76-543: Mentmore Towers , historically known simply as "Mentmore", is a 19th-century English country house built between 1852 and 1854 for the Rothschild family in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire . Sir Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, designed the building in the 19th-century revival of late 16th and early 17th-century Elizabethan and Jacobean styles called Jacobethan . The house
152-529: A "turning point for the preservation movement". Several family portraits, sculptures and furnishing were relocated from Mentmore prior to the sale by the Roseberys to their ancestral Scottish home, Dalmeny House , near Edinburgh. Items from Mentmore at Dalmeny include tapestries, Sèvres porcelain , and an equestrian statue by Joseph Boehm of " King Tom ", the foundation stallion for Baron Mayer de Rothschild 's Mentmore and Crafton Studs . Mentmore became
228-428: A fortunate few; it was the centre of its own world, providing employment to hundreds of people in the vicinity of its estate . In previous eras, when state benefits were unheard of, those working on an estate were among the most fortunate, receiving secured employment and rent-free accommodation. At the summit of this category of people was the indoor staff of the country house. Unlike many of their contemporaries prior to
304-811: A location in the Inspector Morse episode " Cherubim and Seraphim ". In addition, it has been used as a location for music videos, including the Roxy Music video for " Avalon " (1982), " Magic Touch " by Mike Oldfield (1987), Enya 's " Only If... " (1997), " Until the Time Is Through " by Five (1998), " What Is Love " by Haddaway (1993), and " Goodbye " by the Spice Girls (1998). 51°52′06″N 0°41′26″W / 51.8682°N 0.6906°W / 51.8682; -0.6906 English country house An English country house
380-638: A luxury hotel with 171 suites, including 122 in a new wing on the slope below the house. However, in September 2004, Jonathan Davey, a local resident, won a last-minute injunction in the High Court to halt work on the hotel while a judicial review investigated whether the planning permission granted had followed the correct procedures. In March 2005, the High Court ruled that Aylesbury Vale District Council 's decision to grant planning permission to
456-840: A member of the Rothschild family . He was the brother of Neil Primrose and the writer Lady Sybil Grant . He was educated at Eton then undertook military training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst . Lord Dalmeny was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards as a Second lieutenant 12 February 1902. During the First World War , he served in France from 1914 to 1917 as Camp Commandant and ADC to General Allenby and subsequently in Palestine as Allenby's Military Secretary . As Lord Dalmeny he
532-529: A mixture of high architecture , often as interpreted by a local architect or surveyor, and determined by practicality as much as by the whims of architectural taste. An example of this is Brympton d'Evercy in Somerset, a house of many periods that is unified architecturally by the continuing use of the same mellow, local Ham Hill stone . The fashionable William Kent redesigned Rousham House only to have it quickly and drastically altered to provide space for
608-480: Is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house . This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country. However, the term also encompasses houses that were, and often still are, the full-time residence for the landed gentry who dominated rural Britain until
684-510: Is called a castle, but not all buildings with the name "castle" are fortified (for example Highclere Castle in Hampshire ). The term stately home is subject to debate, and avoided by historians and other academics. As a description of a country house, the term was first used in a poem by Felicia Hemans , "The Homes of England", originally published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1827. In
760-452: Is in very poor condition and the deterioration of the main house is accelerating with areas of water ingress into the main hall and adjacent reception rooms". By 2022, the need for restoration was classified as priority A (up from priority B in 2016-2021). The report states "immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric: no solution agreed' in spite of a restoration plan that had been previously completed". A video published at
836-473: Is politics; they talk politics; and they make politics, quite spontaneously. There are no written terms for distinguishing between vast country palaces and comparatively small country houses; the descriptive terms, which can include castle , manor and court , provide no firm clue and are often only used because of a historical connection with the site of such a building. Therefore, for ease or explanation, Britain's country houses can be categorised according to
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#1732772232055912-471: Is the ITV series Downton Abbey . Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery Albert Edward Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery, 2nd Earl of Midlothian , KT , DSO , MC , PC , FRSE (8 January 1882 – 31 May 1974), styled Lord Dalmeny until 1929, was a British liberal politician who briefly served as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1945. He
988-579: The Cockburn Association . He was also appointed Chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland in 1952. In 1909, Harry Primrose married Dorothy Alice Margaret Augusta Grosvenor, daughter of Lord Henry George Grosvenor (a son of the 1st Duke of Westminster ) and Dora Mina Erskine-Wemyss. Before their divorce in 1919, they had a son and a daughter: In 1924 Primrose remarried to Dame Eva Isabel Marian Strutt ,
1064-524: The Crafton Stud ; plus Ocean Swell and Blue Peter from the Mentmore stud . Both stud farms were within a kilometre of the mansion and together with the stable yard were designed by the architect George Devey , who also designed many cottages in the estate's villages of Mentmore, Crafton and Ledburn . The second wife of the sixth Earl, Eva Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (DBE) , was interested in
1140-703: The House of Lords on the death of his father in 1929. The same year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Midlothian , a post he held until 1964. In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . His proposers were Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan , Sir Thomas Henry Holland , James Pickering Kendall and James Watt. In February 1941, during the Second World War, he was appointed Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence in Scotland. When
1216-726: The Mentmore Golf and Country Club , established in 1992, which had two eighteen-hole golf courses designed by Bob Sandow, the Rothschild Course and the Rosebery Course. The club ceased trading in 2015. The house has appeared in many films, including: Brazil (1985), Slipstream (1989), Incognito (1997), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Quills (2000), The Mummy Returns (2001), Ali G Indahouse (2002), Johnny English (2003), Batman Begins (2005), and Infinite (2021). Mentmore Park also featured as
1292-508: The Reform Act 1832 . Frequently, the formal business of the counties was transacted in these country houses, having functional antecedents in manor houses . With large numbers of indoor and outdoor staff, country houses were important as places of employment for many rural communities. In turn, until the agricultural depressions of the 1870s , the estates, of which country houses were the hub, provided their owners with incomes. However,
1368-633: The Royal Collection , including the Gold State Coach . Further works transferred to Mentmore included the portraits from Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster , and tapestries, furniture and Grinling Gibbons carvings from Hampton Court Palace . The royal coach was stored in the "battery room" subsequently nicknamed the "refuge", part of the "gas house", a group of outbuildings where gas and electricity had once been produced for
1444-604: The Vale of Aylesbury . Baron Mayer de Rothschild began purchasing land in the area in 1846. Later, other members of the family built houses at Tring in Hertfordshire, Ascott , Aston Clinton , Waddesdon and Halton . Much of the estate was sold in 1944, but the mansion, its grounds, formal gardens, several farms and the majority of the village of Mentmore remained in the ownership of Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery , until his death in 1974. The Earl's executors explored
1520-454: The 1850s, with the English economy booming, new mansions were built in one of the many revivalist architectural styles popular throughout the 19th century. The builders of these new houses were able to take advantage of the political unrest in Europe that gave rise to a large trade in architectural salvage. This new wave of country house building is exemplified by the Rothschild properties in
1596-419: The 18th century with houses such as Castle Howard , Kedleston Hall and Holkham Hall . Such building reached its zenith from the late 17th century until the mid-18th century; these houses were often completely built or rebuilt in their entirety by one eminent architect in the most fashionable architectural style of the day and often have a suite of Baroque state apartments, typically in enfilade , reserved for
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#17327722320551672-488: The 20th century, the term was later popularised in a song by Noël Coward , and in modern usage it often implies a country house that is open to visitors at least some of the time. In England, the terms "country house" and "stately home" are sometimes used vaguely and interchangeably; however, many country houses such as Ascott in Buckinghamshire were deliberately designed not to be stately, and to harmonise with
1748-474: The 20th century, they slept in proper beds, wore well-made adequate clothes and received three proper meals a day, plus a small wage. In an era when many still died from malnutrition or lack of medicine, the long working hours were a small price to pay. As a result of the aristocratic habit of only marrying within the aristocracy, and whenever possible to a sole heiress, many owners of country houses owned several country mansions, and would visit each according to
1824-474: The Mentmore Golf and Country Club opened, on land previously owned by the estate. Mentmore Towers is a Grade I listed building, with its park and gardens listed Grade II*. Baron Rothschild commissioned Sir Joseph Paxton, who was then designing and supervising construction of the much-admired Crystal Palace , to design Mentmore. Paxton was responsible for the ridge and furrow glass roof which covered
1900-544: The Scottish seat of Edinburghshire . This was a county, better known by its modern name of Midlothian , which was an area where the Roseberys had long been prominent landowners. Dalmeny was one of almost 400 Liberals returned in the great landslide victory of the 1906 election . He retired from the House of Commons in January 1910. At the time of his death he was the last survivor of the 1906 Liberal MPs. Rosebery entered
1976-603: The arts and was acquainted with Kenneth Clark and other national art museum directors. As a result of Lady Rosebery's friendships, Mentmore was chosen by the British government to store part of the British national art collections during the Second World War . The collections of the National Portrait Gallery were subsequently stored at Mentmore for the duration of the war, along with pieces from
2052-536: The best bowling all over the field", as when he hit 58 against Nottinghamshire on a difficult wicket at The Oval in 1905. Against Essex in 1906 he scored 52 in 37 minutes in the first innings and 58 not out in 45 minutes in the second. Rosebery was also a notable race-horse owner. He won The Derby with Blue Peter and Ocean Swell , and won most other classic British flat races, with horses bred at his Mentmore and Crafton Studs . He commenced his political career by being elected Liberal Member of Parliament for
2128-467: The best-known examples of the showy prodigy house , often built with the intention of attracting the monarch to visit. By the reign of Charles I , Inigo Jones and his form of Palladianism had changed the face of English domestic architecture completely, with the use of turrets and towers as an architectural reference to the earlier castles and fortified houses completely disappearing. The Palladian style, in various forms, interrupted briefly by baroque ,
2204-641: The central hall, designed to imitate the arcaded courtyard of a Renaissance palazzo, while Stokes was co-architect and clerk of works . The builder was the London firm George Myers , frequently employed by members of the Rothschild family. In keeping with the contents intended to be displayed within, the interiors take their inspiration principally from the Italian Renaissance, although the house also contains drawing rooms and cabinets decorated in
2280-524: The circumstances of their creation. The great houses are the largest of the country houses; in truth palaces, built by the country's most powerful – these were designed to display their owners' power or ambitions to power. Really large unfortified or barely fortified houses began to take over from the traditional castles of the crown and magnates during the Tudor period, with vast houses such as Hampton Court Palace and Burghley House , and continued until
2356-495: The contents of the house were sold at public auction by Sotheby's . The following year the empty mansion with its formal gardens and 80 acres were sold to the Maharishi Foundation who occupied it for the next two decades. In 1999, it was again sold, to investor Simon Halabi , who planned to build additional hotel and conference facilities; the plan did not proceed and the property was allowed to deteriorate. In 1992
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2432-523: The country saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses. Henry VIII 's Dissolution of the Monasteries saw many former ecclesiastical properties granted to the King's favourites, who then converted them into private country houses. Woburn Abbey , Forde Abbey and many other mansions with abbey or priory in their name became private houses during this period. Other terms used in
2508-428: The design of the wing around the next corner. These varying "improvements", often criticised at the time, today are the qualities that make English country houses unique. Wealthy and influential people, often bored with their formal duties, go to the country in order to get out of London, the ugliest and most uncomfortable city in the world; they invented the long week-end to stay away as long as possible. Their métier
2584-514: The developers was "unimpeachable" and legally sound. Halabi's property company, Buckingham Securities Holdings, was also proposing to develop the In & Out Club at 79–81 Piccadilly, London, also known as Cambridge House and once occupied by Lord Palmerston before it became the Naval and Military Club . The intention was to turn both properties into Europe's first six-star hotels, one located in town and
2660-427: The early 1970s, hundreds of country houses were demolished . Houses that survived destruction are now mostly Grade I or II listed as buildings of historic interest with restrictions on restoration and re-creation work. However such work is usually very expensive. Several houses have been restored, some over many years. For example at Copped Hall where the restoration started in 1995 continues to this day. Although
2736-451: The end of 2021 confirmed the extent of the deterioration. On 3 May 2024 Thames Valley Police posted on their Facebook page, they had responded the previous night to report of 2 people breaking into Mentmore Towers, which is becoming a regular occurrence. Officers have been cracking down on this and responding swiftly to apprehend those involved. Much of the historic estate was sold off in 1944 and reverted to agricultural use before becoming
2812-520: The estate. Four men guarded the refuge at night, and two during the day. The possible purchase of Mentmore for the nation through the government's National Land Fund was the desire of Roy Strong , the director of the V&;A , who hoped that Mentmore would become a "branch" of his museum devoted to 19th-century decorative arts as Ham House was for the 17th century and Osterley was for the 18th century. The government refused to spend such large sums from
2888-450: The executors of the estate sold the contents by public auction , and the large collection was dispersed. The estate made over £6,000,000 (equivalent to £47,085,332 in 2023), but a tiny fraction of its estimated worth today. Among the paintings sold were works by Gainsborough , Reynolds , Boucher , Drouais , Moroni and other well known artists, and cabinet makers, including Jean Henri Riesener and Chippendale . Also represented were
2964-612: The finest German and Russian silver- and goldsmiths, and makers of Limoges enamel. This Rothschild/Mentmore collection is said to have been one of the finest ever to be assembled in private hands, other than the collections of the Russian and British royal families. The house itself was purchased by the Maharishi International College in December, 1978 for £240,000. The sale of Mentmore has been described as
3040-498: The fund, and the sale fell through. Following the death of the sixth earl in 1974, the Labour government of James Callaghan refused to accept the contents in lieu of inheritance taxes , which could have turned the house into one of England's finest museums of European furniture, objets d'art and Victorian era architecture. The government was offered the house and contents for UK £2 million (equivalent to £30,550,839 in 2023), but
3116-508: The gilded styles of late 18th-century France. The external design is closely based on that of Robert Smythson 's Wollaton Hall . Baron Mayer de Rothschild and his wife enjoyed the house for over twenty years before their deaths, his in 1874 and the Baroness's some eighteen months later. The house and estate were then inherited by their daughter Hannah , later Countess of Rosebery. Following her death from Bright's disease in 1890 at age 39,
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3192-689: The grounds that he did not know what to say. Reputedly, his last words prior to his departing from the Scottish Office were "Well. I didn't make a bad job of this, did I? Didn't have the time". He was created a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT) in 1947 by King George VI . Rosebery was President of the National Liberal Party 1945–1957. From 1951 to 1974 he was the president of the influential Scottish conservation organisation
3268-479: The headquarters for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 's educational charity, the Maharishi Foundation , in 1978. As of 1997 the Natural Law Party also rented rooms there. The building was put up for sale in 1997 but did not change owners until 1999 when it was purchased by investor Simon Halabi . Under the ownership of Halabi, the property was renamed Mentmore Towers Ltd, with the intention of converting it into
3344-479: The home counties and Bletchley Park (rebuilt in several styles, and famous for its code-breaking role in World War II). The slow decline of the English country house coincided with the rise not just of taxation, but also of modern industry, along with the agricultural depression of the 1870s. By 1880, this had led some owners into financial shortfalls as they tried to balance maintenance of their estates with
3420-486: The house became the home of her widower Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery , later Prime Minister for two years from 1894. In 1922, the fifth earl gave the estate to his son Harry Meyer Archibald Primrose , Lord Dalmeny, who in 1929, on the death of his father, became the sixth Earl. Both earls bred numerous winners of classic horse races at the two stud farms on the estate, including five Epsom Derby winners. These were Ladas , Sir Visto , and Cicero from
3496-435: The household. These houses were always an alternative residence to a London house. During the 18th and 19th centuries, for the highest echelons of English society, the country house served as a place for relaxing, hunting and running the country with one's equals at the end of the week, with some houses having their own theatre where performances were staged. The country house, however, was not just an oasis of pleasure for
3572-556: The immediately preceding war then in World War I, were now paying far higher rates of tax, and agricultural incomes had dropped. Thus, the solution for many was to hold contents auctions and then demolish the house and sell its stone, fireplaces , and panelling . This is what happened to many of Britain's finest houses. Despite this slow decline, so necessary was the country house for entertaining and prestige that in 1917 Viscount Lee of Fareham donated his country house Chequers to
3648-438: The income they provided. Some relied on funds from secondary sources such as banking and trade while others, like the severely impoverished Duke of Marlborough , sought to marry American heiresses to save their country houses and lifestyles. The ultimate demise began immediately following World War I . The members of the huge staff required to maintain large houses had either left to fight and never returned, departed to work in
3724-491: The landscape, while some of the great houses such as Kedleston Hall and Holkham Hall were built as "power houses" to dominate the landscape, and were most certainly intended to be "stately" and impressive. In his book Historic Houses: Conversations in Stately Homes , the author and journalist Robert Harling documents nineteen "stately homes"; these range in size from the vast Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard to
3800-415: The late 19th and early 20th centuries were the swansong of the traditional English country house lifestyle. Increased taxation and the effects of World War I led to the demolition of hundreds of houses ; those that remained had to adapt to survive. While a château or a Schloss can be a fortified or unfortified building, a country house, similar to an Ansitz , is usually unfortified. If fortified, it
3876-544: The latter two are ducal palaces, Montacute, although built by a Master of the Rolls to Queen Elizabeth I, was occupied for the next 400 years by his descendants, who were gentry without a London townhouse , rather than aristocracy. They finally ran out of funds in the early 20th century. However, the vast majority of English country houses, often owned at different times by gentlemen and peers , are an evolution of one or more styles with facades and wings in different styles in
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#17327722320553952-655: The minuscule Ebberston Hall , and in architecture from the Jacobean Renaissance of Hatfield House to the eccentricities of Sezincote . The book's collection of stately homes also includes George IV's Brighton town palace, the Royal Pavilion . The country houses of England have evolved over the last five hundred years. Before this time, larger houses were usually fortified, reflecting the position of their owners as feudal lords , de facto overlords of their manors . The Tudor period of stability in
4028-416: The most eminent guests, the entertainment of whom was of paramount importance in establishing and maintaining the power of the owner. The common denominator of this category of English country houses is that they were designed to be lived in with a certain degree of ceremony and pomp. It was not unusual for the family to have a small suite of rooms for withdrawing in privacy away from the multitude that lived in
4104-644: The most unexpected appointments Churchill made was to install Rosebery as a member of the Privy Council and Secretary of State for Scotland . Both men had served together in the Liberal Parliamentary Party in the 1906–1910 Parliament. The caretaker Ministry was in office May to July 1945. So brief was his tenure at the Scottish Office that during the Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs (1952-4) he declined to give evidence on
4180-399: The munitions factories, or filled the void left by the fighting men in other workplaces. Of those who returned after the war, many left the countryside for better-paid jobs in towns. The final blow for many country houses came following World War II ; having been requisitioned during the war, they were returned to the owners in poor repair. Many estate owners, having lost their heirs, if not in
4256-468: The names of houses to describe their origin or importance include palace , castle , court , hall , mansion , park , house , manor , and place . It was during the second half of the reign of Elizabeth I , and under her successor, James I , that the first architect-designed mansions, thought of today as epitomising the English country house, began to make their appearance. Burghley House , Longleat House , and Hatfield House are among
4332-454: The nation for the use of a prime minister who might not possess one of his or her own. Chequers still fulfills that need today as do both Chevening House and Dorneywood , donated for sole use of high-ranking ministers of the Crown. Today, many country houses have become hotels, schools, hospitals and museums, while others have survived as conserved ruins, but from the early 20th century until
4408-727: The offer was declined by the Department for the Environment . The department cited the high cost of maintaining Mentmore, which it estimated could rise above £80,000 per year. The possibility of sourcing the money from the National Land Fund was also explored, but the government was only willing to commit a portion of the necessary funding from the NLF, insisting that the rest should come by private means, which were "not forthcoming". After three more years of fruitless discussion,
4484-471: The other to be the sister Country Manor hotel with a 36 hole private golf club. The original architects, EPR, were replaced by AFR in 2005, but the development stalled in 2007. In 2004, Hotel Design Inc were retained as interior designers for both projects, leading to a 2005 launch event for the marketing of the properties as a private members' club with hotel facilities (the PM Club). The last proposal, after
4560-468: The owner of a "power house" or a small manor, the inhabitants of the English country house have become collectively referred to as the ruling class, because this is exactly what they did in varying degrees, whether by having high political influence and power in national government, or in the day-to-day running of their own localities or "county" in such offices as lord/deputy lieutenant , magistrates , or occasionally even clergy. The Country house mystery
4636-529: The owner's twelve children. Canons Ashby , home to poet John Dryden 's family, is another example of architectural evolution: a medieval farmhouse enlarged in the Tudor era around a courtyard, given grandiose plaster ceilings in the Stuart period , and then having Georgian façades added in the 18th century. The whole is a glorious mismatch of styles and fashions that seamlessly blend together. These could be called
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#17327722320554712-512: The ownership or management of some houses has been transferred to a private trust , most notably at Chatsworth , other houses have transferred art works and furnishings under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme to ownership by various national or local museums, but retained for display in the building. This enables the former owners to offset tax, the payment of which would otherwise have necessitated
4788-464: The possibility of Mentmore Towers along with its contents being preserved intact as a heritage property and opened to the public, as has been the case with some other National Trust properties (including Waddesdon). Despite prolonged discussions between the Executors and Government representatives over the following three years, no agreement to save the house for the nation was reached. Thus, in 1977,
4864-462: The private sale of the art works. For example, tapestries and furniture at Houghton Hall are now owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum . In addition, increasing numbers of country houses hold licences for weddings and civil ceremonies . Another source of income is to use the house as a venue for parties, a film location or a corporate entertainment venue. While many country houses are open to
4940-416: The public and derive income through that means, they remain homes, in some cases inhabited by the descendants of their original owners. The lifestyles of those living and working in a country house in the early 20th century were recreated in a BBC television programme, The Edwardian Country House , filmed at Manderston House in Scotland. Another television programme which features life in country houses
5016-538: The roof and chimneys. There is concern that weather will penetrate to the interiors, considered among the finest examples of Victorian design and craftsmanship in Britain. Historic England (previously English Heritage ) has placed Mentmore Towers on the Heritage at Risk Register , listing it in "poor" condition with "immediate risk of further rapid deterioration or loss of fabric", explaining that "the service wing roof
5092-519: The season: Grouse shooting in Scotland , pheasant shooting and fox hunting in England. The Earl of Rosebery , for instance, had Dalmeny House in Scotland, Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, and another house near Epsom just for the racing season. For many, this way of life, which began a steady decline in 1914, continued well into the 20th century, and for a few continues to this day. In
5168-444: The second category of Britain's country houses are those that belonged to the squirearchy or landed gentry . These tend either to have evolved from medieval hall houses, with rooms added as required, or were purpose-built by relatively unknown local architects. Smaller, and far greater in number than the "power houses", these were still the epicentre of their own estate, but were often the only residence of their owner. However, whether
5244-549: The sister Piccadilly property was sold to the Rueben Brothers in 2009, was to renovate the original Mentmore Towers building and not construct the new extension containing guest-room suites, conference facilities and a large spa. However, with Halabi's property empire in serious trouble due to the housing market's collapse, the project stalled, and the property was in decline. By April 2022, a report described it as "abandoned" and "left to rot". The house needs urgent work on
5320-493: The true English country house. Wilton House , one of England's grandest houses, is in a remarkably similar vein; although, while the Drydens, mere squires, at Canons Ashby employed a local architect, at Wilton the mighty Earls of Pembroke employed the finest architects of the day: first Holbein , 150 years later Inigo Jones, and then Wyatt followed by Chambers. Each employed a different style of architecture, seemingly unaware of
5396-609: The wartime coalition government broke up in 1945, Winston Churchill formed a caretaker administration to hold office until the 1945 general election . The new government was composed of members of the Conservative Party and the small groups which had allied with it in the National governments in office 1931–1940. Amongst these allies was the National Liberal Party to which Rosebery belonged. One of
5472-520: Was a popular genre of English detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s; set in the residence of the gentry and often involving a murder in a country house temporarily isolated by a snowstorm or similar with the suspects all at a weekend house party. Following the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, a third category of country houses was built as newly rich industrialists and bankers were eager to display their wealth and taste. By
5548-482: Was a prominent cricketer. He played two first-class matches for Middlesex in 1902. He served as captain of Surrey from 1905 to 1907. He played in 102 first-class matches in all, scoring 3551 runs at an average of 22.47, including two centuries. His highest score was 138 against Leicestershire in 1905, when he added 260 for the sixth wicket in 130 minutes with J. N. Crawford . He was a hitter of notable power and though never consistent he could on occasions "knock
5624-563: Was designed for the banker and collector of fine art Baron Mayer de Rothschild as a country home, and as a display case for his collection of fine art. The mansion has been described as one of the greatest houses of the Victorian era. Mentmore was inherited by Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery , née Rothschild, and owned by her descendants, the Earls of Rosebery . Mentmore was the first of what were to become virtual Rothschild estates in
5700-603: Was the Member of Parliament for Midlothian from 1906 to 1910. He became the Earl of Rosebery and Midlothian in 1929 and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death. He was born at Dalmeny House west of Edinburgh on 8 January 1882. His parents were Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery , Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (from 1894 to 1895) and Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery ,
5776-422: Was to predominate until the second half of the 18th century when, influenced by ancient Greek styles, it gradually evolved into the neoclassicism championed by such architects as Robert Adam . Some of the best known of England's country houses were the work of only one architect/designer, built in a relatively short, particular time: Montacute House , Chatsworth House , and Blenheim Palace are examples. While
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