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Article: Estates and Country Houses
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ESTATES AND COUNTRY HOUSES
ESTATES AND COUNTRY HOUSES.
"Estate," in the sense of landed property, entered English usage around 1790, while the term "country house" is of Elizabethan origin. This was not a farmhouse, a Roman
villa rustica,
but a substantial edifice, fully staffed and generally on a working estate with gardens, cropland, pastures, and woods. Country houses might serve for pure escape to bucolic surroundings or as sites to impress, house, and entertain friends and important guests.
Following the disintegration of the Roman Empire, endemic conflict demanded castles to defend domains and fiefs. Rulers were peripatetic, holding court in their own and their vassals' ...