Every historic building has a story to tell
I’m a voyeur. At least where historic buildings are concerned – don’t worry, I’m not standing in front of your windows… I restrict my historic house lust to buildings actually open to the public. (Or abandoned houses in my native land, but that’s another story.) Combine my penchant for historic architecture with being a recovering (read more)
Categories: Architecture, Country house, England, Tourism
Tags: Brideshead Revisited, Castle Howard, Death Comes to Pemberley, Evelyn Waugh, John Vanbrugh, Yorkshire
It’s been almost a year since my adventure among the country houses in England. The recent fire at Clandon Park in Surrey, plus the weekend spent with a friend from last summer, made me wistful for the grueling, yet exhilarating days of an Attingham scholar. The first country house (outside of our lodging at the (read more)
Categories: Country house, Historic Preservation
My college art history classes invariably began at 8 am or right after lunch- neither being a good time to sit in a darkened room and look at slides. Despite this, I relished (through occasional yawns) this exposure to artwork far removed from my rural background, and I fell madly in love with the old (read more)
Categories: Art, Country house, England, National Trust
Tags: J.M.W. Turner, Petworth, West Sussex
I grew up in a country house. To be more accurate, I grew up in a house in the country, as my family doesn’t have an urban townhouse to which we decamp for most of the year. Instead, I spent the first 18 years of life on a farm in the Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky, (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Country house, England
Tags: Attingham Summer School, Attingham Trust, English Country Houses
My travels about the English countryside have provided an unparalleled opportunity to see entrancing landscapes, incredible architecture, meet wonderful people, and inevitably, to be stranded after missing yet another bus. So it was with some optimistic cheer I planned an easy, relaxing jaunt on a warm Sunday afternoon to the Vyne near Oxford with my (read more)
Categories: Country house, England, National Trust
Tags: Henry VIII, Jane Austen, The Vyne, Tormore School
The curtailment of my wanderings in England stems mainly from my lack of a car, but also the very real challenges of (dependable) public transportation in rural England. This conclusion springs not just from the occasions where I have found myself wondering if I can walk nine miles along a highway to the nearest population (read more)
Categories: Country house, England, National Trust
Tags: Corfe Castle, Dorset, Kingston Lacey, William Bankes
After resting my eyes upon countless hillsides dotted with grazing sheep in the Lake District, my visit to Wimpole Hall and Farm (a National Trust site) provided a different rural perspective. Wimpole, located about 11 miles from Cambridge, is a commercial lowland farm of 2,500 acres. East England’s rolling hills are much more suited to (read more)
Categories: Country house, England, Farming, National Trust
Tags: barns, Sir John Soane
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