On the same Jane Austen tour of England on which I met Nigel Nicolson (see previous blog post), we also visited Mapperton House, in Dorset, UK. It has beautiful gardens, and was used as the location for Randalls (where the Westons live) in the 1996 BBC production of Emma. In reality, it is the home of the Earl and Countess of Sandwich.
Of course, as most of you know, an 18th century Earl of Sandwich, not wanting to take time away from his gambling (card game or whatever) to dine, is reputed to have asked for some meat with bread around it. This event is supposed to be the origin of the sandwich.
At any rate, we were to have lunch at Mapperton, hostessed by the Countess herself. Unfortunately, she was delayed. We learned eventually that this was due to her train being late coming back from London. The reason for her trip there? When Emma was filmed, a historic portrait of one of the earls, maybe the sandwich guy himself, had been removed from the house, perhaps because it was inappropriate for "Randalls," and stored in a secure "fire-proof" location in London.
Which had burned down.
The countess had been thus been visiting the National Portrait Gallery to see if purchasing a replacement for the lost portrait was possible.
She said a friend of hers had suffered a greater loss. ALL the furnishings had been removed from her house when it was used as a location (for Hartfield? Donwell Abbey?) for the same Emma production.All had also been lost in the fire.
An any rate, while waiting for the countess to arrive, we had ample time to wander about the grounds. In doing so, I noticed some ornate-looking, unusually large chickens.
I proclaimed to our group, "Well! I've seen plenty of chicken sandwiches, but this is the first time I've ever seen a Sandwich chicken."
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