AMONG the mononymous household figures immortalised in bronze on Parliament Square —Disraeli, Churchill, Gandhi— is one Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby and three-time Prime Minister.
In a country house 200 miles away resides another Edward Stanley, the present Lord Derby, landowner and scuba-diver. Of the 19 Earls of Derby since 1485, nine of them have been called Edward. The 1st was King of Mann and Henry VII’s stepfather and the 7th was with Charles II at the Battle of Worcester. The 12th founded the Derby and the 13th patronised Edward Lear, who wrote The Owl and the Pussycat for his children.
Then, the politicians: the 14th Earl’s triple premiership, the 15th’s turn as Foreign Secretary. The 16th was governor-general of Canada, the 17th Secretary of State for War in the First World War.
Lord Derby, a former Grenadier Guard, grew up the son of a third son, never expecting to inherit a title: ‘Early on, I worked out that I wasn’t intending to be Prime Minister,​ crown Henry VII or employ Shakespeare.’ He is part of a curious group of British figureheads, the lives of whose ancestors are still taught in schools. Each has found their own way in the world, burdened (or not) by history.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 15, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 15, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Give it some stick
Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart
Paper escapes
Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024
For love, not money
This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn
A love supreme
Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different
Private views
One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that
Shhhhhh...
THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.
Mission impossible
Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story
When a perfect storm hits
Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals
Give the dog a bone
Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course
