The English at Home in The Country with Olivier Bernier March 24, 2009

The English at Home in the Country, 1700–1820
Olivier Bernier, author

When nothing less than a palace would do, the aristocracy erected vast and splendid buildings on estates all over the English countryside. Grand houses like Castle Howard, the site of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, and Blenheim Palace, that celebration of the great general John Churchill, flaunted power and wealth, and so did the collections of art, furniture, and silver that filled them. Gamboling through the night was best done in grand architectural settings; affairs were best begun in the splendid, unnaturally natural parks that surrounded them.

This week’s topic:

March 24
The Perennial Prime Minister: Robert Walpole and Houghton

Official Website: http://www.metmuseum.org/tickets