This is a great, highly accessible history of what like was like in the house of an important noble family (that of the 5th Earl of Bedford), mainly at his country home of Woburn abbey, but also covering life in his city residence and some of the travels of his sons as they made their Grand Tours. It's mainly the history as told by the account books and expenditures over the years, which are very precise and detailed, with the occasional letter thrown in. It sounds like it might be dry, but it's anything but. ( )