Editing Hammerwood Park (section)

===1790s: design and construction===
{{Quote box|width=27%|quote  = Of John Sperling's cattlefold [mansion] <br />
the architect Latrobe built the first portico<br />
in the year 1792 [[Anno Domini|AD]] and<br />
the second [year] of the 642nd [[Olympiad]].
 |source = <small>Translated from the [[Ancient Greek]] inscription situated on the reverse of a [[Coade stone]] abacus block of a column on the west portico.<ref name=JHU2005 /><ref name=trinder1993>{{cite journal|last1=Trinder|first1=Michael|title=Latrobe's Doric Revival at Hammerwood Park|journal=An Architectural History and Theory Essay Submitted Towards Part One of the Diploma in Architecture, Cambridge University|date=April 1993|url=http://www.hammerwood.mistral.co.uk/doric.htm|accessdate=9 August 2015}}</ref></small>
}}
In {{circa}} late 1791 or early 1792, John Sperling (1763–1851) is recorded by [[Christian Ignatius Latrobe]] as visiting architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, his brother, in London.<ref name=JHU2005 /> Sperling, who already had a country seat at Dynes Hall, a 17th-century country house and {{convert|500|acre|ha|adj=on}} estate in [[Great Maplestead]], [[Essex]], came from a wealthy family which had made its fortune in the London [[fur trade]] after emigrating from [[Sweden]]. Only a year older than Latrobe, who was at that time a pupil of [[S. P. Cockerell]], he commissioned Latrobe to design and build a new country house and hunting lodge, in the Germanic tradition of the ''[[Jagdschloss]]'', on the site of the Bower. Sperling chose to name the new house '''Hammerwood Lodge''' at this point, probably as a romantic reference to the hammer used in the furnace of the iron forge which had existed in the area since the [[Middle Ages]]. Latrobe is thought to have supervised the construction from the autumn of 1792 onwards, its proximity to [[Ashdown House, East Sussex|Ashdown House]], his second commission (near [[Forest Row]]) allowing for the sharing of craftsmen and suppliers of building materials – and for Latrobe to supervise both coincidentally.<ref name=JHU2005 />

Trinder describes the design as comprising "a large, [[Palladian]] central block (''[[corps de logis]]'') accentuated by a giant order of shallow pilasters flanked by low arcaded wings terminated in tetrastyle porticoes, while an asymmetric service wing stretches toward the northeast, hidden behind the bulk of the house."<ref name=trinder1993 /> [[Coade stone|Coadeware plaques]] of scenes derived from the [[Borghese Vase]] adorn both porticos, and the influence of the temples at [[Paestum]], which Latrobe may have witnessed on during prior visit to [[Naples]], and [[Delos]] has been noted by scholars.<ref name=trinder1993 /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hamlin|first1=Talbot|title=Benjamin Henry Latrobe|url=https://archive.org/details/benjaminhenrylat0000haml|url-access=registration|date=1955|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/benjaminhenrylat0000haml/page/44 44–46]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=C. D.|title=The Influence of Archaeological Publications in the Emergence of a Greek Revival Style, 1759-1809|date=1962|publisher=BA thesis, School of Architecture, University of Cambridge|location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Weisberg|first1=Gabriel P.|title=The Documented Image: Visions in Art History|date=1 January 1987|publisher=Syracuse University Press|page=247}}</ref> [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] also observed that the columns were "patently inspired by the then very recent work of such men as [[Claude Nicolas Ledoux|Ledoux]] and [[Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart|Brongniart]]".<ref name="pevsner" />

In 1795, due to problems in obtaining payment for another project, Latrobe was faced with severe financial problems. When his wife, Lydia Sellon, having [[maternal death|died in childbirth]] in November 1793, he is thought to have suffered a breakdown. Declared bankrupt and unable to pay some of his workmen, he emigrated to [[United States|America]] on 25 November 1795.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hamlin|first1=Talbot|title=Benjamin Henry Latrobe|url=https://archive.org/details/benjaminhenrylat0000haml|url-access=registration|date=1955|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/benjaminhenrylat0000haml/page/34 34–54]}}</ref> There is some doubt over whether Hammerwood was finished by this point; it is possible that the Sperlings supervised its completion in Latrobe's absence.<ref name=JHU2005 /> However, the failure of a large investment in a [[Dublin]] distillery led the Sperlings to lose £70,000 (equivalent to approximately £5.9 million in 2021 pounds); the artist and diarist [[Joseph Farington]] reported that they and their partners 'overbuilt themselves at a vast expense'. Between 1798 and 1800, Sperling was compelled to give up both Hammerwood and his London home and to move back to his Dynes Hall estate.<ref name=JHU2005 />