Of Downton Abbey, Elizabethan Dresses, & the Biltmore Estate

Winter is  over and spring has come...


The second season of Downton Abbey is over until the third season returns next winter.






I am still thinking of that house. Well, maybe "house" isn't the right word, as it was filmed at Highclere Castle in England.

Highclere today with modern furnishings

Although I don't remember seeing this room featured in the series, isn't this library fantastic?

and those dresses

How I would love to visit, but this American girl can't swing an overseas trip right now.

The closest thing we have in the US to a castle like this is the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, one of my happy places. I've been there four times in my lifetime.

This was the country getaway of George Washington Vanderbilt the Third and his wife, Edith. They had one daughter, Cornelia, who was something of a rebel. When she grew up, she changed her name, moved to Europe, and never returned to her childhood home, even for her mother's funeral. It was said she disappeared because she intensely disliked the limelight. Very little is known of her life after she left the US.

She did marry and had two sons, George and William. After her death, the two sons divided the estate into two parts, with George developing the family's dairy, Biltmore Farms, into a successful real estate development firm, and William taking charge of the Estate, which he still operates today.

 Even though you can't take photos inside, these came from postcards. And these below we took photos from the veranda and the exterior

Sitting out here, it's hard to imagine why Cornelia would have left and never come back.

 

 

We were here on an unseasonably cool weekend in July. We had a weekend pass to visit the big house as often as we wanted, so we had spent one day sightseeing and decided to go for a quick tour through the house before it closed. 

Most of the visitors had already left for the day. We went very quickly through the house (which still took about 45 minutes), then went out to this veranda near the main staircase. It was about 75 degrees and there were large fans blowing cool air into the open doors. 

We sat in the chairs, relaxed, and gazed at the view. It's one of my happiest memories. It was the last vacation I took with my mother before she passed away a year later.

 

 

Standing here, looking over the grounds which stretch for miles, I feel a little like Lizzie Bennet when she saw Pemberley for the first time and said: "And of this place, I might have been mistress."

 Above is the view of the estate winery, as viewed from the Biltmore Inn.




Here is the exterior of the winding staircase:

 which was inspired by the Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire seen below:

...and a shot of the full exterior of Waddesdon Manor:


Even though the Biltmore is more closely modeled on French chateaus than English castles, it stands as the closest example I know of to a castle in the United States. I know I feel like a princess when I am there.