The Country House and Its Visitors: Welcome and Unwelcome

Country houses have always been a magnet for visitors. In early days individuals with the correct social credentials could gain entry, while visitors such as royalty were self-invited guests. With the rise of the railway and then the motor-car, houses became accustomed to mass visits, spawning the heritage industry of today. However, houses have also attracted less-welcome incomers: looters, arsonists, emigres, revolutionaries, the politically undesirable, carpetbaggers, and even photographers whom one owner described as worse than burglars. This volume explores the many kinds of visitors who have crossed the thresholds of country houses, and how they have recorded their impressions–whether in sketches, journals, guest-books, works of fiction, or photographs.