Mereworth Castle (Main Block)

Mereworth Castle (main block)

A house designed by Colin Campbell and completed in 1723 for John Fane, who became the 1st Earl of Westmorland in 1736. The building is based on Palladio's Villa Capra near Vicenza and represents a major work of early 18th-century English Palladianism.

The exterior is a large square block with four identical fronts, except that the east and west sides lack portico steps. The walls are stuccoed in 'stone colour' with Portland stone porticos, entablatures and window surrounds. A string-course runs above the basement, with a cornice-band at portico entablature level. The hipped slate roof carries a heavily banded almost hemispherical dome with a blind lantern surrounded by high half-columns. Each front is dominated by a Hexastyle Ionic portico with a flight of steps up to it on the north and south sides. Single pedimented and balconied windows occupy the 1st floor on each side of the porticos. The building was originally moated; parts of the moat remain visible to the north. Garden balustrades to the north connect with the side walls and abutments of the portico steps.

The interior, which survives almost completely, contains exceptional plasterwork by Francesco Bagutti and fresco painting by Francesco Sleter. The Entrance Hall is barrel-vaulted with plaster busts in shells over side doors and a pair of female allegorical figures over the arched doorway into the central rotunda. The Rotunda rises two storeys beneath the dome with plaster copping. Four major axial and four minor diagonal doorways pierce both floors; the upper doors open to a deep balustraded gallery supported on carved volute brackets, with a cornice running beneath it. The walls display sumptuous plasterwork featuring pairs of female figures, putti and busts in shells over the doorways, rectangular relief panels, portrait busts and foliage drops. The axial doors have Ionic fluted doorcases set in deep recesses with arched heads; the east and west doors contain eagles with cartouches and wreaths, the south door shows the Fane crest, and the north door displays a bull's head in a coronet. Subsidiary doors below and axial doors above have triangular pediments.

The Library features a coved vault with central rectangular plaster compartments. The main doorcase has Corinthian half-columns and a pediment, with subsidiary doors having flat hoods. Shelves stand proud of the walls.

The West Bed-Chamber has a corner fireplace and a compartmented painted and plastered ceiling decorated with allegorical and antique scenes. A modillion cornice with pulvinated frieze completes the wall treatment. The West Dressing Room contains a two-storey fireplace with four corner volutes supporting the mantel, and a similarly compartmented painted and plastered ceiling with allegorical and antique scenes, modillion cornice and pulvinated frieze.

The Long Gallery is a particularly important room, with a deep cove painted illusionistically in the early 18th-century Venetian style by Francesco Sleter, dated 1732. Central plaster compartments contain five 'quadro riportati' allegorical scenes also by Sleter. A modillion cornice features frieze-decoration of masks and wreaths. Three doorways with Corinthian half-columned and triangular pedimented surrounds and two pedimented chimney-pieces are located within the space.

The East Dressing Room has a central rectangular ceiling panel with an allegorical scene and painted decoration in the corners. A two-storey pedimented chimney-piece and an apple floor in geometrical patterns are features, along with a modillion cornice with acanthus frieze.

The East Bedroom is compartmented with a painted and plastered ceiling showing allegorical and antique scenes, a corner fireplace, and a modillion cornice with scroll and putti relief frieze.

The Dining Room has a coved ceiling with scrolled plaster supports in the corners and a three-compartment plaster ceiling in a rectangular surround. A mid-18th-century rococo fireplace with volute supports is present.