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Badminton House is a large country house in Gloucestershire, England. It has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late Seventeenth Century. The architect William Kent renovated and extended the house in the Palladian style in the early Eighteenth Century, but many earlier elements remain. The sport of Badminton was invented at the house.
In the 21st century Badminton House is best known for the annual Badminton Horse Trials.
Badminton House is also very strongly associated with fox hunting. Successive Dukes of Beaufort have been masters of the Badminton Hunt which is probably one of the two most famous hunts in the United Kingdom. However, leglisation has been passed by the British Parliament which will make hunting animals with dogs illegal in the UK from early 2005, so the Badminton Hunt may soon be defunct.
Badminton was open to the public at one time, but is not at present (2005).
See also
Badminton Horse Trials
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