English country house

An English country house is a large house or mansion set in the English countryside, historically the rural seat of a landed family that also kept a residence in town and divided its time between the two. The tradition took its recognizable form during the Tudor period and continued developing through the eighteenth century, with the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries marking the last flourishing of the traditional country house way of life. Usually unfortified, unlike the castles that preceded them, these houses served as the hub of large estates, employing indoor and outdoor staff, and their owners typically doubled as magistrates and local administrators who dominated county government until the Reform Act of 1832. Rising taxation, the impact of the First World War and the agricultural depression led to the demolition of hundreds of English country houses over the course of the twentieth century.