Lyme Park, Cheshire
Lyme Park
The land that is now Lyme Park came into the Legh family in 1388 through marriage; a house is recorded as having existed on the site of Lyme Park as early as 1465. The oldest parts of the present house date from the time of Sir Piers Legh VII who died in 1589. The south front of the house was designed in the 1720s by the Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni, who is best known for publishing an edition of Palladio's 'Four Books af Architecture' containing numerous baroque embellishments of his own. Thomas Legh commissioned Lewis Wyatt to restore and extend the house further between 1816 and 1822.
On display at the house is the Lyme Caxton Missal: the most complete copy of a book printed by William Caxton in 1487.
