Britain has more than 3,000 stately homes, and many are open to us hoi polloi. Indeed, visiting a stately home has become a staple leisure activity: what could be more British than a weekend drive to ...

It is displayed as it was left, in a state of arrested decay: peeling wallpaper, rusting metal, shabby fabric; rooms cluttered with hoarded paraphernalia, from the rare and precious to the broken and ...