1 Radley Hall now makes up one of a large complex of different buildings of various dates, the most recent being completed in 2001. These form Radley College. In 1994 the College needed to improve its facilities, in particular by creating a central library and information centre. In the process of reorganizing, Radley Hall lost the Wilson Library which had been housed in the three south-facing ground-floor rooms, and a new function was needed for the building. In its 1994 form, it did not appear to be a suitable place for the entertaining and hospitality which was needed.

2 William Townesend was the son of a master mason, who by the end of the second decade of the eighteenth century ‘was beginning to take his father’s place as the leading master mason in Oxford, and it is clear that, like other men of his kind, he was competent to design as well as to build.’ He is known to have worked at Blenheim Palace, he enlarged Thornhill Manor Farm-house, Clyffe Pypard, Wilts, for Brasenose College, and he designed a farmhouse on the Isle of Wight for the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church (Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840, 3rd edn (New Haven and London, 1995), pp. 984–87). For the Contract, see Hope, V., ‘The Architect of Radley Hall’, Country Life, 108, 27 January 1950, pp. 237ffGoogle Scholar. For the ascription of Woodperry House to Townesend see Airs, M., ‘The Woodperry House Chimney Piece’, in Airs, (ed.), Baroque and Palladiani The Early 18th-Century Great House (Oxford, 1996), pp. 47–51)Google Scholar.

3 The College archive produced various important pieces of information, including the name of the architect and the building contract, the catalogue of the 1815 sale in which the contents of the house were sold before it was let as a school, a view of the house by J. M. W. Turner, and photographs. The Journal of one of the founders of the College, R. C. Singleton (1847-), which described the early years of setting up and fashioning the College out of the country house, proved to give very little information on the building which they found. The Catalogue of the Contents of St Peter’s College, Radley (1856) was also uninformative. There was no detailed account of later alterations.

4 The entry in the account book of Capability Brown at the library of the Royal Horticultural Society is headed ‘Sir William Stonehouse Bart, Radley, Reed. April 1770 on account 200. o. o. in Deer. 1770 Reed, of Sr. William 200. o. o. April the 3d. 1771. Reed, of Sr. William 200. o. o. and Received of Sr. William Stonhouse Bart A Draft on Messrs. Hoare & Co. dated June the 9 1773 for, 72. being a Balance of the above account and in full of all Demands’ ( Cardwell, H. & Boyd, A. K., ‘Capability Brown at Radley’, The Radleian (1986), p. 63)Google Scholar.

5 The plans and illustrations are grouped together on pp. 344–47.

6 Mark Girouard describes ceremony in the dining room in the later part of the eighteenth century and its nature as a defined room separate from the withdrawing room (Life in the English Country House (London & New Haven, 1978), pp. 203f).

7 Ideas on house-planning were probably stimulated by the Household Books, the rules of behaviour for the Royal Household. For a comprehensive list of Royal and other Household Regulations, see Girouard, op. cit., pp. 319f.

8 Clarendon House, Piccadilly; Kingston Lacy, Dorset; Horseheath Hall, Cambs. For Pratt’s own notes on these houses, see Gunter, R. (ed.), The Architecture of Sir Roger Pratt (Oxford, 1928), pp. 98–166 Google Scholar. For their plans see Maguire, A. M., The Planning of the English Country House 1660-1700, unpublished PhD thesis, Courtauld Institute, London, 1989, pp. 129, 201, 204Google Scholar.

9 Ranelagh House, Chelsea; Newington House, Oxford; Hackwood, Hampshire; Pilewell, Hampshire; and Gregories, Buckinghamshire, among others. For plans see Maguire, op. cit., pp. 294, 298, 301, 303, 305.

10 Evidence of theoretical interest in house-planning is apparent from the early 1600s: Bacon describes the ‘perfect palace’ in his essay ‘Of Building’, published in 1597; there are ideal plans by Smythson, John in the early 1600s (see Architectural History, 5 (1962)Google Scholar, e.g., pp. 116 & 161), and more in Summerson, John, ‘The Book of Architecture ofjohn Thorpe in Sir John Soane’s Museum’, Walpole Society, XL (1966)Google Scholar. Inigo Jones and his circle definitely explored new ways of planning and recorded new plans, as can be seen in the pages of sketches by John Webb, which include two plans by Jones. For these see Harris, J. and Tait, A. A., Catalogue of the Drawings by Inigo Jones, John Webb & Isaac de Caus at Worcester College (Oxford, 1979) pl. 115f.Google Scholar

11 See Colvin, H. M. and Newman, John (eds), Of Building (Oxford, 1981), pp. 70-77Google Scholar. Celia Fiennes gives vivid descriptions of the interiors of houses she visited on her travels and the activities which took place in the different rooms (see, e.g, Morris, (ed.), The Journeys of Celia Fiennes (1947))Google Scholar. It is she who uses the term ‘glide’ to describe the through-passage from front door to garden door. The necessity of closets and the need for apartments are made clear: she highlights the interior features on which she thought it worth commenting, in particular recent innovations and new arrangements. Room names included in this article are taken from those used by Celia Fiennes and Roger North.

12 A response to a need for more private accommodation can be seen in many houses built around 1700. At least two great apartments (one for the Master, the other for the honoured visitor) were introduced. This is ‘capsule’ accommodation: a set of rooms providing all the needs for one person. See Maguire, A. M., ‘Great Apartments in the English Baroque Country House’ (in Airs, , ed. cit. (n. 2), pp. 69–71 Google Scholar) for plans and explanation of those at Dyrham Park, Easton Neston, Castle Howard, Heythrop, Uppark and Beningborough. Andor Gomme has pointed out that plans of two ranges, with stairs set to each side of the great hall, and bedchambers with closets, became a formula plan in the first half of the eighteenth century and were disparaged as such by critics later in the century. In my view Radley fits best with North’s category of A House of Two Ranges rather than The Six-Room Plan which is not noted by North but contained within his Two-Range Plan. See Gomme, ‘Craftsmen-Architects or Reptile Artizans’ (in Airs, ed. cit.) for comments on Gibbs and Smith as planners.

13 It is clear, from additions and alterations made to many houses at the end of the eighteenth century and in the first half of the nineteenth, that libraries became more important at this time. The library was no longer thought of as an extended version of the Master’s closet, a place to which he could retire, but had become a necessary part of country-house living, an informal room which could be used to receive visitors who would then be exposed to the erudition and learning of their host. See Girouard, op. cit., p. 234. Changes were made at Kingston Lacy, enlarging ‘his study’ into a library; at Stourhead, a great library was added as one of the pavilions; earlier at Rousham a pavilion was built to house the Dormer library. A closer parallel with the plan at Radley can be found at Belsay, Northumberland where Sir Charles Monck designed his new house in 1806-07 with the library placed centrally on the south front of the ground floor. It is known that Sir Charles prized learning above almost everything else. For Belsay see Hewlings, R. and Anderton, S., Belsay Hall Garden and Castle (1994)Google Scholar.

14 Boyd, A. K. recounts the early history of the mansion and the later history of the school in The History of Radley College (Oxford, 1948)Google Scholar. Changes also took place in the years after 1815, when the second Sir George Bowyer, through unwise investment in commercial ventures on his estate, became bankrupt and was forced to sell the contents of his house (Sale Catalogue at the College). From 1819 to 1844, Sir George leased his mansion to Benjamin Kent for his Nonconformist Radley Hall School. In 1847, the Revd William Sewell and the Revd R. C. Singleton leased the mansion from Bowyer’s son, also George. Singleton’s Journal (at the College) records the early years in which they established the College. Radley Hall was the principal College building, housing the boys and the dons as well as supplying common rooms. Sewell and Singleton added buildings as they could and made changes to the use of the Hall. A photograph taken in 1888 (Boyd, op. cit., p. 225) shows the three south-facing rooms being used as the dining hall. It was not until 1924 that they became the Wilson Library. More information on Radley’s history can be found in Christopher Hibbert’s No Ordinary Place (1997) and in Chemiavsky, M. and Money, A. E., Looking at Radley (Radley, 1981)Google Scholar.