Boughton House

Boughton House stands in the Northamptonshire countryside, four and a half kilometres north-east of Kettering. The estate covers eleven thousand acres of parkland and farmland. The house began as a monastic building bought in 1528 by Sir Edward Montagu, Lord Chief Justice to Henry VIII. Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, inherited the estate in 1683 and rebuilt the house in the style of a French château. The present façade still shows the influence of Versailles, giving the place its nickname The English Versailles. The house is one of the finest surviving 17th-century buildings in Britain. Its collections reflect the union of three great families through marriage: Montagu, Douglas and Scott. The art collection includes El Greco’s The Adoration of the Shepherds, Gainsborough’s portrait of Mary Montagu and Van Dyck’s celebrated series of grisailles. The armoury, once a servants’ hall, now holds one of the country’s best private collections of arms and armour assembled by the 2nd Duke. Visitors walk through state rooms that have changed little since the 17th century. The gardens follow strict geometry based on the golden ratio, with vast lawns, reflecting water and long avenues of elms and planes. A new earthwork called Orpheus, shaped like an inverted pyramid, leads to a spiral rill. The Grand Étang, a restored reflecting pool, stands immediately north-west of the house and is used for ice-skating in winter.