Ainsley Harriot is descended from a Plantation Owner and a slave. So I guess that yes, sometimes, even the Plantation Owners have contributed to the good of the present day...

Don't be so bitter. And to talk of the Queen in that manner ain't nice. She may have her funny ways, be out of touch of real life, but she has given every single day of her life to her country, and you cannot fault her for that. No scandal, no retirement, and even now, I'm sure her work schedule is probably far greater than yours has ever been.

Her mother and father went out on the streets of London during the Blitz, often putting themselves in danger, because they wanted to connect to their people, to share with them, to try to inspire and help them.

They are not ALL bad people. They have lived their lives differently because of who they are, not because they have chosen that way of life....Some are dreadful, I agree, but not ALL.

Besides, this thread is about the palaces, not the people who own them. Today we are all free, for a smallish fee, to look around all the Palaces. I'd not give that freedom up for anything.   

Thank GOD we still have our Palaces, and that they are so well and so lovingly cared for by people with an absolute passion for preserving the past, for those in the present.

Thank GOD that they've not been handed over to a bunch of blood baying Parliamentarians who'd cover it all in Graffiti and Grunge, just to vent their bitter spleens on all they consider to have wronged them, from past to present...

And, I have to say that when in The Sealed Knot, I was all treated with the utmost civility by the lads on the Royalist side, whilst the Parliamentarians were rude and crude, and one took the 'rape and pillaging' a little too seriously at the end of one battle, almost rendering me unconscious as he dived at me, bringing me down to the ground at the speed of sound...

Nope, give me a man with a feather in his hat and an outstretched velvet gloved hand, offered in help, any day. The bucket heads can go and sit by their fire and mutter their bitterness around the flames, whilst I dance at Court with my lace rippling over my bodice...as I trip from Kitchen Maid to Lady in the blink of an eye....


Oh..and if ever you're in Castle Drogo, take a look at Lutyens kitchen design, which was designed with the absolute ease of the staff in mind, the most beautiful kitchen, light, airy and a good place to work...I'd not mind working in there today, but then I'm happy amongst Princes or Peasants...

It is not the bank balance of the Prince or the Peasant that matters, but the Soul of the man within...

It's not just Kings and Queens who can be Bastards and Bitches you know, for the Wizards and Witches and Witchfinder Generals can have their off days too....