Easton Neston is a country house near Towcester (pronounced "Toaster") in Northamptonshire, England. It was designed in the classical style by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Easton Neston is thought to be the only mansion which was solely the work of Hawksmoor. From circa 1700 Hawksmoor was to work on many buildings, including Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace, with Sir John Vanbrugh, often providing the technical knowledge to the less qualified Vanbrugh. Hawksmoor's work, even after their many collaborations, was always more classically severe than Vanbrugh's. However, Easton Neston predates this partnership by some six years. For the Blur single, see Country House (song). ... Image:Towcester - Northamptonshre dot. ... Northamptonshire (abbreviated Northants or Nhants) is a landlocked county in central England with a population of 629,676 (2001 census). ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st... Classicism door in Olomouc, The Czech Republic. ... Architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... The career of Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 - 25 March 1736) formed the brilliant middle link in Britains trio of great baroque architects. ... Mansion near Almelo, The Netherlands A mansion is a large and stately dwelling house. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... The garden front of Castle Howard John Vanburghs complete project for Castle Howard, which was not all built. ... Blenheim Palace, The Great Court. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ...

Architect

Hawksmoor was commissioned to build Easton Neston by Sir William Fermor, later created Lord Leominster ("Lemster"); Hawksmoor had been recommended to Fermor by his cousin Sir Christopher Wren, who had advised on the building of a new mansion on the site circa 1680. However, no details of quite what Wren envisaged survive, and work seems to have ceased following completion of the two service blocks, of which only one survives. Following Fermor's marriage to an heiress, Catherine Poulett, in 1692, he decided to resurrect the idea of a new mansion, and subsequently Wren's pupil Hawksmoor received the commission circa 1694. Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller, 1711. ... Events First Portuguese governor was appointed to Macau The Swedish city Karlskrona was founded as the Royal Swedish Navy relocated there. ... For other uses, see inheritance (disambiguation). ... Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ...

Exterior

A proposal for Easton Neston published in Vitruvius Britannicus. The central block was built in accordance with the proposal, except that the statues and cupola were not added to the roof. The flanking wings, the gateway and the walls shown here were not built.

The house Hawksmoor built at Easton Neston can be best described as a miniature palace that owes something to Michelangelo's palazzi on the Campidoglio at Rome and is very reminiscent of the Petit Trianon at Versailles, which was not to be built for another 50 years. The rectangular house is on three principal floors. The first is a rusticated basement, with the two floors above appearing to have equal value—9 bays divided by Corinthian pilasters, each bay containing a tall, slim sash window of the same height on each floor. The central bay contains the entrance, flanked by two Corinthian full columns. These two columns support a small, round-headed pediment displaying the Fermor arms and motto. Above the door at second floor height is a massive venetian window. The roof-line is hidden by a balustrade and decorated at the ten intervals, above the pilasters below, by covered stone urns. The design and fenestration of the entrance facade is repeated at the rear on the garden facade (illustration, above); except the roof balustrade here is undecorated by urns and pediment. The house is built of Helmsdon stone, a cream stone of exceptional quality, which has ensured the carving is as crisp today as it was on completion of the house in 1702. Both main facades are of simple, clear design devoid of ostentation. Image File history File linksMetadata EastonNestonfromVitruviusBritannicus_edited. ... Image File history File linksMetadata EastonNestonfromVitruviusBritannicus_edited. ... Palladian revival: Stourhead House, South facade, designed by Colen Campbell and completed in 1720. ... The quintessential medieval European palace: Palais de la Cité, in Paris, the royal palace of France. ... Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was a Renaissance artist, sculptor, and poet. ... The Petit Trianon, Versailles The Petit Trianon, situated at a short distance from the Grand Trianon, was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel by order of Louis XV for his second wife, Madame de Pompadour, and was constructed between 1762-1768. ... Versailles in 1789. ... Rustic could refer to: Rustic (hip hop artist) The Rustic, a noctuid moth This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... A basement is a story or several stories of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. ... The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ... In architecture, pilasters comprise slightly-projecting pseudo-columns built into or onto a wall, with capitals and bases. ... A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure (entablature) which lies immediately upon the columns. ... A motto is a phrase or a short list of words meant to formally describe the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. ... A villa with a superimposed portico, from Book IV of Palladios I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura, in a modestly priced English translation published in London, 1736. ... Stairs, staircase, stairway, flight of stairs are all names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. ... Categories: Stub ...

The two side elevations of the house are fascinating to a social historian, as they tell the story of life in a country house before the age of the servants' bell. Until the invention of the distant bell, which could be jangled by a rope from far away, it was necessary to have servants within calling distance. In older houses such as Montacute House servants slept on the floor of the hall or outside the door of their employer's bedchamber; by the late 17th century this arrangement was becoming undesirable. Houses now began to have corridors, and employers, rather than stepping over sleeping servants, began to tidy them away in small rooms, often shared with their employer's close-stool. However, these small rooms still had to be within calling distance. In a brand-new, luxurious house such as Easton Neston, this was achieved by inserting two very low mezzanine staff floors between each of the two upper floors. Hence at Easton Neston, while the two principal facades (West and East) are of three floors, the two less important sides of the house, by their windows, betray the secret that there are in fact five floors. The windows of the two mezzanines, as befits the humble rooms they light, are a mere half the size of those of the grander rooms above and below them. This makes the fenestration of the side facades a complex but interesting sight. A historian is a person who studies history. ... A servant is a person who is hired to provide regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. ... Coils of rope used for long-line fishing A rope (IPA: ) is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. ... Montacute House, the west front. ... Hall has several meanings. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Mezzanine may refer to: Mezzanine (architecture), an intermediate floor between main floors of a building In technology, a mezzanine can refer to a thin sheet of plastic insulating different parts of circuitry from each other in cramped environments, such as laptop interiors. ...

Some years after completion of the mansion in 1702, Hawksmoor drew some further plans for a huge entrance court. These designs, never fully executed, flanked the existing rectangular house with two wings, one containing stables and the other service rooms. The fourth side of the courtyard was to have been an elaborate colonnade and etera. Apart from the house the only part of this scheme to have been built was the stable block, but this was demolished less than a century after it was built. Many architectural commentators feel that Hawksmoor's mansion would, in fact, have been spoilt by this scheme, which owed more to Sir John Vanbrugh's architectural concepts than Hawksmoor's. The whole design was depicted in Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus vol. i (1715, pls 98 - 100) as though it existed. Two large entrance piers are all that remains of this grandiose design. Events March 8 - William III died; Princess Anne Stuart becomes Queen Anne of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. ... Enormous colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg. ... Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Knellers Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Knellers finest portraits. ... Palladian revival: Stourhead House, South facade, designed by Colen Campbell and completed in 1720. ... Palladian revival: Stourhead House, South facade, designed by Colen Campbell and completed in 1720. ...

Interior

The interior has the same refinement as the exterior. The principal rooms are light, as the windows rise almost floor to ceiling. The rooms are large and well proportioned without suffering from the oppressive grandeur that was to be a feature of Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor's collaborative work. The main staircase, with its wrought iron balustrade in the style of Jean Tijou, is two long, shallow flights ascending to the first floor gallery. Stairs, staircase, stairway, flight of stairs are all names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. ... Jean Tijou was a French Huguenot ironworker. ... Gallery may refer to: Actress Gallery Art gallery Gallery Project, an open-source package for creating and managing image galleries on web sites Gallery (band), a 1970s musical group headed by Jim Gold who are famous for their 1972 song (Its So) Nice To Be With You. ...

Interiors at Easton Neston have undergone some changes since Hawksmoor completed the house. Hawksmoor's great hall, with its high, bare walls and flanking vestibules and Corinthian columns, was sub-divided in the 19th century to create a dining room and a smaller more intimate hall. The principal drawing room, the only heavily decorated room in the mansion, has also seen change: it contains plasterwork carried out by a local man in the mid-18th century, a high-relief ceiling matched by huge scrolled panels and picture surrounds, and trophies containing hunting emblems that would have horrified the severe, some say humourless, Hawksmoor. And yet as is so often the case in English country houses, the varying styles and alterations seem to fit with each other rather than to jar the senses. Vestibule can have the following meanings: A large entrance, a reception area an antechamber, or a room room. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... In British society, a drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. ... // Gypsum plaster Plaster of Paris, or simply plaster, is a type of building material based on calcium sulfate hemihydrate, nominally (CaSO4)2*H2O. It is created by heating gypsum to about 150°C, 2(CaSO4 · 2H2O) → (CaSO4)2 · H2O + 3 H2O (released as steam). ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... For the Blur single, see Country House (song). ...

Gardens

In the grounds, Hawksmoor also designed a canal in the park to complement the house; this is on an axis with the door at the centre of the garden facade. The gardens in the 20th century were further enhanced by the creation of a water terrace, overlooked by the West, or garden facade. It is decorated by box topiary and roses surrounding a large pool, which reflects the house. This terrace, to our modern eyes, is a triumphal complement to the house, but one which would never have been dreamt of by the sober Hawksmoor himself. It is through innovations such as this that the English country has evolved, rather than retaining rigidly the concepts of a long-gone age. The Canal du Midi in Toulouse, France. ... An Australian park A park is any of a number of geographic features. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... In gardening, a terrace is an element where a raised flat paved or gravelled section overlooks a prospect. ... A topiary dinosaur at Epcot Topiary is the art of creating sculptures in the medium of shrubbery, after the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, toparius. ... Species About 100, see text A rose is a flowering shrub of the genus Rosa, and the flower of this shrub. ...

Easton Neston Today

Easton Neston has always been a private house and never opened to the public; as a consequence it is little known. Until recently the house was owned by Lord Hesketh, whose family is distantly connected to the original builder, Sir William Fermor. It is furnished with fine paintings, tapestries, and 18th-century furniture. The current Lord Hesketh put the house and the surrounding estate (including Towcester Race Course) up for sale in 2004 for an estimated £50,000,000. Baron Hesketh is a peerage title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. ... Sir Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, 3rd Baron Hesketh, Bt. ... Towcester Race Course is a horse racing course at Towcester (pronounced Toaster) in Northamptonshire, England. ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in...

According to the Daily Telegraph for July 13, 2005, a portion of the estate, including the main house, some outlying buildings and 550 acres of land were sold to Russian-born US retail businessman and designer, Leon Max for just under £15,000,000. Lord Hesketh retained ownership of the remainer of the estate, including the race course. This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Max plans to use the Wren-designed wing of the building as a base for his European operations, and the rest of the complex as his personal residence.

References

• Nigel Nicolson 1965. Great Houses of Britain George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd.
• Kerry Downes 1979. Hawksmoor Thames and Hudson, London.
• Mark Girouard 1978. Life in the English Country House Yale University

Nigel Nicolson MBE (19 January 1917–23 September 2004) was a British writer, publisher and politician. ...

External references

• NorthhamptonToday article on the purchase of Easton Neston by Leon Max
• Money Telegraph article on the sale