Since at least the Middle Ages castles, monasteries and country houses have welcomed visitors – initially as guests or as pilgrims, later as tourists.  Gradually a pattern for such visits developed, with great houses open to the respectable gentry and upper middle classes, who were shown around by the housekeeper or steward.  When pressure for visits increased, rules were drawn up and tickets issued.  The houses of celebrities like Sir Walter Scott were a popular destination by the start of the 19th century, but a real fillip to country house visiting was the opening, by Queen Victoria in 1838, of Hampton Court Palace.  Combined with the growth of the railways and then of bicycles and cars, visits became popular for all classes. After two world wars the pressures on country houses became ever greater, so pioneers like Lord Bath and the Duke of Bedford found new ways of attracting paying visitors to their houses and estates. With the establishment of the National Trust’s Country House Scheme and, later, the Historic Houses Association, our current pattern of country house visiting has become well established. This talk includes quotations from contemporary visitors to country houses, including Pepys, Defoe, Dr Johnson and Jane Austen.