Exactly 100 years ago, the world of the British manor house was at its height. It was a life of luxury and indolence for a wealthy few supported by the labor of hundreds of servants toiling ceaselessly "below stairs" to make the lives of their lords and ladies run as smoothly as possible. It is a world that has provided a majestic backdrop to a range of movies and popular costume dramas to this day, including PBS' "Downton Abbey."
But what was really going on behind these stately walls? "Secrets of the Manor House" looks beyond the fiction to the truth of what life was like in these British houses of yesteryear. They were communities where two separate worlds existed side by side: the poor worked as domestic servants, while the nation’s wealthiest families enjoyed a lifestyle of luxury, and aristocrats ruled over their servants as they had done for a thousand years.
Ended
Secrets of the Manor House
January 22, 2012
July 14, 2013
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English
Step inside the home of the Dukes of Devonshire. On an estate the size of Washington, DC sits Chatsworth, home to the Dukes of Devonshire, one of the grandest aristocratic dynasties in England. The tales of intrigue, tragedy, and scandal of this great family are inextricably intertwined with those of the house itself, from the decadent life of the shockingly glamorous Duchess Georgiana, to the tumultuous love story between JFK's favorite sister Kathleen Kennedy and heir Billy Cavendish. Peregrine Cavendish, the 12th Duke of Devonshire, shares the history and some of the inner workings of this great house and grounds, one of England's largest private homes, which is "much more of a home than perhaps it looks from the outside... we're very lucky.
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