Mottisfont National Trust house and garden

The location in Hampshire with the beautiful river Test running through it, the gardens and the ancient trees is the first thing that makes you understand why Mottisfont evolved from a priory in 1201 to a country house 800 years later. It attracted society hostess and arts patron, Maud Russell (1891-1982) and her husband to buy it in 1934. Maud surrounded herself with a group of bohemian artists and authors, many of whom had been dubbed the “Bright Young Things” in the interwar years. Maud commissioned the society artist Rex Whistler to decorate the drawing room with tromp l’oeil. This is such a poignant room not only for its beauty but because Rex Whistler completed it just before he died during active service in 1944.

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