Sunday 31st October 2010.
Afternoon guests arrive.
6.30 Gather to meet your fellow guests for a drink and hear a short introductory talk by your host Nicholas Merchant.

Monday 1st November 2010.
8.30-9.30 Continental Breakfast.
9.30 Depart in own transport to Burghley House.
10.00 Arrive Burghley; Here we will have a talk by Anthony Beech. Anthony is in charge of the furniture conservation at the house, and he will explain about some of the pieces he has conserved
11.00 Morning coffee
11.30 Private Guided tour of the house with Anthony with particular reference to the magnificent furniture
1.00 Lunch in the Orangery.
Afternoon free,
6.00-7.00 Talk. “The Story Behind the Wallace Collection” with Nicholas. How one of the greatest assemblages of French art came to be installed in one of London’s great aristocratic town-houses. A tale as dramatic as any work of fiction..
7.30 Dinner.

Tuesday 2nd November 2010.
8.30-9.30 Continental Breakfast.
9.45 Depart by coach to visit Belvoir Castle, the magnificent disneyesque fortress of the Dukes of Rutland, towering over the surrounding plain.
10.30 Private Guided tour of the castle. This magnificent dwelling contains a spectacular collection including works by Rubens, and Reynolds, not to mention furniture, tapestries and silver in rooms rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1816.
12.30 Lunch
1.30 Depart.
2.15 Private visit to Quenby Hall, the home of the de Lisle family. This very fine 17th century house has housed the de Lisles only since 1964, when they forsook their ancestral home at Garendon for the present house. Not only is the house furnished with a splendid collection, but it is the centre of a thriving Stilton cheese business, about which we will have a talk before afternoon tea is served.
4.30 Depart Quenby to return to Hambleton.
Free time
7.30 Dinner.

Wednesday 3rd November 2010.
8.30-9.30 continental Breakfast.
9.45 Depart by coach to visit Cottesbroke Hall.
10.30 Refreshments on arrival
11.00 Private guided tour of the house
12.30 Pre-lunch drinks in the Old Laundry
1.00 Two course lunch and coffee
After lunch, subject to weather, a chance to walk in the gardens
3.00 depart by coach to Hambleton
Remainder of afternoon free
7.30 Dinner.
9.00 Marking of the Quiz

Thursday 4th November 2010.
Guests depart after breakfast.