Chapel of Longleat House, Wiltshire

case study 11 Chapel of Longleat House, Wiltshire

1684 Private chapel, extant but gothicized1 Architect: William Taylor

A London surveyor, active during the reigns of Charles II and James II, Taylor was employed by the first Viscount Weymouth from 1682 onwards to carry out works at Longleat House, including the fitting up of the chapel. A few years later Weymouth employed him for the building of a new chapel at Minsterley, his house in Shropshire.2

Historical note

Few Elizabethan estates had a chapel. Among the great prodigy houses, Hardwick was unusual in having a functioning chapel.3 At Longleat the archi- tectural features of the former chapel, including the chapel window and but- tresses, were dismantled before 1580 at the request of Sir John Thynne’s mason because they would “much disvergure” the overall design of the building.4 According to Annabel Ricketts the seventeenth-century chapel was L-shaped, located on the ground floor and oriented to the north-west. The shape probably resulted from the symmetry of the overall plan.5 The arrange- ment of the chapel was part of a major rearrangement of the whole house, commissioned by the first Viscount Weymouth and executed by William Taylor. However, Weymouth also took advice from Wren. In 1683 he wrote to his brother “he would be grateful for Sir Christopher Wren’s opinion.”6

1 Annabel Ricketts, The English Country House Chapel, Building a Protestant Tradition (Reading: Spire books, 2007), 274. 2 Henry Lancaster, “Thynne Thomas, first Viscount Weymouth (bap. 1640, d. 1714), politician,” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online (2008), doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27424. 3 Ricketts, The English Country House Chapel, 18. 4 Ricketts, The English Country House Chapel, 45. 5 Ricketts, The English Country House Chapel, 62. 6 Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), 969.

Sermon

Sermon title: A Sermon Preached August the 19th, 1684. At the Consecration of the Lord Weymouth’s Chapel in Long-Leat.

Imprint: London: Printed by Miles Flefher, for Henry Clements, Bookseller in Oxford, And sold by Walter Davis in Amen-corner, in London, 1684.

Author: Richard Roderick

Roderick was a staunch defender of unity and discipline in the Church and of public worship based upon the apostles’ doctrine. He was equally op- posed to the extremes of Puritanism and Catholicism. In his sermons he ex- plicitly denounces nonconformity and the state of the Church under the Commonwealth.7

Status: Sermon preached at consecration of newly built private chapel, August 19, 1684.

Epistle dedicatory: The sermon is dedicated to Lord Thomas Thynne, Baron of Warminster and Viscount of Weymouth. Roderick thanks the viscount for his invitation to preach and to publish the sermon. He compares this favour to the divine providence, as it is transcendent, free and unexpected. Roderick expresses the hope that those who are the object of the viscount’s favours will put them to good use. He closes his epistle dedicatory with a blessing.

Verse: 2 Chron. 7: 16. Now I have chosen and sanctified this House, that my name may be there for ever, and mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually.

Purpose of the sermon as stated by the author (p. 3): “For your present Meditation, be pleased to consider 1. That through all Ages, Men out of a sense of Duty have chosen and sanctified, that is, separated from common Uses, and solemnly set apart, places for the publick Worship of God. 2. That God allows, yea, requires such Places to be Chosen and Sanctified, or solemnly set apart for his publick Worship, to the Honour of his Name. 3. That if Men will be sincerely devout in such Places (but not otherwise) God promises, that his

7 Richard Roderick, A Sermon Preached at Blandford-forum in Dorset-shire, December the 19th, 1682, at the Lord Bishop of Bristol’s Visitation by Richard Roderick (London, 1683), 25.