Hutchinson’s Pocket Guide for Hampshire and the Isle Of Wight, Wiltshire and Dorset, published in 1939, mentions:
Wilton House, the seat of the fifteenth Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, and one of the stately homes of England, is approached through an eighteenth-century gatehouse, surmounted by an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius.
James Wyatt built the entrance front, when engaged on enlarging the mansion in 1800. He also built the colonnade of the inner courtyard expressly to receive the statuary collected by the eighth earl a century before.
The collection is interesting as containing the entire museums that formerly belonged to cardinal Richelieu and cardinal Mazarin. The reception rooms, justly famous for their fine proportions and magnificent decoration, contain some of the finest work of Inigo Jones, who, after a disastrous fire in 1649, built also the garden front and the Palladian bridge over the stream.
In the house Sir Philip Sidney composed his Arcadia, the poet Massinger was born, and Shakespeare performed one of his plays in the presence of James I.
The principal rooms are open to visitors every Wednesday and Saturday.