OBJECTS OF INTEREST.
55
barren spot." The splendid mansion built by Sir
Josiah's son in 1715 was the work of Colin
Campbell, the celebrated architect, and author of
Vitruvius Britannicus. Horace Walpole speaks
of him and the place in a letter to Richard Bent-
ley, dated 17th June 1755 :—"I dined yesterday
at Wanstead : many years have passed since I saw
it. The disposition of the house and prospect are
better than I expected, and very fine. The garden,
which, they tell you, cost as much as the house,
that is £100,000, is wretched; the furniture fine
but without taste. . . . The present Earl is the
most generous creature in the world. In the first
chamber I entered he offered me four marble
tables that lay in cases about the room. I com-
pounded, after forty refusals of everything I com-
mended, to bring away only a haunch of venison.
I believe he has not had so cheap a visit a good
while. I commend myself as I ought; for, to be
sure, there were twenty ebony chairs and a couch
and a table and a glass that would have tried the
virtue of a philosopher of double my size." In
1775 Harrison visited the house and thus describes
it:—" Before the front of the house is a long vista
that reaches to the great road at Leighton Stone;
and from the back front facing the gardens is an
easy descent that leads to the terrace, and affords
a most beautiful prospect of the river, which is
formed into canals; and beyond it the walks and
wildernesses extend to a great distance, rising up
a hill, on the top of which the sight is lost by the
woods, and the whole country, as far as the eye
can reach, appears one continued garden. What
a pity it is so fine an edifice, in so beautiful a
situation, should be discarded by its possessor !