Castle Howard: Frozen Styles

At Castle Howard one is struck by the grandeur of the architecture and the richness of the décor. Columns, paintings, furnishings and gardens, all are constructed to the highest quality. Yet few houses today are built to, or filled with, these styles. It is not just a matter of scale, but of taste. Castle Howard and most of its contents are rather dated. Those couches would look ridiculous in my terraced house, and few modern builders would bear the expense of so many carvings and ornaments. The chairs, though grand, look uncomfortable, and the fireplaces, though marble, appear ill-designed to heat those large, high-ceilinged rooms. It all looks good, but I would not deign to live there. Little wonder that the house’s owner, the thirteenth Earl of Carlisle, elects to live at his lesser known Cumbrian property, Naworth Castle.

Somehow, heaven will be far grander than Castle Howard, but without the old and dated furnishings, the tired styles and impractical arrangements. Palatial, but without the silliness; grand, but with exquisite taste and self control. Heaven will be no frozen time warp; it will be timeless, yet always new.