Cliveden visitors in 2017. As home of Nancy Astor, Cliveden was the meeting place of the Cliveden Set of the 1920s and 30s—a group of political intellectuals. Later, during the early 1960s, it became the setting for key events of the notorious Profumo Affair. During the 1970s, it was occupied by Stanford University, which used it as an overseas campus. Today the house is leased by the National Trust as a five-star hotel. Cliveden means "valley among cliffs" and refers to the dene (valley) which cuts through part of the estate, east of the house. Cliveden has been spelled differently over
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