In 1670 the owner was the celebrated Thomas Thynne satirized in Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, and Bishop Ken found a home at Longleat for twenty years after the loss of his bishopric.
In November Dryden published Absalom and Achitophel.
Maitland of Lethington, the Achitophel of his day, also deserted the regent; but in November the reformers were driven by the regent and her small band of French soldiers from Edinburgh to Stirling.
Charles stood by him, but his best allies, Kincardine and Sir Robert Murray, deserted him, while Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh came over to his party, became king's advocate (1677), and till 1686 was the Achitophel and public prosecutor of the government.