They also sought to tame political and religious passions and to bring order and stability to Restoration society, a goal which was shared by many members of the landed classes. This book uses their story to illuminate the profound cultural changes which took place after 1660. It also brings to life Henry Somerset (1629-1700) and Mary Capel Somerset (1630-1715), two complex and unique individuals."--BOOK JACKET.

Presenting a discussion of the forces that created the first British Empire, this volume explores differing perspectives on the rise of Britain as a world power between the 16th & 19th centuries.

East Anglia's political and economic importance in the middle ages is plain for all to see, stemming initially from its crucial position on the eastern shores of the North Sea and its participation in the successive patterns of invasion and settlement of England. Archaeological evidence abounds: burial mounds, castles, great churches deriving from the wealth created by sheep, yeoman farmhouses, and market towns of eighteenth-century elegance. Behind these visible manifestations of the march of centuries lie particular histories, and these seventeen studies from the region's best scholars reveal some of those jigsaw puzzles of time, ranging from the Domesday herring industry by way of monasteries, memorials, wills, Gainsborough and garden history to the growing passion for natural history and science in the mid nineteenth century. They make a serious contribution to an understanding of the region, and at the same time honour Norman Scarfe, whose own studies have played a notable part in the interpretation of East Anglia's history. Contributors JOHN BLATCHLY, JAMES CAMPBELL, CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL, CAROLE RAWCLIFFE, DAVID DYMOND, PETER NORTHEAST, COLIN RICHMOND, JUDITH MIDDLETON-STEWART, DIARMAID MacCULLOCH, HASSELL SMITH, TOM WILLIAMSON, EDWARD MARTIN, JONATHAN THEOBALD, RICHARD WILSON, HUGH BELSEY, STEVEN PLUNKETT, GEOFFREY MARTIN, MICHAEL HOWARD.

The Gentleman's House analyses the architecture, decoration, and furnishings of small classical houses in the eighteenth century. By examining nearly two hundred houses it offers a new interpretation of social mobility in the British Atlantic World characterized by incremental social change.

The architectural history of Troy House in Monmouthshire is positioned at the centre of this extensive new research volume, to support a consideration of how the surrounding land was refashioned over time. Investigating the estate’s main components, first individually and then by cross-referencing the findings, extends our current understanding of them as discreet and at the same time interrelating entities. Previously unrecorded historical features are discovered that belong to the house and its landscape, and comprehensive evidence is applied to challenge current understandings. The house and its pleasure gardens, the walled garden, the farm and the surrounding parkland are demonstrated together by this research to be a rare surviving example, in Wales especially, of a complete Tudor estate with Jacobean and Carolean aggrandisement. As such, Troy House occupies a significant place in history.

This work explores the British country house between 1700-1830 and looks at the lives of the noblemen and the servants who inhabited them. Reference is made to the whole of the British Isles and there is a discussion of their political significance.