The subtitle reads: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England. This is a true tale of what could happen to the fictional characters on Downton Abby which has become a national pastime as the program nears its long and successful run. But, there is no happy ending to the story of the Fitzwilliam dynasty or to the fate of their magnificent home which should have been a national treasure. Wentworth House, the largest familial home in England was larger than Buckingham Palace. The story of its history and that of the Fitzwilliam Earls and their heirs could be turned into its own t.v. serial. Catherine Bailey amazingly finds much to mine in her telling of this ill-fated family, despite the fact that the heirs systematically destroyed most family records, and what they didn't destroy, the war did. Nevertheless, Bailey writes a fascinating account of the history of this great white elephant of a house with its five miles of corridors, its 1000 windows and its hundreds of servants necessary to cater to the comings and going of the hoi-pollloi who lived and entertained in such splendor. Guests were regularly given bowls of confetti to spread behind them, like Hansel and Gretel, so they could find their way back to their rooms. There was no indoor plumbing for many years, so pity the poor servants whose job it was to carry vats of hot water back and forth through that labyrinth, along with other unmentionables.
Concomitant with the story of the Earls Fitzwilliams, is the story of the wretchedly poor mining community which was part of the great Yorkshire holdings of the family. Half of the book is devoted to their daily life and the hideous conditions under which they lived. Leading up to World War I, the threat of miners striking was constant, and sadly the government whether Tory or Labour sided with the mine owners which by this time were no longer the old aristocracy but rather coal owning corporations. It was unfortunate that the public equated the Miners' unions with communism and there was little sympathy in Parliament for the striking miners. By 1926 they were driven by starvation and poverty to return to work, but by this time, dependence on imported coal insured that many miners never worked again. Childhood mortality during this period totaled 250 out of 1000 died from disease and poor nutrition.
One of the last Fitzwilliam earls was Peter, an only son who after a wild and profligate youth became a well-respected and daring hero in World War II. His involvement with Kick Kennedy, sister of President John Kennedy is part of the story of the final days of the Fitzwilliam family and Wentworth House. Katherine Kick Kennedy was an Anglophile whose husband, the Marquis of Hartington and Devonshire heir, was killed in the war. Her relationship with his friend, Peter Fitzwilliam, fills the final chapters of the book. Their story along with the sad travails of Wentworth House and it's fate after the war meld to illustrate the demise of the aristocratic way of life that had existed throughout the Victorian era. While Wentworth House remained in the family after the stock market crash while many other estates were being sold off, it could not survive the War years and the vendetta carried out by the Ministry of Fuel and Power to break the family's ties to the house. Unnecessary strip mining consuming all in its path including the famous Fitzwilliam gardens, put a final end to an era and way of life that is only left to the ghosts of the past or avidly watched programs like Downton Abby.
I highly recommend this book to all who have an interest in the social history of England between 1902 and the 1950s.
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