BOUGHTON HOUSE

HX Suggested Reasons to Visit

This legendary Ducal seat is vast yet unostentatious, possessing a quiet magic all its own. Transformed by the 1st Duke of Montagu—a man with ‘a declared taste for all things French’—Boughton is home to magnificent Baroque state rooms, formal gardens of Versailles-inspired grandeur, and the historic Montagu Monuments. Step into centuries of aristocratic history and experience ‘The English Versailles.’

About

Boughton's grey walls and myterious courts push out in all directions as though it were the palace of Minos. Under the low and unadvernturous roofline, most of the fabric is in the simple vernacular style seen in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. Yet this merges into structures that are urbane and courtly: a rusticated gateway, a domed stable block; and most importantly, the principle facade that forms an open court. This front is the focus of Boughton's mystery: It is a Louise XIV chateau, transplanted to English soil - aptly known as 'the English Versailles'.

The estate's French connection emerged in 1683 when Ralph Montagu, later 1st Duke of Montagu and former British Ambassador to France, inherited Boughton. Drawing inspiration from his diplomatic service in Paris, he infused the house with elegant French architectural influences. The grounds, laid out on a grand scale with a lake, water gardens and broad avenues, were begun by the 1st Duke and extended by his son, who is said to have planted seventy miles of elm and lime. His only surviving child, Mary, mararied Lord Cardigan of nearby Deene Park, who was created Duke of Mantagu in 1766. Their heir, the cultivated Marquess of Mouthermer, travelled to Italy where he collected paintings, and was himself portrayed by Mengs and batoni before his early death in 1770. Boughton then devolved on his sister, Lady Elizabeth Montagu, who married the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, so the name and estates of Montagu joined those of the Douglas-Scott family. 

Today, Boughton stands proudly as one of the homes of Richard Montagu Douglas Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry; its preserved splendor a testament to centuries of careful stewardship by one of Britain's most prominent landowning families. 

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