puddleshark

Wimpole Hall. Grand, isn't it? The earliest parts of the house date from the mid 17th century, but it was much enlarged and altered during the 18th & 19th centuries (in the process luring a great many men to their financial doom...)

The house as it is today, and its contents, were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Mrs Elsie Bambridge, Rudyard Kipling's daughter.

Captain George and Mrs Elsie Bambridge first rented Wimpole in 1938 and had bought it by 1942. The only surviving child of Rudyard Kipling, Elsie Bambridge was able to use the substantial royalties from her father’s books to refurbish the house.

The house was largely empty of contents, so they set out buying pictures and furniture to fill the house, bringing back many pieces that had once been owned by Wimpole’s previous families.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambridgeshire/wimpole-estate/history-of-wimpole-estate

There's quite a long walk from the National Trust car park to the house (though there is a little electric buggy that makes regular round trips for the less mobile visitor). This is the view along the way:

The Italianate tower of the stable block (which is arguably much prettier than the main house. You have to get your priorities right, yes?)

The avenue that approaches the house from the south, through the park, is two miles long - a very grand 1720s statement (somewhat undermined by the fact that it was originally of elm trees, and had to be replanted with limes when the elms all died in the 1970s).

But there are still many fabulous specimen trees in the park.

More tea, urn?

On the plus side, the house wasn't fashionably clad in Portland stone like so many other 18th century mansions. But it's still rather heavy in style. More Whitehall government building than Palladio.

A murder is being committed in the garden. Samson is slaying the Philistine.

I think the interior is rather more interesting than the exterior. Elsie Bambridge seems to have had a lot of fun choosing furnishings, and managed to acquire rather an eclectic collection of pictures, some of them quite breathtaking.

Yellow Drawing Room. Excuse the image quality. The National Trust has blinds on the windows to protect the house contents from light damage, so the photos are all shot at high ISO and rather grainy...