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The
immensely rich Earl of Burlington engaged Yorkshire artist,
William Kent, to guide the building of Worchester Lodge.
Under the Earl's patronage, Kent's talents emerged. Kent
was a romantic and an admirer of Sir John Vanbrugh (Castle
Howard and Blenhiem Palace). William Kent was one of the
most versatile of English artists. It was Kent, rather than
Robert Adam, who first used the spindly grotesque style
of neo-Pompeian wall and ceiling decoration, and it was
Kent, rather than Horace Walpole, who first experimented
with the Gothic style.
Of
his architecture, the most authentic and characteristic
example is quite modest in scale and dates from the early
1740's. Worcester Lodge, at Badminton, is a little classical
house riding high on an arched, rusticated base. It contains
one splendid room--an elevated and elegant dining room,
in his finest Roman manner, in which the Duke of Beaufort
would dine with a few friends on summer evenings.
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