266 Kingston House, Bradford. 
dwellith in a pretty stone house at the east end of the town on 
the right bank of Avon: aman of £100 lands by the year: an 
ancient gentleman since the time of Edward I.” The peculiar 
notice of a “pretty stone house” exactly in the same situation, 
would almost for a moment suggest the question, could the present 
house by any probability be the one that Leland saw? But this is 
not at all likely, as 1540 is certainly too early for the style of 
Kingston House. 
If Aubrey is to be trusted (which as he sometimes wrote from 
memory is not always the case) the house, as it now appears, is 
only the central portion of the original building. For according 
to his description of it in 1670 it had, when complete, two wings. 
In his chapter upon “Echos”! he says: “After the Echos I would 
have the draught of the house of John Hall of Bradford, Esq., 
which is the best built house for the quality of a gentleman in Wiits. 
It was of the best architecture that was ¢ommonly used in King 
James the First’s reigne. It is built all of freestone, full of win- 
dowes, hath two wings: the top of the house adorned with railes and 
baristers. There are two if not three elevations or ascents to it: the 
uppermost is adorned with terrasses, on which are railes and baris- 
ters of freestone. It faceth the river Avon, which lies south of it, 
about two furlongs distant :2 on the north sideisa high hill. Now, 
a priori, I doe conclude, that if one were on the south side of the 
river opposite to this elegant house, there must of necessity be a 
good echo returned from the house; and probably if one stand 
east or west from the house at a due distance, the wings will afford 
a double echo.” 
Whether wings would have been any improvement to the house 
is a question of taste: but whether there really ever were any is a 
matter of considerable doubt. Aubrey’s description is evidently 
from recollection ; for if it had been made on the spot he could not 
have expressed himself, as he does, with uncertainty as to the 
number of terraces. Neither does the echo experiment appear to 
1 Natural History of Wilts, p. 19. 
2 The actual distance is about 200 yards. 
