The great neoclassical architect designed a dairy, stables and a sublime kennel
In 1806, Sir John Soane completed his grand sweep of alterations and additions to Port Eliot – originally the 13th-century Priory of St Germans. He had been commissioned by the second Lord Eliot, a man of action and taste who had already done much of Port Eliot’s landscaping himself. Soane’s work was to embrace the whole estate, making considerable alterations and additions to the house, as well as designing heavily machicolated Gothic stables, along with a dairy and an ingenious, tricking-the-eye house for the cattle. Beneath the eaves, what appears to be a fluted frieze is in fact a ventilating system of considerable length, operated by a knob which, when pulled, slides panels aside to open or close the flutes. What a delicate doubling-up of taste and technology, to be sure! The greatest elegance was applied with considerable charm on buildings for animals throughout the country. Elihu Burritt, the American...
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