A country that keeps its best rooms behind ordinary front doors, and expects you to have booked.
Almost everything here runs on timed tickets released in batches, and the hours worth having go within the day. Put the release in the diary rather than the visit; the visit follows from it, and the alternative is a wet afternoon spent being told the house is full.
Four of the eight are in London, and they are not a single day however you arrange them. Kensington to Ealing to Holborn to Spitalfields is a lot of city for one pair of shoes. Two days, or two visits, and stop pretending otherwise.
Winter is the season. Low light suits candlelit rooms, painted farmhouses and Bath stone far better than August does, and the room in front of you empties out. The one I have not been to is Glasgow, and I would rather write that down than write it up from a catalogue.