A wonderful Xmas at Swarkestone Pavilion

A wonderful Xmas at Swarkestone Pavilion, built in the 1630s for William Cavendish’s step-daughter Cate, and probably designed by John Smithson.  I first visited years ago,while researching my PhD on dear old Smithson.

This visit I spent my time devouring biographies of Alan Clark, James Lees-Milne, and France Partridge. The state of my belly suggests that I might have devoured some Xmas cake as well.

Happy New Year to all my intelligent, elegant and swelligent readers!  There’ve now been more than 1,500 of you since I started my site in August, and I’ve loved hearing from everyone who’s written in. (Yes, even the nutters.)