BELTON HOUSE, GRANTHAM 



157 



The indications -of French feeling alluded to above may 

 be accounted for by the fact that in the early days of Wren's 

 connection with architecture, in 1665, he went to France for 

 a few months. He was already enthusiastic in his new vocation, 

 and like many an enthusiast in the same cause before him and 

 after him, he wanted to see what was being done in foreign 

 lands. He spent his whole time there in interviewing eminent 

 architects and in visiting the most noteworthy buildings of 

 Paris and its neighbourhood. He made so many sketches 

 that he said in one of his letters that he bid fair to bring back 

 " almost all France 

 on paper." He had 

 indeed caught the 

 architectural fever ; 

 and every architect 

 knows that thence- 

 forward it would 

 never leave his veins. 



Among the houses 

 attributed, on insuf- 

 ficient grounds, to 

 Wren is Belton 

 House, near Gran- 

 tham, one of the 

 seats of Earl Brown- 

 low (Fig. 104) ; it was 

 built in the year 1689 

 for Sir John Brown- 

 low. There is nothing particularly novel about it ; it follows 

 the type of what may be called the Webb house, both as 

 to plan (Fig. 105) and external treatment. It has the bold 

 cornice, the hipped roof, and the balustraded flat out of which 

 rises a cupola, which Webb had rendered familiar. In spite 

 of its good proportions, however, it hardly hits the mark so 

 fully and truly as Webb's work, and it lacks in many respects 

 the masculine vigour of Wren's. Nevertheless it is a notable 

 building, and an admirable example of a dignified yet un- 

 pretentious country house, quite comfortable to live in. 



The screen of ironwork which runs from the house to a 

 subsidiary range of buildings contains a fine gateway (Fig. 106) 

 and encloses a court of some architectural interest and one 



FIG. 105. Belton House. Ground Floor. 



