Is there such a thing as a perfect country house? Maybe Hardwick Hall, built by Bess of Hardwick after an inheritance from four dead husbands left her the richest woman in England? Or consider Temple Newsam, the Jacobean manor that Francis Ingram, Viscountess Irwin, demolished in the 18th century ‘for the sole pleasure in building [it] up again’. Back in the English renaissance, aristocrats would built prodigy homes, designed specifically to appeal to Elizabeth I for a royal visit, but few estates have been built with the sole project of architectural perfection in mind – the platonic ideal of the country pile.
Enter Elizabeth Antrobus, scion of the Coutts banking dynasty. In 1908, she commissioned two of Europe’s leading architects to design ‘the perfect country house for a lady’. Taking inspiration from Marie Antoinette’s apartments at Versailles, the manor would need to combine the social politics of hosting and entertaining with the all too important business of leisure. The result? Charles Hill Court, which has recently hit the market with Knight Frank. (Read more.)
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