It dates from 1884 and was designed by William Lethaby (chief assistant to the house’s main architect, Richard Norman Shaw). Lethaby later became a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. The fireplace is Classical Renaissance in style, extravagantly carved with Ionic columns, cherubs/putti, angels, and intricate swags of fruit and other motifs inspired by Italian classical architecture.

It was carved in London, shipped in pieces to the port of Amble on the Northumberland coast, transported by horse and cart to Cragside, and reassembled on site. Because of its immense weight and first-floor location, it is pinned deep into the underlying crag with steel girders.

The Drawing Room itself was created as a deliberate showpiece (in contrast to the more comfortable, homely rooms elsewhere in the house) for entertaining important guests, including clients of William Armstrong’s armaments and engineering businesses. Notable visitors included the Prince and Princess of Wales (the future Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) in 1884, shortly after the room’s completion, as well as the Shah of Persia and other foreign dignitaries. The room features an elliptical glass ceiling (allowing parties by moonlight), elaborate plasterwork, and a large original chenille/Axminster carpet.

Cragside, the Victorian Tudor Revival home of industrialist, inventor, and philanthropist William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (founder of Armstrong Whitworth), is famous as the first house in the world lit by hydroelectric power. It is a Grade I listed building owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

In recent years the fireplace suffered from salt efflorescence caused by moisture penetrating the building (linked to heavier rainfall overwhelming the original Victorian drainage). This risked causing the marble and plaster to crumble. Urgent conservation work began around 2021, involving stabilisation with specialised lime-based treatments (such as nano-limes or calcium hydroxide solutions) while the sources of water ingress were investigated and addressed. Funding included support from the Wolfson Foundation, the Culture Recovery Fund (via Historic England), and private donors. The work aimed to preserve this dramatic centrepiece for the long term.

The fireplace is widely regarded as spectacular and one of the house’s great highlights (sometimes described as one of the largest or most extravagant inglenooks of its kind), though opinions on its ornate Victorian style vary from admiring to finding it flamboyant.

Before becoming Hollywood’s quintessential “ideal wife” opposite William Powell in The Thin Man (1934), Loy was consistently typecast in late silent films and early talkies as an exotic, dangerous, or mystical temptress—an image reflected in this bohemian, rustic costume and theatrical pose.

During this pre-Code era of cinema, studio executives frequently cast her in exotic, “exotic-vamp” roles, a theme that Muray’s atmospheric lighting and styling beautifully captured. He was one of the era’s premier fashion and celebrity photographers, celebrated for his striking use of geometry, deep shadows, and theatrical staging.

Harrold began her professional career on the NBC daytime soap The Doctors (1976–1977), portraying Nola Dancy Aldrich. She quickly became a familiar television face, appearing in series such as Starsky & Hutch and The Rockford Files, where she played Dr. Megan Dougherty, a blind psychologist who develops a romantic relationship with Jim Rockford. Those episodes remain among her most memorable television performances.

Harrold’s film career took off in 1979 with the horror film Nightwing, but her breakthrough came the following year as Dotty in The Hunter (1980), the final film starring Steve McQueen. She followed with several notable starring roles: Modern Romance (1981), The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper (1981), The Sender (1982), Yes, Giorgio (1982), Into the Night (1985), and Raw Deal (1986). Although she never became a major box-office superstar, Harrold was respected as a dependable leading actress capable of handling drama, romance, thrillers, horror, and action.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Harrold remained active on television. She starred in MacGruder and Loud (1985), The Bronx Zoo (1987–1988), I’ll Fly Away (1991–1993), The Larry Sanders Show, where she played Francine Sanders. Later, she made guest appearances on series including Chicago Hope, The Practice, Judging Amy, CSI: NY, Desperate Housewives, and Greek.

Rather than remain in the entertainment industry, Harrold pursued graduate studies at Antioch University Los Angeles, earning a master’s degree. She became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California and established a private counseling practice in Los Angeles, helping individuals and couples. She retired from acting around 2011 to focus on this new profession.

Born in Oujda, Morocco (then a French protectorate), to a family of Spanish origin, she had a difficult childhood. She married young (around 1957–1959) to Guy Barthélémy, had a daughter also named Nathalie, and the marriage ended in divorce (finalized around 1964), with custody of the child going to her ex-husband. She moved to Paris around 1961–1962, working as a model (and briefly aspiring toward photojournalism). She was photographed for major magazines such as Vogue by leading photographers and was known for her green eyes, elegant features, and poised beauty.

In August 1962, at age 21, she met rising star Alain Delon (then engaged to Romy Schneider) at the New Jimmy’s nightclub in Paris. Accounts of the first encounter vary but often describe it as abrupt or unromantic (one version has him sitting on her handbag and reacting rudely). They began a secret affair. By 1963 she accompanied him on the set of La Tulipe noire. They became engaged in spring 1964 and married secretly on August 13, 1964 in Loir-et-Cher (small ceremony with few witnesses, bans waived for privacy). The next day they sailed on the SS France for a honeymoon in the U.S. Their son, Anthony Delon, was born on September 30, 1964 in Los Angeles. The couple was one of the most glamorous and media-followed pairs of the decade; they were often noted for their physical resemblance.

They lived for a time in Hollywood (Alain had an MGM contract that was soon cancelled) before returning to France. The relationship was passionate but stormy, marked by strong temperaments on both sides.

She transitioned into acting in 1967 with her film debut as Jane Lagrange opposite her husband in Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic neo-noir Le Samouraï. The film was a major success and remains her best-known role; their on-screen chemistry was noted even as personal tensions reportedly ran high during production. She continued with roles such as La Leçon particulière (The Private Lesson, 1968), which boosted her popularity (especially in Japan), and a small/uncredited part in Melville’s L’Armée des ombres (Army of Shadows, 1969).

The marriage deteriorated. They separated around June 1968 and divorced on February 14, 1969. Contributing factors included mutual volatility, Alain’s infidelities, differing views, and the broader high-pressure celebrity environment. She later described herself as somewhat naïve at the time and noted the intensity of their shared temperament.

The 1960s transformed Nathalie Delon from a young woman leaving a brief early marriage and modeling in Paris into a celebrated beauty, wife of one of France’s biggest stars, mother of Anthony, and screen actress launched by one of the decade’s defining crime films. She remained linked to Alain through their son even after the divorce and later pursued further acting, directing, and writing.

The Nicoleño (closely related to the Tongva) had lived on San Nicolas for thousands of years. In 1811–1814, a party of Native Alaskan (primarily Alutiiq/Kodiak) sea otter hunters working for the Russian-American Company massacred many of the island’s men after conflict, severely reducing the population. By the early 1830s only a small number of Nicoleños remained.

In late 1835 the schooner Peor es Nada (“Better Than Nothing” or “Nothing Is Worse”), under Charles Hubbard, was sent to remove the remaining islanders to the mainland. Most boarded, but Juana Maria did not. Traditional accounts say a sudden storm forced the ship to leave urgently; a more romantic later version (appearing decades afterward) claims she jumped overboard after realizing a child (sometimes described as an infant or younger brother) had been left behind. Modern research, drawing on Native Californian testimony recorded by ethnologist John Peabody Harrington, indicates she may have voluntarily stayed because her son refused to board, and that the two lived together on the island until the son, by then an adult, was killed by a shark or orca.

She survived for 18 years through remarkable resourcefulness. She built a hut partly of whale bones and brush (and may have used a nearby cave), wore a skirt or dress of greenish cormorant feathers sewn with sinew, and lived primarily on seal fat/blubber, shellfish, fish, and birds. She made tools (including hooks from shells and a knife from an iron hoop), baskets, and other items. Hunters occasionally reported signs of her presence but failed to locate her for years.

Santa Barbara Mission priest José González Rubio funded searches. Fur trapper-captain George Nidever made multiple trips. On his third attempt in autumn 1853, crew member Carl Dittman found footprints and drying seal blubber. They located her in her whale-bone hut. Accounts describe her as about 50 years old, of medium height and sturdy build, strong and active, with a pleasant, smiling face and worn but complete teeth. She was friendly, offered food, showed no fear, and willingly returned with them to Santa Barbara after about a month.

She stayed with the Nidever family. She was fascinated by horses, European clothing, and foods, and reportedly enjoyed singing and dancing for visitors. Communication was extremely limited, local Chumash and even Tongva speakers could not fully understand her Nicoleño language (a Uto-Aztecan tongue; a few words and songs were later recorded, including one known as the “Toki Toki” song). She was nicknamed things like “the wild woman” or “Better Than Nothing.”

Just seven weeks after arrival she died of dysentery (October 19, 1853), possibly worsened by sudden exposure to richer mainland foods such as green corn, vegetables, and fruit, or by disease to which she had little immunity. On her deathbed she was conditionally baptized by Father Francisco Sánchez and given the name Juana Maria. She was buried in an unmarked grave in the Nidever family plot at Mission Santa Barbara cemetery. A commemorative plaque was later placed there. Most of her artifacts (including clothing and a water basket) were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Her story became a California legend, amplified by 19th-century newspaper accounts that portrayed her in romanticized “Robinson Crusoe” or “last of her race” terms. Archaeological work has located her hut site and a possible cave, plus artifact caches. Recent scholarship has revised older narratives: she was not necessarily the absolute last Nicoleño, the removal was more complex than a simple missionary rescue after the massacre, she could communicate to some degree with certain Native people, and she exercised agency in remaining on the island with her son rather than being purely abandoned. The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians has asserted cultural affiliation, leading to pauses in some archaeological work.

A historically informed portrait of her (based on contemporary descriptions) was unveiled by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and a statue stands in Santa Barbara. Her life remains a powerful story of Indigenous resilience, isolation, and the devastating impacts of colonization, disease, and cultural disruption on California’s Native peoples.