Okay, it was a for a job interview.
Which I didn't get.
But it's always nice to look around the place.
Waddesdon, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, was built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild between 1874 and 1885 to display his collection of arts and to entertain the fashionable world. He wanted a house in the style of the great Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley so he employed French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur to build it. It’s something of an architectural rarity in the UK and, as the result, has been used as a location in many films and TV shows. 
The front of the manor, with its distinctive angled staircases makes it easy to spot - like here in the classic comedy Carry on Don't Lose Your Head.
The art collection is staggering. The Rothschilds were the greatest collectors of the 19th century and were formed principally by four members of the family: Baron Ferdinand (1839-1898) who built Waddesdon and created the interiors, his sister Alice (1847-1922), their cousin Edmond (1845-1934) and the present Lord Rothschild (b. 1936).
As near contemporaries, Ferdinand, Alice and Edmond – who lived in Paris – shared similar collecting interests and often competed with one another in the auction rooms and dealers’ galleries of Europe.
With their strong interest in 18th-century France, their collecting habits were so influential that people followed their lead and their choices became known internationally as the goût Rothschild ('the Rothschild taste').
Ferdinand and Edmond, in particular, built a number of lavish residences fitted out with original 18th-century interiors in which to show their superb works of art. Masterpieces created by the royal French porcelain manufactory of Sèvres were placed on furniture produced by the most significant French craftsmen of the 18th century, much of it made for the royal family and important members of the court. The floors were covered with Savonnerie carpets exclusive to the Crown and walls hung with tapestries from the royal Gobelins and Beauvais workshops on top of sumptuous silk fabrics.
Paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries by famous Dutch, Flemish and French artists adorn the walls. Baron Ferdinand also prized 18th-century British portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney.
The Wine Cellars are world famous. They were modelled on the private cellars at Château Lafite Rothschild. More than 15,000 bottles are stored in the Cellars, some 150 years old, the majority from the Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild estates. It is the largest private collection of Rothschild wines in the world. Some of the family's wine labels were designed by artists such as Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol.
The National Trust took over ownership of Waddesdon in 1957 and it was opened to the public in 1959. The estate is managed by the Rothschild Foundation, a family charitable trust, on behalf of the National Trust. It's one of the UK's most visited properties, with over 450,000 visitors a year.
The house is amazing but so too are the gardens and park, first laid out by the French landscape architect Elie Lainé. Elaborate flower beds were planted, centred on the south Parterre. Several artificial rock formations were created by James Pulham, including to house animals as, for a while, Ferdinand had a small zoo. He also created a cast-iron aviary, inspired by 18th-century pavilions at the Palace of Versailles and Château de Chantilly.
An interest in animals infected all of the family and Walter Rothschild (1868-1937) in particular. He, famously, had an estate nearby in Hertfordshire where he trained a team of zebras to pull a carriage and he was not averse to riding a giant Galapagos tortoise. His collection was donated to the Natural History Museum upon his death and now forms the core of the museum's annexe at Tring.
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