1 Illustrative of Langley's approach is his criticism of ‘Mathematical Regularity and Stiffness’ in garden design, and his claim that ‘a good Garden, is to be both profitable and delightful; wherein should be observed, that its Parts should be always presenting new Objects, which is a continual Entertainment to the Eye, and raises a Pleasure of Imagination': Langley,, Batty New Principles of Gardening, or the Laying Out and Planting Parterres, Groves, Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Avenues, Parks &c (London, 1728), p. 193 Google Scholar. This promoted the irregular style as advocated by Switzer, Stephen in his Ichnographia Rustica; or, The Nobleman, Gentleman, and Gardener's Recreation(London, 1718).Google Scholar

2 See Harris, Eileen and Savage, Nicholas, British Architectural Books and Writers 1556-1785(Cambridge, 1990), pp. 271–80Google Scholar; Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 3rd edn (London, 1995), p. 597 Google Scholar; and Mowl, Timothy and Earnshaw, Brian, An Insular Rococo: Architecture, Politics and Society in Ireland and England, 1710-1770(London, 1999), pp. 67–69.Google Scholar

3 Harris, and Savage, , Architectural Books, p. 263.Google Scholar

4 Batty, and Langley, Thomas, Ancient Architecture: Restored, and Improved by a Great Variety of Grand and Useful Designs, Entirely New in the Gothick Mode for the Ornamenting of Buildings and Gardens Exceeding Every Thing Thats Extant (London, 1741-42)Google Scholar. Ancient Architecture was issued in two parts (1741 and 1742), and as a whole in 1742.

5 White, Roger, ‘The Influence of Batty Langley’, in A Gothick Symposium at the Victoria and Albert Museum, ed. Mordaunt Crooke, J. (London, 1984), n.p.Google Scholar; and McCarthy, Michael, The Origins of the Gothic Revival(London, 1987), p. 4.Google Scholar

6 See Clark, Kenneth, The Gothic Revival: An Essay in the History of Taste, 3rd edn (London, 1962), p. 53 Google Scholar. Although the words ‘Gothic’ and ‘Gothick’ were often interchangeable in the eighteenth century, modern scholars use the additional ‘k’ to denote the whimsical and uninformed Gothic Revival, especially in comparison with the serious and archaeologically informed nineteenth-century version. For a detailed discussion of ‘Gothick', see McCarthy, Michael, ‘Gothick’, Grove Art Online, at www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T033729 (accessed on 21 July 2011)Google Scholar. An excellent overview of the Gothic Revival's historiography can be found in Hall, Michael, ed., Gothic Architecture and its Meanings 1550-1830(Reading, 2002), pp. 7–52.Google Scholar

7 Rowan, Alistair John, ‘Batty Langley's Gothic’, in Studies in Memory of David Talbot Rice, ed. Robertson, Giles and Henderson, George (Edinburgh, 1975), pp. 197–215 Google Scholar; Harris, Eileen, ‘Batty Langley: A Tutor to Freemasons (1696-1751)’, Burlington Magazine, 119 (1977), pp. 327–35Google Scholar; White, ‘The Influence’, n.p.; Mowl, and Earnshaw, , Insular Rococo, pp. 95–99 Google Scholar; McCarthy, Michael, The Origins of the Gothic Revival (London, 1987), pp. 4–7 Google Scholar; and Brooks, Chris, The Gothic Revival (1999), pp. 90–93 Google Scholar.

8 Details for the volume are not contained in Harris, and Savage, , Architectural Books, pp. 262–80Google Scholar, because it does not appear to have been published.

9 Lewis, W.S. et al., eds, The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence [hereafter HW Correspondence], 48 vols (London, 1973), XXXV, p. 233 Google Scholar: Horace Walpole to Richard Bentley, 5 July 1755.

10 Harris, , ‘Batty Langley’, pp. 327–35.Google Scholar

11 Vickery, Amanda, Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England(London, 2009), p. 166.Google Scholar

12 Stonecastle, Henry, ed., The Universal Spectator, 4 vols (London, 1747), III, p. 46.Google Scholar

13 Colman, George, The Connoisseur. By Mr. Town, Critic and Censor-General, 4 vols, 2nd edn (London, 1757), IV, p. 121.Google Scholar

14 Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (London, 1759), pp. 373–75.Google Scholar

15 In the latter half of the eighteenth century Gothic architecture became more acceptable, and thus less liminal. Approximately one-fifth of James Wyatt's country houses, for example, were Gothic; see John Martin, Robinson, James Wyatt (1746–1813): Architect to George III(London, 2012), p. 219 Google Scholar. For Waytt's Gothic work, see chapters 10–12.

16 See Snodin, Michael, ed., Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill(London, 2009)Google Scholar; Reeve, Matthew, ‘Gothic Architecture, Sexuality and License at Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill’, The Art Bulletin, 95 (2013), pp. 411–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and McCarthy, , Origins, pp. 63–91.Google ScholarPubMed

17 Mowl, Timothy, Horace Walpole: The Great Outsider(London, 1996), p. 6.Google Scholar

18 Reeve, Matthew, ‘Dickie Bateman and the Gothicization of Old Windsor: Architecture and Sexuality in the Circle of Horace Walpole’, Architectural History, 56 (2013), pp. 99–133 (pp. 121–22).Google Scholar

19 Evelyn, John, An Account of Architects and Architecture, Together, with an Historical, Etymological Explanation of Certain Terms, Particularly Affected by Architects(London, 1706), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

20 Ware, Isaac, A Complete Body of Architecture: Adorned with Plans and Elevations, From Original Designs(London, 1756), pp.19–20.Google Scholar

21 Gerard, Alexander, An Essay on Taste(London, 1759), pp. 122–27.Google Scholar

22 Walpole, Horace, Anecdotes of Painting in England; with Some Account of the Principal Artists; and Notes on Other Arts; Collected by G. Vertue, and Now Digested from His MSS, 4 vols (Strawberry Hill, 1762), iv, pp. 114–15.Google Scholar

23 Gerard, , Taste, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., p. 1.

25 Johnson, Samuel, A Dictionary of the English Language(London, 1755)Google Scholar, II, page titled ACT; and Hutcheson, Francis, An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affectations. With Illustrations on the Moral Sense(London, 1742), p. 29.Google Scholar

26 Walpole, , Anecdotes, 1, p. 114.Google Scholar

27 Langley, Batty, Builders Complete Assistant, or a Library of Arts and Sciences, Absolutely Necessary to be Understood by Builders and Workmen in General(London, 1738), p. 137.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., pp. 136-38. See also Harris, and Savage, , Architectural Books, p. 266.Google Scholar

29 Kent's Classical training and works have been recently assessed in Weber, Susan, ed., William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain(London, 2013).Google Scholar

30 For Esher Place, see White, Roger, ‘William Kent and the Gothic Revival’, in William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, ed. Weber, Susan (London, 2013), pp. 247–69Google Scholar. It should not be expected that Kent, trained as a Classical architect, should have known much about, or indeed actively considered, the progression of medieval architecture.

31 Kent died in 1748, and therefore never saw this drawing in print. The suite of drawings is currently assumed to date from the mid-1730S, the time when he was working in the Gothic mode at Esher Place, Hampton Court Palace, Gloucester Cathedral, and Westminster Hall.

32 London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.357-1986, William Kent's design for Esher Place, c. 1730.

33 New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1975.2.118, Design for Moody Hall, c. 1750.

34 The finials are also much heavier than those on William Halfpenny's Frampton Orangery, Stouts Hill and Lye Farmhouse, thereby suggesting Halfpenny was not the architect of Moody Hall. They are also more sophisticated than those on Sanderson Miller's proposal for a barn at Ambrosden House, Oxfordshire: London, Royal Institute of British Architects, SE8/15, Design for a barn, Ambrosden House, Oxfordshire, 1747. Halfpenny's buildings are discussed in Mowl, and Earnshaw, , Insular Rococo, pp. 99–103, 127-29.Google Scholar

35 If this design is by Langley, it directly challenges Mowl's and Earnshaw's statement that ‘Langley never risked designing an entire Gothick house’: ibid., p. 99.

36 Evelyn, John, An Account, p. 10 Google Scholar; Ware, , A Complete Body, p. 20 Google Scholar; and Gerard, , Taste, pp. 122–23.Google Scholar

37 Langley and Langley, Ancient Architecture, Dedication.

38 Ibid., Dedication 2.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid., Dissertation.

41 Wilson, Christopher, The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church, 1130-1530(London, 2004), p. 172 Google Scholar; see also Shelby Lon, R., ‘The Geometrical Knowledge of Mediaeval Master Masons’, Speculum, 47.3 (1972), PP. 395–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Langley, and Langley, , Ancient Architecture, pl. 1.Google Scholar

43 This is especially evident in the entablatures of Langley's Gothic orders.

44 Harris, , ‘Tutor to Freemasons’, p. 330.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., pp. 332, and Brooks, , Gothic, p. 91 Google Scholar. See also Frew, John, ‘Gothic is English: John Carter and the Revival of Gothic as England's National Style’, The Art Bulletin, 64 (June 1982), pp. 315–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Ralph uses ‘Gothique’ to censure ‘displeasing’ architecture. In A Critical Review of the Publick Buildings, Statues and Ornaments in, and About London and Westminster(London, 1734), p. 6 Google Scholar, he attacks what he termed Gothique architecture: the ‘churches which have been built at Lime-House, Ratcliff, Horsley-Down and Spittle-Fields[…] are not to be looked at without displeasure. They are mere Gothique heaps of stone, without form or order; and meet with contempt from the best and worst tastes alike.’ Although these churches possess medieval associations through the towers and spires, they are executed in the language of Classical architecture: this discrepancy underscores Gothique's role as a negative label. See Jeffery, Paul, The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren(London, 1996), pp. 128–30.Google Scholar

47 Hiram, , ‘The Critical Review of the Publick Buildings, &c. Examined’, The Grub-Street Journal, 237 (11 July 1734), P. 974.Google Scholar

48 Hiram, , ‘A New Critical Review of the Public Buildings, &c’, The Grub-Street Journal, 271 (6 March 1735), p. 1104.Google Scholar

49 Langley and Langley, Ancient Architecture, Dissertation. The details Langley mentions regarding Westminster Abbey were probably culled from Dart, John, Westmonasterium: Or the History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St Peters Westminster, 2 vols (London, 1723), 1, ch. 3.Google Scholar

50 London, British Library [hereafter ‘BL’], Add. MS 29944, ff; 38r-v, correspondence and papers of John Carter, 7 August 1794.

51 Aubrey specifically wished to understand the characteristics and progression of medieval architecture, and his notes are preserved at the University of Oxford: Bodleian Libraries, MS Top. Gen. c. 25, ff. 152–78, Chronologia Architectonica, 1656-86. See also Colvin, Howard, ‘Aubrey's Chronologia Architectonica ’, in Essays in English Architectural History (London, 1999), pp. 206–16Google Scholar; and Turner, Olivia Horsfall, ‘“The Windows of This Church Are of Several Fashions“: Architectural Form and Historical Method in John Aubrey's “Chronologia Architectonica”’, Architectural History, 54 (2011), pp. 171–93.Google Scholar

52 Langley and Langley, Ancient Architecture, Dedication.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid., subscribers.

55 Only two craftsmen — carpenters — appear as ‘encouragers’.

56 Halfpenny, William and Halfpenny, John, Chinese and Gothic Architecture Properly Ornamented. Being Twenty New Plans and Elevations, on Twelve Copper-Plates Containing a Great Variety of Magnificent Buildings Accurately Described(London, 1752)Google Scholar, Preface.

57 Pain copied Langley's Gothic orders from Ancient Architecture and The Builder's Director, although they are rearranged into the following sequence: 1, 3, 5, 2, 4. Pain, William, The Builder's Companion, and Workman's General Assistant; Demonstrating, After the Most Easy and Practical Method, All the Principal Rules of Architecture, from the Plan to the Ornamental Finish(London, 1758), p. 67.Google Scholar

58 Langley and Langley, Ancient Architecture, Dissertation.

59 He only completed two of the eight or nine parts of Ancient Masonry (London, 1736), and a planned second volume never appeared. See Harris, and Savage, , Architectural Books, pp. 271–72.Google Scholar

60 The new or significantly modified plates are 169–71, 173–74, 176.

61 Langley, Batty and Langley, Thomas, Gothic Architecture, Improved by Rules and Proportions. In Many Grand Designs of Columns, Doors, Windows, Chimney-Pieces, Temples, and Pavillions &c. With Plans, Elevations and Profiles, Geometrically Explained(London, 1747).Google Scholar

62 BL, Add. MS 47013 B, ff. 119r, 121r, 123r, 125r-v: correspondence addressed to John Perceval, 1742.

63 Ibid., f. 119r and see Wilkinson, Clive, ‘Perceval, John, Second Earl of Egmont (1711-1770), Politician’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, at www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21912(accessed on 9 April 2013).Google Scholar

64 Langley and Langley, Ancient Architecture, Dissertation.

65 Langley does not attempt to restore or ‘improve’ the castle, and the inclusion of a historical description, albeit brief, apes preceding antiquarian publications.

66 Batty, and Langley, Thomas, The Plan of Windsor Castle(London, 1743), plan.Google Scholar

67 BL, Add. MS 47013 B, f. 119r.

68 Ibid., f. 121r.

69 Samuel, and Buck, Nathaniel, Collection of Engravings of Castles, and Abbeys in England (London, 1726–39).Google Scholar

70 King, David, The Cathedrall and Conventvall Churches of England and Wales. Orthographically Delineated by D.K.(London, 1656)Google Scholar; and Dugdale, William, Monasticon Anglicanum: or, the History of the Ancient Abbies, Monasteries, Hospitals in England and Wales (London, 1718).Google Scholar

71 BL, Add. MS 47013 B, f.119r.

72 Anderson, James, A Genealogical History of the House of Yvery, in its Different Branches of Yvery, Luvel, Perceval, and Gournay, 2 vols (London, 1742), I, p. 1.Google Scholar

73 BL, Add. MS 47011, ff. 50-138, Egmont papers to 1760. See Mowl, Timothy, ‘“Against the Time in Which the Fabric and Use of Gunpowder Shall be Forgotten”: Enmore Castle, its Origins and its Architect’, Architectural History, 33 (1990), pp. 102–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 Ibid., p. 103.

75 Shaw, Stebbing, A Tour to the West of England, in 1788(London, 1789), pp. 331–32Google Scholar. The house's architecture is more thoroughly addressed by John Britton: ‘It is a large quadrangular embattled pile, constructed of a dark reddish-coloured stone, flanked at each angle by a low square machiolated tower; with bastion and two circular towers and drawbridge at the principal entrance leading to a spacious court-yard’; see Britton, John, Bath and Bristol, with the Counties of Somerset and Gloucester(London, 1829), p. 52.Google Scholar

76 See Taylor, Diana, ‘The Perceval Compton Windsor Chair’, Regional Furniture, 18 (2004), pp. 78–86 (pp. 78, 83–85).Google Scholar

77 This chair's position within the history of painted Gothic Revival furniture is considered in Lindfield, Peter N., ‘The Countess of Pomfret's Gothic Revival Furniture: Exceptional Pieces Representative of Eighteenth-Century Taste’, The Georgian Group Journal, 22 (2014), pp. 77–94.Google Scholar

78 Farmington, CT, Lewis Walpole Library [hereafter LWL], Quarto 53 P37 801,I, f. Charleton, A journey from London to the Isle of Wight with manuscript additions, 1801. Daniel Lyons records that ‘Charlton-house, in the year 1742, was in the occupation of John, [first] Earl of Egmont, who formed there a valuable library, and collection of busts, pictures, &c. It continued for many years in the tenure of the Egmont family’; see Lyons, Daniel, The Environs of London: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent (London, 1796), pp. 328–29.Google Scholar

79 HW Correspondence, xxxv, p. 184 Google Scholar. For further discussion of good King James's Gothic, see Pevsner, Nikolaus, ‘Good King James's Gothic’, Studies in Art, Architecture and Design (London, 1968), pp. 156–63.Google Scholar

80 BL, Add. MS 47010, f. 132r, Egmont papers, 1736-58.

81 Lindfield, , ‘Pomfret’, pp. 77–94.Google Scholar

82 LWL, Quarto 498 P77 MS, Pedigree showing descent of Lord and Lady Pomfret from King Edward I, c. 1750. The Countess’ interest in medieval design is further discussed in Houfe, Simon, ‘A Taste for the Gothick: Diaries of the Countess of Pomfret 1’, Country Life, 161 (24 March 1977), pp. 728–30Google Scholar; and Houfe, Simon, ‘Antiquarian Inclinations: Diaries of the Countess of Pomfret 2’, Country Life, 161 (31 March 1977), pp. 800–02.Google Scholar

83 HW Correspondence, xx, pp. 180–81.Google Scholar

84 Walpole identified the architect as Miller, Sanderson (1716-80): “The Gothic house of the Countess of Pomfret in Arlington Street, was designed by Mr Miller of Radway’, HW Correspondence, XXXIII, p. 82 Google Scholar. It has subsequently been attributed to Richard Biggs (-1776); see Harris, John, ‘Lady Pomfret's House: The Case for Richard Biggs’, The Georgian Group Journal, 1 (1991), pp. 45–49 Google Scholar; Freeman, Sarah, ‘An Englishwoman's Home is Her Castle: Lady Pomfret's House at 18 Arlington Street’, The Georgian Group Journal, 20 (2012), pp. 87–102 (pp. 90-91)Google Scholar; and Hawkes, W., ‘Walpole Right or Wrong? More on No. 18 Arlington Street’, The Georgian Group Journal, XXI (2013), pp. 204–11.Google Scholar

85 Cornforth, John, ‘A Countess's London Castle’, Country Life Annual (1970), pp. 138–39Google Scholar; and Freeman, , ‘Englishwoman's Home’, pp. 87–102.Google Scholar

86 BL, Add. MS 47013 B, f. 119r.

87 Ibid., f. 123r.

88 Ibid., f. 126v.

89 Ibid,, f. 121r.

90 Ancient Architecture was priced at 7s 6d per half: Langley and Langley, Ancient Architecture, title page. See also Mowl, and Earnshaw, , Insular Rococo, p. 96.Google Scholar

91 It cost three guineas on royal paper, and four guineas on imperial paper; see Lintott, Bernard, Monthly Catalogue: Books to be Published in May 1714 (London, 1714), p. 14.Google Scholar

92 BL, Add. MS 47013 B, f. 125r.

93 Ibid.

94 Ibid.

95 Given Perceval is not addressed in this letter as the second Earl of Egmont, it must date from before 1748, and work did not commence on Enmore Castle, Somersetshire, until 1751.

96 These foregrounds, however, do not detract from or compromise the accuracy of the plates, as seen in the perspectival illustration in the Bucks' Collection of Engravings of Castles.

97 If so, this would date the letters and the project to between 1742 and 1743. This, however, remains supposition.

98 It was important for Walpole to distance himself from Langley's Gothic once the intention to create a serious and quasi-scholarly reconstruction of medieval architecture developed. Walpole subscribed to Ancient Architecture, and his copy, preserved in the Lewis Walpole Library (LWL 49 630), contains a drawing of Strawberry Hill's early development on the rear fly-leaf. The initial Gothicization of Strawberry Hill in a Kent/Langley mode, as seen in William Robinson's chimneypiece for the Breakfast Room, was subsequently criticized by Walpole in 1788: ‘neither Mr. Bentley nor my workmen has studied the science [of Gothic], and [… that] My house therefore is but a sketch by beginners’; Walpole, Horace, The Works of Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford, 5 vols (London, 1798), V, pp. 668–69.Google Scholar

99 HW Correspondence, XXXV, p. 233 Google Scholar; and Haggerty, George E., ‘The Strawberry Committee’, in Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, ed. Snodin, Michael (London, 2009), pp. 80–86.Google Scholar

100 Walpole, , Anecdotes of Painting, IV, pp. 106–07.Google Scholar

101 Britton, John, Graphical Illustrations with Historical and Descriptive Accounts, of Toddington, Gloucestershire, the Seat of Lord Sudeley (London, 1840), pp. 17–18.Google Scholar

102 Eastlake, Charles L., A History of the Gothic Revival (London, 1872), p. 54.Google Scholar

103 Mowl, and Earnshaw, , Insular Rococo, pp. 97–98 Google Scholar. Ancient Architecture, however, contains sixty-two illustrative plates, plus the two on Westminster Abbey's piers.