 Wadstone is a very extraordinary house, although from the outside it may look like a French Renaissance Chateau. On the inside you'll see many of the rooms aligned with panelling from 18th century French houses. It isn't a house that was built up over hundreds of years and it in fact was put together in a very short time by one man, Ferdinand de Rostral, who created it primarily as a stage set really for very lavish entertaining. And as a place to show off his collection of art. Ferdinand had a great love for French 18th century history and for its art. And he collected things that had wonderful provenances that came from historical figures like Marie Antoinette or Louis XV. And in his interiors he combined these wonderful pieces of decorative arts with paintings and in his case most often with English 18th century portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough and he instructed his dealer that he was interested in paintings of women, of beautiful women. In this room we have the Duchess of Cumberland by Reynolds who was a famous beauty and who ran off with one of the sons of George III which resulted in the marriage act that we have today where the sovereign has to approve the marriage of one of the family. Ferdinand writes about his collecting which was the great passion of his life and his father introduced him to works of art and he writes very touchingly about unpacking small things which he found incredibly beautiful. But they were pretty serious to the Rostral family in their collecting. I think they had considerable knowledge of French 18th century decorative arts and of Wunderkammer type objects and indeed in the case of Ferdinand of English 18th century portraiture and painters generally. Everywhere you look at Wadston there's beauty and there's wonder. We're standing here in the smoking room which contained Baron Ferdinand's Renaissance Museum when he was living in the house and if you look around the room now you'll find all sorts of treasures from the 16th and 17th century whether that's tinglazed earthenware, mylaca, whether it's rock crystal or carved ivories or nemozionamal or possibly silver and silver gilt and the whole combines into the most wonderful treasury really and he used to bring his guests here perhaps in the evening after dinner so you have to imagine rooms like this seen through veils of cigar smoke and he would perhaps show off the latest object which he had acquired for the admiration of his guests. One of the things that marks out Ferdinand's collections is that he really purchased only the best and this can really be seen in the collection of Sev Porcelain that he assembled here at Wadston. To give you an idea of what Ferdinand was like as a collector I want to show you this vase in the shape of a ship made by the Sev Porcelain factory. Now it's probably the most iconic shape associated with the factory and whereas most people would begin collecting by buying a cup and saucer and then as they got more experience they would move up if you want this is the very first thing Ferdinand bought ever as a collector. When he bought this Ferdinand was only 21 years old. A collection as fabulous and as fragile as this really wouldn't have survived without some very very careful care and attention over the years and for that we're grateful to Alice Ferdinand's sister who inherited the house and she was something of a dragon and introduced what are still known in the house as Miss Alice's Rules which were the rules and the principles by which the contents of the house were to be preserved and conserved. Alice understood that one of the greatest enemies for a collection like this is light because light fades textiles, it leaches the colour out of objects, it fades the nears. If you look for example at some of the upholstered cushions in the collection you can see that at the backs and underneath where the light hasn't penetrated the colours are incredibly rich and strong whereas on the light expo surfaces they're much more faded. There is of course something of a conflict between a very large number of visitors and preserving a collection. I mean cultural tourism is a phenomenon of the 21st century and it has its dangers so we go to enormous trouble in the month summer closed to preserve the collection, to keep light off it, to see it's in good condition so that future generations will be able to enjoy it. Everything is covered up, the carpets are rolled, all of the porcelain is put away in its original boxes and this is so that we can do the deep conservation clean that we need to do every winter. Of all the other haraustral family houses this is the one I think that is preserved has its collections intact, adds to those collections, does things which enhance the collections makes life more fun if you like for people who come here and that's what we're all about.