Rural homes were the country's most elite models, and Kent still boasts some of the best examples, with Leeds Castle, Chopping, Cobham Hall, Knole, Penshurst Place, Mereworth and Broome Park to name a few. Unfortunately, the province has also seen the demolition of many of its major homes due to changes in social habits and the deterioration and merging of super-real estate, not to mention fire, dry rot and death duties.

Modern home properties now cover the location of many lost homes, while remnants of the foundations, surviving log cabins and other attached buildings, and a few garden features can be found if they are sought. It is interesting to think that what was once a grand building, center and social center of the region is now just a few remnants in a field.

This is the first book that presents the lost rural homes of the "Garden of England". Martin Ashdown offers us 120 models of the finest palaces that have disappeared, listed in the form of a surgical dictionary with illustrations.

It also gives us some examples, such as Oxney Court, where the house came back to life after years of default.