[1] Colonel John Cockerell bought the estate in 1795 on his return from Bengal where he had been in the service of the East India Company (EIC).

"[3] Samuel Pepys Cockerell had worked as a surveyor for the EIC and as an apprentice to Sir Robert Taylor, where John Nash was also apprenticed.

Cockerell had already experimented cautiously with Indian elements at Daylesford, Gloucestershire, built for Warren Hastings, first governor-general of British India, nearby.

Emperor Akbar, who ruled the empire from 1556 to 1605, "deliberately mixed Islamic and Hindu elements in architecture in an effort to culturally integrate" his kingdom.

[3] It has a green onion shaped dome, umbrella-shaped chhatris and overhanging chajjas, Mughal gardens, serpent fountains, a Surya temples, Shiva lingams and has Nandi bulls guarding the estate.