Chequers casts its timeless spell over Gordon

The PM has fallen in love with Chequers, his country home

Chequers, the prime ministerial retreat in Buckinghamshire, epitomises English country living, notes Alice Thomson in The Daily Telegraph. Hidden in a fold of the Chiltern Hills, just 40 miles from London, and built of russet brick with tall chimneys and a garden full of oaks and birches, its charm lies in its modesty.

Stanley Baldwin once said: "There are three classes that need sanctuary more than any others. Birds, wildflowers and prime ministers." Chequers, a 16th-century house given to the nation in 1917 by a Tory minister called Arthur Lee, is the prime minister's sanctuary and if anyone needs a sanctuary just now, it's Gordon Brown. Yet when he first took over from Tony Blair he vowed never to use the place. "Why would a Presbyterian Scot want an English stately home with butlers and cooks, floral valances, four-poster beds and Wedgwood china?"

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