Basildon Park, Reading

Undoubtedly one of Carr's masterpieces, Basildon is designed as a Palladian villa, with a main block joined by one-storey links to separate pavilions, containing the domestic offices. Designed with a restrained use of ornament but with an unerring sense of balance it is built in a particularly beautiful Bath stone. On the piano nobile of the main block the Hall, Staircase, Dining Room and Drawing Room preserve their original plaster-work decoration in the neo-Classical style.

Due to declining family fortunes the property was sold in 1838, to the Liberal MP James Morrison. The architect JB Papworth was commissioned to complete some of the interiors which Sir Francis Sykes had left unfinished, notably the Octagon Room, to heighten and embellish Carr's lodges on the Oxford Road, and to design other buildings on the estate. Some smaller alterations were also made after 1844 by David Brandon.

After the death of Miss Ellen Morrison in 1910 the house remained empty for a period of 40 years, during which time its contents and many of its fittings, such as door cases, chimney pieces and whole sections of plastework, were dispersed. It was saved from almost certain demolition after the last war by Lord and Lady Iliffe, who restored and refurnished it, before handing it over to the Trust together with a fine collection of pictures, furniture and a large endowment.

Coughton Court, Warwickshire

The impressive central gatehouse dating from the early 16th century was built for Sir George Throckmorton, who also surrounded the house with a wide moat, later to be filled in. The gatehouse leads to a courtyard with gabled wings, typical of 16th century half-timber work.

These were once linked by a chapel, forming a fourth side, damaged by a protestant mob in 1688 and later demolished.
Sir Thomas Throckmorton lent his home to Sir Everard Digby in 1605, and it was in the gatehouse drawing room on November 5th that year that an anxious group, including Lady Digby and other wives of conspirators, waited to hear the outcome of the Gunpowder Plot. The house was attacked by both Parliamentary and Royalist forces during the civil war and suffered damage again during James ll's reign.

The interior of Coughton has immense charm: the series of rooms decorated and furnished by successive generations, and an unparalleled collection of Catholic relics puts Coughton in a class of its own. The Throckmorton family, distinguished for their loyalty to the Catholic faith, have lived continuously at Coughton since 1409.

The 11th Baronet, Sir Robert Throckmorton, gave the freehold of the property to the National Trust under a court order which granted the family the right to live in the house for a further 300 years.

Mrs McLaren-Throckmorton, Sir Robert's niece, is the present incumbent.

Lanhydrock, Cornwall

The Robartes family built the house between 1620-1642 and lived there until the death of the Hon. Everilda Agar-Robartes in 1969. The House, park and woods were passed for the safe-keeping of the National Trust by the 7th Viscount Clifden in 1953. The foursquare granite mansion enclosed a courtyard, the east side being removed in 1780.

The fire in 1881 destroyed nearly all but the north wing, notable for the long gallery with its plasterwork on the barrelled ceiling. Richard Coad, a former pupil of George Gilbert Scott, then rebuilt the house, with a smoking room and billiard room evocative of their time. The kitchens, used until 1969, are splendid in scale.

Forty-four rooms are open to the public, and there is some good furniture, as well as a collection of family portraits including work by Kneller, Romney, Hudson and Richmond. The delightful gatehouse (1651) is in the decorative renaissance style. Lanhydrock is set in impressive grounds, with an avenue of beeches and sycamores, a Victorian formal garden, and a second garden with unusual herbacious plants.

Packwood House, Warwickshire

Packwood House, a property of the National Trust, at Lapworth near Solihull in Warwickshire, is a twentieth century evocation of domestic Tudor architecture, with fine outbuildings, somewhat larger than the house itself, added in the mid seventeenth century. John Fetherston is believed to have laid out the topiary gardens in about 1665, during the commonwealth.

The central feature represents the Sermon on the Mount. A large yew tree on the mount symbolises the Master, other ancient yews are the Evangelists and Apostles; small trees outside stand for the multitude. The nineteenth century conical yews in a separate topiary garden are said to take three men a whole month to clip. A ha-ha surrounds this area. Outside lies a large flower garden with its long terraced herbaceous border. This garden is enclosed by red brick walls with a gazebo in each corner, the earliest of these by Fetherston.

Graham Baron Ash changed the exterior and interior from 1927-1935 in order to display his collection, and employed the Birmingham firm of Ward, Kendrick and Reynolds to recreate an inter-war idealised Elizabethan or Jacobean manor house. In Ash's own words, "1 am rescuing whatever I can from other places and preserving it here." Having removed all traces of Georgian and Victorian work, he installed flooring and panelling from old houses in the neighbourhood. The rooms contain French and Flemish tapestries, a rare painted canvas arras, and Italian and other embroideries. There is a fourteenth-century refectory table, and some furniture from the seventeenth century, both English and continental, a suite of George I walnut chairs, and other good eighteenth century English pieces. The great hall was beautifully restored by Baron Ash.

As one authority has written, "Packwood's interiors will become of increasing significance because they reflect the taste of a rich and knowledgeable amateur in the period between the two World Wars.

Blicklinng Hall, Norfolk

Blickling Hall, ten miles south of Cromer in Norfolk, is the last of the great Jacobean houses. The first owner of the estate was Harold, last Saxon King of England. Sir Nicholas Dagworth acquired it in 1378, and started to build a house in 1390. Its moat and plan greatly influenced all successive building on this site. In 1432 it was sold to Sir John Fastolfe, one of the most powerful men in Norfolk and his protégé, Geoffrey Boleyn, obtained the estate in 1459. His grandson, Sir Thomas, held great offices of state under Henry VIII, due in part to his daughter, Anne, who became Queen. According to tradition she was born at Blickling, and this was a major reason why Sir Henry Hobart purchased the estate in 1616.

Sir Henry rose to become Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas under James 1, and with his son Sir John set about building a great Jacobean house. The architect was Robert Lyminge who had just completed Hatfield House. The moat was drained and two thirds of the medieval house pulled down, and the new house was built conforming to the plan of the old. It retained two inner courts divided by the Great Hall. Lyminge's activity shows everywhere: the south forecourt was flanked by long low gabled buildings framing the south front of capped corner towers, shaped gables and a great entrance with heraldic emblems. He was fortunate in having Edward Stanion to design very fine plaster work ceilings, of which the Long Gallery has the finest, with emblems taken from Henry Peacham's book Minerva Britanna. Robert Lyminge, a master carpenter, also carved the great staircase.

Over a century later Sir Henry's descendants the Earls of Buckinghamshire made changes to the interior. Retaining most of the Jacobean building the first Earl rebuilt the remaining medieval area on the west side, and created new state rooms on the north side, using local architects Thomas and William Ivory.

The stairs now lead on one side to guest bedrooms and on the other to a series of great rooms: the South Drawing Room, the Ante Room with Mortlake tapestries, the Long Gallery, the Peter the Great Room, created to display an important tapestry given to the second Earl by Catherine the Great, and the State Bedroom displaying a bed made from the canopy of State that had belonged to George the Second.

Later development included arcades, the clock tower and landscaping and orangery by John Adey Repton. There is in the Long Gallery the largest collection in any National Trust house of books printed before 1500. In 1850 the estate passed through the female line to the Lothian family.

The 11th Marquis, a leading liberal politician and supporter of the National Trust, bequeathed the entire estate to the Trust's care in 1940. This was the first great house and estate to come into its possession.

Belton House, Lincolnshire

Belton House, once attributed to Wren but probably by William Winde, is the supreme example of Restoration country house architecture.

Built in the 1680s for Sir John Brownlow, under the supervision of William Stanton, it has magnificent plaster ceilings by Edward Goudge, particularly in the chapel, wood carving of the Grinling Gibbons school, tapestries by John Vanderbank modelled on Mogul miniatures, and much fine furniture of its period.

In the 1770s, James Wyatt made alterations to lend a more classical air to the building. A century later the third Earl Brownlow largely restored the original design. Belton has formal gardens, an orangery, landscape park, and woodland playground.

In 1984 the seventh Lord Brownlow gave it to the National Trust

Maxgate, Dorset

Max Gate was Thomas Hardy's home for over forty years, from 1885 to his death in 1928. He bought the 1.5 acre site, on the high, windswept heath a mile outside Dorchester, from the Duchy of Cornwall. It cost him £450, a huge sum in 1883.

An architect by profession he designed the house himself, putting the building of it in the hands of his father and brother. After moving in on June 29th 1885 he and his first wife Emma seem to have had reservations about the house. Emma found the house cold and draughty, and Hardy was worried about the cost of it all. Despite this he grew to love Max Gate, adding to it as his income increased.

His most famous works - Tess of the d'Urbemilles, and Jude the Obscure- were written here, as was the wealth of poetry of his later years. Emma died in 1912, aged 72, and Hardy married Florence Dugdale early in 1914. Hardy died in 1928, and after Florence's death the house was bought at auction by Hardy's sister, Kate, who left it to the National Trust after her own death in 1940.

The light airy drawing room and pleasant garden are both now open to the public.

Batemans

Bateman's, East Sussex Built in 1634, the exterior of Bateman's appears today with virtually all of its original Jacobean features. The interior of the house is equally well-preserved, and it was the 17th-century elements such as the wooden panelling and stone doorways that first attracted the most famous of its owners, Rudyard Kipling. Two years after their first visit to the house in 1900, Kipling and his wife decided to buy it, undeterred by the fact that the property did not have a bathroom, any running water upstairs, or electricity. For Kipling, this was 'a real House in which to settle down for keeps', one which they had 'loved, ever since our first sight of it.' They would remain there until they died, Rudyard in 1936, and Carrie in 1939.

This C.D. of extracts from Kipling's work was recorded in the study, where Kipling wrote many of his books, and where his desk and writing tools are found almost exactly as he left them. In his autobiography, Kipling described this desk as being 'ten feet long from North to South and badly congested' with 'all manner of unneeded essentials from emery-paper to small screw-drivers.' The type-writer was Kipling's least favourite piece of writing equipment, rarely used as he explained because 'the beastly thing simply won't spell', while the ink stands reflect his belief that 'the magic lies in the Brush and the Ink.' The desk is subsequently covered with black ink stains, as were Kipling's clothes, which were often spotted 'like a Dalmatian dog'.

The house is filled with artefacts, reflecting the author's strong association with the East, and most of the rooms are much as Kipling left them. The grounds run down to the small River Dudswell, where there is also a water-mill, and contain roses, wild flowers and herbs. Kipling's Rolls-Royce is also on display.

The National Trust acquired the house in 1940, Caroline Kipling having donated it on her death, as a memorial to her husband.

Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire

Dyrham Park was built by William Blathwayt (?1649-1717), who had "never pretended to any fortune", but by his industry became a Secretary of State to William III. He married Mary Wynter, the heiress to Dyrham, in 1686, and between the years 1692 and 1704 he completely rebuilt and transformed the manor house.

Hardly anything remains to be seen of the Tudor house, either in the fabric or the furniture, and the chief historic interest of Dyrham is that it still shows the taste of the last decade of the seventeenth century. The bird paintings by Hondecoeter, the blue and white Delftware and the leather-hung walls reflect Dutch fashions, with which Blathwayt had been familiar all his life.

The house is an excellent example, on a medium scale, of baroque planning: some of the ground floor, and nearly all of the first floor, was laid out in apartments, consisting of anything from two to six rooms. The original arrangements of the furnishings can, to some extent, be reconstructed from two housekeepers' inventories, made in 1703 and 1710. William Blathwayt's uncle, Thomas Povey, was a man of fashion in Charles II's reign. Blathwayt's taste in the arts was educated by Povey, from whom he bought or inherited large quantities of pictures and books, and some furniture.

In 1956 the Ministry of Works acquired Dyrham House with its furniture and garden with the National Land Fund, in memory of those who died in the Second World War. The property was transferred to the National Trust after capital repairs and with an annual maintenance grant from the Historic Buildings Council.

In 1976 the ancient deer park of 264 acres was purchased from the Blathwayt family, again with the Land Fund, and conveyed to the Trust who also acquired the historic herd of fallow deer.

Berrington Hall, nr. Leominster

Berrington Hall, situated 3 miles north of Leominster, was built in 1778-81 for Thomas Harley .

The architect was Henry Holland and his father-in-law, 'Capability Brown', landscaped the 455 acre park, with its artificial lake of nearly 14 acres encircling a 4 acre island.

The south facing entrance facade is solid and plain, faced with reddish sandstone quarried a mile away at Shuttocks Hill. This neo-classical simplicity contrasts with the interior of marble floors, modelled and painted ceilings, and one of the finest staircase halls of the period in England. In 1901 the estate was sold to Frederick Cawley, who was created Baron Cawley in 1918.

After the death of the 2nd Lord Cawley the house and park were transferred to the National Trust via the National Land Fund.

Charlecote Park, Warwickshire

The Lucy family has lived on this site since the 13th century. The present house was built around 1558 for Sir Thomas Lucy.

He once entertained Queen Elizabeth 1, and allegedly fined Shakespeare for poaching deer in the park. About 1760 Capability Brown laid out the park anew, sparing its avenues. George Lucy in the second quarter of the 19th century extended and much altered the house.

The 16th century turreted gatehouse retains its style between Gothic and Renaissance, and the house still has a fine two- storied Renaissance porch. The Great Hall, renovated in 1844, contains heraldic glass from 1558. The library and dining-room are decorated in the 'Romantic' style, and the other rooms have ebony and ivory furniture, of the late 17th century.

There is a fine collection of objects from the 1823 Fonthill sale, and family portraits from a span of 350 years, one an early Gainsborough. The mansion has ample kitchens, outbuildings, and a brewhouse with much of its original machinery. The coach house displays interesting 19th century carriages.

In 1823 Mary Elizabeth Lucy came to Charlecote to start her married life with George Lucy. They had been on honeymoon in Paris, where she had been bought a harp by her husband. She became passionately involved with the harp, was evidently a very competent player, and a very close friend of John Thomas, harpist to Queen Victoria. Thomas often stayed at Charlecote, teaching Mary Elizabeth, and playing to her guests. Her Erard harp still remains in her parlour at Charlecote, in remarkably good condition.

The paintings on the sleeve of both CDs on this label are of Charlecote Park. The voice and Harp CD has a painting of the library at Charlecote Park in oils, and is by Edmund Fairfax-Lucy (great-great grandson of Mary Elizabeth). The Shakespeare CD has a painting of the exterior of the house, also by Edmund Fairfax-Lucy.

Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy gave the property to the Trust in 1946.

Clandon Park, Guildford

Clandon Park was built between 1730 and 1732 for the second Lord Onslow by the Venctian architect Giacomo Lconi.

Its style interestingly combines the Palladian, then in fashion in England, and the earlier Baroque. This is evident in the lofty marble entrance hall, with chimney pieces as elsewhere throughout the house by Rysbrack, and the extravagant Italian plasterwork. The Palladio room was designed to embody the perfect ratio, the height being half its length, and the length one and a half times its width. The state rooms, thanks to a benefaction from Mr Kenneth Levy, have been restored by John Fowler where possible in their original colours and materials.

The house now contains the famous Gubbay Collection of furniture, porcelain and needlework, and another by Mr Ivo Forde of Meissen Italian comedy figures. A state bed of about 1700 and chairs, together with five large paintings of birds by Francis Barlow, have always belonged to Clandon.

The old kitchen should be seen, and also the museum of the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment in the basement. The gardens have a parterre, a grotto and a Dutch garden. They also include a Maori house brought over from New Zealand in 1892 by the 4th Earl of Onslow who was Governor General of New Zealand for many years.

The Countess of Iveagh, daughter of the 4th Earl, acquired the house from her nephew (the 6th Earl) and presented it to the National Trust in 1956.

The English Chamber Orchestra has made a recording for the Droffig label in the marble entrance hall.

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire

Calke Abbey, ten miles south of Derby, was built between 1701 & 1703 for Sir John Harpur.

It incorporated parts of an earlier Elizabethan house, and is a good example of provincial baroque architecture. Between 1789 and 1810 William Wilkins the elder made very successful alterations to the house in the classical style for Sir Henry Harpur. After marrying a lady's maid Sir Henry became a virtual recluse, no longer playing a part in local society. Other members of the family shared this tendency, and like him saw to it that nothing was ever thrown away. When the last baronet died in 1924 he left behind him a motley collection of art objects, stuffed animals, toys, birds' eggs, furniture and carriages.

Thus Calke Abbey gives a vivid idea of a past era marooned in the present. Sir Vauncey's childhood bedroom has been left untouched since his time. There is a unique caricature room, and a drawing room in gold and white. Also to be seen are a magnificent state bed from the early eighteenth century, the Gardner Wilkinson library, the beer cellar, and a carriage display in the stable block.

The walled gardens (with newly restored orangery) and pleasure grounds are of interest, and in the park there are Portland sheep as well as red and fallow deer.

Attingham Park, Shrewsbury

Attingham Park lies four miles south-cast of Shrewsbury at the confluence of the River Tern with the Severn. When the younger Pitt raised him to the peerage as reward for his vote on a crucial issue, Noel Hill, the first Lord Berwick, commissioned George Steuart in 1783 to convert his brick-built Queen Anne house into a very imposing Palladian mansion. Steuart erected a vast central block, with a lofty portico on four columns, in front of the original building.

A pavilion on either side is linked to it by a long colonnade. The central hall has two sets of magnificent state rooms leading off it-the dining- room which links to Lord Berwick's library and octagonal study on the west, and Lady Berwick's rooms extending from the drawing room on the east. Her boudoir, with delicate painted decorations, is among the best preserved of its time. The second Lord Berwick succeeded in 1789, and on coming of age he made a grand tour of Italy, amassing art treasures as he travelled. In 1807 he invited John Nash to build a picture gallery (still rare in English country houses), its ceiling with curved iron ribs from nearby Coalbrookdale, and also a top-lit staircase.

His extravagance having impoverished the estate, the second Lord Berwick, after a sale in 1827, retired to Italy where he died five years later. His brother, the third Lord Berwick, had been Ambassador at two Italian courts. He brought home Italian paintings, sculpture and furniture and was given a splendid ambassadorial silver service made by Paul Storr and other notable Regency silversmiths. Humphry Repton landscaped the deer park. There are attractive walks through the park and along the River Tern, which runs through the estate.

Attingham was to bequeathed the National Trust by the eighth Lord Berwick in 1947

Carlyle House, London

Thomas Carlyle, writer and historian, lived in Chelsea from 1834 until his death in 1881. His terraced Queen Anne house stands in a quiet backwater of old Chelsea. There he was visited by many illustrious Victorians, including Chopin, Tennyson, George Eliot and Dickens. Dickens said of Carlyle, to whom he dedicated Bleak House "There is no one I would go further to visit than Mr Thomas Carlyle". He also had a very high regard for Carlyle's wife, Jane, seeing in her a great talent for writing. He tried to persuade her to write a novel - something she didn't pursue.

The house was made over to the National Trust in 1935 by the Carlyle Memorial Trust, who had administered it since 1895. It has been restored to its 1895 colour scheme externally, and contains original furniture and many books, portraits and relies of Carlyle's day. The Victorian garden has also been restored.

The drawing room, featured on the CD cover, is where Carlyle died, and remains as it was when Dickens visited. The cover photograph of Dickens, and his signature, are reproduced by courtesy of the Dickens House Museum, London.

Fenton House

With the discovery of mineral springs at the end of the 17th century Hampstead developed into something of a spa. London merchants and lesser gentry began to build substantial houses in and near the village,but it remained rural until the second half of the nineteenth century. When Keats walked from Guy's Hospital to the Heath in the 1820s it was largely along country roads.

Built during the reign of William and Mary, Fenton House was one of the larger houses of the new development, but neither the names of the family who built it nor the architect are known. In 1793 the house belonged to a Baltic merchant, a Mr Fenton, after whom the house is named. The house is built of reddish brick and stands in a large walled garden, which includes a formal lawn and walks, fine displays of roses, an orchard and a vegetable garden. In 1936 the house was acquired by Lady Binning, and she bequeathed both the house and her outstanding collection of porcelain to the Trust.

There is also a collection of early keyboard instruments bequeathed by the late Major Benton Fletcher.