Ryston Hall

The Pratts had owned land in the neighborhood of Ryston since the mid-16th century. Roger Pratt was born in 1620 and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford and at the Inner Temple, although he never practised law. In his youth he travelled extensively in Europe to avoid the English Civil war. His travelling influenced his subsequent career; he later offered advice to those unable to design their own houses; "[get] some ingenious gentleman who has seen much of that kind abroad and been somewhat versed in the best authors of Architecture; viz. Palladio, Scamozzi, Serlio etc. to do it for you". Another influence was Inigo Jones. Although in the tradition of the gentleman amateur, Pratt became…

Pratt's house followed the double-pile plan he had first employed at Coleshill. The house is of nine bays, with a raised three-bay central section. Summerson describes it as of "rather a novel fashion, reflecting his French sympathies in a central high-roofed pavilion". Above the roofline Pratt included a clock tower with a bell-cot. The house was built of English bond brick. Nikolaus Pevsner, in his Buildings of England, notes that only "the shell remains", following Soane's remodelling. Soane raised the height of the two flanking wings, reordered the roofline and constructed a new porch on the north frontage of the house. Salvin's contribution was more modest; Allibone and Pevsner…