stately home

plural stately homes

1. UKSynonym of country house, especially one owned by the aristocracy

   The tax man's taken all my dough And left me in my stately home Lazing on a sunny afternoon

   1967, The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon

   2 more examples

   The stately homes of England How beautiful they stand, To prove the upper classes Have still the upper hand, Tho' the fact that they have to be rebuilt And frequently mortgaged to the hilt Is inclined to take the guilt Off the gingerbread.

   1937, Noël Coward, Operette

   'There's just something nice about the idea that you can move without being seen - that you can go down there and come up here. I grew up in a stately home,' he continued without a trace of boastfulness, 'and there actually was a secret passage. [...]'

   2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, pages 266–267

   Synonyms: country house

2. UKA country house open to the visiting public.