As luxe as it looks? Dinner at the real 'Downton Abbey'

My father, Robert Taylor, was butler after returning to the Highclere Castle from World War 2 until the death of the sixth Earl of Carnarvon [in 1987].

As a child I would sometimes go up to the dining room just before dinner and sample the food. Father would first take the whole bird or roast or whatever it was to display to the guests, then take it back to the kitchen to be carved before returning it to the dining room to be served, so there were always a few tidbits.

How many have witnessed a roast bird arriving on a serving dish with a decorative fan of golden chipolatas protruding from its rear end?

The dining room was called the State Room and it was where the earl used to dine every night, in dress, at this massive table, everything fully laid out. The dinner menu was handwritten in French on a crested card every night.

The polished silver cutlery and glasses were laid out to a very precise spacing, often involving a ruler or tape measure. Food was served from the left - using a serving spoon and fork in one hand, like tongs - and drinks from the right.

Dinner wines were selected daily from the extensive cellars and decanted. Only champagne was poured from the bottle, with the thumb in the recess at the bottom of the bottle.

A large selection of vegetables and fruit - some quite exotic, thanks to the heated greenhouses - came from the "bottom garden". The "top garden" provided flowers for the house. Chickens came from local sources and during the winter shooting season, pheasants, partridge, rabbit, hare and occasionally duck could be found in the game larder, where they hung until reaching the required gamey condition. Trout would arrive live in a tank in the back of the fishmonger's van.

Ivy Rogers was the cook when I was there. She was an ordinary village lady, very nice. One of the dishes I remember most fondly - and my wife still makes it - is the chocolate pots. It was good manners to at least taste every course, but those chocolate pots were so rich that the ladies wouldn't eat the whole thing. The pots would return to the kitchen with just a tiny spoonful taken out of them - but they wouldn't go to waste!