Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

English architect, for biography of whom see Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn, 2008), 295-299, and Dorothy Stroud, George Dance, Architect, 1741-1825 (1971). George Dance the younger visited Ireland in 1795 with Lady Elizabeth Pratt, sister of Lord Camden, the new Lord Lieutenant, whose lover he is said to have been.(1) He would appear to have visited Mount Stewart, the home of Lady Elizabeth's brother-in-law, Robert Stewart, 1st Baron Londonderry, on that occasion. In about 1803, Stewart, now Earl of Londonderry, decided to enlarge the house. He originally proposed that JOHN FERGUSON JOHN FERGUSON , the carpenter who had carried out the Temple of the Winds at Mount Stewart to designs by JAMES STUART  JAMES STUART in 1782, should be entrusted with the design but was persuaded by his son, Lord Castlereagh, to seek Dance's advice. It seems that Dance, who is not known to have revisited Ireland until 1815, sent drawings from London, which were carried out by Ferguson.(2) In 1804 he was paid for plans for the house;(3) the west wing was carried out under Ferguson's supervision in 1804-5.(4)



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References



(1) G. Jackson-Stops & H. Montgomery Hyde, Mount Stewart (National Trust, 1978), 5 (which gives date wrongly as 1791 and states that Lord Camden was the father, rather than the brother, of Lady Elizabeth Pratt).
(2) Drawings and correspondence, including 3 drawings by Dance, and letter from Dance to Lord Londonderry, 1804, in Soane Museum D 3/9/4-6 and D3/9/1a (see Jill Lever, Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) and of George Dance the Elder (1695-1768) from the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum (Oxford University Press, 2004).
(3) PRONI D654/H1/4.
(4) See note 1, above.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for DANCE, GEORGE (JUNIOR) #


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Building: CO. DOWN, MOUNT STEWART
Date: 1804-5
Nature: GD gave advice and designs for building of west wing.  Executant architect: John Ferguson. For Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Londonderry.
Refs: 3 drawings, and letter from Dance to Lord Londonderry, 1804, in Soane Museum D 3/9/4-6 and D3/9/1a (see Jill Lever, Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) and of George Dance the Elder (1695-1768) from the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum (Oxford University Press, 2004); G. Jackson-Stops & H. Montgomery Hyde, Mount Stewart (National Trust, 1978), 5; PRONI D654/H1/4;  C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of North County Down (UAHS, 2002), 96-7.