Lyme Park

The symmetrical 15-bay three-storey south front overlooking the pond is the work of Leoni.[2] Although Leoni had been influenced by the works and principles of Palladio,[14] both Pevsner and the authors of the citation in the National Heritage List for England agree that the design of this front is more Baroque than Palladian.[2][3] The bottom storey is rusticated with arched windows, and the other storeys are smooth with rectangular windows. The middle three bays consist of a portico of which the lowest storey has three arches. Above this arise four giant fluted Ionic columns supporting a triangular pediment.[2][3] Standing on the pediment are three lead statues, of Neptune, Venus and Pan.[15] The pediment partly hides Wyatt's blind balustraded ashlar attic block. The other bays are separated by plain Ionic pilasters and the end three bays on each side protrude slightly.[2][3] The nine-bay three-storey east front is mostly Elizabethan in style and has Wyatt's single-storey extension protruding from its centre.[3] The courtyard was remodelled by Leoni, who gave it a rusticated cloister on all sides. Above the cloister the architecture differs on the four sides although all the windows on the first (piano nobile) floor have pediments. On the west side is a one-bay centrepiece with a window between two Doric pilasters; on the south and north are three windows with four similar pilasters; and on the east front is the grand entrance with a portal in a Tuscan aedicule.[2] This entrance is between the first and second storeys and is approached by symmetrical pairs of stairs with iron balusters,[3] which were made in 1734 by John Gardom of Baslow, Derbyshire.[16][b] In the centre of the courtyard is an Italian Renaissance well-head, surrounded by chequered pink and white stone, simulating marble.[10]