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discourse, and there may be no obvious pattern of employment of domestic staff today, but country houses require assistance to make them work, just as they did five hundred years ago, even with modern technology to regulate heat, light and alarms from a distant laptop. In the end, one factor has remained the same through the centuries: that whatever the work involved, there must also, crucially, be some degree of human companionship, involving loyalty and trust.

Acknowledgements

In writing on such a subject, any writer will be indebted to the scholarship and publications of others. In this area, the most important and helpful were those by Peter Brears, J.T. Cliffe, Mark Girouard, Adeline Hartcup, Jean Hecht, Pamela Horn, Pamela Sambrook, Giles Waterfield and Merlin Waterson. I would like to acknowledge my profound gratitude and debt to those authors, particularly Pamela Horn and Pamela Sambrook, as well as to all those cited in the notes and bibliography.

I would also like to thank the many scholars, authors, curators, archivists and friends who have helped guide and encourage my researches for this book. I would like to mention especially Clive Aslet, Charles Bain-Smith, Sir David Cannadine, Nicholas Cooper, Warren Davis, Ptolemy Dean, Trevor Dooley, Liz and Martin Drury, Gareth Edwards, Julian Fellowes, Leslie Geddes-Brown, Philippa Glanville, John Goodall, Emily Gowers, David Griffin, Michael Hall, Andrew Hann, John Hardy, Bevis Hillier, Maurice Howard, Tim Knox, Lucinda Lambton, Helen Lloyd, Patricia Macarthy, Edward MacParland, the late Hugh Massingberd, Mary Miers, Tessa Murdoch, William Palin, Jeremy Pearson, John Martin Robinson, Pippa Shirley, Peter Sinclair, Julian Spicer, Sarah Staniforth, Hew Stevenson, Nino Strachey, Sir Keith Thomas, Geoffrey Tyack, Hugo Vickers, Giles Waterfield, Sue Wilson, Lucy Worsley and Sir Peregrine Worsthorne. Edward Town spared me his time to show me round Knole, and Jane Troughton of York University identified and transcribed relevant letters in the Wynn archive. Especial thanks to Lydia Lebus for her invaluable support as a researcher, particularly in contacting the owners and archivists of so many country houses around the British Isles.

Many archivists, curators and librarians at country houses and other collections have been immensely helpful with guidance and direction, tours and access to documents and buildings, including Rosemary Baird at Goodwood House, Sussex; Jean Bray at Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire; Dai Evans at Petworth House, Sussex; Robin Harcourt-Williams at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire; Kale Harris at Longleat; Christine Hiskey at Holkham Hall, Norfolk; Paul Holden at Llanhydrock, Cornwall; Christopher Hunwick at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland; Charles Lister at Boughton House, Northampton-shire, Anne MacVeigh at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; Basil Morgan at Rockingham Castle; Christopher Ridgway at Castle Howard; Sara Rodger at Arundel Castle, Sussex; Jennifer Thorp at Highclere Castle; Collette Warbrick and her colleagues Rachel Boak and Diana Stone at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire; and Richard Williams, archivist of Mapledurham House, Berkshire. Also to Andre Gailani of the Punch Library, Justin Hobson and Helen Carey at the Country Life Picture Library, and Jonathan Smith, archivist, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

There are also many country-house owners and those have who lived in and worked in country houses, all of whom gave me time for interviews, tours and advice, especially: David Bateman, Sir John Becher, Charles Berkeley, the Hon Mary Birkbeck, Lady Mairi Bury, the Earl and Countess of Carnavon, James Cartland, Henry Coleman, the Hon. Hugh Crossley, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Peter Frost-Pennington, Martin Gee, the Earl of Glasgow, the Knight of Glin, the Hon. Desmond Guinness, Edward Harley, James Hervey-Bathurst, Laura Hurrell, Lord Inglewood, Sir John Leslie, Bt, Sammy Leslie, Jim Link, Auriol, Marchioness of Linlithgow, David and Rhona Lowsley-Williams, Ian MacNab, Maureen Magee, Sir David and Lady