Designed in Neo-Georgian style by architect Edwin Lutyens, it is a Grade II* listed building.
[4] In 1898 he married Frances, the only daughter and heiress of the Scottish shipping magnate Fleetwood Pellew Wilson,[5] of Wappenham Manor, Northamptonshire.
[6] The couple's British residences included Braemar Castle, Aberdeenshire, and a house in Upper Grosvenor Street, London.
[7] Lutyens visited the site in July 1905, thinking it beautiful but a very difficult one for the Princess's ideal house,[8] which he thought would cost £20,000.
To accommodate the steeply sloping site, he built a basement level under the southwest half of the house.
[7] A second staircase, at right angles to the first and 8 feet (2.4 m) wide,[10] led towards the suite of rooms on the garden front,[12] via a grand landing.
[22] Another member of the community, Bernard Clements, became a broadcaster and the vicar of All Saints, Margaret Street, London.
[13] Justin Welby, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, was a regular visitor to the abbey from the early 1990s, and became an Anglican Benedictine oblate in 2004.
[25] In September 2010 the remaining four monks moved again, into the Principal's House of Sarum College, in the close of Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire.
[27] There are 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of grounds, forming a long, south-pointing triangle, with the house at the northern end.
From the top of the stairway, a straight path (originally stone terracing) runs southeast, along the top of the retaining wall, and another runs northeast along the house's garden front, leading to a circular, walled rose garden.
[2] From the main lawn, a central path, originally an avenue lined with chestnuts, leads southwards into mixed woodland, underplanted with rhododendrons.
[2] A number of Lutyens-designed features are Grade II listed buildings, including the rose garden wall, a stable, a gatehouse, and an alcove at the northern end of the former chestnut avenue.