Asthall Manor Park. The youngest of the Mitford sisters Deborah, later Duchess of Devonshire, was born at Asthall in 1920. Her sister Diana had an appendectomy on the spare-bedroom table. The Mitfords were great socialites, and Asthall hosted frequent hunting and shooting weekend parties, regular guests included Clementine Churchill, Frederick Lindemann and Walter Sickert. Nancy Mitford's fictional Alconleigh in "The Pursuit of Love" is based largely on Asthall, and family life there is described in Jessica Mitford's autobiographical "Hons and Rebels". Redesdale had never planned to make Asthall Manor a permanent home, and in 1926 the family moved into nearby Swinbrook House
Pamela (name) Pamela (name) Pamela is a feminine given name. Pamela is often abbreviated to Pam. Pamela is infrequently used as a surname. Sir Philip Sidney invented the name Pamela for a pivotal character in his epic prose work, "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia", written in the late 16th century and published posthumously. The name is widely taken to mean "all sweetness", formed on the Greek words παν "pan" ("all") and μέλι "meli" ("honey"), but there is no evidence regarding what meaning, if any, Sidney intended for it. The Samuel Richardson novel "Pamela" in 1740 or 1741 inaugurated the use of Pamela