ABSTRACT
The Sidney family came to Penshurst Place, Kent (illustrations 3 and 4) in 1552, and have retained the house and its landed estate to the present day. Penshurst Place has been celebrated as the birthplace of Sir Philip Sidney and as the scene of inspiration for Ben Jonson and edmund Waller; as a literary and historical site it has accrued a lengthy tradition of representation and interpretation. This chapter focuses on its architectural history, as a great medieval fortified residence adapted for early modern living. The Sidneys built a new house, as their London residence, in the 1630s. Leicester House, Leicester Square was demolished in 1792, and as a result of that loss and a slender archive, the significance of this major London house has received little attention. However, this chapter discusses the cultural achievement that Leicester House represents as an example of advanced architectural design for the 1630s. Leicester House can be incorporated with the Sidney family’s history of collecting that is better understood for Penshurst Place. Together, the two principal residences offer the basis for stronger readings of the cultural significance of the Sidney family. The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of the material world of the Sidneys, exploring themes that, like Jonson’s masque characters, display “poesie, historie, architecture and sculpture” on the same stage.
