Cliveden Astors) at the Cliveden swimming pool led to the Profumo Affair which so damaged the Macmillan government. Spring Cottage was awarded Grade II listed status in 1986, and in 1997 the hotel company which leased Cliveden House from the National Trust also acquired the lease to the cottage. A reported £750,000 was spent restoring and refurbishing the dilapidated building before it reopened in 1998 as a self-contained luxury holiday let. The cottage and its garden are not open to the public. Cliveden Reach, between Cookham Lock and Boulter's Lock, is one of the most scenic stretches of the Thames. A
Secretary of State for the Colonies as 'the First Committee') was established under William Pitt the Younger, by an Order in Council in 1784. In 1794 a new office was created for Henry Dundas — the Secretary of State for War, which now took responsibility for the Colonies, and was renamed the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1801. In 1854, military reforms led to the Colonial and Military responsibilities of this secretary of state being split into two separate offices, with Sir George Grey becoming the first Secretary of State for the Colonies under the new arrangement. In the latter part of