‘Inaccessible as Lhasa’, wrote John Martin Robinson of Wentworth Woodhouse in his recent autobiography Grass Seed in June. The owner has been exceptionally kind in allowing us a return visit, following our highly successful trip in 2007, thus giving us another opportunity to see one of the finest pairs of Georgian country houses in the country - palatial Wentworth Woodhouse and its neighbour, Wentworth Castle, the latter built almost in a fit of pique by Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, after he was thwarted in his desire to inherit the family estate at Wentworth Woodhouse.  His extraordinary creation – part Baroque, part Palladian – sets off a stunning designed landscape with no fewer than twenty-six listed buildings. Patrick Eyres, one of the masterminds of the recent restoration, will be our guide. Wentworth Woodhouse, designed by Flitcroft for the first Marquess of Rockingham, has (at 600ft) the longest domestic façade in the country and riches including a fine Carr of York stable block. The house passed to the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, who embellished the building, creating one of the finest Georgian interiors in England centring on a magnificent great hall. Its surrounding park was also a gem until devastated by open-cast coal mining in the late 1940s. After an uncertain period in the late twentieth century, it is now back in private hands and undergoing a carefully-planned renaissance.  

Fawley Court, set in grounds running down to the Thames at Henley, is about to become a private home again after years in institutional use. The new owner has kindly allowed us a preview of a fascinating house, with a complex history, that is currently undergoing expert analysis prior to restoration. Fawley was completely rebuilt in 1684 and there is a tentative attribution to Wren. What is certain is the involvement of James Wyatt, who worked on decorations in new rooms in the house (1770–71). He also designed a folly and fishing lodge on Temple Island, which we shall visit courtesy of its owners, Henley Royal Regatta.

Sir Christopher Wren’s resolve in 1675 'to make no more Models, or publickly expose his Drawings' just before the start of work on St Paul’s Cathedral has left a confused legacy. As there are no dated designs until Wren brought a set of drawings to the Rebuilding Commission in 1700 and had them engraved, there is no obvious chronology for the changes he made to the so-called Warrant Design approved by Charles II.  When did he add the two-storey western body and the screen walls, and how did he develop the remarkable sloping inner drum of the dome?  It used to be thought that Wren finalised the whole design up to the peristyle of the dome before the start of work, but recent research on the drawings from Wren’s office has shown that he proceeded by stages, delaying decisions about the west end and dome until work was about to begin. In this lecture, Gordon Higgott will explain how Wren’s design methods at St Paul’s were tailored to his system of payment for masonry construction ‘by measure’.

A rare opportunity to visit Burley on the Hill, built for the 2nd Earl of Nottingham in the 1690s, possibly with Wren’s involvement; with its impressive scale, characteristic H plan and cour d’honneur, it is one of the most ambitious aristocratic ensembles of the late seventeenth century.  In the afternoon we visit nearby Exton, seat of the Earl of Gainsborough.  Though largely Victorian, the house has fine eighteenth century contents and a delightful 1788 Gothick fishing lodge, Fort Henry. Also included on the itinerary are the churches at Burley and Exton, the latter containing first-rank monuments by Gibbons and Nollekins. Pub lunch included.

An evening of extraordinary passions in the company of Handel's mad women. Acclaimed for his `risk-taking performances' and `captivating expressivity', Christopher Suckling launches his new ensemble 'Abbandonata' in the company of the `vivid and moving' Sarah Gabriel and `penetrating and ethereal' Oliver Gerrish. The fury of Armida, Lucrezia and Orlando will be tempered by the Apollonian muse of Corelli and a complimentary glass of prosecco.

A tour of the entire cathedral guided by Gordon Higgott, an expert on Wren and for many years English Heritage historic buildings inspector for the City of London, as well as a member of the London Diocesan Advisory Committee for the conservation of churches.  After looking at the evidence for the pre-Fire cathedral restored by Inigo Jones, we will follow the route taken by eighteenth-century tourists, climbing the Geometrical Staircase to view the west triforium, the Library, Wren’s Great Model and First Model in the Trophy Room, and ascending the dome via the Whispering Gallery while pausing to consider Wren’s structural solutions at several levels. After lunch (self-service, not inc) in the Norman crypt at St Mary-le-Bow we return to see the Cathedral’s crypt, the choir, the crossing and the western chapels.