There are two magnificent set pieces in James Pope-Hennessy’s quest for Queen Mary.
The first, mentioned yesterday, is his stay with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester at Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire. The second to stay with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at Le Moulin de la Tuilerie, not far from Paris. The mill was available to rent from the Landmark Trust – I was supposed to stay there last year until the pandemic scuppered our plans. I have missed my chance as the Landmark Trust lease has been terminated and the property is for sale.
Both visits are described in so much detail it would be possible to turn them into two one act plays; drawing room comedies. At the mill the Windsors don’t want a nosey American friend who is a journalist and gossip columnist to know the purpose of J P-H’s visit. They tell her he has come to catalogue her collection of faience but “Jamesy” struggles to maintain his cover. She is suspicious but never discovers he is researching a biography about Queen Mary.
He is no royal yes-man, so his opinion of the Duke can be taken as genuine. “ … he is not only the one member of the Royal family for whom one needs to make no allowances whatever but that he is exceedingly intelligent, original, liberal-minded and quite capable of either leading a conversation or taking a constructive part in one. He is also one of the most considerate man I have ever met of his generation. Like the Duchess, he is perhaps too open and trusting towards others; or else he was determined to be specially helpful to me.”
The duchess does not receive such high praise and the American journalist, Elsa Maxwell, is mercilessly lampooned.
Now I must get back to the Lutyens biography I keep putting down to veer down other paths.