Montacute House is a late Elizabethan house in the village of Montacute in Somerset, England.  Its original owner, Sir Edward Phelps, was the prosecutor during the trial of the Gunpowder Plotters, who included Guy Fawkes.

The Phelps family owned the house until 1929 when it was put up for sale, valued at 5,882 GB pounds ‘for scrap’. Fortunately it was bought by the grandson of Thomas Cook (of the travel company) and donated to The National Trust.

The house has been used in several films: Sense and Sensibility (1995), Elizabeth (1998) and The Libertine (2004)

So where does Elinor Glyn come in to all this?  Elinor lived at the house with her lover, Lord Curzon, for 18 months. Did Elinor hope to become Lady Curzon? Curzon was an ambitious man. A former Viceroy of India, he had dreams of becoming Prime Minister, but would the public have accepted Elinor in the role of Prime Minster’s wife?

Elinor was staying at Montacute awaiting Curzon’s return from London when she read in the Sunday papers of his marriage to a rich American widow.

Very hurtful and very humiliating.

But he never did become Prime Minister and she went on to find fame and fortune in Hollywood.