Tread softly

For one season, the visitor’s understanding of Waddesdon is transformed by a carpet.

- Michael Hall

When, in 1898, Alice de Rothschild inherited Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire from her brother Ferdinand, for whom it had been built, she imposed rules for visitors and staff. Smoking was banned and curtains and blinds were kept closed. According to Alice’s cousin Victor, 3rd Lord Rothschild, even royalty was not exempt; when edward VII paid a visit, Alice ‘on being asked by him whether the sunblinds could be raised so that he could see the pictures, replied nO; and… a few minutes later, on seeing the monarch touching a fine bonheur de jour rapped out: ‘PLEASE KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF THE FURNITURE’.

In part a reflection of her formidable character, which prompted many such apocryphal tales, Alice’s house rules were designed to preserve her brother’s creation. Faithfully respected by her heir, James de Rothschild, and his wife, Dorothy, who inherited the house in 1922, Alice’s strict approach to conservation has been continued by the national Trust, to whom James bequeathed the house and its collections in 1957. Alice’s regulations are the sort now taken for granted in historic houses and, without them, it seems unlikely that Waddesdon would have survived so intact into the 21st century.

Nonetheless, that high level of care came at a cost to visitors’ understanding of the house. When first opened to the public, it seemed to many people a formidable place. Its celebrated 18th-century furniture, paintings and porcelain gleamed dimly in rooms in which the blinds were never raised, creating an air of hushed reverence that was utterly unlike the atmosphere of the house in Ferdinand’s lifetime, when it was the setting for large and lively house parties.