Imagine how you would feel if you inherited a Lake Simcoe estate and its seventeen servants on your wedding day. Chances are, you'd probably love it. That's how young Constance Greenings Matthews felt when she moved in at the age of 28.

Connie was born in 1895 in Hamilton, Ontario. Shortly after her father, a tea merchant, moved the family to Toronto, Connie's mother died. Ethel, Connie's older sister by 18 years, who was wife of the Commander of the Romanian Navy and lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Romania, took her to Europe at the age of fourteen. At the age of 16 she fell in love with Florence, Italy, and started a lifelong passion for art.

Widowed at 44, with three children and an estate to run, Connie still continued to travel. Her passions would remain art and gardening.

The thoroughly likable and eminently gracious Connie Matthews, the quintessential English Canadian of inherited means, chronicles a class structure and style of living found only in our past.

Connie talks about "coming out". View it in Real Player 5.0 or Quicktime (20s, 500k).

Length: 23:44
Original Format: Video
Originally Broadcast: Newsworld. September 27, 1994 on CBC Television

• The Great War - links and information about World War I.
• Art Gallery of Ontario - Connie was founder and a volunteer on the Ladies' Committee.

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Jane Glassco (Toronto, Ontario) - Executive Producer and Narrator of the series, Jane also directed Johnny Johns and Koko Kokubo