200 



Gardens J or Small Country Houses. 



its Equipment. Tijou's influence was not, how- 

 ever, universal. Without him English smiths 

 would probably haA^e continued to make strong 

 gates and railings of straightforward design, with 

 little fancy ; but it is unlikely that they would 

 have adopted the repousse work which is so 

 characteristic of Tijou. His influence is clearly 

 shown in the delightful gate at Wotton House 

 (Fig. 287). Despite the obvious attractions of the 

 new methods, the national liking for a large restraint 

 in craftsmanship persisted even under the very eye 

 of Tijou. While he was working at St. Paul's some 

 less important commissions in the Cathedral were 

 entrusted to Thomas Robinson, who was evidently 

 an individualist, for he did not follow at all closely 



FIG. 286. — AT WYCH CROSS PLACE. 



FIG. 287. — AT WOTTON HOUSE. 



in Tijou's steps. Where he 

 used embossing it was with 

 imperfect understanding of its 

 possibilities. When he was free 

 from the master's influence 

 and began working at New 

 College, Oxford, about 1711, 

 he discarded the Tijou style 

 and developed a simpler manner 

 of his own which is markedly 

 Enghsh. Warren and (despite 

 his Dutch - sounding name) 

 Buncker did work of a similar 

 kind during the first quarter 

 of the eighteenth century. The 

 gates at Packwood House,, 

 Birmingham (Fig. 28S), and at 

 Norton Conyers (Fig. 289), show 

 this more restrained note in 

 design, the latter in a marked 

 degree. 



The majority of the gates 

 of the first half of the eighteenth 



