The annual summer opening of this royal retreat takes place over the bank holiday weekend and offers visitors the chance to discover the interiors of the seventeenth-century house, purchased for George III's consort Queen Charlotte and a favourite of successive monarchs, as well as the gardens which were laid out by Queen Charlotte. On show are furniture, porcelain and paintings including drawings and watercolours by Queen Victoria, as well as the Cross Gallery, which spans the entire breadth of the house and is painted with garlands by Princess Elizabeth, daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte. Another room contains work by the eighteenth-century flower painter Mary Moser. Based on a model 'picturesque' landscape, the garden features 4,000 trees and shrubs as well as a lake. It's also the resting place of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, although their mausoleum is closed to the public.
