1/7 in to 1 ft

dimensions given and (verso) Stratton / Plan of Sloping the ground in / North Front - Bridgeway from / the Drawing room - Brickwork &c and Stratton Rockwork

• 1803-07

Pen, sepia, Indian red and green earth washes, pencil on wove paper (470 x 750)

Dance

E & P 1796

Dance had some interesting problems in uniting house and garden on the north side. The drawing room and Hall of Communication in the new east wing each had a large window facing north and all three windows of the re-constructed dining room in the old building also faced north so clearly it was important to create an attractive view. All of these rooms were on the first floor (piano nobile) and one difficulty was access to the garden and grounds on this side of the house. Another, given that Dance inscribed his drawing 'Plan of Sloping the ground' and not 'Plan of sloping ground' was the question of contouring the terrain outside the north front so that more light and a better aspect could be created. At the same time, the offices on the west side of the house needed to be screened from view and the asymmetry of the back elevation (the new east wing shorter than the old west wing) resolved.

Dance allowed two access points. From the drawing room he designed a bridge, 12 feet wide with a semicircular arch 14 feet wide and with 9 steps to the garden. And from the Hall of Communication, there was a dog-leg stair with 22 steps that fitted into the northwest angle of the new east wing. To make his plan symmetrical, Dance placed a circular pond in the centre on axis with a flight of ten steps, 16 feet wide, and ran a series of rocks in three gentle curves from the west wing and framing the end of the bridge on the east wing. The rock-work screen (on which vegetation is indicated) was an unusual idea. On the section (left-hand side of drawing) Dance has drawn a fish swimming in a pond that has a robust, reverse-arched brick base to make cleaning easier.

A Country Life article on the garden (XXXV, 1914, pp.839-31) commented that on the north side of the house was a dry sandstone retaining wall some 7 or 8 feet high with a good batter and some interstices for climbing plants. At its west end was a 'curious little nook, the north and west banks of which are retained with enormous pudding stones. Apparently nothing is known of the history of these but some of them must weigh several tons.'

Mr D. J. Stride, the owner of the new house of Stratton Park, wrote (22 August 2000) that 'there are large boulders, at least one of which was, until recently, in a "compatible" position, and there certainly has been a sunken area where one would expect to find some sort of garden to view through the windows of the grand rooms that overlook it.'

See [SM D1/2/10] for a design for the bridge with, for example, fewer steps.

Drawing

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

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