At the time John Aubrey visited Bradford, in 1686, he described this house as inhabited by John Hall, a wealthy clothier of the town, connected by marriage with the family of Sir John Thynne, of Longleat. Mr. J. Britten supposes that Bradford House was built by the architect who erected the grand mansion of Longleat, the foundation of which was laid in 1567; but the style of the building is that of a much later period; it was probably built by the Duke of Kingston. A shield of arms, with what appears to be a ducal coronet above it, is over the fireplace in the entrance-hall, and the same shield is repeated in the other apartments. This shield, no doubt, belongs to the nobleman who erected the mansion. The palace at Longleat is a structure in style almost pure Italian, and the architect is well known to be John of Padua, a very celebrated man. It is the fashion with the antiquaries in Wilts, so proud they are of the name, to ascribe to him every building and every separate fragment of Elizabethan architecture in the county; but the Duke’s House is not by him: it is pure English architecture, of the latest and most polished period of the style of James I. Aubrey’s description of the house is curious; he calls it “the best house for the quality of a gentleman in Wiltshire.” The house has two wings; two, if not three, elevations or ascents to it, adorned with terraces, having either rails or stone balustrades. [Illustration] The interior contains numerous fragments of the old building: the entrance-hall has a noble stone fireplace in two stories; one of the upper rooms had, till within the last few years, a very handsome oak and stone fireplace, elaborately carved. Some of the rooms contain oak panelling; and there are a few ornamented ceilings, in which are pomegranates, the fleur-de-lis, English rose, &c. The desertion of the house appears to have been caused by the increase of the town, which rendered it anything but a rural retreat.