This mansion, or rather collection of buildings, the site of which had been taken from the see of Bath in the time of "Protector" Somerset, appears from Hollar's _Views_ (as is stated by Mr. Cunningham in his admirable _Handbook of London Past and Present_) to have comprised a range of irregular buildings, principally of red brick, erected at various periods, and combined without much regard to elegance or uniformity; although I find the earl is said to have been the first person who introduced uniformity in building, and to have been made chief commissioner for promoting this object in London. This famous, and once hospitable, mansion, stood between the gardens of Essex House on the east, and of Somerset (then Denmark) House on the west, its pleasure grounds coming down to the river, and commanding a fine view of the city as far as London Bridge, and of Westminster, and westward to Nine Elms. It is mentioned by Mr. Cunningham, that in this house Hollar drew his well-known view of London, as seen from the roof. The earl, of whose taste and munificence the Arundelian collections formed a noble monument, departed this life at Padua, on the 4th of October (or, as another account[1] says, the 26th September), 1646, in the sixty-first year of his age, having been two years before created Earl of Norfolk, in consideration of his lineal descent from Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, a younger son of King Edward I., and was interred at Arundel. His will, dated at Dover, 3rd September, 1640, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and is printed in the _Howard Anecdotes_. His marbles, medals, statues, books, and pictures (he is said to have possessed "a larger number of Hans Holbein's works than any other person, and to have been the first nobleman who set a value on them in our nation"), formed at that period, says Sir Charles Young[2], one of the finest and most splendid collections in England. Many of the articles of virtu and of the books were, during his lifetime, in the possession of Alathea, his Countess (who was a third daughter and coheir of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury), from whom some of them were obtained by his younger son, Sir William Howard, the unfortunate Viscount Stafford (beheaded 1680, on perjured testimony); and a portion of the marble statues and library devolved upon Henry Frederick, his eldest son, who, in his father's lifetime, was summoned to parliament as Lord Mowbray, and succeeded him as Earl of Arundel, and who died in 1652, leaving Thomas, his eldest son, who became Earl of Arundel, Surrey, and Norfolk, and was, at the Restoration in 1660, restored to the dukedom of Norfolk, with limitation to the heirs male of his father. This nobleman died unmarried in 1677, and his brother Henry (who had been created Earl of Norwich, and in 1672 Earl Marshal of England, to him and the heirs male of his body, with other limitations in default) thereupon became sixth Duke of Norfolk. By him the marbles and library were finally dispersed.