We have always been entranced by the history, both cultural and architectural, of the grand country houses of England. The London-based magazine Country Life has long been the essential chronicle of these iconic estates, having featured a different country house in each weekly issue since it was founded back in 1897 and advertised many hundreds more in its property pages. A stunning new book, The English Country House, by Mary Miers from Rizzoli is sourced from the magazine's incredible archives. More than 400 images, mostly in color, highlight 62 houses encompassing a range of architectural styles spanning seven centuries beginning with the medieval Stokesay Castle and also examining the decoration, gardens, and landscapes, settings that inspire a continuing tradition of sporting style via country pursuits pursued with panache such as hunting and shooting, as well as whole schools of interior design.

As a result of its famous series of beautifully illustrated and authoritative articles, Country Life amassed an "astonishing library of photography and scholarship that provides a fascinating record of changing tastes and approaches to the country house and its garden over the past century," Miers notes. The book is illustrated almost entirely with images from its famous picture library, many of them by leading photographers of their day. The focus is not on the world-famous palaces that have now become museums, but rather the sort of houses to which Country Life has had privileged access over the years, many of which are still private homes often occupied by descendants of the families that built them. In the gallery you can preview photos from the book of Parnham House in Dorset, Honington Hall in Warwickshire, Claydon House in Buckinghamshire, and Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire.



Spanning more than seven centuries, these houses were nearly all built as an "expression of status at the center of a landed estate, many interpreting the mainstream architectural trends of the day with their own distinctive provincial character," Miers notes. "They celebrate that rich seam of English domestic architecture that reflects, through a variety of material and design, the diversity of the English landscape and its regional traditions of craftsmanship." Punctuating the book at intervals in the form of booklet inserts on rich, uncoated paper are six essays by leading British architectural historians that set the English country house into its social context and chart "the changing tastes in decorating and collecting, the development of ancillary buildings, gardens and landscapes, and finally, its influence in the United States" in our own magnates' mansions.

Twenty rural retreats spanning the breadth of North America and over a century of architectural and social history are featured in author and photographer Bret Morgan's stylish new book Rustic. Examples include the Ames Gate Lodge, H. H. Richardson's "sublime pile of boulders" in Massachusetts; Camp Topridge, Marjorie Merriweather Post's rustic luxe compund in the Adirondacks; the Arts and Crafts masterpiece Charles Millard Pratt House in southern California; Fortune Rock, George Howe's striking modernist home on the coast of Maine; Robert A. M. Stern's nostalgic Spruce Lodge, hidden high in the Colorado Rockies; and Ledge House, Peter Bohlin's vision of rustic modernism in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. All exemplify an "artfully informal aesthetic that celebrates the beauty of the natural world."

Not every celebrity needs a mega-mansion to salve their ego. Several of the hipper set have recently purchased traditional, stylish, low-key cottages in bucolic Sullivan County, New York, from designer and builder Charles Petersheim's Catskill Farms. Buyers like Albert Hammond Jr., guitarist of The Strokes, actor and comedian David Cross, Vice magazine founder Gavin McInnes, fashion designers and other artistic types get the best of both worlds - early American architectural features including wide plank floors, fireplaces, painted salvaged wood ceilings and wrap-around porches, along with whole-house audio, security systems, and modern kitchens.

While capturing the charm, beauty and character of the early 1900s in a private setting, Catskill Farms aims to eliminate all of the hassle and maintenance issues related to old houses, which is especially important for those with busy schedules who need to relax when they're finally able to get away from it all. Over the past few years, Catskill Farms has designed, built and sold over 40 new / old homes in Sullivan County, becoming the leading designer and builder of Upstate New York getaways. Another of their goals is affordability, hence their brand new mini-cottages series. Priced from $225,000 to $400,000, the picturesque dwellings (above) feature open floor plans and spacious interiors.

This country home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania is both elegant and farmhouse casual. The home is a barn conversion with plenty of expansive high-ceilinged rooms as well as cozier spaces like the downstairs family area with stone walls. The home is on 2.4 acres that include a pool/spa and a separate stone farmhouse which functions as a pool house/guest house and has a fireplace and a full kitchen. The home also features a country cute mural in the dining room. Can't you just imagine stringing that big tree in the front with lights for the holidays? The home is over 7,400 square feet and is listed at $2.35 million.