A series of unfortunate events led to Luke Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, the future 12th Earl of Sandwich, inheriting Mapperton House. Dubbed the “nation’s finest manor house”, Mapperton is where his grandfather Victor “Hinch” Montagu, 10th Earl of Sandwich, downsized to after a tough decade. He had lost his title, his house and his career. At the end of July 1964, Hinch Montagu disclaimed the ancient peerage that he had recently inherited from his father. This promotion had removed him from the House of Commons, where he had spent 21 years as MP for South Dorset, and sent him, rather unhappily, to the Lords. Determined to stay in frontline politics a while longer, he shook off his title and stood for election in Accrington three months later. He lost by 5,500 votes, and never got back into the Commons again. He headed home to Dorset, and to Mapperton, following the sale of Hinchingbrooke House in Cambridgeshire, his family’s seat since 1627. Still, says his grandson Lord Hinchingbrooke, the future 12th Earl of Sandwich, he had a comfortable early retirement at Mapperton, “entertaining friends, mowing the lawn”. “I don’t know if he would have ever admitted to regretting [disclaiming his title]. Disclaiming...