Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in great condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The inheritor of fabulous riches and a friend of kings queens and princes politicians poets and artists he was nevertheless devoid of snobbery. Perhaps his closest friend and certainly his most notable prot?g? was Joseph Paxton his head gardener who designed fountains and conservatories that were to set the world agape and who crowned his achievements with the Crystal Palace. An inveterate host and indefatigable traveller the Duke was also a patron of verve and discrimination and one of the greatest collectors of his age. He never failed to return from his travels without some new objet for one of his houses – a sculpture by Canova perhaps or a rare first edition – and he transformed Chatsworth into a palace of spectacular grandeur. There or at Devonshire House he entertained lavishly when not fulfilling his duties as Lord Chamberlain confidant of Prime Ministers or conscientious landlord. Extravagant amusing and vastly eligible he conducted various amorous liaisons with skill and (on the whole) discretion and managed somehow in the face of considerable pressure to elude the snare of matrimony. (SP)