ASHDOWN HOUSE, BERKSHIRE 



97 



FIG. 55. Ashdown House, Berkshire. 



the roofs, is made to light the attic landing, and, by means of a 

 ceiling light, the landing also of the floor below, is quite ingenious,, 

 and incidentally produces a charming feature in the ceiling of 

 the principal landing. 



These are some among the houses that are attributed to> 

 Webb. Ashdown House (Fig. 55) is another, a rather gaunt 

 place, built high on the downs in the extreme west of Berkshire,, 

 far away from everywhere, so that the builder, it is said, might 

 run no risk of infection from the plague. Taken in conjunction 

 with his dated drawings such as ceilings at Wilton in 1649; 

 designs for Durham House, London, in the same year ; the 

 Physicians' College in 1651 ; a chimney-piece for Drayton in 

 Northamptonshire in 1653 ; and another for Northumberland. 

 House in 1660 they show that Webb was tolerably busy all 

 through the time of the Commonwealth. But it is probably the 

 fact, confirmed by the absence of dated drawings between 1638 

 and 1649, that he was not doing much work, beyond the White- 

 hall designs, during the course of the actual hostilities. This is 

 only what might be expected, and indeed it is likely that beyond 

 what Webb did, there was very little important work carried out 

 during the period of twenty years from 1640 to 1660. 



The consideration of Inigo Jones's work and that of Webb 

 has taken the story down to about 1670 ; it is necessary now to 

 go back a little in order to look at work by less distinguished 

 designers. 

 8 



