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My #countryhousepic today shows Aqualate Hall, #Staffordshire as it existed in 1686. The house was built about 1600, perhaps engulfing the gatehouse of its mid C16 predecessor. The forecourt of c.1670 has busts on piers, in the manner of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. 
In 1689 Aqualate Hall passed by marriage from the Skrymshers to the Baldwyns, and there were two phases of remodelling in the C18, c.1730 and c.1770, leaving the house looking like this at the end of the century
In 1796 Aqualate was sold to the trustees of Sir John Fenton Fletcher Boughey (1784-1823), 2nd bt.,, who came of age in 1805 and brought in John Nash to remodel the house as a fantasy palace with buttresses, battlements and ogee domes.
My #countryhousepic today shows Sissinghurst Castle #Kent in the late 18th century. The great courtyard house was pulled down, probably in the 1790s, leaving only the gatehouse tower and outer court buildings that survive today.
The great house of Sissinghurst was built in two phases for Sir John Baker (d. 1558) and his son Sir Richard (d. 1594). The long range which greets visitors today dates from the 1530s (but was extended in the C17); the tower behind is of c.1560.
In the mid 18th century, Sissinghurst Castle was used as a prisoner of war camp for French sailors and soldiers captured during the Seven Years War. One of them drew a bird's eye view of the castle
