There were various proposals made for the rebuilding of this part of
the house during the 1760s and 1770s. William Constable commissioned a
design for a new dining room from Thomas Atkinson, and Timothy Lightoler
provided an extraordinary design for a museum complete with experiment
room. However, following William’s marriage to Catherine Langdale in
1775, he settled on a plan to create the Great Drawing Room. In 1776 the
architect James Wyatt (1746-1813) presented a bill for the designs.
All this changed when in 1840 the Clifford Constables undertook
extensive re-decoration. The ceiling and all the woodwork was repainted -
the details picked out in strong colours with gilded highlights - and
the walls covered in bright yellow silk. The mirrors were repaired and
re-gilded and the seat furniture re-upholstered. A new carpet was woven
which incorporated the family crest into the design and the huge
palm-tree ottoman was provided for the centre of the room. The four
full-length portraits, by Claude-Marie Dubuffe (1790-1864), originally
hung in the family’s London home at Cumberland Place, London.