and though I cannot observe any other than the octagonal staircase before referred to, there was probably another, or intended to be, for the use of these apartments during the completion of the rest of the edifice.

One of these, in which the fire-place is shown on the plan, was probably used as a kitchen. The other had a fire-place in the corner, next the angle turret.

The corridor was lighted by windows looking into the court. The first floor rooms have very fine panelled oak ceilings, and are lighted, each by one window of 4 lights and one of 2 lights, seeming to indicate a sort of screen placed between them and across the room, perhaps to conceal the bed, &c.

It would be useless to speculate further upon the exact domestic arrangements which were to be provided for by this plan, particularly as there are many existing examples of similar edifices of this period.

I must now hasten to describe the architectural character of the exterior, which is generally of that late and debased form of Gothic called Tudor, but mixed in a remarkable manner with certain details of a new and previously unknown style, though prevailing at that time in Italy, and wrought in a material, called by the Italian name of Terra-cotta, which, however, is only very superior pottery work. All the details, however, are subordinated to the prevailing fashion of the English work, and even the parts executed in terra-cotta are moulded specially to give the general outline of the Gothic work, while they carry details of an opposite character.

The material for all the Gothic portion of the edifice (except the stone jambs to the farm buildings, which, it should be observed, bear no traces of this new-born Italian feeling), is moulded red brick so common in the Eastern Counties, and so worthily used in many noble buildings within a very few miles of Layer Marney, with which the usual ornamental work in black brick is used, forming diaper patterns over the surface. But, in addition to this, in certain parts, a very fine plaster has been used, in a manner showing the debased and false notions coming into vogue; for it is used to cover the brickwork, and is evidently intended to represent the stone jambs which

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would be naturally used in a country where stone was more common. However, it has long since been peeling off and looking exactly the sham it is, while the honest brickwork and terra-cotta only improve in colour day by day, though rather the worse for wear. I am bound to add, however, this plaster was admirably executed, and better than is usually done in these latter days, when terraces of Roman temples have been produced by the mile in stucco grandeur, and are now standing in stucco misery. The terra-cotta work is confined to the windows and the crowning points of the parapets. These will be seen, by the illustration,* to be very carefully and elaborately modelled, and with such an Italian spirit pervading them, that I am inclined to assert that they must either have been brought from Italy, or moulded by an eminent Italian artist working in England at the time.

Respecting this point I am glad to be able to give some notes, handed to me by my friend Mr. Digby Wyatt, to whom my acknowledgments are due.

Dallaway, in his "Notes to Walpole," says:

"Girolamo da Trevizi and Holbein introduced both terra-cotta or moulded brickwork for rich ornaments and medallions or bas reliefs fixed against the walls, plaster work laid over the brick wall and sometimes painted as at Norwich, and square bricks of two colours highly glazed and placed in diagonal lines as at Layer Marney."

Among other Italians in this country whose taste exercised a powerful influence upon Architecture, and the application of Sculpture and Painting to Architecture were, John of Padua, Torrigiano, Girolamo da Trevizi, Tolo dell'Annunciata, a painter, Bennedetto da Rovezzano a very able Florentine sculptor who was associated with Holbein, Zucchero the painter, Luca Penni. Of these Luca Penni, painter, Tolo dell'Annunziata, painter, and Trevisano, architect and engineer, all pupils, or of the school of Raffaelle, were attached to the Court of Henry VIII., and at work before Holbein came here.

Antonio Cavallari was employed as a gilder by Cardinal Wolsey, and he and Benedetto da Rovezzano worked on the tomb Wolsey commenced for himself during his lifetime. It is possible that the Hampton Court medallions, as well as those in the same style at St. Donat's Castle, Glamorganshire, and in Holbein's Whitehall Gateway, were modelled by Benedetto. [The former are said, however, to have been sent to Wolsey by Leo X.] Layer Marney terra-cotta ornaments were very likely executed under the influence of Girolamo da Trevizi, the King's architect, with whom Sir Henry Marney, the founder of the house,

These are also given in Mr. Parker's "Domestic Architecture." † Often called Trevizani.