You don't have to read gothic novels to come across the terms "stately home" and "manor house," but if you do read such novels, you see them all the time. If you peruse American real estate listings, you see that some realtors love those phrases but really have no set definitions of them. So what do they really mean?
The terms come from Britain, where homes go back a long way, and the aristocracy once had the means to build their houses big, beautiful, and sturdy enough to outlive them all. Although the definitions can change over time with changing circumstances, the stately home is different from the manor house in era, architecture, and usage. Number One London gives us four criteria for each, but since they are qualified with "mostly" and "usually," you can assume that if your home fits most of the criteria, you have either a stately home or a manor house. Or probably neither, sadly. There are other terms such as "estate" and "castle" and "country home" and "hall" that the blog will try to define in the future. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Rodhullandemu)
