The same remarks apply to Holbein, although the designs which he executed for work in England are much more numerous than those of any of his contemporaries, and have been identified beyond doubt as his. That is to say, in addition to his pictures, a large number of his drawings remain, principally for articles of goldsmith's work; but the objects themselves have mostly disappeared. One of the largest of his drawings, however, is that of a wood chimney-piece, which, from the initials upon it, was intended for Henry VIII. Some architectural work has been attributed to Holbein, but only on conjecture. Amongst it may be mentioned two gateways at Whitehall, now removed; part of a front at Wilton, in Wiltshire, as well as a little garden-house there; and the splendid screen at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. But there is no actual evidence to connect him with these works, and we should be mistaken in regarding him in any way as an architect in the sense in which we understand the term.
The architect, indeed, as a distinct individual, does not seem to have arisen in those early days: the architect, that is, who not only designed the plan and elevations of the building, but also the details of its various parts and of its ornament. Inigo Jones may be taken as the first Englishman who combined the functions of planner and designer of details; previous to his time the work entailed in the designing of a house was much subdivided, the plan and elevations being provided by the surveyor, and each trade producing its own special details as the work went on. Shakespeare only uses the word "architect" once, and then not in connection with building operations. He gives us, however, a sketch of how to set about building, in the Second Part of King Henry IV. "When we mean to build," says Lord Bardolph, "we first survey the plot, then draw the model; and when we see the figure of the house, then must we rate the cost of the erection.... Much more in this great work ... should we survey the plot of situation, and the model; consent upon a sure foundation; question surveyors." It was the surveyors, such as John Thorpe, who drew the model, which comprised the plans and an elevation, or a perspective view indicating the treatment of more than one front. These drawings were then carried out by the workmen on the spot, who provided their own details. In some of the simpler buildings no surveyor was employed, but rough plans were prepared by the builder himself, not so much to work from, as to indicate, for the purpose of a contract, the general extent and appearance of the building. In others, again, no plans were used, but the work was set out on the spot, and built to the requisite height under the supervision of the master mason. It is almost certain that in some cases only a plan was provided, without elevation; in the Thorpe collection a large proportion of the plans have no elevation to correspond; and Henry VII., in his will, orders his tomb to be placed in the midst of his new chapel at Westminster according to "the plat [_i.e._, plan] made for the same chapel and signed with our hand." At St. John's College, Cambridge, the contractors who built the second court were bound to erect it according to certain "platts and uprights" [_i.e._, elevations], thus showing that the "plat" did not include elevations as well as plan.