Visiting the home of the American Viscountess -- Mapperton House

 

I've been watching the American Viscountess and Mapperton Live Youtube channels for quite a while. Julie Montegu, Viscountess Hitchingbrooke grew up in a small town outside of Chicago and became part of the English aristocracy when she married Luke, Viscount Hitchingbrook, heir to the Earl of Sandwich. 

They live at Mapperton House in Dorset and it was great fun to see the house and garden that she has been showing and talking about. 

Not all that much of the house was on the tour, but most of the rooms I saw have been shown in their videos, and the garden was spectacular. I had watched some fun videos about the renovation of their 1800 century swimming pool as well as other parts of the garden and it was great to see the finished results. There are  also videos set in parts of the house not open to the public during the short part of the year they open the house.. 

The large manor houses around the UK are huge money pits and they have done a great job creating income streams for updating and maintaining the house. 

In addition to the videos focusing on Mapperton House, Julie's  American Viscountess video series has her visiting other houses and talking about the realities of adapting to life as an aristocrat and what that life is really like. 

Photos weren't allowed in the house, but here's the house and the garden.