COLLECTIONS OF DRAWINGS AND PLANS 31 



to this idea is owing the very interesting collection of drawings 

 now preserved at the Soane Museum. But however this may 

 be, it is clear that some of the men who were concerned with 

 the design of large houses thought it worth while to preserve 

 their drawings, for, in addition to the Thorpe collection, there 

 is that other collection by Thorpe's contemporary and successor, 

 Smithson ; while in later years are those connected with the 

 work of Inigo Jones, John Webb, and Wren ; and in still later 

 times Campbell, Gibbs, and other architects made a point of 

 publishing illustrations of the buildings which they and their 

 contemporaries had designed. 



But although we may perhaps see in the books of the 

 sixteenth century the genesis of our own English architectural 

 publications, their immediate interest lies in the fact that 

 whatever \vas published about the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century dealt with classic architecture, and that anyone who 

 sought in books for information about building, found nothing 

 about the old Gothic detail, but only instructions how to design 

 in the classic style. 



The Thorpe collection of drawings is well known, and belongs 

 to the order of things which was passing away. But the Smithson 

 collection is but little known, and as it forms a link between what 

 was passing and what was approaching, it will be of interest to say 

 a few words about it, and to give a few illustrations from it. 



Of Smithson, as of his predecessors in his calling, very little 

 is actually known. He seems to have belonged to a family of 

 architectural designers, the members of which have been rather 

 confused by Walpole and other writers who have referred to 

 them. The facts seem to be that of his parentage there are 

 no records, although chronology would admit of Robert Smith - 

 son, of Wollaton, being his father ; his own name was John, 

 he had a son named Huntingdon, a grandson named John 

 and a great-grandson named Huntingdon. He himself died 

 in 1634, and his son Huntingdon in 1648. They were both 

 buried at Bolsover, in Derbyshire, and an inscription over the 

 grave of the son speaks of his " skill in architecture." The 

 two have been confused with each other, but their separate 

 identity has recently been made clear. 1 According to Walpole, 



1 See a communication from Mr Walter L. Spiers to the Journal of the 

 Royal Institute of British Architects, loth Dec. 1908, where a short pedigree 

 is given. 



