Primarily based on an examination of the great rural mansions owned by the National Trust in Britain, this book explains how the inhabitants of the vast edifices the English call "country houses" met their physical needs in past centuries. The text reveals little about the domestic arrangements of ordinary people other than those who happened to be servants in very wealthy rural households. What the butler did, what the linen closet contained, why a dovecote was needed and how it was designed, how baths were taken and sewage removed, how houses were lighted in different periods, how clotted cream was made--all these details will fascinate a large number of Masterpiece Theatre fans. Hardyment ( Mangle to Microwave , Blackwell, 1988) offers some fairly interesting sociological observations as well.
