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Lowther Castle, Westmorland? (2). Preliminary designs possibly for Lowther Castle by an unidentified architect
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Lowther Castle, Westmorland? (2). Preliminary designs possibly for Lowther Castle by an unidentified architect
Notes
Notes also for Lowther Castle, Westmorland, 1803
Before Dance
The earliest part of Lowther included a medieval and an Elizabethan tower. Additions were made and rebuilding carried out from 1630 with an extensive rebuilding completed in 1692-4. An unexecuted design for improvements by an unknown architect was published in Vitruvius Britannicus (volume II, 1717, plates 78, 79). Schemes for rebuilding by Gibbs, and by Colen Campbell in the 1720s came to nothing. From 1757 to 1802 further schemes of varying grandeur by other architects including Matthew Brettingham, 'Capability' Brown, Robert and James Adam, and Thomas Harrison of Chester also went unbuilt. Moreover, the building works put in hand by Francis Webster of Kendal in about 1800 remained unfinished on the death of the unpopular and childless Lord Lonsdale in 1802. His successor, Sir William Lowther (in 1807, Earl of Lonsdale by a new creation) was a close friend of Sir George Beaumont for whom Dance built Coleorton and who recommended him as architect.
Dance visits Lowther
On the 26 August, 1803, Farington recorded in his diary that Dance 'had been desired to go to Lord Lowther's in September to Lowther Hall, where his lordship proposes to build'. The Soane Museum's rough survey drawing by Dance is dated 25 September 1803 and has his comment 'Lowther Hall / near Penrith Westmorland / 286 miles from London'. On 17 October 1803, Farington noted Dance's return from Westmorland. The following year (16 May 1804) Dance spoke to Farington 'of Lord Lowther's great personal civility being such as would be considered remarkable in an inferior situation. The House His Lordship proposes to build will probably cost £80,000.' On 15 January 1805 Farington 'called on Dance.- He employed on designs for Lord Lowther.'
Early designs
The earliest design made by Dance was probably the rough plan on the survey drawing made on his first visit. This was an initial version of the plan among the Lowther Papers (reproduced Colvin et al., fig.30b) that, with the elevation (1980, fig.30a), showed 'the way in which the dominant central mass was framed in a perspective formed by far-stretching wings (still incorporating, in disguised form, the late Earl's house) [that] recalled Vanbrugh's Blenheim rather than the discreet subordination of flanking wings to the centre of a Palladian mansion' (p.17). The elevation catalogued ([SM D2/8/14]) which, designed around a courtyard, is for a different scheme altogether and may not even be for Lowther.
Smirke takes over
A month after Farington had seen Dance at work on Lowther he called on Smirke senior (10 February 1805) who told him that 'Dance had been with him this morning, and had expressed a desire to get Robert Smirke [junior] employed in the business for Lord Lowther'. Doubtless, the long journey to Westmorland and the difficulty of finding time for site visits had made Dance reconsider his position. By the end of the year, with Beaumont's help, Dance had secured the commission for his portégé. Farington wrote (16 December 1805) 'Called on Dance, Lord Lowther has written to Sir George [Beaumont] expressing his pleasure on finding Robert Smirke so ingenious, - modest, and gentlemanly in his manners; and desiring Sir George to thank Mr. Dance for recommending him.'
Not unnaturally, Smirke 'in his Plan for the House to be built at Lowther had adopted principally the idea of Dance' (Farington, 26 April 1806). Like Dance, Smirke composed his design around a central staircase hall that rose into a lantern tower; a plan 'of which Inverary Castle was the prototype, and of which Kew Palace, Ashridge House and Taymouth Castle were recent examples' (Colvin et al., 1980, p.16).
Smirke's Lowther Castle, completed in 1810, was dismantled in 1957, after the death of the 6th Earl, and is now a roofless shell.
Designs by an unidentified architect perhaps for Lowther
Filed with Dance's drawings for Lowther are two sheets of designs by an unidentified architect. They were not drawn by Dance, nor, for example, by Francis Webster of Kendal, nor are they by Robert Smirke and it is not even certain that they are in fact for Lowther.
Sir Howard Colvin (letter, 24 June 1998) suggests James Wyatt as their author on a comparison of the more finished drawing ([SM D2/8/15]) with a design for an unidentified house in the castellated style attributed to Wyatt (Linstrum, 1973, fig.55). He points out that they are very similar in character, 'particularly the rather negligent drawing of the presumably four-centred hood-moulds in the centre of both drawings. Of course fig.55 is only attributed to Wyatt .... As far as I can see the only reason for associating these two drawings with Lowther is that the two parallel ranges of "offices" not drawn in properly might be the area retained in Smirke's Lowther and also shown in Dance's drawing [Colvin et al., 1980, figs 30b and 32].
However they could just as well be an outline indication of "offices" to be elaborated later if the design is accepted, and it looks to me as if the dimensions do not tally with those of the offices in figs 30b and 32'.
On the evidence of copies of [SM D2/8/16] and [SM D2/8/15] John Martin Robinson (conversation, 13 July 1998) thinks it is highly unlikely that they are by James Wyatt since sketch designs were unusual for him.
LITERATURE. Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, D. Linstrum, The Wyatt Family, 1973; Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Vol.S, 1976, p.68 (eight drawings by Robert Smirke for Lowther Castle); H. Colvin, J. M. Crook & T. Friedman, 'Architectural drawings from Lowther Castle Westmorland', Architectural History Monograph No.2, Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, 1980; J. Mordaunt Crook, 'Lowther Castle', Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, Annual Conference, Penrith 10-13 September 1987, notes, pp.26-7.
OTHER SOURCES. Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle has most of the drawings for Lowther Castle and many were discussed by H. Colvin et al. (see above). Since the publication of 'Architectural drawings from Lowther Castle' in 1980 a further deposit of about 200 Smirke drawings was made in 1990.
Before Dance
The earliest part of Lowther included a medieval and an Elizabethan tower. Additions were made and rebuilding carried out from 1630 with an extensive rebuilding completed in 1692-4. An unexecuted design for improvements by an unknown architect was published in Vitruvius Britannicus (volume II, 1717, plates 78, 79). Schemes for rebuilding by Gibbs, and by Colen Campbell in the 1720s came to nothing. From 1757 to 1802 further schemes of varying grandeur by other architects including Matthew Brettingham, 'Capability' Brown, Robert and James Adam, and Thomas Harrison of Chester also went unbuilt. Moreover, the building works put in hand by Francis Webster of Kendal in about 1800 remained unfinished on the death of the unpopular and childless Lord Lonsdale in 1802. His successor, Sir William Lowther (in 1807, Earl of Lonsdale by a new creation) was a close friend of Sir George Beaumont for whom Dance built Coleorton and who recommended him as architect.
Dance visits Lowther
On the 26 August, 1803, Farington recorded in his diary that Dance 'had been desired to go to Lord Lowther's in September to Lowther Hall, where his lordship proposes to build'. The Soane Museum's rough survey drawing by Dance is dated 25 September 1803 and has his comment 'Lowther Hall / near Penrith Westmorland / 286 miles from London'. On 17 October 1803, Farington noted Dance's return from Westmorland. The following year (16 May 1804) Dance spoke to Farington 'of Lord Lowther's great personal civility being such as would be considered remarkable in an inferior situation. The House His Lordship proposes to build will probably cost £80,000.' On 15 January 1805 Farington 'called on Dance.- He employed on designs for Lord Lowther.'
Early designs
The earliest design made by Dance was probably the rough plan on the survey drawing made on his first visit. This was an initial version of the plan among the Lowther Papers (reproduced Colvin et al., fig.30b) that, with the elevation (1980, fig.30a), showed 'the way in which the dominant central mass was framed in a perspective formed by far-stretching wings (still incorporating, in disguised form, the late Earl's house) [that] recalled Vanbrugh's Blenheim rather than the discreet subordination of flanking wings to the centre of a Palladian mansion' (p.17). The elevation catalogued ([SM D2/8/14]) which, designed around a courtyard, is for a different scheme altogether and may not even be for Lowther.
Smirke takes over
A month after Farington had seen Dance at work on Lowther he called on Smirke senior (10 February 1805) who told him that 'Dance had been with him this morning, and had expressed a desire to get Robert Smirke [junior] employed in the business for Lord Lowther'. Doubtless, the long journey to Westmorland and the difficulty of finding time for site visits had made Dance reconsider his position. By the end of the year, with Beaumont's help, Dance had secured the commission for his portégé. Farington wrote (16 December 1805) 'Called on Dance, Lord Lowther has written to Sir George [Beaumont] expressing his pleasure on finding Robert Smirke so ingenious, - modest, and gentlemanly in his manners; and desiring Sir George to thank Mr. Dance for recommending him.'
Not unnaturally, Smirke 'in his Plan for the House to be built at Lowther had adopted principally the idea of Dance' (Farington, 26 April 1806). Like Dance, Smirke composed his design around a central staircase hall that rose into a lantern tower; a plan 'of which Inverary Castle was the prototype, and of which Kew Palace, Ashridge House and Taymouth Castle were recent examples' (Colvin et al., 1980, p.16).
Smirke's Lowther Castle, completed in 1810, was dismantled in 1957, after the death of the 6th Earl, and is now a roofless shell.
Designs by an unidentified architect perhaps for Lowther
Filed with Dance's drawings for Lowther are two sheets of designs by an unidentified architect. They were not drawn by Dance, nor, for example, by Francis Webster of Kendal, nor are they by Robert Smirke and it is not even certain that they are in fact for Lowther.
Sir Howard Colvin (letter, 24 June 1998) suggests James Wyatt as their author on a comparison of the more finished drawing ([SM D2/8/15]) with a design for an unidentified house in the castellated style attributed to Wyatt (Linstrum, 1973, fig.55). He points out that they are very similar in character, 'particularly the rather negligent drawing of the presumably four-centred hood-moulds in the centre of both drawings. Of course fig.55 is only attributed to Wyatt .... As far as I can see the only reason for associating these two drawings with Lowther is that the two parallel ranges of "offices" not drawn in properly might be the area retained in Smirke's Lowther and also shown in Dance's drawing [Colvin et al., 1980, figs 30b and 32].
However they could just as well be an outline indication of "offices" to be elaborated later if the design is accepted, and it looks to me as if the dimensions do not tally with those of the offices in figs 30b and 32'.
On the evidence of copies of [SM D2/8/16] and [SM D2/8/15] John Martin Robinson (conversation, 13 July 1998) thinks it is highly unlikely that they are by James Wyatt since sketch designs were unusual for him.
LITERATURE. Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, D. Linstrum, The Wyatt Family, 1973; Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Vol.S, 1976, p.68 (eight drawings by Robert Smirke for Lowther Castle); H. Colvin, J. M. Crook & T. Friedman, 'Architectural drawings from Lowther Castle Westmorland', Architectural History Monograph No.2, Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, 1980; J. Mordaunt Crook, 'Lowther Castle', Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, Annual Conference, Penrith 10-13 September 1987, notes, pp.26-7.
OTHER SOURCES. Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle has most of the drawings for Lowther Castle and many were discussed by H. Colvin et al. (see above). Since the publication of 'Architectural drawings from Lowther Castle' in 1980 a further deposit of about 200 Smirke drawings was made in 1990.
Level
Group
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk