A section from Vertue's engraving, 1747, of a survey of Whitehall made by John Fisher, 1660-1670. Compare "The Cockpit" with Inigo Jones's plans.] [Illustration: THE THEATRO OLYMPICO AT VICENZA Which probably inspired Inigo Jones's plans for the Cockpit-in-Court.] Mr. Bell describes the plan he discovered as follows:[668] It represents within a square building, windowed on three sides and on one seemingly attached to another building, an auditorium occupying five sides of an octagon, on the floor of which are shown the benches of a pit, or the steps, five in number, on which they could be set. These are curiously arranged at an angle of forty-five degrees on either side of a central aisle, so that the spectators occupying them could never have directly faced the stage. Surrounding this pit on five sides is a balcony ten feet deep, with, it would seem, two rows of benches on four of its sides; the fifth side in the centre, directly opposite the stage, being partitioned off into a room or box, in the middle of which is indicated a platform about five feet by seven, presumably for the Royal State. Three steps descend from this box to the centre aisle of the pit. To the left of and behind this royal box appears another enclosure or box, partitioned off from the rest of the balcony. The staircases of access to this auditorium are clearly indicated; one small door at the rear of the _salle_ with its own private stairway, communicating with the adjoining building, opens directly into the royal box; as in the Royal Opera House in Berlin to-day. There is another door, with a triangular lobby, into the rear of the left-hand balcony. Two windows are shown on each side of the house, opening directly into the theatre from the outer air. The stage runs clear across the width of the pit, about thirty-five feet, projecting in an "apron" or _avant scene_ five feet beyond the proscenium wall, and is surrounded on the three outward sides by a low railing of classic design about eighteen inches in height, just as in many Elizabethan playhouses.