Mompesson House, west of Salisbury Cathedral Close, was owned by the Dean and Chapter until it was sold by the Church Commissioners to the architect Denis Martineau (1907–1975), who immediately gave it to the National Trust in 1952. The central part of the house was built from 1700 to 1701 for Charles Mompesson (1671–1714), MP, with a handsome façade of Chilmark limestone. It was tenanted until the flamboyant artist, Miss Barbara Townshend (described by Edith Olivier in 'Four Victorian Ladies of Wiltshire'), died in 1939, at the age of 96. After the Second World War, it was the residence of the Bishop of Salisbury from 1946 to 1951. Martineau had a fine collection of then unfashionable Victorian paintings, which he did not leave to the Trust. The only indigenous pictures are the set of seven trompe l’oeil paintings for the staircase hall that he commissioned from Martin Battersby. Amongst the loans and bequeathed pictures is 'A Meadow with Two Cows' by Claude Émile Schuffenecker, from Mr and Mrs Maurice in 1984.