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  • (classical music)

  • (knock)

  • - Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Lok.

  • - Thank you.

  • - Welcome to Guthrie Castle.

  • - Thank you.

  • - My name is, I'm Edward.

  • - Oh yes, thank you.

  • - Dan's personal butler.

  • And you've now entered into the famous

  • Great Hall at Guthrie Castle.

  • - Okay, this is the famous Great Hall, okay.

  • - Yes. This is it.

  • This is also the prospect of (mumbles) the castle.

  • - Okay.

  • - As you can see,

  • the stairway is very old fashioned actually.

  • I believe the castle goes back to 14th century.

  • - 14th century, so almost 500 years old.

  • - Almost 500 years, yes.

  • - And I came here 10 years ago, so then...

  • Same, it stays the same.

  • - Yes.

  • - I remember the stairs, remember the...

  • I can see that I think it's the bathroom.

  • This is the,

  • is it the library?

  • - Yes.

  • - That's the library, right?

  • - (Mumbles)

  • Yes, so this is the library.

  • (bell tolls)

  • - And how long have you been a butler for Mr. Daniel?

  • - I've been a butler now for nearly just over a year.

  • - A year, yes.

  • But before that you were a, what's in your background?

  • - I actually started off in the military.

  • And I became sort of a butler in the officer's mess.

  • - Yes

  • - And my first VIP from there was Princess Anne,

  • - Wow

  • - The Queen's daughter.

  • - And just recently I served Prince Edward and

  • just along the road actually,

  • and I was asked to go straight from the castle to serve

  • and then come back so,

  • it's quite a great privilege actually.

  • - Wow, so you are like the top category within

  • the butler profession.

  • Tell us about the uniform.

  • - The uniform, this is a very traditional uniform,

  • (mumbles)

  • The footman and butler's roles are sort of the main

  • front to ( ) staff, um...

  • - Is this custom made?

  • - All custom made, yes.

  • Apart from the tail jacket

  • The tail coat, the evening tail traditionally with the ( )

  • goes back to 1920s actually.

  • - 1920s?

  • - 1920s.

  • - Well, they look very neat.

  • - It has been preserved for special times shall we say.

  • - So it's a tradition.

  • - Yes, very traditional uniforms.

  • - Uh, what's it like to work here at the Guthrie Castle?

  • Cause we see Mr. Pena on social media,

  • on YouTube, things like that.

  • But you are here right?

  • Day to day, like what's it like?

  • - It's absolutely amazing.

  • You know, I'm not just saying that because I'm his butler.

  • But uh, it really is a great privilege to work at Guthrie

  • and to be his butler,

  • because um, it's such an extraordinary world

  • it's such a exclusive world.

  • And it's the world where he meets so many different people,

  • - Yeah, because different people come to the castle

  • all the time.

  • - Everything is always different.

  • - Is he... like 'cause on social media, he's very,

  • like mean, or harsh, like how does he treat like the staff

  • of the castle?

  • I'm curious.

  • - Yes, well he's very respectful to his staff actually.

  • But I think like any handmaid or..., the manor he

  • appreciates great staff.

  • - Yes.

  • They know what they are doing

  • and skilled in their profession.

  • I think that is why he likes to stick to

  • his same staff, you know.

  • He very rarely changes his staff.

  • - Well, show us around a little bit.

  • - Yes, you are now entering the drawing room actually.

  • - Okay, drawing room.

  • - This is the famous study they have the arrival night

  • and the graduation night.

  • - Yes.

  • - This is sort of the entertaining room of the castle.

  • Mr. Peña will come down at a certain time,

  • - Okay.

  • - And he'll come and address the maintess.

  • And as you can see a lot of the old-fashioned,

  • sort of, French style I would say.

  • More Louis XIV chair.

  • - How many people work at the castle?

  • - I know you have the chef, you have you,

  • like governors.

  • - I believe there's about,

  • I think it's between 10 to 15 staff.

  • - 10 to 15 staff?

  • 'Cause the castle is so big there is always something to be

  • working on, right?

  • Including the outside staff, yes.

  • Yes, so the outside staff they're all looking after the

  • grounds, etcetera.

  • You have the more inner house staff,

  • like myself, housekeeping, etcetera.

  • And, uh, obviously Mr. Pena's PE, et cetera and the crew.

  • - But you are mainly responsible for like

  • taking care of Mr. Pena right?

  • What he needs,

  • - Yes, I'm very responsible for his um,

  • making sure he's got everything he needs.

  • And as his valet, I'm responsible for sort of,

  • preparing his clothing et cetera and...

  • - Nice.

  • - Confirm that for us Edward because I think a lot of people

  • who watch videos they know of the word valet,

  • in the sense of someone who parks the car.

  • But that is a very, modern day meaning of valet.

  • I think, the more traditional meaning,

  • What does a valet really do?

  • What's your responsibility as a valet.

  • - A valet is a sort of tradition that

  • began in 1567.

  • began in 1567.

  • And it initially was a senior male servant or squire,

  • as it was called,

  • and that was the most senior servant to a Nate or a Lord.

  • And he would, what he would do is he uh,

  • all of the clothing and be responsible for the

  • gentleman's wardrobe.

  • He might even organize things, (mumbles).

  • And sometimes just, he would also be

  • responsible for shaving his uh, his Prince or Lord,

  • you know?

  • - That's very old-fashioned that goes back to the days that

  • everything was straight razored you know?

  • And uh, skilled, and ( ).

  • I'm purely responsible for, um, getting his suit sewed,

  • pressing his ( ), and packing for him when he goes away

  • traveling et cetera so... it's a lot different from

  • parking a car, you know?

  • I think a valet parking cars is more of

  • American terminology.

  • - Oh yes, yes.

  • For valet it's a different...

  • - Valet comes from France traditionally.

  • - And these paintings that are on the wall,

  • they're collections or were they... commissioned by the

  • Pena family to paint them as well.

  • - No, they're very dashing and a lot of them are

  • original paintings of various complexions.

  • I believe the one that Mr. Pena was commissioned by was an

  • artist who'd also done that for him so,

  • the rest of the paintings, a lot of them are all religious.

  • And, look in the next room that you're about to see there's

  • a few famous um, Scottish faces.

  • - Oh, let's take a look!

  • - [Dan] Tell us one thing that maybe, one thing that people

  • don't know about Mr. Pena.

  • - Um, I think you'll just have to see,

  • there's a lot of things people don't know about Mr. Pena but

  • I mean as his loyal butler I mean it's a I don't I could

  • give too much but as he always says to me,

  • there aren't any secrets, only mysteries.

  • - No secrets, no ( ).

  • - But I certainly know that when he's not in seminar,

  • he's quite chowder and likes to do everyone the same.

  • You know, um, I could tell you that for sure.

  • But no he's... I just think he's a very great man

  • using his wisdom.

  • I've learned a lot more in my life being Mr. Pena's butler

  • than I have in the all 25 years I've lived on this earth.

  • His attitude to life in general is just phenomenal.

  • So yeah, I mean...

  • - Do you see him... when he's not doing seminar...

  • most of the time I assume he's kinda in his

  • office just working, I know he works long hours everyday.

  • - Yes, that's correct yeah.

  • He's always on emailing and phone calls et cetera,

  • he's very busy.

  • - Does he sometimes, like, if it wasn't for you, forget to

  • eat and things like that like you gotta make sure

  • he gets the...

  • - Yes, it can be, yes.

  • I make sure he's got all his strengths in the

  • quiet times, et cetera.

  • - Yeah.

  • - When he's eating, et cetera.

  • I make sure he's basically got everything there so he...

  • barely needs to lift a finger and that's... the key to a

  • great butler is anticipation,

  • you know I've got the time to get a step ahead of him.

  • - But you don't travel with Mr. Pena when he travels

  • is that correct?

  • - I would do when he requests me,

  • but it's not always necessary.

  • And, I, I'm going to London next year for his

  • Monday seminars so...

  • - So there, yeah.

  • - I will be purely responsible for looking after him when

  • he's on stage, et cetera.

  • - Yup.

  • - So yeah.

  • He's spoke to me about a few other places potentially,

  • but uh, we'll just wait and see for the forthcoming year.

  • - Awesome, awesome.

  • And thank you Edward for taking care of us in the castle.

  • Thank you, appreciate it.

  • - Yes it's very good, thank you.

  • - Thank you.

  • - I'm very glad you enjoyed your service and experience.

  • (laughs)

  • - Thank you.

  • (door opens)

  • - All right.

  • This is the connecting corridor to the ( ) part

  • of the castle.

  • ( ) of the different lords,

  • who have previously occupied the castle.

  • Often, the bygoners of yore.

  • And to the right there, the old-fashioned door,

  • that's the cellar.

  • - Oh, the cellar. All the wine.

  • - All the wine, all the important things.

  • So uh, yes.

  • I mean it's rather interesting to me

  • and the castle of course.

  • This is, this room uses more of a modern, Mr. Pena's, um...

  • - Donald Trump hats, yeah.

  • - This is sort of, foldered as his office as you can see all

  • of his accomplishments, et cetera.

  • - Right.

  • - Why does he have so many hats?

  • - He's got a bit of a hat, he's a bit of a hat collector.

  • He likes to collect hats from all... everywhere.

  • And also T-shirts actually.

  • That's a bit of a hobby of his.

  • Hats and T-shirts.

  • He has drawers that are just filled with T-shirts.

  • - So when he's not wearing the three piece suit,

  • when he's working at home, just casual at home right?

  • - Yes he's got his various collection of T-shirts.

  • And often when tell people of the other trophy room.

  • And they think there's trophies in here like big cups.

  • But this, these are the trophies.

  • - Is his killings?

  • - Yes.

  • This is what he's collected over the years, shall we say.

  • - But I've heard he uh, hasn't shot anything in many years.

  • - I know he hasn't hunted for a long time...

  • - In his younger days.

  • - In his younger days yes, he was very much into it.

  • - But he hasn't softened up.

  • - He hasn't softened up, no.

  • - Now he just shoots uh, people who piss him off.

  • (all laugh)

  • Allegedly, allegedly.

  • - He just humans though, right.

  • Bad ones.

  • - The kids.

  • - Yes, kids.

  • But yeah, I mean, like I said if you ever have the privilege

  • of coming to Guthrie Castle,

  • then I'd be more than happy to greet you at the door.

  • This is Edward Stuart, personal butler to Dan Pena,

  • ( ) doorman.

  • So I hope you enjoyed it.

  • Thank you.

  • - Thank you, thank you Edward, appreciate it.

(classical music)

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