Lynn herself continues to charge ahead in London, getting her own message out. One major new addition to the Rothschilds’ social calendar is the Christmas sing-along that she hosts annually at Ascott, Sir Evelyn’s ancestral estate in Buckinghamshire. Previous attendees say it’s quite a sight to see Lynn at the microphone, leading Queen Noor, Howard Stringer, Cherie Blair and various Labour Party bigwigs in renditions of holiday classics. “We do everything from ‘Silent Night’ to ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,’” says Lynn. “We really raise the roof.”
Meanwhile, at the London house, visitors are often surprised by one novelty in the garden: an unusual modern fountain that erupts somewhat suggestively. Every few seconds, a single stream of water spurts out sideways, forming an ecstatic arch. (“The neighbors think it’s rather rude,” Mlinaric notes wryly.) The Rothschilds discovered the piece not at some exclusive art fair, but at a Berlin agricultural convention that they attended in 2005. “We suddenly saw this extraordinary fountain, going out over a whole lot of mangoes,” Sir Evelyn recalls. “We’d never seen a fountain like that, so we found out where it came from and who made it. And that’s how we got the idea of putting it in the garden.”
After a pause, he adds, “I think it’s rather original.”
