The grounds were laid out by George London and Henry Wise with a formal parterre and a double elm avenue leading down to a lake.

Fifty years later William Pitt the Elder and Capability Brown improved the landscape, creating pleasure grounds with two lakes.

After the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, the last direct Grenville male heir, died in 1889, the house was let to a succession of tenants; including, notably; the philanthropist, Leo Bernard William Bonn (1850–1929) who became deaf while residing at Wotton, and later founded (1911) what became the RNID.

His son and heir, the decorated First World War hero, Major Walter Basil Louis Bonn, DSO, MC, MA (Oxon.)

In 1947 Beaumont sold the estate to a charity who divided the grounds into small parcels and let the main house to two boys' schools.

By 1957 the house had become derelict and was due to be demolished when Elaine Brunner found it and with the help of the architect Donald Insall restored most of the Soane features.

Richard Grenville, Earl Temple (later Duke of Buckingham and Chandos), immediately engaged John Soane to restore the main house.

He made inventive use of the existing floor plans and created a three-storey, top-lit "Tribune", alongside a new stone staircase, in place of the old entrance hall.

It was rented and then bought by Michael Beaumont (MP for Aylesbury) in 1929 and had it renovated by the architect Arthur Stanley George Butler,[b] concealing all of Soane's detailing including the central three-storey tribune.

[7] Elaine (Mrs Patrick) Brunner purchased the main house and the Clock Pavilion from Buckinghamshire County Council for £6,000 in 1957, two weeks before it was scheduled for demolition.

[8] Brunner engaged Donald Insall Associates to carry out extensive work on the house, repairing the dilapidations, undoing most of the Butler alterations and restoring Soane's architectural details.

[citation needed] On hearing of the historically dilapidated state of the Park; on 17 April 1988, and following attendance of Divine Service, at the neighbouring Buckinghamshire Parish Church of Dinton (see Parish News: May 2018, 30th Anniversary Royal Visit) Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, decided to make a dendrologically inspired visit to Wotton House, during the tenure of a thespian acquaintance; Sir John Gielgud; and while staying with the Cotton family, at nearby Tythrop Park; Princess Margaret thus undertook an informal Royal Visit, in order to view the gates, park, and South Pavilion, at Wotton; accompanied by the former (1901–1911) Wotton House resident's great-grandson (Commissioner Philip Bonn of the International Tree Protection Commission – ITPC) together with the Princess's friend; Mr Ned Ryan; and the RPS; who followed at a discreet distance behind the Princess's Rolls-Royce; containing the Princess and the guests from the weekend house party at Tythrop Park, Kingsley, in an adjoining district of Buckinghamshire.