Plas Newydd on the Menai Straights, with the Menai suspension bridge and the Marquess of Anglesey's column

Plas Newydd was originally built in 1470 as the seat of the Griffith family of Penrhyn and passed by marriage to the Bayly family. It was added to in 1751-3 by Sir Nicholas Bayly, Bt., and was then remodelled in 1783-6 by John Cooper and in 1793-9 by James Wyatt and Joseph Potter for Bayly's son Henry, created 1st Earl of Uxbridge. Humphrey Repton was consulted in the layout of the gardens and park and produced one of his 'red books' for the house in 1799. The estate passed to Henry William Paget, who succeeded his father in 1812 and was created 1st Marquess of Anglesey in 1815, following his valiant conduct at the Battle of Waterloo where he lost a leg. The present picture appears to show the house after 1860 when the column, erected in 1817, was surmounted by a bronze statue of the 1st Marquess. The house remained relatively unchanged until Charles, 6th Marquess, remodelled and modernised it in the 1930s.