• Episode 1 tells the story behind
South Wraxall Manor, hidden in the depths of the Wiltshire countryside. Built by a family with a dramatic and chequered history –
the Longs – who rose in prominence through the Tudor period to become knights of the realm, friends of
Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I, and one of the most powerful dynasties in England. • Episode 2 tells the story of architect
Sir William Bruce and
Kinross House. • Episode 3 examines the architecture of
Easton Neston in
Northamptonshire and discusses whether it was the work of
Nicholas Hawksmoor or
Sir Christopher Wren. • Episode 4 shows
Wentworth Woodhouse near
Rotherham, one of the largest country houses in Europe. The building exemplifies the workings of British parliamentary democracy before the
Reform Act 1832, and is important in the history of
Whig politics, its owners having included influential Prime Minister
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham. The episode also relates the near-destruction of the estate by controversial open-cast coal mining in the 1940s and 1950s, and speculates on how such a huge country house needing extensive renovation might find a use in the 21st century. • Episode 5 looks at the
Clandeboye Estate in Northern Ireland. • Episode 6 views
Marshcourt in
Stockbridge, Hampshire, designed by
Edwin Lutyens for stockbroker Herbert Johnson and completed in 1905. The gardens were designed by
Gertrude Jekyll. ==Publication==