The Butterfly Effect

Hunting butterflies helped Charles Rothschild meet his wife and find a home. He first encountered Rózsika Edle von Wertheimstein, Hungarian aristocrat and champion lawn tennis player, on an entomological expedition to the Carpathian Mountains. They wed in 1907 and had four children, naming the youngest Pannonica after a rare moth. While chasing butterflies in the Northamptonshire countryside

Charles stumbled across an abandoned Elizabethan manor at Ashton Wold near Oundle; on enquiring about its owner he was told it belonged to a family who rarely had the need to sell property. That family turned out to be his own, and Charles went on to rebuild the estate and manage it for wildlife, particularly butterflies, and his daughter Miriam named the pretty pub on the green in Ashton, The

Chequered Skipper, after the species pictured. WALK HERE: Find a route from Oundle via Ashton at walk1000miles.co.uk/bonusroutes.

You can also stay on the Rothschild estate at

Ashton: ashtonestatecountryholidays.co.uk