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Design drawing and record drawings showing an alternative design on a compact plan and with geometric staircase, and an alternative design that includes alterations to the existing building and introduces a bombé front, March 1799 (3)

Drawings 22 to 24 show a more compact and axially arranged ground floor plan.

Drawings 22 and 23 are the same design showing the proposed additions in red or pink wash and the one-storey rooms in a lighter shade. The proposed eating room has three windows rather than the multiple bays of earlier designs (drawings 18 to 21). The west front is largely changed from earlier designs as well, being more symmetrically arranged around the entrance portico. The portico is positioned at the centre of the elevation so that the front is wider and inclusive of the offices, with large front-facing windows in the servants’ hall and stewards’ room balanced by windows in the entrance hall and a blind bay in the far end. The plan is similarly realigned to enable axial arrangements and sight-lines: the entrance is positioned on axis with the library at the rear of the house; the eating room is aligned with the doors to the offices, with erasure marks on drawing 22 indicating that the secondary staircase was moved to promote this sight-line from east to west. The principal staircase has a geometric plan and is located centrally. Pencil alterations to drawing 22 propose a quarter-stair in the main corridor.

Drawing 24 is a departure from earlier designs, showing alterations to the existing house as well as additions on the north side. As in drawings 22 to 23, the plan is compact and axially arranged. The offices, however, are completely contained within the geometries of the house and an office wing is no longer necessary: the kitchen replaces the eating room at the north-east corner. The eating room is thus relocated to the south-west corner in place of the existing drawing room (built by Soane 1786-88), with the canted bay window removed and the south elevation made symmetrical by the inclusion of a bombé front. The west entrance front has five bays, as in drawings 22 to 23, but the windows are arranged more closely to each other towards the centre.

The inscription 'BLE' on drawings 23 and 24 seems to be unprecedented and is as yet unidentified.
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