of whom died. Charles Shaw Lefevre senior suffered badly with gout, and died in 1823. His widow, Helena, died in France in 1834. The younger Charles Shaw Lefevre inherited from his father and entered Parliament as the (Whig) Member for Downton, Isle of Wight, in 1830. After the Reform of Parliament, he became the MP for North Hampshire to which he was returned unopposed from 1832 until his retirement in 1857. He showed an interest mainly in agricultural affairs, particularly the heated topic of corn prices, and he chaired a Commission on Agricultural Depression 1835–36. Charles and Emma Shaw Lefevre undertook two further phases of work to the manor house: by 1840 square bay windows had been added to the east and west fronts, and outside, a formal Italianate balustraded terrace had been wrapped around the east and south fronts; by the 1850s, the whole of the south-east corner of the house had been thrown out to create a fine library (a scheme that possibly involved Edward Blore, whose diaries record visits to Heckfield Place in December and January 1846–47). Probably at the same time, French windows were inserted into the south front, giving direct access to the garden from the drawing room. Sicilian marble columns and fireplaces were added in the public rooms, the cast-iron firebacks displaying the quartered arms of Shaw Lefevre and Whitbread. At the north end of the terrace, a conservatory was added, perpendicular to the house. Inserted into the terrace on the east side were steps giving access to the Pinetum and shrubberies, begun in the mid-1850s. A second lake was excavated below the first, with a waterfall, island and boat house. In May 1839 Shaw Lefevre was elected Speaker of the House of Commons under the Whig government of Lord Melbourne. After the dissolution of Parliament in 1841, he retained the post – the first Speaker to do so after a change of governing party. Sir Robert Peel (with Shaw Lefevre, a co-founder of the Agricultural Society of England in 1838) assured Shaw Lefevre that 'my own vote will be given with great satisfaction in favour of your Re-election as Speaker.' This is how Shaw Lefevre was able to 'establish a powerful tradition of political neutrality for its future presiding officers to follow.' As a director of Whitbread, it was also Shaw Lefevre who first used the dray horses of the firm's City brewery