Research: Comfort and the country house
Examining how the idea and importance of comfort in its many forms can be seen to develop in aristocratic homes during the eighteenth century.
Summary
Research summary
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2017 - ongoing
Prof Jon Stobart has traced the development of ideas about comfort through the eighteenth century: how it was conceived and experienced in different economies, societies and climates.
His focus is on the homes of the gentry and aristocracy, in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.
Physical comforts
During the eighteenth century, physical and bodily comfort became more important in home life, as shown by the introduction of new forms of heating and lighting as well as developments in furniture designs.
Improvements in heating and lighting emerged through different technologies across Europe: coal fires in Britain, iron stoves in Germany and tiled stoves in Sweden.
With the arrival of easy chairs and sofas, furniture designs began to focus more on bodily comfort. This led to new informal room arrangements - something continental visitors described as ‘English comfort’.
But such comforts could quickly be undermined by dirt and insect infestation, including bed bugs with their anxiety-inducing presence and irritating bites.
I keep good fires, and seem to feel warm weather while I look through the window, for the way to insure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.
Emotional comfort
As important as physical comforts were becoming, emotional comfort remained a central concern.
Some people were comforted by their religious beliefs and practices – from feeling the presence of God to the daily routines of prayer and bible-reading. Others drew comfort from family and friends, although contented domestic life was by no means assured.
In particular the power of letters to offer comfort to both the writer and the recipient is explored. While this was especially true for women – sisters were a more certain source of comfort than brothers – men could also find comfort in letters, as the correspondence of writer Horace Walpole makes clear.
Home comforts
Central to the research is the idea and ideal of home as a place of physical and emotional comfort.
Relationships between people, objects and place are revealed as critical in the construction of home, with a particular emphasis on memory in cementing these relationships.
Memories could be held in letters, things, rooms or buildings and all could evoke powerful feelings of comfort and discomfort.
I passed a most comfortless night for want of my dear Bed fellow, my feet, and back were almost perished… my poor heart aches sadly at our separation, for indeed I have no comfort when deprived of my beloved William.
Research outputs
Books
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Stobart, J (2020) The Comforts of Home in Western Europe, 1700-1900 Bloomsbury
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Stobart, J (forthcoming, 2021) Comfort in the Eighteenth-Century Country House, Routledge
Academic papers
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Stobart, J and Prytz, C (2018) Comfort in English and Swedish country houses, c.1760–1820 Social History, Volume 43, 2
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Stobart, J (2018) Housekeeper, correspondent and confidante: the under-told story of Mrs Hayes of Charlecote Park, 1744–73 Family and Community History, 21:2 (2018), 96-111
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Stobart, J (2020) Material literacies of comfort in Georgian England in S Dyer and C Wigston-Smith (eds), Material Literacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain: a Nation of Makers Bloomsbury
Website
Team
Research team
Lead researcher
Co-researcher
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Dr Cristina Prytz, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Funding
With funding from
European Union
Contact us
For general enquiries about the leisure, consumption and material cultures research group, please contact its lead Dr Ben Edwards.
