Wilton House: An English Treasure House 

Wilton House, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, has been the seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years – it is now home to the 18th Earl and Countess of Pembroke. Like many great English country houses, Wilton was built on the site of a medieval abbey, in this case given by King Henry VIII in 1544 courtier Sir William Pembroke, later 1st Earl Pembroke (1501-1570). Wilton has been shaped by some of the most significant names in architecture and interior design. Some of the 16th-century house survives, but the most notable part of the house today is that remodelled in the 1640s for Philip Herbert, the 4th Earl of Pembroke (1584-1650), by Inigo Jones (1573-1652) and Salomon de Caus. It represents a significant moment in the transition to classically inspired architecture in Britain. Further alterations in the early 1800s included a magnificent cloister by James Wyatt (1746-1813) for the 11th Earl of Pembroke (1759-1852) designed to display a collection of classical sculpture.

The Single and Double Cube state rooms designed by Inigo Jones and John Webb are considered some of the finest of English interiors, and the house contains the outstanding collections of classical sculpture and Old Master paintings. Architectural historian Jeremy Musson will illustrate the rich interiors and artistic masterpieces and show what they reveal about changing values and attitudes to art, architecture, and decoration, as well as the story of the Earls of Pembroke.

Jeremy Musson is a leading commentator and authority on the English country house. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and sits on a number of boards and trusts including the Country House Foundation. He was awarded an MPhil in Renaissance History at the Warburg Institute, University of London, in 1989 and was Architectural Editor of Country Life from 1995-2007. Before joining Country Life in 1995, Mr. Musson was an assistant regional curator for the National Trust in East Anglia. He has written and edited hundreds of articles on historic country houses. Mr. Musson also presented 14 programmes on BBC 2, making up two series called The Curious House Guest in 2005-07, and he also lectures and supervises for academic programmes with Cambridge University, London University, Buckingham University, and the Attingham Summer School. Among his books include Up and Down Stairs: The History of the English Country House Servant (2009), English Country House Interiors (2011), Robert Adam: Country House Design, Decoration & the Art of Elegance (2017), The Country House: Past, Present, Future: Great Houses of the British Isles (2018), and Romantics and Classics: Style in the English Country House (Rizzoli, 2021).