Mt Ievers Court

While we're on dream houses there's Mount Ievers in Ireland. It was built in the 1730's by an architect named John Rothery of whom I know next to nothing.

Foursquare, intense and abstract, this house has fixed itself in my mind like an unforgettable dream. It looks exactly like my idea of a house, but it is as inscrutable as a mask.

In Sebald's The Rings of Saturn the narrator lodges for a few days with a family of impoverished gentry, the Ashburys, Three impractical old Irish spinsters occupy their house like refugees; they eat standing up, dry seed in paper bags hanging from clotheslines strung up around the library and work minute and intricate embroideries. I thought of Mt Ievers when I read about the Ashburys, but it took a few years for me to remember its name.

Wooton Lodge

I just had to post a photo of a favorite building, Wooton Lodge in England. Built around 1600 and probably designed by Robert Smythson though no documentary evidence exists.

It was very handsomely modified around 1740. The chimneys were rebuilt at that time, the stair to the front door added and the forecourt with it's eliptical drive and corner pavilions were laid out. Very sympathetic enhancements.

I love how this building rises with such poise on a promontory that projects out into a little valley.