Children Of The Great Country Houses
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Bumping on spine and corners. Rubbed edges.
Condition remarks: Pages clean and bright. Binding tight. Usual aging.
A richly detailed work of social history, Children of the Great Country Houses chronicles the lives of the children who grew up within the grand estates of England's aristocracy and landed gentry, painting a vivid portrait of a world defined by privilege, strict hierarchy, and emotional distance. Adeline Hartcup draws on diaries, letters, and memoirs to illuminate the often isolated and regimented childhoods endured behind the imposing walls of these magnificent homes, where nannies, governesses, and tutors held more daily influence than parents. The tone is both sympathetic and scholarly, presenting the nursery and schoolroom as microcosms of the broader social order that shaped generations of Britain's ruling class. Hartcup illustrates how the customs and expectations of country house life — from rigid mealtimes to the rituals of the Season — left lasting impressions on the children who lived through them, for better or worse. A compelling blend of intimate anecdote and broader historical analysis, this account offers an absorbing window into a vanished way of life.
Author: Adeline Hartcup
Format: Hardback
Published: 1982, Sidgwick & Jackson
Genre: British & Irish history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Good
Markings: Fair - Bumping on spine and corners. Rubbed edges.
Condition remarks: Pages clean and bright. Binding tight. Usual aging.
A richly detailed work of social history, Children of the Great Country Houses chronicles the lives of the children who grew up within the grand estates of England's aristocracy and landed gentry, painting a vivid portrait of a world defined by privilege, strict hierarchy, and emotional distance. Adeline Hartcup draws on diaries, letters, and memoirs to illuminate the often isolated and regimented childhoods endured behind the imposing walls of these magnificent homes, where nannies, governesses, and tutors held more daily influence than parents. The tone is both sympathetic and scholarly, presenting the nursery and schoolroom as microcosms of the broader social order that shaped generations of Britain's ruling class. Hartcup illustrates how the customs and expectations of country house life — from rigid mealtimes to the rituals of the Season — left lasting impressions on the children who lived through them, for better or worse. A compelling blend of intimate anecdote and broader historical analysis, this account offers an absorbing window into a vanished way of life.