ABSTRACT
The changes in external design that transformed country house architecture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were paralleled by changes in the internal planning and disposition of rooms. In magnificent town-houses the people expect a suite of rooms, opening by folding doors, for the reception of those large parties for assemblies, when the proprietors are driven out of house and home, to make room for more visitors than their rooms can contain. In town-houses, the principal rooms for company are generally on the first floor, and, consequently, the staircase leading to them requires a correspondent degree of importance; but, in the country, it is generally more desirable to have the principal rooms on the ground floor, and, consequently, the staircase leading only to the bed-rooms does not require to be displayed with the same degree of importance as that of a town-house.
