Dining experiences: eat like an 18th century king at Dumfries House
Guests are served by butlers while dining in the British monarch’s favourite room at the stately manor he rescued from the auctioneer’s hammer.
It is the request to wear a long gown that throws me. Does “long dress” really mean sweeping the floor, or do I reinterpret it to mean something rather formal and embellished, so the room’s spectacular Murano glass chandelier will catch the lights of a thousand sequins and dazzle in an appropriate manner? Tonight’s venue, after all, is particularly grand, and so intimately royally connected that a diamond-encrusted tiara (I don’t own one) wouldn’t be out of place.
The event is a private dinner for 12 at the magnificent early Georgian stately home, Dumfries House in Cumnock, built by the famous Adam brothers for William Crichton-Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries, a member of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle. This event is to be like no other, dining like a king in the chamber of the King.
For this is the house that King Charles III saved for the British nation, providing a last-minute $40m personal loan in 2007 so that the Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust could hit a lofty $90m target and stop the 1754 property being auctioned and its irreplaceable Thomas Chippendale furniture split up.
The intervention may have been an astute investment, as it turns out: one piece of Chippendale, a late George II breakfront bookcase, finely crafted from padouk rosewood and gilded limewood, is estimated to be worth north of $40m. His Majesty has not only rescued an important period of Scottish Enlightenment, but turned it into an extraordinarily accessible venture, with 16,000 people learning heritage, farming and industry skills on the estate each year.
The King stays in the house on the third floor during regular visits, and is so closely involved with the project he roams the gardens with secateurs in hand – his favourite flowers are delphiniums – sends notes to graduates and personally oversees the home farm of rare breeds, including pigs, sheep and pied turkeys.
Upon arrival on a chilly October evening I hear the pleasing sounds of a Scottish piper, standing near the roofline of the house. Our group partakes of the King Charles’ Highgrove champagne in the spectacular tapestry room and embarks on a fascinating tour, flute carefully nursed in hand lest a drop spill on original Axminster carpet (one of only 12 in the world from that time to exist). And we hear some scandalous gossip – more on that later.
I am here as a willing guinea pig to trial the latest venture of the The Kings Foundation, an 18th-century menu that will be opened to public for special dining events.
After much deliberation I decide to wear a pink silk mid-length dress with cape adorned with diamond-encrusted brooch, diamond and ruby earrings and a pearl choker (all of which may or may not be real), in a nod to our destination, The Pink Dining Room.
This is, according to the royal staff, the favourite room of King Charles, being the best preserved in the 1754 house, with all of the furnishings – many irreplaceable and complete with impeccable provenance – a result of the 5th Earl of Dumfries’ desire to impress and find a bride. On one wall is Jacopo Bassano’s The Journey of Jacob, an elaborate Italian Renaissance artwork dating back to 1561. When the painting was delivered to the earl, it didn’t fill the space to his satisfaction and so he commissioned Scottish carpenter and gilder William Mathie to make a meandrous rococo border to take up a bit more room. Ingenious.
Mathie’s inspiration were his own gilded swirls, which adorn the identical pier glass mirrors as well as the console tables. This dusty pink room, with the heavy swags of curtains and an ornate neoclassical ceiling design, is so glamorous as to be utterly breathtaking. But the piece de resistance, only introduced to the house in 1904, is above us: the 18th-century Murano glass chandelier that was found packed in a box in the basement because it wasn’t to the taste of the last full-time resident, Lady Eileen, Dowager Marchioness of Bute.
Curator Satinder Kaur says: “It’s hand blown, so every hole for the 18 candles is a slightly different size and so I whittled down the environmentally friendly candles to fit each hole.’’
Kaur, along with Evan Samson, Dumfries House general manager, and executive chef Tom Scoble, have created a magnificent setting on two Georgian 1759 tables by Alexander Peter. In front of me is a solid silver casket gifted to King George II, on permanent loan from the Royal Collection, as are the 18th-century candlesticks and my bread and butter side plate. My dinner plate, a Spode design, is one of just six in existence. The crystal glasses are etched with the house’s DH crest.
Frankly, Scoble could serve a cardboard burger at this point and it would taste divine. But what he conjures up from original recipes from 300 years ago is quite remarkable. We are served, butler style, which is typical of the time. Servants of m’lord present large ancient porcelain platters near the left shoulder of each guest to serve themselves. Holding the food aloft requires not inconsiderable strength.
We start with poached Scottish salmon with a rich fish soup. Then there is roasted venison from wild roaming roe deer, and beef from a local farm. Parmentier potatoes, mushrooms, beetroot, all grown on the estate, as well as junipers, ditto, which make for a mouth watering sauce. To finish there is lemon and pistachio syllabub, a bread and butter pudding and an apple and almond trifle.
Hundreds of years ago, women would have withdrawn to the drawing room at his point for tea and conversation, leaving the men to imbibe port. Instead, we all move to the roaring fire in the tapestry room for whisky – Scotch, of course – some lovely rose champagne and to be entertained by a harpist.
We laugh about how the earl spent so much money on a sumptuous four-poster bed, its intricate carvings all covered in lush blue silk, yet struggled to find a new wife. It’s on record from a past guest, the Duchess of Northumberland, that his picture in the pink dining room was the most flattering portrait of a man she had ever seen. She also recounted how, when the earl did finally marry, a young distant cousin, the new bride went missing from a Christmas soiree only to be found hiding behind a curtain with a colonel. Oh, the scandal.
In the know
The 18th Century Dining Experience at Dumfries House costs from $750 a person on selected dates. Pre-booked tours of the house are free. Luxury accommodation available at nearby Dumfries House Lodge, from $450 a night for two.
Jacquelin Magnay was a guest of The Kings Foundation.
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