e part of his
own life, the noblest of his son's inheritance, a kind of private
princedom, nay the possession thereof an epitome of the whole world, may
well deserve by these attributes, according to the degree of the master,
to be delightfully adorned."

[Illustration: Oak Chimney Piece in Sir Walter Raleigh's House, Youghal,
Ireland. Said to be the work of a Flemish Artist who was brought over for
the purpose of executing this and other carved work at Youghal.]

Sir Henry Wootton was ambassador in Venice in 1604, and is said to have
been the author of the well-known definition of an ambassador's calling,
namely, "an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country's good." This
offended the piety of James I., and caused him for some time to be in
disgrace. He also published some 20 years later "Elements of
Architecture," and being an antiquarian and man of taste, sent home many
specimens of the famous Italian wood carving.

It was during the reign of James I. and that of his successor that Inigo
Jones, our English Vitruvius, was making his great reputation; he had
returned from Italy full of enthusiasm for the Renaissance of Palladio
and his school, and of knowledge and taste gained by a diligent study of
the ancient classic buildings of Rome; his influence would be speedily
felt in the design of woodwork fittings, for the interiors of his
edifices. There is a note in his own copy of Palladio, which is now in the
library of Worcester College, Oxford, which is worth quoting:--

"In the name of God: Amen. The 2 of January, 1614, I being in Rome
compared these desines following, with the Ruines themselves.--INIGO
JONES."

[Illustration: Chimney Piece in Byfleet House. Early Jacobean.]

In the following year he returned from Italy on his appointment as King's
surveyor of works, and until his death in 1652 was full of work, though
unfortunately for us, much that he designed was never carried out, and
much that he carried out has been destroyed by fire. The Banqueting Hall
of Whitehall, now Whitehall Chapel; St. Paul's, Covent Garden; the old
water gate originally intended as the entrance to the first Duke of
Buckingham's Palace, close to Charing Cross; Nos. 55 and 56, on the south
side of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn; and one or two monuments and
porches, are amongst the examples that remain to us of this great master's
work; and of interiors, that of Ashburnham House is left to remind us,
with its quiet d