Visit the real “Downton Abbey” with account of life of Lady Almina Carnarvon

The current PBS series Downton Abbey is loosely based on the real history of Highclere Castle, the ancestral home of the Carnarvon clan in Hampshire. The book, “Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey” is a treatment of the life of Lady Almina and her husband the fifth Lord Carnarvon, who is most known for financing the dig that in 1922 unearthed the dazzling treasure of King Tut's tomb in Egypt. I would like to call the book a history, but it is plainly not written by a historian. The beginning is almost like a long society column, with details of the wedding dress and dinner, and of life in a castle. Almina was the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild, and fact of her irregular birth, shall we say, made it a sticky business to find a suitable place to hold events such as the wedding breakfast. Even though Almina's parentage was an open secret, for form's sake Rothschild was referred to as Almina's godfather. She went to all the right balls but was barred from the most fashionable salons. That she managed to snag one of the most eligible bachelors in Debrett's Peerage was a testament not only to her money, but her beauty and charm. George Herbert, the fifth Lord Carnarvon, married this “pocket Venus” as she was called, on June 26, 1895. His interests at the time included racing cars at breakneck speed, a habit that led to a terrible accident in 1901 that nearly claimed his life. Forced to give that up, he took up raising thoroughbred racehorses, photography, and in 1907 begin the annual digs in Egypt that eventually secured his main claim to fame. The early years of their marriage were a social whirl of parties, dinners, hunts, and seances. Frequent visitors to the estate included the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, the Prince of Wales, assorted aristocrats and government figures, and Howard Carter. Almina first got interested in nursing when helping her husband recover from the above-mentioned auto accident. This interest eventually flowered during World War I when she decided to convert Highclere into a hospital and rehabilitation facility for the duration of the war. Recuperating officers were waited on by footmen at the dinner table, and enjoyed sitting or walking outside in the manicured grounds. Almina hired nursing staff, and paid for their uniforms from her own pocket. The resumption of the search for an Egyptian tomb after the war eventually resulted in the fabled treasure trove of the boy king, but not before nearly bankrupting Lord Carnarvon. In 1936, the Egyptian government reimbursed Almina 36,000 pounds in exchange for transfer of ownership of the discovery into Egyptian hands. This volume is a pleasant glimpse into the end of the Victorian era and the Edwardian era, and a harrowing account of the home front during WWI. It succeeds less in the more historically interesting phase of the Egyptian excavations, lacking details and perspective. To remedy that, I suggest reading the detailed account in the book, The Search for the Gold of Tutankhamen by Arnold C. Brackman (Mason Charter, 1976). For an excellent treatment of the treaty negotiations after WWI, I recommend Paris, 1919, by Margaret MacMillan (Random House, 2001). (MacMillan is a historian and professor at the University of Oxford.)