News Release

Homewood House Museum, one of the Historic Houses of The Johns Hopkins University, is offering a study tour of British country homes and gardens from May 18 to May 30, 2003. The trip features private visits as well as luncheons and receptions with the owners and curators of some of the finest historic houses in Great Britain. Noted British historians Andrew Barber, historic building curator for the National Trust, East Midlands Region, and David Bostwick, former keeper of social history with the Sheffield City Museum, will lead the tour.

After landing in London, participants will spend two days in Bath, where they will visit the Holburne Museum of Art, Corsham Court and the Royal Cresent, and will enjoy lunch at the Orangery at Dryham Park. From Bath, the group will continue on to the Midlands region, where participants will tour and have lunch at Haddon Hall before visiting Hardwick Hall, one of Britain's foremost Elizabethan houses. Bolsover Castle, a semi-ruined 17th-century mansion located on a wooded hilltop, will host a tour and private lunch, followed by tea at a nearby Norman church. Participants will visit both the Palladian-style Kedleston Hall, which features the most complete Robert Adam interior in England, and Sudbury Hall, a house renowned for its richly carved interior woodwork. Participants will enjoy luncheon at Belton House, the crowning achievement of Restoration-style country architecture, as well as tours of the private Gunby Hall, the Sheffield Cathedral and Wentworth Castle and Gardens.

The tour includes first-class hotel accommodations, round-trip airfare from Baltimore to London on British Airways, land transportation in England, admissions, breakfast daily and many lunches and dinners. An optional visit to the Chelsea Flower Show is available for an additional fee. The cost of the trip is $4,135 per person, based on double occupancy, and includes a tax-deductible contribution to Homewood House Museum. Reservations are required by Feb. 18, 2003. For more information, call Judith Proffitt at 410-516-8645 or visit www.jhu.edu/historichouses.