Editing Belvoir Castle (section)

=== Georgian revival ===
[[File:BelvoirCastleDrawingRoom 2022 04.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The Drawing Room]]
In 1799, the [[John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland|5th Duke of Rutland]] married [[Elizabeth Manners, Duchess of Rutland|Lady Elizabeth Howard]]. The new Duchess of Rutland soon chose architect [[James Wyatt]] to rebuild the castle in the romantic [[Gothic Revival]] style. The Duke, one of the wealthiest landholders in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]], sold seven assorted villages and their surrounding lands to fund the massive project.<ref name=Stately/> The project was nearing completion when, on 26 October 1816, it was almost destroyed by a fire.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Fire at Belvoir Castle |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18161029/007/0002 |newspaper=Morning Post |location=British Newspaper Archive |date=29 October 1816 |access-date=29 July 2016 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The loss - including pictures by [[Titian]], [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]], [[Anthony van Dyck|van Dyck]], and [[Joshua Reynolds|Reynolds]] - was estimated at £120,000 (£{{Inflation|UK|0.12|1816|r=2}} million today).

Rebuilt, again, to largely the same designs, at a cost of an additional £82,000 (£{{Inflation|UK|0.082|1832|r=2}} million today), the castle was largely completed by 1832. The architect Sir James Thornton<ref name="BC"/>{{rp|50}} (who was the Duke's friend and chaplain and Vicar of nearby [[Bottesford, Leicestershire|Bottesford]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Leicestershire and Rutland|last=Pevsner|first=Nikolaus|publisher=Penguin|year=1984|isbn=0-14-071018-3 |editor-last= Williamson |editor-first= Elizabeth |series= Buildings of England |location= London |pages=97 |orig-year=1960 |edition=2nd |id= (with corrections of 1992)}}</ref>) was chiefly responsible for this rebuilding, and the result bears a superficial resemblance to a medieval castle, its central tower reminiscent of [[Windsor Castle]].

Whilst visiting Belvoir castle in the 1840s, [[Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford|Anna, Duchess of Bedford]], found that the normal time for dinner was between 7:00 and 8:30&nbsp;p.m. An extra meal called luncheon had been created to fill the midday gap between breakfast and dinner, but as this new meal was very light, the long afternoon with no refreshment at all left people feeling hungry. She found a light meal of tea (usually Darjeeling) and cakes or sandwiches was the perfect balance. The Duchess found taking an afternoon snack to be such a perfect refreshment that she soon began inviting her friends to join her. [[Tea (meal)|Afternoon tea]] quickly became an established and convivial repast in many middle and upper class households.<ref>p. 209, Pool, Daniel (1993) "What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew," Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, New York</ref>

The castle is open to the public and contains many works of art. The highlights of the tour are the lavish [[State room|state rooms]], the most famous being the Elizabeth Saloon (named after the wife of the 5th Duke), the Regents Gallery and the Roman-inspired State Dining Room.

The [[Queen's Royal Lancers]] [[regimental museum]] of the [[17th Lancers|17th]] and [[21st Lancers (Empress of India's)|21st Lancers]] was established here in 1964, but was required to leave in October 2007. [[The Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum]] is now at [[Thoresby Hall]].