ABSTRACT
Felicia Hemans, ‘The Homes of England’ (1849) Wiston House tallied better with Koeppler’s and Mrs Hemans’ vision than with Noël Coward’s-although the member of staff who had to help cope with its heating and plumbing problems no doubt recalled Coward’s lines:
The pipes that supply the bathroom burst And the lavatory makes you fear the worst…
Koeppler felt obliged to remind visitors that ‘This is a very old building which makes for increased danger of fire.’ Dexter M.Keezer, an American participant who in 1973 produced the first book about Wilton Park, wrote:
Into this Elizabethan mansion have been fitted living and sleeping quarters which preserve much of its old English dignity and also provide a substantial measure of modern comfort and convenience, extending even to the provision for the guests of an electric washing machine and dryer. Of these amenities an Italian conference participant remarked that ‘the old house, like so many in Britain, is full of ‘comforts’ which for many Europeans are very uncomfortable indeed’. There is little doubt, however, that a broadly based international poll of Wilton Park conference participants would show this judgement to be much too harsh.
