WILTON HOUSE : PICTURES, BOOKS. 85 



I was heretofore a good nomenclator of these pictures, which was delivered to me from a child 

 eight yeares old, by old persons relating to this noble family. It is a great and a generall fault that 

 in all galleries of pictures the names are not writt underneath, or at least their coates of armes. Here 

 was also the picture of Thomas Lyte, of Lytes Gary ; and a stately picture of King Henry the eighth. 



The genius of Philip (first) Earle of Pembroke lay much to painting and building, and he had 

 the best collection of paintings of the best masters of any peer of his time in England ; and, besides 

 those pictures before mentioned, collected by his ancestors, he adorned the roomes above staires with 

 a great many pieces of Georgeon [Giorgione], and some of Titian, his scholar. His lordship was 

 the great patron of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and had the most of his paintings o e any one in the 

 world ; some whereof, of his family, are fixt now in the great pannells of the wainscot in the great 

 dining roome, or roome of state ; which is a magnificent, stately roome ; and his Majesty King 

 Charles the Second was wont to say, 'twas the best proportioned roome that ever he saw.* In the 

 cieling piece of this great roome is a great peece, the Marriage of Perseus, drawn by the hand of 

 Mr. Emanuel De Cretz ; and all about this roome, the pannells below the windows, is painted by 

 him, the whole story of Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, f Quaere, D r . Caldicot and Mr. Unlades, what 

 was the story or picture in the cieling when the house was burnt. At the upper end of this noble 

 roome is a great piece of Philip (first) Earle of Pembroke and both his Countesses, and all his 

 children, and the Earle of Carnarvon, as big as the life, with landskip beyond them ; by the hand 

 of that famous master in painting Sir Anthony Van Dyk, which is held one of his best pictures that 

 ever he drew, and which was apprized at 1,000 li by the creditors of Philip the third carlo of Pem- 

 brok. Mr. Um'ades told me that he heard Philip (first) Earle say, that he gave to Sir Anthony 

 Van Dyk for it five hundred Jacobuses. 'Tis an heir-loome, and the creditors had nothing to doe 

 with it, but Mr. Davys the painter, that was brought from London to apprize the goods, did apprize 

 it at a thousand pounds. Captain Wind tells me that there is a tagliedome of this great picture : 

 enquire for it. [A critical account of this picture, which is 17 feet in length byl 1 feet in height, and 

 contains ten full-length portraits, will be found in the Beauties of Wiltshire, vol. i. p. 180-187. It was 

 engraved by Bernard Baron in 1740. J. B.] 



The anti-roome to the great roome of state is the first roome as you come up staires from the 

 garden, and the great pannells of wainscot are painted with the huntings of Tempesta, by that excel- 

 lent master in landskip Mr. Edmund Piers. J He did also paint all the grotesco-painting about the 

 new buildings. 



In the roome within this great roome is the picture of King Charles the First on his dun horse* 

 by Van Dyk ; it hangs over the chimney. Also the Dutchess of Richmond by Van Dyk. Now 

 this rare collection of pictures is sold and dispersed, and many of those eminent persons' pictures are 

 but images without names ; all sold by auction and disparkled by administratorship : they are, as 

 the civilians term them, bona caduca. But, as here were a number of pictures sold, with other goods, 

 by the creditors of Philip (the second), so tliis earle [Thomas] hath supplied it with an admirable 

 collection of paintings by great masters in Italy, when his lordship was there, and since ; as he also 

 did for prints, and bookes of fortification, &c. 



* [This refers to the " double-cube" room, as it is often called, from its proportions. The Great Hall at Kenilworth was also a 

 double cube ; and the same form was adopted in many other old buildings. J. B.] 



t [In " A Description of the Antiquities and Curiosities in Wilton House," 4to. these paintings are ascribed to Signer Tomaso 

 and his brother. J. B.] 



J [Ascribed to Tempesta junior in the " Description" already mentioned. J. B.] 



