Houghton Hall

[2] It was commissioned by the de facto first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in 1722, and is a key building in the history of Neo-Palladian architecture in England.

The house has a rectangular main block which consists of a rustic basement at ground level, with a piano nobile, bedroom floor and attics above.

Campbell can be connected to the project, but his initial and later designs show his preferred Wilton-style towers, as published by him in Vitruvivs Britannicus in 1725.

Both the interior and exterior were extravagant, later estimated by Walpole himself to have cost over £200,000; he admitted to burning most of the receipts, adding further to the difficulty of verifying the architecture timeline.

[9][10] Visits from royalty were common and his fellow politicians, particularly members of his Cabinet, held their meetings each spring over a three-week period in the rooms at Houghton.

[11][12] A grand Palladian pile, Houghton was intended to be the permanent home for more than 400 of his Old Master paintings, including works by Van Dyck, Poussin, Rubens, Rembrandt and Velázquez.

On his death in 1797, possession passed to the family of his sister, Lady Mary, Countess of Cholmondeley, who had died aged just 26 more than 65 years earlier in 1731.

Houghton still belongs to the current Marquess of Cholmondeley, and parts of the structure and grounds are opened to the public throughout the year.

It was put up for auction to raise money to pay inheritance taxes and for maintenance of the house and grounds;[17] and eventually, negotiations led to the painting's sale to the National Gallery for £17 million tax free because of special incentives in England for selling works of art that are considered national treasures.

A major sale of items of pictures, furniture, silver and objets d'art from Houghton estimated at $23 million was held at Christie's in London on 8 December 1994, with the intention of establishing an endowment fund for the future preservation of the building.

[19] Some artwork, such as William Hogarth's portrait of the Cholmondeley family is unlikely to be let go, and it remains on view at Houghton; but the Marquess admits that he is very aware that risk of theft is neither negligible nor negotiable.

[23] Bridgeman replaced the formal geometry of intersecting avenues with blocks of woodland and parkland which, as he saw it, was better able to complement the hall's compelling architectural statement.

"[25] Sir Robert Walpole constructed a watertower (1731–32) with the appearance of an architectural folly which was designed by Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke.

From the inside of the structure, the viewer's point of view is focused upwards and inevitably lured into contemplating the sky as framed by the open roof.

Scottish artist Anya Gallaccio has created a sarcophagus-like marble structure which is sited at the end of a path; and nearby is a copper-beech hedge which is planted in lines mirroring Sybil's signature.

Yew hedges divide the space into a formal grid of discrete areas or "rooms", each intending to provoke a different interest and mood.

[30] In all seasons, this jet of water surmounted by a ball of flame illustrates a 21st-century folly on a smaller scale than the contemporary pieces outside the garden walls.