13/08/2026
A game of now and then. John Vardy originally designed the Dining Room with twelve pilasters on the walls and two niches at either end of the west wall. During Henry Holland’s alterations for the Second Earl in the 1780s, the pilasters were reduced to four and the niches were covered over. Holland also covered the pilasters and free-standing columns with scagliola, a decorative technique that gives the appearance of marble. The columns were all painted over in cream by the Seventh Earl Spencer in the 1920s but the scagliola finish was uncovered and restored during the 1980s restoration. Vardy’s original ceiling survives and the design is based on Inigo Jones’s ceiling in the Banqueting House, in nearby Whitehall. Vardy again turned to the publication Les Edifices Antiques de Rome (1682) by Antoine Desgodetz for the design of the frieze, originally from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome.
Second Image courtesy of Historic England
