It was the dream of the Duke of Buccleuch’s ambitious forebear Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, to transform his ancestral home in Northamptonshire from a Tudor manor house into a grand seat with the majesty that had so impressed him at Versailles when he was Charles II’s envoy to the court of Louis XIV.
Richard, 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry, is responsible for his family’s historic art collections and houses, including Drumlanrig Castle and Bowhill in Scotland and Boughton House in Northamptonshire. Author of books about each of them, he works widely in the heritage field and was for ten years President of the National Trust for Scotland. He is currently a trustee of the Royal Collection Trust and President of the Georgian Group.