Debo, Your Grace, the last of the Mitfords, and Mrs Cavendish- Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire would probably respond with equal aplomb to however she’s called. One of the most enjoyable articles I’ve read in World of Interiors, a very enjoyable publication, was that in this month’s issue, penned by Her Grace herself, on a restored vicarage that now functions as her dower house. Interesting, what was formerly my favorite article in World of Interiors was something from five years ago, about the Mayfair house the Duchess shared with the recently late Duke, that was soon to be put on the market.
I don’t know that I have any peculiarly inordinate fascination with English aristocracy, but certainly in the case of the dowager duchess, she is such an astonishing woman, avuncular, and down to earth, that anyone, even the most dyed in the wool republican, would find her at the very least engaging. With all that, her own familial connections joined with those of the Cavendish family result in a pedigree few on earth could ever match.
Just at the moment, with the family’s so-called attic sale scheduled for early next month at Sotheby’s, the focus is on their renowned Derbyshire country seat of Chatsworth, but the sale includes a huge number of items from Devonshire House, their London house long since demolished, designed in the early 18th century by the redoubtable William Kent.
Sotheby’s catalog for the upcoming sale, I must say, is worth whatever you have to pay for it. Whether you buy anything or not, the catalog itself is a compendious recounting of all the building works of the Cavendish family beginning as long ago as the Elizabethan prodigy house, Hardwick Hall.