I never heard of this visit until now, interesting. Do you remember where you read that.
The Diana inquest transcripts, they are still available online.
Aliza my sources come from having visited Althrop so read the information about Earl Spencer's income and the estate.(The information about income from property, commerical, farming, residential was all listed as well as forestry and the fact that there are 2 smaller estates elsewhere that belong to Earl Spencer) The sign on the hoardings surrounding the restoration of the outside of Althrop House explained about the 20 million pound self funded restoration of the outside of the house and the new roof. Information from the auction of household items and the catalogue of those items had written that the money was to fund the restoration of the house. It also explained that the items came from the attics in the Victoria stableblock, the pictures showed the household items, I was fascinated by the amount of pudding molds!
Earl Spencer has given many interviews, he was asked about the letter from him in the Burrell book. His reponse was the one I quoted, that Burrell didn't bother to include the many loving letters he exchanged with his sister. The April 1997 trip to South Africa, Diana did one public engagement and she was photographed with Nelson Mandela. The 2 weeks she spent there was with her brother and he was the one to say after her death how much she enjoyed the lack of media intrusion. Her time with her sister Sarah in July can be found in the Diana inquest transcripts. As well as the length of Diana's friendship with Rosa Monkton and Lucia de Fleca de Lima.
The information on the Spencer tiara. Well first and foremost it's still the 'Spencer tiara' owned by Earl Spencer! It was never owned by Diana, it was always loaned to her. The Spencer jewellery (including other tiaras, there is more than one 'Spencer Tiara') are kept in a bank vault in London. It's the jewellery experts who have spoken about the fact that Diana never had possession of the tiara and the process by which it had to be taken out from the bank. It was signed in and out so there is a record.
Information on Earl Spencer's wealth can be found in financial articles on wealth aristocrats. He's up there with the Dukes of Westminister, Becclauch(sp?), Malborough, Wellington.
Information on Althrop and its environs, so my view that Diana was a petulant child over not being given the house she wanted is based on having visited Althrop. Althrop House and its park is well away from the main road, there are several minor country roads you need to navigate, miss the turnoff to the House and you end up going through the oneway system through the Great Bingham village. It's not possible to turn back and go back to the turnoff, you need to do a large loop back to the main road and start again. (I found that out the hard way!) The Estate is more than just Althrop House and its park, Diana was offered a house on the Estate, just not the one she wanted. Considering the environs she would have easily got the privacy she wanted, Charles Spencer wasn't abandoning her to the paparazzi.
Althrop House, opening hours can be found on their website, as well as the small reference to Diana (not even on the Homepage) so Charles Spencer is hardly exploiting her! The exhibition also has a section on called "the work continues" which shows the projects funded by the Diana Memorial Fund. There's also a sign (as well as a press releases) as to the money Charles Spencer has donated to the Memorial Fund from the profits of the Diana Exhibition.
Just using 2 books to provide your information, the Burrell book in particular gave a distorted view since he had his viewpoint to promote, will not give you an accurate picture of Charles Spencer and his relationship to Diana. Using tabloid stories, 'suing for libel' (he never has!) selling titles (no, not done that either!) making money from his sister (how about checking into his real income source, there's certainly factual information out there!) Selling the 'treasures' of Althrop for himself (check the catalogue to see what was actually sold and what the money was being used for!!) Tabloids assume people want distorted information to suit a viewpoint they already have, much better to deal with facts!
In regards to the price of tickets at Althrop, they are comparable with the price of tickets at other Stately homes in the UK. (have you ever looked at the costs of other stately homes?) For the 8 week opening (far less than 6 months if he really wanted to make money!!!!!) additional staff needs to be employed and the ticket price covers their salaries, the gate staff, there's a little bus to take people from the gate to the house (for those who aren't all that mobile) so running costs of the bus, the staff who work in the tea shop, those who work in the souvenir shop and those inside the house as well as the additional security needed. Cleaners who would clean the public toilets.
Not having read Patrick Jephson's book I can't make a genuine comment on what he wrote. But I can speculate that maybe Diana had not returned the tiara after one of the times she borrowed it and her brother was saying 'hand it back' it needs to go back with the other Spencer Jewellery. (Depending on the date did his wife need to wear it?)
) Would they visit their Mother's grave and ignore their uncle? Possible, but not probable, IMHO.
Maybe if they hadn't wasted so much money on legal fees, (hundreds of thousands of £££ in only the first few months), they would have been able to use the money as intended when it was donated. The tickets to Althorp are fairly expensive; couldn't Earl Spencer have kept it going, considering how very wealthy you maintain he is? (I am being serious, not sarcastic.) And you still haven't explained why the Earl had to write to Patrick Jephson to have the Spencer tiara returned. He would hardly have had to do so if it had been in a bank. The Spencers did not deny anything quoted from them by Burrell; if they consider those letters normal family behaviour, even in a "tiff", no wonder the Princess complained of feeling unloved.
