Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
may therefore be suggested that these piers were removed to their present
position when the premises were divided in 1751-52' (Gomme and Norman,
1932, 98).
With regard to the early introduction of gauged brickwork into England, a
good example may be seen in the remains of the classical entrance porch to
the north elevation of Houghton House in Ampthill (Bedfordshire) (a con-
served ruin in the care of English Heritage) (Fig. 36). The ashlared gauged
work of orange fine-textured rubbers is, as yet, undated, but possibly
c.
1617-18
and thought to be to the designs of Inigo Jones (1573-1652), commissioned
after the house was completed in 1615. Of Houghton House Harris and
Higgott (1990, 84-5), record:
The most tantalising and grand commission of these year is Houghton… possibly
begun just before Jones returned from Italy… It is possible that in the building
process she [Mary, Dowager Countess of Pembroke] was persuaded to provide
modernity to the house by inserting classical frontispieces into the north and west
fronts. These could only be by Jones, so classical are they in Jacobean England. As
such, they are precious relics of his designing skills in this early period, probably
in mid-1615 and certainly before 1621 when the Countess died.
This is very significant, as the brickwork, though with varying joint sizes and
lacking the highly disciplined nature of the post-Restoration work, is of a much
Figure 36
An eighteenth-century
print of the entrance
loggia on the north
elevation of Houghton
House, Ampthill
(Bedfordshire), 1615.
Note the artist has
mistakenly depicted
the left-hand loggia as
built entirely of stone
work when it is of
gauged work with stone
dressings. (Courtesy:
Society for the
Protection of Ancient
Buildings Archives)
