Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 7.djvu/337

 all the time of that suit lie was looking after his great works at Oxford and Ipswich ; and we know also from Cavendish that he built a fine gallery here.

From Wolsey the estate passed to the King, and thence through the Drake family, kinsmen of the great seaman Sir Francis ; through the Lattons (a family of some importance in the time of William III.) to the statesman Henry Pelham, who retired here, as com- memorated by some lines in Thomson's Seasons. At this time the place was possibly considerably out of repair, as it does not seem to have been the chief man- sion of the Lattons ; at any rate, the house was remodelled by Kent, the architect of Burlington House, the Horse Guards, and other buildings, and more honourably known as one of the principal advocates of the modern school of naturalistic landscape gardening.

The estate eventually passed into the hands of the Spicers, who pulled down what are said to have been Pelham' s additions, and built the present mansion.

For convenience sake I will trace the architecture backwards, first premising that the whole of the brick fabric as it is, is undoubtedly Waynflete's original work. The entrance-porch is altogether Kent's. The differ- ence of the bricks from those of the old house will be seen at once. It is an attempt at an imitation of Gothic, done by an architect and workmen ignorant of its principles both of construction and design.

In a book published by Kent, containing designs of his own and of Inigo Jones, are drawings of a screen in Gloster Cathedral, of a front for the Court of King's Bench, and of a pulpit for York Cathedral, showing a form of crocketing similar to that you see here.

I may mention that in the same book is the drawing of a classic mantelpiece for Esher Place.

He also constructed a new staircase, of which the trace is seen to the right on entering. There are here also remains of elaborate plaster- work in the florid style of the period.

Of much better, indeed of very graceful design, is the arcading and vaulting of the entrance, the shafts of