At the same time, the final remodelling of the North Front was taking place: this involved the erection in 1770–1772 of the two twin quadrant colonnades of Ionic columns that flank the façade.

The west wall has above the fireplace Thomas Banks's white marble relief of Caractacus Pleading Before the Emperor Claudius in Rome in its centre which is flanked by two doors.

The east wall has above a small staircase leading to the ground floor, Christophe Veyrier's white marble relief of The family of Darius before Alexander the Great in its centre flanked by two doors.

Also sold in 1848 were two Italian neo-classical side tables with Verd antique tops, the frames being carved with plaques of Leda and the Swan and Juno and her peacock; these are both now in the Wallace Collection.

These are: 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos by Raimondo Trentanove, Frederick III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal both carved by Tito Angelini.

Decorated in neo-classical style with a symmetrical arrangement of nereids, tazzas, paterae and other motifs, originally the details were gilt but this was replaced by silver in a 1965 restoration.

The original marble fireplace dated 1777 was sold in 1922 and is now in Spain at the headquarters of Grupo Santander; it contains an antique alabaster bas-relief from Egypt of a Sacrifice to Bacchus.

The ceiling has an elaborate plaster entablature supporting a deep cove, this has painted decoration dated 1747 by Francesco Sleter, including Hebe feeding Jupiter's Eagle east, Cupid playing with two Graces north, Cupid asleep with two Graces south and Diana and her Hounds west, the spaces between these paintings are decorated with animals including swans and their cygnets, pigeons and rabbits.

The walls used to be hung with five Brussels tapestries commissioned by Viscount Cobham from O. Leyneir, they depict the triumph of classical deities: Ceres, Bacchus, Neptune, Mars and Diana, sold in 1921 they are now in Switzerland.

The elaborate marble chimneypiece and its carved-wooden overmantel, which contained an oval portrait of Lord Cobham dressed in armour by Sir Godfrey Kneller, were sold in 1922.

The two elaborately carved and gilt robe chests, one of "gopher wood" [sic], the other of sandalwood, that used to stand on the north wall flanking the white marble fireplace are now in the Wallace Collection.

There used to be 39 paintings in this room, including Virgin and Child with SS John the Baptist and Catherine, dated 1504 by Andrea Previtali this is now in the National Gallery, London and Woman at her Toilette once attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and bought as such in 1780, now School of Fontainebleau, this is in the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.

In a relatively plain room, the painting that used to be in the centre of the ceiling, Venus at her toilet by Vincenzo Valdrè was sold in 1922 along with the marble chimneypiece with its central relief of Hebe and Jupiter's Eagle.

It was in this room that Queen Victoria and her husband slept during their visit, redecorated for the occasion, including the purchase of the largest Persian carpet in the country, 25.5 by 16 feet (4.9 m), this cost £200, but only fetched £55 in the 1848 sale.

The walls of the corridor are now lined with paintings of former headmasters of the school and in the east window above the staircase there is white marble bust a copy of the head of the Apollo Belvedere.

Also originally in the corridor but sold in 1848 were eleven Greek vases, three from the Lucien Bonaparte's excavations at Canino, also a Roman sarcophagus dating from Trajan's reign.

George Greville prime minister, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, now in the Bass Museum; a posthumous portrait of George, Marquess of Buckingham, by John Jackson now at Christ Church, Oxford; Mary Nugent, Marchioness of Buckingham by Sir Joshua Reynolds, last sold in 1989 and present whereabouts unknown; William Wyndham, Lord Grenville by John Hoppner now in the North Carolina Museum of Art.

[28] Reached from the south-west door in the North Hall via the Stucco Corridor with its plaster barrel vaulted coffered ceiling is the cantilevered stone West staircase with iron balustrade, dating from the 1730s, James Gibbs is thought to be the designer.

There are various smaller rooms on the main floor of the house, mainly plain in decoration but used to house many important paintings, including: two paintings of 1648 by Frans Hals, Portrait of a man now in the Art Gallery of Ontario and Portrait of a Woman now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Orazio Gentileschi's The Rest on the Flight into Egypt now in the J. Paul Getty Museum; Claude Joseph Vernet's Rocky Coast in a Storm in the Wallace Collection; Giovanni Battista Lusieri's A View of Naples over nine feet in length this water colour remained in the house until sold in 1985 to the J. Paul Getty Museum; Joshua Reynolds painting of the Marquess of Buckingham was sold by Lady Kinloss in 1899 and is now in the National Gallery of Ireland; John Martin's The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum now in the Tate Britain collection, originally thought to be destroyed in 1928 when the Thames flooded the gallery basement, it has since been rediscovered and restored in 2010–2011; Jan van Huysum's self-portrait now in the Ashmolean Museum; Aert de Gelder's The Temple Entrance now in the Mauritshuis.

Although the Central Pavilion of the south front appears to be only two floors high, there are in fact bedrooms over the State Music & Drawing rooms, these are lit by windows facing respectively east and west.

[30] From the 1710s to the 1740s, leading garden designers were employed by Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, these included Charles Bridgeman, James Gibbs, William Kent and Capability Brown, as well as architect Sir John Vanbrugh.

After Viscount Cobham's death, his nephew Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, inherited and he began a programme of naturalisation in the parkland, altering the formation of lakes and woodland, as well as moving monuments to new locations.

When the Earl's cousin George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe died in 1762 he left his Vanbrugh designed house Eastbury Park and estates in Dorset to Lord Temple.

The family spent a great deal of money to control several rotten boroughs, including Old Sarum, whose M.P.s switch their support to the Prime Minister, although the Reform Act 1832 would end this practice.

In March 1848 the family estates in Ireland, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire & Middlesex some 36,000 acres (15,000 ha) of land, were sold.

The process was greatly helped by the Stowe Papers, some 350,000 documents that are now in the collection of the Huntington Library in California, containing extensive and detailed information on the creation of both the house and gardens.

The 1730s and 1740s saw visits by Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk, and William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath; Frederick, Prince of Wales, along with other friends of Lord Cobham (see the Temple of Friendship), were also frequent guests.

In July 1770[43] there was a house party lasting several days whose guests included Princess Amelia,Horace Walpole, Lady Mary Coke and William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough.

[44] However, in his diary he was also damning about the means used to finance the large estates, and he did not think that the embellishments to the landscape, made by the owners of the great country houses, would suit the more rugged American countryside.

[45] Stowe and its gardens have often been used as a location for films, music videos and television including: "Souvenir" (1981) by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark;[46] Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989); the Inspector Morse episode "Ghost in the Machine" (1989); Vanity Fair (1998); The World Is Not Enough (1999); Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001); Stardust (2007); The Wolfman (2010); X-Men: First Class (2011); Antiques Roadshow (2012); The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain (2014); Bill (2016); and The Crown (2017).