Touring and Publicizing England's Country Houses in the Long Eighteenth Century

Over the course of the long 18th century, many of England's grandest country houses became known for displaying noteworthy architecture and design, large collections of sculptures and paintings, and expansive landscape gardens and parks. Although these houses continued to function as residences and spaces of elite retreat, they had powerful public identities. Increasingly accessible to tourists, and extensively described by travel writers, they began to be celebrated as sites of great importance to national culture. Touring and Publicizing England's Country Houses in the Long Eighteenth Century examines how these identities emerged, repositioning the importance of country houses in 18th-century Britain and exploring what it took to turn them into tourist attractions. Drawing on travel books, guidebooks, and dozens of tourists' diaries and letters, it explores what it meant to tour country houses such as Blenheim Palace, Chatsworth, Wilton, Kedleston and Burghley in the tumultuous 1700s. It also questions the legacies of these early tourists: both as a critical cultural practice in the 18th century, and an extraordinary and controversial influence in British culture today, country-house tourism is a topic of rich debate for students, scholars and patrons of the heritage sector.

Jocelyn Anderson has worked in the Learning Department at Tate Britain and taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Birkbeck, and the University of East Anglia in the UK. She holds a PhD and MA in Art History from the Courtauld and a BA from McGill University, Canada. Anderson's research explores art in Britain, Canada, and across the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. She is the author of Touring and Publicizing England's Country Houses in the Long Eighteenth Century (2018) and William Brymner: Life and Work (2020).

List of Plates List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction: 'Come Here for Entertainment and Instruction': Country Houses Exhibited to the Public 1. 'For the Numerous Strangers Who Visit': Tourists' Itineraries and Practices 2. 'A Sumptuous Pile of Building': Remaking the Sights and Spaces of the House 3. 'Eminent in Public Estimation': The Transformation of Country Houses' Paintings and Sculptures 4. 'A Degree of Taste and Elegance': Commenting on Country Houses' Interiors 5. 'The Beauties of Nature': Descriptions of Country-House Gardens and Parks Conclusion: 'The Visitor of Today': Legacies of 18th-Century Country-House Tourism Appendix: Country-house Guidebooks Bibliography Index