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Montacute, Somerset

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Montacute is a grand Elizabethan house in Somerset showing all the fantastical decoration so typical of that theatrical age. Later in history Montacute was to be the setting for a story which illustrates how much leadership changed between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries. The sixteenth century required its leaders to be larger than life figures, inspiring dreams of greatness and conquest. Warfare was a fairly constant business, and the dramatic monarch was a figurehead in this endless struggle. In the twentieth century colourful figures were still required in wartime, but in the words of A.N. Wilson: "from the resignation of Lloyd George until the appointment of Winston Churchill in 1940, the British prime ministers were a succession of nonentities." (After the Victorians P242) Andrew Bonar Law succeeded Lloyd George as prime minister in 1922, only to be diagnosed with cancer in May 1923, and immediately resign. He died on the 30th of October and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the first prime minister to be buried there since Gladstone. This allowed Asquith to make a joke about the Unknown Prime Minister being laid to rest near the tomb of the Unknown Warrior. The dramatic figure of foreign secretary Nathaniel Curzon, a Marquess and former viceroy if India, seemed to have Law's approval as a successor. Curzon himself thought that the announcement of his appointment to the top job was a formality. He waited at Montacute, which he had leased in 1916, loving its links with an age of heroic leadership. Curzon waited for nothing so banal as a telephone call. Instead he waited for a policeman to take time out from catching criminals to cycle to his house with a telegram from His Majesty's secretary. The telegram arrived on Whit Monday 1923 while Curzon was mowing the Montacute lawns. He set off for London already discussing possible cabinet appointments with his wife. But getting to London he was told that Stanley Baldwin, an industrialist from the west Midlands, who had been sacked from his Cambridge debating society for never speaking, had been made prime minister. Curzon never really recovered from the shock and died in 1925. Times had changed. Curzon's aristocratic background was now a positive disadvantage: associating himself with a great symbol of an old form of leadership, Montacute, was part of his downfall.

The house itself contains a wide collection of objects, and paintings. Montacute is a regional partner of the National Portrait Gallery, and displays on permanent loan over fifty Tudor period portraits in the Long Room. The formal gardens have been recreated in the style of Tudor times with mixed borders, old roses and topiary. Beyond the formal garden there is a landscaped park offering opportunities for walking and picnicking. Dogs are welcome in the park. The estate also includes a Norman castle and an eighteenth century look out tower.

Opening Times: The house and gardens are open every day except Tuesday from 15th March to 2nd November 11am - 5pm. The garden remains open 5th November to 21st December ,Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 4pm.The park is open daily all year. There is a shop and a cafe.

Directions: Montacute is four miles west of Yeovil off the A3088. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Montacute.

Access: wheelchairs are available for hire, and in the house the great hall is accessible. Beyond that access is limited. There are adapted toilet facilities. The shop and restaurant are accessible. In the grounds there is a planned route for visitors with mobility problems. A motorised wheelchair is available to tour the ground: booking is essential.

Contact:

telephone: 01935 823289

e-mail: montacute@nationaltrust.org.uk