Cheynings

Cheynings

Country seat of the Marquess of Ashart.
Location, Surrey near Woking.

Dowager -- Ash's grandmother -- lived there for 60 years and let the place run down as she spent her money on her obsession with the Stuarts.

Enter between stone pillars, up tree lined drive which is "quite short." There's a portico.

Featured in A Most Unsuitable Man, Jan 1764.
Venetian Masquerade there to show off restorations, summer 1764 (A Lady's Secret).

Hall -- great marble hearth, black and white tiled floor.
From the top of the stairs, through arch into ante room into open space called the Royal Saloon. Contains the portrait gallery. Has a skylight.

Turn right through arch into the east wing.

East wing contains the earl's suite of rooms, the Hunt Room (contains pictures of hunting) and the Little Library.
Bedchamber -- thick carpet, hangings of gold brocade with coat of arms. Painted wallpaper from China. Some panelling for a servants' door is concealed there.

West wing -- more bedchambers. One is the Blue Room.

Library on ground floor.
Dining room on ground floor.

Dowager's suite of rooms on ground floor to left of hall.
Dressing room/bedchamber/drawing room/dining room/estate office.

Housekeeper: Mrs Knightly "sturdy, grim faced".
Coachman: Hockney.

Gardens. Roses, statues.
"They were passing between the house and an arrangement of bare trees interspersed with ivy-dressed statues. 'The Grecian Grove.' Saw an ugly extension to the house." A conservatory. Facing south.

Estate. Run down mill.