Mount Stewart, County Down

A passage from the central hall Ieads to the core of Dance's earlier house - an imperial staircase with stone treads, wrought-iron balusters and a ramped mahogany handrail. The roof is lit by an octagonal skylight dome with segmental arch supports that is typical of Dance and of his famous pupil Sir John Soane. Below are large display cases filled with a variety of fine porcelain, part of a large collection at Mount Stewart. The dominant feature of the room, however, and perhaps the most important picture in Ireland is the magnificent 'Hambletonian', the masterpiece by George Stubbs that was moved here from Londonderry House during the last war. It depicts a racehorse owned by Sir Henry Vane-Tempest being rubbed down after it had just beaten Joseph Cookson's horse Diamond at Newmarket in 1799.

Adjacent to the staircase hall is the music room, which lies at the centre of the west front, flanked by the sitting-room and the Castlereagh room. All three rooms remain very much as Dance had left them, particularly the music room with its delicate ceiling of pendentives and its oak and mahogany floor with central inlaid patera - almost certainly the work of John Ferguson who was responsible for the outstanding marquetry on the floor of the upper room in the Temple of the Winds. The flanking Castlereagh room, originally the dining room and later the library, has been filled by the National Trust with items relevant to the life and times of Lord Castlereagh - the 'Winston Churchill' of British politics during and after the Napoleonic War.

Morrison's principal reception rooms - the dining room and the drawing-room - flank the south and north elevations respectively. They are both spacious, long, rectangular rooms, but the dining-room has subsequently been shortened by the incorporation of a kitchen at the east end, beyond a screen of lonic columns. The room is still impressive, however, and ranged against the walls are the twenty-two Empire chairs which were used by the delegates to the Congress of Vienna in 1815; the backs and seats of the chairs were embroidered by nuns in Nantes for Edith, seventh Marchioness, depicting the arms of those present and the nations they represented. Above the chairs hang life-sized portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller of the first Earl and Countess of Albermarle, forebears of Lady Mairi Bury's late husband and Edith's son-in-law. King Edward and Queen Alexandra would have dined here when they visited Mount Stewart in 1903. One wonders whether the sixth Marquess, in the presence of the King, indulged his famed habit of eating dinner as rapidly as possible - a habit which understandably made him very unpopular with guests whose plates were often whisked away by footmen before they had tasted anything.

The vast drawing-room, with lonic column screens at each end, remains much as it was after being decorated in the 1930s by Edith, seventh Marchioness, who like her mother-in-law before her was one of the great political hostesses of the time. The furnishing comprises quite a mixture of pieces from different periods, including Carrara marble urns and vases, tripod candlesticks carved with winged lions, standard lamps, sofas, armchairs, occasional tables - all grouped informally as if the house guests were expected to return at any moment. It is perhaps sad that they never will, but the house and its remarkable gardens are now wonderfully maintained by the National Trust for all to enjoy.

Located 5 miles south-east of Newtownards on the Portaferry Road (A20). NGR: J 55269X. Toilet facilities. Admission charged to house, gardens and temple Tel: (024774) 387.

From the Appletree Press title: Irish Country Houses.