Country houses have always been a magnet for visitors. In early days individuals with the correct social credentials could gain entry, while visitors such as royalty were self-invited guests. With the rise of the railway and then the motor-car, houses became accustomed to mass visits, spawning the heritage industry of today. However, houses have also attracted less-welcome incomers: looters, arsonists, emigrés, revolutionaries, the politically undesirable, carpetbaggers, and even photographers whom one owner described as worse than burglars.
