Quotations from P G Wodehouse are copyright of, and reprinted by permission of, the Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate © 2012 The P G Wodehouse Society (UK)

Outing to the Newport Mansions

We were delighted to see the sun shining as we gathered outside the Biltmore Hotel eager to board our two motor coaches on Friday morning. The day out was billed as the ‘Village Mothers Guild and Church Lads Brigade Outing to Newport, Rhode Island’. Although this might have been taken as the cue for some bad behaviour I am pleased to report that no passing cyclists were troubled with flying tomatoes and no top hats were dislodged from Earls all day.

The drive south from Providence took us through some lovely scenes of trees coloured for the fall (or autumn in the olde money, but when in Rome etc). We drove over long elegant bridges to the island and picked up local guides who talked us through a leisurely potter about in the coaches. There was a photo stop at breezy Brenton Point where we gulped in some fresh sea air and I took time out to fall into a muddy puddle.

After an early career as a centre for shipbuilding and trade Newport became the nation’s social capital. During the ‘gilded age’ of the later part of the 1800s, society families commissioned the construction of massive summer ‘cottages’ and ambitious hostesses competed keenly for the most prestigious guests during the season of July, August and the first two weeks of September. This continued until the time of the great depression.

The pretty town of Newport is today the yachting capital of the USA. We had some time there for lunch and shopping before visiting two of the grand houses. At Beechwood, actors set up an amusing scenario treating us as if we were a group of ‘the 400’ (rich and influential types in the 1920s) who had been invited to a charity ball. We were herded through the rooms while receiving snippets of information about our hostess Mrs Astor, given advice about how to behave at the party, sung to in the ballroom and entertained most delightfully by these clever people who stayed in character to respond to questions and comments.

There was a touch of sadness in that the original owner of Beechwood, John Jacob Astor I, had gone down with the Titanic. In the kitchen ‘Alice’ prattled amiably about this and that including the zinc tables which keep ice cool and which were popular for ‘gentlemen to rest their heads on in the morning‘ (useful tip for when you design your next kitchen).

Before returning to Providence we visited the biggest and best of the summer cottages. The Breakers was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. It has 70 rooms and looks like an Italian palazzo. Inside there is Italian marble, gold leaf, painted ceilings, sweeping staircases, stained glass by La Thage, ornate furnishings and drapery, Cippolino marble mosaics and Baccarat crystal chandeliers. We stared about us open-mouthed with wonder and there were gasps of delight when we walked out to a huge and beautiful loggia on the upper floor with a panoramic sea view.

I was uncomfortable to discover that the mud which I had got onto my trousers and shoes earlier in the day had dried and was starting to drop off. Something told me that Mrs Vanderbilt would not have approved. Ah well it was nice to dream that we were part of the elegant set for a day!

Christine Hewitt, November 2007