Editing Althorp (section)

====Ground floor====

=====Wootton Hall and saloon=====
[[File:The Stair Case at Althorp House 1822.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The staircase at Althorp House]]

Wootton Hall is the grand hall entrance on the central south side of Althorp house. "Perfectly proportioned" with a two-storey high ceiling, it was cited by Sir [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] as "the noblest Georgian room in the county".{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=13}} It takes its name from the painter [[John Wootton]] who was commissioned by the family in 1733 to paint a number of massive paintings in his Marylebone studio to reflect the family's love of equestrian pursuits, particularly fox hunting. At the time, Wootton was considered to be the finest painter of horses in the country.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=13}} The paintings still hang on the walls. The hall has a substantial collection of artefacts collected over the years. Aside from the hall porter's chair, there is a dozen or so lavish-looking hall chairs, one of which is a sedan chair, rediscovered in the stable block in 1911, which had once been in Spencer House.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=14}}

A prominent feature of the Wootton Hall is its pair of Italian black and Beschia marble blackamoor [[torchère]]s, originally given to the First Duke of Marlborough as a present from General [[Charles Churchill (British Army general)|Charles Churchill]]. In exceptionally good condition, they stand either side of the door into the saloon. These were discovered in the silt of the [[River Tiber]] and are depictions of slaves who once served in a Roman household.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=14}} Several flags stand above them, including the White Ensign. The ceiling is intricately made, featuring flowers in the plaster, each one different, the work of [[Colen Campbell]] in the early 18th century.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=14}} The black and white check marble floor is also a distinguishing feature of the room, but through most of its history this floor would have been left plain as horses and carriages would enter the hall inside.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=17}} In the mid-19th century Frederick, the 4th Earl, had laid down brown and blue tiles, replaced by the marble floor which was added by his son Robert in around 1910.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|pp=16, 108}} The floor gives significant depth to the hall and provides fine acoustics, so much that Diana would once practice her tap dancing in the hall as a teenager.<ref name="Wootton">{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-wootton-hall |title=The Wootton Hall |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627203834/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-wootton-hall |archive-date=27 June 2015 }}</ref>

Beyond the Wootton Hall is the saloon, which was converted from an inner courtyard and roofed in 1650 by [[Dorothy Spencer, Countess of Sunderland]].{{sfn|Spencer|1986|p=21}} The saloon was the first room at Althorp to have electricity installed, and it contains an imposing oak staircase, added in the 1660s.<ref name="Saloon">{{cite web|url=http://spencerofalthorp.com/rooms/the-saloon-and-the-spencer-gallery/|title=The Saloon and the Spence Gallery|publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com|access-date=20 May 2014}}</ref>{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=43}} Cosmo III noted Althorp's "spacious staircase of the wood of the walnut tree,{{efn|A likely error as the Spencers and other sources state the staircase is oak rather than walnut.}} stained, constructed with great magnificence; this staircase, dividing itself into two equal branches, leads to the grand saloon, from which is the passage into the chambers, all of them regularly disposed after the Italian manner, to which country the Earl was indented for a model of the design."{{sfn|Spencer|Dibdin|1822|p=34}} Historically, the staircase was painted white. It is described as being "surprisingly shallow and delightfully uneven – a physical manifestation of the long history of the house".<ref name="Saloon"/>

=====Sitting and drawing rooms=====
[[File:The west side of Althorp House from the Stables.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|View of the side of Althorp House from the stables]]

The south drawing room is at the front of the house on the West Wing. In earlier times the room had served as a dining room, despite it being about as far from the kitchen as possible.<ref name="South Drawing Room">{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-south-drawing-room |title=The South Drawing Room |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627102958/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-south-drawing-room |archive-date=27 June 2015 }}</ref> This section of the house was largely remodelled under Henry Holland,<ref name="Listed Althorp">{{cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-359990-althorp-house-althorp-northamptonshire |title=Althorp House, Althorp|publisher=British Listed Buildings|access-date=20 May 2014}}</ref> but it retains its Georgian elegance today, "gilded to within an inch of its life", with walls painted in a duck egg blue colour with forest green drapery and peach-patterned sofas.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|pp=11, 128}} A large mirror with an exquisite gold frame stands between the two windows. The fireplace was added by the [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]] [[stonemason]] [[Lancelot Edward Wood]] in 1802, and the ceiling by master builder [[Benjamin Broadbent (builder)|Benjamin Broadbent]] of Leicester in 1865.<ref name="Listed Althorp"/> The ceiling in the yellow drawing room,<ref name="Spencer1986">{{harvnb|Spencer|1986|page=6}}</ref> also known as the Rubens room because of its four [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] paintings,<ref name="King1989">{{cite book|last=King|first=Norman|title=Two royal women|url=https://archive.org/details/tworoyalwomen0000king|url-access=registration|date=1 April 1989|publisher=Wynwood Press|isbn=978-0-922066-06-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/tworoyalwomen0000king/page/36 36]}}</ref> is also attributed to Broadbent.{{sfn|Pevsner|Cherry|1973|p=81}} There are numerous paintings on the walls, including fifteen Joshua Reynolds portraits and a miniature portrait in one of the alcoves of Admiral [[Lord Nelson]], an associate of George John, Second Earl Spencer.<ref name="South Drawing Room"/> Although Higgerson, the night watchman, guarded the place from 8 pm to 8 am, in 1954 one of the lesser valuable paintings in the south drawing room was stolen in the night.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=10}}

The grandmother's sitting room is situated at the front of the eastern wing. It is noted for its deep blue hand-painted frescoes and formal furniture, and was the favourite room of Charles and Diana's grandmother, [[Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer]].{{sfn|Spencer|1998|pp=4–5}} Nearby was the Muniment room in which the Spencer family records were kept, described as a "musty apartment" which contained over 500 years of history, from medieval household accounts to letters from Jacobeans and accounts of Victorian house parties. The room was a favourite haunt of Spencer's grandfather, Albert Spencer, who would spend thousands of hours in it perusing over the family history. So guarded was he of the collection that when [[Winston Churchill]] once spent time in the room looking for information on his ancestor, [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough]] (1650–1722), Albert immediately doused out his cigar in fear of creating a fire.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=5}} The records were sold to the [[British Library]] in the 1980s, leaving the room empty, before it was converted to what is known as the "Steward's Room Flat".{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=141}} This part of the house once had an extensive collection of 1830s bull paintings by [[Richard Ansdell]].{{sfn|Spencer|1998|pp=142–43}}

The Sutherland room lies at the rear east wing of the house and was once the bedroom of the Earl of Althorp in the first few centuries of the house when it was fashionable for the occupants to sleep on the ground floor and guests to sleep on the first floor. This was still the case during the Holland restoration, and as a result the room was ignored, so it retains many of the earlier mouldings not seen in many other parts of the house.<ref name="Sutherland Room">{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-sunderland-room |title=The Sutherland Room |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406012538/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-sunderland-room |archive-date=6 April 2015 }}</ref> It contains two fireplaces made by John Vardy and James Stuart which were originally situated in Spencer House, and the room has the original 17th-century cornice. The paintings in the room were selected by the current owner Charles Spencer to honour John, Third Earl Spencer and his passion for foxhunting.<ref name="Sutherland Room"/> After it ceased usage as a bedroom, on special occasions the room would be full of life; on Christmas Day the room would be "transformed into a Christmas fairyland, with clockwork Santas, snowmen and angels all spinning and chiming in the candlelight". The children would have their places marked by a small cake with their names written on it in icing.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=115}}

The Marlborough room, which contains the great parlour, is named after [[Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough]],<ref name="Marlborough Room">{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-marlborough-room |title=The Marlborough Room |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627114425/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/unique-home/the-marlborough-room |archive-date=27 June 2015 }}</ref> and is situated next to the Sunderland room and at left angles to the library.{{sfn|Hill|Cornforth|1966|p=219}}{{sfn|Pevsner|Cherry|1973|p=80}} The Marlborough room served as an "uncomfortable" drawing room until the 1990s when a Victorian rosewood dining table accommodating for up to 42 people was added, with 'squiggle-back' chairs attributed to [[George Seddon (cabinetmaker)|George Seddon]] in 1800.<ref name="Marlborough Room"/> The new room was created after alterations were made to the large drawing room by the 6th Earl Spencer in 1911, including the removal of a dividing partition from the old billiard room.{{sfn|Country Life|1960|p=1188}}{{sfn|Gotch|1936|p=70}} Part of the restoration work attributed to the 7th Earl Spencer after 1957 includes a replacement of two Victorian chimney pieces in the Marlborough room with those from Spencer House, one which was crafted by [[Peter Scheemakers]].{{sfn|Pearson|2011|p=15}} Portraits by [[Thomas Gainsborough]], Joshua Reynolds, and [[George Romney (painter)|George Romney]], mostly of family members, adorn the walls, and accessions from the Spencer House are placed throughout.{{sfn|Country Life|1960|p=1188}}{{sfn|Kane|1986|p=208}}{{sfn|Reynolds|1955|p=141}}

<div style="text-align:center">
'''Examples of paintings at Althorp'''
<gallery mode="packed" heights="210">
File:Reynolds - Lavinia, Countess Spencer.jpg|''Portrait of Lavinia Bingham, Countess Spencer'' by [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]] (1781–1782)
File:Shorthorn bull portrait.jpg|''Shorthorn bull portrait'' by an unknown artist (before 1845)
File:Lady Georgiana Poyntz.jpg|''Portrait of Lady Margaret Georgiana Poyntz'' by [[Pompeo Batoni]] (c.1764)
File:Johnspencer1708.jpg|''The Hon. John Spencer (1708–1746), his son the 1st Earl Spencer (1734–1783) and their servant, Caesar Shaw'' by [[George Knapton]] (c.1744)
</gallery>
</div>

=====Dining rooms=====
The great dining room is situated in the east wing extension of the house and was added in 1877 under J. MacVicar Anderson during the time of the Red Earl. The room was inspired by the ballroom of [[Buckingham Palace]], with walls hung with faded, red damask silk.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=84}} The Spencers ate their regular meals in the tapestry dining room, an inner room of the east side to the east of the Wooton Hall. Aside from the two fine vividly constructed tapestries, one of gypsies and one of farming, the room is fairly bleak in design compared to other rooms in the house; the dining table is relatively small, with a drab grey floor and open brick fireplace dated in large letters to 1683.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=8}} The "sombre" oak panelling originally came from the family's other property of Wormleighton Manor in Warwickshire.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=9}}  Charles Spencer recalled that three generations of Spencers would eat their lunch together and that dining conditions were "silent, apart from the noises of my grandfather eating with great gusto, a napkin tucked in around his neck, hanging down over his popping-out tummy, and it was all very sad and tense".{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=7}}

=====Library=====
[[File:The Long Library at Althorp House 1822.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The Library in 1822]]

The ceiling of the original library at Althorp collapsed in 1773, and at the same time a new floor was put down in the Picture Gallery.{{Sfn|Spencer|1998|p=60}} Ionic columns and an Adam style ceiling were added.<ref name="Listed Althorp"/> George John's fascination in literature began at a young age and there is a Reynolds portrait in the house of him at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] holding a book By his later life, George John's collecting habit had become something of an obsession and he attempted to collect every volume ever published in Britain.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=72}} 
[[File:Thomas Frognall Dibdin.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Frognall Dibdin]], who became chief librarian of Althorp]]
The books were kept in five apartments in Althorp in the west wing, which, combined, formed the "Long Library" with books from the floor to the ceiling along much of its approximately {{convert|200|x|20|feet}} length. He not only collected British works but imported Greek and Latin classics, and in 1790, he acquired the collection of Count [[Charles de Revicksky]], paying an initial £1000, and then £500 annually until the count's death, only three years later.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=70}} George often paid great fees for rare books, including a woodcut of St Christopher dated to 1423, believed at that time to be the oldest work in ink with a date on it, the Papal Indulgence Letters of 1452, the Mazarin Bible of 1455, the Mentz Psalter of 1457, and some of the earliest works form the printing presses of [[Augsburg]] and [[Nuremberg]] such as ''Bonaventurae'' and ''Comestiorum Vitiorum''.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=72}} In 1812, George John was involved in an intense bidding war with his cousin, The Duke of Marlborough, for a copy of [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]]'s ''[[The Decameron]]'' of 1471, one of only three known copies. Marlborough won the auction with a bid of £2,260 – an amount described by Charles Spencer as "ludicrous" for that time – but he later sold it to George for £750.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=73}}

In 1802, George hired Reverend [[Thomas Frognall Dibdin]] as an official librarian to look after the collection and the library contains his many catalogues entitled ''Aedes Althorpianæ'', documenting the books of the library. The collection became so enormous that the massive library became inadequate to hold the contents, and books began being stored along the long picture gallery on the first floor above it.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=72}} By the time of George John's death in 1834, he had amassed one of the largest private collections in Europe of some 110,000 volumes.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=72}} Alcoves were added to the ends of the library during the Holland restoration, creating extra room for the growing collection.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=69}}

=====Billiard room=====
The [[billiard room]] is situated between the south drawing room and the library, and overlooks the deer park. Once known as the "Rubens room", the room was once described by Charles Spencer as a "dead space; desperately uncomfortable furniture, and Rubens's imposing portraits of several unattractive Habsburgs, against a tightly patterned silver silk, making it anything but welcoming".{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=147}} The room has now been "brought to life" with numerous horse and sporting paintings and portraits, including a dramatic portrait of [[Elisabeth, Empress of Austria]] hunting, and a full-sized billiard table moved from the stables in the 1990s.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|pp=85, 147, 150}}<ref name="Billiard Room">{{cite web|url=http://spencerofalthorp.com/rooms/the-saloon-and-the-spencer-gallery/|title=The Billiard Room|publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com|access-date=20 May 2014}}</ref> The chimney piece of the room was made by Derval under Holland,<ref name="Listed Althorp"/> and the room also contains an 1893 bronze sculpture of Forager, the Red Earl's favourite foxhound.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/forager |title=Forager |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520221540/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/forager |archive-date=20 May 2014 }}</ref> The Broadbent ceiling is dated to 1865.<ref name="Spencer1986"/>

=====China museum and porcelain=====
The old "painter's passage", parallel to the south drawing room, was renovated after the Second World War when glass cases were installed along its length to showcase the Spencer crockery, with a range of porcelain including [[Meissen porcelain|Meissen]], [[Manufacture nationale de Sèvres|Sèvres]], [[Kangxi transitional porcelain|Kangxi]], [[Chelsea porcelain factory|Chelsea]] and [[Royal Crown Derby|Derby]] pieces.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=135}} Charles Spencer remarked that his grandfather Albert was trying to say, "This part of Althorp will never be lived in again; so we may as well use it to show off the treasures in an orderly way".{{sfn|Spencer|1998|p=112}} Today, most of the collection has been moved to the China Museum which lies on the east side of the house, between the Sutherland room and the great dining room, and the passage now contains a series of busts and paintings in its place, including a self-portrait of [[Sofonisba Anguisciola]], and portraits of the dramatist [[Molière]] and the actor David Garrick. Charles Spencer highlights a pair of late 17th-century blue and white [[tulipiere]]s, special vases to hold tulips which were fashionable at the time, as his favourite in the museum.{{sfn|Spencer|1998|pp=137–39}}

The Garden Lobby of Althorp also contains a number of pieces of porcelain from reputable European manufacturers, but also several rare Oriental pieces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://spencerofalthorp.com/rooms/the-garden-lobby/|title=The Garden Lobby|publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com|access-date=20 May 2014}}</ref> Of note in the Garden Lobby aside from its many plates is a Sèvres tobacco jar with double strap handles, believed to be painted by [[Louis Jean Thévenet]] in 1765,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/sevres-pot-au-tabac |title=Sèvres pot au tabac |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520221607/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/sevres-pot-au-tabac |archive-date=20 May 2014 }}</ref> two Chelsea vases decorated with putti which metaphorically represent the four seasons, which the Red Earl had bought as a gift for his wife Charlotte,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/chelsea-vases |title=Chelsea vases |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520221519/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/chelsea-vases |archive-date=20 May 2014 }}</ref> an extremely finely carved Meissen flower bowl with hundreds of tiny gilded blooms which dates to around 1745,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/meissen-flower-bowl-and-stand |title=Meissen flower bowl and stand |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520221534/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/meissen-flower-bowl-and-stand |archive-date=20 May 2014 }}</ref> a Meissen card box, and a blue and gold cherubic Meissen chocolate set-for-one which was believed to have been made for [[Marie Antoinette]] in 1781 as a present celebrating the birth of her son Dauphin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/marie-antoinette-chocolate-set |title=Marie Antionette chocolate set |publisher=Spencerofalthorp.com |access-date=20 May 2014 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520221559/http://www.spencerofalthorp.com/heritage/object/marie-antoinette-chocolate-set |archive-date=20 May 2014 }}</ref>