Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century Country House

456 Pages·2021·7.889 MB·English

by  Jon Stobart

Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century
Country House
Country houses were grand statements of power and status, but they were
also places where people lived. is book traces the anges in layout, the
new tenologies, and the innovations in furniture that made them more
convenient and comfortable. It argues that these material anges were just
one aspect of comfort in the country house: feeling comfortable was just as
important as being comfortable. Aieving this involved the comfort and
solace to be found in daily routines, religious faith and, above all,
relationships with family and friends. Su emotional comforts, and the
aament to things and places that embodied and memorialised them,
made country houses into homes.
Jon Stobart is a Professor of History at Manester Metropolitan University.
Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Cultures and
Societies
Series Editors: Elaine Chalus and Deborah Simonton
e long eighteenth century sits as a pivotal point between the early-
modern and modern worlds. By actively encouraging an international focus
for the series over all, both in terms of wide-ranging geographical topics and
authorial locations, the series aims to feature cuing-edge resear from
established and recent solars, and capitalize on the breadth of themes and
topics that new approaes to resear in the period reveal. is series
provides a forum for recent and established historians to present new
resear and explore fresh approaes to culture and society in the long
eighteenth century. As a crucial period of transition, the period saw
developments that shaped perceptions of the place of the individual and the
collective in the construction of the modern world. Eighteenth-Century
Cultures and Societies is a series that is globally ambitious in scope and
broad in its desire to publish cuing-edge resear that takes an innovative,
multi-vocal and increasingly holistic approa to the period. e series will
be particularly sensitive to questions of gender and class, but aims to
embrace and explore a variety of fresh approaes and methodologies.
Sartorial Practices and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century Sweden
Fashioning Difference
Mikael Alm
Daily Lives and Daily Routines in the Long Eighteenth Century
Edited by Gudrun Andersson and Jon Stobart
Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century Country House
Jon Stobart
At Home in the Eighteenth Century
Interrogating Domestic Space
Edited by Stephen G. Hague and Karen Lipsedge
For more information about this series, please visit:
www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Eighteenth-Century-Cultures-
and-Societies/book-series/RSECCS
Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century
Country House
Jon Stobart
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Jon Stobart
e right of Jon Stobart to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, meanical, or other means, now
known or hereaer invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
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from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stobart, Jon, 1966– author.
Title: Comfort in the eighteenth-century country house / Jon Stobart.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Routledge studies in
eighteenth-century cultures and societies | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Subjects: LCSH: Dwellings—Environmental engineering—History—18th
century. | Country homes—England—History—18th century. | Country
homes—United States—History—18th century.
Classification: LCC TH6057.A6 S76 2022 (print) | LCC TH6057.A6 (ebook) |
DDC 728.80941/09033—dc23
LC record available at hps://lccn.loc.gov/2021013334
LC ebook record available at hps://lccn.loc.gov/2021013335
ISBN: 978-1-032-07291-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-07292-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-20636-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003206361
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Jane
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART 1
Physical and Social Comfort: e Materiality of the Country House
1  Convenience and Privacy: e Aritecture of Comfort
2  Warmth and Light: Tenologies of Comfort
3  Comfortable Rooms: Sociability and the ‘Modern Living Room’
PART 2
Emotional Comfort: Feelings, Letters and Home
4  Cleanliness and Godliness: Comforts of the Body and Mind
5  Family and Friends: Comfort, Consolation and Correspondence
6  Home Comforts: Objects and Memories
Conclusions: House and Home
Bibliography
Index