I’ve never seen Petworth House from its park before: so austerely French, a long linear façade in the cold April sun, thought possibly to have been designed by the Monsieur Pouget who was credited with the design of Montagu House in Vitruvius Britannicus.

It is certainly very French in character – smarter and more sophisticated than its English equivalent, more coolly classical and by someone who knew what he was doing:-