Today's estate is the former home of Baroness Emmuska Orczy, author of "The Scarlet Pimpernel." The Baroness was a prolific author and the Pimpernel series of page-turning melodramas featuring a dashing aristocrat's adventures during the French Revolution were top sellers in the early 1900s, enough so that she could afford this beautiful home as well as an estate in Monte Carlo.

Snowfield is a Grade II listed red brick home in Kent, England near the village of Bearsted. Parts of the home date back to the 17th Century. The listing says that the Baroness loved the size and location of Snowfield but thought the front of the house was ugly. She set architect Andrew Prentice to the task of replacing it with a Queen Anne style facade and with updating the fireplaces, ornate plasterwork and cornicing on the interior. The home's Georgian roots show in the large rooms with high ceilings, sash windows and original oak parquet flooring. There are 11 bedrooms total with seven of them on the main floor facing south and east with views over the garden. Built to house a grand family and staff the home also has a pantry, larders, scullery and a cellar which is a labyrinth of storerooms that include the coal cellar, wine cellar and boiler room. The grounds include a three-bedroom lodge house, formal gardens, a tennis court and a small paddock. A studio built in 1911 to match the main house was where the Baroness's husband, Montague Barstow used to paint. This grand home is listed with a guide price of £2,250,000.

[via Homes and Property UK]
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