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

place the following day, and this was Carnarvon’s territory. It covered two drives on the Highclere estate: Biggs and Warren. The higher chalk downland was essentially a rabbit warren and wasn’t farmed, so as to provide excellent shooting. There were eight guns – HRH the Prince of Wales, Lord Westmoreland, Lord Burghclere, Lord Chelsea, the Hon. Seymour Fortescue, Sir Edward Colebrooke, M. Boulatsell and Lord Carnarvon. Between them they shot a tremendous quantity of birds and rabbits – it was the era of quantity rather than quality in shooting circles.
    The Castle’s game book records the disposal of all the game shot at Highclere – nothing was ever wasted. It was compiled using figures given to the housekeeper by the head gamekeeper who, at the time of the Prince of Wales’s visit, was a man called Cross, soon to be replaced by the long-serving Henry Maber. Flicking through the pages it is possible to track the social life of the Castle from year to year, and mostly there are relatively modest lists of game given to guests at house party weekends. But on the pages that record the Prince’s shoot, the columns are full; the list goes on and on. Like everything else about that three-day stay, the extravagance is startling.
    Ordinarily, guns were given six pheasants each, but the Prince was given twelve. The long list of recipients demonstrates the Prince’s wide social network: birds were sent to the Russian Ambassador and Nellie Melba, as well as to Mr Horace Voules, editor of
Truth
magazine, a well-known investigative periodical. (It is tempting here to imagine adelicate bribe to a forerunner of the paparazzi – the Prince was frequently the subject of gossip in the media, unsurprisingly given that he was an enthusiastic playboy throughout his life.) Marie Wombwell, Almina’s mother, was sent a brace of birds, some were sent to Newbury Hospital, and even the waiters, the band and the visiting valets were given pheasant. The lamp-men, however, were given rabbits.
    The visit was a tremendous success. It could not have gone off more perfectly, and Carnarvon must have felt delighted that his new wife had orchestrated the event so well. She had dazzled her guests and overseen a series of exquisite dinners and entertainments. Clearly, Almina’s ‘education for the drawing room’ had ensured she was an excellent administrator and talented hostess – she was already excelling in the role of the Countess of Carnarvon.
    The little nineteen-year-old was no longer the naïve damsel that Lord Burghclere had observed six months ago, desperate for a decent family and giddy with excitement about her future. She was a wife, a Society hostess. She was a triumph.

5
Life Downstairs
    The fact was, of course, that Almina’s triumph was completely dependent on a small army of other people. She occupied centre stage when the eyes of the world were upon her, but actually it was Streatfield who ruled the Castle, and he continued to do so for the rest of his life. He knew perfectly well that he was more of a fixture than the new Countess. He had, after all, known Lord Carnarvon for rather longer than she had. The little kingdom of Highclere would carry on as before and the staff would simply do their jobs and wait to see how things turned out.
    At the time of his expensive shopping expedition to London, Streatfield was thirty-nine years old. Since he was a single man, he lived in the Castle itself, rather than inone of the staff cottages, which were reserved for married couples and families. As house steward he had a large square sitting room in the basement, next to the identical housekeeper’s sitting room. This was Streatfield’s domain, where he spent his leisure time, such as it was, and from where he ran the downstairs life at Highclere. It was comfortably furnished with an Indian rug and an easy chair. In one corner stood an old English grandfather clock and the room was full of mahogany desks and tables. It felt