Sir Robert Walpole

The couples are neighbours in Norfolk, where Kate and William, 36, have a country house, Anmer Hall, and the Cholmondeleys reside at Houghton Hall, a mansion first built for Britain's first Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole.

1742 - Sir Robert Walpole, often referred to as the first British Prime Minister, enobled as first Earl of Orford.

1735: Sir Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister to move into 10 Downing Street.

ON THIS DAY 1735: Sir Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister to move into 10 Downing Street.

Sir Robert Walpole holds the record of the most time as Prime Minister (20 years, 314 days) but he does not top polls as the most successful office-holder.

WHILE YOU'RE THERE Nearby is Houghton Hall, built in the 1720s for Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first Prime Minister.

This became a real possibility only after the success of 'Houghton Revisited' in 2013--when we were able to borrow a large group of Sir Robert Walpole's picture collection from the Hermitage in St Petersburg, and recreate the picture hang in the State Rooms.

In 1723 Sir Richard Gough, a landowner from the Calthorpe Estate in Edgbaston persuaded then Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole to make a donation of PS600 from King George I.

The house was built in the early 1700s by England's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. His old master paintings were infamously sold by his grandson to the Russian empress Catherine the Great in 1779, but descendants added to the collection.

While successive family members added to the collection, its inspiration remains Sir Robert Walpole's and, fortunately, the Hall's impressive design remains Kent's.

When Sir Robert Walpole was hoovering up practically every old master that came on the market in the mid-18th century, it wasn't only about bolstering his political clout (well beyond his means, which is why Catherine the Great was able to get almost the whole lot for the Hermitage a generation later).

| 1735 Sir Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister to move into 10 Downing Street.