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Mount Vernon: A tour of the 'handsome and genteel' interior of George Washington's country home
Jeremy Musson reports on the recent campaign to restore the memorable interiors of George and Martha Washington’s country home. Photographs by Gavin Ashworth, courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association.
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The 'Death Pyramid' of Primrose Hill
Four times the height of St Paul's Cathedral, and with enough room for 5 million bodies, the Metropolitan Sepulchre was a fascinating curiosity that thankfully never left the drawing board.
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Mount Vernon: The story of George Washington's country estate
Jeremy Musson looks at the remarkable history and preservation of Mount Vernon, the country home of America’s first president, George Washington. Photographs by George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
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A century of change at The White House
In December 1916 Country Life magazine was granted extraordinary access to The White House.
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Samuel Lysons: The man who revealed the Roman Cotswolds
The antiquarian Samuel Lysons played an important role in recording the Roman villas of the Cotswolds. Clive Aslet looks at his remarkable career and methods.
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'We had to extract her by her legs in an undignified fashion so she could meet him and join us all at the table': The trials and tribulations of the country-house lift
Anyone with a fear of being trapped in a lift may wish to look away, warns Melanie Cable-Alexander, as she explores the grandest alternatives to taking the stairs.
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Civic splendour: St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry
The guildhall built as a symbol of Coventry's 14th-century prosperity and self-government has recently undergone restoration.
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The destruction and recreation of Scone Palace
In the second of two articles on Scone Palace, Perthshire, John Goodall looks at the Jacobite history of Scone and the transformation of the Palace from 1802 into a Gothic Revival prodigy house. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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Wembley isn't just a stadium — it was a vision and a pioneering adventure in the history of architecture
The 1924 Wembley Empire Exhibition was conceived on a vast scale, with a bewildering variety of displays that united such themes as Canadian butter, Tutankhamun and toffee tins. It also pioneered the architectural use of concrete, as Kathryn Ferry explains.
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A consolation and pleasure: The architectural brilliance of Prince Albert
Prince Albert took a close interest in architecture and oversaw a series of major building projects. Michael Hall considers his claims to be thought of as an architect
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At last, a new chapter for the Reading Room at the British Museum
The British Museum’s Reading Room — where Sylvia Pankhurst and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once worked — has reopened at last. Richard MacKichan celebrates.
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2,000 years of fountains, from Roman Britain to a 300ft modern masterpiece in Gloucestershire
The fountain has a long and fascinating history in England, from the Roman period to the present day, as John Goodall reveals.
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'The best of all worlds': Francis Terry's Woodford Hill Farm blends 18th, 19th and 21st centuries
Woodford Hill Farm in Northamptonshire is a new country house that addresses the challenge of combining the traditional architectural forms of its locality with flexible and modern living spaces. Jeremy Musson reports, with photography by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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La Corbière lighthouse: How 'the herdsman of the waves' has protected the Channel for 150 years
A feat of pioneering Victorian engineering, La Corbière lighthouse has guided seafarers to safety for 150 years, finds Antonia Windsor.
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The chapel of Lincoln College, Oxford: 'Most costly and church-wise'
John Goodall describes the 17th-century expansion of Lincoln College, Oxford, to include an outstanding chapel, amid a bitter personal clash between two strong-willed men, and the institution’s evolution to the present day. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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The history of Lincoln College, Oxford: Salvaging the vine
John Goodall describes the initiative of a Bishop of Lincoln to establish Lincoln College, Oxford, and the long struggle to bring it to fruition. Photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
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The extravagant seaside splendours of the south coast's most exotic museum
Created for Merton Russell-Cotes’s wife in 1901 and then given to the town, the dazzling interiors of the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth capture the spirit of the Victorian seaside, says Kathryn Ferry. Photography by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
