28 John of Padua, 



pilasters, capitals, and bases are also specified. There was also 

 a hall 30ft. wide, and a long gallery in the second story on the 

 north side, J 20ft. long, and 17ft. wide. All this certainly shows 

 that the first house was very much of the same style as the present 

 one. Yet though the names of persons employed in the work are 

 given, and a Mr. Throckmorton comes occasionally to see the work 

 is right, there is not the slightest allusion to any architect or 

 designer. 



This first house came to a very untimely end. After sundry 

 escapes it was almost utterly destroyed by fire on 21st April, 1567. 

 The catastrophe is distinctly mentioned at the beginning of the 

 building accounts of the present house : and there are letters in 

 which Sir John received the condolence of his friends. It is also 

 mentioned in an early edition of Camden's " Britannia/'' trans- 

 lated by Philemon Holland, who, speaking of Longleat, says 

 " Although once or twice it hath been burnt, it hath risen eftsones 1 

 more fair.'''' Sir R. C. Hoare, in his history of this place, 2 does not 

 mention this fire, and indeed seems not to have known at all that 

 there had been any former house. Yet in the original document 

 which he was copying and has printed, and which is in the hand- 

 writing of the first Lord Weymouth, a few words occur which, had 

 he observed them, would have informed him of it. The paper 

 begins thus : — " Sir John Thynne built Longleat with his own stone 

 and timber, and the materials of the former house which was burnt." 3 



Longleat the Second. 

 Sir John Thynne's patience and purse were not exhausted ; and 

 presently, like the unextinguishable phoenix, Longleat the Second 

 rose from the ashes of its predecessor, fairer than before. After 

 allowing nine months for clearing the ground and other preparations, 



1 " Eftsones," i.e., immediately after. 

 2 " Modern Wilts," Heytesbury, p. 72. 



3 The materials of a burnt house do not, generally speaking, go Very far to- 

 wards a new one. Sir John purchased from the Audley family an acre and a 

 half of land on Box Hill, out of which the stone was fetched for the present 

 house. The workmen now on the spot informed the writer that the vein of 

 stone used for Sir John's purpose is one of the very best that the Bos quarries 

 yield. 



