1 Linstrum, Derek West Yorkshire: Architects and Architecture (1978), p. 96.Google Scholar

2 Girouard, Mark Sweetness and Light (1977), pp. 203-04.Google Scholar

3 Johnson, H. A. ‘The Architecture of Ossington Hall’, Transactions of the Thoroton Society 84 (1980).Google Scholar For Tyler and Sanders, see below. For Collmann, see Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings, Qi iA (Designs for Decoration, Ossington Hall). For Wilkins, see Richard Hewlings, in Country Life (correspondence), 15 December 1983.

4 Except where stated, all the information in this paragraph is from Lumb, G. D. ‘The family of Denison of Great Woodhouse, and their residences in Leeds’, Thoreshy Society, xv (1909), 251.Google Scholar

5 And ancestot of the Becket-Denisons whose princely bank, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, still miraculously survives in Park Row, Leeds; of Lord Grimsthorpe, whose restoration of St Albans Cathedral brought the SPAB into existence; and of Sir Martyn Beckett, architect of the remodelling of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, in 1966.

6 University of Nottingham Library, Denison Papers, De H 21 is a plan of this property.

7 The information in the next two paragraphs is from Richard Wilson, ‘Ossington and the Denisons’, History Today, March 1968.

8 Wilson, op. cit.

9 Denison Papers, De B 17, Receipts and Disbursements 1768-85: ‘1774 Septr. 27 pd. Revil the Smith on accot. of Carlton Warehouse. £3.0.1’.

10 Ibid.

11 Wakefield Public Library, Goodchild Collection, Denton Hall Building Accounts.

12 Denison Papers, De B 17. Carr is a common name in the North, yet 1 gn does look suspiciously like a surveyor’s fee. Capability Brown would surely have been given the prefix ‘Mr’ by 1778.

13 Ibid., De 2P/35-39.

14 Wilson, R. G. ‘The Denisons and the Milneses: Eighteenth Century Merchant Landowners’, in Ward, j. T. and Wilson, R. G. (eds), Land and Industry (1971), p. 148.Google Scholar

15 Colvin, H. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (1978), p. 193.Google Scholar

16 Denison Papers, De2P/n.

17 Ibid., De B 20.

18 This paper is not intended to discuss the Denisons’s architectural patronage before the employment of Soane, even though their employment of Carr has not yet been adequately discussed. Dr Ivan Hall’s forthcoming book on Carr will perform this task better than I can. Johnson, op. cit., at least publishes some of the drawings, and discusses them briefly; although this paper makes no use of documentation other than drawings. Richard Wilson’s, op. cit., is the best account, and makes use of the Executors’ Accounts of Robert Denison’s will (De H 47). There is, however, still more information in Receipts and Disbursements 1768-85 (De B 17), and in the Memorandum Book (De B 19).

19 Johnson, op. cit. and Richard Wilson, op. cit., believed, incorrectly, that the mausoleum was never built.

20 Denison Papers, De B 19.

21 Lumb, op. cit.

22 Ellis Waterhouse, Gainsborough, p. 96, and pi. 170: Dr Richard Wilson pointed this out to me.

23 Denison Papers, De 2P/13, 14. For Tyler see Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 (1953), pp. 403-04, which does not list this commission. For his career as an architect see Colvin, op. cit., p. 845.

24 Wilson, Richard op. cit., and Gunnis, op. cit., p. 277.Google Scholar

25 Denison Papers, De H 3/2.

26 Richard Wilson, op. cit.

27 He sat for Colchester, and later Minehead (Richard Wilson, op. cit.).

28 Burke, Sir Bernard Dormant and Extinct Peerages (1883), p. 164.Google Scholar

29 The old house is illustrated in Johnson, op. cit.

30 George Smith of Burn Hall, the Tempests of Brancepeth, both in Durham, Lord Mulgrave of Mulgrave Castle, and John Hall of Skelton Castle, both in Yorkshire, all introduced to Soane through Rowland Burdon of Castle Eden, Co. Durham, whom he met in the circle of the Earl-Bishop while in Italy. Pierre de la Ruffmiere du Prey, John Soane: The Making of an Architect (1982), Dorothy Stroud, The Architecture of Sir John Soane (1961), and Colvin, op. cit., between them provide a considerable list of Soane's patrons.

31 Colvin, op. cit., 767, where the date is mis-printed as 1892.

32 Ibid.

33 Denison papers, De H 5, Account Book 1783-87, for both. There are a number of payments to Perfect for seeds and trees, both in the Leeds and the Ossington accounts. This example is dated 3 October 1783.

34 Museum, Soane Journal 1787 110. 1 Google Scholar, p. no (‘John Denison Esqr’), and Ledger, A 1787, p. 108 Google Scholar (‘J. Denison Esqr’).

35 Denison Papers, De 2P/23-27.

36 Museum, Soane Journal 1787 No. 1, p. 110.Google Scholar

37 Denison Papers, De 2P/21 and 22.

38 Museum, Soane Ledger A 1787, p. 108.Google Scholar

39 Museum, Soane Journal 1787 No. 1, p. 110.Google Scholar

40 Ibid. Soane charged Denison 15 gns for this journey.

41 Ibid. Sanders took 2-V4 days taking plans, 2V2 days travelling, and 8 days drawing them up. Soane charged Denison 12 gns in all.

42 Ibid., and Ledger A 1787, loc. cit.

43 Denison Papers, De 2P/17-20.

44 Prey, du op. cit., p. 330, n. 19.Google Scholar

45 Denison Papers, De B 19, Memorandum Book: 1780.

46 Johnson, op. cit.

47 Binney, Marcus Harris, John and Strong, Roy The Destruction of the Country House (1974), p. 190.Google Scholar

48 Denison Papers, De B 23, Account Book 1786-89.

49 Museum, Soane Journal 1787 No. 1, and Ledger A 1787.Google Scholar