been a substantial square house with three storeys and dormers. The entrance front had nine bays and a portico. The engraving also shows the earlier moated house to the south of the new house. Porden Hall By the time that Robert Grosvenor, then the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, and later the 1st Marquess of Westminster, inherited the estate in 1802, the Samwell Hall had become old-fashioned and in need of renovation. Grosvenor appointed William Porden to plan the improvements. Building started in 1803 and Porden (later assisted by Porden's son-in-law Joseph Kay) estimated it would take three years to build at a cost of £10,000 (). In the event it took just under 10 years and cost over £100,000 (). The previous house was encased and surrounded by "every possible permutation of the gothic style"; including turrets, pinnacles, arched windows, octagonal towers, and buttresses (both regular and flying). Two new wings were added in the first stage, and in the 1820s more wings were added, by this time under the direction of Benjamin Gummow. The interior of the house was as lavish as the exterior, with more Gothic detailing. The hangings for the state bed included of purple damask and of sarsenet (fine silk) trimmed with gold lace. When the future Queen Victoria visited in 1832 at the age of 13, she wrote in her journal: "The house is magnificent". Others described it as being "as extravagant and opulent as the very latest upholsterer-decorators could make it". A critic found it "the most gaudy concern I ever saw" and "a vast pile of mongrel gothic which ... is a monument of wealth, ignorance and bad taste". Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, succeeded his father in 1845 and commissioned the Scottish architect William Burn to make alterations to the house. Burn raised the centre of the south front to make it look like a tower, and changed some of the external Gothic features. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described this house as a "spectacular Gothic mansion". Waterhouse Hall The 2nd Marquess died in 1869 and was succeeded by his son Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, initially the 3rd Marquess and from 1874 the 1st Duke of Westminster. He appointed Alfred Waterhouse to design another new hall. Again the core of the previous hall was retained; parts were refaced and re-modelled, other parts were completely rebuilt. A private wing was built for the use