think it was very wise that they put that up there.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59It took Molly three years to complete the work,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02which flows across two floors.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05I love the fact that none of it's perfect.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07You know, it's all different.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10Every bit of it has its own imperfections
0:46:10 > 0:46:13and has been made lovingly by hand.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18"Since for refreshment one cometh hence,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23"let wit cast off the dear dull yoke of sense."
0:46:26 > 0:46:28There's a real element of the circus.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31I mean, I'd love to know more about
0:46:31 > 0:46:34the story behind all these little scenes.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37It's just completely over the top, really.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Where have you ever seen anything like this?
0:46:41 > 0:46:43I mean, it's just incredible.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Here we are from floor to ceiling.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50And ceiling with no, you know, sort of break in the whole
0:46:50 > 0:46:55sort of look of this sort of iced world of different references.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03My, my grandmother described her as being quite beautiful,
0:47:03 > 0:47:05in the way she moved.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08You know, she wasn't just photographically beautiful.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11That she was obviously quite elegant and, the way she moved
0:47:11 > 0:47:13and her faced moved was obviously entrancing...
0:47:13 > 0:47:19Oh, yes, her movements and her presence is always elegant.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21So, it was lovely meeting her.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26Always well-dressed, in beautiful, beautiful dresses.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29And then lived this wonderful life in the 1890s and 1900s,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32where she networked terrifically and knew everybody,
0:47:32 > 0:47:34with a capital E, and she records everybody.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37They're all called Lord this and Princess that
0:47:37 > 0:47:38and the Duchess of whatever.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40And she's constantly having tea parties
0:47:40 > 0:47:43and so on and living this amazing life. Erm, but...
0:47:43 > 0:47:48she was also being pursued by other men, it seems!
0:47:49 > 0:47:51Together with her second husband,
0:47:51 > 0:47:55Randall, Molly set up a design studio for the well-heeled.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00Here is one of their little business cards, which
0:48:00 > 0:48:05talks about St Veronica's workshops at 94 Horseferry Road, Westminster.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09Erm, bookbinding, leather work and rug making...
0:48:09 > 0:48:13Embroidery, painted furniture, so, it's really, it's a
0:48:13 > 0:48:16complete interior design business.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19They would take your house and they'd paint your crockery,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22paint your furniture, they would do the embroideries, they'd make
0:48:22 > 0:48:26the rugs, they'd paint the walls, they could do a complete house for you.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30- Of course...- How did she learn all this, do you think?
0:48:30 > 0:48:33I don't know! She, I think, was a natural.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37I think she just took an enthusiasm to something and off she went.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40Got the materials and started. That was it!
0:48:40 > 0:48:44- Birds, tiny little birds up there as well.- And little angels' wings, are they?
0:48:44 > 0:48:48- Or birds' wings, in the ceiling? - I think they're angels' wings, somehow.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50It's quite controlling, in a way, isn't it?
0:48:50 > 0:48:55Because it's almost as if this space won't change at all, because you
0:48:55 > 0:48:58can't... I mean, people's tastes can't come into this environment.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01It's basically her...her thing.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Since Molly decorated the house, almost 100 years ago,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07everyone who's lived here seems to have fallen in love with her
0:49:07 > 0:49:12romantic vision. Her plasterwork has captured people's hearts.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16I like the plasterwork. I find it amused me.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20And I think it's attractive.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22It gives the house a sort of, erm,
0:49:22 > 0:49:24friendly feeling.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29My husband was devoted to this house. Absolutely loved it.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33And, well, you see, he was born here and, you know,
0:49:33 > 0:49:36he really cared about it.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40In 2004, whilst the second Lord and Lady Wardington were on holiday,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42the house caught fire
0:49:42 > 0:49:44and valuable collections of old books,
0:49:44 > 0:49:47as well as much of the plasterwork, were destroyed.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52It was a terrible blow to him. Terrible.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54He died a year later.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57I don't think he would have died quite so soon,
0:49:57 > 0:50:02if it hadn't been for the fire. The, the main fire was in the roof.
0:50:03 > 0:50:08It fell in. I mean, that, that was a horrible moment, apparently.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12SHE SIGHS
0:50:13 > 0:50:18- SOBBING:- It's extraordinary! It has this terrible effect on me.
0:50:19 > 0:50:23Erm, I wasn't here, I couldn't do anything!
0:50:25 > 0:50:30It's extraordinary that I should be so emotional about it now.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36The damaged plasterwork on the second floor was restored.
0:50:36 > 0:50:42Following her husband's death, Lady Wardington sold the manor in 2008.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50For those who choose to make their home in the country,
0:50:50 > 0:50:54whether they inherit it, buy it, rent it, or work in it,
0:50:54 > 0:50:59there is a strong connection to the past and to those who've gone before.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04Legacy and tradition run deep for countryfolk.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09HOUNDS HOWL
0:51:11 > 0:51:13It's the morning of the opening meet.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17And Sage Thompson is up at 5.30 to prepare his hounds,
0:51:17 > 0:51:23just like every huntsman across the country has done for over 200 years.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26HOUNDS BARK AND HOWL
0:51:26 > 0:51:29They, they sense it. They know that they are going out.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32They probably all think we're all coming.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34But unfortunately, for a lot of the old ones,
0:51:34 > 0:51:37they can't come today, they can't keep up with the pace
0:51:37 > 0:51:40that we're going to go at with the trails.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43You can't have any old pensioners with me, unfortunately.
0:51:43 > 0:51:44Gregory!
0:51:44 > 0:51:49Since the ban, the hounds follow a trail laid by rags soaked in fox urine.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52Granite, you can't come.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56Unlike a real hunt, which meanders around in different directions,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00the trail is direct, like a race track and only for the fastest
0:52:00 > 0:52:03and the fittest hounds.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08- Are they disappointed that they don't go out?- I think they are.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10I think they're, like, "Why hasn't he called me?
0:52:10 > 0:52:13"What have I done wrong?" They sulk.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15So, it must be hard for them.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19That's the way, you know, the ban is.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22It's, it's a shame, cos if we were still naturally hunting foxes,
0:52:22 > 0:52:24them old hounds would still come with us.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29HOUNDS PANT
0:52:29 > 0:52:31Do you think you have the best job in the countryside?
0:52:31 > 0:52:34In my eyes, yeah.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38There'd be other jobs in the countryside
0:52:38 > 0:52:41would earn a lot more money than I would.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43But I wouldn't wish to do anything different.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46And I wouldn't want to change anything different,
0:52:46 > 0:52:48of what I've done in my life.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Yeah, we all make mistakes when we're young.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53You know, I made a few mistakes when I was young.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56I got in trouble with the hunt saboteurs.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59I paid the price for it and get on with it.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03- What do you mean, paid the price? - Erm, prosecuted.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06- Yeah. But it was me own fault. I was young.- What did you do?
0:53:08 > 0:53:11Just had a punch-up, with a few other...
0:53:11 > 0:53:15But apart from that, I've never been in trouble in my life at all.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Now, you know, you know when you're putting your stock on,
0:53:25 > 0:53:27the season is upon us.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32I always get butterflies on the opening meet.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35Maybe more so that, "Have I missed something?"
0:53:38 > 0:53:41There'll be people there today that probably only come
0:53:41 > 0:53:44out to the opening meet. You know, bless their hearts.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46They just want to be part of that day.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Sometimes, it can end up with a bit of carnage, cos they don't
0:53:51 > 0:53:55quite know maybe what they're doing or their horse may not behave.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Sage's special horn.
0:54:01 > 0:54:06I can't actually do any more. I've done, to the best of my ability, to make it work.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21This is one for the memory books. Truly.
0:54:21 > 0:54:22Nothing like this have we experienced
0:54:22 > 0:54:24in the United States.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52It's Christmas at Milton Manor and spirits have lifted.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03These are the Christmas decorations that stay with us
0:55:03 > 0:55:07right up in the attic so they come down every Christmas.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11It's much easier to have this sort of lift to bring it down.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13Down a bit!
0:55:13 > 0:55:14Down a bit more!
0:55:15 > 0:55:17One more.
0:55:17 > 0:55:18Bit more!
0:55:18 > 0:55:22Anthony and Gwenda have come up with a plan to open more
0:55:22 > 0:55:24rooms to the public.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27They hope to raise extra money to keep the manor going.
0:55:27 > 0:55:35We've got to exhibit to the public 244 items,
0:55:35 > 0:55:41which means we've got to open 12 rooms, we reckon, to the public
0:55:41 > 0:55:42instead of seven.
0:55:45 > 0:55:51They've been advised on some dos and don'ts to maximise revenue.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55The manor is still on the at risk register and to lose an ancestral
0:55:55 > 0:55:59home on one's watch is the number one crime for country home owners.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03This used to be my mother's sitting room.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07Now this has to be open because we've got to show that desk
0:56:07 > 0:56:12and that desk and that chest of drawers and that...thing.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14There's probably...
0:56:14 > 0:56:15All dead birds up there.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19Probably, probably dead birds, absolutely, up the chimney
0:56:19 > 0:56:22so that needs to be cleaned before we're open to the public again.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27And these ones, or us as we were kids, the family,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30don't have to be exhibited to the public.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33This one does. St Francis.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36And this one does too.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39Any old 18th century gentlemen, one feels.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44And I see you've got the fire going but you're in your coats
0:56:44 > 0:56:46and scarves.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48Yeah, because...
0:56:48 > 0:56:54owing to unfortunate circumstances, we can't afford heating this winter.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58The house is heated by oil and the tanks have run dry
0:56:58 > 0:57:01because Anthony can't afford to fill them.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04This apparently in the original house used to be
0:57:04 > 0:57:06the servants' quarters and the kitchen.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10You'll have to clamber over to get to the boiler room.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14These are the tanks that need to be filled up.
0:57:14 > 0:57:19And this sort of tube here is meant to show you...
0:57:19 > 0:57:22At the moment it looks as if there's nothing in at all.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25And what does it cost to fill them up?
0:57:25 > 0:57:28Oh, £2-3,000 to fill them up
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and the trouble is, it uses it extremely quickly.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33So what will you do over Christmas?
0:57:33 > 0:57:37Wrap up warm. Light the fires in every room.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Warm our hands on Gwenda's candles on the tree.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43Anthony and Gwenda may be shivering
0:57:43 > 0:57:47but their hearts have been warmed by an unusual early Christmas present.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51The article in the magazine has just been published.
0:57:51 > 0:57:53So were you very proud when you saw Milton Manor?
0:57:53 > 0:57:55Oh, yes. Yes, absolutely.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59Here is the library.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01- The Strawberry Hill Gothic library. - Library.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03On the right...
0:58:03 > 0:58:07The Strawberry Hill Gothic chapel and Milton Manor on the other.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17Next week - every reader loves a dog.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19He's eaten £250 in cash.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22An entire chair, two pairs of specs...
0:58:22 > 0:58:26Honouring the past in an English manor.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28This is a document, if you like, of the whole
0:58:28 > 0:58:31of the English countryside as it went to war.
0:58:31 > 0:58:36And the celebration of luxury goes a little too far for some.
0:58:36 > 0:58:41That is something this magazine has never, never aligned itself with.
0:58:41 > 0:58:43It was never about money.