CASTLE HOWARD, YORKSHIRE 



217 



a nunnery, as no mortal man ever entered its doors in the 

 absence of the father. 



It must have been early in the year 1699 that the earl called 

 Vanbrugh to his assistance, for the latter writes on the 25th 

 December that he had been that summer at Lord Carlisle's, and 

 had visited most of the great houses of the North. Amongst 



FIG. 148. Lord Burlington's Villa at Chiswick. 



Drawn by A. C. Bossom.. 



others he had been to Chatsworth, where he stayed four or five 

 days, and had shown to the duke all the designs for Castle 

 Howard, which he " absolutely approved." Since then they had 

 been .submitted to a great many other critics, and as no objec- 

 tion had been raised to them, the stone was already being 

 quarried and the foundations were to be laid in the spring. A 

 model of the house was being prepared in wood, which was to- 

 be sent to Kensington for the criticism of the king. 1 Thus 



1 " Court and Society from Elizabeth to Anne," edited from the papers at 

 Kimbolton, by the Duke of Manchester, London, 1864, p. 56. 



