ABSTRACT
Victorian country houses are little known or visited, though well over a thousand are documented, perhaps twice as many were built, and a very large number of them survive. The early Victorian house, whatever its style, normally had a rectangular main block two or three stories high, with a low even roof or identical Elizabethan gables, beneath which were regularly spaced rows of large sash windows. The real force of Victorian Gothic came not from its church detail but from characteristics that it shared in varying degrees with other current styles. The most striking of these was a tremendous emphasis on height and a consequent narrowing and constriction of all proportions. All Victorian country houses were planned in two virtually separate parts, the main or family block and the service wing. The Victorians were newly and fully aware of the importance of fresh air; they considered that breathing 'vitiated' air was dangerous to health.
