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Visiting a country house is an adventure for me. The experience is never the same twice. Each house continues to unfold and hypnotize long after I've returned from my visit. The magic of discovering these gems is unlike any other experience. (If you'd like to know what a country house is, click here; to view a slide show giving an overview of country houses and country house gardens, click here).
British and Irish country houses have been
my chief passion since my adolescence. The DiCamillo Companion to
British &
Irish Country Houses came about as the result of an
attempt
to catalog, for my personal reference, the many country
houses
of Britain and Ireland. Originally I simply wanted to record
whether each house were standing or demolished, but then other relevant
details seemed increasingly necessary to add,
and the list took on a
life of its own. What began as an avocation became a serious quest,
now in its 10th year, to
develop a database of all the country houses ever built in Britain
and Ireland.
The Database is updated daily, with information coming
from professional journals, my 1,700-volume library on country houses
and allied subjects, and from contributors around the world who kindly
provide information and photographs. The Database currently
contains records for more than 7,100 houses, with images for over 1,160
houses, and listings of over 550 houses where movie and TV filming
has taken place. This undertaking will compile as many details as can
be found about the houses, families who occupied them, and their
estates, in a standardized format. The project will take many
years to complete, but I believe that the Database is already a
major resource, and the only comprehensive one online, for
thumbnail information on these magnificent houses.
Click here to enter The Database of Houses.
To learn more, click on About The Database of Houses.
If you'd like to see our guide to the proper (British) pronunciation of house names,
click here.
I enthusiastically encourage you to offer new information
on houses, or corrections to existing information.
This site is maintained solely for the scholarly dissemination and
exchange of information on these amazing houses -- one of Western
civilization's greatest repositories of culture and art.
There are no commercial aspects to the site, no money-making ventures.
-Curt DiCamillo,
FRSA
Boston,
Massachusetts
Member,
Society of Architectural Historians of Great
Britain
Alumnus,
The Attingham Summer School
for the Study of Country Houses
Listed in
Who's
Who in America
and the
Social Register
Member
The American
Friends of Attingham
The Beckford Society
English Heritage
The English-Speaking Union
The Folly Fellowship
Furniture History
Society
The Georgian Group
Historic Houses Association
The Institute of Classical
Architecture
Irish Georgian Society
The Landmark Trust
The Mausolea & Monuments Trust
The
National Trust for Scotland
The Royal Oak Foundation
The Royal Society for the Encouragement
of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
SAVE Britain's Heritage
Sir John Soane's Museum
Foundation
The Victorian Society (UK)
If you would like to read my brief CV, click here
Yes, indeed, the author Kate DiCamillo is my sister.
You can take a look at her website by clicking on this link:
www.KateDiCamillo.com
To see photos of us, click here
