No other country has such a variety of country houses, from the Tudor splendour of Montacute to the Baroque grandeur of Blenheim Palace. But their design can often be baffling. Why have such large houses so many interconnected rooms and so few corridors? Why is the kitchen often such a long way from the dining room? How was the bewildering variety of spaces – drawing rooms, closets, ‘saloons’, smoking rooms – actually used. This day school traces the history of country house architecture in the light of the lives of the owners, showing how well designed the houses were for the changing lives and habits of those who lived there.