Introduction

In 1998 the architectural historian John Harris recalled a visit made in the early 1950s to Belvedere, a country house in Kent, then virtually derelict:

Rain pelted down, and I hurried back into the darkened house. There was an elegant Stuart library, many more Stuart chimney-pieces and rooms with Stuart trim. The real find was upstairs, where a room on the south front was hung with Georgian chinoiserie papers, mounted on canvas and battened to the walls, but defaced by someone who had gone round poking a finger in as many places as possible. ¹