Rebecca Howard talks candidly to MIKE LAYCOCK about life at Castle Howard

THE new mistress of Castle Howard has revealed how she first fell in love with the stately home when she was just 14. She saw it on TV's epic drama Brideshead Revisited, was dazzled by its glamour, and decided: "I want to live there." It was just a teenage dream which she never imagined would come to anything.

But now, at 34, the dream has come true after she met, fell for and married its owner, Simon Howard.

And, according to socialite magazine Vanity Fair, she is not only providing heirs for the estate.

Rebecca, who is expecting twins next March, has also brought a breath of fresh air, laughter and a teddy bear collection to the sprawling country house near Malton.

Her first innovation after moving in to Castle Howard last summer was to place teddies from her childhood collection in a number of the bedrooms.

Her own bed has a cushion - a wedding present - embroidered with the words "Drama Queen".

Before she was pregnant, she started her day at 7am on three or four days a week by 'power walking' around the estate with weights in her hands. Despite an army of staff, she insists on making her own bed.

Rebecca revealed the reaction she got when she first went into Malton. "When I first arrived, I felt as if people might be looking at me as if I had dropped down from Mars, as the new person up here."

She was determined not to disappoint locals when she was asked to open the Slingsby fete last year, turning up in high heels and dark glasses. "I thought I would make the effort to be well-turned out after being invited to open the fete."

Meanwhile, staff at the stately home look to be in for an interesting time. Rebecca wants to involve them in amateur productions which she intends to stage, as well as amateur swimming, tennis and cricket tournaments. "Many hundreds of years ago, the Howards used to put on plays and I thought it would be great to do this again."

She revealed that her first encounter with Simon Howard came when she was 22 and attended a Christmas Eve party at Castle Howard - though Old Etonian Simon does not remember the encounter.

"He was the most glamorous, most romantic man I had ever seen in my life. He had more hair then as well."

The pair met at a party in London in 1998 when Simon was married to his first wife, Annette.

"It really was ping," she said. They went to a private night club in Berkeley Square. "I thought: He's a sort of punchy, sophisticated man and there's a lot of danger attached to him. He's married; he's got this fabulous house. He was very, very flirtatious..." She still had reservations. "I thought Rebecca, please, just don't get involved. This man is married."

But she was falling madly in love and was then kissed firmly on the mouth.

"I wouldn't go back with him and I wouldn't let him come back with me, because I'm not that sort of person," she said.

Simon Howard phoned her the next morning, though, and invited her to lunch. Once the relationship began it was totally honest.

Rebecca told Simon that though she was an heiress she had no money. She had spent her allowance by the time she was 27 and she could not keep up with his lifestyle. The affair lasted for three years before Simon and Annette Howard were divorced. When Rebecca finally arrived at Castle Howard in her husband's open-topped black Mercedes sports car, she said it was "a bit like a dream because I had waited so long."

Housekeeper Gwen Hatfield is quoted by Vanity Fair as saying: "The lass will sometimes come and help me clean. Rebecca has brought laughter to the house, which we never had before." Rebecca is happy with that quote, but is deeply unhappy with suggestions by Vanity Fair that she may be found vulgar by the county. "I find that very insulting and very unfair," she said. "People who know me, particularly the staff, have all said the one thing you are not is vulgar."

But Rebecca revealed she is not keen on the shooting season, when endless hordes of paying guests stay at the house. This, she says, "is the time of year when I could slit my wrists!"

Malton residents wanting to buy Vanity Fair to read the article will have to travel to find one: the magazine is not available in shops in the town.

Updated: 11:50 Tuesday, January 15, 2002