Sin, Sculpture and Scandal: What is the Truth about Sir Francis Dashwood's West Wycombe Park?

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Sir Francis Dashwood, who used to dress as a Franciscan monk and allegedly took part in orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, was one of the most notorious libertines of the 18th century. Is this a correct depiction of his character? John thinks not. Instead, he acquired his dubious reputation as a result of slurs cast by his political enemies, which Sir Francis, who didn’t care what anyone else thought about him, chose to ignore. His refusal to stoop to the level of his opponents has meant that some of the mud has unfairly stuck. But he can now be reexamined as one of the Georgian period’s most fascinating and complex personalities, who among other achievements, published a book of common prayer for ordinary people with his friend, the American statement Benjamin Franklin.

Today, Dashwood’s reputation as a dilettante is kept alive by his country house, West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, owned by the National Trust but still lived in by Dashwood’s family. His mentor was his guardian, John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, who built Mereworth Castle in Kent as a homage to Palladio’s Villa Rotunda in the Venetian. Dashwood employed several architects to create not only a splendid house with, unusually, different facades that could be read independently, but a fine landscape park well-stocked with follies. The dazzling interiors of the house are so rich that no subsequent owner has seen fit to replace them. They survive as an extraordinary document of 18th-century taste and ideas.