Castle Howard: Brideshead Revisited!

Outside Vambrugh’s magnificent Castle Howard

Then, we were driving along quiet country roads towards Malton to visit Castle Howard, one of the most splendid buildings in all of England and highly popularized in the TV series Brideshead Revisited which used it as a location in the 1980s and then again a few months ago for the release of a new version of the film. Conceived as a grand country home by the 8th earl of Carlisle who requested his friend John Vanbrugh, the playwright of the Comedy of Manners School, to design a new home for him, this is one of the most spectacular English coutnry estates and one I have long wanted to visit.

Vanbrugh drew up plans for a grand domed home (the only private home in England that sports a dome with a ‘lantern’ on the top of the cupola) and asked his friend Nicholas Hawksmoor to work the final plans for him. They collaborated to create this confection of grand rooms filled to the rafters with all kindsof accoutrements and furnishings. A tour of the house in which very well trained guides told us about the history and the decoration of the rooms was quite fantastic and left us awed at the wealth of the nobility in previous eras.
We also toured the lovely rose garden, a walled garden with dozen of roses (most of which, alas, were past their prime) and also a great potager which had an abundance of fresh green vegetables that are sold in the plant shop on the premises. Certainly a visit to Castle Howard is memorable and takes more than half a day if one wants to do it thoroughly and at leisure. We were fortunate in that we got a chance to see a special exhibit on the filming of the new version of Brideshead Revisited (coming soon to a theater near you) which took place earlier this year and I seized the opportunity to pose by the bed draped in green velvet hangings in which Lord Marchmain dies in the film.

To return to the rest of our travels, please click on Yorkshire.