worldfamous
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Open house at Port EliotAn interesting place to visit, and he has got a Harley in the front room under the Lenkiewitz 
It is one of the most beautiful and historic stately homes in the Westcountry, but until today its secrets have been witnessed only by a privileged few. This afternoon, Lord and Lady St Germans open the house and grounds at Port Eliot to the public for the first time in a move to share its delights with a wider audience.For 100 days each year, visitors will be able to explore all the state rooms in the Grade I listed house and roam the magical acres that surround it - and it may not be quite what you expect.
While most property owners inviting the curious to investigate their lofty halls and amassed treasures will go to great lengths to tidy away the evidence of normal, everyday living, Lord and Lady St Germans are doing quite the opposite.
Visitors will see the reality of the couple's day-to-day routine, with bills and invitations on the mantelpiece, Roo the dog curled up on the sofa next to the newspapers, wellington boots by the "back door", alongside a vast and eclectic collection of stunning paintings, furniture and artefacts from ages past.
Nothing of value or sentiment has been thrown away here for centuries, so the ancient rubs along with the modern in a quite unique way. Here a state-of-the-art ice machine for drinks sits on an antique sideboard, there modern family snapshots are propped up beneath huge ancestral portraits. A formidable tortoiseshell and brass inlaid boule armoire houses a huge selection of vinyl LPs. Persian rugs and carpets, some threadbare, are layered one on top of the other in customary fashion to keep out the draughts.
"When you live in a house this size, you don't have to throw anything away," declares Catherine St Germans, who married Peregrine two-and-a- half years ago, having moved into the house a year earlier. She has since had the pleasure of delving into the history of the house and is particularly fascinated by the women who have come to live here.
"I am the 27th chatelaine of Port Eliot," she says proudly, holding out an ornate gilded antique capsule on a belt clasp, containing everything a busy woman could need as she goes about her daily business - tiny scissors, ruler, pencil, pen-knife and thimble.
This is just one example of the kind of fascinating objects she is unearthing almost daily from virtually endless hiding places in this rambling stone mansion, which was partially remodelled by Sir John Soane. Catherine is now finding ways to present them to the public without encasing them in glass. Items on view might change from day to day or week to week, depending on where they happen to end up.
It's a fittingly bohemian way to throw open the doors of a house which draws you in with its friendly and artistic ambience.
Lord St Germans calls it "benign". He has lived in the house all his life and was brought up here by his grandparents.
Through the centuries, Port Eliot has always been a sociable estate. In the 1980s, the grounds were the venue for the renowned Elephant Fayre arts festivals - named after the giant beast of the family emblem. And for five summers it has hosted the wildly eccentric and buzzing Port Eliot Lit Fest, where authors, artists, chefs, poets, comedians, designers and musicians entertain the crowds in marquees and tents dotted around the garden. This will be a fallow festival year, but the weekend event will return in style in 2009.
The decision to open the house came as part of an arrangement which allows national treasures to be donated to the state in place of inheritance tax. An additional "in-lieu-in-situ" means the works can be viewed on the walls for which they were created. In the case of Port Eliot, there are 23 paintings - chiefly portraits of family members, but one unique Plymouth landscape - that have been transferred to the ownership of Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, but remain at the house.
Throughout his life, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was born in Plympton in 1723, received patronage from the Eliots and some of his first commissions were portraits of the family. He went on to study and paint with the great masters in Rome and London.
Other significant pieces reflect the accumulation of 20 generations and include works by Romney, Ramsey, Van Dyck and many Dutch Old Masters.
Encouragement and celebration of the arts is a theme that has continued into the 20th and 21st centuries. The stunning Round Room - which apparently has the same cubic capacity as the average three-bedroom Wimpey home - is home to a unique circular mural by the late Plymouth artist Robert Lenkiewicz.
"Now that we have the in-lieu in-situ agreement, it just made sense to go one step further and welcome people into the State Rooms," says Lord St Germans. "My wife and I very much hope that all our visitors will find the Port Eliot experience as engrossing and as fascinating as I have done every day for more than six decades."
The estate lies in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the romantic gardens - which are also one of only two Grade I listed plots in Cornwall - and landscape designed by Humphrey Repton, stretches down to the unspoiled estuary of the River Lynher. There's a vast rhododendron garden, a maze, bowling green, orangery and arboretum as well as magnificent views of the estuary - a tranquil haven where you can bring your dogs (off the lead on dog-friendly Wednesdays) and picnic wherever you like.
Catherine, 38, says having daily visitors will not disrupt the couple's lives as they are used to having people around.
"Houses like this have always had visitors," she says. "You have to accept that. It's not a problem at all - we welcome it. It's fantastic for people to come and see the house, and there are so many rooms and passageways that we can always find some private space when we want to.
"Perry and I have been having a lovely time getting ready," she adds.
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