Castle Howard

's complete project for Castle Howard, from the north, published in the third volume of Vitruvius Britannicus in 1725.|left West Wing at right, which was built in the mid-18th century|leftIn 1577, the 4th Duke of Norfolk's third son, Lord William Howard, married his step-sister Elizabeth Dacre, youngest daughter of the 4th Baron Dacre. She brought with her the sizable estates of Henderskelfe in Yorkshire and Naworth Castle in Cumberland. Castle Howard was commissioned by the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, who was a male-line descendant of Lord William Howard. The site selected was part of the Henderskelfe estate, including the former castle. The creation of Castle Howard, began in 1699, with the start of design work by John Vanbrugh. It was completed with the decoration of the Long Gallery in 1811. The house is surrounded by a large estate which, at the time of the 7th Earl of Carlisle, covered over and included the villages of Welburn, Bulmer, Slingsby, Terrington and Coneysthorpe. The estate was served by its own railway station, Castle Howard station, from 1845 to the 1950s. While attending Girton College during the early Edwardian era, Lady Dorothy Georgiana Howard, the daughter of the 9th Earl and "Radical Countess" of Carlisle, befriended six of her fellow students, including the future archaeologist Gisela Richter and future candidate for Roman Catholic Sainthood Anna Abrikosova. All six were invited by Lady Dorothy to Castle Howard as guests during holidays. After the death of the 9th Earl in 1911, Castle Howard was inherited by his fifth son, Geoffrey Howard, with later earls having Naworth Castle as their northern country house. Henry 'Chips' Channon, the diarist and future Conservative MP, visited Castle Howard in August 1923 and recounted in his diary that 'The house is uncomfortable in the extreme and is badly kept up. Everywhere there are signs of decaying magnificence.' Channon added that 'The galleries are reminiscent of the Vatican with their hundreds of busts and statues of emperors and gods. The great library is an enormous narrow red room the length of the house and is hung with enough paintings to found a museum.' In 1952, Castle Howard was opened to the public by its then-owner, Lord Howard of Henderskelfe, a younger son of Geoffrey Howard. It is now owned by a Howard family company, Castle Howard Estate Limited, and managed by the Hon. Nicholas Howard (the second son of Lord Howard of Henderskelfe) and his wife, Victoria. The house is Grade I listed and there are many other listed structures on the estate, several of which are on the Heritage at Risk Register. ==House==

The dome was recreated in 1961 after its destruction by fire in 1940, and repainted by Scott Medd The 3rd Earl of Carlisle first spoke to William Talman, a leading architect, but commissioned Vanbrugh, a fellow member of the Kit-Cat Club, to design the building. Castle Howard was that gentleman-dilettante's first foray into architecture, but he was assisted by Nicholas Hawksmoor. Some of the devastated rooms have been restored over the following decades. In 1960–61 the dome was rebuilt, and in the following couple of years Pellegrini's Fall of Phaeton was recreated on the underside of the dome The East Wing remains a shell, although it has been re-roofed. According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, over 269,000 people visited Castle Howard in 2019. File:Castle Howard Turquoise Drawing Room.jpg|The Turquoise Drawing Room File:Castle Howard Lady Georgianas' Dressing Room.jpg|Lady Georgiana's Dressing Room File:Castle Howard Lady Georgianas' Bedroom.jpg|Lady Georgiana's Bedroom File:Castle Howard Crimson Dining Room.jpg|The Crimson Dining Room File:Castle Howard Bedroom.jpg|Castle Howard Bedroom File:Castle Howard Chapel.jpg|Castle Howard Chapel, altered and redecorated in 1875–78 by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones File:The Octacon, Castle Howard - panoramio.jpg|The Octagon, in the Long Gallery, 1802 by Charles Heathcote Tatham ==Gardens==

by John Thomas, with the main house behind Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind (i.e., on the south side of) the house. The house is prominently situated on a ridge and this was exploited in the development of an English landscape park, which adjoins and opens out from the formal garden. The gardens are Grade I listed on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Two major garden buildings are set in this landscape: the Temple of the Four Winds at the end of the garden, and The Mausoleum in the park. There is a lake on either side of the house. There is a woodland garden, Ray Wood, immediately east of the house, and the Walled Garden which contains decorative rose and flower gardens. The Ray Wood walls date from the 18th century and were restored in 2007. Further buildings outside the preserved gardens include The Pyramid, restored in 2015, The Obelisk, and several follies and eyecatchers in the form of fortifications which have been restored in recent years; these include Carrmire Gate and Pyramid Gate. In nearby Pretty Wood, there are two more monuments, The Four Faces and a smaller pyramid by Hawksmoor. Located on the estate, but operating separately from the house and gardens and run by an entirely independent charitable trust, is the Yorkshire Arboretum. ==In media==

Castle Howard's most famous appearance in film was as Brideshead Castle in both the 1981 TV series and the 2008 film adaptations of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited. It has been used as a location in many other TV and film productions including: the 1965 film Lady L; Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon; the 1995 mini-series The Buccaneers; the 2006 film Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties; the 2013 TV series Death Comes to Pemberley; the 2015 Bollywood film Shaandar; in the 2016 ITV series Victoria; and the 2020 Netflix series Bridgerton (2020). ==See also==