leased it to the Governor of New Zealand and his wife. They sold Longwood and its 100 acres in 1911 to Daniel H.S. Riddiford (a grandson of Henry Bunny) and his wife Meta Riddiford. Daniel Riddiford used Longwood as a home base from which to run his other farm estates, which generated the family income. Meta Riddiford was not impressed with Longwood's architecture: she wrote to her mother that "it is not a house that improves upon acquaintance. I really think Swan the architect must be a fool and a knave." In 1913 the Riddifords engaged the services of William Gray Young to renovate Longwood. The plan was interrupted by the Great War: Dan Riddiford joined the Grenadier Guards, and the family moved to Lyme Regis. Longwood was leased to the army as officer accommodation for the Featherston Military Camp nearby. By 1921 much of the house had been remodelled with a Lutyens-inspired exterior and neo-Georgian revival interior. This enlarged it to 14,000 square feet and gave it its present appearance: "a competent essay of English elegance". With over 40 rooms, including 16 bedrooms, the house was situated amongst large formal gardens and approached via a long driveway through a grove of mature trees. New polo stables and garaging for five cars was constructed behind the house in 1923: all the cars were Daimlers until the 1950s, Chryslers afterwards. The grounds contained formal flower gardens, a lily pond fed by a water race, and a sunken garden inspired by one at Hampton Court and decorated with statues representing the four seasons. A nearby greenhouse built in 1923 was heated by a boiler to grow table grapes, lettuces, and flowers over winter. As country gentry, the Riddifords hosted many high society and charity events and garden parties in the 1920s and 1930s. At one point the house had a staff of thirteen, including a nanny, butler, four gardeners, a governess, and maids. The house went into a decline after World War II, and the staff was reduced to six. Meta Riddiford died in 1963 and Dan in 1971, and the property went to their second son Tom, who moved in with his family in 1972. By the late 1980s the staff was reduced to a gardener and part-time cleaner, and the Riddifords sold it at auction in 1989 for $500,000 to the developer Roland Wallace Lamb. The present owners, Garrick Emms