Creating Paradise: The Building of the English Country House, 1660-1880 - Hardcover

Wilson, Richard; Mackley, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1852852526 ISBN 13: 9781852852528

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2003

Synopsis

Building or rebuilding their houses was one of the main concerns of the English nobility and gentry, some might say their greatest achievement. This is the first book to look at the building of country houses as a whole. Creating Paradise shows why owners embarked on building programmes, often following the Grand Tour or excursions around other houses in England; where they looked for architectural inspiration and assistance; and how the building work was actually done. It deals not only with great houses, including Holkham and Castle Howard, but also the diversity of smaller ones, such as Felbrigg and Dyrham, and shows the cost not only of building but of decorating and furnishing houses and of making their gardens. Creating Paradise is an important and original contribution to its subject and a highly readable account of the attitude of the English ruling class to its most important possession.

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Wilson is Reader in Economic History at the University of East Anglia.

Alan Mackley is an authority on the economic history of country house building.

Review:

“When one lives in Paradise, how hard it must be to ascend in heart and mind to heaven.” ―Lady Frederick Cavendish, at Clivenden

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1852852526
• ISBN 13: 9781852852528
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 450