 West Wycombe Park , architecturally inspired by the villas of the Veneto constructed during the late @-@ renaissance period , is not one of the largest , grandest or best @-@ known of England 's many country houses . Compared to its Palladian contemporaries , such as Holkham Hall , Woburn Abbey and <unk> Hall , it is quite small , yet it is architecturally important as it encapsulates a period of 18th @-@ century English social history , when young men , known as <unk> , returning from the nearly obligatory Grand Tour with newly purchased acquisitions of art , often built a country house to accommodate their collections and display in stone the learning and culture they had acquired on their travels . 
