:00:11. > :00:19.Our great country houses, the most familiar and yet intriguing sights
:00:19. > :00:23.Britain has to offer. Standing like sentinels in the landscape.
:00:23. > :00:28.Hundreds of thousands of us visit them every year, but not all are
:00:28. > :00:31.open to the public. I've been granted the privileged opportunity
:00:31. > :00:41.to pass through the portals of six of our greatest country houses
:00:41. > :00:42.
:00:42. > :00:49.They've seen five centuries of British history up close and
:00:49. > :00:56.personal. The families who built these houses played their part in
:00:56. > :01:06.Central to their dreams, the great house, the ultimate Status symbol,
:01:06. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:12.but all too often also the ultimate Few of these families went the
:01:12. > :01:16.distance, but their houses did, with their secrets intact. This is
:01:16. > :01:26.their story, but it's also our story, for these houses offer a
:01:26. > :01:46.
:01:46. > :01:49.guided tour of our nation's hidden I'm on my way to explore one of the
:01:49. > :01:58.most fascinating country estates in Northern Ireland and I get there
:01:58. > :02:03.The estate's secluded deep in the farmlands and woodlands of County
:02:03. > :02:09.Down. It's called Clandeboye and, rather conveniently, the railway
:02:09. > :02:14.station was constructed within its ground. Ah, here it is, Helen's Bay.
:02:14. > :02:18.See? Very convenient. The station was built in 1863 by the family
:02:18. > :02:22.living at Clandeboye, the Dufferins. Up there are the family's initials,
:02:22. > :02:25.together with a coronet. The station's a charming ornamental
:02:25. > :02:28.structure and it contained not only the booking office, but also a
:02:28. > :02:38.private waiting room for the Dufferins, with a staircase leading
:02:38. > :02:38.
:02:38. > :02:42.Waiting in the avenue would be a horse-drawn carriage, ready to
:02:42. > :02:45.transport the family to Clandeboye House. The carriage would pass
:02:45. > :02:55.below this wonderful bridge, a sensational thing which to me looks
:02:55. > :03:05.
:03:05. > :03:15.rather like a medieval city gate, This portal takes me to the past in
:03:15. > :03:22.Ah, here it is, Clandeboye, a very handsome, late Georgian country
:03:22. > :03:26.house. It's one I've known for well over 30 years. I spent some most
:03:26. > :03:36.astonishing times here. Indeed, this walk for me is very much a
:03:36. > :03:43.
:03:43. > :03:49.Clandeboye has belonged to the same family for 400 years. Today, the
:03:49. > :03:52.marchioness of Dufferin and Ava lives here. Born into in the Irish
:03:52. > :04:01.aristocratic family, the Guinness's, she moved here in 1964 when she
:04:01. > :04:08.married Sheridan, the fifth marquis, Lady Dufferin also happens to be a
:04:08. > :04:13.very old friend of mine. Yes, please. So, it's so wonderful that
:04:13. > :04:17.you're back. Back here, yes, at Clandeboye. It is wonderful to be
:04:17. > :04:22.back home. Fantastic actually. Now, I tell you what, I don't think you
:04:22. > :04:27.can resist a sandwich, can you? no, I can't resist a sandwich. Oh,
:04:27. > :04:33.look, they're very lovely. There we are. Beautifully presented. It's a
:04:33. > :04:37.tradition. Yes. I'll take that one. Actually, very often I make people
:04:37. > :04:41.eat two at a time. I can't remember exactly when I first visited
:04:41. > :04:45.Clandeboye, it was so long ago. But Lindy may have solved the mystery.
:04:45. > :04:50.I've got this treat, because we can now find out when you first came
:04:50. > :04:57.here. Yes, all right. Here we go. This is the guest book? OK. Now,
:04:57. > :05:01.we'll put our specs on. So here we go. Now, putting them... Harry.
:05:01. > :05:07.What's the first one? What's the first date here? 1931? Isn't that's
:05:07. > :05:10.amazing? Incredible. Ulster Races and who was here? Evelyn Waugh,
:05:10. > :05:13.look, that's interesting. Evelyn Waugh, yes. Actually, he was a
:05:13. > :05:18.great friend of the family's, I think he came here quite often.
:05:18. > :05:21.Let's leap forward a bit to, I suppose, let's find you, when did
:05:21. > :05:24.you first come to the house? I can hardly remember. We think 1961.
:05:24. > :05:29.Lindy Guinness, you're here. Yes, you see, I think I came. That's
:05:29. > :05:35.1963. A hoolie for Sheridan and Lindy. Here we are again. Look,
:05:35. > :05:39.look. David Bailey and you. Oh, he was divine. No, where do we go? I'm
:05:39. > :05:44.longing to find you. Cruickshank. But that's weird.
:05:44. > :05:49.Gotcha! That's my name, it's not my signature. I wasn't here. I bet it
:05:49. > :05:53.is, you were drunk. I wasn't here! This is weird. You were drunk when
:05:53. > :05:57.you wrote it. Well, I'm mostly drunk but... Think it must be.
:05:57. > :06:02.Where? Where? Where? Where? Where? Where? Where? Where? Where?
:06:02. > :06:06.Christmas 1975. No there, there, gotcha! That's more like it. Now
:06:06. > :06:10.that's how long ago? 75, 85, 95, 105, do you realise that's 35 years.
:06:10. > :06:13.It's 35 years ago. That's a sobering thought and I must say you
:06:13. > :06:18.look wonderful on it, if you don't mind me saying so. It's the whiskey.
:06:18. > :06:22.You're desperate to have some more.. I see you through sort of a Yeah,
:06:22. > :06:26.through. But mainly myth. Yeah, but once or twice. Clandeboye, under
:06:26. > :06:28.Lindy and Sheridan, became a magnet for artists and writers. It was a
:06:28. > :06:31.bohemian scene that would have surely have startled Sheridan's
:06:31. > :06:34.ancestors, the sober and very sensible Blackwood's. They were
:06:34. > :06:39.Scots Protestants who originally came to County Down in the early
:06:39. > :06:42.17th century and rose to become minor gentry. They marked this
:06:42. > :06:50.ascent with a massive expansion of their house in 1801 by a little
:06:50. > :07:00.I'm now in a part of the house built just after 1800, very elegant
:07:00. > :07:01.
:07:01. > :07:04.but somewhat conventional late Ah, here are the Blackwoods and I
:07:04. > :07:12.must say these portraits them to be a somewhat serious bunch not, I
:07:12. > :07:16.should think, given to flights of In fact, one of the Blackwoods
:07:16. > :07:24.admitted they had no interest in art and literature and even that
:07:24. > :07:27.they regarded imagination as a Given their lack of imagination,
:07:27. > :07:32.the Blackwoods would surely have been horrified by what was about to
:07:33. > :07:38.happen to their house. They remain in a part of Clandeboye that's
:07:38. > :07:41.largely untouched, but elsewhere that's very definitely not the case.
:07:41. > :07:49.This house was radically transformed and the front door was
:07:49. > :07:53.moved to the rear and this is where I've explored many country houses
:07:53. > :07:58.over the years, but I must say the main entrance to Clandeboye is
:07:58. > :08:06.still the strangest I've ever seen. It's so understated, just a low,
:08:06. > :08:16.long blank wall and then a very But the moment you step inside, it
:08:16. > :08:20.
:08:20. > :08:22.Open the door is like breaking the seal on an Egyptian tomb. This is
:08:22. > :08:28.high architectural theatre everywhere, wonderful and revealing
:08:28. > :08:30.objects. Look at this pair of bears, baby bears, killed and stuffed; and
:08:30. > :08:40.here, Indian weapons and armour, Burmese celestial figures all
:08:40. > :08:44.
:08:44. > :08:54.telling a tale about the house and Utterly incredible. If a tropical
:08:54. > :08:57.
:08:57. > :09:00.bird flew past now, I wouldn't be This is the world of Frederick Lord
:09:00. > :09:07.Dufferin, one of the greatest diplomats of his age, viceroy of
:09:07. > :09:11.India and friend of Queen Victoria. This house is an embodiment of his
:09:11. > :09:21.achievements. It is also a melancholic monument to the
:09:21. > :09:21.
:09:21. > :09:27.declining fortune of his class, the Lord Dufferin transformed
:09:27. > :09:31.Clandeboye into a fairytale. The house is a journey through his life,
:09:31. > :09:34.through his age, to the imperial adventure. There are wonderful
:09:34. > :09:43.objects everywhere which unite to tell the story of one exceptional
:09:43. > :09:50.This exceptional man was always destined to be different from his
:09:50. > :09:53.staid ancestors. In 1825, his father, Price, the fourth Lord
:09:53. > :09:56.Dufferin, shocked the rest of the Blackwoods by marrying the
:09:56. > :10:06.granddaughter of the celebrated Irish playwright, Richard Brinsley
:10:06. > :10:10.Helen Sheridan was artistic and an accomplished society beauty. Her
:10:10. > :10:20.world was of fashionable London, Beaumond. She was everything the
:10:20. > :10:25.
:10:25. > :10:28.A year after her marriage to Price Blackwood, Helen gave birth to
:10:28. > :10:36.their only child, a son, Frederick, and here is a lovely little
:10:36. > :10:39.portrait of a young chap aged four or five, painted by Helen. Very
:10:39. > :10:49.wonderfully done, and behind it is a lock of hair, Frederick's hair,
:10:49. > :10:52.
:10:52. > :10:56.This hair was cut by Helen to send to Price. He was Royal Navy, away
:10:56. > :11:00.from home a lot. This was a little reminder of his infant child and
:11:00. > :11:10.that hair and portrait were later united to create this very intimate,
:11:10. > :11:19.
:11:19. > :11:24.Helen's ambitions for her son were always high. As was usual at the
:11:24. > :11:27.time, she looked across the Irish Sea to England for his future. She
:11:27. > :11:37.wanted him to be groomed for high public office, to make the right
:11:37. > :11:42.And there was nowhere better to do that than at Eton, the finishing
:11:42. > :11:44.school of choice for the aristocratic elite. In 1839, when
:11:44. > :11:48.Frederick first arrived, Eton had already produced an astonishing ten
:11:48. > :11:58.Prime Ministers and it had even won the Battle of Waterloo on its
:11:58. > :12:00.
:12:01. > :12:10.playing fields, according to old Here, at the heart of the British
:12:11. > :12:12.
:12:12. > :12:15.power network, Helen hoped her son Graffiti and boys have been around.
:12:15. > :12:18.Doctor Andrew Gaily, the vice provost of Eton, is writing a
:12:18. > :12:26.biography of Lord Dufferin. Like his subject, Andrew comes from
:12:26. > :12:31.Eton, I suppose, was the obvious place to send Frederick. Well, yes,
:12:31. > :12:37.and no. I mean, yes, if you've got ambitions to make something great
:12:37. > :12:42.in England, not necessarily in Ireland at the time. In fact, most
:12:42. > :12:44.boys would have just probably gone locally, but if you have ambitions
:12:44. > :12:48.to acquire, as they say, a bit of the polish and certainly provincial
:12:48. > :12:55.Blackwoods were quite interested in acquiring a bit of the polish, Eton
:12:55. > :12:59.was the place to go. To make connections, of course, that's the
:12:59. > :13:03.thing, isn't it? To move into the big world, to make the connections,
:13:03. > :13:07.to learn about a world that you're going to have to operate in and if
:13:07. > :13:15.you wanted to be up with that and in that social world, then you had
:13:15. > :13:22.So his background, when he arrived at Eton, would he have had a very
:13:22. > :13:26.His father describes him as being all hunched up in his early days at
:13:26. > :13:31.Eton, and he was probably a bit bullied too and then it all comes
:13:31. > :13:35.good. He's managed to use his Irishness to effect. Yeah, and he
:13:35. > :13:39.was good at speaking, you know, an orator. He obviously, you know, had
:13:39. > :13:43.some distinction. Very much, and he would be the one that, whenever the
:13:43. > :13:46.house was having a great feast or a great celebration, they would call
:13:46. > :13:50.on the little orator, as they called him, to go and declaim and
:13:50. > :13:58.it, you know, became an art form for the rest of his life and,
:13:58. > :14:01.indeed, probably one of his His mother's little orator was now
:14:01. > :14:10.in the charmed inner circle of Eton life, forming close friendships
:14:10. > :14:14.with the men who would run Britain The British aristocracy was at the
:14:14. > :14:19.zenith of its power, owning over half the land in Britain, and
:14:19. > :14:27.nothing symbolised their grip on the nation more than the great
:14:27. > :14:30.Places like Hatfield House, owned by the family of Frederick's Eton
:14:30. > :14:40.friend, Lord Robert Cecil and Kimberley Hall, the home of his
:14:40. > :14:41.
:14:41. > :14:51.classmate John Woodhouse, the At Eton, Frederick must have fully
:14:51. > :15:00.grasped the notion that behind And he was to have his own estate
:15:00. > :15:04.sooner than anyone imagined. One evening at the end of term,
:15:04. > :15:08.Frederick was on the bridge, just stood here, and suddenly turned to
:15:08. > :15:18.a friend that was with him and said, "It's odd, I have every reason to
:15:18. > :15:20.
:15:20. > :15:24.be happy. Tomorrow, I return to Ireland, and yet I feel wretched".
:15:24. > :15:29.What Frederick did not know was that an hour earlier, his father
:15:29. > :15:34.had died on a ship crossing the Irish Sea. The father died of an
:15:34. > :15:37.overdose of morphine. Whether or not it was an accident was never
:15:37. > :15:40.determined. Suddenly, Frederick, at the tender age of 15, was
:15:40. > :15:50.fatherless and also had inherited the heavy responsibility of being a
:15:50. > :15:55.
:15:55. > :16:02.Frederick Temple Blackwood was now the fifth Baron Dufferin and
:16:02. > :16:12.Clandeboye. On paper, he was a rich man. He's inherited 18,000 Acres of
:16:12. > :16:16.
:16:16. > :16:25.In reality, his tenants were in arrears to the tune of almost
:16:25. > :16:27.�30,000. That's over �2 million today. And on top of that, he'd
:16:27. > :16:37.also inherited a financial obligation to pay another �30,000
:16:37. > :16:47.in annuities to his family, the The young lord was forced to face
:16:47. > :16:49.
:16:49. > :16:52.the bitter truth, agriculture no Landlords in Ireland, such as Lord
:16:52. > :16:57.Dufferin, would have made much of their money through rents paid by
:16:57. > :17:00.peasant farmers who lived in cottages rather like this one. In
:17:00. > :17:05.mid-19th century Ireland, there were such cottages all over the
:17:05. > :17:08.landscape, huge numbers of them. This one actually is a rather large
:17:08. > :17:11.and grand example. Many would have been much smaller, more humble.
:17:11. > :17:21.This one, well built of stones from the fields, I suppose, but inside
:17:21. > :17:25.75% of Ireland's rural population lived in hovels like this, with a
:17:25. > :17:34.patch of ground so small there was only one crop they could grow to
:17:34. > :17:37.That was the staple diet for the real poor, the potato, a very
:17:37. > :17:43.nutritious food but very vulnerable to disease, and that's what
:17:43. > :17:48.happened in 1845, a fungus blighted the potatoes. They blackened and
:17:48. > :17:50.died in the land and one blight followed by another and another, so
:17:50. > :18:00.that the population of the land was almost literally decimated and
:18:00. > :18:05.
:18:05. > :18:14.Lord Dufferin was studying at oxford, but reports started to
:18:14. > :18:17.trickle in, the Irish peasantry were starving. He was dismayed at
:18:17. > :18:27.the indifference of his English friends, who dismissed the stories
:18:27. > :18:35.So, to his mother's horror, Lord Dufferin and a fellow student,
:18:35. > :18:39.George Boyle, went to Ireland to This is the road the 21 year old
:18:39. > :18:43.Lord Dufferin took when he entered Skibbereen in the south west of
:18:43. > :18:48.Ireland. He came here because he'd read this was one of the places
:18:48. > :18:54.hardest hit by the famine. He wanted to see if the reports of the
:18:54. > :19:00.suffering of the people of Skibbereen were true. Lord Dufferin
:19:00. > :19:05.soon discovered things were very bad. In these streets, people were
:19:05. > :19:11.crawling, they didn't have the energy to walk. Or lying here by
:19:11. > :19:14.the roadside, quietly dying. To try and prick the conscience of his
:19:14. > :19:19.well-fed friends back in England, Lord Dufferin wrote a graphic
:19:19. > :19:27.account of what was called the great hunger. Today, he's still
:19:27. > :19:30.Now, the thing about Dufferin's visit and the narrative was to
:19:30. > :19:35.alert people back in England, because in England there was almost
:19:35. > :19:40.disbelief, wasn't there, at the seriousness of the famine in '47?
:19:40. > :19:43.Yes. There was perhaps a reluctance to believe it was so bad and the
:19:43. > :19:49.purpose of the narrative was to bring the truth before the British
:19:49. > :19:53.public, in which it admirably succeeded. It did make a
:19:53. > :19:56.difference? It certainly made a difference, certainly. The first
:19:56. > :19:59.three months of 1847 saw huge, the majority of the charitable
:19:59. > :20:03.contributions from all over the world, came in from Ceylon, from
:20:03. > :20:06.everywhere, and it was in a great part due to the writings of people
:20:06. > :20:10.who came here and saw things and witnessed themselves and then wrote
:20:10. > :20:14.about them in the world media and had them reported, and Dufferin and
:20:14. > :20:17.Boyle would be definitely included in that. And, of course, it
:20:17. > :20:27.shouldn't be forgotten that Lord Dufferin himself, from his personal
:20:27. > :20:33.fortune, gave �1,000 to famine This was typical Dufferin, spending
:20:33. > :20:38.money he simply didn't have. His bank account took another knock
:20:38. > :20:42.with an act of charity closer to home. The famine also struck his
:20:42. > :20:49.own tenants so he reduced their rents and gave them wages for a
:20:50. > :20:54.massive programme of works. What he wanted to do was start a famine
:20:54. > :20:58.relief project. Several projects on the estate and we're standing in
:20:58. > :21:02.front of the lake. Which was one of those projects, creating the lake.
:21:02. > :21:05.And also, looking towards the house, you can see the vista which was
:21:05. > :21:08.opened up. Very interesting, but that created employment but also
:21:08. > :21:12.created a beautiful landscape for him. Very brilliant. That's right,
:21:12. > :21:16.yes, because he was a little worried about the fact that he was
:21:16. > :21:20.living in a higher society, that he had an estate to match, as it were.
:21:20. > :21:26.Yes, yes. But Lord Dufferin's desire to keep up appearances and
:21:26. > :21:30.help his tenants came at too high a price. Every pound he was spending
:21:30. > :21:38.put him deeper in debt. He desperately needed a larger income
:21:38. > :21:46.and he knew where to find it Or, more precisely, his mother's
:21:46. > :21:55.connection to Prime Minister Lord Thanks to this very important
:21:55. > :21:58.family friend, Lord Dufferin landed his first proper job. In 1849, at
:21:58. > :22:05.the age of 23, Lord Dufferin was appointed a Lord in Waiting to
:22:05. > :22:10.Queen Victoria. This was a very important job that took him to the
:22:10. > :22:13.heart of the royal court which, at that time, was a very happy place.
:22:13. > :22:18.Queen Victoria was only seven years older than Lord Dufferin and
:22:18. > :22:22.happily married. She would have been delightful company and
:22:22. > :22:29.Dufferin, as was his habit through life, kept a journal of his time at
:22:29. > :22:33.court. Now, here are his journals and here is the one, let's see for
:22:33. > :22:37.the right period of time, 1849, '50, ah, well it's the first, oh, here
:22:37. > :22:43.we are, very good, first one. Interestingly, Lord Dufferin had
:22:43. > :22:50.his journals typed out and bound. It's not his handwriting now, but
:22:50. > :22:53.let's have a look. What's this page say? "November 23rd, left Windsor".
:22:53. > :22:57.This is obviously the very beginning of his stint as Lord in
:22:57. > :23:03.Waiting, because it says here, "Pleased with my first waiting.
:23:03. > :23:07.Like the people". It's all so weirdly naive, but he was a very
:23:07. > :23:14.young man; and let's try another one. Oh, lord, here. "1850, London,
:23:14. > :23:22.March the 15th... Played tennis. Offered �1000 to be repaid at 5% by
:23:22. > :23:26.�100 a year instalments. We know he had a money problem, so even while
:23:26. > :23:30.at court he's trying to work out ways of borrowing money. It's
:23:30. > :23:36.amazing. Goes on to say, "When sitting round the Queen's table,
:23:36. > :23:44.they all burst out laughing at my melancholy face". Poor chap, he's
:23:44. > :23:47.worried about his money. Even the company of the Queen. When Lord
:23:47. > :23:50.Dufferin was first suggested as a courtier, Queen Victoria is meant
:23:50. > :23:54.to have declared, "Good heavens, he's much too good looking and
:23:54. > :23:58.captivating" and when he was at court, she would giggle and tease
:23:58. > :24:01.him about his poetically long hair. He was obviously a very charming
:24:01. > :24:05.fellow, very determined to amuse and determined to be popular and I
:24:05. > :24:08.suppose the grandeur of the life at the royal court, indeed the
:24:08. > :24:11.grandeur of the country houses he visited with the Queen reinforced
:24:11. > :24:21.Dufferin in his determination to create the high life for himself at
:24:21. > :24:28.
:24:28. > :24:34.The high life for Lord Dufferin meant only one thing, a bigger,
:24:34. > :24:37.better Clandeboye. Ignoring the potential impact on his decimated
:24:37. > :24:47.bank account, he became desperate to emulate his friends at court and
:24:47. > :24:51.
:24:51. > :24:57.build. In other words, to keep up So in 1849, he hired one of
:24:57. > :25:01.Britain's most fashionable architects, William Burn. He set to
:25:01. > :25:09.work on lavish plans to remodel Clandeboye in a style that was then
:25:09. > :25:17.Now at last, Dufferin could fulfil his Eton dreams and vie with the
:25:17. > :25:26.houses of his contemporaries. Men like the duke of Sutherland, with
:25:26. > :25:30.his Dunrobin Castle and the Duke of Argyll with Inverarey Castle. The
:25:30. > :25:39.eventual result of Lord Dufferin's bold scheme? One small tower
:25:39. > :25:42.It wasn't uncommon in the sentimental Victorian age to build
:25:42. > :25:50.monuments to loved ones, but the sheer scale and architect ambition
:25:50. > :25:53.of Helen's tower is unusual. It reveals the intensity of the love
:25:53. > :25:55.between Lord Dufferin and his mother Helen and this room is
:25:55. > :26:00.really the epicentre, a wonderful Gothic panelled room, lovely
:26:00. > :26:10.vaulted ceiling and over here, two brass panels proclaiming the love
:26:10. > :26:22.
:26:22. > :26:26.Here we see a poem written in June 1847 by Helen. It says, "To my dear
:26:26. > :26:34.son on his 21st birthday with a silver lamp, Fiat Lux, let there be
:26:34. > :26:39.light." The poem starts, "How shall I bless thee? Human love is all too
:26:39. > :26:43.poor in passionate words... "and then she goes on to venerate her
:26:44. > :26:47.son. Up here is a poem commissioned by Lord Dufferin from the great
:26:47. > :26:57.poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. Tennyson expresses Lord Dufferin's love for
:26:57. > :27:00.Helen. "Helen's Tower, here I stand, dominant over sea and land. Son's
:27:00. > :27:10.love built me and I hold mother's love in lettered gold", referring
:27:10. > :27:15.to this proclamation of love here. Could there anything more moving?
:27:15. > :27:25.This is the monument to love between mother and son. It's
:27:25. > :27:31.
:27:31. > :27:34.If Lord Dufferin couldn't yet afford to build a new house, at
:27:34. > :27:44.least he now had all the fashionable trimmings, his own
:27:44. > :27:49.folly. His own lake. Plus an ornamental park. With a railway
:27:49. > :27:54.station pencilled in for good measure. But none of this came
:27:54. > :28:00.cheap. By the time all the grounds were finished, it would cost him
:28:00. > :28:05.�70,000. That's five million pounds today. And that's not all he
:28:05. > :28:06.splashed out on. Lord Dufferin had another expensive hobby, one that
:28:06. > :28:16.only the more adventurous young Victorians were indulging in
:28:16. > :28:26.
:28:26. > :28:30.In 1854, he borrowed nearly �3 000 to buy an ocean-going yacht. This
:28:30. > :28:33.model seems somewhat overwhelmed in the setting of the hall, but it
:28:33. > :28:41.shows the ship that was to transform Lord Dufferin's life and,
:28:41. > :28:45.indeed, the life of Clandeboye. It's a model of a schooner called
:28:45. > :28:55.the Foam and in 1856, Lord Dufferin, aged 30, and his crew went on an
:28:55. > :28:58.epic four month journey into the North Atlantic and the Arctic. Lord
:28:58. > :29:02.Dufferin's Sailing trip was expensive, but it brought him fame
:29:02. > :29:07.as an intrepid traveller. He also returned with a collection of
:29:07. > :29:11.curios, as he called them... A Giant piece of driftwood from the
:29:11. > :29:14.arctic, the skin of a Polar bear he shot himself, a Cannon from his
:29:14. > :29:24.yacht and, most bizarre of all, tusks from Narwhals that he
:29:24. > :29:27.
:29:27. > :29:34.Here were the beginnings of Clandeboye's transformation into a
:29:34. > :29:39.boy's own treasure chest. The next part of the booty was to come from
:29:39. > :29:43.Egypt. To get there, Dufferin traded in his yacht for a steamship
:29:43. > :29:47.he called Amenia and set sail on his next adventure. In 1859, Lord
:29:47. > :29:50.Dufferin started to finance the excavation of a 4,000 year old
:29:50. > :30:00.mortuary temple and tomb of the pharaoh Mentuhotep II at Deir el-
:30:00. > :30:07.
:30:07. > :30:11.Bahri near Luxor in Egypt. Wonderful things were found. Some
:30:11. > :30:16.of those are still at Clandeboye, including this fragment of a column
:30:16. > :30:19.that would have been around the tomb of the pharaoh. Down here, you
:30:19. > :30:22.see the pharaoh's name, Mentuhotep II. This proclaims that he will
:30:22. > :30:25.live forever. The best thing, certainly the biggest, is over here.
:30:25. > :30:31.Now, not the wonderful rhinoceros head, that is tremendous, but what
:30:31. > :30:35.the head is sitting on... This massive granite altar. Again, 4000
:30:35. > :30:44.years old from Deir el-Bahri and on it are 18, the name of the pharaoh
:30:44. > :30:48.Mentuhotep II. It is absolutely tremendous. Here, objects were
:30:48. > :30:53.offered to the gods and also to his spirit, to sustain him in the
:30:53. > :31:02.afterlife. But it was Lord Dufferin's present life that really
:31:02. > :31:12.needed sustaining, particularly his finances. His saviour came in the
:31:12. > :31:12.
:31:13. > :31:17.With over 50 colonies on six continents by the 1860s, the empire
:31:17. > :31:23.was growing at an ever-increasing pace. There were foreign postings
:31:23. > :31:33.aplenty now, and Lord Dufferin's trip to Egypt was opening up more
:31:33. > :31:33.
:31:33. > :31:37.opportunities than just the Lord Dufferin returned from the
:31:37. > :31:41.Middle East a man of the world, with direct experience of foreign
:31:41. > :31:48.travel and of Arab culture, so in 1860 he was a natural choice when
:31:48. > :31:54.the British government wanted to Syria was important to the Empire
:31:54. > :32:02.because of its trade routes. Whilst there, Lord Dufferin proved himself
:32:02. > :32:12.to be a brilliant negotiator, At last, he'd found his calling and,
:32:12. > :32:17.
:32:17. > :32:21.most importantly, a regular pay In demand back home, he was offered
:32:21. > :32:26.plum jobs in the India office and the War office. Yet he was still in
:32:26. > :32:30.need of a fortune. But he was soon to be in possession of a wife. In
:32:30. > :32:40.1862, Lord Dufferin, at age 36, married Harriet Rowan Hamilton.
:32:40. > :32:40.
:32:40. > :32:43.This wonderful watercolour captures the moment. They got married at the
:32:43. > :32:46.church nearby and, after the marriage ceremony, arrived at
:32:46. > :32:50.Clandeboye House for the reception and here we see Lord Dufferin and
:32:50. > :32:54.Harriet with a great veil over her arriving through that door over
:32:54. > :33:04.there. This is an amazing image. One can exactly place the scene
:33:04. > :33:05.
:33:05. > :33:08.that took place then in the gallery today. A lot of the paintings of
:33:08. > :33:11.other objects shown in this watercolour are still in the house,
:33:12. > :33:15.not necessarily in the same place except here, we see this wonderful
:33:15. > :33:18.curving narwhal tusks. There they are still in place at the bottom of
:33:18. > :33:26.the staircase. An incredible scene, and one can imagine the reception
:33:26. > :33:33.was a great success, very lavish, It wasn't just Lord Dufferin who
:33:33. > :33:39.was going up in the world. His debts were, too. In 1864, he had to
:33:40. > :33:42.take out a mortgage for �21,000 to keep himself afloat. But his debt
:33:42. > :33:52.didn't stop him hiring yet another fashionable architect, this time
:33:52. > :33:58.
:33:58. > :34:02.His brief - to design a gothic A gothic fantasy, as it turned out
:34:02. > :34:09.because, of course, Lord Dufferin couldn't afford to build it. So
:34:10. > :34:15.what next? He dismissed Ferry and hired another architect, one
:34:16. > :34:25.William Lynn. This time, Clandeboye was to be re-cast in French chateau
:34:26. > :34:34.
:34:34. > :34:38.But that turned out to be a Lord Dufferin decided to continue a
:34:38. > :34:42.less expensive scheme he started as long ago as 1869, when he turned
:34:42. > :34:46.the kitchens here at the back of the house into a new entrance hall.
:34:46. > :34:54.This was, of course, the cheap solution but, as it happened, also
:34:54. > :35:04.Inspired because it gave him a home for his curios, but also because it
:35:04. > :35:06.
:35:06. > :35:10.allowed him to display them in a I believe Lord Dufferin was echoing
:35:10. > :35:16.the layout of the ancient tombs and temples he'd seen in Egypt,
:35:16. > :35:20.particularly the one he'd excavated In those temples, the journey
:35:20. > :35:30.starts down there, in the world of man, and rises to the world of the
:35:30. > :35:30.
:35:30. > :35:33.gods. The visual termination of this route through the house, the
:35:33. > :35:41.focus of this almost spiritual journey, was the statue of the
:35:41. > :35:44.great Egyptian god, Amun. He stood just up here. Lord Dufferin had
:35:44. > :35:49.acquired the statue in Egypt and clearly it was an inspiration
:35:49. > :35:59.object. Amun was here, but has now been replaced by this wonderful
:35:59. > :36:01.
:36:01. > :36:05.image of a Buddha who now presides Alas, Amun was sold in 1937 but,
:36:05. > :36:15.given the state of Lord Dufferin's finances, is lucky to have clung on
:36:15. > :36:20.
:36:20. > :36:27.By 1872, Lord Dufferin owed �300,000. That's around 20 million
:36:27. > :36:37.in today's figures, of course, a So what was to be done? Well, he
:36:37. > :36:45.
:36:45. > :36:49.decided at that point he had to sell some land. It must have been
:36:49. > :36:52.heartbreaking to sell land he'd inherited and he hoped to pass on
:36:52. > :36:55.to his descendants, but to sort of sugar the pill, he decided he'd
:36:55. > :36:58.sell this land to other aristocratic landowners, looked
:36:58. > :37:02.around to find them were in the same position he was. Not much
:37:02. > :37:06.money. So then he was forced to do something I suppose he found rather
:37:06. > :37:08.distasteful, which was to turn to the nouveau riche for funds. The
:37:08. > :37:11.only nouveau riche in mid-Victorian Belfast were industrialists. They'd
:37:11. > :37:19.grown fat on the fruits of the empire, manufacturing ships, linen
:37:19. > :37:26.While most of the old landed families were now broke, crushed by
:37:27. > :37:30.Ballywalter Park is owned by Lord Dunleath. His ancestor, Andrew
:37:30. > :37:37.Mulholland, was the linen merchant Lord Dufferin turned to in his
:37:37. > :37:44.The Mulhollands lent him so much money, almost �5 million to us,
:37:44. > :37:48.that they became known as I'm sorry about the weather,
:37:48. > :37:58.couldn't do anything about it, it's absolutely grim. Let's go inside
:37:58. > :37:58.
:37:58. > :38:02.here. It might be a bit warmer inside. Yes. Thank you very much.
:38:02. > :38:06.think we were really fairly sort of basic family, living off the land
:38:06. > :38:10.and then Andrew Mulholland's father sort of started up in a small way
:38:10. > :38:13.as a businessman in Belfast and, as we all know, in the early to mid-
:38:13. > :38:17.19th century, it was a time for entrepreneurs, and if they found a
:38:17. > :38:21.niche somewhere, it was a means of getting very wealthy very quickly.
:38:21. > :38:24.This is of course a key point, isn't it? The generalisation about
:38:24. > :38:27.Ireland at that period is it's poor because of the agricultural
:38:27. > :38:31.depression to some, but Belfast is different, isn't it? It is more
:38:31. > :38:35.like Manchester and Liverpool, it's an industrial centre. Absolutely.
:38:35. > :38:38.It had the largest shipyards in the world, the largest rope works in
:38:38. > :38:42.the world, the biggest tobacco factory in the world and this is
:38:42. > :38:45.where we come in. The largest, first of all cotton mills, which
:38:45. > :38:49.were then rebuilt as linen mills. By tradition, your family is said
:38:49. > :38:52.to be the bankers for Lord Dufferin. He was strapped for cash. I mean,
:38:52. > :38:55.what happened? I mean, he approached you? Or your great great
:38:55. > :39:00.grandfather? He, yes, he certainly approached the family and
:39:00. > :39:04.negotiated a loan of money. Land would have been pledged against the
:39:04. > :39:07.value of the loan and I guess when Lord Dufferin was unable to repay
:39:07. > :39:14.it, for whatever reason, some form of foreclosure took place. By the
:39:14. > :39:24.end of the decade, Lord Dufferin had sold of 12,000 acres. That's
:39:24. > :39:27.
:39:27. > :39:37.two thirds of his estate. All of it went to the new industrialists.
:39:37. > :39:39.
:39:39. > :39:42.Soon, he was facing the unthinkable Then, in 1872, came salvation.
:39:42. > :39:52.Despite having managed his own finances in such a bizarre way,
:39:52. > :39:55.
:39:55. > :40:03.Lord Dufferin was given management of Canada. He became the third
:40:03. > :40:07.Governor-General. This prestigious post brought him in a handy �10,000
:40:07. > :40:12.a year plus expenses. Money was, for Lord Dufferin when in Canada, a
:40:12. > :40:19.very big issue. He believed that it was part of the Governor-General's
:40:19. > :40:22.job to entertain generously. That's how one won friends, and certainly
:40:22. > :40:25.the French Canadians loved Lord Dufferin for his generosity, his
:40:25. > :40:30.style, his civilisation, his parties. But of course this could
:40:30. > :40:33.be a very expensive business. Here I have a little document which says
:40:33. > :40:35.that in those years, 1873 to 1878, Lord Dufferin entertained through
:40:35. > :40:45.dinners, lunches, balls, theatricals 35,838 people, an
:40:45. > :40:47.
:40:47. > :40:52.Given this astonishing largesse, it's not surprising to find out how
:40:52. > :40:56.Lord Dufferin was commemorated by the Canadians. I mean, Lord
:40:56. > :41:01.Dufferin was so successful in Canada that he in fact, look at
:41:01. > :41:05.this, he was commemorated on the money of Canada. Not Queen Victoria,
:41:05. > :41:08.but there we see Lord Dufferin, "Dominion of Canada". He's on the
:41:08. > :41:13.two dollar bill and his wife, Harriet, Lady Dufferin, is on the
:41:13. > :41:16.one dollar bill. There she is. That's absolutely sensational. Of
:41:16. > :41:26.course, Lord Dufferin won recognition for more than being a
:41:26. > :41:32.
:41:32. > :41:35.generous host. He was also a highly effective negotiator. Lord Dufferin
:41:35. > :41:40.inherited the aftermath of a rather serious rebellion, which was
:41:40. > :41:44.between mixed race people. Mixed race French Canadian and Native
:41:44. > :41:47.Americans who really didn't want to be part of the British Empire and
:41:47. > :41:52.this is a fascinating thing I've just got here... Indeed, a cartoon
:41:52. > :41:54.relating to this very time. What happened is that Dufferin had to
:41:54. > :41:57.display tremendous diplomatic skills to smooth out the
:41:57. > :42:03.relationship between the French Canadians and the English, Scottish
:42:03. > :42:06.and Irish conflict. Catholics, Protestants and so on. Very
:42:06. > :42:09.difficult for him and during this sort of time of diplomacy,
:42:09. > :42:14.smoothing the aftermaths of rebellion, he got a reputation of a
:42:14. > :42:17.man with the wisdom of Solomon. That's what this cartoon shows -
:42:17. > :42:27.him presiding over tricky judgments and getting it right, helping to
:42:27. > :42:34.
:42:34. > :42:44.Lord Dufferin never stopped sending In 1879, he was made ambassador to
:42:44. > :42:50.
:42:50. > :42:52.Then he moved on to Turkey. He was hailed as one of the greatest
:42:52. > :42:56.diplomats of his generation and became an increasingly important
:42:56. > :42:59.figure in Queen Victoria's Empire - and her affections. We have here
:42:59. > :43:04.something utterly wonderful. Letters from Queen Victoria to Lord
:43:04. > :43:14.Dufferin. Here we see a volume of them from Balmoral Castle, 1884,
:43:14. > :43:19.
:43:19. > :43:22.from the Queen to Lord Dufferin. Incredible. 1884, but still with
:43:22. > :43:25.his black mourning in remembrance of Albert, who'd been dead over 20
:43:25. > :43:29.years, and her writing is appalling. Worse than mine. But there are
:43:29. > :43:39.transcripts I've got to my left here. So that letter. "The Queen
:43:39. > :43:45.
:43:45. > :43:48.must now thank Lord Dufferin for his extremely kind letters. It does
:43:48. > :43:53.her good when a lonely, sad life deprived more and more of friends
:43:53. > :43:56.and helps, and when she sees that people feel for her and are sorry
:43:56. > :43:59.for her". So that's what the Queen says to Dufferin, who's obviously
:43:59. > :44:03.very important in her life. And she was important in his. Lord
:44:03. > :44:10.Dufferin's closeness to the Queen was to help him climb to the very
:44:10. > :44:15.Finally, in 1884, Lord Dufferin got the job he had long wanted. At the
:44:15. > :44:18.age of 58, he was made Viceroy of India. The Viceroy was a
:44:18. > :44:28.representative of the Queen Empress in what was Britain's most valuable
:44:28. > :44:38.India was Britain's biggest market for manufactured goods and the
:44:38. > :44:42.
:44:42. > :44:45.source of valuable raw materials, By the end of the 19th century,
:44:45. > :44:54.Britain was economically dependant on the Raj, making Lord Dufferin's
:44:55. > :44:58.position there as Viceroy crucial. And with this huge responsibility
:44:58. > :45:07.came lots of curios, to ship back to Clandeboye, including a tiger
:45:07. > :45:11.skin and possibly the blade that skinned it. These Indian weapons
:45:11. > :45:14.Lord Dufferin collected posess a sinister beauty. Look at this sword
:45:14. > :45:21.with a serrated edge like a saw. Imagine the frightful wound that
:45:21. > :45:31.would inflict. Some of these are perfect killing machines, very
:45:31. > :45:32.
:45:32. > :45:37.skilful in the manufacture. And they used it as a war quoit. A
:45:38. > :45:41.chakra wheel I believe used by Sikhs. They would keep this thing
:45:41. > :45:44.in their turban. The edge would be razor sharp and in battle, with
:45:45. > :45:48.great skill, they would throw it like a frisbee through the air,
:45:48. > :45:51.cutting at enemies' throats. I'll put it over here on this rather
:45:51. > :45:55.welcoming sort of Indian dragon. Looks very good there. Ah, this is
:45:55. > :46:02.famous. Tiger claw. Look at this thing, absolutely ghastly. Goes
:46:02. > :46:12.over your fingers like that. It would inflict a wound like a tiger
:46:12. > :46:13.
:46:13. > :46:16.claw and these would be very, very sharp. Used to restrain greased
:46:16. > :46:19.robbers or used by assassins, thuggees, to come up behind your
:46:19. > :46:28.enemy, again round the throat and just cut like that, quick and
:46:28. > :46:32.ghastly death. This is a katar, a very famous Indian dagger, one
:46:32. > :46:36.holds like that with one's tiger claws as a reserve, I suppose. Use
:46:36. > :46:39.it, of course, to kill an enemy or, indeed, sometimes to defend oneself
:46:39. > :46:43.from a tiger, if attacked. In combat with another man I think you
:46:43. > :46:46.hold it in your left hand, sword up here and when your enemy is
:46:46. > :46:50.distracted by your swordplay, you come underneath and their liver,
:46:50. > :46:54.the killing blow. A very, very, I say, good way to despatch an enemy.
:46:54. > :47:04.But looking at it, it's so typical of these weapons. A very efficient
:47:04. > :47:07.killing machine, yet possessing in Fortunately, Lord Dufferin brought
:47:07. > :47:10.back more than weapons of destruction. He returned also with
:47:10. > :47:17.an unequalled and compelling snapshot of life in the heyday of
:47:17. > :47:22.the British Empire. Clandeboye is home to an extraordinary collection
:47:22. > :47:27.of photographs, some of the best I've ever seen from this time. Well,
:47:27. > :47:35.Lord Dufferin's photographic albums is an amazing collection, isn't it?
:47:35. > :47:38.I mean, it offers a sensational insight into empire. These are all
:47:38. > :47:43.of India here in the 1880s. I mean, they are little known. Utterly
:47:43. > :47:47.wonderful. In fact, it is one of the best collections of a private
:47:47. > :47:49.individual photographs of the empire. This is just, I mean to me,
:47:49. > :47:52.absolutely mind-blowing. Look, Bombay, Bombay. Mumbai, look,
:47:52. > :47:55.unbelievable, there it was in 1880s. A wonderful little village on the
:47:55. > :48:00.edge of the sea. Incredible. This is an album dedicated entirely to
:48:00. > :48:04.the killing of tigers. Here we see Lord Dufferin sitting with his two
:48:04. > :48:08.tigers he's clearly shot with his rather large calibre rifle. And I
:48:09. > :48:11.suppose it could be this very tiger that's out there in the hall.
:48:11. > :48:17.think you're absolutely right, because the trophies are normally
:48:17. > :48:25.carried by the people who have shot These photographs provide intimate
:48:25. > :48:34.insight into life in the Raj, from Particularly fascinating are the
:48:34. > :48:39.photographs taken during the These offer vignettes of a truly
:48:39. > :48:47.forgotten world. The conflict with Burma and the British Raj dated
:48:47. > :48:50.back to the 1820s, didn't it? '25 we had the first of the Anglo-
:48:50. > :48:53.Burmese wars and it was absolutely central, because at that point in
:48:53. > :48:57.time, they were discovering tea. They were discovering the shortest
:48:57. > :49:00.route to China. So the British really wanted to get trade routes.
:49:00. > :49:08.Trade routes into China without having to go around the Bay of
:49:08. > :49:11.Bengal. Look at these! These portraits are fascinating Burmese
:49:11. > :49:14.women are known for being extremely shrewd in terms of commerce and
:49:14. > :49:18.they control all business. Besides that, you also see that this woman,
:49:18. > :49:22.this portrait, she has a cheroot. gigantic cigar. A gigantic cigar.
:49:22. > :49:28.It's as big as her. Yeah, and which was basically a symbol of her power.
:49:28. > :49:30.Ok, status. Status and power. indeed, being a Buddhist culture,
:49:30. > :49:33.women have more respect, don't they? They had, women, the
:49:33. > :49:36.matriarchal societies, they had more control over resources and
:49:36. > :49:40.family. But I think the most poignant photograph in this
:49:40. > :49:44.tremendous collection is this one. It shows King Thibaw, the King of
:49:44. > :49:51.Burma, and his wife just before their world ended, before the land
:49:51. > :49:54.was annexed by the British Indian Empire. It's wonderful also, the
:49:54. > :49:58.setting here, because it's a vignette, though on their state bed,
:49:58. > :50:08.rather like the beds that are here. I wonder if this could possibly be
:50:08. > :50:27.
:50:27. > :50:30.And heartbreaking, those images. A lost world, worlds that were
:50:30. > :50:33.vibrant and independent and less than 200 years ago, world has gone
:50:33. > :50:39.but, as you say, preserved here in these incredible photographic
:50:39. > :50:49.For four years, Lord Dufferin was in charge of the most important
:50:49. > :50:52.
:50:52. > :51:01.But more than that, India was to deliver his life's ambition - a
:51:01. > :51:04.great house. The house he dreamt of It was built not at Clandeboye, but
:51:04. > :51:14.in the foothills of the Himalayas, at Shimla, which was a summer
:51:14. > :51:15.
:51:15. > :51:23.In 1886, under Lord Dufferin's supervision, a grand new building
:51:23. > :51:29.was started and here it is. Plans and elevations. Wonderful. It was
:51:30. > :51:35.constructed high up in Shimla, or Simla as it was then called. Golly,
:51:35. > :51:38.it's a wonderful thing. It's a mix of Tudor, Jacobean architecture,
:51:38. > :51:46.very exotic touches of India, little pavilions and verandas.
:51:46. > :51:55.Wonderful. How satisfying it must have been for him, at last, a great
:51:55. > :52:04.building essentially designed by The viceregal lodge was something
:52:04. > :52:14.All of Lord Dufferin's old schemes rolled into one. Here was the tower
:52:14. > :52:24.
:52:24. > :52:27.he'd always hankered for. With a Inside was palatial and
:52:27. > :52:36.extravagantly finished in teak and walnut, with a two tier gallery and
:52:36. > :52:46.a grand staircase. The viceroy loved it. Less keen, however, was
:52:46. > :52:47.
:52:47. > :52:50.the British Secretary of State. It cost a massive �8.5 million to
:52:50. > :52:53.build in today's money. And the Dufferins only enjoyed its
:52:53. > :52:56.splendour for four months before their post was up. It must have
:52:56. > :53:03.been fun while it lasted. But when the Dufferins returned to
:53:03. > :53:06.Clandeboye, it was back to reality with a bump. Lord Dufferin had
:53:06. > :53:10.commissioned yet more drawings, this time for a 130 foot long
:53:10. > :53:13.gallery in which he could display his new collection of curios. But
:53:13. > :53:21.it was the same old story. He couldn't afford it, so had to
:53:21. > :53:29.settle for a couple of new windows Then, he made a last ditch attempt
:53:29. > :53:33.In 1897, he became Chairman of the London Globe Finance Corporation,
:53:33. > :53:38.in which he invested heavily. Unfortunately, that company soon
:53:38. > :53:42.failed. Lord Dufferin lost his money and, as Chairman, he felt
:53:42. > :53:49.obliged to use his own fund to compensate other investors. He was,
:53:49. > :53:56.of course, left financially bruised But there was worse. At about the
:53:56. > :53:59.same time, his eldest son was Lord Dufferin seemed to have lost
:53:59. > :54:09.the will to live. He became ill and here, at Clandeboye, in 1902, he
:54:09. > :54:13.
:54:13. > :54:17.Just before his death, Lord Dufferin revisited his plans for
:54:17. > :54:24.Clandeboye one last time, but only to have them bound and placed in
:54:24. > :54:28.the library. Along with them, he wrote, "Unless some future owner of
:54:28. > :54:35.Clandeboye turns into a millionaire, I do not imagine it will be wise to
:54:36. > :54:45.Today, Clandeboye's pretty much how Lord Dufferin left it and the
:54:46. > :54:53.
:54:53. > :54:56.viceroy spirit still lives on with I think it is an incredible
:54:56. > :55:00.privilege to live in this house, because in a sense, because of the
:55:00. > :55:05.Viceroy and because of all that has actually remained of him here and
:55:05. > :55:14.the spirit of him, somehow or other you are sort of a friend of his, in
:55:14. > :55:18.a funny way. It's almost as though you're just sort of part of it. I
:55:18. > :55:21.mean, I feel you have a, that's my responsibility, to try and follow
:55:21. > :55:24.on, you know, this extraordinary thing he did, you know? Yeah.
:55:24. > :55:28.Clandeboye is one of only a handful of privately run estates still
:55:28. > :55:32.surviving in Northern Ireland. Lady Dufferin tries to strike a balance
:55:32. > :55:36.between the demands of the modern age and respect for the past, while
:55:36. > :55:39.putting her own stamp on the house. Now, here we go on the processional
:55:39. > :55:42.route, and here, this room, of course, used to be the museum
:55:43. > :55:49.created by the Viceroy. I'm a little bit ashamed about this room,
:55:49. > :55:56.Dan. Shame? Shame? Well, the point was it was this great museum and
:55:56. > :56:05.now it's Cairo. Cairo! In we go. But that... Ah! Well... Oh, I see.
:56:05. > :56:13.Well, it's not a shame... It is fantastic. It's incredibly
:56:13. > :56:16.surprising. Fantastic, is this. So this is, but of course the
:56:16. > :56:19.fantastic thing really, you've been inspired by the Viceroy because the
:56:19. > :56:22.processional route, I'm saying... Oh, you're making me feel better.
:56:22. > :56:26.Remembered by Egyptian tombs with Amun at the top, you... You're
:56:26. > :56:30.making me feel much, much better. And how do you use it? Robert John,
:56:30. > :56:34.the old butler, my old butler, he dresses up in Arab clothes and then
:56:34. > :56:38.we have a hookah. Then he comes down and we lay out coffee and we
:56:38. > :56:42.have a little smoke after dinner. But it's fantastic, is this.
:56:42. > :56:45.still trying to take it all in. you make me feel so much better,
:56:45. > :56:49.Dan. No, I don't... I don't feel I've done something awful now.
:56:49. > :56:53.No, I think the Viceroy's entered your brain and inspired. In a way,
:56:53. > :56:57.you know, this is so much what he would have done, but it's new,
:56:57. > :57:01.isn't it? This is a view of this moment but continuing a life, the
:57:01. > :57:05.tradition of the house created by him. Oh, Dan. But it's, you know...
:57:05. > :57:08.Well, one day I'm going to put a banquette all the way around, like
:57:08. > :57:12.in a proper, you know, Egyptian room. I think it needs that, don't
:57:12. > :57:16.you? It's not the only change she's made since I was last here.
:57:16. > :57:20.point is, I think you remember it, you know, and... Well, we used to
:57:20. > :57:24.have tea there in the big round window. Yes. There used to be, a
:57:24. > :57:28.chandelier was hanging here in your day and I've now moved it into the
:57:28. > :57:32.dining room. We're now in the back passages. Do you remember, it runs
:57:32. > :57:36.all the way round the bottom? Come on then. We're on a journey now.
:57:36. > :57:43.Where's this one go to? You're not going to open that, are you? No? Ok,
:57:43. > :57:46.I won't. It's so naughty. Do it. What can it be? If it's too
:57:46. > :57:49.shocking, we won't show anybody. Good heavens. I'm going to have to
:57:50. > :57:54.take it away, actually, because he's not grown up any longer. Well,
:57:54. > :57:58.go on. It's just, it is a French model I had in London. I suppose it
:57:58. > :58:02.is a bit shocking. Well, there you are, that would be perhaps you many
:58:02. > :58:05.years ago. Perhaps you were the model! Were you the model, Dan?
:58:05. > :58:09.that, you were not meant to say that. I wouldn't mind being that
:58:09. > :58:19.chap. I don't think, he's a French boy. No, you're all right, you're
:58:19. > :58:20.
:58:20. > :58:24.It's not completely clear what will happen to Clandeboye in the future.
:58:25. > :58:27.Lindy has no children to pass it to, but she has plans to turn it into a
:58:27. > :58:31.centre of learning, offering insights into the British imperial