Dr Geoffrey Beard's researches into the craftsmen who worked in the great English country houses are drawn together here and provide general readers with the essential facts about the interior of the historic house between 1500-1900. Wherever possible Dr Beard cites examples from the 200 or so properties open to visitors that are administered by the National Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. He writes not only about the interiors at Hardwick Hall, Sudbury Hall and Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, Petworth House, West Sussex and Saltram in Devon, but of those at such smaller richly decorated settings as Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire, Hanbury Hall, Hereford and Worcester and Pownend, Cumbria. He also discusses the interiors of many other historic houses, smaller vernacular houses, terrace and back-to-back houses.