I always love visiting Boughton – the sense of a French château lost in the Northamptonshire countryside; but I have never previously had the Duke’s tour which made sense of the complex history of the Montagus.

Sir Edward Montagu acquired the estate in 1528.

The 3rd. Sir Edward Montagu was made a peer in 1528.

After the Restoration, Ralph Montagu becomes Ambassador in Paris, develops Francophile tastes and builds Boughton – architect unknown – in the 1680s.  He became a Duke in 1705:-

John Montagu, the second Duke, was more of an aesthete, ‘a most amiable man’ according to Horace Walpole.

This is the north front attached to and wrapped around the Tudor hall:-

The inside full of wonderful things:-

And then we had a brisk walk round the gardens:-