Online article on Longleat: Longleat is an English country house, currently the seat of the Marquesses of Bath, adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset.
It is noted for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland and safari park.
The house is set in over 900 acres (364 ha) of parkland, landscaped by Capability Brown, with 8,000 acres (32.37 km2) of woods and farmland.
It was the first stately home to open to the public, and also claims the first safari park outside Africa.
Longleat is currently occupied by Alexander Thynn (born 6 May 1932), 7th Marquess of Bath, a direct descendant.
He took over the running of Longleat Enterprises Ltd from his father, Lord Henry Bath, in 1992.
"Life is seldom dull on the Longleat Estate owned by the 7th Marquess of Bath, a descendant of the Roman historian Tacitus.
His bedroom is covered in scenes from the Kama Sutra and he has often boasted about his numerous female admirers.
He married Hungarian-born actress Anna Gael in 1969 and they have two children.
But the man sometimes known as ‘the Loins of Longleat’ is also famous for his ‘wifelets’ – rumoured to have numbered as many as 75 – and said to be ‘former glamour girls, actresses, singers and aspiring models’.
A recent biography of Lord Bath, whose wealth is estimated at £157million, said a ‘woman on either side of him in bed’ every night is a basic requirement.
Longleat House was completed in 1580 and is set in parkland landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown in the 18th century.
A safari park with lions was opened in 1966."
2010- Lord Bath will be 78 years old this year and has announced that he is stepping down as Chairman of Longleat Enterprises Limited and handing over the reins to his son, Ceawlin, Viscount Weymouth.
Viscount Weymouth was born in 1974.
Happier times: Emma, circled (right), is pictured in Longleat aged just three years old - decades before she married Ceawlin, circled (centre)
Smiling for the camera, this is the first picture of Emma at Longleat.
Few could have imagined that the little girl, then aged three, would grow up to marry Ceawlin, the teenager kneeling to her right, and become the first black Marchioness of Bath.
The happy family portrait was taken in 1989 at the wedding of Lady Silvy Thynne (2) to Emma’s half-brother, Iain McQuiston (1) and appeared in Hello! magazine.
Lady Silvy is the half-sister of the current Lord Bath, Alexander.
The eccentric Marquess (3), then Viscount Weymouth, wears a trademark flamboyant waistcoat while his wife, Anna (4), now the Marchioness of Bath, stands next to her father-in-law, Henry Thynne (5), then the sixth Marquess and his second wife Virginia (6).
Emma’s mother Suzanna (7) stands just behind her daughter.
Emma, 29, married Lord and Lady Bath's son Ceawlin, 41, in June 2013.
2014 - Viscount Weymouth and his wife Emma, Emma McQuiston, who will become Britain’s first black marchioness, have announced the birth of their first child.
He looks like a mini version of his dad, but with a mop of jet-black hair.
Note:
It's ironic that the 2nd Marquess of Bath disowned his eldest son Viscount Weymouth for marrying a local girl (I think the daughter of a gamekeeper or tenant).
Viscount Weymouth died just before his father, so the next son became 3rd Marquess of Bath.
That Viscount Weymouth never had any children, which relieved the family.
I'm not sure whether it was in the power of the 2nd Marquess to cut off a grandson (I think the property was entailed upon the grandson).
By contrast, the 1st Marquess of Exeter was able to marry a farmer's daughter, but only because he had already inherited the property and title. (His own mother was a French actress).
Some interesting marriages even back then.
Longleat Hedge maze.
'We must all stick together'
"Мы должны держаться все вместе!" - восклицание ребенка при виде лабиринта.
Masha. We spend the day at a park.
More photos are available at flick./Больше моих фотографий можно увидеть на Flickr если кликнуть по одной из картинок.
Не оставляйте машину в поместье Лонглит (обезьянки, сафари-парк).
Лонглит, (Усадьба).
Лорд Батский полон нетрадиционных идей, что проявляется также и в управлении замком.
Те, кто посещают замок из любви к архитектуре, истории искусства и культуры и не предупреждены об экстравагантных интересах хозяев замка, возможно, придут в ужас: в парке гуляют львы и слоны, жирафы и зебры, щиплют типично английский газон, а также обитают белые тигры.
В Лонглите находится самый старый парк-сафари Великобритании.
Отец Александра открыл его в 1966 г., чтобы окупить большие расходы по содержанию замка.
"Таймс" предостерегала англичан от посещения этого "опасного безумства".
Сын решил не отставать от отца: став в 1992 г. хозяином замка, он существенно расширил его развлекательные возможности, включив в них парк со всевозможными декоративными изысками, которые по-прежнему привлекают туристов классическими элементами английского ландшафта.
В Лонглите также жива и всячески поощряется традиция лабиринтов в полном соответствии с девизом лорда Батского Со tо Longleal to get lost ("Попадешь в Лонглит - пропадешь").
Зеленый лабиринт в парке Лонглита считается самым большим и запутанным в мире.
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