House and Garden 
THE HALL 
began to rear the splendid house with which his 
memory is ever associated. The noblemen and 
country gentlemen of the Elizabethan age had a 
great knowledge of architecture, and a genuine liking 
of art. J he general level of taste was certainly 
higher than it is now, and Sir John Thynne took a 
keen and personal interest in the erection of his 
house, and did not leave everything to his architect. 
As to the identity of that individual there has been 
much controversy. 1 he older authorities attribute 
the work to that mysterious person John of Padua, 
whom Walpole designates “the Devizor of His 
Majesty’s buildings,” an Italian whom Henry VIH. 
brought to England to improve our native style. 1 
need not repeat the arguments in favor of this view 
or tell how Protector Somerset employed John of 
Padua in the building of old Somerset House, a 
famous mansion which stood on the site of the great 
edifice where now our wills are stored: and how, as 
Sir John Thynne was the Secretary of the Protector, 
he would doubtless employ the same architect. Mr. 
Bloomfield jackson, the great authority on Renais¬ 
sance art, says that “the stonework of Longleat shows 
knowledge of Italian detail, but it has none of the 
distinctive character which marks the work of the 
Italians imported by Henry VHE, and to hazard a 
guess, it is more probable that it was the work of an 
Englishman who had traveled in Italy.” 
The name of Smithson occurs in the building 
accounts of Longleat as “Free Master Mason” of 
the works. He was employed also by Sir Francis 
Willoughby at Wollaton, Northamptonshire, an 
elaborate Elizabethan house, which bears a strong 
resemblance to Longleat, though it is less satisfactory. 
We notice the same pilastertreatment, but at Longleat 
the ornamental pilasters are confined to the project¬ 
ing bays. In both there is the same use of orders 
above orders, the same proportion of the windows, but 
at Wollaton, erected later in 1580-88, the design is 
more ornate and less satisfactory, and it has a great 
towering erection in the center probably designed by 
another builder. 
The house was built on the site of the old monas¬ 
tery, which was converted into a manor house in the 
time of Edward VI., when a fire occurred in 1567, 
necessitating rebuilding. The old walls of the inner 
