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Immersed in the deep countryside of the Howardian Hills, fifteen miles northeast of York, off the A64, Castle Howard (March-Oct daily 11am-5pm; gardens open at 10am; GBP7.50; grounds only GBP4.50; ) is the seat of one of England's leading aristocratic families and among the country's grandest stately homes. Since providing the setting for the television version of Brideshead Revisited , the house's car parks have been packed every weekend, but fitting it into a public transport itinerary is something of a problem. In summer there are just two Yorkshire Coastliner buses a day (one on Sun) from York, but various bus tours can bring you out and back, too. The colossal main house was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1699 and was almost forty years in the making - remarkable enough, were it not for the fact that Vanbrugh was, at the start of the commission at least, best known as a playwright and had no formal architectural training. Shrewdly, Vanbrugh recognized his limitations and called upon the assistance of Nicholas Hawksmoor, who had a major part in the house's structural design - the pair later worked successfully together on Blenheim Palace. If Hawksmoor's guiding hand can be seen throughout, Vanbrugh's influence is clear in the very theatricality of the building, notably in the palatial Great Hall . This was gutted by fire in the 1940s, but has subsequently been restored from old etchings and photographs to something approaching its original state. Vanbrugh soon turned his attention to the estate's thousand-acre grounds where he could indulge his playful inclinations to excess, and the formal gardens, clipped parkland, towers, obelisks and blunt sandstone follies stretch in all directions, sloping gently to a large artifical lake. He completed the Temple of the Four Winds before his death in 1726, leaving Hawskmoor to design the Howard family Mausoleum , which is taller than the house itself. Take a look, too, at the fine stables which have been converted into the Costume and Regalia Gallery, Britain's largest private collection of period clothes.
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