Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History

Customer Reviews:

The Archaeology of the British.......2006-01-14

This book is brilliant. It reminded me of a paleontology book where the author looks at the shells of ancient marine fossils and reconstructs their lives from the shape of the shells.

From the structure of the English Country House Girouard recreates the lives of those who lived in them. Not just the Lord and Lady but all those who lived and worked there. How many people were in this room during dinner? How did the food get to the dining area (usually a long trek. This minimized the chance the kitchen would burn the place down but mimimized the chance dinner hadn't congealed). How many people (ladies in waiting, servants, servants of servants) were sleeping in the room together in 1500, 1700 or 1890? The idea that one would actually have any privacy is a very recent concept.

A fascinating reconstruction of what life was like not just for the head of the household, but for all who lived on the estate.

Very informative.......2002-02-19

Don't be put off at first by the black and white photos. This book has some color photos, and I was at first hesitant to purchase this book because it seemed to be mostly black and white photography.
However, once I began to read this book, all thoughts about photos went out of my head! This book is informative, intelligent and thorough. The author has studied his subject very well, and writes in a clear and easy to follow manner. I really do find the floorplans to be an invaluable tool towards understanding the buildings the author is describing.
I am currently using this book as a research tool for my novel, but I did buy this book just for the love of the subject and I was not disappointed.
I would recommend this book again and again to anyone with a love of history and architecture.

This will become a fixture on your nightstand.......2001-05-13

Mark Girouard, an architectural historian, has traced the roles of form and function in England's Great Houses in this densely illustrated, sensitively written book. Floor-plans, innumerable photographs and drawings (many of homes now destroyed), and portraits pepper the text, which is readability itself.

The book follows a chronological path from the Mediaval Household to the present day. The text isn't dry at all. Delicious details abound: Bess of Hardwick pacing her Great Chamber of Hardwick Hall, waiting for the royal visit that never came in the instantly-dated house she'd built for this very purpose, ... The origin of the phrase "backstairs intrigues" (both political and sexual).... the slow but persistant birth of the aristocratic ideal of "privacy"--and how it affected dining halls....the rise of the great dilettante libraries (and the rooms to house them).....and the advent of the freakish innovation of indoor plumbing (and a picture of the Duke of Wellington's elaborate WC) are just a few tidbits.

Mr. Girouard doesn't neglect the "downstairs" portion of a Great House, because he's interested in the whole institution as a functioning unit. Some of the most intriguing photos are of beloved servants' portraits, and the almost Shaker-like beauty of a working kitchen or laundry. Included, also, is a printed "Summary of Livery Men's Duties, Etc., Etc.", of Hatfield House, and darned if it doesn't sound like instructions for empoyees at an indifferent New York hotel!

Book Description

Wives and Daughters Women and Children in the Georgian Country House Joanna Martin A detailed and personal account of women's lives in eighteenth century aristocratic society ountry houses symbolized the power and taste of eight-eenth century Britain. Told through the stories, journals, and personal letters of the women of the powerful Fox family, Wives and Daughters is a window into the daily lives and ex-periences of women of eighteenth-century aristocratic society. Combining personality, historical setting and detail, and readability, Joanna Martin traces the lives of fifteen indivi-dual women in their four country houses through several genera-tions, allowing the reader to see them in society as well as at home in private. Taking an intimate and personal look at courtship, marriage, childbirth, education, houses and gardens, reading, hobbies, travel and health, this book is a new and engrossing account of women's lives, concerns, activities, and feelings in this fascinating time. Joanna Martin was brought up in a country house (Penrice Castle in Wales) and is a professional genealogical historian. She is the author of William Fox-Talbot at Penrice and the editor of A Governess in the Age of Jane Austen. She lives in Suffolk. History 1-85285-271-2 $29.95 $44.95 Canadian 61 /8 " x 91 /4 " / 336 pages Includes 35 bw illustrations Hambledon London June

Customer Reviews:

Great Women.......2006-01-18

Joanna Martin is already author of two books, Fox Talbot and Glamorgan and A Governess in the Age of Jane Austen. She is also an extremely talented professional genealogist. In her latest book she applies the scrutinising eye of a true professional to an interrelated group of families, focussing on the lives and loves of their female members.

Women have been neglected by history for centuries. The last decades have seen a massive refocusing of interest, thanks not least to the rise of women in the previously male-dominated world of publishing. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published in 2004, made headlines, correctly, for including many biographies of women in its previously very masculine halls of fame. Throughout history, it was women who looked after households, from cottages to stately homes, including the Wessex mansions, Redlynch; Melbury; Bowood and Lacock, that feature prominently in this book, and in its beautiful illustrations.

It was women who brought up children; hired and fired servants; nursed the sick and dispensed charity. As Joanna emphasises too, it was they who wrote voluminous letters concerned to no small degree with family affairs. But these writings also ranged over the vastly more intellectual areas, including the latest books; gardening techniques; remedies and political gossip, all traditionally supposed to be the realm of men.

Where archives of such records survive, historians and genealogists alike can have a fieldday. So it is here with the records of the great Whig dynasty of Fox Strangways. Under the shadow of the Earls of Ilchester, a host of women lived their lives and left wonderful records for posterity.

The interconnected families Joanna studies are famous for its men, including Charles James Fox the radical politician and William Henry Fox Talbot the pioneer of photography. But if ever the phrase `behind every great man there's a great women' were proved true, it is here. And who better to study a group of interconnected families, and understand and explain how they intermarried and what significance their alliances had on themselves and the world about them, than an experienced genealogist?

Ultimately this book goes way beyond the `narrow' boundaries of the families on which it focuses and tells us all a great deal of relevant information about the social history of the Georgian period. There's a great deal here worth reading simply for its interest and amusement. Joanna is wonderful in her treatment of diseases and cures in her subjects' writings. Did you know that, in the 18th and early 19th century, `delicate' children were deliberately infected with measles to toughen them up? One of the Talbot boys, Kit, survived this extraordinary practise, though he later wrote that the after-effects of measles `nearly carried me off'. Amusing too is Thomas Talbot's reaction to a home-remedy of burnt cork mixed with quince marmalade for diarrhoea. It worked at first, apparently, but then the complaint returned with a vengeance. `I don't mean to try any more experiments', he commented ruefully, `unless absolutely needful'.

If your ancestors were not themselves great Georgian hostesses, they probably worked for them or were married to their tenants - or suffered from their remedies. There's lots here for everyone.

An interesting tour through three centuries of women.......2004-08-26

The author is so lucky! Descended from the women she writes about, she has access to all their letters and diaries and many of their personal possesions. She takes all this and paints a fascinating portrait of some very interesting women living in a very interesting time.

I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it is obviously the work of an amateur historian. She has great sources, and she makes them very accessible to the reader... but sometimes I felt that she did not really analyze them all that thoroughly, nor does she draw connections to the wider world. In addition, she mentions, in a rather offhand manner, that her Victorian ancestors "organized" the papers that she is using... the Victorians were infamous for destroying family records that painted an unflattering view of long-dead family members or did not support the strict Victorian code of morality. Martin does not mention her opinion of whether such vetting occured: it may seem like a minor detail, but it had me wondering for the rest of the book if some important details about these fascinating women might be missing, though the author seemed to think not.

If you liked "Aristocrats," you MUST read this book, because this book shares several characters with that one. This is a fun, easy to read introduction to Georgian upper-class women.

The World of the Country House in Seventeenth-Century England

Average customer rating:

A flawed but essential survey

The World of the Country House in Seventeenth-Century England
J. T. Cliffe
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300076436

Book Description

This engaging book takes us back to the domestic world of the landed gentry in seventeenth-century England. J. T. Cliffe explores the interior and exterior of country houses and discusses their social and economic role. He provides colorful details about the lives of squires and their families, the duties of servants and others who lived in the houses, and the scandals that embroiled some households.

Customer Reviews:

A flawed but essential survey.......1999-10-13

Cliffe presents an extensive survey of family and public records from a number of sources. The Public Record office is the source of many of the more interesting tidbits, but no less significant are the private records of descendants of his subjects, for example, the Earl of Verulam, Lord Cobbold, Lord Daventry and a Major J. R. More-Molyneux. He shows very little inclination to editorialise, preferring to let the sources speak for themselves. Where he dare to conject, the impression is that it is on the basis of the wealth of detail that he has not managed to fit in rather than imagination. This is all very well and properly academic, but it does mean that there are many gaps and unanswered, or poorly answered questions that arise.

He deals with the first such in his introduction. Here he explains his aim, "a study of the country houses of the gentry, their inhabitants, including servants and other employees, and the activities which went on around such houses" (vii). This is a laudable endeavour, after all, as he points out, the nobility have had their fair share of historical attention already. The question is, who are the gentry? We all know who and what the nobility are and there is a legal status conferred upon the nobility (such that the duelist Lord Mohan could expect to be judged by his peers rather than a court of law). There is no similar legal definition for the gentry, as one contemporary lawyer, John Seldon once observed, "What a gentleman is, `tis hard with us to define" (vii).

Cliffe's definition is "families owning landed property which were headed by baronets or knights or men described as `esquire' or `gentleman' in such official documents as heraldic visitation records, subsidy rolls and hearth tax returns." (vii) This is a workable, if broad definition but it is a conclusion that Cliffe reaches after only one paragraph. In later chapters he hints at arguments and court cases concerning the definition of gentlemen and it seems to me there might have been material enough for a whole chapter on the subject.

Book Description

The Edwardian age (1904-1914) was the last time the rich could afford to build enormous country houses surrounded by formal landscaped gardens. These homes, where the owners often entertained guests at week-long house parties, were run by an army of servants working nearly round the clock. What happens when modern people volunteer to live in such a mansion - either as the owner and his family or as their servants - under the watchful eye of video cameras in every room? The Edwardian Country House, the companion book to the TV series of the same name, chronicles the experiment. The participants re-create the daily life of the time, both upstairs and "below stairs," with the help of authentic historical diary extracts, letters, advice manuals, and recipes. With color photos throughout, projects are also included to help readers re-create the period at home with a range of authentic Edwardian activities and crafts.

Customer Reviews:

More information about Manor House series.......2004-08-20

If you share my opinion that Manor House is one of the best reality series, you'll enjoy this book. As thorough as the series was, there are reams or reels or whatever of footage that never made it onto TV, so this book provides more information about Edwardian life, the participants and events of the series. It's an oversize book which unfortunately makes for awkward reading -- and it does have a lot of text that you'll want to read. However, the size makes for good display of photos, including many taken in Edwardian times and even at Manderstone, the house where the series was shot. So you see that they really did dress up in a thousand items of clothing just to watch cricket on the lawn or stroll around the grounds. A fascinating addition to a well-made series. I loved the series and could have watched ten times what they showed on TV and therefore really appreciate this book.

Good companion piece to the PBS series........2003-11-04

I missed most of the series on PBS, but what I saw looked very good, much better than the earlier 1900 House. This book is the companion to the TV program and is really better suited to those who have seen it as I found some parts a little confusing due to not having watched most of it.
The book gives a good background on the house itself but is skimpy on the program, reads almost like it is about a real Edwardian family, no details on family selection or what happened after their stay was over.
All of the photographs are very good, the little extra sections on the cast I found interesting (likely would've been better if I'd actually seen the show), the side bits on foods and other items were even interesting.
I did notice that, as in 1900 House, the experts setting up made a surprising blunder, here they forgot to check the possibility that a decades unused chimney might be blocked (which it was). Another thing I found little mention of was the Silver stair railing (does the show mention it?), something so unusal and only a couple of photo captions about it.
Not enough to be a time travelers textbook but a very good companion to the series.

Manor House Backstage.......2003-07-15

This is an excellent companion to the Manor House series on PBS. It combines the historical background of the Edwardian period, information about each of the participants in the project, recipes and instructions for making items seen in the series, and information that was not shown during the series, such as the story behind the pig's head (and whether Monsieur Dubiard was trying to gross out the Oliff-Coopers) and more about Guy's education (a surprise there!). I only wished it had information on the selection process and what happened after the series ended.

The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: Architecture and Court Life, 1460-1547 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis)

Average customer rating:

Excellent Tudor Book
A Must For Tudor Buffs
Excellent addition to a Tudor reference library

The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: Architecture and Court Life, 1460-1547 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis)
Simon Thurley
Manufacturer: Paul Mellon Centre BA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300054203

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Tudor Book.......2007-08-13

This book is very extensive on the history of the Tudor palaces, it has great information and great pictures. A must buy for your collection of Tudor history.

A Must For Tudor Buffs.......2006-02-09

I grew up in England and have visited many historical buildings from the Tudor period. If you are fascinated by the Tudor dynasty, especially Henry VIII, and the buildings and living conditions of the Tudor monarchs, this book will satisfy your thirst for knowledge. I thought that I had a fairly good knowledge about the Tudor period until I bought this book. Simon Thurley is an expert in this field and it shows. The book contains maps of the palaces, pictures of parts of excavated palaces that I have never seen before, and many, many paintings of the palaces how they "used to look". Many of these fine buildings have been lost to modernization and demolishment, but their images live on in this book. Excellent job Dr. Thurley!!

Excellent addition to a Tudor reference library.......2002-01-28

Dr. Thurley has done a great job with this reference book. A great addition to anyone's personal reference library on Tudor history.

Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History

Average customer rating:

a visual treat
TUDOR MEETS STUART

Hampton Court: A Social and Architectural History
Simon Thurley
Manufacturer: Paul Mellon Centre BA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300102232

Book Description

Hampton Court-probably Britain's most important secular historic building complex-was a center of court life and politics from the late fifteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century. It was also a place of architectural innovation and the site of the most ambitious formal gardens ever built in Britain. This book offers the first history in over a century of Hampton Court, its gardens, and its parks. Lavishly illustrated, the book brings to life the entire history of the building, including the terrible fire of 1986 and the twentieth-century opening of the complex to the public. Simon Thurley, the unrivalled authority on Hampton Court's architecture, interior decoration, and history, sets the building in political and social context. He explores the lives and motivations of its builders, telling the stories of the architects and others who fulfilled the whims of kings and princes. In addition to throwing light on the character of court life, the book makes important new attributions to architects Hugh May, Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Talman, Colen Campbell, Edward Blore, and others.

Customer Reviews:

a visual treat.......2007-02-01

I have to admit a weakness for coffee-table books about palaces, stately homes etc, but this sumptuous, oversize volume is among the better ones of the genre. It is a detailed history of Hampton Court Palace - its origins, construction, additions, renovations, decoration and gardens, but also it touches on the lives and motivations of its people - builders and architects, kings and princes, bureaucrats and functionaries, tenants and visitors.

Richly illustrated with floor plans, drawings, paintings, prints, portraits, and photographs, this account of Hampton Court brings the story of the famous palace up to the 21st century.

When I last visited Hampton Court a quarter century ago, both house and gardens were looking decidedly shabby and, apparently, it got much worse before it got better. Tourists were passing it up in droves. Scandalous mismanagement, including a 3 million pound contractor fraud, dismantled fire detectors and gateways too narrow for fire engines, led up to a disastrous fire in 1986 and resulted in 2 deaths.

Although this is a serious work, one (unintentionally?) hilarious episode described in the book is the comic-opera visit to view the fire damage by the then Secretary of State for the Environment (& the man ultimately responsible for Hampton Court), Nicolas Ridley. Ridley, a chain smoker, his wife who was claustrophobic and ten other dignitaries were descending in the lift when it jammed between floors; the emergency manual door-opening device failed to function; the elevator maintenance man could not be located. Two hours later the Fire Brigade forced the doors open with a hydraulic jack. Heads rolled afterward - if only metaphorically.

New schemes have since been put in place for restoration and refurbishment, for improved property management and to enhance the attractions of the historic old palace for new generations of visitors.

TUDOR MEETS STUART.......2006-03-19

Britain does not possess a Versailles or a Caserta, but Hampton Court is about the close as it gets. Hampton Court is really two palaces, one built for Cardinal Wolsey, stolen by the gluttonous Henry VIII and finished in magnificent style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its history is really more interesting than the building itself. Hampton Court, though spectacular in many ways, will make nobody forget Fountainbleu or the Lourve. This book has wonderful images and the text is sholarly and enlightening. I highly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in British history, or storied structures.

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Life in the English Country Cottage
Adrian Tinniswood
Manufacturer: Trafalgar Square
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Verneys

ASIN: 0753800381

Book Description

A splendid illustrated history of the myth and reality of English cottage life over the last seven centuries, with 240 photographs, paintings, and drawings. Now in paperback. Whether Cotswold stone or a harmonious blend of timber-frame and thatch, the English cottage is an enduringly romantic symbol of country life at its most seductive. The ideal of cottage life is one that has tempted writers and artists for the last 200 years, but as this volume reveals, it was not always idyllic. From the medieval village to the 20th century, architectural historian Adrian Tinniswood traces the history of the cottage, exploring how they came to be built, the materials used to build them, and how they evolved. The focus of the book, however, is firmly on people: how cottage dwellers spent their time, what they ate and where they slept, and how they decorated and furnished their homes. A lively portrait, richly presented with 240 illustrations. Adrian Tinniswood is the author of Historic Houses of the National Trust and Country Houses from the Air. 216 pp 9 x 10 1/2 120 color & 120 b/w illustrations

The Great Good Place: The Country House and English Literature

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The Great Good Place: The Country House and English Literature
M. M. Kelsall
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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