Wednesday 5 March 2014

The Verevale Hunt - Characters & Floor Plans

FAMILY

Lord Levondale (Felix Lionel, 3rd Baron - GB 1880): sixtyish, stoutish, baldish, good-natured but with a bit of a temper; divides interests between City and hunting. Timothy West type.

Lady Levondale (Cynthia): a comfortable, cheerful woman of about fifty, pert-faced and ample-bosomed, expensively but sloppily dressed ("imagine the White Queen dressed by Chanel"), fond of card games and gossip; Pauline Collins type.

Hon. Lavinia Levondale: spinsterish 28-year-old, "painfully plain and agonizingly earnest," devoted to charity, animal rights, and her dogs; but burning with a secret passion? Sarah Crowden type.

Hon. Michael Levondale: the young heir (19 -20, second year at Cambridge), good-looking, athletic, mischievous and a little manipulative, sexually adventurous; Christian Coulson type.


GUESTS

Jingo - James Ponsonby, 4th Marquess of Faringdon, Earl of Jarrow, etc.: (introduced in "The Foxbridge Footman") a charming and glamorous cad, 27 years old, terrifically handsome, Matthew Goode playing George Sanders.

Dotty - Dorothea Ponsonby, Marchioness of Faringdon: (introduced in "The Foxbridge Footman") a seductive child-woman, willowy and voluptuous at 25, a brilliant and manipulative mind masked in the giddy frivolity of a Bright Young Thing… a cross between Zoe Tapper and Kelly Reilly.

Bertie Pargeter: (introduced in "The Tears of Amphitrite") a cheerful idiot, chubby and well-dressed, good-natured and fully aware of his own shortcomings, socially clumsy but good at sport, mid-20s; Jeremy Sinden as Boy Mulcaster.

Hon Julia Pargeter: (introduced in "The Tears of Amphitrite") plain but witty and very clever, hard-headed business-woman disguised as self-effacing young matron, late-twenties/early thirties; Harriet Walter in Wimsey series.

Foxy - Sebastian Saint-Clair, Viscount Foxbridge: qv

Chester Vandekamp: Middle-aged American business tycoon, burly and weathered but smooth-mannered; older Liam Neeson type.

Mamie Vandekamp: Tycoon’s ex-chorus-girl second wife, voluptuous blonde just going to seed, crude but kind-hearted; Muzzy van Hossmere played by Renee Zellweger.

Miss Virginia Vandekamp: Tycoon’s daughter, early-mid-20s, adventurous flapper, boyishly attractive, Carey Mulligan type

Sir Wilfrid Beckett Haven KBE: Conservative MP & Cabinet Minister, widower late-fifties, stiff and gruff ex-military, gentry married daughter of an earl, John Williams type.

Miss Muriel Beckett Haven: Unmarried daughter and hostess of above, thirty-ish, pretty but sour, socially gracious but fiercely snobbish, interested only in bloodlines and politics. Frances Barber type.

Constance Gosforth the Dowager Duchess of Tyne: Impoverished grande dame, airy-fairy demeanor with grasping habits, fifty-something Joan Hickson type ("annoyed that eldest son was so selfish as to marry for love instead of much-needed money").

Lord Rupert Gosforth: Duchess’s charming wastrel second-son, good-looking but weak in chin and character, Laurence Fox type.

Sir Peregrine Pendersleigh, Bart.: elderly Egyptologist, muddled but good-humoured, Brideshead-era Gielgud type.

Miss Abigail Smallridge: Lavinia’s best friend since school days, frowsy but cheerful and chatty, fond of animals, Phoebe Nicholls type.


SERVANTS

18 Indoor Servants
Winborn, the Butler
Mrs. Fears, the Houskeeper
Mrs. Ingersoll, the Cook
Prevett, Lord Levondale’s Valet
Norrell, Lady Levondale’s Maid
Creacy, Miss Levondale’s Maid
3 Footmen
3 Housemaids
2 ea Scullery Maids & Kitchen Boys

12 Outdoor Servants
Gardeners, Grooms & Gamekeepers

10 Visiting Servants
Massingale, Lord Faringdon’s Pretty Valet
Wickson, Lady Faringdon’s Mysterious Maid
Pyburn, Duchess of Tyne’s Elderly Maid
Reginald Pond, Lord Foxbridge’s Valet
Moustafa Sassi, Sir Peregrine’s Exotic African Manservant
Heston, Sir Wilfrid’s Valet
Murphy, Miss Beckett Haven’s Maid
Maynard, Mr. Pargeter's Valet
Hibbert, Mrs. Pargeter's Maid
Celestine Dubois, Mrs Vandekamp’s Coquettish French Maid


POLICE

Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Trulock: medium-sized, middle-aged, rumpled clothes of good quality, soft-spoken with an educated accent, shrewd hooded eyes; see Michael Kitchen in Foyle’s War.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Netley - young, tall, good-looking, exceptionally neat; see Anthony Howell in Foyle’s War.


FLOOR PLANS


Mock-up of Entry (north) Front














First Floor



Second Floor

Third Floor


SEATING CHART




3 comments:

  1. If I may ask, what software did you use to make the floorplans?

    I'm concerned about the dearth of kitchen maids.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Highclere Castle, One hundred years ago there may have been as many as 60 members of staff living in and around the Castle, with a House Steward, butlers, footmen, housekeepers, maids, kitchen staff and hall and steward room boys. Somewhere the current countess said that she thought that there were 23 each of footmen and house maids.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You should have a fourth floor for the servants rooms, and depending on your plots a ground floor with the kitchens etc.

    ReplyDelete