Sunday 6th November
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 7th November
8.30-9.30 Continental Breakfast.
9.30 Depart in own transport to Burghley House.
10.00 Arrive Burghley: Here we will be taken round by Mike Cowell. Mike is in charge of the picture conservation at the house, and he will talk, as we go round the house, on the hundreds of paintings he has cleaned including the walls of the Heaven Room.
11.30 Morning coffee in the Loggia, thereafter you are free to go round the house under your own steam, before lunch (included) in the conservatory, again at your convenience. The remainder of the day is free for you to explore the surrounding countryside including the town of Stamford itself, but please make use of the booklet “Things to do around Hambleton Hall” prepared for you by Tim Hart, which you will find in your room.
7.30 Dinner.

Tuesday 8th November
8.30-9.30 Continental Breakfast.
9.45 Depart by coach
10.30 Arrive Althorp, opened exclusively for our party, the ancestral home of the Spencer family, housing an astonishing collection of works of art including marvellous paintings by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Old Masters, interiors by Henry Holland, sumptuous silver and Sèvres porcelain. In addition there is furniture originally designed for Spencer House in London.
12.00 Church, St Mary’s at Great Brington, twenty generations of Spencers are buried in this church, their spectacular Elizabethan tombs throng the Spencer chapel. As if that were not enough, lying here is an ancestor of George Washington.
12.30 Pub lunch at the 16th century Althorp Coaching Inn.
2.00 Depart.
2.30 Arrive Holdenby. Guided tour of the one of the largest and surely least known of the great houses of England. Built by the ambitious Sir Christopher Hatton in the reign of Elizabeth I, the present 19th century house displays a collection of musical instruments (including a didgeridoo) and overlooks a Tudor garden designed by Rosemary Verey.
3.30 Afternoon tea.
4.00 Depart to return to Hambleton
Free time
7.30 Dinner.

Wednesday 9th November
8.30-9.30 Continental Breakfast.
9.45 Depart by coach to visit Ellys Manor, Great Ponton, Lincolnshire.
10.30 Arrive Ellys Manor, a wool-merchant’s house dating from the 16th century, which is the oldest inhabited house in Lincolnshire, and contains in its upper rooms superb wall paintings simulating French verdure tapestries, which are unique.
12.30 Lunch at the Tollemache Arms, Buckminster (included)
1.30 Return to Hambleton
Remainder of afternoon free
7.30 Dinner.
9.00 Marking of the Quiz

Thursday 10th November
Guests depart after breakfast.