BY CHARLES EVANS

Hughenden Manor is best known as the home of former British Prime Minister and author, Benjamin Disraeli.

Hughenden stands high among the Chiltern Hills, overlooking a charming park, which also contains the church where Disraeli is buried. The house, with 1780 origins, is really Georgian, of red brick with blue headers,but was ingeniously altered in 1847 by the architect E.B. Lamb to present the Tudor appearance required by the young Disraeli with his romantic passion for the English tradition.

The interior is of much charm. Some good Georgian features survive, notably in Disraeli’s library, but the rooms predominantly reflect his own somewhat exotic taste and that of the 1840s.

The drawing room, hung with rich blue damask, contains principally French and rococo furniture; in a large and undeniably ugly dining room are interesting mid-Victorian portraits. A small room is filled with early 19th Century sketches and drawings of his friends collected by Disraeli, and his study is as he left it.