For Hewison, heritage functions as a form of backward-looking escapism for a country unable to come to terms with its own economic decline He claims that this obsession with the past is dangerous because it prevents positive steps being made to cope with change. The centrality of country houses to notions of Britain's heritage-especially the emphasis on preserving them 'alive', complete with a family in residence allows him to present heritage as not just backward-looking but as deeply reactionary (2). He suggests that these claims, which have been fostered by the National Trust, are a con-trick perpetrated on behalf of aristocratic owners (and, of course, those ex-owners who continue to reside in Trust houses). This ties in with Hewison's conception of heritage as essentially false, a nostalgic illusion opposed to the true understanding of the past that is history (3). (Each of these numbered points will be addressed in the following three paragraphs).