Wilton House

This article is about the historic house in England. For the historic house in the United States, see Wilton House Museum.

The east front, the entrance front until 1801, contains at its centre all that remains of the exterior of the original Tudor mansion

Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII presented Wilton Abbey and its attached estates to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. The house has literary associations. Shakespeare's theatre company performed there (As You Like It may have been the chosen work),[1][2] and there was an important literary salon culture under its occupation by Mary Sidney, wife of the second Earl.[3]

The present Grade I listed house is the result of rebuilding after a 1647 fire, although a small section of the house built for William Herbert survives; alterations were made in the early 19th and early 20th centuries. The house stands in gardens and a park which are also Grade I listed. While still a family home, the house and grounds are open to visitors during the summer months.

  1. ^ "Shakespeare's men perform before the King at Wilton in Salisbury". BBC. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  2. ^ F. E. Halliday (1964). A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964, Baltimore: Penguin, p. 531.
  3. ^ Evans, Barbara (23 March 2021). "Mary Sidney Herbert". Her Salisbury Story. Retrieved 16 September 2023.