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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. EXTERIOR ''. 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 Rustic ated Basement , with the two floors above appearing to have equal value—9 bays divided by Corinthian Pilaster s, 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 Urn s. 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. 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 Servant s' 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. 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. 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 . Interiors at Easton Neston have undergone some changes since Hawksmoor completed the house. Hawksmoor's great hall, with its high, bare walls and flanking work 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 House s, the varying styles and alterations seem to fit with each other rather than to jar the senses. 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 Rose s 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. 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. 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. 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
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