West Wycombe Park 4 June 2017

Now this is a house with a very interesting social history. It may look familiar - here's a list of tv shows and movies shot here - Cranford, Little Dorritt, Downton Abbey, Sense & Sensibility, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Ernest, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies among many others. It's been owned by the Dashwood family since 1740, was given to the National Trust in 1943, but is still lived in by the Dashwood family to the present day. The house and grounds are only open to the public during the summer months.

The Dashwood family originally owned the estate, the village of West Wycombe and the notorious Hellfire Caves - deep underground, these caves were dug by hand in the 18th century, with links to the notorious Hellfire Club. Shenanigans happened there! Sir Francis Dashwood was a founding member for the Society of Dilettanti.

Above the caves is the Mausoleum where the hearts of Associates of the Hellfire Club were entombed - that's quite a price to pay. The deceased Dashwoods themselves however, are buried in the vault below the church.

Nowadays, more prosaic activities take place - cricket, music concerts, afternoon tea ...

Sir Edward Dashwood, the present incumbent, is also the Premier Baronet of Great Britain. Posh people ...

Who knew how to party - the lake was completely man made and during the 1700s a Spanish Galleon was brought overland from the Thames in Maidenhead and kept on the lake to stage mock naval battles for the amusement of the guests. Now that must have been fun!

The park is a perfectly preserved rococo landscape garden, complete with statues and temples inspired by Classical Greek and Italian Architecture.

The Temple of Apollo - later used for cock fighting (and also to screen the domestic service wing from the main house).

At the end of a tree lined avenue is an equestrian sculpture - very impressive!

Up close though, it's a fibreglass prop found at Pinewood Studio by the 11th Baronet who paid for it with 12 bottles of champagne. How funny. The local authorities weren't amused but even legal proceedings weren't successful in getting it removed. It's quite a distance up a long hill, so probably not seen close up by many. He must have chuckled every time he looked up the vista from the house.

There was a jazz concert at the house this afternoon and though the house was open to the public, there were just too many people inside, so I didn't linger and just headed out into the gardens.