It was designed by the amateur architect Thomas Wynn, 1st Baron Newborough and said to have been inspired by Cicero's villa at Formiae on the coast of Baiae.
[10] Following Holland's death his estates were inherited by his second surviving son, the Whig statesman Charles James Fox.
[10] Her eldest son Arthur Annesley Powell inherited the estate, which by that point had fallen into ruin.
It was subsequently acquired by the banker and archaeologist John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury (1834–1913), who rebuilt the house from its degraded condition and expanded it.
[5][4] The house's surviving façade dates from a remodelling circa 1850, during which the original central portico was removed to the Royal Sea Bathing Hospital at Margate.