Were William Kent (1685-1748) to come off Piccadilly and enter the Royal Academy of Arts quadrangle today he would still recognise Burlington House, with, in his own words, its ‘true Palladian front’, built by Colen Campbell in 1718-19. In 1717 Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, had designed his own Bagnio in the gardens at Chiswick House in a Palladian style. This was described by Campbell as ‘the first essay of his Lordship’s happy invention’, although Burlington was indebted to Campbell in borrowing architectural details from Burlington House. As an amateur architect Burlington would have taken Campbell into his architectural confidences. Burlington’s own architecture was fully matured when he designed a villa at Tottenham Park, Wiltshire, for his brother-in-law Lord Bruce in 1721. Later Kent would design the Great Room there.

In 1710 the young Kent, aged 25 and a budding painter, had travelled with John Talman to Rome, settling in Italy for nine years, when he struck up warm friendships with many milordi, among them Thomas Coke, later 1st Earl of Leicester, who possessed a passion for sculpture, painting, rare books and architecture. The young Coke, who was seventeen, met Kent in 1714 and travelled with him in Italy for five years. It is likely that Coke was one of the first to recognise Kent as a potential Jack of all trades, possessing of a vast store of artistic knowledge and truly a Renaissance Man, a quality belied by his charming inarticulate writing. All who met him loved him.