[1] Simon Basil's first recorded appearance, in 1590, was drawing a plan of Ostend, a military objective at the time, for the previous Surveyor, Robert Adams.
He explained that it was too late in the building season to complete the court with symmetry, but he could remedy the defect by painting the new plaster in imitation of brickwork.
In another letter to Robert Cecil written in September 1601, Basil mentioned that he was using windows salvaged from 'clerestories' in Kent in one of his patron's houses, and installing a stove.
[4] Basil and the sergeant painter John de Critz were jointly given the ward of Philip Saltmarsh to boost their income.
[5] In July 1605 he built a house, "hovel" or "shed" for a lioness in the new court of the Tower of London, she had twin cubs on the same day he finished work.
The keeper Edward Zouch asked Basil to estimate for cleaning out the moat and building a new bridge over the river at the front of the house, which would increase the privacy of the king's garden.