Marble Hill was built in 1724–29 for the courtier Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk. Notwithstanding its crisp, sculpted presence, the house is diminutive and was described in 1760 as ‘white as snow, a small building without wings, but of a most pleasing appearance’; distilling all the ingredients suitable for elegant entertainment and retreat. It was erected at a moment when a new architectural style — termed Palladianism after the inspiration it drew from the work of the 16th-century Vincentine architect Andrea Palladio — was set to transform English architectural taste. The story of its genesis is complicated and involved a circle of individuals.

One of the leading architects active in promoting Palladianism, Colen Campbell, published a version of the design for the house in

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