The English country house is generally accepted as a large
house or
mansion, once in the ownership of an individual who also most likely owned another
great house in the
West End of
London. Hence one moved from one's town house to one's country house. Country houses and
stately homes are sometimes confused—while a country house is always in the country, a stately home can also be in a town.
Apsley House, built for the
Duke of Wellington at the corner of
Hyde Park ('No. 1, London' it was called), is one example. Other country houses such as
Ascott in Buckinghamshire were deliberately designed not to be stately, and to harmonise with the landscape, while some of the great houses such as
Kedleston Hall and
Holkham Hall were built as "power houses" to impress and dominate the landscape, and were certainly intended to be "stately homes". Today many former "stately homes", while still country houses, are far from stately and most certainly not homes.
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CASA DI CAMPAGNA. RESIDENZA DI CAMPAGNA. GRANDI VILLE