Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction xi

Chapter 1 Bricks and mortar 1

Chapter 2 Built for show 25

Chapter 3 Servants, courtiers and hangers-on 41

Chapter 4 Those mad Georgians 55

Chapter 5 Painted harlots 71

Chapter 6 Gilded wings 89

Chapter 7 Change and decay 105

Chapter 8 Ancestral vices 109

Chapter 9 The Puritan party 117

Chapter 10 Out with the devil 143

Chapter 11 Marriage à la mode 153

Chapter 12 A nest of gentlefolk 181

Chapter 13 Fat Mary 197

Chapter 14 Fuck you, too! 211

Chapter 15 Love among the ruins 219

Chapter 16 Boy's night out 235

Postscript 253

Acknowledgements 259

Bibliography 261