In MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE Rosemary Baird describes women's roles as wives, chatelaines and keepers-up of fashion in decoration and entertainment in the great power houses of Britain. Large town houses and country estates were created largely to overawe and to reinforce social and political prestige; with that went the presentational requirements needed to impress: fashion in clothes, carriages and entertainment, and in terms of an appropriate backdrop, lavish interiors and exotic gardens. Rosemary Baird has selected ten women whose status as consorts to powerful men required them to take on a wide variety of roles. This is a fascinating account of their lives, taken very often from diaries, letters and new research in family archives.