Manor and Country Houses

A large house that served, or continues to serve, as the principal or ceremonial residence of a head of state, a wealthy family of dynastic standing, or an estate of substantial land holdings, distinguished from an ordinary residential building by its scale, its civic or dynastic significance, and often by grounds and outbuildings beyond the house itself. This group gathers grand residences of that kind whose members are not primarily agricultural plantation houses, museum-operated historic houses or purpose-built multi-family buildings, including seats of government that function as a head of state's formal residence alongside privately built mansions of comparable scale and standing.