Cultural Ideals and Financial Constraints

Abstract

This chapter discusses the growth of a desire among the elite for detachment and splendid isolation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which was reflected in the abandonment of country houses in the proximity of towns and villages, and in their construction in isolation in the midst of huge parks surrounded by high walls. At all times country houses of a size suitable for members of the country elite had been set amidst ample pleasure-grounds. In the sixteenth century, however, they often stood on the approaches of a village and had home farm buildings abutting on or close to the offices. One of the most remarkable examples of a major country house surviving to a late date on the edge of a large city is Anderson Place, which was built in 1580 actually within the walls of Newcastle on the site of a Franciscan Priory. The late sixteenth and early seventeenth century country-house building was dominated by the great prodigy houses of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.