The 'わずかに promiscuous' aristocrat who became the First Lady of 激しく揺する 'n' Roll: RICHARD KAY on the riotous life of?Lady Cobbold as she dies 老年の 83

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AN 招待 to Knebworth House was never a humdrum 事件／事情／状勢. Fellow guests might 含む the Rolling 石／投石するs, Led Zeppelin, Queen or Oasis, whose sell-out concerts in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties saw the place immortalised as the stately home of 激しく揺する 'n' roll.

Even so, there were some strict 支配するs for 夜通し stays. 'It didn't 事柄 who you might be 株ing the bed with, you had to be out of your room by 10am because that's when the velvet rope was 支援する in place and the 支払う／賃金ing public were let in,' 解任するs one 正規の／正選手 訪問者.

'If you were running late, you could stuff everything under the bed and こそこそ動く 支援する later.'

This was a rare 譲歩 from Knebworth's chatelaine Lady ?Cobbold, to those unwilling to break off their romantic entanglements until the last possible moment.

For she had to manage the ?不安定な 商売／仕事 of keeping the house afloat with a sharp 注目する，もくろむ on the 底（に届く） line, even though it seemed at 半端物s with her fey, hippyish beauty and other-worldly 空気／公表する.

For １０年間s, Chryssie Lytton ?Cobbold, who has died 老年の 83, and her late husband David, the 2nd Lord Cobbold, kept the family seat and its 250 acres of parkland afloat with a mixture of flamboyance, ?楽観主義 and 激しく揺する 'n' roll.

Lady ?Cobbold, pictured in 1995,? once delicately referred to her marriage to David, the 2nd Lord Cobbold, as 'slight promiscuity'

The dashingly handsome David was 報告（する）／憶測d to have fathered two children with different women

With its creeper-覆う？ turrets and fearsome gargoyles Knebworth House was a 崩壊するing 廃虚 when Chryssie and David took on the 仕事 of 復古／返還 in 1969

'There was always something ?漏れるing, rotting, 落ちるing 負かす／撃墜する or needing 修理,' says an old friend.

The headlines 示唆するd that it was the music and its 評判 for the best-run festivals in the world that 確実にするd Knebworth could 支払う／賃金 its 法案s, but Lady Cobbold's needlework 技術s were just as 決定的な.

Thanks to her debutante years when she was a £3-a-week pattern 切断機，沿岸警備艇 at 価値（がある）, the London ?couturiers, she re-upholstered 古代の 議長，司会を務めるs, stitched new ?curtains and cushions and ?refurbished old fabrics. And when she wasn't sewing, she was （権力などを）行使するing a paintbrush or 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスing away at overgrown flower beds.

With its creeper-覆う？ turrets and fearsome gargoyles the house was a 崩壊するing 廃虚 when she and David took on the 仕事 of 復古／返還 in 1969. His parents had been unable to give it away: 'They 申し込む／申し出d it to the 郡 会議, then a 一連の public 団体／死体s, but they all said they couldn't 正当化する the expense,' Lady Cobbold 解任するd years later.

The Rolling 石／投石するs' Mick Jagger in concert at Knebworth in the 1970s

David Lytton-Cobbold and wife Chryssie on skateboards with their children, Peter, Richard and Rosina, at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire

Oasis, pictured, enjoyed sell-out concerts at Knebworth in the 1990s

'One day when we were living in our London flat with our four children, we visited Syon House (home of the Dukes of ?Northumberland in Brentford). We were very impressed with what they had done so we thought, shall we have a go, too?'

にもかかわらず the 恐れるs of his father Kim, a former 知事 of the Bank of England and Lord ?Chamberlain to the late Queen Elizabeth, that the 広い地所 was an impossible 重荷（を負わせる）, the couple 始める，決める to with gusto, laying roads and building loos and restaurants.

There were challenges ― Chryssie was once woken in bed by mice nibbling her toes. Although they had far いっそう少なく money than grander 競争相手s such as Longleat and Woburn Abbey, when they opened the doors two years later, 訪問者s flooded in. The house, a bizarre mix of Tudor and ?Victorian Gothic, was not the only draw.

同様に as an ?impressive collection of Jacobean furniture and tapestries, there were all manner of curios ― from Winston Churchill's love letters to David's grandmother Pamela, Countess of Lytton, a 公式文書，認めるd society beauty, to a 水晶 ball left behind by an occultist whose ghost is said to stalk Knebworth's passages.

But 財政／金融s were ?不安定な. 救済 （機の）カム with the music. In 19 74 they 行う／開催する／段階d their first concert with 先頭 ?Morrison and the Allman Brothers topping the 法案. There were rave reviews and the 時代 of country house 激しく揺する had begun.

Later festivals featured Pink Floyd, Genesis, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Robbie Williams and, in August 1986, Freddie ?水銀柱，温度計's last concert with Queen. The two concerts Oasis played in the summer of 1996 were 述べるd as the 'gig of the ?１０年間', while the （人が）群がる of 125,000 each night was said to have resulted in the two biggest 激しく揺する concerts Britain had ever seen.

必然的に, when 激しく揺する-星／主役にする ?王族 was staying, stories soon proliferated of louche and ?予期しない behaviour. Mick ?Jagger was said to have left a pair of blue underpants at the 底（に届く） of the 16th-century bed once slept in by Queen Elizabeth I, while Noel Gallagher rang on the ?doorbell to ask to take a bath.

Chryssie's worst moment （機の）カム the first time she 招待するd a 禁止（する）d to the house for drinks. 推定する／予想するing just the members of Pink Floyd ― 加える wives and girlfriends ― she put out a few ashtrays.

Forty people 注ぐd into the house ― 'liggers' she called them ― looking for a 解放する／自由な drink. At that very moment the police and 麻薬s squad arrived to 検討する，考慮する over the day's events and they looked thirsty, too. 'I gave them whiskies in the kitchen while the 禁止（する）d and their friends were in the 熟考する／考慮する, for all I knew rolling up 共同のs.'

Time stood still as she dashed around trying to keep the two groups separate. 'I almost ?崩壊（する）d with 救済 when the police left, blissfully unaware of all the naughtiness going on next door,' she said.

But Chryssie was not one to wait on aristocratic 形式順守. With her long blonde hair, ?gentle manner, fascination with astrology and her visits to Glastonbury, Lady Cobbold was, in many ways, a 1960s archetype. So was her husband. They married young ― Chryssie was 20, David 23 ― and, casting aside the 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるing prejudices of the day, 可決する・採択するd two Ugandan schoolfriends of their eldest son Henry.

And in true 1960s style their marriage 生き残るd what she once referred to delicately as 'slight promiscuity'. A more blunt 査定／評価 would 述べる theirs as an open marriage. The dashingly handsome David was 報告（する）／憶測d to have fathered two children with different women. For her part, Lady Cobbold 定評のある there were 'occasions when one was わずかに promiscuous. I think it was just because everyone else did it, one did it, too. But you grow out of it.

'I think far too much is made of 性の behaviour. An awful lot of fuss is made about 姦通. Most people are probably 有罪の at some time or another, but a happy marriage should be able to digest the 時折の transgression.'

Certainly, she and Cobbold remained happily married until his death in 2022 living by this maxim. Neither his indiscretions nor her fondness for the bohemian thrice-married Earl of St Germans did so much as dent it.

When her husband died after years fighting Parkinson's 病気 she decorated his 棺 with ?artwork from his favourite Pink Floyd album and placed a ?記念の （法廷の）裁判 beside his 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な at Knebworth inscribed: 'See you on the Dark 味方する of the Moon.'

A day after her death from ?pancreatic 癌, Lady Cobbold was buried next to him.