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I was retained to dispose of Prebendal School close to the Church in Aylesbury,
upon the closure of the establishment. It must have taken two years and an appeal
to the Department of the Environment before achieving planning consent to convert
the house and its four acres into an office. The market at that time was in
no great shape and the eventual purchaser to come forward was Lady Roseberry
from Mentmore, who was looking for a 'smaller' house upon the death of Lord
Roseberry. After all the fighting to get a change of use to office purposes,
I then had to submit an application seeking to convert six thousand square feet
of offices to one dwelling house!. Lady Roseberry was a delight. She very kindly
invited me and my wife to lunch at Mentmore Towers, just prior to Sotheby's
sale of the contents. We were to arrive at ten thirty for a conducted tour of
the ground floor and, after lunch a comprehensive look at the upper level. Luncheon
was a memorable occasion for me sitting in such grand surroundings together
with Lady Roseberry's Lady in Waiting. Clad in white gloves, the butler and
maid ensured a smooth passage of food and drink. My interest was in trying to
steer the conversation back to Lady Roseberry's experiences. On one occasion
she was playing cards with King George V, when the butler had announced that
the Queens carriage had arrive "we'll she'll damn well have to wait, I
have an excellent hand" was the retort. At another time, in 1940 I think,
she was lunching with Winston Churchill and the First Lord of the Admiralty
; the disposition of the Home Fleet was the subject under review. Churchill
wanted it to remain in Scapa Flow and the First Lord of the Admiralty to base
it at Portsmouth. Churchill eventually conceded that the fleet could be moved.