Thorpe was also a student of Dutch publications. On page 24 he has a design entitled "½ a front or a garden syde for a noble man" (Fig. 215), of which the central portion is copied from Plate 20 of Jan Vredeman de Vries's "Architectura, ou Bastiment prins de Vitruve," published at Antwerp in 1577. He has departed from the original in one or two small particulars; for instance, he has four-light windows where Vries has two-light; he has mullions to his dormers where Vries has none; he has added the final flourishes and pinnacle on the top of the centre gable which Vries leaves plain, and his treatment of the windows over the middle arch is different from Vries's; but with these exceptions the original is followed faithfully as far as to the end of the arcade, to the left of which the design is Thorpe's own. Thorpe has written on the panel over the entrance "Structum ad impensum Dni Sara Ao Dni 1600." This is the only drawing of his which has been traced to Dutch sources, but nearly all his elevations, of which a few are illustrated in this chapter, show some hankering after Dutch forms in the gables. On page 60 of his book he has a few sketches, chiefly of strap-work gables, which look as though they had been either copied from a Dutch book or inspired by one. [Illustration: 215.--ELEVATION COPIED FROM DE VRIES. THE CENTRAL PORTION IS COPIED; ALL TO THE LEFT OF THE ARCADE IS ADDED BY THORPE (PAGE 24).] This study of foreign books by one of the designers of the period is a noteworthy fact, and it is equally worthy of note that the study of them seems to have set him thinking, and to have suggested ideas to him, which he jotted down in pencil near the copies which he made from the foreign books. These are not the only instances of this habit, for in other parts of his book are to be seen, by the side of carefully finished plans, hasty sketches of some variation of the same main ideas. Of the foreign books which he studied, some, therefore, were Italian, some were French, and others Dutch: and it is curious to see how the French books seem to have influenced his plans, and the Dutch books his elevations. The French influence on those plans which, so far as we know, were actually carried out, was not strong; but among the plans which may be classed as exercises, are some with towers at the corners, after the manner of those at Chambord, Chenonceau, and Azay-le-Rideau, and a number with square turrets such as those of the Château de Madrit. He may also have derived from the same sources his extreme love of symmetry, and his adoption of the grand manner apparent in some of his designs planned round a courtyard. These French books may, therefore, have influenced his style, but they did not dominate him so much as to cause him to copy the French type of plan in designing an English house. The same may be said of the Dutch influence on his elevations. Only in the one instance already mentioned