Comments | anteros_lmc: Mount Stuart

anteros_lmc

Mount Stuart

Jul 30, 2016 23:38

I'm just back from a couple of nights camping on the Isle of Bute and we went to visit Mount Stuart House, one of the homes belonging to the Marquis of Bute. Even among the ranks of the British aristocracy, the Butes have a reputation for extravagance and tax avoidance on a grand scale. The family recently "found" a Shakespeare First Folio in Mount ( Read more... )

real life, history

Comments 12

katriona_s July 31 2016, 06:07:09 UTC

Wow... these photos are gorgeous, but look rather too fantastic to be real, like the castle in Disney movie! But I love its garden and pond with water lily. And it's amazing that there is such a gorgeous mansion on a small Scottish island.

anteros_lmc July 31 2016, 20:45:31 UTC

It really does look like something from a Disney movie, though the ceilings with the zodiac constellations are more Hogwarts! What makes it even more ridiculous is that this is only one of the houses the Bute family owns.

vespican July 31 2016, 06:15:54 UTC

Spectacular! Hate to be the person that has to keep it clean and presentable!
Dave

anteros_lmc July 31 2016, 20:41:45 UTC

Tell me about it! I certainly wouldn't fancy dusting all that nonsense!

mylodon July 31 2016, 11:16:55 UTC

Stone the crows! How spectacular.

xxx

anteros_lmc July 31 2016, 20:40:22 UTC

It's so far over the top it's ridiculous!

esmerelda_t July 31 2016, 12:30:46 UTC

Well who hasn't misplaced antiquarian books worth a small fortune? Why I lost a copy of the book of Kells in my most recent move.

No wait, my mistake, that was my Iron Man DVD.

anteros_lmc July 31 2016, 20:39:46 UTC

Understandable. It's an easy mistake to make.

eglantine_br July 31 2016, 14:28:55 UTC

So Victorian in extravagance. This is what our robber-barons over here were going for, they never quite got there. The kitchen garden looks as if it smells wonderful. The rest of it is glorious to see but my mind cannot classify it as a place for humans to live. Maybe these Butes have comfy human sized spaces somewhere? Or maybe Butes are 40 feet tall?

Also does it have a ha-ha? I bet they have a ha-ha...

anteros_lmc July 31 2016, 20:52:44 UTC

Oh the Butes were hand in glove with your robber barons. I believe they had dubious business interests all over and apparently the current marquis is a tax exile in Switzerland.

We saw one bedroom called the Henry VIII room because it has a Holbein portrait of Henry in it. It also has a 16th century bed which the Butes bought from William Randolph Hearst when he went bankrupt following the stock market collapse.

I didn't see a ha-ha, but we only saw a tiny part of the estate. I bet they've got one somewhere.