Letter: Working holidays of a marquess

Sir: If it is true, as Jim White states in his article on Longleat and widely reported elsewhere, that the Marquess of Bath 'was the first historic house owner to open his house to the public' (in 1946), then how is it that in my copy of the brochure for Castle Howard (built in the period 1701 to 1759) I can read:

The house has been open to the public ever since it was built: and in 1829 Paterson records in his annual survey 'Roads' 'the liberality of the noble proprietor, in admitting the public to view this elegant repository, entitles him to grateful applause'.

Perhaps the answer is that the Thynne family employs more imaginative public relations consultants than the Howard family?

Yours faithfully,

WILLIAM BOSLEY

Bath, Avon

3 July