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Where would Mr Darcy live now? Jane Austen's 'Pemberley' is on sale
The £8m Wentworth Woodhouse - the likely inspiration for Pemberley - is on the market.
If Mr Darcy were now to step from the pages of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to search for a house as magnificent as Pemberley, appropriate to his wealth and status, what would catch his eye? These days he would find himself in competition with the super rich from around the world, who share his love of English country houses and delight in the romance and history that comes with them.
Wentworth Woodhouse: one of the finest Georgian houses in England - and on sale for £8m
You can imagine him stiffening in horror at the mix of fashion, sports and film stars and foreign magnates who now inhabit Britain’s finest. Darcy inherited his wealth and the arrogance that went with it. This put Elizabeth Bennet off so badly that she turned down his first proposal of marriage. But when she visited Pemberley House in Derbyshire, her mind was changed by the beauty of the architecture and the warm words of Darcy’s housekeeper.
She first caught sight of it from high ground looking across a valley. “Elizabeth was delighted,” wrote Austen. “She had never seen a place where nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste… and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” When she walked through the succession of state rooms, filled with fine objects and furniture, it made her heart flutter.
The English country house has always been the great symbol of success, a magical acquisition, a small piece of England which you could govern in your own way. Many houses were destroyed between the wars because they had become impossible to run. Some of the best are now preserved by the National Trust. Only a very few now come to the market each summer, when their history, pedigree, vital statistics and pricetags are held up for examination.
Darcy’s choice is given added piquancy this year by a new theory about who the character was based upon. In her new book, Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and the Secret Life of the Country House, Dr Susan Law argues that he was based on the first Earl of Morley, John Parker, who was married to a friend of Austen’s and for whom her feelings “were intense”. American Austen-watchers have calculated that his £10,000 per year salary might now be worth £796,000, though when the cost of servants and living is taken into account, he would have needed £12 million today to support his lavish (but dignified) lifestyle. That would now be enough to run three houses the size of Chatsworth.
Where to look? Were Mr Darcy alive now, rather than roaming through fiction in 1813, he would undoubtedly direct his carriage towards South Yorkshire to view the phenomenon which is Wentworth Woodhouse, now being brought to the market by Savills (020 7016 3780; savills.co.uk) for £8 million. It has been described as one of the finest Georgian houses in England and is the largest privately owned house in Europe, with at least 300 rooms, and perhaps as many as 365 – no one seems to have counted them. When King George V and Queen Mary stayed there in 1912 the Royal entourage took 75 bedrooms.
The magnificent marble saloon at Wentworth Woodhouse, in Yorkshire
The Grade I listed house is more than grand enough for the proud Mr Darcy. It took a quarter of a century to build (1724-50) and involved several great architects, including John Carr, who together created English Baroque on the west front and a Palladian masterpiece on the east. It was home to the Marquesses of Rockingham and became one of the great Whig palaces of the 18th century. The second Marquess, Charles, was Prime Minister twice in 1765 and 1782.
“From Darcy’s point of view,” says Crispin Holborow , head of country houses at Savills, “it has the most incredible marble saloon. There are very few to compare. If he hosted a ball, the hall would be where guests would congregate and he would stand on the pillared gallery and shyly think about joining the guests. Or he would stand up there and exchange a glance with Elizabeth.”
All visitors are amazed by it. “From the marble hall visitors can go in either direction and be swept into a suite of 10 or so magnificent rooms – drawing rooms and libraries, with wonderful chimney pieces, stucco work and artworks,” he says. “And looking out of every window on to the Repton parkland you see wonderful follies, temples and columns, as if nothing had changed since Darcy’s day.”
But the house has suffered huge changes in fortune. In Darcy’s day it might have supported more than 1,000 staff, from servants and butlers to a rat catcher and a state bed maker. By the end of the Second World War wealth and privilege were being challenged and Manny Shinwell, minister of fuel in Attlee’s government, allowed the grounds to become part of the largest opencast mining site in Britain. Later part of it was used as a teacher training college and a polytechnic.
Such passion does the house inspire that it was bought in 1999 by architect Clifford Newbold, who began a long programme of restoration and has sadly just died. When rumour spread last year that he might be selling, Marcus Binney, executive president of Save Britain’s Heritage and champion of English country houses, set up a preservation trust to raise £7 million of public and private money to buy it and continue the restoration. But Savills is only now launching it with 80 acres at the end of this month. “The Newbold family live in one wing, the core has been restored, one wing is uninhabitable and part of it hasn’t changed since it was a polytechnic,” says Holborow. “They are in talks with the Coal Authority about compensation for settlement caused by the mining.”
Prince Charles once considered buying Chettle House in Dorset, now on sale for £4m
Some believe this is the house that inspired Pemberley, partly because Mr Darcy’s first name, Fitzwilliam, was the family name of the Rockinghams. Others are convinced the inspiration was Chatsworth, the Derbyshire seat of the dukes of Devonshire which was used in the 2005 film with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. In the 1995 television series with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, however, the Pemberley scenes were shot in Lyme Park near Stockport. When Mr Darcy ripped off his jacket and swam across the lake to emerge dripping in his shirtsleeves, the female pulse of the nation rose.
If Mr Darcy thinks Wentworth Woodhouse’s restoration would drain his pocket, then he might drive south to Dorset to consider another rarity. Chettle House is so pretty and beguiling that it attracted the attention of Prince Charles before he settled on Highgrove. It was designed in 1710 by Thomas Archer, who also worked on the north front of Chatsworth, and is described by the Historic Houses Association as “a nationally outstanding example of English Baroque”.
Chettle House: designed in an oval shape, has a wonderful staircase in the hall
The pace of life in the village of Chettle, not far from Cranborne Chase and Salisbury, has little changed since Austen’s time. The house has been owned by the Bourkes for four centuries and has just been priced by Strutt & Parker (020 76297282; struttandparker.com) at £3.95 million. Chettle Church is the picturesque backdrop to the gardens, which makes it an idyllic wedding venue. It recently appeared as William Wilberforce’s London home in Michael Apted’s star-studded film Amazing Grace about the abolition of the slave trade.
This house, too, desperately needs a caring hand. Its origins date back to the 11th century, it has a Grade I listing and was described by Pevsner as “the plum amongst Dorset houses of the early 18th century”. It is unusual because it is designed in an oval shape, without sharp corners, built of red brick with Chilmark stone dressings and with a wonderful staircase in the hall. But as it is currently divided into apartments, it needs work.
Interestingly, says Holborow, the value of our country houses has not changed greatly in the past decade. They still attract intensely romantic buyers driven by sentiment but haven’t soared in price like the big London residences. “At Darcy’s level about 50 per cent of buyers are internationals and about 50 per cent English,” he says. “I doubt there will be a house as architecturally grand or as large as Wentworth Woodhouse on the market this year. There will be houses which cost more, but for aesthetes this is the one.”
Two more mansions with the Darcy factor
Kingston Lisle Park, Oxfordshire: with 13 bedrooms, Grade II*, 257 acres, pheasant shoot, tennis court, parkland, paddocks, stables, private golf course, gardener’s cottage, £21m, Knight Frank (020 7861 1440; knightfrank.co.uk).
Darcy points: it has three lakes to fling himself into when he has a Byronic turn, a spectacular staircase and hall for balls, plus gun room, flower room, game larder and laundry cottage where all those below stairs activities can take place out of sight.
Medmenham Abbey, Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames: between nine and 11 bedrooms, Grade II*, stuffed with ornate ceilings and grand stone fireplaces, with a spa, gym, private wet dock, riverfront with Thames’ views, 42 acres, £10m, Knight Frank (020 7629 8171; knightfrank.co.uk).
Darcy points: a housekeeper’s cottage for the loyal Mrs Reynolds; and raised walkways through the watermeadows for him and Lizzie to take a turn.