WHAT was life like 150 years ago? We wander around stately homes, amazed by the opulence of the museum pieces, the tables set for a banquet, the dressers covered in crockery, and all the time we respect the “do not touch” notices we are desperately wanting to lie on the chez long and bounce up and down on the four poster bed.

This report from the Darlington & Stockton Times of 150 years ago this week really transports you back in time, however. This is how life used to be – for the privileged few.

Hundreds of the greatest and the most good of County Durham and North Yorkshire in their finest finery attended the first grand ball held at Wynyard Hall by the Earl and Countess Vane since they had succeeded to the estate, near Sedgefield, in 1854.

The D&S over-bubbled with rapture about the hall, the people and the occasion: “The entire suite of gorgeous apartments was thrown open, consisting of the breakfast room, which was made into a cloakroom, the vestibule, my lady’s boudoir, than which, with its rare contents, there is nothing more exquisite in the mansion, the library, the anteroom where, from a buffet, lighter refreshments of ices, confectionery, tea, coffee, sherberts and fruits were dispensed, the pink drawing room, the ballroom, the conservatory, which was charmingly lighted with coloured lamps, the memorial chamber, and the spacious and lofty marble hall, around the whole circuit of which statuary and busts, orange trees, gigantic ferns, musas, palms, and parti-coloured leaved plants were arranged…

“The costumes were wonderfully elegant, and the display of jewels and fine old lace was quite remarkable.”

The host of this sparkling occasion was George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, Viscount Seaham, Earl Vane who became the 5th Marquess of Londonderry in 1872. Fortunately, his wife didn’t have such a long name, Mary Cornelia, although she probably had a bigger fortune. She was the heiress of a Welsh slate mine family, and so after their marriage in 1846, they lived in Machynlleth, building railways to make the slate mines even more prosperous.

Consequently, visits to Wynyard were rare, this being the first grand ball in 13 years. Among the guests were the Duchess of Marlborough, Lady Adelaide Law, Lady C Churchill, Viscountess Boyne, Sir William Eden, Viscount Newry, Lord Ravensworth, Sir George and Lady Julia Wombwell, who lined up in the pink drawing room punctually at 10pm and processed to the ballroom to start the dancing.

“Long before midnight the ballroom was inconveniently crowded and many who, anxious to avoid the crush and secure their dresses from utter destruction from the sharp spurs of some of the officers and the hard crusted diamond bracelets of some of the ladies, as well as the scratching of epaulettes, were glad enough to escape into the cooler retreat which the hall, with its luxurious divans offered,” said the D&S Times.

“A magnificent supper was served at one in the state dining room, and was continued, relay after relay until the guests finally departed.

“High gold vases on pedestals holding alternately beautifully arranged bouquets of exotics, and charmingly grouped fruits of various kinds, each surmounted by a pine, occupied the entire centre of the table, which was lighted by numerous candelabra of gold and silver plate, and in each corner a grand display of gold plate in shields and salvers, coolers, flagons and other rare objects stood out in bold relief against a crimson velvet background over marble sideboards.

“The soups, and game, and poultry were hot, the cold dishes being extremely recherché, and most elegantly served.”

On and on and on drooled the D&S about the paintings, the dancing, the playing, even the “orange trees in full bearing” which lined the ballroom as Mr Woodham’s band played quadrilles, valses and galops, and “concluded with a cotillion, the quaintness and variety of which, with the white cap and broom and looking-glass, excited much interest in those who had not previously seen it executed”.

With a grand flourish, the D&S said: “The entertainment at Wynyard has never been more successful, and this is saying a great deal when the splendid hospitality which has reigned there since the peace of 1815 is remembered.”

This, though, was not quite true. More than 700 invitations had been issued, but only between 300 and 500 turned up. There had been unexpected bereavements and sudden bouts of sickness causing “acceptances to be revoked almost at the last hour” and, of course, there was the “inclemency of the weather”.

“It was most unpropitious,” said the D&S. “The roads very heavy, and a boisterous storm set in of sleet and snow and wind.”

They might have been the wealthiest people in the county hosting a grand ball in Durham’s greatest mansion, but even they could not control the tempestuousness of the January English weather.