ABSTRACT
Lindisfarne Castle, which looms on a rocky promontory over tiny Holy Island near Northumberland in the northeast corner of England, has a long and storied past. The castle originated as a fort erected in the mid-sixteenth century to defend against raids from Scotland. In 1901, the empty and decaying castle was purchased from the Crown by Edward Hudson, the wealthy founder of the magazine Country Life, who commissioned his friend and favorite architect, Edwin Lutyens, to transform it into a vacation retreat. The atmosphere of the castle is rustic and spartan, its textures stony and severe. Lindisfarne was not a very commodious place — there was only one bathroom for nine bedrooms, and it was lit by candles, neither gas nor electricity having been installed during Edwin Lutyens's renovation — but Guilhermina Suggia loved it. Her friend Lytton Strachey, whom she met through Hudson, called her "The Lady of the Castle".
