Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon Read Free Book Online Page A

also gifts to postmasters, police superintendents and all the tenant farmers on the estate.
    As for the food, which was to be a central part of the whole proceedings, no expense was spared either on the supplies or the kitchen staff. All the meals were rigorously planned in advance, and then Almina dispatched Streatfield to London to hire Savoy chefs and waiters, to order flowers by the armful from Veitch of Chelsea, and to purchase an incredible amount of provisions, wines and champagnes. Streatfield spent
£
215 4s 4d (approximately
£
22,000today) on meat, chickens, eggs, fruit, and chocolates from Charbonnel.
    The stoical Streatfield was a loyal retainer and well used to carrying out orders without so much as a raised eyebrow. In private, he might nonetheless have looked somewhat askance at all this expense. He had been the house steward at Highclere for eight years and had seen a fair few entertainments for the great and the good in his time, but the 4th Earl’s taste in party-giving had not been on the scale of Almina’s. And, of course, Streatfield’s shopping bill for the weekend was more than four times his annual salary, a fact he surely cannot have failed to notice.
    When the day of the visit finally arrived, Almina herself wrote the menus for that night, in French, as always. The placement of guests at dinner had taken some time to arrange and her clothes had been planned in advance with Adams. Five or six different outfits might be needed each day. The bare minimum at such an occasion was a dress for the morning, one for walking in the afternoon, a tea dress and then evening clothes.
    Almina stood next to her husband, near the iron-studded walnut door of Highclere Castle, to greet the Prince of Wales as he alighted from the carriage. As she dropped into a deep curtsey, Almina hoped that she had done everything in her powers to provide amusement and entertainment for him. The Castle loomed up behind them in the low winter light. Inside, it was lit by over 150 oil lamps, and candles provided a warm glow around the galleries and in the new Drawing Room.
    The Earl and Countess of Carnarvon had given a greatdeal of thought to the question of their other guests. It was usual to invite both local friends of the Prince of Wales and some of his familiar Marlborough set, whose company he clearly enjoyed. In the end it was a large party that included family: Lord and Lady Burghclere and friends: among them the Earl and Countess of Westmoreland, Lord Ashburton, Lord and Lady Chelsea, the Nevilles and the Colebrookes. They also asked the Russian Ambassador, who was a friend of the Prince’s. The crowd were there partly to enjoy themselves, of course, but they had also been asked in order to entertain the Prince and had been selected with his interests in mind.
    Dinner that night was an Epicurean feast and the Prince was extremely appreciative. Almina had received numerous compliments already on her exquisite taste, on the beauty of the Drawing Room she had decorated and the charming and comfortable bedroom she had put at his disposal. The Prince was in a humour to be pleased with everything, and dinner was never going to disappoint. It began with a soup, a consommé, followed by the fish course: turbot
grillé
Dugléré (after Adolphe Dugléré, who was one of the most famous chefs in nineteenth-century Paris and had cooked for the Rothschild family for years). Then came the entrées: pâtés and a chicken dish. Next up were the roasts, a vast amount of game birds, stuffed with foie gras, all served with numerous vegetable side dishes. It was followed by
soufflé d’orange
and ices.
    After the entertainments (on this occasion, accounts show that a band played for the assembled guests in the Music Room), there was a little light supper of cold meats such as pheasant and cold beef. Unsurprisingly, the Prince retiredto bed satiated and in an excellent mood. Almina must have breathed a deep sigh of relief.
    The shoot took