48 C O N T E X T 1 7 3 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 ANTHEA JONES Historic buildings in Johannes Kip’s engravings Three houses illustrate some typical and differing fortunes over the 300 years since they appeared in Johannes Kip’s series of engravings of Gloucestershire houses. Johannes Kip’s engravings of 60 Gloucestershire gentry’s houses were published in 1712 in Sir Robert Atkyns’ The Ancient and Present State of Glostershire. They have been used to demonstrate the survival of all or part of a house and its garden and grounds, and to identify the likely period or periods of building, as in Nicholas Kingsley’s The Country Houses of Gloucestershire.1 Kip’s name is known as the engraver of drawings of great country houses by his Dutch compatriot Leendert Knijff (or Leonard Kniff) in editions of Britannia Illustrata from 1707; their Badminton was included in Atkyns’ book. But Kip made the drawings of the other 59 Gloucestershire houses, as well as engraving them. The plates are placed between pages of text relating to the relevant parish (with two exceptions due to errors). It is becoming clear that Kip was an accurate draughtsman. It possibly took five years, between 1706 and 1711, for Kip to travel around Gloucestershire in the months of better weather to visit and draw the houses for Atkyns’ book.The Berkeley Castle and Dyrham archives record owners paying for copies of Kip’s work, but Atkyns’ executors paid for the printing.2 It is fortunate that so much was prepared before Atkyns unexpectedly died in 1711. Three houses described here illustrate some typical and differing fortunes over the 300 years since Kip visited: one hardly altered externally, one retaining part of the fabric and one with substantial additions to an important surviving building. In all cases the overall site layout remains. Wick Court in Wick and Abson is the first house in Atkyns’ book, as the parish was then known as Abson andWick. Externally there have been only small changes; a substantial addition since 1712 is to one side. Historic England lists the house Grade I. As with other houses of similar design, the entrance on the north front was between projecting wings; an entrance hall has since been added between the wings. Kip showed the road on this side, as it is today, with men and horses at the front gate. However, his viewpoint was the garden or south front. Here, the roof and fenestration of the porch over the garden door have also been altered since 1712. Otherwise, the six-gabled house with its elaborate roofs is immediately recognisable. It is probably early 17th century; yellow ochre plastering externally suggests that it was built by a Wynter who owned the ochre mines nearby. Sir Edward Wynter was lord of the manor in 1608, and there is an elaborate Jacobean staircase supporting an early date, with the windows on the north-west side arranged to light the stairs. In 1665Wynter’s Kip’s engraving of Wick Court The front of Wick Court showing the arrangement of windows to light the staircase. At the back some large trees may mark the avenue beyond the gates. (Photo: Mike Calnan) The rear of Wick Court. The large yew trees may be survivors of the neat fastigiate yews lining the path from the garden door. The roof and windows of the porch have been altered since Kip’s visit. (Photo: Mike Calnan) 1 Kingsley, Nicholas (1989 and 2001) The Country Houses of Gloucestershire Volumes 1 and 2, Phillimore, Chichester ² See Jones, Anthea, ed (2021) Johannes Kip: the Gloucestershire engravings (Hobnob Press) for more details
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