{"id":16611,"date":"2022-11-05T09:30:35","date_gmt":"2022-11-05T08:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesandantiques.com\/?p=37127"},"modified":"2022-11-05T09:44:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T08:44:12","slug":"take-a-tour-of-port-eliot-in-cornwall","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/homesantiques\/rss_feed\/take-a-tour-of-port-eliot-in-cornwall\/","title":{"rendered":"Take a tour of Port Eliot in Cornwall"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Janet Gleeson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Saturday, 05 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Here and there damask wall hangings have faded to the mottled shades of setting plaster. Books are haphazardly piled beneath an exquisite 17th-century Dutch cabinet and rare Van Dyck portraits peep out from the mad encrustations on a neo-baroque frame.<\/p>\n

Nearby, a couple of psychedelic surfboards are propped in a corner, and an extravagantly scaled flower and feather-garlanded chandelier, made by set designer Michael Howells, is suspended amid the classically restrained proportions of a room designed by Sir John Soane.<\/p>\n

Such seemingly incongruous ingredients sum up the whacky appeal of Port Eliot: \u2018It\u2019s a family home, not a museum,\u2019 says Ruth Goodland, Port Eliot\u2019s guide, in explanation. \u2018And the family still live here and love it as it is.\u2019<\/p>\n

She could add that what makes Port Eliot special is that it\u2019s a house that has broadly escaped modernisation, where monastic remnants, Regency grandeur and a sprinkling of 21st-century arts comfortably coexist.<\/p>\n

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Under the same sprawling roof you\u2019ll find traces of a floor that dates back to AD300, when Port Eliot was a thriving monastery. (The house thus lays claim to being England\u2019s oldest inhabited building.)<\/p>\n

Not far away there\u2019s a controversial mural on the walls of a neoclassical interior designed by Sir John Soane. \u2018Some people love it, but others think it\u2019s dreadful,\u2019 says Lucy Walker, events manager. Either way, it\u2019s impossible not to be astonished.<\/p>\n

In most practical senses, Port Eliot is out of sync with the modern world. There are 11 staircases, 82 chimneys and half an acre of roof. But there are only 11 radiators to heat the 124 rooms, and in them little has changed over the past two centuries.<\/p>\n

The green wallpaper lining the Lobby was made in the 1800s using arsenic. \u2018We were told by the late Earl that no one had ever died, but not to go licking it,\u2019 says Ruth.<\/p>\n

The medieval cellars were remodelled in the 19th century into an array of service rooms. Opening off a wide central corridor a Scullery, China Closet, Lamp Room, a Still Room and a Carpenter\u2019s Closet remind you of the numerous staff who once lived and worked here.<\/p>\n

In the main kitchen, which is still used by the Eliot family, the Esse oven dates back to c1900. The dishes in the porcelain cupboard are still used at dinner. \u2018I wouldn\u2019t dare to ask anyone to pass me the potatoes \u2013 the china is so valuable,\u2019 says Lucy.<\/p>\n

Threadbare carpets and frayed bed hangings apart, the powerful imprint of the Eliots, who moved in after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and whose lives and loves shape every room, remains indelible. The word \u2018democracy\u2019 is said to have first been coined by Sir Thomas Elyot, a courtier amongst Henry VIII\u2019s retinue, whose portrait hangs in the Lobby.<\/p>\n

Of all the characters in this remarkable family, it\u2019s hard to surpass Peregrine, 10th Earl of St Germans, who died aged 75 last year. \u2018He was knowledgeable, hospitable and bohemian and loved the house,\u2019 says Ruth.<\/p>\n

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The 10th Earl was something of a Byronic rebel: he founded the Port Eliot festival, inviting stars of music, literature and food to perform. He also parked his Harley-Davidson in the Round Room, where he left his most dramatic mark.<\/p>\n

Considered to be one of Sir John Soane\u2019s masterpieces, the room served as a junk store until, in the 1980s, Peregrine commissioned the artist Robert Lenkiewicz to decorate it.<\/p>\n