Coleorton / 28 Dec^r 1802 / D^r Sir / Herewith you recieve the plan of the / premises at Coleorton, And as the East wall of / the Kitchen is very bad I expect you will be / inclined to take that room down - and to make the / South & East fronts anew. / Here is a stone which will work to anything, at / an Easy expence as you will see by the annexed prices / I have ordered the Rock to be opened from which / the stone of the Church was got - the Bricks you have seen, / - but I think you had better, if you can make it - / convenient, to see the whole again, if Sir George determin, / to build. / I am / y^r Most ob^t Serv^t / J Hodskinson / To Walls of Cellar Storey Faced / with ax, worked in courses & / two feet thick at per yard - 2/9 / if Drafted with a Tool on the / Edge & ax in the Middle, at per ft. - 5^d If the whole faced with a Tool - 6^d / If Rubbed, plain work, in sash - / sills Door Jambs &c - 9^d / If Moulded or sunk works 1^s / NB in these prices is / included the Getting the / Stone, sawing and setting / complete, Exclusive of / Lime, sand and Carriage / of Stone - / To George Dance Esq^r Signed: J Hodskinson Dated: 28 Dec^r 1802

• 1802-1808

Brown pen on wove paper, later affixed to an elevation for the London lodge at Stratton Park ([SM D1/11/1]) and a rough plan of Henry Holland's Berrington Hall (230 x 370)

Hodskinson

As executed, the stonework was 'Drafted with a Tool on the Edge and ax[e] in the Middle'. Mr J. Crocker, Loughborough (letters, August-September 1999) suggests that J. Hodskinson, surveyor and land agent of 34 and 35 Arundel Street, Strand, London who made farm surveys for Beaumont's cousin and heir, Thomas Beaumont, at Buckland Surrey (plan and correspondence by Joseph Hodskinson, 1804-05, Surrey Record Office, 508/1 and 2623). Dance drew a portrait of Hodskinson on 3 July 1803 (published in Sir George Beaumont, patron and artist, catalogue of an exhibition at the Manning Gallery, 1969, No.63) and Farington noted in his diary (14 January 1804) 'Dance I dined with - Sir Geo: Beaumont who came to town with him yesterday & lodged with him there .... Mr Hodkiinson [sic], Land Surveyor, Sir George's Agent came to tea.'

Hodskinson mentions in his letter that he has ordered the quarry to be opened but Mr Crocker (letter, 18 March 2000), based on his discussions with the masons doing the repair work of the 1970s and 1980s, considers that 'Dance, with his greater experience, rejected this local stone and imported superior material from elsewhere.' The local stone is sandstone.

See [SM D1/9/3] for Hodskinson's enclosed plan.

Drawing

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