This study of foreign books by one of the designers of the period is a noteworthy fact, and it is equally worthy of note that the study of them seems to have set him thinking, and to have suggested ideas to him, which he jotted down in pencil near the copies which he made from the foreign books. These are not the only instances of this habit, for in other parts of his book are to be seen, by the side of carefully finished plans, hasty sketches of some variation of the same main ideas. Of the foreign books which he studied, some, therefore, were Italian, some were French, and others Dutch: and it is curious to see how the French books seem to have influenced his plans, and the Dutch books his elevations. The French influence on those plans which, so far as we know, were actually carried out, was not strong; but among the plans which may be classed as exercises, are some with towers at the corners, after the manner of those at Chambord, Chenonceau, and Azay-le-Rideau, and a number with square turrets such as those of the Château de Madrit. He may also have derived from the same sources his extreme love of symmetry, and his adoption of the grand manner apparent in some of his designs planned round a courtyard. These French books may, therefore, have influenced his style, but they did not dominate him so much as to cause him to copy the French type of plan in designing an English house. The same may be said of the Dutch influence on his elevations. Only in the one instance already mentioned did he embody a whole piece of Dutch design into one of his own. But in his chimneys, his strap-work gables, and his turrets or lanterns he drew from Dutch sources. And there are two points to notice in this connection—one is that the strap-work gable occurs much oftener in his drawings than in houses actually built; the other is that had these gables been adopted as freely as the elevations would indicate, the houses would have been more Dutch than the Dutchmen's own buildings, for in the latter the stepped gable is far more frequent than strap-work, and produces an entirely different effect.
Plate LXXXIV.
"SIR JARVIS CLIFTON'S HOUSE."
(PAGES 65, 66.)
1. Hall.
2. Vestibule.
3. Parlour.
4. Lodging.
5. Grand Staircase.