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One of Northumberland’s foremost tourist destinations, Cragside is among the grandest expressions of the English romantic dream. It represents the fusion of art, architecture, technology and landscaping, drawn together by two of the Victorian age’s most remarkable talents.  Yet it is also an enigma: a place of beauty and calm rooted in the harshnesses of the armaments trade; a chaotic fantasy created by one of the most rational of the great British inventor-engineers; a palace of vast size built for a childless, personally modest couple.  This lecture will unravel the story, often strangely obscure, of how so remarkable a house came into being, and set it in its full historic context. Andrew Saint is the General Editor of the Survey of London at English Heritage.  His books include Richard Norman Shaw (1976); The Image of the Architect (1983); Towards A Social Architecture: The Role of School-Building in Post-War England  (1987); and Architect and Engineer, A Study in Sibling Rivalry (2007), all published by Yale University Press.  A new edition of his book on Norman Shaw will appear very shortly. He was involved in the negotiations leading to the National Trust’s purchase of Cragside, helped with subsequent research into the house and wrote most of the text for the official guidebook. Surprisingly, this is the first time he has lectured on Cragside.