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The House and Gardens of Mount Stewart, County Down, Northern Ireland.
When Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry, came to the Neoclassical mansion of Mount Stewart on the shores of Strangford Lough in 1921 as chatelaine, her husband’s family had owned the property since 1744. Unfortunately, the rambling home and extensive gardens had been long neglected and were dark and damp with only one bath! Edith completely fell in love with both the house and the gardens and described them as being in the “Land of Heart’s Delight”. Very quickly she began to decorate and modernise the home and she transformed the 80 acres of unkempt grounds into exotic gardens where rare plants and flowers from all over the world flourished under her tender care.
Edith had great style and was both bold and adventurous using bright colours and palettes, incorporating contemporary fabrics and individual pieces of furniture she completely restored the once sad and unloved mansion into a spectacular home. Lavishing love and attention on her marriage and husband as well as the home and gardens the couple hosted many flamboyant parties where Edith would be seen in the latest fashions and her husband dressed possibly in one of the many irish mens sweaters that his wife may well have bought for him from a company like https://www.shamrockgift.com/aran-sweaters/mens-aran-sweaters/ .
Their glamour and style drew royalty and politicians to the home and even Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald attended one such soiree! Edith and her daughter Lady Mairi gifted Mount Stewart to the National Trust and visitors can still enjoy the home and gardens today.
