In 1745 Audley End was purchased by Elizabeth Wallop (née Griffin), Countess of Portsmouth (1691-1762). She bought the estate for her nephew Sir John Griffin Griffin (later 4th Lord Howard de Walden) (1719-97), and began making alterations to the house in 1749 to designs by John Phillips (c1709-75). Sir John inherited Audley End on the Countess's death in 1762 and employed Robert Adam to make alterations to the house.

The Audley End account books, in the Essex Record Office, record that Adam made designs for a monument to Lady Portsmouth in 1763. These three extant drawings presumably represent the design in question. The monument was not executed in 1763, but in 1774 an urn-topped Tuscan column was erected to Lady Portsmouth's memory by Joseph Dixon (d1787), 1,000 yards north-east of the house. Dixon’s monument remains in situ.

See also: Audley End; Saville Row, number 10

Literature:
R. Chamberlin, and R. Gray, Audley End, 1986, p. 1; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam & unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume 1, pp. 380, 386, Volume 2, p. 261; J. Bettley, and N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Essex, 2007, pp. 96, 104

Frances Sands, 2012