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34 A s Minton's car pulled u p t o Houghton at dusk, a herd of al- bino deer thundered across the drive. Once inside, he spotted Lady Rose, who was scurrying about in jeans and tennis shoes, making last-minute adjustments to the fl owers before disappearing to dress. She soon descended the stair- case in a long silk gown, aptly printed with roses. Her con- tingency of fashionable guests included Amy Astley, editor in chief of Architectural Digest, and Houston expat Katalina Hicks, who lives in England with her husband, interior designer Ashley Hicks. There was Elle Decor's Whitney Robinson, AD's Mitchell Owens, and Amanda Brooks, who is married to an English artist and living in the Cotswolds, where she writes books and has opened a new store, Cutter Brooks. She wore a spectacular ruffled pink gown, designed specifi cally for the occasion by Valentino. The seated dinner, held in one of Houghton's many en- tertaining rooms, was entirely illuminated by candlelight. Lord David Cholmondeley presided at one end of the 40-foot-long table, with Claud Cecil Gurney at the other. Minton was seated next to designer Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough and a descendant of Winston Churchill. The two talked of Dallas, where Spencer- Churchill has designed sev- eral projects and plans to return. English designer Nicky Haslam was there, along with his former protégé, the lovely Swedish designer Beata Heuman, as well as designers Steven Gambrel, Alessandra Branca, Alidad, Stewart Manger, Madeline Stuart, and Kathryn Ireland. South Africa-born designer Sophie Ashby was stunning in an elegant white trouser suit. Charmingly, one of the Cholmondeleys' young sons hid underneath the vast ta- ble during dinner, with guests feeling a slight brush as he crawled by. The menu included ven- ison from deer raised on the Houghton estate and vegeta- bles from the kitchen gardens. Guests departed with exquisite jars of honey from Houghton's beehives, along with olive oil bottled on Claud Cecil Gurney's estate in Croatia. But the real stars of the evening were the astonishing blue Cabinet Room and the magnifi cent wallpaper collection it inspired. The de Gournay colorways include the original bright hues found in the attic panels, as well as a more muted version inspired by the Cabinet Room paper as it appears today. De Gournay can be found in Dallas at Culp Associates. And as for Lady Rose's private bath, she created a third colorway in a delicious rose hue. Cabinet Room Adam Bray, Hannah Cecil Gurney Irakli Zaria, Madeline Stuart Lord David Cholmondeley, Robert Angell Claud Cecil Gurney Nicholas Haslam, Beata Heuman, David Bentheim