West Wycombe Park was the seat of Sir Francis Dashwood and was developed by the politician between 1740 and 1800. In keeping with fashions of the time, and inspired by his Grand Tours of Europe between 1726 and 1741, Dashwood transformed his father's Queen Anne house into a Palladian mansion, and as shown in the painting, continued this classical style throughout the parkland. Designed by Thomas Cook, with ornamental features by Nicholas Revett, the estate is filled with classical temples, follies and Grecian and Italian inspired vistas. Using the nearby River Wye, Cook created a nine-acre swan-shaped lake in front of the house which included islands, cascades and canals, as well as the Temple of Music, modelled on Rome's Temple of Vesta. 

Among the estate's most extraordinary features are the West Wycombe Caves, the largest man-made 18th-century landscape caves in England. Originally excavated between 1748 and 1752 alongside a chalk quarry, the 450-yard tunnel leads through symbolic chambers, across an underground stream representing the Styx, to the impressive Inner Temple beneath St Lawrence's Church.

The caves are perhaps best known today as the meeting place of Dashwood's Brotherhood of St Francis of Wycombe, later known as the Hellfire Club.