cover - Blue Liguria - Sagep

with him all the other profaners.
The treasures found by the lucky
excavation now make up the
leading exhibition in the astounding
Egyptian Museum of Cairo, which it
appears has only been subjected to
modest damage during the course
of the recent disorders. Carnarvon,
after his years spent in Egypt,
brought many artifacts to England,
the great part of which were sold to
the Metropolitan Museum in New
York to pay inheritance taxes.
Many objects of minor interest
ended up in a closet in High Clere
Castle, the Carnarvon residence near
Newbury, to the southwest of
London, to be then rediscovered by
his descendents in 1987. Today they
are exhibited in a small museum
which shows Carnarvon’s campaigns
and his adventurous life as a
photographer, raiser of horses, fan
(and victim) of racing cars.
And what has Portofino to do with
this story? Perched on the
promontory of the Italian Riviera,
well known to chroniclers, is Villa
Altachiara, the Ligurian translation
of High Clere, as per the wishes of
the fourth Count of Carnarvon,
Henry Herbert (1831-1890). He
fathered the future archeologist
with his first wife, Evelyn. Upon her
death, he married, in 1878, a young
cousin, Elsie Howard. It was during
their honeymoon in the first
months of 1879 that the couple
discovered Portofino.
“Elsie was enchanted. As a result
Carnarvon bought her a great tract
of land on the peninsula. Together
they designed a house on top of the
hill, facing in part on the tiny
harbor, and on the other side, facing
the sea, all built in Portland stone.”
This citation comes from the
biography written by Margaret
Fitzherbert, The Man Who Was
Greenmantle (1983), dedicated to
the son of Carnarvon and Elsie,
Aubrey Herbert (1880-1923), an
indefatigable traveler and polyglot,
who died prematurely in the same
year as his Egyptologist half-
nota alle cronache, la Villa Altachiara,
traduzion ligure di High
Clere. Questa fu voluta dal quarto
Conte di Carnarvon, Henry Herbert
(1831-1890), che ebbe il futuro archeologo
dalla prima moglie Evelyn.
Morta questa, sposò nel 1878
una cugina molto più giovane, Elsie
Howard. Fu durante la luna di
miele nei primi mesi del 1879 che
gli sposi scoprirono Portofino.
“Elsie ne fu incantata, sicché Carnarvon
le comprò un grande tratto
della penisola. Insieme progettarono
una casa in cima alla collina, affacciata
da una parte sul porticciolo,
dall’altra sul mare. Fu costruita
di pietra di Portland”.
Cito dalla biografia di Margaret
Fitzherbert, The Man Who Was
Greenmantle (1983), dedicata al fi-
George Herbert (1866-1923), quinto
Conte di Carnarvon
George Herbert (1866-1923), fifth
Count of Carnarvon
brother. Aubrey was quite a
personality. A friend and accomplice
of Lawrence of Arabia, he was
involved in many complex
diplomatic plots. But he was also a
very eye-catching, half-blind,
unpredictable, eccentric, disorderly
figure to whom the throne of
Albania was offered two times. He
married an Anglo-Irish heiress,
Mary, who gave him three
daughters and a son, Auberon
(1922-1974), who was as
extravagant and eccentric as his
father, though less influential in the
political sphere. A huge man with a
cordial grin and flat feet, he
continued to dominate the
landscape of Portofino, with his
well-loved mother, until the
seventies. The Villa Altachiara, which
the fourth Count built for his wife,
was left to her on his death. She in
turn passed it on to the great
adventurers, Aubrey and Auberon,
son and grandson. To Auberon was
given the task of selling it. Built
around 1880, it is probable that the
fifth Count, the Egyptologist, spent
some holiday periods here with his
half-brother, Aubrey. But the story
of Altachiara is linked to the second
family of the fourth Count, the
Herberts, who did not inherit the
title, of which the jovial storyteller,
Auberon was the last male heir.
A trip to High Clere instead, lets
you meet the actual eight Count of
Carnarvon and his smiling, dogloving
wife, and to visit their
imposing estate with its little
Egyptian museum. In the
meantime, just recently, the news
has arrived that Italian anatomopathologists
have found that the
mummy of Tutankhamen (still
conserved in the Valley of the
Kings) shows that he was a cripple,
who suffered from malaria, and
had a congenital malformation of
his palate. All the same, emotions
still overwhelm, when one gazes
upon his gold mask which
contemplates us, intact and serene,
from far off 1325 B.C.
storie
blue
glio di Carnarvon ed Elsie, Aubrey
Herbert (1880-1923), viaggiatore
instancabile e poliglotta, che morì
prematuramente nello stesso anno
del fratellastro egittologo.
Aubrey fu un personaggio di spicco,
amico e complice di Lawrence d’Arabia,
coinvolto in complesse trame diplomatiche.
Ma era anche un uomo
pittoresco, semicieco, imprevedibile,
eccentrico, disordinato, cui fu offerto
due volte il trono di Albania. Sposò
un’ereditiera angloirlandese, Mary,
che gli diede tre figlie e il maschio
Auberon (1922-1974), stravagante
ed eccentrico come il padre anche se
meno influente sullo scacchiere politico.
Un omone con un ghigno cordiale
e piedi piatti che continuò a
dominare il paesaggio di Portofino,
con l’amatissima madre, fino agli
anni ’70.
La Villa Altachiara, voluta dal quarto
Conte per la moglie, rimase in
eredità a questa, e da lei passò agli
avventurieri Aubrey e Auberon, figlio
e nipote. Toccò ad Auberon
venderla. Fu costruita intorno al
1880, ed è probabile che il quinto
Duca, l’egittologo, vi abbia trascorso
periodi di vacanza accanto al
fratellastro Aubrey. Ma la storia
dell’Altachiara è legata alla seconda
famiglia del quarto Conte, gli
Herbert che non ereditarono il titolo,
di cui il gioviale affabulatore
Auberon fu l’ultimo erede maschio.
Un viaggio a Highclere permetterà
invece di conoscere l’attuale ottavo
Conte di Carnarvon e la sorridente
moglie cinofila e di visitare
la loro imponente residenza, col
piccolo museo egizio.
Intanto è di questi giorni la notizia
che esperti anatomopatologi italiani
e non hanno appurato dalla
mummia (tuttora conservata nella
Valle dei Re) che Tutankhamen era
sciancato, soffriva di malaria e
aveva una malformazione congenita
al palato. Il che nulla toglie all’emozione
che proviamo davanti
alla sua maschera aurea, che ci
contempla intatta e serena dal lontano
1325 a.C.
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