House Tour
Lady William Gordon's Room
This room was originally the upper part of the Tudor staircase that rose from what is now the Terrace Room on the
ground floor below. Its floor was put in when the new main staircase was put in by James Wyatt in the 1770s and
became the ante-room to the mid Georgian Dining Room and Withdrawing Room that replaced the old Jacobean Great
Chamber. It was altered again in 1796 when it was remodelled into the bedchambers for the daughters and grand-
daughters of the ninth Viscount Irwin in 1796. It appears to have had a green-ground wallpaper at this time.
In the inventory of 1808 this room was described as '6th Room Lady William Gordon's'. She was born Frances Ingram,
the second daughter of Charles ninth Viscount Irwin and his wife Frances nee Shepheard. In 1781 she married Lord
William Gordon and they had one daughter. The contents of the room indicate that it was probably her private
sitting room or boudoir, perhaps associated with the so-called Darnley Room beyond which may have been her
bedroom.
The room has been redecorated in 2005 with a copy of a wallpaper of the late 1820s found in Lord William Gordon's
Dressing Room on the ground floor.
Room restored 2005
The Darnley Room
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