Ruth Scurr

Empress Eugénie’s shrine to the Bonapartes

After her exile from France in 1870, the wife of Napoleon III purchased a Hampshire estate to house a nostalgic collection of family memorabilia

‘The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting’ by Franz Xaver Winterhalter dominated the hall at Farnborough Hill, evoking the vanished glamour of the second empire. Credit: Alamy

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