Temple of Music Reflected (West Wycombe Park)

Extract from “The Dashwoods of West Wycombe” by Sir Francis Dashwood -
“The Temple of Music consists of a single room in the shape of a horseshoe. For dances forty couples can be squeezed into it. On the outside there is a colonnade which runs right around the back. And beneath it a series of cellars. In the middle of the floor there is a large rectangular panel which perhaps formed part of a stage which could be lowered or raised. The inventory of 1781 mentions such a stage. The Temple was used, and is still used, for summer parties; one of Daniell’s paintings of 1781 shows it full of guests, with others arriving in gondola-shaped boats.”