Located 105km west of London in rural(сельский) Hampshire, Highclere Castle sits amid a quintessential English landscape of gentle hills, ancient water-meadows and soporific villages where thatched cottages still outnumber tiled(черепица) roofs. Appearing regally at the end of a long gravel drive, its impressive Italian Renaissance-style facade ringed by vast manicured grounds will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever tuned into the Emmy Award-winning TV drama, Downton Abbey.

But, while actors such as Maggie Smith steal the drama’s top accolades(почесть) for their rousing depictions(описание) of Edwardian-era aristocrats, Highclere Castle’s less-heralded role as the country seat of the fictional (вымышленный) Earl of Grantham in Yorkshire is equally evocative (напоминающие о многом).
In real life, Highclere’s earls are the Carnarvons not the Granthams, a hereditary (наследвственный, потомственный) British peerage that traces its noble family lineage back to 1628.

The Carnarvon family has lived at Highclere since 1679, witnessing everything from the Industrial Revolution to the two World Wars, and overseeing the house’s transformation in the early 1840s when English architect Sir Charles Barry rebuilt it in spectacular Renaissance Revival style. With its soaring (уходящие высоко вверх) towers and decorative turrets(башенки), it invites comparisons with Barry’s other great work, the Houses of Parliament in London.
While many of the erstwhile Earls of Carnarvon were renowned (известные) politicians, their fame was overshadowed by the escapades of the 5th Earl, better known as George Herbert (1866-1923), a keen Egyptologist, who, along with British archaeologist Howard Carter, unearthed (раскопал) the gold-adorned tomb of boy-king Tutankhamun in Egypt in 1922.

Considered the greatest find in archaeological history, Herbert had little time to bask in (зд. наслаждаться) its success. He died bizarrely (при странных обстоятельствах) the following year, probably from blood poisoning contracted through an infected mosquito bite, leading the newspapers of the day to speculate that he had fallen prey to (стал жертвой) a "Mummy’s curse”.