The early house
Land that became the basis of the later Mount Stewart estate was acquired in 1744 by Alexander Stewart (1700-81), a descendant of Scottish planters settled in Donegal in the reign of James I, who had made a fortune in the linen industry. Stewart built a new house later described as 'all painted blue' and named it Mount Pleasant. Drawing [SM D3/9/2] shows a blue-painted house. Stewart's eldest son, Robert (1739-1821), from 1789 Lord Londonderry, added new offices to the house. In 1780, he was sent a model of the 'Temple of the Winds' by his father-in-law, Lord Camden (letter of 18 March 1780, Centre for Kentish Studies, U840 C173/57). Subsequently a design was commissioned from 'Athenian' Stuart and the exquisite Temple of the Winds in the grounds at Mount Stewart was built 1782-3. John Ferguson was the carpenter and carried out the fine marquetry floor. (Nothing, of his career beyond his work at Mount Stewart is recorded by, for example, the Irish Architectural Archive or the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.)

Dance in Ireland
About 1805, Londonderry decided to enlarge his house and seems to have turned first to John Ferguson but his eldest son, Lord Castlereagh (whose portrait - now in the National Portrait Gallery - Dance drew in 1794) intervened and persuaded his father to seek advice from Dance. Dance's connection with the family was probably through his friendship with Lord Camden and his family, especially Lady Elisabeth Pratt (died 1826), the daughter of of the 1st Earll Camden (see Bayham Hall, Kent/Sussex; Camden Place, Kent; the Camden Estate, London; Wilderness Park, Kent. She was the sister of Lord Londonderry's second wife Frances and of the 2nd Earl Camden who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1795 to 1798. Dance visited the country in 1795 as was recorded in an entry in Farington's diary (15 July): 'Tomorrow [Dance] sets off for Ireland with Mr. and Mrs. Cockerell.' A sketch of the Wicklow Mountains, dated 1795, was in an album of drawings by Dance and his brother Nathaniel sold at Sotheby's (British drawings and watercolours sale, 15 March 1984, lot 28). Possibly Dance went from Dublin to Mount Stewart - his letter to Londonderry ([SM D3/9/1a]) 'speak[s] from memory'. He is not known to have visited Ireland again until the summer of 1816 when his son Charles Dance was aide-de-camp to the then Lord Lieutenant, Lord Whitworth (Farington's diary, entries for 29 March 1814, 5 September 1814, 25 August 1815, 12 December 1815, 20 November 1816). On that occasion, while staying at Mount Stewart, he made a pencil portrait of Mlle Fannie Perois, later Mrs Stewart (V&A E.399-1954, copy of original dated 16 June 1816).

Alterations and additions
Dance's alterations and additions included a new entrance with porte-cochere on the north side of the existing blue-washed house and a new west wing containing a dining room, music room and a bow-fronted library with bedrooms above. The finest space is the top-lit stair that rises in a single flight to a half-landing where it divides into two, that is, a double return staircase that reaches a gallery on the first floor which gives on to bedrooms. In a Country Life article (p.649), Gervase Jackson-Stops describes it as having 'a sense of drama that would hardly be out of place in the work of Soane. The gently curved indentations of the dome, not unlike an umbrella, are reminiscent of Dance's Council Chamber at the Guildhall in London built nearly 30 years earlier.' The staircase hall has a ceiling that is a stretched octagon on four spandrels.

In the west wing, room uses have altered so that the library is now Lady Londonderry's Sitting Room, the Music Room is still called that while the drawing room is now the Castlereagh Room. None of the decoration or fittings of the three rooms seem particularly characteristic of Dance, the best and most elegant work (for example, the floor in the Music Room that corresponds to the plasterwork of the ceiling) being that of the local carpenter-turned-architect John Ferguson. Ferguson had indeed asked for a rough draft for the cornice, frieze, ornaments and chimney-pieces for the three rooms ([SM D3/9/1d]). If Dance sent these they would have been carried out by local contractors working under Ferguson's supervision and subject to interpretation and alterations.

The plan including the location of windows, doors and chimney-pieces corresponds more or less to drawing [SM D3/9/5] and also (within a foot or two) to the room dimensions given in Ferguson's letter ([SM D3/9/1d]). Dance had advised ([SM D3/9/1a]) that room heights should not exceed 15 feet though 14 feet would be better and Ferguson's floor-to-ceiling dimensions are 15 feet for each room. Dance also said that the width of rooms should be reduced since to exceed 22 feet was to risk 'pliable' floors. Ferguson's figures for the width of each room was 25 feet. Dance also recommended windows of a good height but Lord Londonderry overrode him on this (the ground floor windows measure 10 feet 5 inches) and on the height of the upper storey which was greater than Dance wanted.

There is some uncertainty concerning the implementation of Dance's recommendation that the downstairs rooms be connected by large doors, which folded in four divisions and when opened were housed in boxings. The present pairs of single doors do not fold back, but a photograph taken in 1903 shows clearly that they once did so. Perhaps Dance failed to respond to Lord Londonderry's and Ferguson's requests for details of how the large folding doors were to be constructed, or perhaps Londonderry decided that double doors comprising two pairs of single doors would best avoid 'the Sound of People's Voices... in the adjoining room'. Evidence does exist, however, to suggest that large folding doors were installed as Dance suggested: for instance, the short sections of skirting on each side of the present doors are noticeably paler that the rest. Possibly the large doors were remodelled when the creation of a fine new drawing room, dining room and saloon in the mid-19th century rendered obsolete the need for a 'magnificent & ample apartment for large parties'. The music room chimney-piece sited below a window (now lowered to give access to the garden) has also gone. However, the carefully made-up floor where the hearth must have stood indicates that Lord Londonderry accepted Dance's unconventional suggestion.

All in all, Dance's contribution to the design of the west wing at Mount Stewart was a rather informal one. Distance from the site ruled out direct supervision, the usual London-based contractors could not be used and nor could James Carter assist in practical matters as he had in other of Dance's country house commissions. Lord Londonderry, helped by his carpenter-cum-supervising architect John Ferguson, had ideas of his own, asking, for instance, about a Wyatt window for the centre of the upper storey. There is an entry in the Mount Stewart accounts dated 14 March 1804 of a payment to Dance viz. 'Paid George Dance Architect 54.3.4' (Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, D654/HI/3) which would be the equivalent in Irish money of £50 sterling.

Later history
Further changes to Mount Stewart took place between 1845 and 1848 to the design of William Vitruvius Morrison. The evidence comes from a memoir of his brother by John Morrison (published in 1843-4). No other reference to Morrison in connection with Mount Stewart has come to light and, if the attribution is correct, the work of the Dublin architect was certainly carried out posthumously, since he died in 1838. The old blue-painted house was demolished and the building extended by about two-thirds to the east of Dance's additions. Dance's north and south elevations were tactfully repeated at the far east end of his own new block. A giant Ionic portico was put on the north front to the left of Dance's smaller port-cochere which was replaced by a tripartite window echoing the Wyatt window above. The new work was clad in the same dark grey Scabo stone of Dance's additions. Externally, the west front was little changed though a balustrade was added that runs around the entire house. The tripartite centre window with a segmental head on the ground floor was modified to give access to the gardens and improve the view. All of the windows, including those to the west wing, have conventional moulded architraves that may have been based on those of the original blue-washed house. In his letter to Lord Londonderry, Dance had recommended avoiding 'dressings or Mouldings round the Windows' since they add nothing to the beauty of the work and only increase the expense.

Mount Stewart now belongs to the National Trust: the gardens given in 1957, the Temple of the Winds in 1962, and the house in 1977.

LITERATURE. Stroud p.174; G. Jackson-Stops, 'Mount Stewart, Co. Down', Country Life, CLXVII, 1980, pp.646-9. 754-758; Mount Stewart, National Trust guidebook, 1986, passim; C. E. B. Brett, Buildings of North County Down, Belfast, 2002, pp.75, 96-9, 264-6.

OTHER SOURCES. G. Jackson-Stops, 'Mount Stewart: Summary of the architectural history', typescript notes at the Soane Museum, c.1979, 7pp; information on William Vitruvius Morrison at Mount Stewart from Dr Anne Casement, Ballycastle.

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