Hounds and dairy maids

JAMES WYATT has a reputation for eclectic architectural gigantism, a purveyor of such enormous buildings as Fonthill Abbey, Ashridge, Kew Palace and Woolwich Barracks. There was, however, another side to his practice: the estate buildings that he designed for private clients throughout his career. These smaller-scale works, unconstrained by the needs of occupation or domestic comfort, allowed him to experiment, have fun, and express his developing architectural ideas.

Both his earliest Gothic buildings, for example, as well as one of his most accomplished neo-Classical designs, were dairies at, respectively, Goodwood in West Sussex and Dodington Park in Gloucestershire.

Wyatt was catapulted to fame by the opening in January 1772 of his astonishing re-creation of the Roman Pantheon on Oxford Street in the capital. After his return from six years of study in Italy, the London Pantheon made him the most fashionable English architect, elbowing aside even Robert Adam (who retired to Scotland). Wyatt immediately faced a stampede of enthusiasts wishing to commission an example of his work. Many of these jobs in the early 1770s—before Wyatt was jaded with success or overwhelmed with work —were small, self-contained and perfectly formed creations. Some comprise a single