This ambitious book examines in great depth the English country house, including Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Georgian, Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian houses. The book covers all aspects of country living and includes famous estates by Vanbrugh, Lutyens, and Adam, as well as smaller, classically English houses and cottages, each a jewel of its period. More than four hundred color and black-and-white photographs from the incomparable archive of Country Life magazine showcase the architectural glory of the English country house. Exterior, interior, detail, and landscape photographs capture the splendor of the homes and their exquisite decoration. Interspersed throughout this handsome book are booklets printed on rich, uncoated paper, with essays from England's foremost architectural historians. In these essays, the reader discovers the history of the social use of the country house, its interiors, its gardens and ancillary buildings, its collections, and the influence of English country house styles in the U.S.
