IN 1827, John Talbot succeeded to his uncle’s estates as 16th Earl of Shrewsbury. The family seat at Alton, Staffordshire, was already a substantial building, having evolved from a hunting lodge into a Gothic ‘abbey’. The new Earl immediately doubled it in size, creating one of the largest private houses in Britain. Its Romantic interiors—crammed with art, antiquities and curios—were intended not only to advertise the history of the family, which had received its title in 1442, but Talbot’s position as one of the leading Catholic peers of the realm.
Queen Victoria’s description after a visit on October 24, 1832, conveys her awed astonishment: ‘This is an extraordinary house. On arriving one goes into a sort of gallery filled with armour, guns, swords, pistols… then into a gallery filled with beautiful pictures and then by a conservatory with birds… luncheon was served on splendid gold plate.’
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