ABSTRACT
Opening The Times on a Sunday in May 1935, Sir Patrick Duff, permanent secretary at the Office of Works in London, set eyes upon an advertisement by a cigarette manufacturer (see Fig. 4.1). It inspired him immediately to write to the managing director of the Imperial Tobacco Corporation:
Dear Sir, I have seen in one of the Sunday papers your—if you will let me say so—most attractive advertisement for cigarettes with its picture of Nunney Castle, and I am emboldened to ask whether you have ever thought of the possibility of showing in the advertisement a series of such historic buildings? There are as you will know, dozens of other castles all over Scotland and Wales and from Northumberland to Cornwall in this country which, like Nunney Castle, are in the guardianship of this Department, and which might equally lend themselves to this purpose. If this idea had any interest to you, and it would help in any way, I would readily let your representative see a list of these places and the photographs of them. I will not attempt to conceal from you that this suggestion on my part is not altogether disinterested, as I am deploring how little the people of this country realise the existence of these beautiful and historic places and am always looking for ways and means of making them better known! 1
The manufacturer’s response was enthusiastic: for mutual benefit numerous advertisements depicting more than twenty other castles appeared in The Times during the following years (see Fig. 4.1). 2 As a result of their success, the Office of Works also agreed with one of the other three major British tobacco manufacturers, Gallaher, to provide photographs of ancient monuments for a series of cards issued with Kensitas cigarettes. As a note from the Office of Works specified, distribution of the cards was to be arranged ‘territorially, i.e. that packets of cigarettes made up for sale in Scotland should contain in the main photographs of Scottish monuments, and similarly in other parts of the kingdom… this may form a very useful adjunct to our efforts to obtain wider publicity for our ancient monuments’. 3