Keeping a castle in the family

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 15

Keeping a castle in the family

From KEN COATES in London

Like hundreds of members of Britain’s aristocracy, the sixth Lord De L’lsle has become a showman. He has had to. Only by throwing open their stately homes and gardens to the public have most barons, earls, and knights been able to retain them. Lord De L’lsle’s family ownership of the great, sprawling pile that is

Penshurst Place, Tonbridge, Kent, goes back to 1338. In spite of taxes and the impossibility of employing the great army of servants of yore, he has been determined to keep up the historic home.

The price he pays is having 68,000 visitors, most of them overseas tourists, traipse through the ancestral corridors, halls, and galleries. The viscount, a former Governor-General of Australia, does not personally conduct tourists, but he is thoroughly businesslike in his approach. He is a qualified accountant, and was in Christchurch a few weeks ago opening a new building for the Phoenix insurance company. of which is a former chairman. “Our enemies have

often said in the past that we would never live here; that we would have to go,” he says. “We have come perilously close to it, but we haven’t gone yet.” Outlining his practical policy, he adds: “We have set out to provide something for people to look at, somewhere to go to the 100, and somewhere to eat.”

There is plenty to see. Penshurst has stood as part of England’s history since the Middle Ages, successive generations adding distinctive contributions. A house of size and importance has stood there at least since this part of Kent was surveyed for the Domesday Book in 1085.

The first recorded owner, in 1338, was Sir Stephen de Penchester, and 40 years later the property was bought by a rich wool merchant, Sir John De Pulteney. He had built the great barons’ hall, with its 60-foot high timbered roof of chestnut — one of the finest examples of fourteenth century workmanship still to be seen.

Standing in the hall, it needs little imagination to

picture the feasting of the lords of the manor, contrasted with the wretched lives of the labouring serfs who could have counted themselves lucky to get some warmth from the blazing logs of the central fire, the octagonal hearth of which remains. The smoke rose to the roof, escaping through a louvre; now long since sealed.

Lord De L’lsle glanced up at the chiselled stone figures of men and women with grim and contorted faces who appear to be supporting the roof. “I regret to say,” he said in impeccable English, “that the workers on the land in earlier times were not as well fed as they might have beep — as you can see reflected in their faces.” Long, heavy, trestle tables of hewn timber still rethain. They once groaned with dripping roasts and the finest of fare when Edward IV dined at Penshurst Place after the Wars of the Roses. Henry VIII also feasted in the great hall as a guest of the Duke of Buckingham in August, 1519 — and that must have been a right royal tuck-in. Such magnificent hospitality, however, did not save the duke. Later he fell out of favour with

Henry and was beheaded. The manor thus passed to the Royal estates. Lord De L’lsle is more at home away from the armour, pikes, swords, and early firearms of his ancient ancestors. He led the way, instead, into the apartments and chambers in which he and his second wife live. “My family has been fortunate,” he said, with

his back to the open fire in his elegant library, “in that there has often been money on the maternal side. Several of my ancestors married rich heiresses.” He pointed out his distinguished and not-so-dis-tinguished forbears whose huge State portraits adorn the galleries of his home.He made light of the political acumen shown by some: “Several times in history, it seems, we have backed the right side . . .” The property, which today includes a dairy farm of 1100 acres, was given to his ancestor, Sir William Sidney, by Edward VI, and was the birthplace of the soldierpoet, Sir Philip Sidney. Pointing to a huge portrait of William IV, Lord De L’lsle disarmingly mentions the liaison between the King and Mrs Jordan by whom he had nine children . . . “His Majesty had a remarkable

aptitude for having children, but not for getting married.” . i It was a natural daughter of the King’s whom the son of John Shelley Sidney married, and later the younger Sidney was made the first Lord De L’lsle and Dudley. Lord De L’lsle of today counts himself fortunate in having a house large enough in which to entertain his friends, and the public. His own apartments are closed to peeking eyes. Tourists stream through by the busload in summer — through the State dining room, tapestry room, panelled

room, pages’ room, all dripping with history, ending up in the old kitchen gift shoppe. The lord frankly admits that it is all a business, and that he heads the regional tourist board for the area. “We have to ensure cash flow inwards is greater than cash flow outwards, without resorting to hippos, elephants, scandals, and divorces.” A restaurant with quickservice meals has been built in a lesser wing because, as the owner, says: “We have to persuade them to part with as much money as possible without actually having

been dishonest.” From 1949. when Lord Bath, faced with crippling death duties, opened Longleat House to the public, the stately home owners have become a growing part of the tourist industry. They number about 1000 today. The latest to open to the public was Stonor Park, near Henley-on-Thames, the seat of Lord Camoys. The Government recognises that if the great old homes are to be preserved it has to help, and grants for subsidies are regularly made towards the cost of restoration. Many owners try to boost their earnings by

opening playgrounds and other attractions. Longleal has a drive-through safari park; Lord De L’lsle has what he calls a venture playground — a nature trail, and agriculture and wild life exhibitions in an old, restored, Sussex barn. His latest plan is to ‘'bring American ladies and gentlemen here in October and November in conjunction with other stately homes.” His aim is to boost visitors to 100,000 a year. Lord De L’lsle has five children and 11 grandchildren. Now he believes that their prospects look good for retaining Penshurst in the family.