Jeremy Musson

Country houses were reliant on an intricate hierarchy of servants, each of whom provided an essential skill. Up and Down Stairs brings to life this hierarchy and shows how large numbers of people lived together under strict segregation and how sometimes this segregation was broken, as with the famous marriage of a squire to his dairymaid at Uppark. Jeremy Musson captures the voices of the servants who ran these vast houses, and made them work. From unpublished memoirs to letters, wages, newspaper articles, he pieces together their daily lives from the Middle Ages through to the twentieth century. The story of domestic servants is inseparable from the story of the country house as an icon of power, civilisation and luxury. This is particularly true with the great estates such as Chatsworth, Hatfield, Burghley and Wilton. Jeremy Musson looks at how these grand houses were, for centuries, admired and imitated around the world.

The History of the Country House Servant

Up and Down Stairs

A highly detailed look at the most accomplished English country house interiors, exemplifying English decorating at its best. The English drawing room, a formal place within a house of status where family and honored guests could retire from the more public arena, is one of the most important rooms in an English country house, and thus great attention has been paid to preserving the decoration of this most elegant of spaces: the center of life in the English countryside and the epitome of English country house decoration. This book offers privileged access to fifty of the finest drawing rooms of country houses and historic townhouses—many still in private hands—including Althorp, Attingham, and Knepp Castle. Through these sumptuous rooms, readers experience a history of English decorating from the sixteenth century to the present day, including the work of design legends such as David Hicks, Nancy Lancaster, John Fowler, and David Mlinaric. Specially commissioned photographs capture the entirety of each room, as well as details of furniture, architectural elements, artwork, collections, and textiles, creating a visually seductive book that will inspire interior designers and homeowners interested in the widely popular classic English look.

English Country House Decoration

The Drawing Room

A highly detailed look at the English country house interior, offering unprecedented access to England's finest rooms. In this splendid book, renowned historian Jeremy Musson explores the interiors and decoration of the great country houses of England, offering a brilliantly detailed presentation of the epitome of style in each period of the country house, including the great Jacobean manor house, the Georgian mansion, and the Gothic Revival castle. For the first time, houses known worldwide for their exquisite architecture and decoration--including Wilton, Chatsworth, and Castle Howard--are seen in unprecedented detail. With intimate views of fabric, gilding, carving, and furnishings, the book will be a source of inspiration to interior designers, architects, and home owners, and a must-have for anglophiles and historic house enthusiasts. The fifteen houses included represent the key periods in the history of English country house decoration and cover the major interior fashions and styles. Stunning new color photographs by Paul Barker-who was given unparalleled access to the houses-offer readers new insights into the enduring English country house style. Supplementing these are unique black-and-white images from the archive of the esteemed Country Life magazine. Among the aspects of these that the book covers are: paneling, textile hangings (silks to cut velvet), mural painting, plasterwork, stone carving, gilding, curtains, pelmets, heraldic decoration, classical imagery, early upholstered furniture, furniture designed by Thomas Chippendale, carved chimney-pieces, lass, use of sculpture, tapestry, carpets, picture hanging, collecting of art and antiques, impact of Grand Tour taste, silver, use of marble, different woods, the importance of mirror glass, boulle work, English Baroque style, Palladian style, neo-Classical style, rooms designed by Robert Adam, Regency, Gothic Revival taste, Baronial style, French 18th century style, and room types such as staircases, libraries, dining rooms, parlors, bedrooms, picture galleries, entrance halls and sculpture galleries. Houses covered include: Hatfield - early 1600s (Jacobean); Wilton - 1630/40s (Inigo Jones); Boughton - 1680/90s (inspired by Versailles); Chatsworth -1690/early 1700s (Baroque); Castle Howard - early 1700s (Vanbrugh); Houghton - 1720s (Kent); Holkham - 1730s-50s (Palladian); Syon Park - 1760s (Adam); Harewood - 1760s/70s (neo-Classical); Goodwood - 1790s/1800s (neo-Classical/Regency); Regency at Chatsworth/Wilton/C Howard etc - 1820/30s; Waddesdon Manor - 1870/80ss (French Chateau style); Arundel Castle -1880s/90s (Gothic Revival); Berkeley Castle - 1920/30s (period recreations and antique collections); Parham House - 1920s/30s (period restorations and antique collections). The range is from the early 17th century to present day, drawn from the authenticated interiors of fifteen great country houses, almost all still in private hands and occupied as private residences still today. The book shows work by twentieth-century designers who have helped evolve the country house look, including Nancy Lancaster, David Hicks, Colefax & Fowler, and David Mlinaric

English Country House Interiors

David Cannadine

From The Crown to Downton Abbey, the country house speaks to our fantasies of rustic splendor, 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 vibrant reinventions for the enjoyment of modern-day visitors, residents, and armchair travelers. 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 splendor and escape today.

Great Houses of The British Isles

The Country House: Past, Present, Future

The country houses designed by Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) are some of the most original and memorable works of architecture in Britain. He was rightly judged 'The Shakespeare of architects' by Sir John Soane, and was the designer of Castle Howard in Yorkshire, and Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, two of the great iconic houses of their age. He also designed or remodelled a string of amazing country houses, sometimes described as 'enchanted castles' such as Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland and Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. Vanbrugh's life was even more remarkable than his houses. The son of a merchant of Dutch extraction, his grandfather left Haarlem to avoid religious persecution as a protestant; his mother was related to many of the great landed families of the day, including the Earl of Abingdon and the Duke of Devonshire. He began his career as a merchant, travelled to India in the service of the East India Company, served as an army officer, was arrested, as a civilian in France and imprisoned on suspicion of being a spy, worked as both playwright and theatrical impresario, writing and producing successful comedies such as The Relapse and then, in 1699 he turned his lively mind to architecture. This new book, brings together 200 of the finest photographs of his country houses, taken for Country Life magazine over the last 100 years, and is introduced by a short biography covering his remarkable life and character and his important relationship with his assistant, Nicholas Hawksmoor. The breathtaking colour and duotone images that illustrate the book are accompanied with well-researched and readable accounts of his great houses and their landscapes. Jeremy Musson is an architectural historian, writer and broadcaster who worked for Country Life for 12 years, first as architectural writer and then as architectural editor; he has also worked as a curator for the National Trust and presented a popular BBC 2 series The Curious House Guest and is author of The English Manor House and How to Read a Country House.

The Country Houses of Sir John Vanbrugh

The English landscape is steeped in ruins. Markers of the nation’s rich and often turbulent history, ruins represent not only the passing of time but also the constant presence of the past. In English Ruins, renowned architectural historian Jeremy Musson explores some of England’s most evocative derelict and abandoned buildings, from churches, castles and forts to country houses, industrial works and even entire villages. Following a wide-ranging introduction examining the role of the English ruin in defining the nation’s identity, Musson surveys each of the featured sites, revealing its past, present and future in fascinating detail. Lavishly illustrated throughout with stunning images by Paul Barker, one of the country’s foremost architectural photographers, English Ruins is an invaluable guide to a much-loved aspect of English history.

Jeremy Musson

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