Live like a lord... for just £560,000 aweek
No wonder the US store selling this break is dubbed ‘Needless Markups’
WITH their palatial rooms, astonishing art collections and breathtaking views, they are dream destinations for tourists visiting Britain.
And now visitors can spend a week as a private guest of the aristocratic owners of three of the nation’s most magnificent stately homes – if they can pay the eyewatering bill of more than £500,000.
The opportunity to sample life as a member of the nobility is being offered as a Christmas ‘fantasy gift’ by the brash American department store chain Neiman Marcus.
According to the company, those who pay $700,000 (£560,000) will find themselves and up to seven friends dining in style with the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, driving fast cars with the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House, and shooting at the Duke of Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle estate.
Promising a ‘week of luxe living’, the Texas-based firm says the recipient of the Christmas gift and their entourage will experience life ‘like a duke or duchess’.
Neiman Marcus, dubbed ‘Needless Markups’ by critics, adds: ‘Memories will be made all week long, with stories – and perhaps adopted British accents – to last a lifetime.’
Guests will be whisked from one historic estate to another by helicopter, enjoy sumptuous banquets prepared by leading chefs, and sleep in private quarters.
They will also be attended by butlers, be given exclusive tours of the houses’ stunning collections of Old Masters and other treasures, and wander in the extensive grounds.
After arriving in London – the deal does not include flights from abroad – the party will first be flown to the 900-year-old Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and driven to the ‘stately pile in a fleet of SUVs’ The Texas-based chain’s logo where ‘a Michelin-starred chef will prepare sumptuous feasts, taken in the grand dining room’. Now occupied by Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke, whose family have lived in the castle for more than 700 years, the building has starred in several episodes of Downton Abbey and as Hogwarts school in two of the Harry Potter movies. After a couple of nights, the next stop is the quintessentially English Wilton House, which dates from the 1540s and is set in 14,000 acres of the Wiltshire countryside. The building, which has appeared in numerous films including Mrs Brown, is graced by art and furniture by Old Masters such as Van Dyck and Rembrandt and cabinetmaker Chippendale. But one of the main attractions is the classic car collection built up by motor-racing fan William Herbert, the 18th Earl.
Another helicopter ride will take the guests to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough. The house was also the birthplace of Winston Churchill.
They will be greeted by Jamie Spencer-Churchill, the 12th Duke, who overcame a lengthy struggle with drug addiction before he inherited the 11,500-acre estate.
Experts said they had not come across a stately home tour on such a grand scale before. A spokesman for the Historic Houses Association, said: ‘With a backlog of urgent repairs at Britain’s historic houses, great and small, now standing at £480million and rising, our members would no doubt welcome these guests with open arms.’