Shandy Hall above its doorway states that Sterne wrote "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey" at Shandy Hall. This is not entirely accurate, for two volumes of "Tristram Shandy" had already been published in 1759 before Sterne moved to Coxwold. The house is a Grade I listed building. It was extended and altered internally for Sterne and subject to restoration in 1960. The Hall is now administered by the Laurence Sterne Trust, a registered charity, and is open to the public. Shandy Hall featured in the 2006 film "A Cock and Bull Story", which was based on Sterne's book "Tristram Shandy". Shandy
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Sterne incorporated into "Tristram Shandy" many passages taken almost word for word from Robert Burton's "The Anatomy of Melancholy", Francis Bacon's "Of Death", Rabelais and many more, and rearranged them to serve the new meaning intended in "Tristram Shandy". "Tristram Shandy" was highly praised for its originality, and nobody noticed these borrowings until years after Sterne's death. The first to note them was physician and poet John Ferriar, who did not see them negatively and commented: Victorian critics of the 19th century, who were hostile to Sterne for the alleged obscenity of his prose, used Ferriar's findings to defame Sterne,