Elevation of the entrance facade of Burn Hall, County Durham, designed by John Soane, 1783-5

Elevation of the entrance facade of a two-storey country house with a giant Ionic tetrastyle curving portico surmounted by urns and a central dome. The frieze is copied from the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.

This drawing was pasted into a copy of Sir John Soane's book Designs for Public and Private Buildings owned by Soane's assistant Charles James Richardson. Richardson built up a large collection of originals and copies (many of which he executed himself) of his master's designs, and distributed the bulk of them into two folio volumes, interspersed with the printed pages of the book. These volumes were bought by the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) in 1863.

In 1783 Soane was commissioned by George Smith to build a new mansion (Burn Hall) on his estate in County Durham. By all accounts Smith had a mania for building. He over-extended himself and eventually went bankrupt, after commissioning Burn Hall and Piercefield in Monmouthshire from Soane. The Piercefield project claimed Smith's attention to the detriment of Burn Hall, which was never built. According to du Prey (1985) this drawing is probaly the one which went on exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1785, and was later collected by Richardson.

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