Objectives

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• a good knowledge of the English country house (and its literature) over three and a half centuries
• skills in the analysis of architecture, interior design, gardens, and landscapes
• some understanding of the changing social, economic and cultural patterns on the designs and layout of the country house in the period

Preliminary Reading

• M. Abbott, Family Ties. English Families 1540-1920 (1993).
• D. Arnold (ed), The Georgian Country House - Architecture, Landscape and Society (1998).
• J. V. Beckett, The Aristocracy in England 1660-1914 (1986).
• N. Cooper, Houses of the Gentry 1480-1680 (1999).
• M Girouard, Life in the English Country House: a Social and Architectural History (1978/80).
• R Wilson and A Mackley, Creating Paradise.  The Building of the English Country House 1660-1880 (2000).
• G Jackson-Stops and J Pipkin, The English Country House - A Grand Tour (1984/93).
• G Jackson-Stops, ed, The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting (Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, 1985).
• J Harris, The Design of the English Country House, 1620-1920 (1985).
• A Elton, B Harrison and K Wark, Researching the Country House: A Guide for Local Historians (1992).
• M Girouard, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (1966/83).
• C Christie, The British Country House in the Eighteenth Century (2000)