So Julie Montagu the 41-year-old American Yoga instructor from Sugar Grove, Illinois on Ladies of London has kind of flown under the radar the first few episodes. In fact I think a lot of us were trying to figure out how she was cast on the show with London’s elite but this past Monday changed all that!
We saw that Julie may have been the most elite of all, at least in terms of London real estate.
The low key yoga instructor turns out to be royalty! She is known as Viscountess Hinchingbrooke (Lady Hinchingbrooke) and is married to Luke Montagu, the Viscount Hinchingbrooke heir to the Earl of Sandwich. AMAZING!
The family owns a breathtakingly beautiful estate known as the famous Mapperton House in Southwest England.
Mapperton has been deemed the Nation’s Finest Manor House by Country Life magazine. Not to mention it is so “pip, pip”, Donton Abbey adorable, it is beyond words!
The home is occupied by the Countess of Sandwich, the Earl of Sandwich, and their four grown-up children.
But unlike many other wealthy estates the royalty of the Mapperton property has chores!–especially ‘Bucket Duty’ since the manor leaks a lot.
Apparently living here is a full-time job.
The Daily Mail interviewed the hardworking Lady Sandwich about the quirky home:
Lady Sandwich first saw the house on a rainy winter’s evening in the 1960s preparing to meet her future in-laws for the first time.
“I thought it was absolutely beautiful and always have done ever since,” she said.
The Mapperton estate was owned by one family for 800 years, passing through the female line until 1919 when it was sold to a wealthy Scottish widow, Ethel Labouchere. Viscount Hinchingbrooke, a former MP bought the house when she died in 1955.
The home now belongs to his son John who is a direct descendant of the 4th Earl who invented the sandwich.
Julie lives in London with her husband and their four children, but maybe one day she can share in Bucket Duty!!
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