Thucydides ; cast of a renowned bust at Holkham Hall ( Pushkin Museum )

Francesco travelled to England to 1752, where his decorative talent resulted in diverse work, including the design of tapestries with the weaver Paul Saunders at Holkham Hall.

In many cases his ideas were informal: at Holkham Hall the architect Matthew Brettingham recalled that " the general ideas were first struck out by the Earls of Burlington and Leicester, assisted by Mr. William Kent.

File: Holkham Hall-geograph. org. uk-206890. jpg | Holkham Hall

The Holkham estate has been owned by the Coke family, later Earls of Leicester since 1609, and their seat at Holkham Hall is opposite the reserve's Lady Anne's Drive entrance.

* Holkham Hall ( Earls of Leicester )

* Holkham Hall

In country house building, major commissions for Kent were designing the interiors of Houghton Hall ( c. 1725 – 35 ), recently built by Colen Campbell for Sir Robert Walpole, but at Holkham Hall the most complete embodiment of Palladian ideals is still to be found ; there Kent collaborated with Thomas Coke, the other " architect earl ", and had for an assistant Matthew Brettingham, whose own architecture would carry Palladian ideals into the next generation.

His stately furniture designs complemented his interiors: he designed furnishings for Hampton Court Palace ( 1732 ), Lord Burlington's Chiswick House ( 1729 ), London, Thomas Coke's Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Robert Walpole's pile at Houghton, for Devonshire House in London, and at Rousham.

File: Holkham Hall 20080717-01. jpg | Holkham Hall North Front

File: Holkham Hall 20080717-03. jpg | Holkham hall Marble Hall

File: Obelisk, Holkham Hall-geograph. org. uk-206887. jpg | Obelisk, Holkham Hall

After completion of the villa in 1729, Burlington later provided inspiration to other architects for numerous other buildings, such as Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall, Norfolk Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, at Goodwood House, and the Mansion House, nicknamed the " Egyptian Hall " for its columns.

" Brettingham's engraved publication of Holkham credited Burlington specifically with ceilings for the portico and the north dressing-room.

It is on the Norfolk coast between Burnham Overy Staithe and Blakeney, and is managed by Natural England with the cooperation of the Holkham Estate.

* Holkham Hall, Norfolk: Masterpiece of Palladian revival, with original decoration.

Medieval illuminated manuscripts such as the Holkham Bible showed the dove returning to Noah with a branch, and Wycliffe's Bible, which translated the Vulgate into English in the 14th century, uses " a braunche of olyue tre with greene leeuys " (" a branch of olive tree with green leaves ") in Gen. 8: 11.

It was extirpated from the United Kingdom but sporadic breeding attempts in the early 21st Century culminated with the formation of a colony at Holkham in Norfolk in 2010.

Nearby villages include Blakeney ( famous for its bird sanctuary ), Burnham Market, Burnham Thorpe ( the birthplace of Horatio Nelson ), Holkham ( with its famous stately home Holkham Hall ), and Walsingham ( a major medieval pilgrimage site ).

* Brief History of Holkham House with some family references

In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of England's finest examples of Palladian architecture with Holkham Hall in Norfolk.

Compared to its Palladian contemporaries, such as Holkham Hall, Woburn Abbey and Ragley Hall, it is quite small, yet it is architecturally important as it encapsulates a period of 18th century English social history, when young men, known as dilettanti, returning from the nearly obligatory Grand Tour with newly purchased acquisitions of art, often built a country house to accommodate their new collections and display in stone the learning and cultivation they had acquired during their travels.

** C. C. McCown, The Testament of Solomon, edited from manuscripts at Mount Athos, Bologna, Holkham Hall, Jerusalem, London, Milan, Paris and Vienna, with Introduction ( Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, Heft 9 ; Leipsiz, 1922.

There were, however, significant debts as a result of his uncle's work on Holkham Hall, with the interest alone being £ 4, 000 a year.

He pioneered the use of cocksfoot and lucerne as grass and feed respectively, with the result that by 1793 he was claiming to have 2, 400 sheep in Holkham, as opposed to the 700 kept when he inherited the estates.

Anne had initially been brought to Holkham to partner with his nephew William, who due to Coke's lack of sons would inherit the estate, but they failed to get on.

The original plans of the house by Leadbetter show a design closer in appearance to Holkham Hall, with square end towers.

In England, the terms " country house " and " stately home " are sometimes used vaguely and interchangeably, however, many country houses such as Ascott in Buckinghamshire were deliberately designed not to be stately, and to harmonise with the landscape, while some of the great houses such as Kedleston Hall and Holkham Hall were built as " power houses " to impress and dominate the landscape, and were most certainly intended to be " stately " and impressive.

Really large un-fortified or barely fortified houses began to take over from the traditional castles of the crown and magnates during the Tudor period with vast houses such as Hampton Court Palace and Burghley and continued until the 18th century-with houses such as Kedleston Hall and Holkham Hall.

Matthew Brettingham performed the principal design of Langley Hall, with a design that was very much in the Palladian style of nearby Holkham Hall, though much smaller: a large principal central block linked to two flanking secondary wings by short corridors.

In 1728 he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Baron Lovel, of Minster Lovel in the County of Oxford, and in 1744 he was created Viscount Coke, of Holkham in the County of Norfolk, and Earl of Leicester, also in the Peerage of Great Britain.

In 1837 the titles held by his great-uncle were revived when was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Viscount Coke and Earl of Leicester, of Holkham in the County of Norfolk.

* Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester ( seventh creation ) ( 1754 – 1842 ), agricultural innovator, created 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham

Holkham Hall is one of the principal Palladian houses of England, built for an ancestor of Thomas William Coke, noted agricultural innovator and later 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham.

He was born at Ingoldisthorpe, and the family later moved to Godwick Hall, east of Tittleshall, which was leased from Thomas Coke, who later became the 1st Earl of Leicester, of Holkham Hall.

Vile and Cobb supplied furniture to the leading patrons of the day including George III and Queen Charlotte, the 1st Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall, the 4th Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth and the 4th Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey.

Coke, who had been created Earl of Leicester in 1744, died in 1759, five years before the completion of Holkham, having never fully recovered his financial losses.

Therefore Holkham was inherited by Thomas's nephew Wenman Coke, who died in 1776 and was succeeded by his son Thomas William Coke, later 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham.

Lord Leicester began the construction of Holkham Hall in Norfolk.

Kent picked it up in his designs for the Houses of Parliament, and it appears in Kent's executed designs for the north front of Holkham Hall.

The Vikings navigated the creeks to establish Holkham village, but access to the former harbour was stopped by drainage and reclamation of the marshes between the coast and the shingle ridge which started in the 17th century, and was completed in 1859.

Thanks to the revival of interest in Palladio and Inigo Jones, soon Neo-Palladian villas dotted the valley of the River Thames and English countryside: such as Stourhead by Colen Campbell-1720, Holkham Hall-1730 ; Woburn Abbey by Henry Flitcroft and Henry Holland-1744 ; and Chiswick House by William Kent-1788.

The Holkham Estate reclaimed some 800 hectares of saltmarsh north-west of Wells, completed by the construction of a mile-long sea-wall in 1859.

The beach is backed by dense pine woods which are part of the Holkham National Nature Reserve.

This was despite the fact that the 1784 creation of the earldom held by the Townshend family was then still extant ( hence the territorial designation " of Holkham ").

The Berkeley family held it for generations until it passed by marriage to the Cokes of Holkham in Norfolk.

* Holkham Hall, England, is completed in the Palladian style by William Kent, after thirty years of building work.

The cornerstone was Holkham House, a " temple to the arts " built by Coke's great uncle.

From the main coast road Lady Anne's Drive, a toll road owned by the Holkham estate, crosses the reclaimed salt marshes to Holkham Gap.

Medieval manuscripts concerning Holkham have been edited by William Hassall and Jacques Beauroy.

Both were later to be engaged by Coke to work on his mansion at Holkham which housed the considerable collection of works of art that Coke had accumulated on his travels.