Part 7: Althorp & Lady Diana

In Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson ambles about England, marvelling that "there's always some intriguing landmark just over the next contour line." From where I am, contemplating day-trips in Oxfordshire, I suspect I could find some new place to visit every other day. So, today, I have decided to take some advice and visit Althorp House, up near Northampton, in Great Brington. This is the great ancestral home of the Spencers, the home in which Lady Diana Spencer lived after age fourteen, and her final resting place.

The web page suggests that fewer people visit Althorp's 450 acres and 500-year-old mansion or palace than earlier, just after Diana's death, and since it promises rain, I don't expect huge crowds of tourists, so I am pleased it is not crowded and is very quiet. The visitors are not like so many noisy tourists. Quite a few are dressed in "their Sunday best."

I admit a fascination with Diana and remember hours watching The Royal Wedding in 1981 and the State Funeral in 1997. An unabashed Monarchist when younger, I even have a small collection of Royalty bricabrac and books about Diana and the Royal Family.

(I recall that when my brother Petey & I were children, we played a game of make-believe we called Prince Charles & Princess Anne: Pete will say that I was always Anne!)

Above, through a bed of thistles, I photograph The Stables, built 1732, and described as "ultimately Italian in inspiration." I learn more from the Guide: "The deep Tuscan porticoes borrow directly from Inigo Jones's St Paul's, Covent Garden. As an exercise in Anglo-Palladianism they are unusual, and certainly localised by the warm honey-coloured ironstone."

Once housing 100 horses and 40 grooms, the elaborate stables are now renovated to house an exhibition celebrating the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. The exhibition is very tastefully presented, nestled in the former stable rooms. Some of the Spencer family jewels are on display, but most popular is Lady Diana's wedding dress and train. Sam seems to enjoy the home videos of young Diana and her first birthday. It is sad to see the memorabilia of her school days--report cards, the little girl's school uniform, photo albums and drawings. Two beautiful glass-cased displays of some of the most "famous" of her clothes are stunning, particularly since I associate them with specific events from her public life. Her death is noted quietly in an impressively subdued large glass shelving case filled with hundreds of Books of Condolences from all over the world. On video we watch scenes of the thousands of mourners who brought flowers to place at Kensington Palace; there are a few funeral-related items, the most interesting being Elton John's manuscript of his lyrics for Candle in the Wind as he played and sang it at her funeral, and George Martin's musical score.

Althorp House as viewed from one of the stable's porticoes, looking toward the main entrance. Althorp was built around 1508 and has been in the Spencer family continuously. Originally housed in red brick, the architect Henry Holland re-faced it with mathematical grey tiles and enlarged it in 1770.

We pay extra to see the House itself, and my words alone simply cannot do service to the beauty of this collection of furniture, porcelain and paintings that have been in the family and collected through the centuries. Many of the treasures were brought to Althorp from Spencer House in London when the 7th Earl chose to lease out the mansion. No photography is permitted, so I purchase a guidebook. One of the highlights amongst the hundreds of paintings by great artists--Sir Joshua Reynolds, Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, the great English sporting painter John Wootton, and others--is my favourite, the Van Dyck painting War and Peace, 1637. Another, the only presence of Lady Diana inside her family home as seen by the public, is the near life-sized painting by Nelson Shanks, which once hung in Kensington Palace and was brought home after her death. One cannot even start to notice all of the paintings, not to mention the sculptures or furnishings, including Georgian and French Regency pieces, Japanese lacquer panels, Louis XIV commodes, Chippendale, Daugerre, and, of course Victorian furniture. Mary and I are especially attracted to the Garden Lobby, full of priceless porcelain, some Chinese, others representing every major continental and British designer. Our favourite was a chocolate serving set once belonging to Marie Antoinette.

Althorp House is only open to the public in July and August, and it very much seems a lived-in (albeit well appointed) family home. The signage and barriers for tourists can be quickly put away if the 9th Earl Spencer and his family come home. (The Spencers have several other homes according to the guide I asked.) Outside is a playhouse probably used by the Spencer children when they are home.

The once formal gardens at Althorp House were laid out in the geometric French style to plans by Andre Le Notre who designed the gardens at Versailles. The current grounds were designed by the architect W. M. Teulon and date from the 1860s.

We are especially taken with this row of trees that all point, like spokes on a wheel to a centre point. The grounds are filled with spectacular trees.

The Round Oval lake, also designed by Teulon, has in its centre, the small, private island upon which Diana is buried. (There is a new novel that suggests she is actually buried at Great Brington Church, which we saw nearby, in the Spencer Family Vault.) Called by a variety of names--The Temple, the Summer House--the memorial to Diana was once at Admiralty House in London, and was purchased by the Fifth Earl Spencer in 1901. It was moved to the south end of the Round Oval in 1926, and dedicated to Diana following her death. Now featuring a central silhouette in black marble upon white marble of the Princess of Wales, there are two tablets on either side, one featuring a quotation from Lady Diana about her charity work, and the other from her brother's Tribute at the Funeral in Westminster Abbey.

Visitors still bring flowers to leave in memory of "England's Rose" and it is a very quiet and reverential resting place.

The monument on the island was designed by Edward Bulmer and carved by Dick Reid, in memory of Diana, interred here privately, on 6th September 1997. We cannot see her grave, the vegetation is so dense, but the privacy seems appropriate, since in life she was often tormented by prying cameras.

We arrived at Althorp in heavy rain, our spirits dampened, but after the Celebration Exhibit, and the tour of the house, the sun shone through for our walk around the grounds and to the Round Oval. Later, we walk back to the carpark--only the disabled and bus tours get to drive onto the property--and I am struck again by the great trees. Here is one in the sheep pasture.

This is along the avenue of 36 trees planted by Charles, 9th Earl of Spencer--Diana's brother--one for each year of his sister's life. Althorp is a beautiful property, not spoiled by a lust for tourist pounds and dollars, and tastefully arranged. Well worth the cost, which even by British standards is quite pricey. (The admission price for our family of three adults and Sammy, is $100.)

As we leave through the entrance, (the gatehouses are used to sell admission tickets) we are quite content to have made the visit, despite the rain.

It occurs to me that one thing that made this visit even more pleasant than some I have made this summer is the absence of busloads of uniformed schoolboys and girls, completely disinterested in what their school trip is about and instead mostly flirting and acting silly. It seems that extending the British school term into late July is really an excuse to drag teenagers all over Britain to see sites they could care less about! From Tintern Abbey, through Nottingham and the Monkey Forest, to Salisbury Cathedral, the ubiquitous uniformed youngsters have diminished my visits. I do not see a teenager at Althorp and cannot recall seeing a child other than Sammy!

But, after several hours at Althorp, we are now famished. Steve recalls a pub we passed in Harlestone, The Fox and the Hounds. We find it, are given a table, and have one of the finest meals of this summer. It is rather upscale, not a pub really, and the food is exquisite. I choose Spit Gammon [ham] served with potatoes and Lyonnaise sauce and cannot stop exclaiming about how good it is. The others enjoy equally scrumptious meals.

It turns out that this restaurant is five minutes from a church meetinghouse my hosts come to several times every year, so we shall return for more meals.