By the Rev. Canon J. F. Jackson, F.S.A. 29 



the present house began to be built in January, 1568, and was still 

 unfinished at his death, in 1580. 



The building- account books are in good preservation, but, once 

 more, there is not a word about any John of Padua. I am very 

 much of opinion that the general design of the former house was 

 repeated, with probably some variation and enlargement, and that no 

 one had more to do with the plan than Sir John Thynne himself. 



There is a very strong confirmation of this idea in a strange half- 

 satirical half-facetious effusion (still preserved), from the pen of a 

 Wiltshire gentleman of rather evil notoriety in that day, Wild Will 

 Daiell, of Littlecote Hall. In this crazy composition the house is 

 supposed to be making an Address to its founder, Sir John. It jeers 

 him for its pretentious appearance, and for the toil and trouble he had 

 himself been at in erecting it. Here is a specimen : — " But now, see 

 him that by these thirtyyears almost with such lurmoyle of mind hath 

 been thynking of me, framing and erecting me, musing many a time 

 with great care, and now and then pulling down this and that part of 

 me, to enlarge sometimes a foot, or some few inches, upon a conceit^ 

 or this or that man's speech not worth a woodcock's brains : and by 

 and by " [which, according to the sense of the expression at that 

 time, meant directly, all at once~] " beating down windows for this or 

 that fault, they knew not why nor wherefore." Another passage 

 of this " wild " production speaks of " this Dorick, this Tuscan 

 fashion : my quadrants, my ascendances, my columns with a 

 geometrical proportion " : also of " my unquiet, besides many times 

 assailed with that ungracious enemy of fire and at last almost 

 utterly consumed with that facility coming from above that it was 

 miraculous. - " 1 



At the beginning of the building of the present house a person 

 of the name of Moore was the head man, and received the highest 

 pay : but he was very soon superseded by another of some eminence. 

 There is an original letter at Longleat from a Mr. Humphrey Lovell 

 to Sir John Thynne, dated 11th March, 1568, " recommending Mr. 

 Robert Smithson who had been employed by Mr. Vice-Chamberlain 



1 Does this mean that the first house was struck by lightning ? 



