BUCKINGHAM HOUSE 171 



additions to Combe Abbey for Lord Craven. 1 Hardly anything 

 remains of all this work, but if it was of a standard equal to 

 the remnants of Hamstead Marshall, Wynne would take a high 

 place among English architects. Newcastle House, originally 

 called Powis House after William Herbert, Viscount Montgomery 

 and Marquis of Powis, for whom it was built in 1686,- still 

 stands at the north-west corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields, but 

 it has been considerably altered ; the loss through fire of the 

 original fine wooden cornice has much diminished its effect. 



Buckingham House (Fig. 113) stood where Buckingham Palace 

 now is, and, judging by Campbell's elevation, 3 was of much 

 greater architectural interest than the present building before 

 it was refronted. It was considered " one of the great beauties 

 of London, both by reason of its situation and its building." 4 

 It fronted the Mall the noblest avenue in Europe, according 

 to Campbell and at the back was a fine garden and a noble 

 terrace, whence the eye roamed over a wide rural prospect, 

 so free from obtrusive buildings as to justify the inscription 

 placed by the duke on this front, " Rus in Urbe." The 

 description of the entrance court is interesting as giving a good 

 idea of the kind of lay out that went with all large houses of 

 that time. " The court-yard which fronts the Park is spacious ; 

 the offices are on each side divided from the Palace by two 

 arching galleries, and in the middle of the court is a round 

 basin of water, lined with freestone, with the figures of Neptune 

 and the Tritons in a water-work." Campbell's plan agrees 

 with this description save that he makes the basin octagonal. 

 The " arching galleries " were by this time a very usual feature 

 which will be further described presently. His plan also 

 conveniently illustrates the duke's own description of the 

 entrance into the house itself. " After crossing the court-yard," 

 he says, " we mount to a terrace in the front of a large Hall, 

 paved with square white stones mixed with a dark-coloured 

 marble ; the walls of it covered with a set of pictures done in 



1 The curious volume of original drawings by Wynne, which is preserved 

 at the Bodleian Library, and from which the illustrations 109, no, and 112 

 are reproduced, also contains drawings for work at Combe Abbey ; it would 

 appear, therefore, that Wynne was the architect employed both there and at 

 Hamstead Marshall. 



2 Wheatley and Cunningham's "London, Past and Present." 



3 " Vit. Brit.," i. 44. 



4 "Journey through England" (1722), by J. Mackay, quoted in " London, 

 Past and Present." 



