"Salmon's Palladio Londonensis." _Palladio Londonensis: or the London Art of Building_, by William Salmon, which appeared in at least two editions, in 1734 and in 1738, had a profound influence on the formal architecture of the colonies during the mid-century.
"Palladio's Architecture." The Italian Andrea Palladio was the underlying source of English architectural thought from Christopher Wren down to Robert Adam. Under the patronage of Lord Burlington, this book was brought out in London in an English translation by Giacomo Leoni under the title _The Architecture of A. Palladio; in Four Books_. It had appeared in three editions prior to this inventory, in 1715, 1721, and 1742, according to Fiske Kimball (_Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic_; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924, p. 58). Mercer probably owned one of these.
"Langley's City & Country Builder." _City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Design_ by Battey Langley, 1740, 1745. This was another copybook much used by builders and provincial architects.
[Illustration: Figure 12.--DOORWAYS ILLUSTRATED IN WILLIAM SALMON'S _Palladio Londonensis_ (the London Art of Building), one of the books used by William Bromley, the chief joiner who worked on Mercer's mansion. (_Courtesy of the Library of Congress._)]
All four of these books were listed in succession in the ledger and bracketed together. Next to the bracket are the initials "WB," to indicate that the books had been lent to someone who bore those initials. In this case it is virtually certain that the initials are those of William Bromley, to whom the books would have been of utmost importance in designing the woodwork of the house.
Door hardware was purchased from William Jordan in June 1749, according to an item for "Locks & Hinges" that amounted to the large sum of £13 8s. 8d.
[93] Probably the same Thomas Anderson whose appointment as tobacco inspector at Page's warehouse, Hanover County, was unsuccessfully protested on the basis that the job required "a person skilled in writing and expert in accounts" (_Calendar of Virginia State Papers_, op. cit. (footnote 18), vol. 1, pp. 233-234). A letter to Thomas Anderson of Hanover County was listed as uncalled for at the Williamsburg Post Office in August, 1752 (_Virginia Gazette_; all references to the _Gazettes_ result from use of LESTER J. CAPPON and STELLA F. DUFF, _Virginia Gazette Index 1736-1780_ [Williamsburg, 1950], and microfilm published by The Institute of Early American History and Culture [Williamsburg, 1950]).