A deft interweaving of architectural and social history For aristocrats and gentry in 18th-century Ireland, the townhouses and country estates they resided in were carefully constructed to accommodate their cultivated lifestyles. Based on new research from Irish national collections and correspondence culled from papers in private keeping, this publication provides a vivid and engaging look at the various ways in which families tailored their homes to their personal needs and preferences. Halls were designed in order to simultaneously support a variety of activities, including dining, music, and games, while closed porches allowed visitors to arrive fully protected from the country's harsh weather. These grand houses were arranged in accordance with their residents' daily procedures, demonstrating a distinction between public and private spaces, and even keeping in mind the roles and arrangements of the servants in their purposeful layouts. With careful consideration given to both the practicality of everyday routine and the occasional special event, this book illustrates how the lives and residential structures of these aristocrats were inextricably woven together. Published in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

'This is the house by Cromer town ...' Built in 1884 as the grand summer home for the well-connected Locker-Lampson family, the red -brick, turreted mansion Newhaven Court once sat high on a windswept hill above Cromer. Before its dramatic destruction in flames nearly eighty years later, the house played host to such eminent figures as Sir Winston Churchill, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir Ernest Shackleton, illustrator Kate Greenaway and French tennis superstar Suzanne Lenglen. It was a home where poets rubbed shoulders with politicians and aristocracy with artists and authors. There was dance, dining and song - but also family tragedy and hidden love. Follow the true story of Newhaven Court and its colourful inhabitants from the decadent years of the late nineteenth century and the elegant Edwardian era, through the tragedy of the First World War and terrible conflict of the Second to the roaring twenties and the uncertain post-war age.

Today Kensington Palace is synonymous with young royals; it is the official home of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their family, and of TRH The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It is also famous for being the residence of Diana, Princess of Wales, during the last years of her life, and visitors still flock to the palace to learn about her story. But the history of Kensington stretches back much further. It boasts more than three centuries of continuous royal occupation, making it unique among the Historic Royal Palaces. Formerly a private house enlarged by Christopher Wren in the late 17th century to suit the needs of William and Mary, Kensington Palace was the favoured home of five sovereigns until the death of George II in 1760. William and Mary were attracted by its location in what was then a small village to the west of London, with easy access to the capital but with much cleaner air. This remained its greatest advantage for the following two centuries, before it was overtaken by London's rapid expansion. Nonetheless, surrounded by its gardens, the palace still offers the same privacy and tranquillity that so appealed to its original royal owners. Even after its conversion into a royal residence, the palace remained a rather unprepossessing building, fashioned out of reddish-grey brick. However, this belied its architectural significance, for it was shaped and decorated by some of the country's leading architects, artists, craftsmen and designers, and is now a major national monument. The palace's social and political significance is arguably even greater. Kensington has played host to some of the most important personalities and events in the long history of the royal family. It was the birthplace and childhood home of Queen Victoria, and it was here that she held her first council meeting as monarch in 1837. During the previous century, Kensington had been divided into apartments for the younger generation of royals - an arrangement that continues today. From the late 19th century onwards, it became a visitor attraction, a museum and home to the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection. Today the palace attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year. In this new illustrated account, Tracy Borman tells the fascinating story of Kensington from private residence to modern-day royal palace, describing not only the development of the building and its magnificent gardens, but also the dramas and intrigues of court life. Its history is set against a backdrop of events that shaped both Britain and its monarchy: from the Jacobite uprisings of the mid-18th century to the rise of industrialization in the 19th, and the turbulence of world war in the 20th. Here, in the domestic surrounds of the palace, the monarchy evolved and modernized in tandem with the times. The story of Kensington Palace is, in short, the story of the modern monarchy.

Highclere Castle, known as 'the real Downton Abbey' bustles with activity at the best of times, but it is never more alive than at Christmas. Christmas at Highclere is a look behind the scenes at the routines and rituals that make the castle the most magical place to be throughout the festive season. Lady Carnarvon will guide you through Advent, Christmas preparations and Christmas Eve all the way through to the day itself, and beyond. Learn how the castle and grounds are transformed by decorations, including the raising of a twenty-foot tree in the saloon, the gathering of holly and mistletoe from the grounds. All the intricacies of the perfect traditional Christmas are here: from crackers and carol singers. The festive feeling is carried through to Highclere's Boxing Day traditions, the restorative middle days and the New Year's Eve celebrations. This book also tells the story of historic Christmases at Highclere - of distinguished guests warming themselves by the fire after a long journeys home through the snow, unexpected knocks on the door, and, always, the joy of bringing family - and staff - together after a busy year. As well as telling the stories of Highclere Christmases past and present, Lady Carnarvon provides recipes, tips and inspiration from her kitchen so that readers can bring a quintessentially British festive spirit to their own home. Lady Carnarvon divulges the secret to perfectly flakey mince pies, the proper way to wrap presents so that you and your guests are guaranteed a Christmas to remember. Lavish, celebratory and utterly enchanting, Christmas at Highclere is celebration of one of the UK's most beloved historic houses and is the perfect gift for any Downton Abbey fan.

Woburn Abbey: The Park and Gardens tells a fascinating story that illuminates both the history of English landscaping and the highs and lows of an aristocratic family that has been at the centre of British life for more than four centuries. Drawing on the enormous quantity of material available in the Woburn archives - as well as historic images preserved in the Abbey itself, and stunning newly commissioned photographs - landscape designer and historian Keir Davidson shows how the park and gardens developed, following the individual tastes of the owners as well as wider trends in gardening and landscaping. The Russell family has been in possession of Woburn Abbey since 1547, when Henry VIII gave the former monastery to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. The ambitions (and passions) of more than one duke have caused financial embarrassment from time to time, but Woburn has survived impulses to sell and periodic neglect. The 5th Duke, following the fashion set at Versailles by Marie-Antoinette, built a Chinese-style dairy where ladies could play at being dairymaids. In 1810 the 6th Duke commissioned Humphry Repton to create a 'Menagerie' for exotic birds; by the end of the century the collection had expanded to include bison, wallabies and wild horses (setting a precedent for today's Safari Park). These animals had to be cleared from the airstrip created in 1928 by Mary, the 'Flying Duchess', for take-off and landing on her record-breaking flights. Over the centuries many gardens have been built at Woburn, and on the Russell estates in London and around the country, for successive dukes and duchesses. Almost all of the important figures in English landscaping - from Isaac de Caus to George London and Henry Wise, Charles Bridgeman and Humphry Repton - worked for the family at one time or another. In our own day, a ten-year programme of restoration of Repton's Pleasure Gardens initiated by the present Duchess is under way. When this is finished, in 2018, the result will be one of the most complete Repton pleasure grounds anywhere in the world. Keir Davidson brings the whole enthralling story to life, engaging the reader with historic gardens that are not simply part of a lost past, but can be experienced in all their glory today.

This fine Palladian house known as New Park was built between 1777 and 1783 and became part of the golden age of the Georgian country house. Its owner, James Sutton, was one of a new breed of landowners, benefitting from the proceeds of the boom in late eighteenth century trade and from local political influence. The house was a celebration of the dynamism and success of Georgian Devizes, built on its thriving wool trade. As neoclassicism became the defining style for the late eighteenth English country house, New Park, later re-named Roundway Park, perfectly represented the high ambition of the age, the product of the prestigious architect, James Wyatt, and landscape designer, Humphry Repton. Roundway continued to prosper in the Victorian and Edwardian eras under the ownership of the Colston family of Bristol fame. In 1938, on the death of Rosalind Colston, the first Lady Roundway, the house and estate were, on the surface, indistinguishable from their Victorian heyday. But just sixteen years later, the estate had been sold and the house largely demolished as the effects of family tragedy and the weight of social and economic change took their toll. The Forgotten Country House tells for the first time the story of Roundway's rise and fall, the people who built and owned it, lived and worked there, and the contribution they made to their local community. It paints a vivid picture of the lives of gentry families who far outnumbered their more aristocratic counterparts and who played a central role in the rural communities that characterised much of Britain up until the mid-twentieth century. Part family history, part love letter to the English country house, Simon Baynes draws on family papers and new research to pay a fitting, evocative tribute not just to his ancestors, but also to a lost world and the people who lived in it.

This book presents a series of conference papers which explore a topic that has received a good deal of interest in recent years, namely the material culture of the country house and its presentation to the public. This links in with academic interest in the consumption practices of the elite, and in the country house as a lived and living space, which was consciously transformed according to fashion and personal taste; but also ties in well with our concern as curators to present a coherent narrative of English Heritage and other properties and their contents to the modern visitor. The proceedings address a number of current academic debates about elite consumption practices, and the role of landed society as arbiters of taste. By looking at the country house as lived space many of the papers throw up interesting questions about the accumulation and arrangement of objects; the way in which rooms were used and experienced by both owners and visitors, and how this sense of `living history' can be presented meaningfully to the public. The conference was international in scope, so the experience in the United Kingdom can be compared with that in other European countries, throwing new light on our understanding of consumption and the country house.

Eltham Palace is famous for its links with royalty and national events over a period of three and a half centuries, between the reigns of Edward I and James I. This richly illustrated book follows these important moments in the building's history, along with the parallel stories of its architecture, gardens, vineyards and parks. The staff responsible for its upkeep and the effects on the local community of having a royal building in its midst are also chronicled here. What remains of the Palace's former splendour today are the moat bridge, part of its outer court and the magnificent great hall, built for Edward IV, which survived long years of use as a barn after the Civil Wars. A 1930s mansion now adjoins the hall and both buildings are administered by English Heritage. Eltham Palace was central to its local community as well as to the aristocratic levels of international society. While the court was at Eltham the palace was the centre of administration for the whole country as far as that part of the royal government which travelled round the country with the monarch was concerned. During such visits a great many people came to Eltham on official and personal business, the largest numbers arriving at Easter when alms were distributed to the poor. Surviving records are numerous and document many aspects of the royal manor and the parish, including sports and ceremonies and the activities of the home farm. The book traces the palace from its medieval and Tudor beginnings, with court visits, the arrivals of foreign royalty and ambassadors, and the tournaments and festivities, through the unfortunate destruction of many of its royal buildings in the 17th century, up to Eltham Palace's state and purpose today. Containing many details concerning the palace and people of Eltham which do not appear in earlier descriptions of its history, this vivid and in-depth work will be of great interest to local and tourists, as well as those interested in such a rich royal heritage and architectural history.

This book tells the fascinating history of the Byzantine Palace of Mistras, erected in the mid-13th century and later expanded to become the seat of the Byzantine governors. From the mid-14th century it was the seat of the Despots of Mistras, and the administrative centre around which commerce and culture flourished during the final phase of the Byzantine Empire. The palace reached its final form with the extensions made at the beginning of the 15th century; it was abandoned in the 18th century and decayed into a three-storey ruin until our times. These ruins, which are described in detail, were investigated, and documented in an extensive photographic archive, leading to a plan for the Palace's restoration according to its original form. The organisation of the restoration work, the techniques employed and the structural details of the building are discussed here in great detail, revealing the Palace in its restored form. English language edition. More than 900 illustrations, many in colour.

A fresh perspective on British history from award-winning broadcaster Fatima Manji Why was there a Turkish mosque adorning Britain's most famous botanic garden in the eighteenth century? How did a pair of Persian-inscribed cannon end up in rural Wales? And who is the Moroccan man depicted in a long-forgotten portrait hanging in a west London stately home? Throughout Britain's museums, civic buildings and stately homes, relics can be found that reveal the diversity of pre-twentieth-century Britain and expose the misconceptions around modern immigration narratives. In her journey across Britain exploring cultural landmarks, Fatima Manji searches for a richer and more honest story of a nation struggling with identity and the legacy of empire. 'A timely, brilliant and very brave book' Jerry Brotton, author of This Orient Isle

Longford Castle is a fine Elizabethan country house, home to a world-class collection of art built up in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Bouverie family and still owned today by their descendants. Until now, it has been relatively little known amongst the pantheon of English country houses. This book, richly illustrated and based on extensive scholarly research into the family archive, tells a comprehensive story of the collectors who amassed these treasures. It explores the acquisition and commission of works of art from Holbein's Erasmus and The Ambassadors, to exquisite landscapes by Claude and Poussin, and family portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. It explores how Longford, an unusual triangular-shaped castle that inspired Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia and Disney's The Princess Diaries, was decorated and furnished to house these works of fine art, and how the Bouverie family patronised the best craftsmen and furniture makers of the day. The book brings the story up to the present day, with an introduction and conclusion by the current owner, the 9th Earl of Radnor, himself a keen collector of art, to celebrate this remarkable house and collection in the tercentenary year of its purchase by the Bouverie family.

For millions of people in the English-speaking world, the now standard image of the British country house is Brideshead Castle in Wiltshire: the domed and doomed baroque country seat of the Marchmain family seen in the BBC adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, Brideshead Revisited. In real life, the house used for the television series is Castle Howard, one of the largest and most opulent private homes in England, located on 10,000 acres of gardens, parkland, and woods in North Yorkshire, now visited by more than 200,000 tourists a year.
Between 3,500 and 4,000 country houses--large, often elegantly furnished and surrounded by extensive estates--remain more or less intact in England today, although frequently converted to non-residential uses. Whether in public or private hands, the best known of them have become a major magnet for British and foreign tourists, attracting about 20 million paying visitors each year. Country houses, with their furnishings and landscaped settings, have been called England's one important contribution to art history. They figure prominently in the ongoing debate over how much of any "National Heritage" is worth preserving.
In The Fate of the English Country House, David Littlejohn describes the past glories and troubled present condition of "the stately homes of England," both those that continue to serve as private houses, and those that have been turned into museums, tourist attractions, convention centers, hotels, country clubs, schools, apartments, hospitals, even prisons. By means of extensive conversations with their owners and managers (the book contains more than 50 photographs of the houses), the author takes us on a private tour of these remarkable places and evaluates the many proposals that have been put forward for their survival.
In the opening chapter we meet three near-neighbors in Oxfordshire, whose personal accounts introduce many of the themes of the book: the 11th Duke of Marlborough, whose family has been living at Blenheim Palace since 1710; the 21st Baron Saye and Sele, whose ancestors built romantic, moated Broughton Castle between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries; and the Honorable Ann Harcourt, mistress of Stanton Harcourt Manor, which has belonged to her family since the twelfth century.
Most of the conversations revolve around the financial, legal, and strategic problems of owning and running an immense, archaic estate, designed for an age of unquestioned privilege, grandiose entertaining, and an almost unlimited pool of servants: a time before income, capital gains, or inheritance taxes had to be taken into account, before one had to open one's gates to the hordes of tourists out "Doing the Statelies" between Easter Sunday and the end of October. Littlejohn finds that as government support for privately owned historic houses dries up, more and more of them are being converted to other uses, or left empty to decay, their paintings and furnishings sent to the auction houses to help pay tax and repair bills.
As they grow more and more difficult to justify or maintain, English country houses have become increasingly "endangered species" in today's alien economic and political climate. What is at stake is a major piece of England's architectural and cultural heritage, no easier to defend than superannuated ocean liners or great Victorian hotels. The Fate of the English Country House addresses the immediate future of these homes and allows readers to contemplate the history of great houses that have, in some cases, been owned and occupied by the same families for 200, 400, 600, or even 900 years.

Originally constructed in the late 16th century for the notorious Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, Hardwick Hall is now among the National Trust's greatest architectural landmarks, with much of its original interior and ornamentation still intact. This splendid publication is the definitive source of scholarship on the remarkably well-preserved exemplar of late-Elizabethan style. Composed of extensive research and newly commissioned photography, this beautifully illustrated book traces the history of the house and its inhabitants through the centuries, showcasing a remarkable collection of portraiture, tapestries, furniture, and gardens, and providing readers with a genuine sense of the house's environment. Published in association with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

The Miami estate of Vizcaya, like its palatial contemporaries Biltmore and San Simeon, represents an achievement of the Gilded Age, when country houses and their gardens were a conspicuous measure of personal wealth and power. In Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers, a celebrated architecture critic and writer and an award-winning landscape architect explore the little-known story of Vizcaya, an extraordinary national treasure. Witold Rybczynski and Laurie Olin use a rich collection of illustrations, historic photographs, and narrative to document the creation of this stunning house and landscape. Vizcaya was completed in 1916 as the winter retreat of Chicago industrialist James Deering. The cosmopolitan bachelor, who chose Miami for its warm climate, enlisted the guidance of artist Paul Chalfin, with whom he traveled throughout Italy to survey houses and gardens. With the assistance of architect F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., and garden designer Diego Suarez, the 180-acre site on Biscayne Bay was transformed into a grand estate, complete with lagoons, canals, citrus groves, a farm village, a yacht harbor, and a 40-room Baroque mansion. The lure of this architectural and landscape masterpiece, named for a Spanish Basque province, is undeniable. John Singer Sargent planned a short visit in 1917 but stayed for several months, producing an inspired series of watercolors, many of which are reproduced here for the first time. The book is further enriched by archival material and by the color images of noted photographer Steven Brooke, paying homage to Vizcaya as a lens through which readers learn about architecture, landscape and garden design, interior decoration, and art.

A royal palace for over 500 years, Holyroodhouse is The Queen's official Scottish residence. It has been home to Mary, Queen of Scots, and Bonnie Prince Charlie, as well as the setting for rebellion, murder and marriages that have changed the course of British history. This new guide tells the sometimes turbulent story of Holyroodhouse, while new photography offers a closer look at its interiors and some of the artworks on display.

The 12th Earl of Shaftesbury, 39-year-old Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, invites the reader into the house that his family has called home since the fifteenth century. In recent years, his award-winning restoration has brought the house back to life, transforming exquisite spaces that honour the past while being suited to twenty-first-century living. English country-house splendour, through the hands of some of the world s top artisans and craftspeople, returns to the house in the form of re-created wallpapers, customized paints, revived furniture from the Georgian and Victorian periods, reworked antique Brussels tapestries, restored plasterwork and textiles, and a complete overhaul of the landscape, with its sunken garden, woodlands, avenue of beeches, lake, and shell-encrusted grotto. With stories of noteworthy architecture, beautiful interiors, and centuries of a single family s involvement in British and world history, this book will appeal to devotees of country living, the aristocratic life, historic houses, and English interior design.

Commissioned in 1750, the Palazzo Venier was planned as a testimony to the power and wealth of a great Venetian family, but the fortunes of the Venier family waned and the project was abandoned with only one storey complete. Empty, unfinished, and in a gradual state of decay, the building was considered an eyesore. Yet in the early 20th century the Unfinished Palazzo's quality of fairytale abandonment, and its potential for transformation, were to attract and inspire three fascinating women at key moments in their lives: Luisa Casati, Doris Castlerosse and Peggy Guggenheim. Each chose the Palazzo Venier as the stage on which to build her own world of art and imagination, surrounded by an amazing supporting cast, from d'Annunzio and Nijinsky, via Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton, to Yoko Ono. Luisa turned her home into an aesthete's fantasy where she hosted parties as extravagant and decadent as Renaissance court operas - spending small fortunes on her own costumes in her quest to become a `living work of art' and muse to the artists of the late belle epoque and early modernist eras. Doris strove to make her mark in London and Venice during the glamorous, hedonistic interwar years, hosting film stars and royalty at glittering parties. In the postwar years, Peggy turned the Palazzo into a model of modernist simplicity that served as a home for her exquisite collection of modern art that today draws tourists and art-lovers from around the world. Mackrell tells each life story vividly in turn, weaving an intricate history of these legendary characters and the Unfinished Palazzo that they all at different times called home.

From The Crown to Downton Abbey, the country house speaks to our fantasies of rustic splendour, style, and escape. Featuring three hundred photos from the National Trust, this lavish book draws back the curtain on the finest and most important historic homes in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, revealing these great houses' intriguing pasts, grand interiors, and vi-brant reinventions for the enjoyment of modern-day visitors, residents, and armchair travellers. Locations include Knole, Cragside, Castle Howard, Chatsworth, Polesden Lacey, Petworth, Castle Bodiam, Blenheim, Longleat, and dozens more. Illuminating essays by country house expert Jeremy Musson, legendary British author and historian David Cannadine, and contributing writers and scholars provide unique insight into centuries of life in a historic home. This is a rich visual resource for lovers of sumptuous interiors on a human scale, as well as grand exterior architecture and gorgeous landscapes. For Anglophiles, royals watchers, and lovers of the country house lifestyle, architecture, and interior design, this is a magnificent new look at landmark British country houses, the treasures they contain, and how they speak to our fantasies of rustic splendour and escape today.