View of Hollin Hall, North Yorkshire, with cattle in the foreground and Ripon beyond

Hollin Hall was acquired by John Wood (1682-1757) for £1,600 in 1719 and soon after he began extensive rebuilding. Newby Hall, two miles to the east, which had been built in the 1690s by Sir Edward Blackett, a wealthy coalmine owner, provided the architectural model. In 1719 Newby Hall was still much the most impressive modern house near Ripon, and among the handful of great classical Yorkshire houses. Like the original entrance (now garden front) of Newby, Hollin Hall is nine bays wide and has slightly projecting two-bay quoined wings flanking a five-bay centre with a one-bay centre piece. The following lot shows the house shortly after the completion of John Wood's rebuilding. This view shows the south front of the house subsequent to the later remodelling for Richard Wood (d.1815) by the York architect Charles Watson between 1810 and 1813. Among other alterations undertaken in this later remodelling the unfashionable red brick of the earlier house was disguised with render and painted white.