Byline: Jill Tunstall
IT'S probably safe to say that not many people would turn down
the opportunity to live in a Scottish palace, opting instead to live in
a house. But to The Marchioness of Linlithgow Bryngwyn is more than a
house.
Born Auriol Mackeson-Sandbach, and brought up in a cottage on the
estate of the gothic mansion of Hafodunos Hall, on the edge of the
Clywdian Hills, near Llangernyw, Lady Linlithgow was faced with a
difficult choice when she married her second husband The Marquess of
Linlithgow.
Only a couple of years before, in 1985, she had inherited the
remaining Mackeson-Sandbach estate of Bryngwyn, at Llanfyllin, near
Oswestry, bought by her great-great grandfather in 1813. Her home estate
of Hafodunos had been sold as had a third, the Old Hope estate in
Jamaica, to settle crippling death duties her parents had faced in the
post-war years.
Bryngwyn, the house her late mother Geraldine had grown up in, had
been boarded up for more than half a century. As a child Auriol had
stayed there in a nearby cottage during school holidays, and remembers
creeping into the lovely red brick house, lifting its dust sheets and
exploring hidden treasures brought back by three generations of
collectors.
So, the choice was this. Would she sell the house that her mother
so desperately hoped would one day be restored, and live in the vast
Versailles-like Scottish palace, modestly named Hopetoun House with her
husband. Or should she stay in Wales?
She decided on both. So great was her ``hiraeth'' - that
deep, emotional longing for Wales - that she could not give up the house
and for the past 12 years has commuted between West Lothian and
Bryngwyn. The initial five years were spent in making the house
habitable.
It is still not finished - ``it never will be'' - but
Lady Linlithgow's photograph album shows an unrecognisable building
where walls have fallen to dry rot and woodworm, where wallpaper peels,
floorboards rot and piles of rugs and carpets line hallways and rooms
crammed with 250 years of family history.
A tour of Bryngwyn today reveals elegant rooms, with outstanding
views over gardens alive with fiery autumn colours and a shimmering lake
dug by Napoleonic prisoners. Manicured parkland alongside a sweeping
drive is alive with pheasants.
Plans to hire the house out for weddings and functions and even to
provide decidedly upmarket BB are bound for success. Few landladies
are so well heeled and few guesthouses or hotels, come to that, offer
such stunning surroundings.
TALL, blonde and striking with pale grey eyes, Lady Linlithgow, 59,
settles herself down on a trunk bearing the title Maj Gen AE Sandbach,
once transported around the world by her grandfather, who inherited the
house in 1903, and was a veteran of campaigns in Africa, India and
Egypt. It is he who was responsible for the unusual treasures that now
fill the billiard room.
Frightening looking spears, human thigh bones used as drumsticks in
Tibetan rituals, a huge python skin from the Bhutan and ancient firearms
- ``one of the guns was discovered to be loaded when it went for
renovation'' - and trunks full of military uniforms make this
a very personal museum.
On the billiard table the head of a crocodile-like creature awaits
a visit from a taxidermist, as do the heads and horns of sheep or goats
that Lady Linlithgow believes may have come from the Himalayas.
They like nearly everything else that could be salvaged from the
house when she came to it will eventually be restored. It is a labour of
love in ever sense.
``When I inherited the house nearly everything in it was
rotten,'' she explains. ``Pictures, china, clothes, letters .
. .
``We used to come in when I was child, I absolutely fell in love
with it. It was like something from a fairy story, all shut up and
looked so sad with cobwebs everywhere and every sort of rot.
``It was both daunting and exciting to inherit it and was a
terrific challenge. My mother told me there was no rush to do it, but I
thought if we were going to do it we needed to do it soon. Everything
had to be taken out. Slowly I've been having it all
restored.''
Meanwhile she has started a collection of her own. There are few
kitchens in Wales that boast an exhibition of Welsh contemporary art
like Bryngwyn's.
``I started collecting because everything had come to a full stop
in 1928 when my grandfather died and I felt it was very important to
collect something of your own era. I love Wales and I started to collect
works of art,'' she explains. ``First of all by Kyffin
Williams, who I think is a very talented and splendid man then others
such as Peter Prendergast and Iwan Bala. There are very many works I
would like, particularly Kevin Sinnot. And I've become friendly
with many of the artists.''
In doing so she is following a family tradition. ``Certainly
there's a history of patronage in our family. We were patrons for
the sculptor Tom Gibson. My grandparents collected, including doors and
furniture, some of which came here from Ireland. My mother and father
probably not because they were affected by the war.
``So it would be very sad not have anything of this era because a
house cannot live in the past, it has to be dynamic and vibrant and
reflect the times we live in.''
The billiard room - which she describes as ``a boys
room'' - demonstrates this philosophy perfectly. The shields,
guns, spears and lamps made from German WW1 shells, sit surprisingly
well inside walls painted deep terracotta. Kilim rugs and cushions, on
top of her grandfather's trunks give a contemporary feel too.
Of her decision to remain in Wales and not live full time with her
husband in his magnificent house, she says: ``It's difficult when
you get married to give up something like this and we both understand
that. My husband loves this houseand I love his. But this is my
spiritual homeland.'' Tutored at home by a governess then sent
away to boarding school, she hankered after her homeland even as a
child, she recalls. But, in the 1960s, she left for New York where she
worked as a store model.
``That was very much against my father's wishes,''
she smiles. ``But afterwards I worked first for an old masters gallery
then for Sothebys before running my own agency.''
In 1970 she married SirJohn Ropner, moving to his vast Georgian
mansion in Yorkshire. It was at this time that the sound of a Welsh
choir would have her pining for Wales. ``It still moves me to
tears,'' she says.
RETURNING to Wales in 1985 she needed to find a job to help fund
the restoration of Bryngwyn's ten bedrooms and seven reception
rooms, whose 350 acre estate is too small even to finance it, and was
taken on by Sothebys as their representative in Wales.
It was and is the perfect job. As well as representing the
company's VIP customers she gets to track down pieces for clients,
ensuring another, albeit vicarious, outlet for her collecting passion.
She has worked on the forthcoming Sotheby's Welsh sale which will
be held in London on November 20 and features works of art from some of
her favourite artists - yet more temptation - as well as unusual items
such as a chair from a sale at Llanrwst's Gwydir Castle, the skulls
and horns of an ox from a coming of age party for Charles Morgan of
Tredegar in 1830 and land documents relating to the famous Ladies of
Llangollen.
``I think Welsh contemporary art is thriving, we have some very
talented artists but it's undervalued by the general public outside
Wales,'' she says. ``We hope by having this sale in London we
will attract ex-pat Welsh and stir their own hiraeth.'' If
they experience anything like the tug on their heart strings that Lady
Linlithgow herself has felt the sale should do very well indeed.
L Lady Linlithgow can be contacted at Sotheby's Welsh office:
01691 648647 or Linlithgow @Bryngwyn.fsbusiness.co.uk
CAPTION(S):
BOND: It is easy to see why parting with the house and grounds was
never a real option; ART AND SOUL: The Marchioness of Linlithgow is
picking up where her grandfather left off, adorning the house with
contemporary art such as the bust of Kyffin Williams or paintings by
Peter Prendergast (behind Lady Linlithgow in main picture) and Sue
Williams (left)
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