The chapters of this edited collection shed new light on the intersection between traveling and the display of aesthetics and innovations in architecture and garden construction in British country houses during the long eighteenth century. The travelers described in the volume were mostly nobles and members of the gentry who visited both overseas and domestic destinations, and who were primarily British or Irish, but included some continental sightseers touring Britain. On returning from their travels, they brought back physical objects, often antiquities, to furnish their country homes and gardens, but they also returned with new ideas about aesthetics. In addition, they commissioned works of art and architecture to imitate foreign styles, especially from antiquity, or hired artists to make copies of individual artworks, furniture, or buildings. Their country houses served not only as homes but also as displays of conspicuous consumption, as tourist destinations, and as models of sophisticated taste.

In the first chapter, Rebecca Campion details the collecting career of “antiquity-mad” Irish Anglican bishop Frederick Hervey. Campion's article sets the stage for the rest of the volume, describing Hervey's fervent attempts to absorb classical culture and install it in his country houses in Ireland. Hervey traveled frequently, mainly in Italy, purchasing many artifacts, including sculptures, paintings, and frescos, and returning with architectural inspirations for his houses, aiming to resurrect ancient Roman building styles in Ireland. Like a number of the other travelers described in this book, Hervey's journeys, taken when he was older, and sometimes accompanied by family members, expanded the definition of the Grand Tour.

While Hervey aimed to recreate Italy in Ireland, many favored Asian goods and artistic influences. Emile de Bruijn shows how chinoiserie was a potent aesthetic force in the decoration of country houses, even though most British travelers did not make it to East Asia, and relied upon imported goods, imitations, and manuals about techniques such as “japanning” to commission facsimiles of Chinese and Japanese furniture and art objects. Perhaps because of decreased familiarity, such productions were frequently hybridized by mixing European and Chinese aesthetic elements, thus reconfiguring Asian arts for a British taste. British subjects were more likely to have visited India, and Ellen Filor discusses Scottish landowner Mary Mackenzie's gendered relationship with the objects she transported back and forth between India and Scotland. Her Indian artifacts, including rugs, furniture, and a stuffed leopard, were deliberately placed in her boudoir, the “Botany Bay Room,” in her family seat of Brahan Castle, and locked up when she was forced to let the castle to tenants. Filor also highlights Mackenzie's nationalistic insistence on emblematic Scottish products while living in India, such as consuming haggis, listening to bagpipes, and commissioning Mackenzie tartan woven from Indian fabrics.

Some travelers stayed closer to home. Rosie MacArthur describes gentlemen tourists traveling through the British Isles, noting the special features of houses and gardens, including functional aspects such as water management that could be adapted at their own country estates. Jocelyn Anderson shows the agricultural reformer Arthur Young inserting asides about country houses, particularly their painting collections, into his discussions of farming improvements. Young acknowledged that these digressions might relieve the monotony of the more technical discussions encompassing the rest of his works, but Anderson shows that for many, they comprised the chief interest of Young's works and in fact helped shape aesthetic criterion for viewing country houses.

John Harrison discusses how classical themes played a large part in the development of English gardens, which aimed to emulate Roman antiquities seen on Grand Tours, primarily by incorporating classically inspired sculpture or architecture. The gardens then became models for continental tourists, including Italians, who traveled to Britain to find inspiration from English gardens. Likewise, Hanneke Ronnes and Renske Koster discuss Dutch travelers visiting the British Isles to scrutinize houses, gardens, and art, while Kristóf Fatsar describes Hungarian travelers who admired English gardens and country houses. Both groups were favorably impressed by English country life, particularly noting Blenheim Palace as an exemplary model of the country house. The Dutch, however, preferred newer buildings and furnishings, while the “Anglomaniac” Hungarians were generally less critical. Both groups were impressed by the alien British style of country living and the new “natural” English gardens.

Near the end of the volume, Jon Stobart and Peter Edwards, in consecutive chapters, explore the routine but complex financial logistics of long-distance travel during the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively. These chapters provide fascinating insights into the obstacles and necessities of travel during the premodern era. While the risk of highwaymen appears to have been greater during the seventeenth century, during both periods travelers from the nobility and gentry had to consider a number of significant expenses, including the purchase or hire of horses and coaches, feed and stabling for the animals, repairs for equipment, and lodging and food for both themselves and their servants. In addition, the dictates of ostentation added expenditures for servants’ liveries and imposed additional costs to acquire upscale horses, coaches, and equipment, chosen as much for style as for practicality.

The contributors to this volume provide a rich and nuanced picture of the cross-cultural tastes and influences facilitated by travel during the long eighteenth century. They demonstrate that, in an increasingly cosmopolitan and imperial society, national as well as personal social status was accentuated by cultural sophistication and conspicuous display of wealth through rare and singular objects and architecture. At the same time, such displays were tied into the most traditional example of wealth and status—the country house. Not only the British and Irish, but also continental Europeans appreciated the juxtaposition of urbane traveler and comfortable country landed wealth. A mention must be made of the illustrations—almost every chapter contains rich visual images, including both historical and contemporary plans, sketches, and photos of gardens, buildings, and historical objects. This volume will provide a fruitful reference for those who wish to understand the complex intersection of consumption and travel that made possible the existence of the British country house.