Wives and Daughters is a portrait of the world of women inside the country houses that symbolised the power and taste of eighteenth-century Britain. If men dominated public life, their wives were responsible for the household, bringing up children, entertaining, employing servants, nursing and dispensing charity. They also kept closely in touch by letter with news of family, comments on books, remedies and gardening tips, as well as the latest gossip. The women of the powerful Fox family, headed by the Whig Earls of Ilchester, have left an exceptional record of their lives in the great Wessex houses, including Redlynch, Melbury, Bowood and Lacock, into which the girls of the family married over several generations. Wives and Daughters traces the lives of individual women. Courtship, marriage and childbirth, education, houses and gardens, reading, hobbies, travel and health were only some of the women's many interests and preoccupations.

About the Author
JOANNA MARTIN is the author of William Fox-Talbot at Penrice and the editor of A Governess in the Age of Jane Austen. She was brought up in a country house (Penrice Castle in Wales) and is a professional genealogical historian.

Reviews
"Beautifully produced and edited, Martin's book is a must for every lover of country houses." Miranda Seymour, The Sunday Times 'fascinating insight' The Sunday Telegraph "Dense and tightly packed with rich detail ... this fascinating study" History Today, July 2004 'a narrative of epic proportion! Frances Wilson, The Mail on Sunday



Book Information
ISBN 9781852852719
Author Dr Joanna Martin
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint Hambledon Continuum
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 300g