Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, so justly celebrated for his steady adherence, and powerful assistance to the royal cause, during the whole course of the civil wars; from whom the Earl of Ailesbury was descended. The present edifice was begun, carried on, and finished after the model, and under the direction of our modern Vitruvius, the late Earl of Burlington, who, to the strength and convenience of the English architecture, has added the elegance of Italian taste. The house has four towers, and four fronts, each of them diversely beautified and adorned; to which are now added four wings, wherein are rooms of state, a noble and capacious room for a library, containing a judicious and large collection of several thousand books, in all languages, but especially the modern. The beauty of the buildings is much augmented by the large canals, the spacious and well planted walks which surround it; one of which, leading to the London road, extends two miles in length. About the same distance from hence, on the opposite side, are to be seen the remains of a large house, called Wolf-hall, the seat of Sir John Seymour, father of the unfortunate protector, of which no more is standing than suffices for a farm house. Here King Henry VIII. as tradition goes, celebrated his nuptials with Lady Jane Seymour, and kept his wedding dinner in a very large barn, hung with tapestry, on the occasion; for confirmation of which they shew you in the walls some tenter-hooks, with small pieces of tapestry fastened to them: and between this place and Tottenham there is a walk, with old trees on each side, still known by the name of King Henry’s walk. Wolf-hall was anciently the seat of St. Maurs, or Seymours, who, from the time of Henry II. were hereditary bailiffs and wardens of the forest of Savernac, in memory of which a large hunting horn, ornamented with silver, is still preserved by the present noble owner, the Earl of Ailesbury, together with a beautiful pedigree of the family, from William the Conqueror. They proceeded through the charming confines of Wiltshire and Berkshire, and arrived at the castle at Speenhamland, where they dined, and in the evening they proceeded to Reading[5], and the following day arriving in London, completed their excursion. CHAPTER IV.