Until this past Wednesday, I can't say I was too familiar with the Prof either. That was until I had walked into Langley Castle (http://www.langleycastle.com/history.html), near Hexham. (I was there as I am on holiday nearby and driving along had seen the sign 'Castle', so went to have a look).
This remarkable Castle was built in the fourteenth Century and has had a number of different owners even at one time being taken over by the Greenwich Royal Naval Hospital.
In the nineteenth Century, it was bought by the local Sheriff and Historian, with a great castle-sounding name Cadwaller Bates. He spent decades restoring the Castle to its fourteenth century glory - carried on by Mrs Bates until 1932.
The Prof enters the scene in 1985, when he bought the Castle, restored it further and converted it into a luxury hotel.
As I thought of this American computer scientist purchasing this great piece of English history - I wondered why he had done so. It was certainly not to make the Castle his home, as by his own admission, he only visits three to four times a year as he lives in Boston, USA.
Nor do I believe it to be simply a business proposition. After all the Prof could have bought any profitable hotel, without needing to spend substantial sums doing it up.
I think the answer comes down to romantic aethsetics. Professor Madnick not only has bought the Castle, but has acquired for himself from the Crown, the ancient title of the Langley Baronet - the original 14th Century owners of the Castle.
What could be more romantic than owning a castle and the ancient titles of ownership too? Although this American's castle may not be his home, his heart is certainly with England's history.
By Robert Halfon
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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