Property is central to any historical analyses of production, reproduction and consumption. It lies at the heart of discussions of material culture, class relations and the household economy. Recent work has begun to look beyond the acquisition and possession of goods to examine what the disposal, transmission and giving of property might tell us about changing society and culture. This landmark collection of articles represents a wide range of approaches to and perspectives on the ownership, use and transmission of property in eighteenth and nineteenth-century towns. An introductory essay...

Provides readers with fresh insights into the country house and the ways it was shaped by domestic and foreign travel. It brings famous and less familiar houses to life through the aspirations and acquisitions of owners; the admiring or caustic comments of visitors, and the constant flows of goods, people and ideas. -- .