AN album of photographs of Highclere Castle in Hampshire, immortalised as the home of the fictional Earl of Grantham in the TV series Downton Abbey, has been sold to the owners of the estate in a private treaty sale arranged by Lawrences of Crewkerne.
The 44 large mounted photos showing the house, staff and grounds of the real-life seat of the Earls of Carnarvon, were due to be offered in a February auction valued at £500 but the private sale means they will now return to Highclere.
The photographs, taken by J Righton of Newbury, date from 1895 and include portraits of George Herbert, the newly married 5th Earl with his Countess, Almina, as well as shooting parties attended by the likes of Prince Edward (later Edward VII).