A shortage of funds may explain the sporadic nature of improvements at Wroxton and their apparent absence after 1750. Also, by his third marriage to Catherine, Countess of Rockingham, the first Earl inherited Waldershare in Kent and this property—together with his London houses—equally divided his attention.
In 1740 a library and a chapel were added to the house. The library, “a pleasant chamber” according to Horace Walpole, was probably added first. Although the flooring was not laid until 1747, the room was well underway in 1743. Today the bookshelves extend over five rooms: the North, Pope, and Guilford Libraries, as well as the Reading Room and the George III room.
While no complete rooms were added to Wroxton in the 18th century, evidence of alterations is witnessed by the mid-18th century entablature, chimneypiece and overmantel and a Jacobean Revival ceiling in the President’s Room. There are several Gothic chimney pieces in the style of Batty Langley and the ceilings of both the Regency Room and Reading Room are of Jacobean revival work.
The library seems not to have been Sanderson Miller’s work, but the additions to the chapel were under his direction and had certainly commenced by 1747.Guilford had his Van Linge painted glass taken from its former location and cut to fit into a new chapel window. He deliberated on the shape of the window up to the last minute and told Miller on 2 May 1747 that “I think the window will not agree with my glass if it is divided into more than four arches.” A week later he admitted to Miller that his choices were being limited: “he [Cheyne, Guilford’s steward] says the window being begun the middle mullion cannot be made larger than the others.”
The finished chapel boasts a gallery and a small chancel containing the newly arranged Van Linge glass. The exterior has a crenellated parapet over a crocketed ogival dripstone, giving the chapel the gothic flavor that Miller favored. Guilford next had Miller design a false ceiling for the great hall. It features a pendant in the center. Because the project seemed unlikely to be finished before the Earl’s proposed visit in the summer of 1752, the work was postponed for a year. He explained to Miller, “my house is not large enough for me to dispense with the use of my best room when I am there.”