Threads of Time at Longleat

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"Threads of time: What to wear on your transtemporal vacation" will be in the House Lower Hotplate Corridor display case for the duration of the Festival of Light.

The 2024 Festival of Light offers Longleat's visitors a chance to 'Journey through time', from Ancient Greece, through Medieval England, to a distinctly 'Shakespearean' era. But the pressing question is: What do you wear on your time travel adventure? Help is at hand.

Costume books are a staple of country house libraries. As you would expect, Longleat has some fine examples. In this display, a selection of Longleat's historic costume books richly illustrate the clothing worn in several of the eras and locales that the Festival of Light recreates. Certain of the books are themselves 'well-dressed' -- in gilt tooled, jewel-coloured morocco leather -- being the work of top-drawer London bookbinders of the nineteenth-century. The books will serve to guide our visitors as they pack their suitcases for a unique time travel adventure, courtesy of Longleat.