"William Cavendish, poet, ladies' man, and espouser of all things chivalrous and romantic, was a Royalist general during the English Civil War, endured 16 years of exile in Antwerp, and, returning to England in 1660, became the first Duke of Newcastle. Worsley's architectural and domestic history tells Cavendish's story through his various sumptuous homes. From a vast array of sources—blueprints and design plans, inventories and recipe books, the notes of the family doctor and Cavendish's own poetry—Worsley re-creates intimate moments in the life of the household: the sweet smell of Cavendish's morning wine, carried into his bedchamber by his maid, mingles with the 'fading freshness of herbs scattered among the rushes on the floor and the whiff of the night soil'; tired groomsmen enjoy a game of dice in the Great Hall in the hours before dinner."—The New Yorker