In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the country house, the people who resided within its walls both above and below stairs and the contents of luxurious goods that it contained. Sumptuous dramas like Downton Abbey have given a romantic view of the ups and downs of life in these houses before and just after the First World War. The East India at Home Leverhulme Project showed the extent to which global forces impacted on the d ecor and fabric of the interiors. While Jon Stobart and Mark Rothery have explored consumption and the country house with a focus on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. Carol Beardmore, Steven King and Geoff Monks have taken a different approach with a primary focus on the outer estate and in particular the role of the land agent. There is no one size fits all when it comes to the country estate and whilst the popular fascination with these power houses continues to grow, historians are again looking at the ways in which they tell the stories of economic and social history often picking up where Mark Girouard’s seminal work left off. It is unsurprising that the house itself has attracted so much attention for it is the central and foremost physical symbol of the status and wealth of its occupants. In fact, it was the ownership of land that was the most important factor and arbiter of the type of house that might be built. Many landowners did not farm the land they owned personally beyond maintaining a home farm which the land agent might manage. Land, however, brought tenant farmers and with them rents and political loyalty. The latter was especially important in the days before the Great Reform Act of 1832 and the other political reforms of the late nineteenth century which eventually led in 1872 to the Secret Ballots Act. Money could, of course be obtained by other means for example, trade, commerce, shipping, fighting or by providing useful services to the government or monarch. Yet without acquiring and owning a substantial landed estate, capital could be plundered, and power was subject to many exogenous factors such as the loss of a benefactor or a fall in economic fortunes. Acquiring land therefore was a direct reflection of the three main aims of those with capital to spend that is ‘status, consumption and investment’. The landowners were the dominating class who held sway both on their rural estates and in Parliament. Their pivotal role in running the nation meant that their interests were always foremost in the policies and laws passed and little was ever considered which threatened this fundamental principle. The landed estate reached its ‘zenith’ in the 1880s. In the period up to 1914, around 800,000 acres were sold although this was small

中文翻译：

---

介绍

近年来，人们对乡间别墅、居住在其楼梯上方和下方墙壁内的人们以及其中包含的奢侈品重新产生了兴趣。像《唐顿庄园》这样的华丽戏剧对第一次世界大战前后这些房子里的生活起起落落给出了浪漫的看法。东印度之家 Leverhulme 项目展示了全球力量对室内装饰和面料的影响程度。而 Jon Stobart 和 Mark Rothery 已经探索了消费和乡间别墅，重点是沃里克郡和北安普敦郡。Carol Beardmore、Steven King 和 Geoff Monks 采取了不同的方法，主要关注外部地产，尤其是土地代理人的角色。当谈到乡村庄园时，没有一种万能的方法，虽然人们对这些大房子的迷恋不断增长，但历史学家们再次研究他们讲述经济和社会历史故事的方式，这些故事往往是马克Girouard 的开创性工作就此搁浅。毫不奇怪，房子本身引起了如此多的关注，因为它是居住者地位和财富的核心和最重要的物理象征。事实上，土地的所有权是可能建造的房屋类型的最重要因素和仲裁者。除了维持土地代理人可能管理的家庭农场之外，许多土地所有者并没有耕种他们个人拥有的土地。然而，土地带来了佃农以及租金和政治忠诚。后者在 1832 年大改革法案和 19 世纪后期的其他政治改革（最终导致 1872 年的无记名投票法案）之前的日子里尤为重要。金钱当然可以通过其他方式获得，例如贸易、商业、航运、战斗或为政府或君主提供有用的服务。然而，如果没有获得和拥有大量的土地，资本可能会被掠夺，权力会受到许多外在因素的影响，例如失去恩人或经济财富下降。因此，获得土地直接反映了有资本支出的三个主要目标，即“地位、消费和投资”。地主是统治阶级，在他们的农村庄园和议会中都占据主导地位。他们在管理国家中的关键作用意味着他们的利益在通过的政策和法律中始终是最重要的，很少有人考虑威胁到这一基本原则。有地庄园在 1880 年代达到了“顶峰”。到 1914 年为止，出售了大约 800,000 英亩土地，尽管这很小