The main building he did not alter, except by suggesting a portico to the entrance front, known to have formed a part of the original design, though never actually executed; but he swept away a mass of subordinate buildings on each side, containing the existing offices and stables, and, designing a noble entrance court in proportion to the massive scale of the building, he flanked it with two blocks of buildings (containing the accommodation required), symmetrically designed, and showing remarkable boldness of detail. These new blocks of building he connected with the central building with quadrantal corridors, closed to the side of the entrance court, but open to the private gardens on the other side.
Having thus given grandeur and unity to a previously ineffective building, he proceeded to connect it with the scenery around. He altered the great avenue of approach through the park, so as to bring it, where it approached the new entrance court, into a position of centrality to the building. On the other side he remodelled the private gardens in his favourite Italian style, and so gave to the windows of the private apartments a view more suitable than that of the grass fields, into which they had previously looked.
The effect, as usual, was to give the house perfect novelty and dignity of effect, by utilising to the utmost size and capabilities comparatively wasted before.
Harewood House.—A somewhat similar work was carried out for the Earl of Harewood, in the years 1843 to 1850. Harewood House is situated about nine miles from Leeds, in a position of great beauty, looking over the valley of the Wharfe. It was a house of some scale and pretension, built in 1759, by Messrs. Carr and Adams, with a lofty centre, having a large engaged Corinthian order, and connected by lower curtains with the wings, which were plainer in design.
It had apparently some massiveness of design and merits of proportion. It needed finish, life, and variety. The treatment of the work by Mr. Barry (additional accommodation being required) was simply to raise the wings, altering their design so as to bring them into greater importance and greater harmony with the centre, and to improve the design of the centre itself, by adding a handsome balustrade, and by raising the chimney-stacks to the dignity of architectural features, so as to vary the flat and monotonous lines of the former roof. Little else was done except that some beautiful carving (by Mr. Thomas), in the pediment and elsewhere, gave the greater richness and life which the original design wanted. But the effect was considerable, and the house now commands attention, not only by its scale and proportion, but by the evidence of taste and design visible throughout.
In the interior the work merely included some alteration and enlargement of the principal rooms and basement, and some new decorations.
But the gardens here also engaged his attention. The park and grounds had been laid out by Mr. Lancelot Brown (well known in the last generation as a landscape gardener), but the garden near the house itself remained to be treated in Mr. Barry’s usual style. A grand terrace garden was formed on the south side, rising by a handsome flight of steps to the level of the house, adorned with sculptures and fountains, and laid out in parterre beds of architectural design. The gardens, kept up as they are with great care and skill, are among the chief sights of the neighbourhood. It need not be added that they thoroughly harmonize with the building and give it completeness and magnificence.
Shrubland Park.—But of all parks of this kind probably the most successful was that carried out for Sir W. Middleton at Shrubland Park in the year 1848. Inferior in extent to the work at Trentham, it presented greater capabilities, and was more perfect in result. On the house itself he produced a striking alteration. The original building had little architectural character; but it had been considerably altered in 1830 from the design of Mr. Gandy Deering. On the house, as thus altered, Sir C. Barry had to work, and the effect produced will be seen by an inspection of the annexed woodcuts. He added a new entrance, with a sculpture gallery on each side. At the same time he raised a portion of the house, so as to form a beautiful specimen of his favourite Italian towers, and substituted balustrades for the large pediments surmounting the various fronts, which would have grouped ill with the tower, and,
