Böcker av Christopher Ridgway

The life of the influential Sir John Vanburgh and his role in defining the architectural landscape of England

Country houses may be triumphs of architecture, fine and decorative art, and landscape design, but they are also about the history and transmission of ideas. In varying degrees their occupants thought, conversed, read, and responded to their milieu through books, newspapers, and other media. Their libraries and archives provide an invaluable record of how people in country houses fashioned themselves and their views of the world. The essays in this volume examine reading habits, book collections and practical applications of thinking to demonstrate how elite society exchanged ideas, absorbed new trends, and engaged in wider debate.

Country houses have always been a magnet for visitors. In early days individuals with the correct social credentials could gain entry, while visitors such as royalty were self-invited guests. With the rise of the railway and then the motor-car, houses became accustomed to mass visits, spawning the heritage industry of today. However, houses have also attracted less-welcome incomers: looters, arsonists, emigrés, revolutionaries, the politically undesirable, carpetbaggers, and even photographers whom one owner described as worse than burglars. This volume explores the many kinds of visitors who have crossed the thresholds of country houses, and how they have recorded their impressions--whether in sketches, journals, guest-books, works of fiction, or photographs.