- The complete guide for owners and occupiers of houses dating from the classic period of British domestic architecture - Sets the houses in their historical context and explains how their original owners would have used the different rooms - Provides a wealth of advice on maintenance, restoration and sympathetic modernisation, with the emphasis on the use of authentic materials and techniques

This book enables the reader to set the Georgian house in its historical context, shows how and why each aspect of a house came to be as it is, and help owners to preserve their homes for the enjoyment of the next generation. In the first part of the book Steven Parissien describes the development of the Georgian style in Britain from its introduction in the early eighteenth century through to the mid-nineteenth century and explains how the original inhabitants would have used the various rooms. In the second part he devotes a chapter to each element of the Georgian house, including roofs, brickwork and stonework, doors and windows, staircase and fireplaces, mouldings and plasterwork. Throughout the book he stresses the need for today's owners to understand the ideas, techniques and materials employed by those who built their homes. The book has been written with the owner, or would-be owner, of a modest family house or Georgian cottage primarily in mind.

This title takes a fresh look at a familiar building type - the town house in 18th century London - and investigates the circumstances in which individuals made decisions about living in London, and particularly about their West End house.

Told through the stories, journals and personal letters of the women of the powerful Fox family, Wives and Daughters is a window into the daily lives and experiences of women of eighteenth-century aristocratic society and the country houses that symbolized the power and taste of eighteenth-century Britain. Combining personality with historical setting and detail, Joanna Martin traces the lives of fifteen individual women in their four country houses through several generations, in society and at home. Taking an intimate and personal look at courtship, marriage, childbirth, education, houses and gardens, reading, hobbies, travel and health, this book is an engrossing account of woman's lives in this fascinating time.

Conclusion -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Glossary -- Index