Dressing Up at Kenwood House

To all intents and purposes (or, at least, my intents and purposes) Kenwood’s story begins in 1754, when William Murray, Lord Mansfield bought it as a country weekend villa (life goals right there, I can’t even afford to buy a windowless studio in Streatham). William Murray was, I have discovered, really a pretty cool character. A younger son of a good Perthshire family, he came to London for school when he was 13 and went on to become one of the greatest legal figures in UK history. 

After studying at Oxford, Murray was so bright that he was sponsored to take the Bar and quickly made a name for himself as an excellent barrister. He became an MP in 1742 before earning his most prestigious title of Lord Chief Justice in 1754. Famous for his enlightened thinking, he thoroughly modernised English law and set England on the path to abolishing slavery – all in all, a bit of a dude.