3-083-002 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Duc d'Aosta's Marriage with Princess Hélène of Orleans: Banqueting-Hall, Stowe House, 1895. The banqueting-hall at Stowe is of such vast proportions (over seventy-five feet in length) that the family usually had dinner served in the smaller dining-room which adjoins it. This room is also rich in tapestries - duplicates of which were presented to the famous Duke of Marlborough by Lord Cobham, whose portrait adorns the room. The private apartments of the royal family are, French fashion, on the ground floor; Princess Hélène having dignified her pretty rooms with the title of "Japon."...'It was at the Chateau d'Eu, on June 23. 1886. that the news of their exile first reached the [French] royal family...A welcome awaited the family in England, and for several years they have found a retreat at Stowe House, the seat of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos. But, although the life at Stowe was a quiet and uneventful one, the sorrow of the empty home in France has always overshadowed the royal exiles. The life led by Princess Hélène of Orleans at Stowe has been that of an English girl: plenty of sport and outdoor exorcise, varied by occasional house parties and trips abroad'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.