Table of Contents:
- Introduction / Sacheverell Sitwell
- Ducal Palace Urbino : the Renaissance ideal of a princely residence
- Chateaudun : A fortress transformed into a palace
- Casa de Pilatos : cool courtyards in the heart of Seville
- Villa Lante : twin pavillions in a water-garden
- Schloss Tratzberg : a Tirolean castle unspoiled by time
- Palazzo del Te : 'Chambers of transgression, now forlorn!'
- Chambord : a French château of ingenious vastness
- Villa d'Este : a Cardinal's villa amoung the cypresses and cascades
- Egeskov : the proud memorial of a Danish nobleman
- Villa Barbaro, Maser : Palladio's charming villa, embellished by Veronese
- Hardwick Hall : Elizabethan architecture at its most adventurous
- Caprarola : Vignola's masterpiece in the Monti Cimini
- Hotel Lambert : a President's house on an island in the Seine
- Château de Tanlay : a splendid union of stone and clear water
- Isola Bella : grandeur which does not destroy romance
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- Sans Souci : a retreat for a philosopher-king
- Benrath : a marvel of delicacy and ingenuity
- Syon House : a house transformed by Adam with imperial lavishness
- Youssoupoff Palace : the shade of Rasputin stirs beneath these saloons
- Queluz : a rose-pink palace set in a water-garden
- Petit Trianon : the jewel of de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette
- Arbury Hall : Tudor in origin, gothicized in the 18th century
- Hotel D'hane-Steenhuyse : the King's retreat during the hundred days
- Lazienki : the island-palace of the last King of Poland
- Casita de Labrador : 'A little corner of France beside the Tagus'
- Vaux-le-Vicomte : the most splendid house and garden in all France
- Wilton : a classical scene created by centuries of discernment
- Drottningholm : the white palace of the Swedish royal family
- Palacio Liria : the Alba town-house with its superb art-collection
- Blenheim Palace : 'England's biggest house for England's biggest man'
- 475 Heerengracht : a fine example of a Dutch patrician town-house
- Palais Schwarzenberg : the grandson preserves the deeds of his ancestors
- Palazzo Labia : a Venetian palace immortalized by Tiepolo
- The Nymphenburg : the airy palace of the Bavarian Electors
- Stupinigi : Juvara's hunting-lodge in Piedmont
- Pommesfelden : the ease and spaciousness of German Baroque
- Brühl : the pleasure-palace of an Archbishop
- The Würzburg Residence : the highest flight of Baroque daring
- Claydon : a smaller English country-house of delightful elegance
- Russborough : the Palladian facade of an Irish country-house
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