There are two paintings by the younger John Griffier in the collection of the Earls of Portsmouth. They are views of the house, canal and park at Hurstbourne Priors, Hampshire, taken from opposite points on the same axis. The house, with its elaborate baroque side pavilions and formal garden (Figs 1 and 2) is assumed to have been created after 1712 for John Wallop who was to become 1st Earl of Portsmouth in 1743 after a lifetime of assiduous politicking. The date of 1712 has not been suggested merely on stylistic grounds but because of the existence in the Clarke Collection at Worcester College, Oxford, of a plan inscribed ‘A house designed for Mr. Wallop at Husbourne, Hants, by Mr Archer 1712’.