Usage of Term
Modest owners do not usually use the phrase "stately home" but are more likely to call their property a "country house", which might seem an understatement to the objective observer. "Stately home" should be a term reserved for the truly palatial residence alone, but is nowadays often misused by estate agents wishing to aggrandise houses which are grand but not palatial. The term is also used imprecisely by commentators on modern society such as Robin Leach in Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and parodists such as Dame Edna Everage.
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