Early 18th-century taste: when the South Sea Bubble burst into song and landscapes

Who wants to be a millionaire and eradicate national debt? 300 years ago people inflated the South Sea Company into a wondrous bubble. Scene-setters are Alexander Pope and John Gay, before we explore three resulting landscapes. A founder and Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Aislabie, created the sublime Studley Royal. Political winner, Robert Walpole stamped his ego across Houghton, while his virtuoso Norfolk neighbour but loser, Thomas Coke, postponed his Palladian and naturalised Holkham.