All in One Basket
Page 28
The last few pages of the book show scenes from the National Poultry Shows at Stoneleigh and Lanark. In close-up some of the birds look more like hawks than hens and remind me of the old men who haunt the tables at Monte Carlo. With their furious eyes and terrifying beaks, they seem ready to grab the chips and hoard them under their wings until the croupier calls faites vos jeux once more.
In contrast to the meticulously coiffed birds, photographed as though they were supermodels, the exhibitors look like the real experts they are. Totally focused on their beloved show birds, they are highly competitive and as delighted with success as if they had won the Derby. Some of the trophies are almost as splendid as those from the racecourse.
I used my strongest magnifying glass to scrutinise the beautiful birds illustrated in this beautiful book. It has been an honour and a pleasure to review it.
Acknowledgements
Counting My Chickens
The pieces in this book, sometimes in different forms, first appeared in Daily Telegraph, Telegraph Weekend Magazine, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Country Living, Historic House Magazine, Illustrated London News, Woman and Home, Spectator, British Goat Society Yearbook, Chatsworth Staff Newsletter, Books and Company.
Home to Roost
My grateful thanks are to Stella Tennant, Ian Hislop, Ben Heyes and Henry Wyndham for their help. Will Topley’s drawings are a great addition and near the heart for me. Charlotte Mosley has done her inimitable job as editor. Helen Marchant: I’m running out of adjectives to describe her role in this and my other books; I can only thank her again for her support and understanding. As for Alan Bennett, words fail . . .
The following pieces were delivered as talks or appeared in the publications below, sometimes in a different form.
The Land Agents’ Dinner, talk delivered in January 1983
Foreword to The Small Garden by C. E. Lucas Phillips (2006 edition)
The Organ Recital, Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2008
The Farmers’ Club Dinner, talk delivered on 3 December 1991
Derbyshire, Illustrated London News, February 1982
Review of Flora Domestica: A History of Flower Arranging by Mary Rose Blacker, Spectator, 22 July 2000
Book Signings and Literary Lunches, Spectator, 19 September 2007
Review of The Tulip by Anna Pavord, Daily Telegraph, 21 December 1998
Review of John Fowler: Prince of Decorators by Martin Wood, Spectator, 11 December 2007
Tiaras, Daily Telegraph, 17 March 2002
Foreword to The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball by Sophia Murphy (1985)
A London Restaurant on Trial, Spectator, 7 February 2004
Edensor Post Office, Spectator, 2 April 2008
The Arrival of the Kennedys in London, 1938, Spectator, 31 May 2006
‘The Treasure Houses of Britain’ Exhibition in Washington, talk delivered to the Friends of Chatsworth, March 1986
Marble Mania, Daily Telegraph, October 2001
Bruce, Mario, Stella and Me, Italian Vogue, July 1995
Romney Marsh and Other Churches, talk delivered to the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust, 1996
Review of Sassoon: The Worlds of Philip and Sybil by Peter Stansky, Spectator, 12 April 2003
Animal Portraits, Country Living Magazine, February 1992
OFTOF, Spectator, 7 February 2004
Conservative?, Daily Telegraph, 2 September 1993
Debate at the Cambridge Union, Spectator, 7 February 2004
Deportment, Spectator, 14 June 1986
Christmas at Chatsworth, Country Life, October 2005
Review of The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home by Peter Mandler, The Times, 17 April 1997
Cold Houses, Harper’s & Queen, January 1987
Home to Roost, Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2006
The unpublished pieces, unless otherwise stated, are new.
Newly Laid
Once again, I am deeply grateful to my son-in-law, Will Topley, for creating wonderful drawings to illustrate the newest pieces in this book. However, this has also been a chance to revisit the pictures he did for Counting My Chickens and give them the space they deserve. I thank Richard Baldwyn for introducing me to the marvellous story of Charlie Cavendish in his ringside seat at the Cappoquin boathouse. I shall always be indebted to Richard and his account has now been added to the Chatsworth archive. I also thank my friend Ron Duggins, who came out of retirement to cheer me up on a dismal winter day with his skill behind the lens. He has photographed Andrew and me for more years than any of us care to remember and at all manner of local events, but none better than his brilliant photo for the cover of this book.
Two of the three pieces have previously appeared in publications as below.
‘“Uncle Matthew” at The Lady’, The Lady, 15 February 2011 Review of Beautiful Chickens: Portraits of Champion Breeds by Christie Aschwanden, Spectator, 5 March 2011
1 See here.
2 Harold Macmillan and his wife, Lady Dorothy, née Cavendish, daughter of the 9th Duke of Devonshire.
3 Peter Mandelson, MP for Hartlepool. His grandfather was Herbert Morrison, created Lord Morrison in 1959, Labour MP and Home Secretary in Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition government.
4 Love from Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford, ed. Charlotte Mosley (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993).
5 Chairman of Sotheby’s and picture expert. Since 1986 he has appeared regularly as a valuation specialist on the television programme Antiques Roadshow.
6 The occupant of 38 Bryanston Square was South African magnate Sir Abe Bailey.
7 Fine Elizabethan house built by Bess of Hardwick and architect Robert Smythson between 1591 and 1597. The property came into the Cavendish family through her marriage to Sir William Cavendish and was taken by the government as part payment of death duties following the death of the 10th Duke of Devonshire in 1950.
8 Outstanding and much loved grey steeplechaser, who, since his retirement from racing in 1991, makes popular celebrity appearances.
9 David Ashby, MP for Leicestershire NW 1983–97, had shared a hotel bed with a male friend whilst on holiday, as an economy measure. Both denied any homosexual relationship.
10 Elizabeth Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1527–1608). Married as second husband Sir William Cavendish who purchased the estate of Chatsworth. Widowed in four marriages, she inherited her successive husbands’ estates and indulged her passion for building, including a house on the site of the present Chatsworth, and Hardwick Hall.
11 Pamela Jackson, née Mitford, sister of Deborah Devonshire.
12 Kathleen Kennet, sculptor. Married (1) Captain R. E. Scott of the Antarctic (2)1st Lord Kennet.
13 Henry Yorke, novelist under the pseudonym Henry Green.
14 James Pope-Hennessy, biographer. Murdered 1974.
15 Patrick Leigh Fermor (1915–2011). Writer, traveller, war hero and polymath.
16 Xan Fielding (1918–91). Heroic wartime secret agent and author.
17 An expression borrowed from the late Lord Annan.
18 Deborah Devonshire’s first book, The House: A Portrait of Chatsworth, published in 1982 by Macmillan, was commissioned by Harold Macmillan, Andrew Devonshire’s uncle by marriage, who became chairman of his family’s publishing firm after retiring from politics.
19 Wilton’s in Jermyn Street.
20 Narkover, the school in Beachcomber’s Daily Express ‘By The Way’ column, specialised in gambling, racing and extortion.
21 Richard Baldwyn, Only Yesterday – Times of My Life (Kendal & Dean, 2008).
Also by Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire
The House: A Portrait of Chatsworth (1982)
The Estate: A View from Chatsworth (1990)
Farm Animals (1991)
Treasures of Chatsworth: A Private View (1991)
The Garden at Chatsworth (1999)
Counting My Chickens and Other Home Thoughts (2001)
Chatsworth: The House (2002)
The
Duchess of Devonshire’s Chatsworth Cookery Book (2003)
Round About Chatsworth (2005)
Memories of Andrew Devonshire (2007)
Home to Roost and Other Peckings (2009)
Wait for Me!: Memoirs (2010)
Letters from Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, Are Included In:
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (2007)
In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor (2008)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2001, 2009, 2011 by Deborah Devonshire
Illustrations copyright © 2001, 2009, 2011 by Will Topley
Introduction to Counting My Chickens copyright © 2001 by Tom Stoppard
Introduction to Home to Roost copyright © 2009 by Alan Bennett
All rights reserved
Distributed in Canada by D&M Publishers, Inc.
Originally published in 2011 by John Murray (Publishers), Great Britain
Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2011
Counting My Chickens was first published in 2001 by Long Barn Books, Great Britain, and in 2002 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.
Home to Roost was first published in 2009 by John Murray (Publishers), Great Britain.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011933641
ISBN: 978-1-4299-6726-6
www.fsgbooks.com