Simple Pleasures

Forgive me my weakness, I couldn't help laughing at the expense of the aristocrat who leased his house "for an undisclised fee" to the movie 'Saltburn' and now finds himself a magnet for people who want to see the real thing. He's not helped by the fact that a public footpath runs along one wall of the house and that the public are not always minded to stick to it. He has, I think, learned more about TikTok and influencers than he ever wanted to know

I use the term 'house' rather loosely. It has 127 rooms (not, I suspect, including bathrooms), was built in 1328 and is grade I listed. It was last sold in 1361, and has passed on via inheritance, through several branches of an extended family, ever since. It is not open to the public

The 'Sackville' branch who currently own it, took it on in 1769. The first owner of that name fought in the 7-years-war in Prussia. At one battle, he repeatedly refused to obey orders to lead a charge, was accused of cowardice, court martialled and barred from any form of future military service in the most humiliating way available in relation to a man of his class. 

This did not, of course, stop him entering politics and rising to the position of 'Secretary of State for the Colonies', where he was responsible for the British strategy in the American War of Independence, including underestimating the strength of the revolutionaries and mis-calculating the type of warfare that would take place. When the revolution succeeded, he was, naturally, removed from office by the traditional British method of granting him an inherited peerage

You can see why his descendant might prefer to keep the family out of the limelight, and why he might be prone to strategic mis-steps. I'm just grateful to him for a wry smile at the end of a hard day's wall-painting. Grateful also for a bright rainbow against a dark sky at close of day. I wonder if we have gold in the chimney