The Regency Country House: From the Archives of Country Life

The Regency Country House is the twelfth in what The Sunday Telegraph called ‘the magisterial Aurum Press series based on beautiful… photographs from the archives of Country Life’. As critics recognised on publication of the original hardback edition, it is the first book to provide a comprehensive survey of the key English country houses of 1800 to 1830. The book is divided into three parts: it looks first at the princely palaces and houses associated with the Prince Regent, from Brighton Pavilion to Buckingham Palace, then at nobleman's houses such as Tregothnan, Eastnor Castle and Goodwood and finally at gentleman's residences such as Southill, Bedfordshire and Sheringham, Norfolk. The duotone and colour illustrations, the work of some of Britain’s leading architectural photographers, show work by leading country houses architects including the Wyatt dynasty, Henry Holland, John Nash, Thomas Hopper, Humphry Repton and Sir John Soane—as well as regional designers such as Dobson of Newcastle and Webster of Kendal. John Martin Robinson will also be looking critically at important architectural themes of the Regency, from the development of the Graeco-Roman style associated originally with the Wyatts, the Gothic Revival, the Picturseque and cottage ornee and the role of Thomas Hope. Mid-20th century Country Life authors such as Christopher Hussey and Margaret Jourdain played a significant role in rediscovering and popularising the Regency period, a time when the English country house took on many of the qualities and attributes that we still take for granted today, and make Regency country houses as enjoyable to live in as when they were first built.