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Estate plan, dated 1722
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Reference number
SM volume 111/43
Purpose
Estate plan, dated 1722
Aspect
Plan, with laid-out elevations of buildings, compass, cartouche, scale and inscriptions
Scale
1 chain (66 feet) to ½ inch
Inscribed
In pen and brown ink within cartouche, to left, A PLAN OF BRAMTON HOUSE, Castle, Gardens and lands contiguous: Belonging to the Right Hon.ble Robert Earl of Oxford, MDCCXXII; and on parts of the estate with the names Lingen Tack, TEMD FLUV :, THE COW MEADOW, Cow Leasow Bank, Road from Knighton to Bramlow; and within grounds of castle with letters A to f, which relate to the legend at bottom left: A. the lower Garden or Orchard. / B. the Bowling green. / C. the Canal. / D. place behind the house. / E. the Castle. / f. the Kitchen Garden.; and above scale, Scale of Chains
Signed and dated
- 1722
Medium and dimensions
Pen with brown and grey inks, with green, brown, pink, black and grey washes, with ruled brown ink border; on thick laid paper; 448 x 564.
Hand
Unidentified, but possibly connected with James Gibbs
Watermark
Small fleur-de-lys
Notes
Bramton House is known today as Brampton Hall. The castle in the grounds of the house (E on the map) was the Harley family home from 1309. The present Brampton Hall is 'a sizeable Georgian brick house with stone dressings and a hipped roof...The S front is of seven bays with a pedimented three-bay projection' (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire, 1963, p. 82). This is presumably a replacement, or an adaptation, of the house shown in this plan, which is six bays wide with an asymmetrically placed door. The river TEMD on the plan is the Tame, which passes through Ludlow.
The drawing is in the hand of an extremely competent draughtsman, and the cartouche is especially well drawn and shaded. It compares with some by Gibbs in his Book of Architecture, 1728 (e.g. p. 132, right), and given the architect's connection with the Harley family, his (partial) involvement in the production of this drawing cannot be ruled out. Gibbs may, in fact, have prepared a design for a new house on this site in 1713 (see 'Unidentified designs/2 Two designs attributed to James Gibbs for a large house with a library wing, 1713, possibly for Brampton House, Herefordshire'; SM volume 111/33 and 26).
The drawing is in the hand of an extremely competent draughtsman, and the cartouche is especially well drawn and shaded. It compares with some by Gibbs in his Book of Architecture, 1728 (e.g. p. 132, right), and given the architect's connection with the Harley family, his (partial) involvement in the production of this drawing cannot be ruled out. Gibbs may, in fact, have prepared a design for a new house on this site in 1713 (see 'Unidentified designs/2 Two designs attributed to James Gibbs for a large house with a library wing, 1713, possibly for Brampton House, Herefordshire'; SM volume 111/33 and 26).
Literature
Not previously published
Level
Drawing
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