Cliveden

Cliveden the Italianate stately-home at Taplow, Buckinghamshire,England. Set on cliffs 200ft above the River Thames it has been home to an Earl, two Dukes, a Prince of Wales and the American Astor family. It is now owned by the National Trust and the house is leased as a five-star hotel run by von Essen hotels. During the 1970s it was occupied by Stanford University of California who used it as an overseas campus. It was the meeting place of the so-called "Cliveden Set" in the 1920s and 1930s and the setting for key events in the Profumo Affair in the 1960s.
"Cliveden" (pronounced CLIV-d'n) means "valley among cliffs"[1] and refers to the dean or valley which cuts through the estate to the East and South of the house.The gardens and woodlands are open to the public, together with parts of the house on certain days. There have been three houses on this site: the first, built in 1666, burned down in 1795 and the second house (1824) was also destroyed by fire, in 1849. The present Grade 1 listed house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland