A bit of royalty in Barrington as Spencer visits Honquest

Charles Spencer did not want to talk about his famous sister, the late Princess Diana, during his visit to Barrington Tuesday, but he did dish on Madonna.

The Earl of Spencer said the singer called him and asked if she could stage her 2000 wedding to filmmaker Guy Ritchie at Althorp, the Spencer family's English estate.

"I thought it was somebody joking," he told reporters.

He said he tried to accommodate the pop icon, but every time he said yes, "she'd come back with something more difficult, until at the end I had to say I don't think we could do that." The couple, who ended up marrying at Skibo Castle in Scotland, recently divorced.

Spencer met Tuesday with about 200 people at Honquest furniture store in Barrington, which features a display and line of furniture reproduced from pieces at the estate or inspired by furniture there.

His favorite piece is an oak chest reproduced - complete with a gash on the inside of the lid and red wine stains on the top - from one owned by George Washington's family. The Washingtons were cousins of the Spencers.

Besides its historic significance, the $2,640 chest "is such a handsome, all-around bit of English 17th-century oak furniture," he said. Spencer keeps his tennis and cricket gear in the original. He thinks people should enjoy and use good furniture.

The money he earns from the sale of Althorp-inspired furniture goes into upkeep on the estate. The huge, 501-year-old main house is getting a new roof and work on the tiles that were applied to its red brick in the 18th century.

"The furniture can help look after the house" after 500 years of the house taking care of the furniture, he said.