224! A Plea for the Further Investigation, of 



howevei-j out of which he had probabl}' alread}' grown, when I first 

 read it, though I was not aware of the luctj and which he ultimately 

 altogether abandoned. That paper appears to be biassed by what 

 Horace Walpole had said, in his Anecdotes of Painting, first pub- 

 lished in 1761. Walpole collected a great deal of curious and 

 interesting matter, but I think also a good many erroneous im- 

 pressions owe their origin to him, from the tendency of later writers 

 to treat his statements as of undoubted authority. How far he 

 could go wrong, may be seen from a passage, in which he sa}'s : — 

 " I am persuaded that what we call Gothic architecture was confined 

 solely to religious buildings, and never entered into the decoration 

 of private houses," which is, of coui-se, the direct reverse of the truth. 



I cannot proceed far, with my subject, without alluding to that 

 somewhat unfortunate individual, known as John of Padua, whose 

 misfortune it has been to have been, at one time, praised as a very 

 great Renaissance architect, and, at another time, represented as 

 hardly an architect at all, but mainly a musician. I will, however, 

 clear the ground, at once, by saying that there is no evidence of his 

 having had anything to do with Longleat. The popular notion, 

 that he designed the house, which still continues to be repeated, 

 though it ought to be known to be unfounded, seems to be derived 

 from Walpole, though Walpole does not exactly say so. Speaking 

 of the change of style in architecture, in the time of Henry the 

 Eighth, he says : — " Henry had actually an Italian architect in his 

 service, to whom I should without scruple assign the introduction 

 of regular architecture, if it was clear that he arrived here near so 

 early as Holbein. He was called John of Padua, and his very office 

 seems to intimate something noble in his practice. He was termed 

 * Devizor of his majesty's buildings.'' " I am inclined to think that 

 Walpole was mistaken in supposing that this designation was 

 something very exceptional, but it does^ at any rate, show that he 

 designed buildings. 



Then he goes on to say : — " In one of the office books which I 

 have quoted, there is a payment to him of £36 10,$. ^cl. In the 

 same place is the payment of the same sum to Laurence Bradshaw, 

 surveyor, with a fee of two shillings per diem. To the clerk of the 



