Johannes Kip after Leonard Knyff

Long Leate, the seat of the R.t Hon.ble Thomas Lord Weymouth, Baron of Warminster

19 x 13.5 inches

A copperplate engraving depicting Longleat House and gardens in Wiltshire. This plate was issued in Johannes Kip's monumental topographical work, Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne, in London in 1724.

The present Longleat House dates from around 1580 and is considered by many to be the finest example of Elizabethan architecture in the land. It was originally built for Sir John Thynne and has remained in the Thynne family ever since. By the time this drawing and print were done the house was in the hands of Thomas Thynne, the 1st Viscount Weymouth. The elaborate parterres that can be seen in the engraving are a harbinger for the series of mazes and labyrinths that Longleat has become synonymous with in the C21st.

The early eighteenth century in England was dominated by the work of a group of Dutch artists and engravers who came to live and work in London. It was in 1707 that David Mortier offered for sale the first series of large volumes of topographical engravings of English towns and estates initially under the collective name of Britannia Illustrata (1707) and later, from 1715 onwards, Le Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne. Kip engraved most of the plates for this work either after his own designs or after the drawings of his fellow Dutchman, Leonard Knyff. Perhaps most famous and beloved of all are his aerial views of English country houses and estates where each plate depicts a country seat surrounded by formal gardens and farmland.