Waddesdon Manor: Extravagant Estate of the Rothschilds in Aylesbury

 Waddesdon Manor: Extravagant Estate of the Rothschilds in Aylesbury

Cotswolds

Thursday, May 26, 2022

    Another absolutely wonderful day in the Cotswolds saw us tick yet another item off my long-held Bucket List: A Visit to Waddesdon Manor, estate of the Rothschilds. I had first been introduced to this place by my English friend Rosemary who had told me that I would find it particularly fascinating. I had looked into the possibility of getting there on my own, a long time ago. But the expense of using public transport while also buying my ticket was so high that I had nixed the idea. And so, I was particularly pleased to visit the venue in the company of Llew and to actually have someone who volunteered to drive us to the spot--someone who is an art historian herself and would be the perfect companion on such an excursion.

    Waking up much later than usual (at 8.00 am, to be exact, which is really late for me), I had enough time to blog, take a shower and have a hurried breakfast before our friend Fiona Mann arrived. She is a Professor of Art History at Brookes University at Oxford. I hurried through muesli with yogurt and milk and a slice of toast with orange marmalade and was just about done when the doorbell rang. She had arrived on the dot of 9.45 to pick us up! Boy, talk about punctuality! With our tickets to the venue safely in my bag, we were off and away.

   Fiona and I chattered throughout the ride to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, as Llew and I became better acquainted with her and her work. As she is someone who works on Burne-Jones, I had begun following her on Twitter a long time ago--so it was great to have the benefit of her expertise on this excursion. Fiona has published on the Pre-Raphaelites and I was especially pleased to tell her how much of their work we had seen during this trip. It took us about 40 minutes to get into Aylesbury--a very pleasant drive along green countryside--and when we did get there, it was about 10.45 am. Our tickets were timed for 11.30 am--so we had plenty of time to make our way from the parking lot to the entrance of the site. Fiona had told us that it would take about half an hour to walk up there and we were very grateful, therefore, for the shuttle bus that cost us 2 pounds return per passenger. It would get us to the entrance of the Manor with very little grief and and would allow us to conserve our energy for the main event--a tour of the enormous mansion that lay before us.

Who are the Rothschilds?

    From what I gathered, the Rothschilds were a wealthy Jewish family who hailed from Vienna in Austria. The scion of the family, who made his appearance in the early 1800s, was Anselm de Rothschild who entered the field of banking and did exceptionally well in it. He as succeeded by his son Ferdinand who had four other brothers and four sisters. Not much is known about the sisters (of course!), but each of the brothers made his way to a different part of Europe where he continued to add to the family's fortune by his own individual acumen. Chief in terms of financial success was Ferdinand who married a woman called Evalina. He moved to England and fell in love with the English countryside. He also fell in love with European antiquities and spent a huge part of his life acquiring European fine and decorative art from the Renaissance to the 19th century. Soon, his collection exceeded his space to display it and he needed to build a mansion to house it. In 1870, he hired the services of a French architect, Hippolyte Destailleur, who was instructed to design a chateau for him in the manner of the French aristocracy of the Loire Valley. The humongous mansion that opened to the public in 1954 is a result of this financial excess. 

A Self-Guided Tour of Waddesdon Manor:

    I had booked our tickets for Waddesdon Manor before I left Bombay and I believe I paid 24 pounds per ticket. This covered entry to the house and grounds, an app we were asked to download in the reception area that offered a great deal of information on individual items that caught the visitor's eye after the item was scanned, and a booklet with a great deal of information and colored pictures. I found myself going from one room to the next, clicking pictures of those objects--paintings, sculpture, porcelain, furniture, carpets, etc. that caught my eye in addition to taking overview pictures of each room. The guides in each room were helpful, though some were better informed than others--who seemed to know nothing. The home was filled with the most spectacular flower arrangements, but when I discovered that they were silk, not real, I have to say I was astonished--they were so life-like! Each room was appointed the way it would have been in the lifetime of Ferdinand de Rothschild who was appointed Baron and then, following his death, as it was added to by his sister, Alice who died in 1922. As it is a hundred years since she died, there was a special exhibition entitled 'Alice's Wonderlands' that were were invited to  visit (this was in the stables). 

And so we went from one room to the next past two massive paintings of Venice by Guardi that were the reason why the Long Gallery was designed with its proportions--it was meant to showcase these two prized works. In many ways, this place reminded us of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, except that it was much larger, far more opulent and did not contain gifts that two monarchs bought for each other but rather the passionate and obsessive collecting doggedness of one man (and later, his sister). We saw living rooms, dining rooms, libraries, drawing rooms on the lower level and multiple bedrooms, a billiards room, a smoking room, an armory room, and even a magnificent wine cellar--le cave! In fact, the Rothschilds became world-respected vintners and manufacturers of wine and their label is called Chauteau Lafitte Rothschilds and Mouton Rothschilds. In the cellar, we saw an abundance of bottles of wine that were products of their decades of successful wine production for the Rothschilds' wines are expensive and are used on landmark occasions by royalty. There were bottles on display sporting the signatures of a number of members of the royal family who has sipped these vintages on special occasions. The cellar is beautifully organized and while the actual manufacturing is now done in France and Italy, they did have a lot of specimens on hand to give the visitor an idea of their affluence. 

    We needed to take a break as we became hungry at lunch time and made our way to the cafe where I had a cheese and red onion pasty with hot chocolate and Llew had a vegetarian sandwich. Fiona chose to have tea and cake. During the break, we spoke about the incredible items we had seen for the manor is truly a museum that would rank among the very best in the world. After our lunch break and use of restrooms, we resumed our exploration. We took in the Renaissance room with its Tudor portraits. I was happy to find large-scale portraits of Elizabeth I and Sir Amias Paulette, her ambassador in France, by Sir Nicholas Hilliard as I have only ever seen his work on small-scale porcelain paintings (as in the Victoria and Albert Museum). There were also portraits of Robert Dudley, presumably the only man Elizabeth ever really loved and Thomas Howard, Fourth Earl of Norfolk and, I believe, suitor of Mary Queen of Scots. There were several highlights in each room and we made sure we looked at those including the items in the Treasury on the topmost floor that included jeweled sets of rubies and diamonds and emeralds and diamonds. However, the majority of the really outstandingly valuable items are part of the Waddesdon Bequest at the British Museum and I had seen those several years ago and been stunned.

    By the time we finished seeing the entire house, I have to say that I was quite wiped out. We made the slow trek to the stables but although the Alice Exhibition was much advertised, there was nothing there really. However, the stable buildings are fantastic--also designed in the French style, the buildings reminded me very much of my exploration of the chateaux of the Loire Valley including Blois and Chambord which I had visited a few years ago. 

    It was about 4.30 pm when we were finally ready to leave. It had  been a day-long excursion and we were exhausted. Fortunately, the shuttle bus for which we had purchased a return ticket, came along and dropped us back to the parking lot. Fiona then took the wheel and began our return drive home.

    As we had made plans to meet Elizabeth and David Longrigg, my former Oxford landlady and landlord, who now live in Summertown, we requested Fiona to drop us there. It was no more trouble for her to do so and on Summertown High Street, we went into a Boots so that I could buy the stock of lipstick I needed for the whole year. We then went into a couple of other shops to kill time as we were early.

Drinks with the Longriggs;

    It was exactly 6.15 pm when we rang the bell of the lovely couple who were once my landlords when I was on a research grant at Oxford and who have, through the years, become good friends. I always make sure I see them when I am in Oxford and they always make sure they invite me over for tea or drinks. We took a bottle of wine for them and I carried pretty necklaces for both Elizabeth and Celestine, the lady who has been her right hand woman through the years. I knew Celestine when I stayed with the Longriggs and I am happy to know that she is still working there. Sadly, she was visiting her mother--which meant that I could not meet her myself. But I did make sure Elizabeth gave her my regards and my gratitude. 

    It was very pleasant chatting with the Longriggs who have now reached their 90th year. Elizabeth, who was a don (an Oxford professor) of English at St. Hugh's College, is still a prolific writer and continues to write and publish novels (through Amazon) at 90 plus. She has slowed down considerably and now uses a walker; but she is still sharp as a tack. Her husband David gifted us copies of his books--on chess and on the walking pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella--which we requested him to inscribe for us. 

    Having spent the entire evening with wine for them, elderflower cordial for me and red wine for Llew and a variety of nibbles--smoked salmon on cream cheese with bread, nuts, salmon rounds on crackers, cheese straws and a box of assorted chocolates, we were ready to take their leave. It had been a most delightful two hours with them. They were meeting Llew for the first time and you could tell that the pleasure was mutual as we left their home.

Picking Up Dinner from a Food Truck:

    By this point, we were really tired and I was glad when we spotted a food truck still doing business on Summertown High Street. We ordered doner kebab in a bun for Llew and a cheese burger for me with salad and with our take-out meals, hopped into a Stagecoach 2A bus heading for Oxford City Center as we were too fatigued to face the thought of eating out. There, we changed into a local bus and arrived at Sue and Tony's place really quite dead. 

    Llew poured himself a glass of wine and with the telly on, we sat to enjoy our meal. We then cleared and cleaned up the kitchen and did our packing as we will be leaving Oxford tomorrow evening. I wanted to make sure our friends found the place spic and span when they returned and I cleaned the house thoroughly. With my packing done, and their home all ready for their return, Llew took charge of the garbage bags which our hosts had instructed us to leave outside their door for rubbish clearance by the bin men tomorrow. 

    All that done, we were finally able to get to bed. It had been a most wonderful day and as our holiday slowly draws to a close, we are beginning to feel the need to start thinking about being homeward bound.

    Until tomorrow...cheerio!