Sir: Profit-making by the National Trust need involve no sacrifice
of standards. In my submission, aesthetic and commercial interests will usually be found to coincide, and Montacute is a case in point. An 'entrance shop ', besides spoiling the approach to the house, is less likely to attract custom than an 'exit shop ', both because visitors are naturally keen to start their tour of the property without delay and because they are unlikely to wish to walk round the place clutching pots of honey and similar impedimenta. Even postcards, which can be carried with perfect ease, are more attractive when the items photographed have been viewed.
Still less acceptable than an ' entrance shop', in terms of taste, is any shop in the middle of a house. It has been a relief to me to discover, from correspondence, that the Trust is alive to this fact, so members may hope that, with continued pressure, errors will gradually be rectified. Washington Old Hall, Co. Durham (to quote but one example) was largely ruined for me by a shop in the principal room, which I hope may by now have been removed. However tastefully designed the ties and the tea towels, they simply failed to harmonise with the Jacobean house and were destructive of atmosphere.
A shop properly sited is an asset to a property. No reasonable person, I feel, could do other than commend the siting both of the shop and the tea room at Cotehele. Long may they prosper, and others like them!
Anne Smith Hunter's Lodge, Newton Abbot, Devon.
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