226 A Plea Jor the Further Investigation of 



and suggested, with great probability, that his family name may 

 have been Padovan, or dei Padovaui, and only, when latinised, "de 

 Padua." Among the persons, he names, however, the identification 

 cannot, at present, be made with certainty. 



When I first read Canon Jackson^s original paper on Longleat, I 



was already familiar with early Renaissance work, remaining at 



Lacoek Abbey, which has since been ascertained to have been 



executed in the period 1540 to 1553, which curiously enough nearly 



coincides with the period during which John o£ Padua received a 



salary from the Crown, though I do not mean to say that that is 



more than a coincidence. I may perhaps, be permitted to repeat 



what I said, in 1878,' on the subject, and am able to adhere to 



entirely. It was this : — " I happen to be familiar, in my own 



home, with a type of work which is such as, I believe, we should 



have found in old Somerset House, had any part of that building 



remained to the present time " — by which, I meant, any part of the 



original building. " This is the work executed for Sir William 



Sharington, when he converted the buildings of the dissolved 



monastery of Lacoek into a manor-house. Throughout this work, 



an Italian element may be traced, combined with the English 



architectural forms in a very remarkable manner. In the case of 



two tables of carved stone, the design is so entirely Italian and the 



execution so excellent, as to lead decidedly to the conclusion that 



an Italian architect or sculptor was employed." 



I have brought with me photographs^ of these tables, in order 

 that you may see that I was not romancing. We now know that 

 the sculptor was probably an Englishman of the name of Chapman, 

 who also worked at Longleat, but there is, I think, no evidence of 

 any of his work remaining there now. The design of these tables 

 is such as might, very well, be found in Italy, but the material is 

 Bath stone, with the exception of the slabs, which are of a kind of 

 grey marble. One of the tables is authenticated, by cyphers and 

 crests, as having been made for Sir W^illiam Sharington, and cannot 



' Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xvii., p. 358. 

 - Eeduced photographs of these tables accompany the text. 



