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So much for the history. But what is Ham House really like inside? Catherine Whyte finds her preconceptions shattered by a frenzy of baroque.
Enthusiasm is contagious. Just as well, really, as I’ve never really been that inspired by Ham House. All that dark brickwork; so austere and unappealing. And then along comes Jorge Ferreira, Visitor Services Manager at the grand 17th century home, to take me on a guided tour. In a trice, a leaden window opens into a past embroidered with the silver threads of high Baroque fashion; a gilded world of interior design worthy of the pages of Vogue. “Ham has managed to maintain its collection for the past 350 years. That makes it unique in Europe. No doubt about that,” says an emphatic Jorge. Elizabeth Murray (see p10), Countess of Dysart, was the brains behind much of this splendour. Building on Ham’s already splendid Jacobean foundations, she and her second husband, the Duke of Lauderdale, renovated and extended the house in the Baroque style during the 1670s...
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So much for the history. But what is Ham House really like inside? Catherine Whyte finds her preconceptions shattered by a frenzy of baroque.
Enthusiasm is contagious. Just as well, really, as I’ve never really been that inspired by Ham House. All that dark brickwork; so austere and unappealing. And then along comes Jorge Ferreira, Visitor Services Manager at the grand 17th century home, to take me on a guided tour. In a trice, a leaden window opens into a past embroidered with the silver threads of high Baroque fashion; a gilded world of interior design worthy of the pages of Vogue. “Ham has managed to maintain its collection for the past 350 years. That makes it unique in Europe. No doubt about that,” says an emphatic Jorge. Elizabeth Murray (see p10), Countess of Dysart, was the brains behind much of this splendour. Building on Ham’s already splendid Jacobean foundations, she and her second husband, the Duke of Lauderdale, renovated and extended the house in the Baroque style during the 1670s...
Read the full article in PDF format by clicking the image left.
