Day in the Life of the Georgian Country House

Servants ferrying coal at daybreak, guests promenading at noon, hosts dining by candlelight—all the daily business of a great houseFrom before dawn, the Georgian country house was a place of ceaseless activity. Housemaids raked out cold grates and laid the fires; cooks and kitchen maids laboured over the coming dinner; gardeners readied the grounds. Then the visitors arrived, and the house performed—the rituals of welcome, the garden walk, the long theatre of dinner served by soft-shoed footmen, an evening of music and cards, and at last the surprisingly involved business of getting a good night's sleep.Jon Stobart follows the whole household—masters, visitors and staff—through a single day, room by room and hour by hour, from the servants’ hall and dressing room to the dining and drawing rooms. Along the way he recovers not just what people did but what it felt, sounded, smelled, and tasted like to do it—the warmth and the gloom, the fragrance and the clamour. He brings the Georgian country house, and everyone in it, to life.