(classical music)
(knock)
- Hi, good afternoon, Mr. Lok.
- Thank you.
- Welcome to Guthrie Castle.
- Thank you.
- My name is, I'm Edward.
- Oh yes, thank you.
- Dan's personal butler.
And you've now entered into the famous
Great Hall at Guthrie Castle.
- Okay, this is the famous Great Hall, okay.
- Yes. This is it.
This is also the prospect of (mumbles) the castle.
- Okay.
- As you can see,
the stairway is very old fashioned actually.
I believe the castle goes back to 14th century.
- 14th century, so almost 500 years old.
- Almost 500 years, yes.
- And I came here 10 years ago, so then...
Same, it stays the same.
- Yes.
- I remember the stairs, remember the...
I can see that I think it's the bathroom.
This is the,
is it the library?
- Yes.
- That's the library, right?
- (Mumbles)
Yes, so this is the library.
(bell tolls)
- And how long have you been a butler for Mr. Daniel?
- I've been a butler now for nearly just over a year.
- A year, yes.
But before that you were a, what's in your background?
- I actually started off in the military.
And I became sort of a butler in the officer's mess.
- Yes
- And my first VIP from there was Princess Anne,
- Wow
- The Queen's daughter.
- And just recently I served Prince Edward and
just along the road actually,
and I was asked to go straight from the castle to serve
and then come back so,
it's quite a great privilege actually.
- Wow, so you are like the top category within
the butler profession.
Tell us about the uniform.
- The uniform, this is a very traditional uniform,
(mumbles)
The footman and butler's roles are sort of the main
front to ( ) staff, um...
- Is this custom made?
- All custom made, yes.
Apart from the tail jacket
The tail coat, the evening tail traditionally with the ( )
goes back to 1920s actually.
- 1920s?
- 1920s.
- Well, they look very neat.
- It has been preserved for special times shall we say.
- So it's a tradition.
- Yes, very traditional uniforms.
- Uh, what's it like to work here at the Guthrie Castle?
Cause we see Mr. Pena on social media,
on YouTube, things like that.
But you are here right?
Day to day, like what's it like?
- It's absolutely amazing.
You know, I'm not just saying that because I'm his butler.
But uh, it really is a great privilege to work at Guthrie
and to be his butler,
because um, it's such an extraordinary world
it's such a exclusive world.
And it's the world where he meets so many different people,
- Yeah, because different people come to the castle
all the time.
- Everything is always different.
- Is he... like 'cause on social media, he's very,
like mean, or harsh, like how does he treat like the staff
of the castle?
I'm curious.
- Yes, well he's very respectful to his staff actually.
But I think like any handmaid or..., the manor he
appreciates great staff.
- Yes.
They know what they are doing
and skilled in their profession.
I think that is why he likes to stick to
his same staff, you know.
He very rarely changes his staff.
- Well, show us around a little bit.
- Yes, you are now entering the drawing room actually.
- Okay, drawing room.
- This is the famous study they have the arrival night
and the graduation night.
- Yes.
- This is sort of the entertaining room of the castle.
Mr. Peña will come down at a certain time,
- Okay.
- And he'll come and address the maintess.
And as you can see a lot of the old-fashioned,
sort of, French style I would say.
More Louis XIV chair.
- How many people work at the castle?
- I know you have the chef, you have you,
like governors.
- I believe there's about,
I think it's between 10 to 15 staff.
- 10 to 15 staff?
'Cause the castle is so big there is always something to be
working on, right?
Including the outside staff, yes.
Yes, so the outside staff they're all looking after the
grounds, etcetera.
You have the more inner house staff,
like myself, housekeeping, etcetera.
And, uh, obviously Mr. Pena's PE, et cetera and the crew.
- But you are mainly responsible for like
taking care of Mr. Pena right?
What he needs,
- Yes, I'm very responsible for his um,
making sure he's got everything he needs.
And as his valet, I'm responsible for sort of,
preparing his clothing et cetera and...
- Nice.
- Confirm that for us Edward because I think a lot of people
who watch videos they know of the word valet,
in the sense of someone who parks the car.
But that is a very, modern day meaning of valet.
I think, the more traditional meaning,
What does a valet really do?
What's your responsibility as a valet.
- A valet is a sort of tradition that
began in 1567.
And it initially was a senior male servant or squire,
as it was called,
and that was the most senior servant to a Nate or a Lord.
And he would, what he would do is he uh,
all of the clothing and be responsible for the
gentleman's wardrobe.
He might even organize things, (mumbles).
And sometimes just, he would also be
responsible for shaving his uh, his Prince or Lord,
you know?
- That's very old-fashioned that goes back to the days that
everything was straight razored you know?
And uh, skilled, and ( ).
I'm purely responsible for, um, getting his suit sewed,
pressing his ( ), and packing for him when he goes away
traveling et cetera so... it's a lot different from
parking a car, you know?
I think a valet parking cars is more of
American terminology.
- Oh yes, yes.
For valet it's a different...
- Valet comes from France traditionally.
- And these paintings that are on the wall,
they're collections or were they... commissioned by the
Pena family to paint them as well.
- No, they're very dashing and a lot of them are
original paintings of various complexions.
I believe the one that Mr. Pena was commissioned by was an
artist who'd also done that for him so,
the rest of the paintings, a lot of them are all religious.
And, look in the next room that you're about to see there's
a few famous um, Scottish faces.
- Oh, let's take a look!
- [Dan] Tell us one thing that maybe, one thing that people
don't know about Mr. Pena.
- Um, I think you'll just have to see,
there's a lot of things people don't know about Mr. Pena but
I mean as his loyal butler I mean it's a I don't I could
give too much but as he always says to me,
there aren't any secrets, only mysteries.
- No secrets, no ( ).
- But I certainly know that when he's not in seminar,
he's quite chowder and likes to do everyone the same.
You know, um, I could tell you that for sure.
But no he's... I just think he's a very great man
using his wisdom.
I've learned a lot more in my life being Mr. Pena's butler
than I have in the all 25 years I've lived on this earth.
His attitude to life in general is just phenomenal.
So yeah, I mean...
- Do you see him... when he's not doing seminar...
most of the time I assume he's kinda in his
office just working, I know he works long hours everyday.
- Yes, that's correct yeah.
He's always on emailing and phone calls et cetera,
he's very busy.
- Does he sometimes, like, if it wasn't for you, forget to
eat and things like that like you gotta make sure
he gets the...
- Yes, it can be, yes.
I make sure he's got all his strengths in the
quiet times, et cetera.
- Yeah.
- When he's eating, et cetera.
I make sure he's basically got everything there so he...
barely needs to lift a finger and that's... the key to a
great butler is anticipation,
you know I've got the time to get a step ahead of him.
- But you don't travel with Mr. Pena when he travels
is that correct?
- I would do when he requests me,
but it's not always necessary.
And, I, I'm going to London next year for his
Monday seminars so...
- So there, yeah.
- I will be purely responsible for looking after him when
he's on stage, et cetera.
- Yup.
- So yeah.
He's spoke to me about a few other places potentially,
but uh, we'll just wait and see for the forthcoming year.
- Awesome, awesome.
And thank you Edward for taking care of us in the castle.
Thank you, appreciate it.
- Yes it's very good, thank you.
- Thank you.
- I'm very glad you enjoyed your service and experience.
(laughs)
- Thank you.
(door opens)
- All right.
This is the connecting corridor to the ( ) part
of the castle.
( ) of the different lords,
who have previously occupied the castle.
Often, the bygoners of yore.
And to the right there, the old-fashioned door,
that's the cellar.
- Oh, the cellar. All the wine.
- All the wine, all the important things.
So uh, yes.
I mean it's rather interesting to me
and the castle of course.
This is, this room uses more of a modern, Mr. Pena's, um...
- Donald Trump hats, yeah.
- This is sort of, foldered as his office as you can see all
of his accomplishments, et cetera.
- Right.
- Why does he have so many hats?
- He's got a bit of a hat, he's a bit of a hat collector.
He likes to collect hats from all... everywhere.
And also T-shirts actually.
That's a bit of a hobby of his.
Hats and T-shirts.
He has drawers that are just filled with T-shirts.
- So when he's not wearing the three piece suit,
when he's working at home, just casual at home right?
- Yes he's got his various collection of T-shirts.
And often when tell people of the other trophy room.
And they think there's trophies in here like big cups.
But this, these are the trophies.
- Is his killings?
- Yes.
This is what he's collected over the years, shall we say.
- But I've heard he uh, hasn't shot anything in many years.
- I know he hasn't hunted for a long time...
- In his younger days.
- In his younger days yes, he was very much into it.
- But he hasn't softened up.
- He hasn't softened up, no.
- Now he just shoots uh, people who piss him off.
(all laugh)
Allegedly, allegedly.
- He just humans though, right.
Bad ones.
- The kids.
- Yes, kids.
But yeah, I mean, like I said if you ever have the privilege
of coming to Guthrie Castle,
then I'd be more than happy to greet you at the door.
This is Edward Stuart, personal butler to Dan Pena,
( ) doorman.
So I hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you.
- Thank you, thank you Edward, appreciate it.