Understanding The English Country House, The Country House and The Two World Wars

Established in 1994, THE COURSE offers innovative and exciting lectures in Art History, Literature, Music and Opera.

‘Of all the great things that the English have invented and made part of the credit of the national character, the most perfect, the most characteristic, the only one they have mastered completely in all its details, so that it becomes a compendious illustration of their social genius and their manners, is the well-appointed, well-administered, well-filled country house.’ Henry James

Jeremy Musson has spent over twenty years visiting and studying English country houses, and in this new specially designed course, takes some different approaches to understanding how the ‘well-appointed, well-administered, well-filled country house’ was planned, designed, built and used. Above all, he brings the architectural story to life by exploring the history of people in the country house, through domestic service, evolving technology, as well as the significant social life and ritual of the English country house from the mid sixteenth century.

The Country House and The Two World Wars

Early and mid twentieth century country house life was changed by the first and second world wars; here we will look at the various great country houses which were volunteered as hospitals and convalescent homes in the first war; and then how most country houses of any scale were requisitioned for military purposes in the second world war, or were used to house evacuated schools or hospitals. This represented one of the greatest interventions in the private ownership of land in English history, and many of the houses did not return to single residence use after the war. This lecture will also consider the early years of the National Trust’s country house scheme promoted by Lord Lothian (Britain’s wartime ambassador to the United States).