This was altered by Granville Leveson Gower circa 1860. He introduced the panelled dado and the inlaid oak chimneypiece, brought from elsewhere; it is dated 1646 and bears the initials SWA. The present lighter, harmonious decoration of the room reflects 1920s taste when the woodwork was stripped and limed at the time the room became the principal drawing room. The coloured tiles in the fireplace with the initials W.G. and the grasshopper crest are a further sign of Granville Leveson Gower’s antiquarian enthusiasm. He had them copied from an Elizabethan tile found on the site of the New Hall, Limpsfield (now
Limpsfield Grange School).

The pretty cornflower-patterned china in the case to the left of the chimneypiece while seemingly all the same is in fact of three different manufacturers: Paris (Dihl & Guerhard), Derby and Worcester. More China is displayed in the top of Martha Clayton’s Queen Anne walnut bureau between the windows, mainly Meissen and Chelsea-Derby green floral patterned plates. Martha Clayton was the aunt of Katherine Maria Gresham, to whom she left her possessions. Katherine Maria herself appears in the pastel portrait by Daniel Gardener. She was the last of

the Greshams of Titsey and it was her marriage in 1804 to William Leveson Gower which brought the estate to that family. The striking sixteenth century portrait of two little girls, hanging above the piano, is a mystery. The identity of the sitters is not known and it is not a family portrait: it was obtained by Granville Leveson Gower as payment for a debt. The most interesting picture in the room is John Wooton’s view of the park at Kenwood, (above) with London in the distance, which hangs opposite the window. It is signed and dated 1760, and has a very good English rococo frame. The figures on the terrace include Lord Mansfield (the owner of Kenwood), the Duchess of Devonshire and her brother Edmund Hoskins who commissioned the painting. He left his collection to the Gresham family of Titsey.