Accessibility links In 1975, James (“Jim”) Lees-Milne and his wife Alvilde moved to Essex House (dubbed “Bisex House” by some of their waggish friends)
in Badminton, Gloucestershire, on the estate of the royally connected Duke of Beaufort. Henry FitzRoy Somerset, the 10th Duke, was seventy-five. He was not just one of England’s greatest aristocrats, but arguably her leading sportsman. He lived for foxhunting, having been known as “Master” since the age of nine and served for long years as MFH of “the Beaufort”. He was also a prominent equestrian, who had founded the Badminton Horse Trials in 1949 and served three sovereigns as Master of the Horse. His wife Mary, born Princess of Teck, was a descendant of George III. The Beauforts were popular with the Royal Family, who came to stay annually for the Trials. The Duke, whose wife had been unable to give him a child, was also a great Lothario: his many mistresses included the Lees-Milnes’ friend Sally, Duchess of Westminster. He was also a philistine who took not the slightest interest in the many priceless works of art with which his house was stuffed. Every spring the Horse Trials took place and huge crowds descended on Badminton, along with the Royals. Jim hated this event, and was shocked that the normally deserted parish church, which the Royals attended on Sunday, was “filled to the brim” with “gapers”. Once, when a friend of the Royal Family was staying with the Lees-Milnes to see the Trials, they were invited to a birthday party for the Queen given at the House. Mary Beaufort had hired a “funny man”, as she called him, from Bristol. It was rather painful… This little man was signally unfunny. Only the Royals in the front row were holding their sides, whether out of pity, good manners or enjoyment, who can tell. Twice the performer called for assistance from the audience. Each time, Prince Andrew and Prince Charles volunteered to go forward. Both very good, unshy, and the Prince of Wales was frankly funnier than the “funny man” in his clowning. A ghastly party. Jim enjoyed hearing about Master’s eccentricities. Though vastly rich, he was obsessively mean. To save fuel bills he stopped turning the central heating on in winter, and burned electric fires. When the Queen Mother complained that the stairs to her room were uncarpeted, a strip of red carpet appeared on one side of the staircase only.
He ran his estate autocratically and all who worked for him were terrified of him. One of the few who stood up to him was the vicar, Tom Gibson, a splendidly bewhiskered former RAF pilot, who repeatedly felt obliged to point out that the writ of his ducal patron did not extend to anything that happened inside the church. He was not entitled to ask bishops to preach at Badminton, which was the vicar’s prerogative nor was he entitled to sell a valuable Grinling Gibbons monument that graced one of the tombs, even if it had been given to his grandfather by Queen Victoria.