I have often written on this blog about our visits to some of the UK’s grand houses, houses that are hundreds of years old and oozing with history. You might assume that all our great domestic properties have a pedigree dating back many centuries, but you’d be mistaken. Some of them are much younger; Waddesdon Manor, at less than 150 years old, is one of the new kids on the block. Despite that – or maybe because of it – Waddesdon is one of the most opulent and ostentatious of them all. But it’s a bit over the top, in my humble opinion.

Waddesdon Manor is located in the Buckinghamshire village of Waddesdon (no surprises there, I guess!), around 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. It was constructed between 1874 and 1889 at the behest of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-1898), a member of the enormously wealthy Austrian banking family.

In 1874, Rothschild – known as “Ferdy” to his sister and close friends – bought the Waddesdon agricultural estate from the Duke of Marlborough, with money he’d inherited from his father. He’d come across it when fox-hunting in the area, and clearly saw its potential. The estate had no house, park or garden at that time, and therefore offered Rothschild a blank canvas upon which to impose his will.

Said to be as much at home in Paris as in London, Ferdy was an ardent Francophile. His vision for Waddesdon was to build a magnificent mansion in the neo-Renaissance style, copying features from several of his favourite French chateaux. And he was also keen on giving Waddesdon an unforgettable garden, including a parterre (a symmetrical, formal garden design with intricate patterns), a colourful and fragrant rose garden, a serene water garden and an aviary of epic proportions.

Given his wealth, it is to be expected that Ferdy would spare no expense in fulfilling his dreams at Waddesdon Manor. More surprising, perhaps, is the fact that he never intended to live there permanently. His plan was to use Waddesdon simply as a summer weekend retreat, a place where he could entertain high-society guests and show off his vast, priceless collection of art and antiquities.

Baron Rothschild was clearly an intelligent, well-educated man, and must have been familiar with concepts such as modesty, moderation and self-restraint. Plainly, however, he thought they shouldn’t apply to him!

The great and the good – as they no doubt liked to think of themselves – were Ferdy’s guests at Waddesdon. Even Queen Victoria and the future king Edward VII spent time there, thus reassuring a man of Austrian heritage and born in France that he’d made the grade as a fully fledged English gentleman.

After Ferdy’s death in 1898, Waddesdon passed through the hands of two other members of the Rothschild family before, in 1957, it was bequeathed to the National Trust. At last, some 83 years after the project was born, ordinary members of the public were able to visit the property, to view the stunning art collection, and to witness at first hand how the other half lives!

Left: The Red Drawing Room. Centre: The East Gallery. Right: The Baron’s Room.

Unusually, unlike most National Trust properties, at Waddesdon the donor’s family continues to manage the house and to invest in it through the Rothschild Foundation. And it was through the financial support of the family that the stunning Wedding Cake art installation by Portuguese artist extraordinaire Joana Vasconcelos – which I wrote about in an earlier post – found its way to Waddesdon.

Waddesdon is extraordinary. The “three Os” sum it up perfectly – Opulent, Ostentatious and Over-the-top. I’m pleased we finally got around to visiting it last year. On the one hand it’s a truly magnificent creation, breath-taking, almost surreal. Definitely worth the entrance fee.

But on the other hand, Waddesdon is just a bit too much. It’s reminds me of being back at school, of that annoying kid sitting at the front of the classroom, the kid who was always waving their hand furiously in the air to attract teacher, making it abundantly clear that he (or she) was much, much better than the rest of us. You remember that kid, don’t you? Well, Waddesdon’s a bit like that, full of itself, boastful in the extreme, bling on steroids!