The house may be identified in two ways. (1) The frontages of the house of the Earl of St. Albans, and of the three houses to the east, are stated to be 88[216], 44, 44 and 88 feet respectively, and the last mentioned house is said to be bounded on the east by a gateway, which, from the description, was obviously Middle Yard. The western boundary of the four houses in question may thus be shown to correspond with the western side of New Yard, _i.e._, the western boundary of No. 55. (2) On 23rd January and 8th February, 1639–40, Newton sold certain plots of ground, containing frontages of 41 and 45½ feet, having a depth of 190 feet, and after 120 feet diminishing in width from 83 to 60 feet. These plots are stated to be bounded on the east by the dwelling house and garden of the Earl of St. Albans. From the shape of the property disclosed by the above figures, and the actual frontages given, there can be no doubt that the houses afterwards erected thereon occupied the sites of the present Nos. 51 to 54.[217] The house of the Earl of St. Albans was therefore No. 55 and upwards. The house was already in existence in January, 1637–8,[218] and as the licence for building had only been obtained in May, 1636, the erection of the house may, with practical certainty, be assigned to the year 1637. In the 1638 deed it is described as “all that one new erected double messuage or tenement with appurtenances, scituate in Queenes Streete ... contayninge in front towardes Queenes Streete aforesaid 88 feet ... and sydinge eastwards upon the house in the tenure of the Lord Leiger Embassador of Spayne, together with a gardyn plott lyinge on the back side of the said messuage and adjoyninge thereunto.” The original mansion therefore occupied the site of the present Nos. 55 and 56, and adjoining property in New Yard, together with that of the western block of the present Freemasons’ Buildings. The first division of the house took place in, or shortly after, 1684. In that year Lord Belasyse purchased the property, and at the date of his will, five years later, the house had for some time been in double occupation.