“You show us Rome was glorious, not profuse,
And pompous buildings once were things of use.”
The settled proportions in which architects then delighted, the double cube, Campbell’s sesquialtera and sesquitertia, resulted in fine apartments, of which the double cube room at Wilton in Wiltshire is the most notable. There is another room of similar proportions, but rather smaller, in the same county, in the Bishop’s palace at Salisbury. This is the drawing-room, built over some of Bishop Poore’s twelfth-century vaulting. It is 50 ft. by 25 ft., a fine apartment, well adapted for the semi-private functions which diversify the daily life of a great Church dignitary, but perhaps a little too large for ordinary family use. On the opposite side of the close is a house which aptly illustrates the type of plan familiar in the architectural folios of the time. It is a large square house of almost stately appearance. A flight of steps leads up to the spacious entrance hall, which is two storeys high, and contains an excellent staircase. Straight across the hall is the dining-room, of reasonable size. To the left lies a room which extends the whole depth of the house from front to back, a distance of between 30 and 40 ft., while its width is not quite half as much. There can be little doubt that the room is too long for its width, and that there would have been more comfort had the architect been less ambitious. For the purposes of daily life the occupants prefer a smaller room on the other side of the hall. The bedrooms are few in number, and the actual accommodation of the house is by no means so large as its appearance suggests, much space being sacrificed for the hall.
165. Castle Howard, Yorkshire. Plan of Principal Floor.
Another example of the fine houses of the eighteenth century is Campbell’s Wanstead in Essex (Fig. 167), built shortly before 1720. In his “Vitruvius Britannicus” he gives three designs for this house, two in the first volume and one in the third. The second design, somewhat modified in detail, was carried out; these modifications are shown on the third design, which also includes a tower at each end of the façade; it was, however, quite as well that these towers were not built, for they would have been no improvement. The view here given was taken from the house itself, which was pulled down in 1822. It is a dignified composition, one of the least extravagant of its period, but the plan, although more compact than many, is ill-adapted for the ordinary routine of household life.
166. Castle Howard, Yorkshire. The Garden Façade.
167. Wanstead House, Essex (built shortly before 1720).