It was cold and slightly bleak at Boughton where we went to see the Huguenot exhibition, but still wonderful as one comes out of the roads and villages of Northamptonshire into the secret grandeur of the estate with its great, architecturally cool, French house:-

The arrival of the Huguenots and their impact on architecture, style, printing, silk weaving, paper making and journalism makes more sense in the context of a house where Ralph Montagu, the first Duke, was able to make good use of skilled French labour in London after his service as ambassador in Paris.

According to Voltaire, half a million Protestants left France as refugees after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.   Around 25,000 settled in London, not just in Soho and Spitalfields.   They included artists and silversmiths and set up one of the early Academies in the 1720s.

We were able to wander round the ground gloor, admiring the Van Dyck sketches, the boudoir with its decorative panels by Marot, the copper saucepans in the old kitchen, while Melvyn Tan played the harpsichord:-

We ended with an impromptu performance of Schumann:-