Editing Chevening (section)

==History==
There has been a house on the site since at least 1199 and the estate originally formed part of the [[archiepiscopal]] manor of [[Otford]]. The present 15-bedroomed house is a three-storey, symmetrical red brick structure in the early [[English Palladian revival|English Palladian]] style, attributed to Inigo Jones, set at the foot of the [[North Downs]] in extensive parkland. A garden to the south encircles a human-made lake. The house was extended from 1717 by the addition of symmetrical wings by Thomas Fort, a master carpenter and royal clerk of works who had worked under [[Christopher Wren]] at [[Hampton Court]]. Much remodelled by the 3rd Earl Stanhope in the late 18th-century, the house was extensively restored in the 1970s by [[Donald Insall Associates]] for the Board of Trustees of the Chevening Estate.
	
For 250 years, the house was the principal seat of the [[earls Stanhope]], a cadet (and ultimately the final) branch of the [[earls of Chesterfield]], from 1717 to 1967. [[James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope]], was a general under [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough|Marlborough]] and a Whig politician who served as chief minister to [[George I of Great Britain|King George I]] until his death in 1721. Through marriage he was the uncle of [[William Pitt the Elder]]. [[Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope]], was tutored by the [[Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield|4th Earl of Chesterfield]] and became a distinguished patron of science during the Enlightenment. [[Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope]], both first cousin and brother-in-law to William Pitt the Younger, was a prolific inventor whose major achievements in such diverse fields as [[printing]], building a [[mechanical calculator]], [[steam navigation]], [[optics]], [[musical notation]] and fire-proofing in buildings were overshadowed at the time and subsequently by his reputation, as the self-styled "Citizen Stanhope", for eccentricity and political radicalism.
[[File:An engraving of Chevening by Johannes Kip (d.1722) after Thomas Badeslade (d.1742), published (in History of Kent) 1719 by John Harris.jpg|thumb|Stanhope's Chevening in a print by [[Jan Kip]] published in 1719, with a long [[garden canal]] at rear.]]

[[Lady Hester Stanhope]] was a traveller, writer and early archaeologist. Her half brother [[Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope]] was a gifted amateur landscape gardener and architect, and the legal guardian of [[Kaspar Hauser]]. [[Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope]], was the driving force behind the foundation of the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]] and the Historical Documents Commission: writing as Viscount Mahon he was a distinguished 19th-century historian and established the Stanhope Essay Prize at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]]. [[Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope]], was a Conservative MP before inheriting and served as First Ecclesiastical Estates Commissioner from 1878 to 1903. Both his brothers made their careers in politics. The Rt Hon [[Edward Stanhope]] (Conservative) was a reforming [[Secretary of State for War]] (1887–1892), while the [[Philip Stanhope, 1st Baron Weardale|1st Lord Weardale]] (Liberal) was president of the [[Inter-Parliamentary Union]] (1912–22) and of the [[Save the Children Fund]]. [[James Stanhope, 7th Earl Stanhope]] (also 13th Earl of Chesterfield), was a Conservative politician who held office almost continuously from 1924 to 1940, serving in Cabinet posts from 1936 under [[Stanley Baldwin|Baldwin]] and [[Neville Chamberlain|Chamberlain]]. He founded the [[National Maritime Museum]] at Greenwich.

{{anchor|Chevening Estate Act 1959|Chevening Estate Act 1987}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Chevening Estate Act 1959
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to confirm and give effect to a vesting deed and trust instrument relating to the Chevening Estate and other property, and for purposes connected therewith.
| year                  = 1959
| citation              = [[7 & 8 Eliz. 2]]. c. 49
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 9 July 1959
| commencement          = 9 July 1959
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = Chevening Estate Act 1987
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = amended
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/49/enacted
| use_new_UK-LEG        = yes
| UK-LEG_title          = Chevening Estate Act 1959
| collapsed             = yes
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Chevening Estate Act 1987
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to establish an incorporated board of trustees of the trusts contained in the trust instrument set out in the Schedule to the Chevening Estate Act 1959; to confer functions on, and to transfer property, rights and liabilities to, the board; to amend the trust instrument; and for purposes connected therewith.
| year                  = 1987
| citation              = [[List of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1987|1987]] c. 20
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 15 May 1987
| commencement          = 1 September 1987
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = Chevening Estate Act 1959
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = current
| use_new_UK-LEG        = yes
| UK-LEG_title          = Chevening Estate Act 1987
| collapsed             = yes
}}
Having no children of his own and his only brother having been killed in the [[Great War]], the last Earl Stanhope wished to create at Chevening a lasting monument to a family that had provided for two and a half centuries politicians across the political spectrum and no fewer than five fellows of the [[Royal Society]]. He therefore drafted what became the Chevening Estate Act 1959<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/49/contents| title = Chevening Estate Act 1959}}</ref> to ensure that the estate would not be broken up after his death, but would instead retain a significant role as a private house in public life. The ownership of the property would pass to a board of trustees, who would maintain it as a furnished country residence for a suitably qualified nominated person chosen by the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]]. The nominated person would have the right to occupy the house in a private capacity and would pay for their private living expenses. The board of trustees would maintain the house and estate by means of their stewardship of the estate, with no grant from the Government. The Act was passed with cross-party support and, as amended by the Chevening Estate Act 1987, governs the estate to this day. The first beneficiary of the Act was the 7th Earl, who died in 1967, following which the board of trustees launched a major programme of restoration of the house, gardens and parklands funded partly by his endowment and partly through their own management of the estate.<ref name='A House of Distinction'>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Michael |date=2011 |title=A House of Distinction}}</ref>

In 1974 [[Charles, Prince of Wales]], accepted the prospect of living on the estate. According to his biographer, [[Jonathan Dimbleby]] (for whom Prince Charles arranged access to unpublished royal diaries and family correspondence), at that time he was contemplating an eventual marriage to Hon. [[Amanda Knatchbull]], granddaughter of his great-uncle the [[1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma]]: "[I]n 1974, following his correspondence with Mountbatten on the subject, the Prince had tentatively raised the question of marriage to Amanda with her mother (and his godmother), [[Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma|Lady Brabourne]]. She was sympathetic, but counselled delaying mention of the matter to her daughter, who had yet to celebrate her seventeenth birthday."{{sfnp|Dimbleby|1994|p=263}} Amanda's paternal great-aunt had been Lady Eileen Browne, daughter of the 6th [[Marquess of Sligo]], whose childless marriage to the last Earl Stanhope led to Chevening's being designated by law as a potential home for a member of Britain's royal family. If Amanda were to become [[Princess of Wales]] by marriage, the Prince's acceptance of Chevening would make some familial sense. But this was not to be, although the Prince did visit the house several times. In a note of 24 April 1978 to his private secretary, Sir [[David Checketts]], Prince Charles observed, "I know there are advantages &mdash; particularly financial ones &mdash; in the Chevening set up, but I regret to say I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that they are the ''only'' advantages."{{sfnp|Dimbleby|1994|p=299}} In June 1980, Prince Charles wrote to the prime minister, [[Margaret Thatcher]], to renounce residency at Chevening (without actually having resided there). Weeks later, he purchased [[Highgrove House|Highgrove]] in [[Gloucestershire]]. By then, according to Dimbleby, Amanda Knatchbull, several of whose close family members had been recently murdered, had declined the Prince's proposal of marriage,{{sfnp|Dimbleby|1994|p=265}} and he would soon begin courtship of [[Lady Diana Spencer]].{{sfnp|Dimbleby|1994|p=279}}