A fascinating, highly illustrated description of the lost country houses of the North East of England.

How distinctive is the landscape of the North East of England? How far does its distinctive nature contribute to region's identity? These are key questions addressed by this book, drawing on hiterto little-known detail and many new research findings. --

The relationship between landscape and identity is explored to reveal how Englishness encompasses the urban and rural, and the north and south.

Historians of the long eighteenth century have recently recognised that this period is central both to the history of cultural production and consumption and to the history of national and regional identity. Yet no book has, as yet, directly engaged with these two areas of interest at the same time. By uniting interest in the history of culture with the history of regional identity, Creating and Consuming Culture in North-East England, 1660-1830 is of crucial importance to a wide range of historians and intervenes in a number of highly important historical and conceptual debates in a timely and provocative way. The book makes a substantial contribution to eighteenth-century studies. Not only do these essays demonstrate that in thinking about cultural production and consumption in the eighteenth century there are important continuities as well as changes that need to be considered, but also they complicate the commonplace assumption of metropolitan-led cultural change and cultural innovation. Rather than the usual model of centre-periphery diffusion, a number of contributions show that cultural change in the provinces was happening at the same time as in, or in some cases even before, London. The essays also indicate the complex relationship between cultural consumption and social status, with some cultural forms being more inclusive than others.

The author and publisher acknowledge with thanks the support of The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Connecting through Culture, Tyne and Wear Museums. --