I, like so many of you, I'm sure, have wondered what it would be like to be entertained in a real English country house.

To be part of an elegant dinner party, or better yet, spend an entire weekend wandering between breakfasts on beautiful China,

dinners in black tie, and afternoon teas with fine pastry and the best silver,

all in the presence of the most witty and erudite guests. Well, all of that is just such a

lovely thought. And I used to imagine that kind of thing, you know, the kind of thing that we see

in so many period dramas, but of course, so much of that world has disappeared in one way or

another. Real English country house entertaining in style, at of course, so much of that world has disappeared in one way or another. Real English

country house entertaining and style, at least today, is actually much simpler than it once was,

and even if you don't have a 17th century estate, it's something that we can create in some of our

more modest homes and gardens. The principles of good interior design and good entertaining have certainly not dimmed

with time. Rather than having to have an ancestral pile of your own and relying on an army of staff

to pull it all off, and keeping your dinner clothes always pressed in at the ready, it's really

more about bringing a few essential ingredients of good

entertaining together to make the occasion. Today, we are celebrating two American-born

women, Nancy Lancaster and Nancy Astor, who, in the early 20th century after moving their lives

to England, challenged old British style and created something new. And what they created with their spirit,

sense of style, and ingenuity is what allows us to carry on their vision today in our own

very modern lives. In the early years of the 1900s and up into the 1920s and 1930s, Nancy Lancaster

and her aunt, Nancy Astor, brought together tradition and style

from the American South to blend it with the classic British taste and tradition to create

elements of good country house-inspired entertaining.

Today's English country house style can be translated as a style of gracious, hospitable living

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