 West Wycombe Park is a country house built between 1740 and 1800 near the village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire , England . It was conceived as a pleasure palace for the 18th @-@ century libertine and dilettante Sir Francis Dashwood , 2nd Baronet . The house is a long rectangle with four façades that are columned and pedimented , three theatrically so . The house encapsulates the entire progression of British 18th @-@ century architecture from early idiosyncratic Palladian to the Neoclassical , although anomalies in its design make it architecturally unique . The mansion is set within an 18th @-@ century landscaped park containing many small temples and follies , which act as satellites to the greater temple , the house . 
