Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/300

 Brettingham of Europe, viz. France, the Low Countries, Alsatia, Germany, Savoy, Tyrol, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, collected upon the spot since the year 1723,' in 4 vols. fol. The works at Holkham were commenced in 1729 from the plans of Kent, upon whose death in 1748 they were carried on under the superintendence of Brettingham till their completion in 1764. In 1761 he published 'Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Holkham in Norfolk, the seat of the Earl of Leicester,' London, atlas fol., of which another edition was published a few years later by his nephew, Robert Furze Brettingham [q. v.] It is curious that in neither of these publications is the real authorship of the plans acknowledged, although the fact that Kent designed them is beyond dispute. It is impossible now to ascertain the share of credit for the completed work to which Brettingham is entitled. As the construction of the house extended over so long a period after Kent's death, Brettingham no doubt modified the latter's original designs; but the drawings published by him do not differ in any way from the prevailing heaviness and regularity of the then fashionable 'Vitruvian' style of which Kent was master, and suggest at best but successful imitation on the part of his follower. Brettingham's other known works were Norfolk House (now 21 St. James's Square), London, erected in 1742; Langley Park, Norfolk, in 1740-4; the north and east fronts of Charlton House, Wiltshire; and a house in Pall Mall, afterwards known as Cumberland House, and subsequently used as the ordnance office, erected in 1760-7 for the Duke of York, brother to George III. In 1748-50 he again visited Italy, and in the first of these years travelled for some time in company with the well-known architects, Hamilton, ' Athenian Stuart,' and Nicholas Revett. Brettingham does not appear to have been influenced by the investigations made by these architects into the architecture of Greece. He always confined himself to the heavy Palladian style in which he had been educated, and in which, while exhibiting no great novelty of conception, it must be admitted he displayed knowledge and skill equal to those of any architect of his time. He died at Norwich at the advanced age of seventy, and is buried in St. Augustine's Church there.

, the younger (1725-1803), architect, son of the preceding, worked also in Palladian style.

[Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 1st ser. vol. iii. London, 1818-23; Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Athens measured and delineated, vol. iv., London, 1816; Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. iv., plates 64-9 incl.; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual; Gwilt's Encyc. of Architecture, ed. Wyatt Papworth, London, 1867; Gould's Biogr. Sketches, London, 1834.]  BRETTINGHAM, ROBERT FURZE (1750–1806?), architect, nephew of Matthew Brettingham the elder [q. v.], practised in London with great success, and erected many mansion houses throughout the country. Like his uncle, and in common with all students of architecture of his time, he spent a part of his early life in Italy, from which he returned in 1781. Architecture as then understood consisted in correctly imitating so-called classical models, and the skill of the architect was chiefly exercised in adapting the requirements of his patron to the hard and fast rules of his art. To gain familiarity with the latter constituted his education, and Brettingham's subsequent works, as well as the drawings which he exhibited on his return at the exhibitions of the then lately founded Royal Academy, showed that he did not neglect his opportunities in Italy. Among them may be noted in 1783 a drawing of a sepulchral chapel from the Villa Medici at Rome, in 1790 the design for a bridge which he had erected in the preceding year at Benham Place, in Berkshire, and the entrance porch of the church at Saffron Walden restored by him in 1792. In 1773 he published another edition of his uncle's 'Plans, &c. of Holkham,' also, like it, in atlas folio, 'to which are added the ceilings and chimney-pieces, and also a descriptive account of the statues, pictures, and drawings, not in the former edition.' Of the 'Descriptive Account' Brettingham was the author; but, again, the plans are ascribed to Matthew Brettingham, and Kent is ignored as in the former edition. The sudden death in 1790 of William Blackburn, the prison architect, was the opportunity of Brettingham's life, and he soon gained a lucrative practice. Blackburn left many designs incomplete, several of which Brettingham subsequently carried into execution. He erected gaols at Reading, Hertford, Poole, Downpatrick, Northampton, and elsewhere. In 1771 his name appears associated with those of the foremost architects of the time in the foundation of an 'Architects' Club,' to meet at the Thatched House Tavern to dinner on the first Thursday in every month. Among the original members of this club besides Brettingham were Sir W. Chambers, Robert Adam, John Soane, James Wyatt, and S. P. Cockerell, all of whom have made for themselves names in their profession. About this time Brettingham also held the post of resident