Master's degree in Country House Studies

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Master’s degree in COUNTRY HOUSE STUDIES

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Master’s degree in COUNTRY HOUSE STUDIES Hampton Court to ‘Downton Abbey’ The University of Buckingham’s

exclusively architectural-historical

Master’s programme in Country House

terms. Recent dissertations have

Studies offers the opportunity to pursue

surveyed, for example, the Baroque

research at Master’s level in any one of

mural in country house decoration; the

a wide range of country-house-related

use of music in the country houses

topics: from explorations of individual

during the 1650s; and the

houses and their architects and

professionalisation of the sale of

decorators, to studies of their social and

country estates in the eighteenth and

political use, and the role of the country

nineteenth centuries. The choice of

house in literature and film.

subject area is ultimately the student’s own.

Individual research topics are closely focused; but the approach of the course

The MA is awarded solely on the basis

is to encourage students to investigate

of the dissertation (there are no

the interconnections between the

‘exams’), and the relationship between

country house’s multiple facets and

you and your supervisor is therefore at

roles, rather than to examine it in

the heart of the course. The maximum

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length for the MA dissertation

Student and supervisor meet regularly

recommended by the School of

on a one-to-one basis to discuss, plan,

Humanities is 25,000 words (or

and review the dissertation as it

approximately 75 pages at line-spacing

develops through the year

of 1.5), excluding notes and references.

Defining a subject for research

Some students know from the outset the

not arrive at the final title of their

precise subject on which they intend to

dissertation until towards the end of the

work. For most, however, the definition

first Term ⎯ just before Christmas.

of a research proposal is usually a

The Course Director is available to

gradual process, with the student

offer advice to prospective students

starting with a general area of interest,

who would like to discuss possible

and then focusing on a more closely

subjects for their research before they

defined topic as a result of further

apply. He can be reached directly by

reading and consultation, usually with

email at:

the Course Director. Most students do

adrian.tinniswood@buckingham.ac.uk

Right: Cecil Beaton at Reddish House, Wiltshire

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The Seminar Programme Private research and supervision are

and-answer session. There is a break for

complemented by a rich programme of

drinks and then a seated dinner follows

seminars which give students direct

(three courses with wine) during which

access to some of the United

there is further questioning of the

Kingdom’s most distinguished scholars

speaker and a general conversation

of the country house. These take place

about the topic in hand. (The cost of all

in St James’s, at the Reform Club, 104

dinners is included within the fee.)

Pall Mall, in central London (see infra for further details).

This coming year’s seminars explore a broad range of topics, ranging from the

The seminars are of course academic

design and planning of houses since the

events, with a talk by a visiting expert;

Tudor period, through to the fortunes of

but they also have a social dimension,

the country house during the twentieth

bringing research students and senior

century.

scholars together to discuss matters of common interest in an informal and

Two current owners, the Duchess of

congenial atmosphere. Each seminar

Argyll and the Earl of Devon, discuss

starts at 6:30 pm, with an illustrated

what is involved in managing, living in,

presentation by the visiting speaker and

and presenting to the public a major

is followed by a 40-minute question-

country house in the present day.

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Seminar dates for 2022-23 Our seminar programme for 2022-23 will be confirmed on 31 March 2022. By way of illustration, the follow are details of the current programme.

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18 October 2022

Nicholas Kingsley ‘Researching the Country House’

▪

1 November 2022

Dr John Goodall ‘The Country Houses of the Long Middle Ages: 1480-1640’

▪

15 November 2022

Dr Simon Thurley ‘Country Houses of the Stuart Courts 1603-1685’

▪

29 November 2022

Sophie Andreae ‘Sir Robert Taylor, Barlaston Hall and Danson Park: a Case Study’

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10 January 2023

Jeremy Musson ‘The Country Houses of Robert Adam’

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24 January 2023

Rosemary Hill ‘The Earl and the Architect: Pugin and Lord Shrewsbury’

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7 February 2023

The Earl of Devon ‘Powderham Castle: 600 Years of Social Purpose and Private Ownership’

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21 February 2023

Lucy Worsley ‘Artisan Mannerism and the Great Household’

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7 March 2023

The Duchess of Argyll ‘Inveraray Castle: The Jewel in Scotland’s Crown’

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21 March 2023

Matthew Hirst ‘Transforming Woburn Abbey’

Right: Althorp House, Northamptonshire, from the air.

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About the seminar speakers Sophie Andreae CBE, FSA, is an

Charles Courtenay, 19th Earl of Devon,

architectural historian who has served

is a barrister and a crossbench member

as a Trustee of Historic Royal Palaces,

of the House of Lords. His ancestral

an elected Council Member of the

seat is the fortified manor house of

National Trust and as member of the

Powderham Castle in Devon.

Fabric Advisory Committee for St Paul’s Cathedral.

Dr John Goodall is architectural editor at Country Life. His publications

Eleanor Campbell, Duchess of Argyll (opposite page, bottom left) is President of the Georgian Group and a board member of Historic Houses. With her husband Torquhil Campbell, 13th Duke of Argyll, she runs Inveraray Castle in western Scotland.

include The English Castle (2011).

Rosemary Hill (below, left) is the author of God’s Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (2007), a Wolfson History Prize winner. Her latest book is Time’s Witness: History in the Age of Romanticism (2021).

Matthew Hirst has been the Curator of Woburn Abbey, the residence of the Dukes of Bedford, and its collections since 2015.

Nicholas Kingsley is a Trustee of the Victoria County History, and an archivist and historian.

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Jeremy Musson FSA (above) is an

Country House Studies, and an

architectural historian. His most recent

historian and author. His latest

book, with Sir David Cannadine, is The

publication is Noble Ambitions: The

Country House: Past, Present, Future

Fall and Rise of the Post-War Country

(2018). He is a Senior Research Fellow

House (2021). For further information,

of the Humanities Research Institute,

see infra, p. 14.

University of Buckingham.

Dr Lucy Worsley is Joint Chief Professor Simon Thurley FSA

Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and a

(bottom, right) is Provost of Gresham

presenter of television series on

College and Chair of the National

historical topics. Her books include

Heritage Memorial Fund. He was

Cavalier, a biography of William

previously Chief Executive of English

Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle

Heritage, and has written extensively on

(2007).

Britain’s royal palaces.

Adrian Tinniswood OBE FSA is Programme Director for research in

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Study visits to country houses in 2022-23 The programme includes two full-day

Adam’s most magnificent creations. A

field trips to country houses during the

further Research Day in the Spring

spring term. In 2022, the first of these

Term, on Tuesday 6 June 2023, to be

visits, on Tuesday 25 April 2023, is to

held at the Humanities Research

Knole and Ightham Mote in Kent: a

Institute in Buckingham, is combined

study in contrasts between the vast and

with a visit to Stowe House, the

palatial mansion of the Sackvilles, Earls

magnificent eighteenth-century palace

of Dorset, and the romantic but

of the Dukes of Buckingham and

perfectly formed Ightham, often

Chandos, with its park adorned by

described as the most complete small

Classical temples, located just two

medieval manor house in the south of

miles from the centre of the University.

England. A second visit, on Tuesday

(Dates are firm at the time of writing,

16 May 2023, takes in Syon House and

but subject to confirmation in the light

Osterley Park, both located in what was

of future government rules.)

formerly Middlesex: two of Robert

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Opposite page: Ightham Mote, Kent, begun in the 1340s, and acquired in 1591 by Sir William Selby, whose family resided in the house for the next three centuries.

Below: the entrance hall, evoking an ancient Roman basilica, at Syon House, Middlesex, by Robert Adam, created in the 1760s for the 1st Duke and Duchess of Northumberland.

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Venues Seminars and Dinners

Tutorials

Seminars and dinners take place at the

Tutorials usually take place at the

Reform Club (above), 104 Pall Mall,

University’s offices in Bloomsbury (51

London, SW1Y 5EW. View the

Gower St, London, WC1E 6HJ) or can

location on Google Maps. Nearest Tube

take place online if the student prefers.

Stations: Green Park and Piccadilly.

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Additional support In addition to the seminar programmes

manuscripts (from the Tudor period and

and students’ one-to-one meetings with

later), there is also a series of classes on

their supervisor, the programme also

palaeography (the reading of early

offers specialist classes on thesis-

handwriting) that will enable students

writing, referencing, and on how to use

to acquire fluency in the reading of

archival and on-line research resources.

manuscript sources.

For those who need to work with

Opportunities to take the MA research to PhD level Students who wish to take their

‘upgrading’ to doctoral study, they may

research further have the opportunity, at

submit their expanded dissertation for

the end of their year of MA studies, to

the PhD degree after a further two years

extend their studies to doctoral level.

of writing and research.

Where the topic and the related evidence is appropriate, students are permitted to treat their year of Master’s research as the first year of the three required for PhD study. If approved for Opposite: Badminton, Gloucestershire.

Engraving by Johannes Kip, first published in 1712.

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Applying Requirements for admission The usual requirement for admission to the MA is an honours-level bachelor’s degree from a recognized university with either a First or an Upper Second. In exceptional circumstances, the Course Director may accept mature students without an undergraduate degree if they have relevant and appropriately extensive workexperience, and can satisfy the Course Director at an interview that they are able to undertake graduate-level research.

Life-long learning The University accepts appropriately qualified adults regardless of age. While we regularly accept candidates who are recent graduates, a significant proportion of our students opt to undertake research during or after a successful career in another context.

Further information For questions about the application process, please email Ms Lin Robinson at the Graduate Admissions Office: lin.robinson@buckingham.ac.uk For enquiries about the course, please email the Course Director: adrian.tinniswood@buckingham.ac.uk

Associate Students Those who wish to attend the talks and dinners, but who do not wish to take a degree, may join the course as Associate Students (in US usage ‘Audit Students’). This status will enable the student to attend the ten guest seminars and dinners, join the field trips, and to meet the guest lecturers, but does not require the submission of written work.

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Fees for 2022/23 Full-time (1 Year)

UK

£8,855

INT

£15,497

UK

£4,428

INT

£7,748

Associate Students

UK

£3,163

(1 year)

INT

£5,535

Part-time (2 Years)

The academic year has four terms, starting in October, and fees are charged termly in four instalments. The cost of seminar dinners are included within the tuition fee.

Below: Highclere Castle, Hampshire, a 1670s house, Gothicised in the 1840s; site of filming for the fictitious ‘Downton Abbey’.

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Programme Directors Adrian Tinniswood OBE FSA is the author of eighteen books on social and architectural history, including The Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House Between the Wars, 1918-1939 (2016), which became a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. A sequel, Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the English Country House After World War II, was published in October 2021.

He is also the author of an important biography of the architect and polymath, Wren: His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren, and of a social history of a major gentry family, The Verneys: a True Story of Love, War and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. He has worked with a number of heritage organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Trust, and is currently Senior Research Fellow in History at the Humanities Research Institute, University of Buckingham. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2013 for his services to the national heritage.

Dr Adriano Aymonino, Co-Director of the programme, is one of Britain’s leading historians of the Classical tradition, particularly in the eighteenth century. He has curated several exhibitions, including Drawn from the Antique: Artists and the Classical Ideal, held at the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London in 2015. His

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book Enlightened Eclecticism, on the 1st Duke of Northumberland’s patronage of Robert Adam and others, was published to great critical acclaim by Yale University Press in 2021. He is currently working on a revised edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the Antique, to be published in 2022; and on a critical edition of Robert Adam’s Grand Tour correspondence. He is a Lecturer in the Department of History and the History of Art at the University of Buckingham.

Below: Wilton House, Wiltshire.

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What our students say Matthew Beckett: ‘This course has

Gwyneth Davis: ‘The seminar

provided not only intellectually

speakers were enlightening and

satisfying teaching and discussion but

informative, and the chance to dine at

also a chance to interact with

the Reform Club was not to be missed!

recognised leaders in country house

I am really glad and proud that I

research, meet fellow enthusiasts, and

completed the programme. It’s an

profoundly develop my skills and

outstanding MA and

knowledge as part of producing the

I would recommend it without

dissertation.’ Matthew Beckett’s blog,

reservation to anyone ready for an

‘The English Country Seat’, can be

academic challenge.’

accessed here.

Judiyaba: ‘A fantastic programme!

Patrick Newberry: ’I was drawn to

The class is the ideal size and the guest

Buckingham by its great reputation

speakers at the seminars are so

both for scholarship and for innovation

knowledgeable that conversation is

in its development of programmes.

invariably lively and informative. It is a

Since starting the Country House MA, I

great opportunity to enjoy both the

have found that my expectations were

thrills and the occasional frustrations of

more than justified; indeed, they have

research and writing. I would happily

been far exceeded.’

do it all again.’

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Above: The Temple of Venus in the gardens of Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

Below: The Palladian Bridge at Stowe, with the Gothic Temple on the horizon beyond. Both will be visited in the course of the Research Day planned for 2023.

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The University of Buckingham Founded in 1973 as a university college

From the start, the university was

‘on the pattern of [the] great private

distinctive for its commitment to

foundations in the USA’, Buckingham

individual and small-group tutorial

was granted full university status, with

teaching, for the eminence of its

the power to confer degrees by royal

academic body, and for its prizing of

charter, in 1983 ⎯ the first independent

independence of thought and academic

university created since the 19th

freedom. It currently has just over 3,000

century. It is the only private university

students, almost evenly divided by

in the United Kingdom incorporated by

undergraduates and graduate

royal charter.

scholars.

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The university is located in the centre

nearby. Stowe House, former seat of the

historic market town of Buckingham on

Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos,

a fine campus surrounded on three sides

lies within walking distance of the main

by the Great Ouse River, with extensive

campus and offers one of the finest

lawns and gardens. Much of the fabric

18th-century, classically-inspired

of the university and the surrounding

landscapes in the whole of Europe.

town in medieval, with a notable series of buildings surviving from the 18th century. For teaching purposes, the

Above: the university’s Tanlaw Mill, a

university also maintains offices in

converted 19th-century mill which now

central London, in Gower St,

houses the student bar and gymnasium.

Bloomsbury, which are used for tutorials and occasional seminars.

Opposite page: the Vinson Building, The environs of the town are renowned

viewed from the university bridge

for the distinction of the historic houses

across the Great Ouse.

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