“Lovely Crack on!” Emma Manners, the Duchess of Rutland declares brightly after we have exchanged greetings at the beginning of our interview. Her Grace has recently published a lively autobiography charting her journey from pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer to chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, and ‘crack on’ seems a fair description of her energetic approach to life.
The Belvoir Castle we see today, its fairytale towers and turrets rising from a hill over the Vale of Belvoir in Leicestershire, is the fourth castle to stand on the site. Its name (pronounced ‘Beaver’) derives from the French for ‘beautiful view’, harking back to Norman times when Robert de Todeni, William the Conqueror’s standard-bearer at the Battle of Hastings, first built a motte-and-bailey fortress here. The estate has since passed in an unbroken family line through 36
