Tatton Park came to the Egerton family in 1598 and remained with them until it came to the National Trust in 1958. The original 17th Century house was probably built by John Egerton in the late 1680's. The Shrewsbury architect Thomas Pritchard, drew up plans for alterations in the early 1760's and from these the design of the original house can be seen. For Samuel Egerton Pritchard added a dining-room to the west side of the house, but other plans, such as an extra wing, do not seem to have been carried out. In the 1770s Egerton decided on further alterations and asked Samuel Wyatt, brother of James, to draw up plans; it was several years before these were finalised and the work was actually carried out in 1788-91 for William Tatton Egerton after his uncle Samuel's death in 1780. Wyatt's idea was to preserve the old house and to virtually enclose it within a new design, which would include a library for the valuable book collection formed by Sir Thomas Egerton, and later added to by Samuel and John. The work was finally completed by Wyatt's nephew Lewis for Wilbraham Egerton.

This view shows the original centre block of the house of circa 1715-16 with Pritchard's addition of a dining room of the early 1760s, and the drawing room which was added on the right before 1774.

Herbert Pugh was born in Ireland and came to London circa 1758. He exhibited landscapes and genre scenes at the Society of Artists between 1760 and 1776. Two other views attributed to Pugh are known of Sunbury Place, Middlesex painted in 1767, and of Poynton Lodge, Cheshire painted in 1778 (see J. Harris's, The Artist and the Country House, 1979, p.300 nos.336 and 337 respectively.