Diana museum and family home open to public
06:54 p.m Jun 30, 1998 Eastern
By Jill Serjeant

ALTHORP HOUSE, England, July 1 (Reuters) - Princess Diana's family home
opens its gates on Wednesday, with a new museum dedicated to her and a
first chance for the public to glimpse her island grave.

Eleven months after her death and on the day Diana would have been
celebrating her 37th birthday, Althorp House welcomes the first of an
expected 150,000 summer visitors to the place where the People's
Princess grew up and now lies buried.

In the emotion-filled weeks that followed the tragic Paris car crash
last year, Althorp House in the rural heart of England became a place of
pilgrimage for thousands of grief-stricken mourners.

They laid flowers at the iron gates and left notes and poems but were
barred from entering the grounds where Diana's body was buried, away
from the glare of the cameras she had both sought and spurned.

The 2,500 tickets for the opening day of Althorp House -- the first and
so far only official memorial to Diana -- were snapped up within hours
of going on sale six months ago and only a handful remain for the
limited two-month season which ends on August 30, the eve of the
anniversary of Diana's death.

In the museum, converted from an old stable block, is the romantic
wedding dress she wore for the 1981 marriage to Prince Charles that
promised so much but which ended in acrimony, adultery and divorce.

Visitors will also see some of her toys, her school reports and film of
her charity work with AIDS patients and landmine victims.

One of the most moving exhibits in the display is a collection of home
movies showing Diana as a carefree child dancing and playing in the
gardens of Althorp.

Her brother Earl Charles Spencer, owner of Althorp, described the
anguish of editing the films for the museum, which he built over the
past year at a cost of more than three million pounds ($5 million).

``I was absolutely drained for two days. It was really sad to see this
little girl running around and to know what happened to her when she
grew older,'' he said.

Another section of the museum contains film footage and music from
Diana's funeral, along with a copy of the extraordinary funeral oration
given by Spencer in which he attacked both the media and the royal
family.

A walkway leads from the museum to the lake, where Diana's grave on the
island is marked by a large urn carved in Portland stone. Access to the
island itself is barred.

Estate workers and villagers allowed a preview of the exhibition have
been mostly impressed, despite widespread criticism of what is seen as a
bid by Spencer to cash in on his sister's memory.

``It's lovely. I think it is well worth the 9.50 entry price,'' said one
estate worker. ``My wife liked it so much we have bought tickets so we
can go back again.''

But Spencer has come under fire for failing to specify how much of the
proceeds will go to charity. He has already decided to pay monies direct
to Diana's favourite charities rather than to her official memorial
fund, some of whose activities he has described as tasteless.

Critics have dubbed the museum, souvenir shop and cafe a ``Dianaville''
that will make Althorp as famous as Elvis Presley's Graceland.

Spencer says he is merely responding to public demand for a place in
which they can honour and remember Diana.