About the Tour

This tour is intended to give you an overview of the house and some of its contents. You will see rooms on this site (such as the State Rooms) which are not included in the real tour of Boughton House You can follow a structured tour by clicking the 'Next Room' link at the bottom of each page, or you can choose any room to view by using the Tour Index (upper right). The Item Information Window (lower right), provides you with text information about the link items. Quick Time VR is available to view some of the rooms on the tour. Either go now to the QTVR page or view the individual QTVR's as you tour the house. We hope you enjoy your tour of Boughton House.

Brief History of Boughton House The transformation of Boughton from a 15th Century Monastic building into one of the great houses of Europe 250 years later is a colourful story best illustrated by the rich variety of the architecture and the superb quality of the contents. The impressive North front with its classical French lines gives Boughton the appearance of a complete Chateau on arrival at the main entrance, but this masks a characteristically English structure of almost village-like proportions.
North Front of Boughton House
It was from St.Edmunsbury's Abbey that Sir Edward Montagu, Lord Chief Justice to King Henry VIII and ancestor of the Montagu Douglas Scott family, bought it in 1528. He added a manor house with courtyards to the Great Hall of the Monks, while later generations built further wings and courts.	Edward Montagu
Ralph 1st Duke of Montagu	The culmination of this expansion came in the 1690's, with the creation of the North front, incorporating entrance halls, state rooms and stables, by Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, a former Ambassador to Paris and a devotee of French architecture. From then on Boughton, unlike so many houses, was lucky to escape further structural alteration, so that it remains almost as it was before 1700.
Views of the House reveal the extraordinary complexity, with its 7 courtyards, 12 entrances, 52 chimney stacks and 365 windows. The 1.25 acres of Collyweston tile roofing blend with the great spread of lawns, lakes, woods and over 250 year old avenues stretching for many miles. Notwithstanding the magnificence and beauty of this landscape, the land makes a serious contribution to the food and timber production of the Estate, a factor not only of national benefit, but also essential in providing for the maintenance of an historic asset such as Boughton as well as its five associated villages.
Without the continuous loving care of generations of family occupants, skilled craftsmen and the financial backing of an efficiently managed rural estate, house and villages would soon fall victim to the ever present threats of death watch beetle, dry rot and decay. The special attraction of Boughton lies in the harmonious blending of the superb collections of paintings, furniture, tapestries, needlework, carpets, porcelain, arms and silver. All these in a setting of extreme beauty with a magical atmosphere to match, just as the artists, craftsmen and discriminating collectors had intended. These are the furnishings for a living home, for real people in their correct historical context. It is not a lifeless showcase, but a reminder to future generations of some of the higher cultural aspirations and achievements of civilised man.

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