SF ~ ae 
By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 291 
being so, does it not in some degree strengthen the ancient tradi- 
tion as to thishouse? We find the Italian, architect to the Protector; 
Sir John Thynne, Secretary to the Protector. The Duke builds a 
palace in the Strand; the Secretary, a few years afterwards, another 
near Warminster. Both palaces are in the newly introduced, and 
therefore highly fashionable Italian style. The ornaments of the 
one, strongly resemble those of the other. Now, in the absence of 
all positive proof upon the subject, yet with this old tradition 
asserting the fact, and with these points of coincidence to support 
it, I think it may be fairly put to you as an Archeological jury, 
sitting as it were on the very body, does not the circumstantial 
evidence favour the tradition, that Longleat was designed by John 
of Padua? 
There is another nobleman’s house in England still remaining, 
of about the same date as Longleat, and very strongly resembling 
it—Wollaton House, near Nottingham, built for Sir Francis Wil- 
loughby, and now the property of his descendant, Lord Middleton. 
Mr. Britton, in the 2nd vol. of his Architectural Antiquities, 
published in 1809, (p. 108,) observes of Wollaton, that though the 
name of its architect is not positively recorded, yet when the 
general design, in composition and detail, is carefully compared 
with Longleat, there can be no hesitation in attributing the two 
buildings to the same artist. Indeed, he adds, “The uniformity of 
proportion in the pilasters, windows, and architectural ornaments, 
would lead us to suppose that these parts of the two houses were 
executed from the same working drawings.” ‘The resemblance 
here spoken of is certainly considerable, not only in the outside, 
but within: the two halls being very much upon the same model, 
corresponding very closely in arrangement, construction of roof, 
and style of screen. 
At Wollaton House, two architects are believed to have been 
concerned. ‘The first was John Thorpe, a person much employed 
in palatial edifices at that time. The second, his successor, John 
Smithson, as appears by a monument in Wollaton Church. From 
the resemblance between Wollaton and Longleat, some have fancied 
John Thorpe and John of Padua may have been one and the same 
