We can see from the plan of the house (drawing 1) that the great dining room (converted into the saloon in 1797) is located on the ground floor at the centre of the south front. The executed ceiling in this room is centred on an irregular octagonal panel with a boarder of sea-horses, and ornamented with nautical motifs similar to the Admiralty Screen at Whitehall. There is no extant drawing for the executed ceiling design but its general outlines are shown in pencil, annotated by Adam, onto the relevant room of Leadbetter's survey plan (drawing 1).

It is not known if the arabesque and grotesque decorations, shown on these wall elevations were executed. Bolton and Stillman believed that work in the great dining room was most likely halted by Boscawen's death in 1761. There are, however, extant pencil lines beneath the wall silk which according to Stillman is evidence of preparation for the execution of Adam's designs. According to Harris the stucco decorations, appropriate for a dining room, were executed and then removed by Bonomi in 1797 when the room was transformed into a drawing room and hung with silk.

The combination of stucco work panels and ruinscapes - based on Adam's sketches from Italy - is an interesting one, and one reused by Adam at Bowood and Osterley. Their use alongside a modilioned cornice and door cornices on brackets is, according to Stillman, an early synthesis of Adam's old style from the Edinburgh office and all he had learnt in Italy.

Group

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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