And the band played on…

This piece was prompted by a question on Facebook’s Pride and Prejudice page, where someone openly doubted whether it would have been likely for Darcy’s Pemberley to be shown off to random visitors in the early 1800s (as famously occurs in Pride and Prejudice, of course). Well, it was. Visitors came then, as they still do, to admire the natural beauty surrounding even minor stately homes, as well as their architecture, portraits, sculpture, silverware etc.

Anyway, the thread on F’book reminded me of my former life as professional cellist, when I played in loads of stately homes/castles.

For example, I remember, the only time I saw Princess Diana in person, I was dazzled, but not quite as dazzled as the three other members of my string quartet — all men. They couldn’t keep their eyes off the chassis. I never met anyone with more charisma. I also noticed that the other women in the room — envious? intimidated? nervous? — didn’t speak to her. (Stunning, unhappily married, swamped by male attention… what could poss. go wrong?)

Another memorable evening with my string quartet occurred in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, which some scholars believe might have been Austen’s model for Meryton, in Pride and Prejudice. My quartet was sometimes booked to perform background music there, at a stately home belonging to a live-wire kind of a guy, Lord Brocket. Anyway, in…