The lives of the British architects from William of Wykeham to Sir William Chambers

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THE LIVES OF THE
BRITISH ARCHITECTS

THE LIBRARY OF ART

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IXIGO JONES

Etnery Walker

Frontispiece

THE LIVES OF THE

BRITISH ARCHITECTS

FROM WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM
TO SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS

BY

E. BERESFORD CHANCELLOR

M.A., F.R.Hist.Soc.

AUTHOR OF "the SQUARES OF LONDON " " THE PRIVATE
PALACES OF LONDON " ETC,

LONDON: DUCKWORTH AND CO.
NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

^"^CJMHl

-yi

i^isx

Fhst Fuhlished igog
Re-is sued igii

^

TO
MY FATHER

PREFACE

The object of this book is to give a more or less con-
cise account of the lives of the British Architects, from
the days of William of Wykeham to those of Sir William
Chambers. As this has never been done before, it is my
hope that the following pages may to some extent fill a
want, however inadequately.

It is true that Cunningham, in his "Lives of the
Painters," dealt with a few of the better-known men ; but
Cunningham wrote so long ago (1830) that his work is
quite out of date, besides being not always accurate, nor
wholly satisfactory in other ways. A few of the architects
dealt with here, notably Inigo Jones, Wren and Chambers,
have, of course, had their special biographers, and to
those works I am indebted, and wish to record my
obligations. But the only book that has something
to say about most of those treated of in these pages,
is Mr. Reginald Blomfi eld's authoritative work on the
Renaissance Architecture in England. The very scheme
of that book, however, primarily concerned as it is with
architecture and not the lives of the architects, obviated
the necessity of Mr. Blomfield's dealing with the latter,
except in a more or less cursory way. For the rest, what
has been written by others (and how much it is !) on
architecture in this country, has been practically confined
to the technical side of the matter.

vii

viii PREFACE

In the following pages I have attempted to combine, to
some extent, these points, although I have said little in
criticism, because I think that judgment in such circum-
stances should be left to those whose technical knowledge
gives weight and authority to their opinions.

The architects dealt with comprise the most important
of those who have laboured in this field of activity in
Great Britain down to the close of the eighteenth century.
I have, however, not thought it necessary to speak of
James (Athenian) Stuart, because, although he was
responsible for a few private houses, he was rather an
authority on classical architecture, a purveyor of antiqui-
ties, and a writer of books, than a practical architect. It
will also be observed that I have confined what I have
to say about William of Wykeham to his architectural
achievement, somewhat ill -defined and illusive as that
achievement is, for a volume alone would have been
necessary had I dealt with the ecclesiastical and political
side of his career.

In addition to my authorities, a list of some of which

is given at the end of this book, I have received valuable

help, in a variety of ways, from, among others, Mr.

Blomfield, Mr. Spiers, Custodian of the Soane Museum,

whose friendly assistance has been most helpful, and Mr.

Inigo Triggs, and I here most gratefully acknowledge my

indebtedness to them.

E. B. C.

29 Elm Park Gardens, S.W.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Wykeham and his Predecessors i

II. Thorpe, Chrismas^ Symons^ Holt, Acroyde,

AND THE SmITHSONS 22

III. Inigo Jones 53

IV. Webb, Hooke, and Jerman 93

V. Sir Christopher Wren 114

VI. Bell of Lynn, Talman, Pratt, Hawksmoor,

and Vanbrugh 159

VII. Archer, James of Greenwich, Campbell, Bur-
lington, Pembroke, and Kent 197

VIII. Batty Langley, Gibbs, Wood of Bath, Carr
OF York, Ripley, and the Amateurs :
Aldrich, Clarke, Burrough, and Essex 231

IX. Vardy, Ware, Dance, Flitcroft, and Bret-

tingham 264

X. Taylor, Paine, Morris, the Adams, and

Chambers 286

List of some of the Authorities consulted 325

Index 327

IX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE
PAGE

InigO Jones Frontispiece

William of Wykeham : Bust

I

New College, Oxford

55

Winchester Cathedral

J9

Holland House

38

Holland House : Thorpe's Ground-plan

38

Wollaton

45

Wimbledon House : Smithson's Ground-plan

48

Whitehall : Bird's-eye View

68

York Water-gate

79

The Royal Exchange

109

Sir Christopher Wren : Portrait by Kneller

114

St. Paul's Cathedral from the West

132

St. Stephen's, Walbrook : Interior

136

Chatsworth

164

Christ Church, Spitalfields

177

Sir John Vanbrugh

180

St. John's, Smith Square

200

St. George's, Hanover Square

204

The Earl of Burlington

217

William Kent

224

Batty Langley

231

James Gibbs

234

St. Martin's~in-the-Fields

238

The RadclifFe Library

243

XI

xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE
PAGE

Prior Park, near Bath 247

The Admiralty 254

All Saints', Oxford 257

Spencer House 264

Isaac Ware 267

Chesterfield House 269

The Mansion House 275

St. Giles-in-the-Fields 279

Sir Robert Taylor 286

James Paine and his Son 292

Kedleston Hall 295

Lansdowne House 3° 7

The Adelphi 309

Sir William Chambers 3^4

Somerset House 320

BUST OF WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM. 1394
On a corbel in Muniment Boom, Winchester College

To face J). 1

CHAPTER I

WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM AND HIS
PREDECESSORS

Although William of Wykeham can in a way claim to be
the first of those British architects of whom we have any
adequate record,^ there must have been before his day
many a mute inglorious builder whose work is preserved in
the stately fabrics of our great cathedrals, and whose
energy must have been expended on the erection of many
a fortress ; but their names have not been preserved, and
when we ask ourselves who erected such masterpieces as
York Minster or Canterbury Cathedral, we are forced back
on the hypothesis that such wonders of architectural skill
were more or less the fortuitous outcome of many minds.

Indeed the process seems to have evolved itself in some-
thing like the following way : the plans and dimensions
were discussed, it would seem, by a council of ecclesiastics,^
who had given more thought to such matters than their
brethren, and had received by word of mouth some general
principles which they incorporated in their scheme ; these

1 The great and good Hugo of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, is said to
have designed and partly built Lincoln Cathedral, but he was not an
Englishman. For an account of this fine character, see Froude's
" Short Studies."

« As at Battle Abbey, where the first buildings were entrusted to
"William Faber, Theobald Vetulus, William Cocke, Kobert de Boloigne,
and Eobert Blanchard ; or at Dorchester Abbey, where the monka
altered and enlarged the monastery founded in 1140 by the third Bishop
of Lincoln — to take these two from a thousand instances.

I A

2 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

plans and dimensions were then probably handed on to
underlings whose care it was to conduct the business
arrangements, i.e., the enrolling of workmen, the acquisition
of material, and the purchase, where necessary, of sites ;
and finally the actual work of construction would be placed
in the hands of a trained body of craftsmen, principally
masons who, while following the general rules submitted
to them, may conceivably have here and there given free
play to their own natural fancies. -"^ Thus when we read
that one Henry Latomus rebuilt Evesham Church in
1319,^ we shall not be far wrong if we regard his surname
as a sort of anglicised Lithotomus, or stone cutter, and
the man himself as probably the chief of the masons who
were engaged on the work ; and we seem to be as far off
as ever from any recognised head from whose brain the
welding together of the ideas of various people would, in
our own day, be due.

There are, however, certain names which have come
down to us, to the bearers of which we can traditionally
at least allocate the carrying out if not the actual in-
ception of architectural landmarks. The first of these is
that of Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, who is stated
to have been appointed surveyor and overseer of the works
connected with the erection of the Tower, by William the
Conqueror. According to Stow, quoting Fitzstephen,
Gundulf, was during this time (1078) lodged in the house
of one Edmere, a burgess of London, and even if we may
doubt whether Gundulf can be properly enrolled among
British architects,^ as he was Bishop of an English See,
and as, moreover, that portion of the Tower for which he
is said to have been responsible was the great White Tower
which has come to be regarded as one of our most impor-
tant and cherished national possessions, I think his inclu-

1 See Prior's " Cathedral Builders of England," &c. &c.

2 John Leland.

3 He was in fact born at Rouen, and was a monk of the Abbey of
Bee before accompanying William to England at the time of the
Conquest.

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 3

sion may be regarded as justified. At one time he was
also credited with the erection of Rochester Castle, but
that fine relic has since been proved to be of a later date.
He appears to have died thirty years after the commence-
ment of his work at the Tower, which leisurely proceeding
was not even completed in his life time.

Peter of Colechurch is the next claimant to the title of
architect, although little enough is known about him.
He is said, by Stow, to have first repaired, and then
rebuilt London Bridge, in timber, in the year 1163.
Where, however, Stow obtained this information is not
very clear, and it is certainly better established that this
"priest and chaplain of Colechurch," as he is called,
erected the first stone bridge thirteen years later. Towards
this work it is interesting to know that Richard, elected
Archbishop of Canterbury on the death of Becket, contri-
buted 1000 marks, appropriately, as it v/ould seem, accord-
ing to the line contained in some old verses preserved by
Leland :

"Another blessed besines is Brigges to make."

Peter of Colechurch died in 1205, but the bridge was
not yet completed, and even before his death, King John
appointed another architect in his place, one Isembert de
Xaintes, who had already had experience in this particular
kind of work, as he had superintended the erection of the
bridges in his native town and at Rochelle. But even
Isembert did not participate in the completion of the
lengthy undertakiug which occupied no less than thirty-
three years, for we find (1209) it being finished by Serle
Mercer, William Almaine, and Benedict Botewrite, who
are styled " principal masters of that work," and whom we
might assume to have been archi tects or at least surveyors,
if we did not know that they were merchants.

In the centre of the bridge stood a chapel and crypt, in
which its first architect, Peter of Colechurch, was buried
in 1205, ^^^^ years before the completion of the work;
and when the bridge was pulled down in 1832, bones,

4 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

supposed to be his, were found beneath the flooring of the
chapel.

The names of the other architects, anterior to Wykeham,
that have come down to us are obviously those of men
who accompanied the Conqueror to this country or came
hither at a later date from France or Normandy ; of such
were William de Sens, who built the choir of Canterbury ;
Helias de Berham, who was apparently occupied for no
less than twenty-five years on work connected with Salis-
bury Cathedral, and Edward Fitzodo, who was surveyor,
under Henry III., of the works then undertaken at
Westminster.

Of these very little is known beyond the bald facts here
stated ; it is probable, however, that Helias de Berham is
identical with that Elyas who is mentioned in a record for
the year 1209, as being employed in superintending work
at the king''s palace at Westminster ; while in the Cotton
MSS. there is a letter of Gervasius, a benedictine monk of
Canterbury, relative to the building of that cathedral after
1 174, which throws a little additional light on the per-
sonality of William of Sens, for in this epistle, which
contains a minute account of Bishop Lanfranc's original
structure and the restoration which it underwent, it is
stated that this work was carried out under the direction
of William of Sens, and a certain William the Englishman
who is said to have completed the structure, and who,
according to Dallaway, " is the first architect or master-
mason, a native of this country, concerning whom anything
satisfactory is known ! " The same authority says also
that he was the first " who boldly attempted to work the
ribbed and vaulted ceiling in stone and toph."*' ^

This is extremely tantalising because, although we do
know a fact or two about William of Sens, we appear to
have no record at all of William the Englishman of whom
Dallaway thus speaks, other than this note which is to be

1 The letter of Gervasius was incorporated in the " Decern Scriptores,"
published by R. Twisden in 1652. It is of the highest value because of
the rarity of any MS. on architecture so early as the reign of John.

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 5

found in Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting," and which
seems to indicate that its writer was well acquainted with
the details of his life, and merely spared us this crumb, as
supposing, apparently, that all the world was equally well
informed. It seems fairly obvious that the title of "the
Englishman" was assigned to this particular William to
differentiate him from William of Sens ; but who this
shadowy personage was, will probably never be more clearly
shown. Carter, in his " Ancient Sculpture," points out, in
England not a single original plan, as drawn by the archi-
tects of great abbeys and churches survives, as they do on
the Continent ; and this, of course, sufficiently accounts for
the obscurity of the genesis of these great buildings and
the disappearance of the names of those who, if not archi-
tects in the modern acceptation of the term, took a leading
part in the design and construction of edifices that still
exist. In this connection, however, it is interesting to know
that in the south aisle of the Lady Chapel at Worcester
Cathedral there are two bas-reliefs representing an archi-
tect in the act of presenting a plan to the superior of a
monastery, and receiving what appears to be a carved
head from a lady. Although the actual period of these
interesting relics is unknown, they are of great antiquity
and are said, by Bloxam, to date from the middle of the
thirteenth century. If proving nothing else, these reliefs
help to show that ecclesiastical buildings were not erected
without a plan.

When we come to the days of Wykeham himself, three
names appear which we can connect more or less closely
with the architecture of the period. The first is that of
Walter de Weston, who, by a patent dated 133 1, is stated
to have been employed on work at St. Stephen's Chapel,
Westminster. Walpole, as edited by Dallaway, gives him
something of an imprimatur by including his name among
the architects — but he does no more.

Alan of Walsingham has a somewhat better claim, for
he is at least known to have been responsible for much of
the beauty of Ely Cathedral, notably the octagon and the

6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

louvre, and if he is identical with Alan the Sacrist men-
tioned in the life of Bishop Hotham,^ then he also con-
structed the Campanile Novum which occupied twenty
years in building, and cost the great sum, for those days,
of over ;^2400. Alan is styled "Vir venerabilis et
artificwsiis Frater "" ; and although this might equally
well denote a mastery in mason's work, I think we may
safely assume that he occupied a position as near that
of an architect of our own day as was consistent with
the building methods of the period in which he lived and
worked.

The name of William Winford is more familiar to
us, for, as I shall have occasion to mention later, he
was Wykeham's right-hand man during the restoration
of Winchester Cathedral, and superintended the work
during the absence of Wykeham himself. As there is
every reason to suppose that he also co-operated in the
designs, just as a head pupil in a modern architect's office
might do, we can with safety place him among the early
architects of this country. Wykeham specifically mentions
him in his will in the following words : " Volo etiam et
ordino quod dispositio et ordinatio hujusmodi novi operis
fiant per Magistrum Wilhelmum Winford et alios suffi-
cient es^ discretos, et in arte ilia approbatos, ab execu-
tionibus meis, si oportuerit, deputandos." From the fact
that Wykeham chose Winford as his chief coadjutor in
the great work of restoration at Winchester Cathedral,
it seems not improbable that he may have also employed
him in the earlier undertakings at Oxford and Win-
chester ; and that he thus places him, by name, first of
those whom he wishes to continue his schemes after his
death, is sufficient evidence of the confidence he reposed in
Winford's capabilities as an architect and integrity as a
man.

Contemporary with Wykeham and Winford was William
Rede, Bishop of Chichester in 1369. He is said to have
been the besb mathematician of his time, and is credited

i Leland.

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 7

with the erection of the Castle of Amberley,^ whose ruins
may still be seen in the beautiful valley of the Arun, and
the Library at Merton College, Oxford. It is, at this
distance of time, impossible to say exactly what this
tradition means. If in both these cases Rede acted merely
the part of the patron, he cannot be regarded in any other
light than that of a munificent and far-seeing prelate who
divided his wealth between the claims of learning and the
requirements of a troublous period ; if, on the other hand,he
actually designed the buildings at Oxford and at Amber-
ley, and as a mathematician of great repute this is not at
all improbable, then he may in some way take his place
beside the great prelate-architect, about whose career I
must now say something.

So much has been written concerning Wykeham, and his
career touches on so many sides the history of the country,
that it will here only be necessary to speak of him in his
connection with the architectural development of his time.
He was born at Wickham, in Hampshire, in 1324, and,
after being educated at Winchester where, among other
things, he paid particular attention to geometry, " the
science of which is called masonry," he was taken into the
household of Sir John Scures, as secretary. Sir John was
at this time Governor of Winchester Castle, and custodian
of other strongholds in Hampshire, and there seems some
reason to believe that Wykeham acted as a kind of clerk-
of-the-works to his patron. In 1340, Scures was suc-
ceeded in his post by Sir Robert Daundley with whom
Wykeham remained, and having been presented by Daund-
ley to Bishop Edingdon, the latter introduced him to the
notice of the king. He was just the man Edward, who
at this time was bent on vast building designs at Windsor
and elsewhere, wanted, and, although on first entering the
royal service, Wykeham's position seems to have been a.
subordinate one, it was not long to remain so.

By 1356 he had been created Surveyor of the Royal

1 It seems more probable that Eede's predecessor in the see, John
Langton, built the castle, and that Eede enlarged and improved it.

8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Works at Windsor, and powers had been given him to
obtain all the necessary material for the projected works,
as well as to " press " into his service such artificers as he
might require. His personal allowance was fixed at one
shilling a day as long as he remained at Windsor, and two
shillings a day when his duties called him elsewhere, a
salary that was doubled by a grant dated November 14
of the following year. Wykeham appears to have received
carte-hlanche from the king for the contemplated im-
provements ; and he set to work to destroy the existing
fortress and to build a palace in its place.

From a contemporary chronicle^ we learn that, at
Wykeham's instigation, Edward caused many fine build-
ings at Windsor to be levelled to the ground, and on their
site to be built many more beautiful and sumptuous erec-
tions. Stone-masons and carpenters were pressed into the
service from all parts of the country, so much so, indeed,
that no one was able to find any of either trade to do work
for him, unless he could manage to employ them secretly.
In a word the king and his energetic architect had ab-
sorbed the whole building trade of the country in the
erection of the lordly pleasure house that was gradually
rising at Windsor.

There can be little doubt as to the excellence and beauty
of the new fabric which Wykeham raised. It was unlike
anything else in the country, for it far surpassed any other
royal or noble dwelling ; and with this beauty was com-
bined strength. The nature of the site, of course, stood
for much in this respect ; but then the site had not been
able to differentiate the old castle from anything but a
fortress, and there is no doubt that it was Wykeham's
genius that created a royal abode so durable that it might
still be standing in its entirety, as the Round Tower, its
chief characteristic, does so stand ; and so adaptable to

1 " Continuatio Chronici EanulpM per Johannem Malverne ab an
Dom. 1326, ad an. 1394." The MS. is preserved in the library of Corpus
Christi College at Cambridge, and it is quoted by Lowth in a note to
his Life of Wykeham.

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 9

later requirements that not till the reign of George IV.
was there any suggestion that it was not fitted to be the
abode of the monarchs of this country.

We all know the wonderful pile as it exists to-day, and
if little of Wykeham's original work still remains intact,
or at least unrestored,^ there seems reason to believe that
Wyatville rebuilt the greater portion on the lines of the
original, and, as one of Wykeham's biographers says, that
" the spirit of the clerical architect was awakened in the
layman.''*

There is a well-known story told in connection with
Wykeham's work at Windsor, which, even if apocryphal
as some have suggested, is yet not uncharacteristic of the
architect's readiness of wit. It is said that on one of the
walls of the castle Wykeham had caused to be cut the
words " Hoc fecit AVykeham." The king's attention was
drawn to these words, and thinking, perhaps, that they
denoted too much vainglory in the architect, he com-
plained to him about the circumstance, and showed that he
resented it, whereupon Wykeham is said to have replied
that the words were not intended to indicate that
" Wykeham made this," but that " This made Wykeham,"
inferring that the work he had been commissioned to do
for his royal master had been the means of making his
fortune, as it undoubtedly had. Whether the king for-
gave the act for the ready wit which had enabled the
architect to extricate himself from a difficult position, or
whether the ambiguity of the Latin made it impossible
for him to contradict such an assertion, report does not
say, but that he bore no ill-will to Wykeham on account
of the incident, is proved by the fact that his satisfaction
at the result of the work done at Windsor, not only found
vent in the preferments he heaped on the head of its
author but also in the growing favour and even affection
with which he regarded him.

Mr. Moberly gives the following details of the work
undertaken by Wykeham at Windsor : '' To the east of the
1 Much of the foundation work executed by Wykeham remains.

10 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

round keep was a square plateau, with a precipitous side
to the north. Around three sides of this were built
certain walls with apartments behind them, the keep itself
closing in the fourth or west side." This, of course, coin-
ciding roughly with the present position of the royal
apartments, the visitors' apartments, the Saloon and
Waterloo Chamber, &c. " The entrance gate to the whole
castle was at the western end of the south side of this
square," in fact where St. George's Gateway still stands ;
" but the king's palace was a block of buildings adjoining
the north wall. You entered the castle gate, and crossed
a spacious court to the palace gate, which again was at
the south-west of the palace. To youi' left as you entered
— and therefore to the west, and thus defended both by
the proximity of the keep, and by the precipice on the
north — was the square of the king's and queen's apart-
ments, built round a court called the Brick Court, where
probably Wykeham exercised his skill for the first time in
working this material, which had recently been imported
from Flanders, the native country of Queen Philippa. To
your right as you entered lay the hall and chapel,
forming a long continuous range of building, divided by
a partition wall, exactly as at Wykeham's two colleges
at Oxford and Winchester, while a transverse range
connected them with the apartments to the north, and
thus separated (divided) the enclosed space into two
oblong courts, called respectively the Horn and the
Kitchen Court."

The Winchester Tower standing to the north-west of
the Round Tower perpetuates by its name the great
architect who first contrived a palace out of what had
formerly been but a stronghold. The actual fabric was
completed in 1363, and was then ready for the glazing, to
which end glass was sought for throughout the country
and glaziers were remorselessly pressed in to the royal service.
In this year the expenditure on the works is estimated at
;^55,ooo of our present money ; nor did this actually com-
plete the improvements which appear to have been inter-

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS ii

mittentlj going on for at least another six years, by which
time the building was considered finished.

Simultaneously with the great work at Windsor,
Wy keham was employed by the king (1361) in the
erection of Queenborough Castle. Here he had natural
obstacles to overcome consequent on the lowness of the
ground on which the building had to be raised, as well as
the inequalities of the site ; but he was not a man to
be daunted by such circumstances ; and the difficulties
being so pronounced, the triumphant success of the under-
taking helped to further display the ability that the
work at Windsor had shown him to possess. From a
plan by Hollar, reproduced by that industrious Captain
Grose v/hom Burns has immortalised, we gain some
idea of the formation of this castle of which little now
actually exists. The keep, of an irregular circular forma-
tion, was about 200 feet in diameter, within it being a
courtyard ; around it were five small round towers, and the
entrance was guarded by a square turret, while linking up
these towers was a raised fortification adapted to the need of
warfare which was then largely carried on by bow and arrow.
On the ground floor of the keep were a dozen chambers,
and some forty more were contained in the higher stories ;
a moat, 48 feet wide, surrounded the outer wall, and en-
closing this moat appears to have originally existed another
wall ; access to the enceinte of the castle being by two
bridges on the west and north-east respectively. This
elaborate work occupied some six years in building, but it
is probable that had there not been such a general press
for men to work at Windsor, it would have been completed
in a much shorter time.

By the age of forty-four Wykeham had reached a dual
position of power and splendour seldom attained by a
subject ; still a young man, he was able to throw all a
young man's energy into a hundred schemes for the better-
ment of life and education, which his comprehensive brain
conceived, and which the power he had attained enabled
him to execute. The first of these to which he now turned

12 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

his attention was the rebuilding of the ah-eady dilapidated
religious houses, and the amendment of the rules by which
they were governed. With this object in view he ordered
the executors of his predecessor in the bishopric, Edingdon,
to put into thorough repair the various erections under the
episcopal jurisdiction. These, we are told, comprised no
fewer than twelve different castles, manor-houses, or palaces
belonging to the cathedral of Winchester, and. it is inte-
resting to know that they were situated at Wolvesey, South
Waltham, Merwell, Sutton, High-Clere, Farnham, Esher,
Wargrave, South wark, Taunton, &c. Wykeham also
received, as property of the See, vast quantities of cattle of
all sorts, as well as a sum of money amounting to over
;^i8oo, equal now to about ;^25,ooo, in lieu of crops that
had been either alienated or destroyed.

Nor was this requisition merely made with the object ol
swelling Wykeham's own coffers ; he had better motives, as
we shall see, and he determined that he would exact what
was due to him and his See, in order that he might husband
it for the great schemes that were already forming in his
brain. With the same object in view, he personally visited
all the religious houses in his diocese, and having noted im-
provements to be made and abuses to be corrected, he sub-
sequently sent commissioners to attend to the one and to
reform the other. His early training as an architect and a
surveyor stood him in good stead in the next great work of
reformation to which he set himself : the repairing of all
the episcopal buildings under his jurisdiction.

One of the first steps he took towards this extensive
scheme was to purchase the stone quarries of Quarr Abbey
in the Isle of Wight, in order that he might have an ample
store of the best building material to draw upon. The
Abbot of Quarr also associated himself with Wykeham in
the matter, and largely through his influence numbers of
workmen from the neighbourhood were drafted into the
service of the bishop who, in order to leave no stone un-
turned, wrote a circular letter to other ecclesiastical autho-
rities in the island desiring their co-operation in collecting

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 13

both skilled and unskilled labour. All these workmen were
paid liberally by Wykeham himself, who is said to have
expended no less than 20,000 marks (;£ 13,000) on the
repairs and reconstruction of the episcopal buildings within
his diocese.

But it was not only the structural improvements of
these religious houses that received the bishop"'s care and
attention ; he directed with as much ardour his investi-
gations into their internal administration, and in the pro-
gress he made through the diocese in the summer of 1373,
he visited each of them, and having noted abuses and
irregularities, he, during the following year, sent commis-
sioners with full power to correct them. The list of these
monasteries, religious houses, and churches, which Lowth
gives in a foot-note, comprises no less than forty odd,
and sufficiently shows how large was the work undertaken
by Wykeham. Nor was he content with one such investi-
gation. Three several times, at varying intervals, did he
visit them all, after each perambulation issuing orders for
their better administration.

It is interesting to learn that amidst all this activity in
his diocese generally, Wykeham already had an eye to his
OM^n cathedral which, twenty-three years later, was to
receive such magnificent additions at his hands. Mr.
Moberly quotes part of a letter written by Wykeham, in
April 1 37 1, two days before his circular to the clergy of
the Isle of Wight, in which, referring to some new work
going on at the cathedral, he makes complaint of certain
unknown depredators having "stolen from their place stones
hewn and unhewn, chalk and cement, and sundry instru-
ments for the new work of our church aforesaid, which were
got ready at great expense for making good the building " ;
and he solemnly excommunicates them for these misdeeds
which, apart from their illegality, may be supposed to
have touched him as an architect very nearly.

After the cathedral itself, that which is more closely
associated with Wykeham's name than any of the other
buildings in his diocese is the Hospital of St. Cross, which

14 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

had been originally instituted in 1 132 by Henry de Blois,
Bishop of Winchester and brother of King Stephen,
and which Wykeham spent no less than six years in
reforming according to the original intentions of its
founder. These institutions may be summarised thus :
That thirteen indigent men should receive lodging, cloth-
ing, and a daily allowance of bread and beer, " three messes
each for dinner, and one for supper " ; and that, in the event
of any regaining health and strength enabling him to
obtain work, he should be discharged and his place filled
up. Besides this, it was intended that one hundred poor
" of modest behaviour, and the most indigent that can be
found," should each be served daily with a loaf of coarse
bread and an allowance of beer, with permission to carry
away with them what remained over from their dinner ;
while it was also ordered that charity generally should be
distributed to deserving objects as the funds of the Hospital
allowed.

Like many men, whose career has not been initiated by
a thorough grounding in classical education, and who have
made a name for themselves, Wykeham continually felt the
want of such an early training, particularly as the position he
had attained was ever and anon bringing him into contact
with those luckier than himself in this respect, who had
gained in the schools of France and Italy what they could
not easily have obtained at home. This latter point
struck him forcibly, and he, no doubt, considered it little
short of scandalous that there were in England so few
seats of learning in which the scholars should be fitted
with a relatively liberal education and prepared for the
struggles of the world. His wealth was great ; as a
churchman he had no direct heirs ; his frugality patent to
all eyes ; indeed, he seems not to have escaped the charge
of parsimony in a generation in which outward show was
regarded as a necessary concomitant to power and position ;
but he had an object in view, and he bore the imputations
which were directed against him in silence, until all his
plans were completed, and he at length surprised his con-

^ ^

o

>^.
o

o

(J
o

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 15

temporaries by announcing his resolve to erect a college
for the perpetual maintenance and education of no less
than two hundred scholars. The country had hardly time to
cease wondering at such a splendid destination for the
wealth which all the world knew he had been accumulating,
before it heard that much of the ground on which the
college was to rise was already purchased,^ that mag-
nificent plans had already been prepared, and that men
and materials were already engaged for carrying out this
princely project.

The founding of New College, the institution of Win-
chester School on its present basis, and the restoration of
Winchester Cathedral, were the three great schemes which
made the latter years of Wykeham's life in a way the
most remarkable of his whole career.

With regard to the first of these great projects Wyke-
ham had already made a start, by the assembling of
scholars at Oxford, the purchase of land in that city,
and in other ways. No sooner had he been success-
fully re-established in the royal favour, which, through
no fault of his own, he had for a time forfeited, than
he began to erect the college whose architectural out-
lines and internal administration he had already formulated.
The agents, Buckingham and Rounceby, who had before
acted for him in the acquisition of ground, were at once
set to work to buy more, and in 1378 they appear to have
purchased sufficient for building operations to begin.

Having carefully felt his way as to his rights to enclose
ground, Wykeham, on June 30, 1378, obtained a royal
charter for the foundation of what was then termed, as
it continues to be. New College ; and in the following
November, Wykeham himself issued his own charter of
foundation, in which the college is called " St. Mary
College of Winchester in Oxford," constituted to afford
education for seventy scholars, with a warden at their

1 In 1369 and the following year various parcels of land were pur-
chased as they happened to be in the market, and their position seems to
have determined the site of New College.

i6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

head. On Monday, March 5, 1380, at eight o'clock in
the morning, the first stone was laid, but not by Wykeham
who was detained in London on urgent State business.

The building operations lasted about six years and
comprised the great quadrangle which was the first to be
designed and finished ; and the chapel and halJ on the north
side of the quadrangle which was guarded by the city wall.
"The chapel," says Mr. Moberly, "is to the west, 150 feet
in length ; the dining hall in the same block with it, on
the east, 80 feet in length. Upon this side is built a
rectangular figure of nearly square shape, so as to enclose
a quadrangle of 168 feet long by 129 broad. All the
western side south of the chapel was appropriated to the
warden's lodgings ; all the eastern to the library. The
southern block consisted of the students' chambers, thirteen
in number, each for six or seven inmates, of whom one, a
senior fellow, kept order amongst the others " ; and from
another source, we learn that in each chamber were places
for three or four beds ; the rest were truckle beds, or beds
on wheels, which ran under the principal beds, and ac-
commodated the junior students.^

The scholars whom Wykeham had assembled at Oxford
before he had actually commenced building operations
were lodged in certain halls which their patron had
apparently rented for this purpose. At least three of these
adjoined his new college, and three years after the first
stone had been laid Wykeham purchased these — known as
Sheld (or School) Hall, Maiden Hall, and More Hammer
Hall — and having levelled them with the ground, built on
their site the cloisters abutting on the chapel on the
west ; at the same time he erected the Tower and placed
three bells in it, which having been duly dedicated, were con-
secrated on October 19, 1400, by the Bishop of Dunkeld.
It was in this year that the statutes which Wykeham
drafted with such care and exact deliberation, and which
he so often revised and amplified, took their final shape.

As to the architectural work at New College, for which

1 " Stat. Oxon." quoted by Mr. Moberly in his Life of Wykeham.

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 17

Wykeham is responsible, the perpendicular style, initiated at
Gloucester, found its most striking exposition here as it did
in Winchester Cathedral. Restoration has of course been
necessary often enough since his day, but so substantially
and so completely did he house his foundation, that rela-
tively little change, other than by addition, has been
required in the actual fabric which he left.

Twenty years earlier certain repairs had been carried out
at Winchester Cathedral ; and it is reasonable to suppose
that other work was done, as it became needful from time
to time; but in 1393, when Wykeham made one of his
visitations to the Priory and Convent of St. Swithun into
which so many abuses had crept that most drastic measures
were needful to rehabilitate them according to the intention
of their founder, Bishop Athelwold (964), his attention
was drawn to the fact that a wholesale restoration of
the cathedral had become necessary ; this he arranged for
by compelling these religious houses to provide 200 marks
for seven years towards the work. But a still larger
scheme seems at the same time to have entered his head ;
in short, nothing less than a transformation of the nave
into the perpendicular style, and he determined to un-
dertake it and to pay the whole cost himself, excusing the
Priory and Convent from contributing the sum already
agreed upon.^

The fabric, as it then stood, had been erected by Bishop
Walkelin, who began its erection in T079. It was in the
Saxon style of architecture, with its round pillars, round-
headed arches and windows, and plain exterior walls
without buttresses ; and, indeed, was still largely com-
posed of that rough timber-work of which the Saxon
word for building — to timber — indicated the frequent
and in some cases the sole use.

There is a tradition that as the work proceeded, so
ruinous were shown to be various parts of the cathedral
that Wykeham wished he had begun by pulling down the
whole. Considering what reverence was, even in those

1 Moberly.

B

1 8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

days, shown to any ecclesiastical remains by the church-
men of the day, it is not probable that Wykeham would
have applied any such drastic method to the cathedral, but
it is, no doubt, a fact that as the restoration progressed,
fresh causes, necessitating more work, were being con-
stantly brought to light.

Although the Priory and Convent of St. Swithun had
been excused any money payment in regard to the restora-
tion, they were responsible for certain contributions in
kind to the work ; thus, they agreed to find the whole of
the necessary scaffolding ; they also gave Wykeham per-
mission to dig and carry away chalk and sand from their
land ; and they allowed the stones of the old building to be
incorporated in the new undertaking.

The work of restoration began on the Wednesday after
All Saints Day, 1394, William Winford being employed
as architect, Simon Membury as surveyor and paymaster
on Wykeham's part, and John Wayte fulfilling the same
offices on behalf of the Priory and Convent of St. Swithun.

It has been assumed because Winford occupied the posi-
tion of architect, that the designs of the new nave, &;c.,
were his sole work ; but I do not think that this necessarily
follows. It was obviously important to have an actual
architect continually on the spot in a work of such mag-
nitude, and Wykeham himself was largely precluded from
giving close personal attention to the matter, not only'on
account of his ecclesiastical duties, but also from the fact
that his health was in a precarious state. There is, therefore,
I think, every reason to believe that the general scheme
was Wykeham''s own, and that he left Winford '^ to work
out its details, and possibly gave him a free hand in the
matter of such modifications in the design as may have
appeared necessary during the progress of the work.

Certain repairs had already been done by Wykeham's
predecessor. Bishop Edingdon, at the west end of the

1 Winford, Membuiy and Wayte are all mentioned in Wykeham's
will, being directed by him to carry out the work in the event of his
death.

<
Q
M

Q

CO

o

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 19

cathedral, and, as it was unnecessary to touch this, Wyke-
ham commenced his alterations at the south-west corner of
the nave ; but, careful to preserve any substantial portion
of the existing work, an example of restraint which
later restorers have not been always ready to follow,
he did not entirely demolish the nave, but added per-
pendicular mouldings to the existing Saxon pillars.
There may have been another reason for this. The site of
the cathedral is a low one, and Wykeham not improbably
thought it safest to rely on the foundations already tried,
than to risk new ones that might in course of time prove
less secure.^

It was this grafting, as it were, of new work on the old
that gives to Winchester that composite character which
has been urged as a reproach against it. Indeed as it
stands to-day it leaves much to be desired, massive and
beautiful as are many of its component parts ; but we must
remember that in Wykeham"'s time the buildings of the
monastery adjoined the whole of its south side, and formed
with their collateral features an integral portion of the
cathedral. As such Wykeham regarded them, and when
the zeal of the Reformation swept them away, and thus
left bare the south side of the main fabric, the absence of
buttresses and pinnacles gave an appearance of bareness
and incompleteness which was not apparent in Wykeham's
day and for long after.

From what the bishop did at Winchester and Oxford
when untrammelled by the work of predecessors it seems
probable that had he demolished the entire structure of the
old cathedral and erected a new one in its place, we should
have at Winchester something almost as fine as exists at
York, and a rival in architectural beauty to the con-
summate splendour of Canterbury.

It does not fall within my scheme to trace the technical
details of Wykeham's work at Winchester Cathedral ; the
volumes of Britton and others sufficiently do this for those

1 Eecently, as -we all know, the foundations have given cause for the
gravest apprehensions.

20 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

who are specifically interested in this phase of the matter,
but a characteristic of his architectural achievement should
be mentioned, I mean his ability to combine that sense of
beauty and even magnificence with vhat was at once dur-
able and utilitarian and in this the work has a not remote
resemblance to the character of the man himself. Perhaps
the recognition of art for art's sake was not so dominant
a note in his personality, as the striving after what would
endure as a lasting benefit to his country ; he may not
have reached the great heights to which those who were
responsible for, to take an instance, Salisbury Cathedral,
attained, but in many respects his work at Winchester was
as beautiful, and as I have said, it might conceivably under
different conditions, have equalled some of the finest of
those examples of " petrified religion '' which still attest
the splendid conceptions of what we are wont to term the
Dark Ages ; as it is, no less an authority than Gilpin, and
many masters of the art have agreed with him, considered
that the nave of Winchester Cathedral was the most
magnificent in England.

We have seen that by 1378 Wykeham's agents had
secured sufficient land at Oxford for the site of the new
college, and it was about the same time that Wykeham
began his preparation for the founding of Winchester
School. Much of the ground on which it stands was then
the property of the see, and what was required further
was purchased from the Convent of St. Swithun and from
certain private persons. By 1383, the bishop had acquired
all he wanted with the exception of a narrow strip of land
which forms the frontage of the main buildings. As
Wykeham did not secure this till a month before the
opening of his new foundation, it is obvious that he must
have made sure of obtaining it, and inasmuch as it was
Crown property we can understand that no difficulty was
likely to arise. It was, in fact, granted by the king to
Wykeham on March I, 1393.

New College, Oxford, had been opened in the spring
of 1386, and just a year later, the first stone of Winchester

WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 21

School was laid, the ceremony taking place on March 26,
1387. It was sufficiently advanced for use six years later,
and on March 28, 1393, vvas inaugurated with a solemn
and impressive ceremony. But although it was thus
opened, the buildings were not actually completed for
another two years when the chapel was finished, and even
then the tower and cloisters were not built till after
Wykeham's death. In 1395, the king granted the Royal
Charter which secured those privileges to the foundation
which it has, with one notable exception, since enjoyed.

Wykeham's last years, notwithstanding advancing age
and much ill health, were hardly less strenuous than his
earlier career had been, for besides his important civil em-
ployment, the administration of his diocese and the work of
restoration on Winchester Cathedral fully occupied him.
In addition one final labour was undertaken, and it
appropriately marks the close of his ecclesiastical as well
as his architectural career : the erection of a chantry in
honour of the blessed Virgin, on the very spot where as a
youth he had attended mass said by Richard Pekis, one
of the brethren of St. Swithun'^s Priory, and " vulgarly
called Pekismass." ^

Hardly had Wykeham arranged with the Priory of St.
Swithun that three of its body should say mass here daily,
than, on September 27, 1404, he drew his last breath at
his residence at Bishop's Waltham whither he had retired,
in broken health, two years earlier.

1 Aylward.

CHAPTER II

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS

From the reign of Henry IV. to the close of that of
Mary, a period of just upon one hundred and sixty
years, there is no record of any great architect in this
country. The reasons for this are various ; in the first
place both the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry V. were
periods of storm and stress ; those of Henry VI. and his
immediate successors were still more unsettled ; Henry VII.,
it is true, erected some splendid buildings, notably the far-
famed Richmond Palace and the magnificent Chapel at
Westminster, and under Henry VIII., the ostentation of
Wolsey was responsible for palaces on a scale of grandeur
hitherto unknown. But the name of no Englishman of
any great eminence has ever been connected with any of
the architectural work undertaken during these periods.
Indeed the splendid traditions left by Wykeham do not
appear to have had the effect of awakening any particular
talent which might be supposed to be lying dormant in
some embryo architect ; and although ecclesiastical and
other building activity necessarily went on, it seems to
have been undertaken by those whose combined efforts
w^ere alone able to effect what the genius of a single man
at an earlier, and also at a later, age produced.

One might have imagined that after the havoc wrought
by the Wars of the Roses, some genius would have appeared
to do something similar to that which Wren did after
the Great Fire ; but no such man was forthcoming, and

22

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 23

perhaps there is a sufficient reason for this : foreign work
seems to have had, intermittently, a greater attraction
for the sovereigns of this country than native talent.
Charles I. was a splendid exception, and Charles II., with
such a man as Wren to his hand, cou]d hardly help being
another, and so we find that when Richmond Palace was
erected by Henry VII., it was planned after the so-called
" Burgundian " style, and when the poetry of architecture
was exemplified in the amazingly beautiful chapel at
Westminster, it had its genesis in what was learned in
France and thence brought into England.

In the same way when Henry VIII. built the palaces
identified with his name, his architects were such as Jerome
de Trevise or that shadowy personage John of Padua ;
while the genius of Holbein, which seems to have been
equally facile in designing details of houses and in por-
traying the lineaments of royalty, dominated the period
in which, under royal protection, it had fuller play than
that of any but two British architects has ever enj oyed.

The Italian influx in the reign of Henry inaugurated
the Renaissance which went on gathering strength and
influence until in the hands of Inigo Jones, and later
of Wren, it reached its apogee ; but it also helped
to swamp native talent, for it was not till the close
of Henry's reign that there was any attempt on the
part of English architects to assert themselves, and even
then what was effected was done in the teeth of the
Germans who followed the Italians. I am not prepared
to say that these two foreign influences did not in the end
make for the improvement and the advancement of archi-
tecture in this country, but I do think that, coming as
they did after a time of stress in the annals of this country,
they helped to still further nip what native talent there
may have been in the bud.

The result is that when we seek for the names of British
architects who may, however feebly, form a connecting link
with the greater names in what becomes later a splendid
chain, we find, and have to be content with, such facts as that

24 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

one Nicholas Walton,^ was a master-carpenter and engineer
in tke reign of Richard II. ; that John Kendale ^ was a
supervisor of the royal buildings in that of Edward IV.,
for between these periods not even such names are forth-
coming ; and that Thomas Wolvey or Wolven and his
son Richard were Latomi — or stonecutters, at a later
period.^

It is true that tradition has associated the name of
Wolsey with certain portions of the magnificent buildings
erected largely at his expense at Hampton Court and
Oxford, and has even attributed the design of the famous
Magdalen Tower to the great Cardinal, who was twice
bursar of the college during the progress of the work ; but
we have no better authority than tradition, and it seems
probable that what share Wolsey may have had in the
architectural portion of his foundations was restricted to
those rough outlines which were at that period given to
the actual workmen more for their general guidance than
as designs which they should implicitly follow.

At Hampton Court the main fabric was the work of
English masons and bricklayers, the more decorative por-
tions being supplied by foreigners, of whom Giovanni de
Maijano is known to have been responsible for much of the
terra-cotta work.* We know that James Bettes was
" Master of the works," and that Nicholas Townley was clerk
comptroller, but even the industry and minute investigation
of Mr. Ernest Law was unable to discover the actual archi-
tect, unless it was, as the historian of Hampton Court inclines

1 Dallaway remarks that the stupendous timber roofs of Westminster
and Eltham were probably designed and executed by Walton. He is
mentioned in a Patent 17, Richard II.

2 In a Patent of 1 Edward IV. A fee is assigned Kendale for life as
'* supervisor of all the King's works throughout the realm."

3 Walpole prints two inscriptions in the Church of St. Michael at
St. Albans, relating to these two men. Thomas is called " Latomus in
arte," and died in 1430 ; Eichard, who died in 1490, is simply described
as '• Lathomus."

4 See a letter from him to Wolsey, requesting payment for work at
Hampton Court, in Ellis's " Original Letters," 3rd series, vol. i.
p. 249.

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 25

to believe, one " Mr. Henry Williams, priest, surveyor of
the works at Hampton Court." ^ Indeed, Mr. Law infers
that if it could be conclusively shown that Williams was
also surveyor of the works at Oxford, and designed the
Great Hall at Christ Church, the assumption that he was
also architect of Hampton Court would be a fairly strong
one. In the absence, however, of any proof as to this,
the style of the buildings erected by the Cardinal, and
those that followed their architectural lines, are known
generally as " The Wolsey Architecture," and the phrase,
perhaps, fairly indicates the supervision and influence of
their great builder. Nor can we trace any actual work to
that Hector Asheley who is mentioned as having been much
employed by Henry VIII., for whether he fulfilled the
functions of an architect, or merely that of a supervisor or
clerk of the works, is not recorded.

On the other hand. Sir Richard Lee, or Lea, is known
to have been a military engineer, and is even spoken of as
an architect, but as no example of civil architecture can be
attributed to him, it is fairly obvious, I think, that the
erections for which he may have been responsible were in
the nature of purely military works, some of which he is
known to have designed at Berwick, and in Scotland where
he held the post of Master of the Pioneers.

What makes this particular lacuna ^ in the history of
English architects the more curious, is the fact that during
the reign of Henry VIII. many of those splendid mansions
of which some exist, but of more of which no traces are
left, were erected. Besides Wolsey's great buildings,
Hampton Court and the Tower at Esher, York House in

1 See "History of Hampton Court Palace," by Ernest Law. There is
a brass in Farnham Koyal Church, Bucks, to the memory of Eustace
Marshal, dated 1567, in which he is described as "clerk of the works
to Cardinal Wolsey, at the building of St. Frideswide's in Oxford, and
for several years chief clerk of accounts for all the buildings of King
Henry VIII. within twenty miles of London."

2 Dallaway mentions John Druell and Eoger Keys, as the architects
of All Souls, Oxford, and W. Orchyerde as that of Magdalen ; but I
have been unable to find anything further about them.

26 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Whitehall, and Christ Church at Oxford, the Duke of
Buckingham built Thornbury in Gloucestershire, and the
Duke of Suffolk, Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire ; Kenninghall
and Mount Surrey, in Norfolk, once attested the magnifi-
cent conceptions of the Duke of Norfolk, and of his son,
Lord Surrey ; and Haddon and Hever, Layer Marney and
Hengrave, Cow dray and Gosfield, Wolterton and Harlaxton
and Raglan, to name but these, all date from the same
prolific period.

The fact, however, remains that, notwithstanding these
evidences of a recrudescence of architectural energy, the
first name to which we can with any certainty apply the
title of architect, after that of Wykeham, is that of John
Thorpe, in the reign of Elizabeth. But although Thorpe
has been credited wdth much of the domestic architecture
of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., curiously little is
known about the man himself ; and, with the exception
of a passage in Peacham's " Gentleman'*s Exercise," no
reference to him in contemporary literature, or in the
diaries or letters of the period, has come to light ; indeed,
considering that his name is so well known, and the attri-
butions of so many fine specimens of domestic architecture
placed to his credit with something almost approaching
certainty, his personality is the vaguest of those who made
a reputation for themselves during the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries. As, however, we know that he was of
the " Parish of St. Martin's in the Fields," we are able to
claim him as a Londoner, and there is some ground for
identifying him with that John Thorpe who married, on
September 15, 1592, Rebecca Greene (who apparently died
in June, 1 604), and who took as his second wife, Margaret
Sherry, whom he married on September 16, 1605. In the
St. Martin's Register the name of Thorpe occurs some
eighteen times, of which entries eleven are given under
baptisms, and include that of Rebecca Thorpe, who was
christened on December 27, 1608, and is stated to have
been the daughter of John Thorpe ; but which of the other
Thorpe children named were the offspring of John Thorpe

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 27

it is impossible to say, especially as a George Thorpe (not
improbably a brother of John) married Margaret Porter
in July 1600, and was in all likelihood the father of some
of those given in the Register of Baptisms, while I think
that perhaps the John Thorpe who is stated to have been
buried on March 26, 1601, was the father of our John
Thorpe ; as, however, Thorpe the architect was essentially
the first and last of his family, the matter is not of such
importance as to warrant a more extended conjectural
hypothesis. -"^

The fact that Thorpe is said to have studied at Padua
at the beginning of his professional career has given rise to
the supposition that he was identical with that other
shadowy personage, John of Padua, and that he assumed
this name " in accordance with the custom, so very usual
with artists of his time." ^ I fear, however, that the evi-
dence is not sufficiently clear to allow of this conjecture
being received without the greatest caution. John of
Padua, whoever he was (and Walpole probably quite rightly
calls him an Italian architect) was working for Henry VIII.
in 1544, which, I cannot but think, was too early a period
for Thorpe to have reached such a position, even (and this
is uncertain) if he was then actually born. The fact seems
to be that, given two men of whose lives hardly any data
exist, but who were approximately of the same period, an
attempt has been made in order to elucidate the career of
each, to resolve them into one and the same individual.^

Excess of caution on the other hand has even led to the
questioning of Thorpe's claim to be an architect at all, but
I do not think greater weight attaches to this scepticism
than to the attribution to him, once freely made chiefly
through Walpole's rather uncritical allocation, of all the
great buildings erected during the latter part of the reign

1 The Kalph Thorpe mentioned in a letter from Sir John Puckering to
the Lord Mayor, dated April 29, 1595, may have been a relative. See
" Eemembrancia," p. 285.

» See " Notes and Queries," 6th series.

3 Even Dr. Oaius of Cambridge has been identified with John of
Padua.

28 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

of Elizabeth and the early years of that of James I. When
Walpole discovered the now famous book of drawings which
Thorpe has left us, he, not perhaps unnaturally, in the
absence of any other great architect to whose genius he
could trace these splendid mansions, assumed them all to
be the product of Thorpe's brain. Certain circumstances,
however, as we shall see, have since modified reHance on
this wholesale conjecture ; but there seems no reason to
doubt that Thorpe was an architect, as we understand the
title, and that he was a great architect.

That as an illusive personage, so far as his private life is
concerned, he stands in good company at least cannot be
denied, and works emanating from his hand can be traced
to him practically with as much certainty as can the great
epics to Homer and the immortal plays to Shakespeare,
and we may, I think, at any rate assume with the flippant
critic of these great men, that if what is attributed to him
was not executed by him, then it was done by some one
else of the same name !

Before passing to a consideration of the works assigned
to Thorpe, or more certainly known to be his, I may men-
tion that in the churchwarden's accounts for St. Martin's
in the Fields, one or two entries occur which not impro-
bably refer to the architect, and which in the absence of
more precise data have the value of memoires pour servir, if
of nothing else. Thus, in 1597, " Mr. Thorpe " contributes
five shillings towards the church expenses, and seven years
later we find John Thorpe, no doubt the same individual,
acting as churchwarden ; while an entry among the burials
for the year 1602, reads : " Marche. Item the XXV. daie
was buryed Wm. Thorpe." Now in place of the " Wm."
had first been written John, and it is not improbable that
as John Thorpe was a well-known man at this time, who-
ever made the entry may have fallen into the mistake of
allowing his pen to first trace the Christian name of one
who had made for the first time the surname of Thorpe
illustrious. I am not unprepared to be told that this is
the barest of conjecture ; and so it is, but after all it is

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 29

something, even if a hypothetical something, which in
the absence of any more exact data may, I think, be per-
missibly allowed to stand.

The first actual record of Thorpe''s work as an architect
dates from 1570 in which year he began the building of
Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire. The plan of this house
among the drawings left by him and now in the Soane
Museum, bears his own written evidence to this fact, thus :
" Kerby whereof I laid the first stone 1570." The mansion
was erected between this year and 1575, for Sir Humphrey
Stafford, and although as Mr. Blomfield and others have
pointed out, the actual building differs in many points from
the extant plan, there is a sufficient resemblance to
identify their connection with each other, and in view of
Thorpe's statement that he was responsible for it (if his
marginal note may be so read) it indicates the kind of work
which at this period of his life exercised his ingenuity.
This being so it has been objected that his claim to be
regarded as the designer of Wollaton,^ Notts (a plan of
which is also included among his drawings) suffers, because
it is unlikely that he would have been able to vary his style
so considerably as to plan two such different erections ;
but there is at least something to be said on the other
side. In the first place I am not sure that we should be
too ready to assume that an architect, at this early period,
was so tied down by convention as to be unable to assimi-
late new ideas, or to venture on experiments hitherto
untried at least in this country. Thorpe's career of activity
coincided with the decline of the old perpendicxilar style of
architecture and the inauguration of the Renaissance in
England, and the very fact of his having left, unlike Inigo
Jones and Wren, no personal impress on the architectm-e
of this country seems to indicate to some extent that his
mind was rather impressionable than creative, and would
account for the variety of conception in the works attributed

1 The fact that Wollaton was presumably not his work but that
of Smithson, as we shall see, does not affect the principle of my
argument.

30 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

to him on the ground of their plans and elevations being
included in his book of drawings.

Another reason adduced by those who question his right
to be considered the author of many of these erections is
the fact that had he been, his name would in all probability
have found its way into contemporary records if not into
contemporary literature ; but much the same argument
might be adduced (indeed it has been adduced) in the case
of Shakespeare, whose medium of self development might
reasonably be supposed to lend itself to contemporary
notice, and makes the few references to him extant, still
more surprising. When we realise how relatively few of
the great architects whose work still exists around us, and
some of whom are living in our midst, are known even by
name to the general public, I think it is easy to realise that
a great worker in this medium might quite conceivably
have lived and died and produced great work in those less
advertising days than ours, without his name receiving any
more permanent record than what he might himself have
set down in his private note-books or professional memo-
randa.

Although we are able to settle the year in which Thorpe
began the building of Kirby Hall, in view of his existing
written statement, we are not so lucky with respect to the
other great mansions he designed or at least had a hand in,
and if we can, with some certainty, place the execution of
the plan for the Palace of Eltham at the year iSQO,-^ we
can only approximately guess at the dates of those great
houses with which his name is more or less identified. It
would, however, appear that the year 1618, or thereabouts
was the period of his greatest activity, for it was then that
he either built or enlarged a number of important man-
sions. There was, too, some political j ustification for this
excursion into building development on the part of the
great nobles at this particular period. With the close of

1 There is record of a Bond of John Thorpe not to found or sell
iron ordnance without a licence fi-om the Queen. February 22, 1574,
Domestic State Papers,

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 31

the Tudor rule, a more peaceful regime seemed to promise
immunity from foreign aggression and civil disturbance,
and such an epoch was not unnaturally regarded as a
favourable moment for prosecuting the more peaceful arts.
Before the accession of James I., however, two mansions
were erected which are with some probability assigned to
Thorpe, i.e.^ Old Longford Castle, and Rushton Hall.
The former was commenced in 1580, for Sir Thomas
Gorges. It is triangular in form, each apex of the
triangle consisting of a circular tower, and it is said to
owe its peculiar formation to the fact that Lady Gorges
was a Swede, and desired that her English home should
resemble as much as possible the Castle of Uranienborg in
her native land. The towers are connected by buildings
enclosing a court-yard, and the surface of the brickwork
is divided into oblong panels by bands of white stone
and black flints alternately ; ^ a characteristic that would
appear to be peculiar to this part of the country, thus
helping to prove the purely English genesis of this portion
of the fabric, which is likewise attested by various other
parts of the work.

Certain circumstances point to the fact that when so
much of it had been erected, the building w^as stopped ;
one excellent reason given being that Sir Thomas Gorges
had practically exhausted his resources in doing as much
as he had. Later, however. Lady Gorges is known to
have obtained a grant of one of the ships of the Armada
which had been wrecked on the coast, and this particular
vessel containing much bullion, she was enabled to continue
the building of Longford. As we have seen Lady Gorges's
taste in architecture was essentially un-English, and it is
therefore probable that it was she who decided to have the
facade which was then commenced, decorated with arches
and terminal figures in the extravagant manner beloved
by the Germans at this period.

The heterogeneous character thus given to the building
makes it difficult to assign the authorship of it, as a whole,

1 Blomfield.

32 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

to any particular architect ; certainly the later portion
cannot be attributed to Thorpe, and the plans extant
among his drawings, which, by the bye, do not tally much
with the lines of the place as it exists, seem to point to
the fact that he was responsible for the ground plan and
for so much of the structure as was completed during
the first period of building, while that portion of the
elevation in the drawings which coincides with the
elaborate later work was probably merely made after
the place was completed, as a record of it in its entirety.
This is a case in which the difficulty of estimating the
exact extent of Thorpe's work from the only existing data
left by him, is particularly marked, as what he obviously
did in this case, he in all probability did in others, and
for a few designs contained in his book of plans and
elevations, that can with any certainty be traced to him,
there are numbers which he must merely have copied from
the work of others either as specimens of the architecture
of the period or as patterns to serve as hints for his own
productions.

Rush ton was erected for Sir Thomas Tresham, and as
plans not only of it but also of other houses, notably
Roth well and Lyvedon, built for him are contained in
Thorpe's book of designs, Mr. Gotch has assumed that the
latter w^as the architect of these as well. From this, how-
ever, Mr. Blomfield dissents as, from a comparison of
Thorpe's known work at Kirby and Rushton with the
buildings of Rothwell and Lyvedon, he assumes that they
are not by the same hand, and he is inclined to attribute
the two latter erections to Tresham himself, who, he
reminds us, was a man " of considerable ability," if of
" eccentric tastes "" ; while he also places the triangular
lodge at Rushton to Tresham's credit. There is some-
thing to be said for both contentions, and it is not un-
likely that in all the work executed for Tresham both he
and Thorpe had a hand, that of the architect perhaps
curbing the too luxuriant fancy of the novice, that of the
novice giving unconventional, and therefore valuable,

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 33

hints to the more accepted artificiality of the professional
designer.

Among the Thorpe plans is one of Holdenby in
Northamptonshire which was erected for Sir Christopher
Hatton some time before 1580, but which is now merely
a fragment. When investigation into such matters was
not carried on so critically as it has been since, the pre-
sence of this plan was taken to indicate that Holdenby
was one of Thorpe's designs ; Mr. Wyatt Papworth, how-
ever, who has left some valuable MS. notes in the volume
in the Soane Museum, of which he was once custodian,
has conclusively proved that Thorpe's only connection
with this house was that of surveyor, and that the person-
ality of its actual architect, if it can be assigned to any
one man, is still wrapt in obscurity.

At that period, when a great noble wished to build
himself a lordly pleasure-house, he himself not infrequently
laid down the outlines of what he wanted, and with
the help of master-masons, artificers in stone, and, as
often as not, merely unskilled local labour, contrived some
one of those splendid palaces which even the skill of profes-
sional architects has since found difficulty in emulating
and seldom in surpassing. It is probable, therefore,
that Holdenby was an example of this, as was, it may
be assumed, Burghley (built 1577), and certainly Hatfield
(about 161 1) and Blickling. Tradition stood for so much
in the erection of such places, that a certain purity of style
discernible in their outlines is the more apparent when
contrasted with the fastidious and meretricious exaggera-
tions that gradually found their way from Germany and
became to some extent identified with the saner, if less
ambitious, work which had preceded their introduction.

At the same time it must be remembered that much of
the beauty discernible by us in many of these fine houses
is a beauty rather consecrated by age than one inherent
in these fabrics when they were first fashioned ; and it is
not improbable that, satisfactory as they may have appeared
to contemporaries, they would have proved tasteless to any

34 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

one who might have possessed a more accurate and com-
prehensive knowledge of architectural rules. Their chief
defect seems to have been a superabundance of detail and
an overcrowding of ornament which at once betrays the
'prentice hand ; and it is this want of artistic restraint
that chiefly helps to differentiate them from the work of
trained intelligence. We have seen how this was the case
at Longford, and if we make use of the same criterion to
gauge the extent of Thorpe's work on other buildings in
which he is conjectured to have had a hand, we shall pro-
bably approach as near as is now possible to a conception
of his genius and the value of his architectural activity.

Besides Longford, Kirby, Rush ton, and Holdenby, the
Thorpe collection of drawings comprises plans of Buck-
hurst in Sussex, Audley End, Wimbledon House, Copthall,
WoUaton, Loseley, Burghley House, Asto]i Hall, Burgh-
ley on the Hill, Holland House, and Somerset House ; in
fact, of all the principal mansions erected in England at
the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seven-
teenth centuries. Walpole's deduction from this, that
Thorpe was responsible for all these great houses, has been
disposed of, but several interesting assumptions have sur^
vived his day. Thus, as Somerset House is said to have
been built by John of Padua, about whom as little is known
as about Thorpe himself, it has been conjectured that these
two architects were one and the same person ; but, as I have
before pointed out, this statement falls to the ground on a
question of dates ; again, Burghley House, apparently
because of the absence by name of any other architect,
coupled with the fact that it is represented in Thorpe's
drawings, has been assigned to him ; but, as Mr. Blomfield
very pertinently remarks, as there is no mention of Thorpe
in the extant documents relating to the building of this
house, whereas certain Germans are so mentioned, it is
unlikely that he had anything to do with it, unless it was
in some quite subsidiary character — certainly not as archi-
tect in anything approaching our conception of that term.
Even had he been employed on its erection in a lesser

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 35

capacity, it seems probable that his name would have been
preserved in this connection, as were those of Roger
Warde, the mason ; Peter Kemp, who apparently designed
a brew-house for the mansion ; and John Shers and Domi-
nique Troisrieux, who appear to have been engaged by
Sir William Cecil (for whom Burghley was built) to collect
objects of art wherewith to fill his new country seat.

As in the case of Burghley, Audley End and Longleat
and even Theobalds ■"• appear to have been assigned to
Thorpe on insufficient gi'ounds. Longleat, which was
commenced by Sir Thomas Thynne in 1567, has also been
attributed to John of Padua, which, of course, for those
who identify the two architects as a single person, comes
to the same thing as allocating it to Thorpe. All that
can be said, after all, is that there is no actual documentary
evidence in support of either contention, and although it
cannot be said positively to be the work of Thorpe, on the
other hand it cannot be proved not to be.^

Much the same uncertainty pervades the question as to
who designed Audley End (Fergusson says Jansen did),
which was begun in 1603, for the first Earl of Suffolk, and
completed some thirteen years later. There is a tradition
that the model for it was obtained in Italy, and had this
been borne out by the completed lines of the building, it
might have gone for something towards Thorpe's claim to
be considered its architect, whether as identified with John
of Padua or on his own account, but as Mr. Blomfield
points out, the details are obviously German in character
and the ground-plan as incontestably English in arrange-
ment ; besides which, the fact that it has little or nothing
in common with Kirby and Rushton, although not in
itself a conclusive disproof, is, when taken together with
other negative evidence, sufficient to give us pause in

1 In the Cotton MSS. is a tinted plan or survey on vellum of
Theobalds, supposed to be the work of Thorpe.

s Nor is this inconsistent with the fact that Kobert Smithson was
employed on it as "Free Master Mason" during the entire period of its
construction.

36 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

attributing either its design or even subsidiary work on it
to Thorpe, and its inclusion among his drawings may have
arisen, as apparently was the case in other instances, from
one of two causes : either that he was subsequently
employed to survey it and to suggest various improve-
ments, w^hich may or may not have been adopted ; or he
may have wished to preserve a record of a notable building
of the period, with a view to making suggestive improve-
ments for his own use, which the various alterations and
additions made to certain of the other plans in his book
seem to suggest as not improbable.

Ampthill is another of the houses, plans of which were
made by Thorpe. In this case the words " enlardged by
J. Thorpe "" are appended to the drawing. This inscription
is valuable as suggesting that he was actually employed to
add to the original building, although doubt has even
been thrown on this, and the word " enlardged " taken to
simply mean that Thorpe executed a drawing of the place
on a larger scale than so)ne earlier one. I fail to follow
this suggestion, however, because it presupposes a previous
plan in Thorpe's possession, which, unless he had some-
thing more than subsidiary work to do on the building,
does not appear likely ; and had he merely wished to give
larger measurements it would not necessarily have required
a larger plan to do it.

This, I confess, seems to me one of the instances in
which those who refuse to give the architect credit for any-
thing err as much as those who would attribute to him all
the great buildings erected in England during his lifetime.
In the year 1600, Thorpe apparently spent some time in
Paris, and it has been conjectui^ed that, as he is known to
have filled the office of surveyor to Ampthill, a crown
possession, this official position accounted for his journey ;
in any case, when in the French capital, he seems to have
done work for Marie de Medicis, for among his drawings
is one inscribed : " Queen Mother's house Faber St. Jarmin
alia Parie, altered per J. Thorpe '"* ; although the argu-
ment that the " enlardged " on the Ampthill plan merely

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 37

indicated the preparation of a plan on a larger scale of
that mansion might as easily be applied in this instance,
and the " altered " be construed into the meaning that he
merely made alterations in the plan of the French Queen's
residence. Personally I do not think this, any more than I
think the " enlardged '"* has the signification given to it by
some authorities ; especially as Thorpe"'s position as Crown
surveyor would have made what was done at Ampthill the
natural outcome of his office.

While in Paris, Thorpe was evidently engaged on other
than royal work, for he apparently designed a house
for one Monsieur Jammet, a plan of which is preserved
among his drawings. Some years after his return, notably
in 1606, he was busy on one of the buildings of which
some of the credit, at least, has been allowed him even by
those who contest his claims in other instances ; this was
the now famous Holland House, practically the only
existing example of Jacobean domestic architecture remain-
ing in London, and sharing with Ham House a claim to
beauty and picturesqueness of detail unsurpassed by any-
thing produced at that period which still exists.

Among the Thorpe drawings is a plan executed in
different inks, and inscribed " Sir Walter Coap at Kensing-
ton, perfected by me, J. T." Holland House was built
for Sir Walter Cope whose family was long connected
with this part of the town ; and although there does
not seem much ground for denying to Thorpe the credit
of its erection, the somewhat enigmatic nature of the
inscription on the drawing has given rise to the ques-
tion as to what share he had in its erection. " Perfected "
may, of course, mean that the architect designed, super-
intended the erection of, and completed, tne house ; or
it may merely signify that he put the finishing touches
to some one else's work. I prefer the former solution
for several reasons ; the use of this particular word
as meaning the entire conduct of a matter is consistent
with its earlier, as differentiated from its present less
ample, signification ; and if Thorpe did not design the

38 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

house, there is no evidence to prove that any one else
did ; and I therefore think he may be left in as undis-
turbed possession of the credit of its erection as he is
of that of Rushton and Kir by, the main portions of Long-
ford, and other lesser houses. I would, indeed, go a step
further and ask, in the absence of any proof to the contrary,
why, if Thorpe designed Holland House he may not also
have had a dominating hand in that very similar mansion,
so far as its main outlines are concerned. Ham House.

Another building which can also with some degree of
certainty be traced to him is the curious house shaped on
the outlines of his initials thus : I — T, which he explains
by the following lines, in a note to the plan and elevation
of it among his drawings,

" Thes 2 letters \ andT

Joyned together as you see

is meant for a drvelling house for Twe."

The plan shows us a three-storied house with octagon
buttresses, and gables somewhat similar to those at Knole ;
and the building is characteristic of the more modest
dwellings erected during the latter part of the sixteenth
century. It probably no longer exists, or if it does it
has not been identified, which, in the case of a residence
designed on so eccentric a plan, seems to indicate con-
clusively that it has long since disappeared.

The investigations of the late Mr. Wyatt Pap worth
have added something to our knowledge of Thorpe and
some of the offices he filled, if they are not successful in
incontestibly proving the extent of his work ; thus we
learn, from this source, that in 1609, he was named as
king's commissioner for surveying the Duchess of Rich-
mond's land ; and that two years later, he received the
sum of £^2 35. for repairs to the fence in Richmond Park
(the present old Deer Park) which had been damaged by
the flooding of the river during the previous winter ; while
among the Salisbury Papers is a letter from Sir Henry
Nevill to Sir Robert Cecil, dated Paris, May 16, 1600 (the

in
U
O

a
Hi

o

— K

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 39

year in which Thorpe was in France), recommending the suit
" of Mr. Thorpe, one of the clerks of her Majesty's works,
for a reversion of one of the higher places of that kind."

It is now generally recognised that Thorpe had a son,
also named John, and that this son was also an architect.
The discovery is interesting, but a little disconcerting, be-
cause it is highly probable that the latter may have been
responsible for some of the work attributed to the former ;
at the same time it creates the possibility of the father
working on, and perhaps improving, the more immature
plans of the son, so that the "perfected,"" in connection
with Holland House, which I discussed before, may also
be twisted into meaning that the son drew out the first
rough plan, and that the father altered and improved it.
The fact, too, makes the accurate attribution of the plans
in the Thorpe book of drawings still more difficult.

In any case, we may, I think, regard Thorpe (the father,
or was it the son ?) as at least the most shining example of
those architects, or master-masons, or builder-designers,
which we will, who first began to emancipate themselves
from the earlier traditions by which the art, if it could be
so-called, passed by a sort of hereditary descent from
father to son, relying on old formulas and innocent of
those attempts at originality which were soon to raise it
into the domains of a fine art. The pattern-book may have
been used by Thorpe, but his native talent first helped
to give its teaching a deeper significance than had before
attached to its dry and jejune details. Thorpe"'s period,
too, coincided with the transition from mediae valism to
the first dawn of that Renaissance which was to develop
gradually into so rich and fruitful a phase of architectural
endeavour, and I think that, whatever we deny him, we
may at least allow him the credit of being one of the most
notable of its forerunners.

The actual volume of plans, to which I have referred, is
a small folio of 280 pages of thick drawing-paper ; and
the plans, elevations, &c., with which it is filled vary very
considerably, some being more or less finished drawings

40 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

accompanied by a scale ; others being mere ebauches with-
out scale ; some are executed in ink ; some are merely rough
pencil drawings ; some depict buildings which are well
known ; others represent apparently immature ideas for
great houses which were never carried into effect ; a few are
accompanied by the names of the respective buildings and
of their proprietors ; and one or two are actually signed
either with Thorpe's full name or initials. In most of
them alterations are observable, and as these appear, from
close observation, not always to have been made by the
same hand, the difficulty of accurately estimating Thorpe''s
personal share in their production is proportionately
increased.

One thing seems fairly obvious, and that is that the
volume represents Thorpe's architectural note-book, in
which he not only entered plans of houses for which he was
personally responsible, but also designs and details of
ornamentation from other sources, such as the scroll-work
taken from Vignola and P. Le Scot, interlaced on friezes,
or applied in other ways, which struck him as useful and
applicable to his own work.^

A few names of lesser known architects (so-called) may
not inappropriately be mentioned here, although the
bearers of some of them are chronologically slightly later
than the great man with whom I deal in the next chapter,
and many of them can only be termed architects in that
extended signification of the term under which those at an
earlier day are included.

Of these, Gerard Chrismas deserves to be noticed,
although it seems probable that, if he actually had a hand
in the designing of Northumberland House, Charing Cross,
with which his name is associated, he worked in conjunction
with Bernard Jansen. At the same time there is a slight

1 The volume was in the library of the Hon. Charles Greville ; and
at the sale of these books on April lo, 1810, it was purchased by Sir
John Soane, who offered it to Lord Warwick at the price he had paid for
it. This offer was declined, but as Walpole speaks of the volume as
being in Lord Warwick's possession in his day, it possibly belonged to
the Earl before passing to his kinsman, Charles Greville.

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 41

piece of evidence to support his claim to having taken an
important part in its erection, or at least in the construc-
tion of the chief fa^de ; for on this was sculptured in stone
the letters " C. JE.,*''' which Vertue assumes to have stood
for the words " Chrismas TEdificavit." On the other
hand, little or nothing seems to be known of Chrismas
beyond this, whereas the name of Bernard Jansen, a
Fleming, is associated with the building of Audley
End, and with that splendid monument to Sutton in
the chapel of the Charterhouse, on which he was en-
gaged in conjunction with Nicholas Stone. The assump-
tion, therefore, that Chrismas was but a master-builder,
and perhaps sculptor, carrying out Jansen's designs at
Northumberland House (completed in 1605), as Stone
carried them out on Sutton''s cenotaph, is based on prob-
ability.^

The claims of Ralph Symons, who seems to be identical
with the Rudolph Simons or Symonds, mentioned by
Walpole and Dallaway, are founded on better grounds.
He is known to have resided, and to have^ done con-
siderable work, at Cambridge, although he was not a
native of that town but of Berkhampstead. In 1598
he began the beautiful quadrangle of St. John's, con-
sidered by many the best example of contemporary
building at Cambridge, and erected at the charge of
Mary Cavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury. Probably about
the same time he designed the Kitchen Bridge at the
same college ; while it is known that he supplied plans
to Dr. Nevile, who between 1593 and 16 15 was engaged in
erecting the tower which replaced that of Edward III,
the upper storey to the Great Gateway, the Queen's Tower,

1 Chrismas is, besides, said by Yertue to have furnished the design of
Aldersgate, and to have sculptured the bas-relief of James I., with which
it was decorated. He had two sons, John and Mathias, who were stone-
mason?, and who carved the ship built by Peter Pett in 1637. In Gough's
" Topography " (vol. i., 'p. 676) is mentioned a panegyric on " Mayster
Gerard Chrismas, for bringing pageants and figures to great perfection,
both in symmetry and substance, being before but unshapen monsters,
made only of slight wicker and paper."

42 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

and the Hall, of Trinity. Symons, whom -Mr. Hamilton
Thompson ^ calls " that admirable genius," was the archi-
tect for all these extensive works, and probably designed
the Centre Fountain of the college, erected in 1602, which
is one of the most beautiful examples of English Renais-
sance work in existence. He also planned Nevile's Court
beyond the Hall, and here surpassed himself in the beauty
of the arcades — " the very crown of Renaissance work in
Cambridge."" At Emmanuel and Sidney Sussex Colleges
Symons also designed the courts. The former was erected
between 1584 and 1586, the latter, which is three-sided,
about ten years later; the whole college being completed
in 1599.

Symons, who worked much in conjunction with one
Gilbert Wigge, certain designs and elevations being
signed with their joint names and preserved in the library
of St. John's, is said to have lost a hand during the
progress of the works at this college, which in other
ways seems to have proved a thorn in his flesh, for over
the question of accounts he became involved in a law-
suit, and as Wigge is known to have been thrown into
prison in 1605 in connection with the same matter, the
two were probably in actual partnership. Symons eventu-
ally disappears from Cambridge, but Wigge having been
released on making an amende honorable to the authorities,
is found erecting some buildings in Walnut Tree Court, at
Queen"'s College, during the years 1 616-19.

Symon's portrait is still preserved at Emmanuel, and
bears the following incription :

" Effigies Radulphi Simons. Architecti sua aetata peritis-
simi qui praeter plurima aedificia ab eo prseclare facta, duo
collegia Emanuelis hoc Sydneii illud exstruxit Integra.
Magnam etiam partem Trinitatis raconcinnavit amplissime."

Perhaps Dr. Caius, who refounded Gonville and Caius
College, may be regarded as another Cambridge architect,

1 " Cambridge and its Colleges.' *

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 43

for he not only greatly altered the college as he found it,
adding, among other things, a court, but he seems to have
been responsible for the two somewhat fantastic gates, that
of Humility, no longer standing, and that of Virtue, in
which he blended Gothic and Renaissance ; while the Gate
of Honoirr, finished in 1574, may also have been his work,
for the once generally received tradition that it w^as set up
for him by Theodore Haveus, a native of Cleves, has
been doubted by later research. Although in the college
records Haveus is described as " artifex egregius et insignis
architecturas professor," the only thing that is now generally
attributed to him is the stone column which once stood in
the college precincts.^

As Cambridge had its own particular architect in
Symons, so had, about the same time, Oxford in the
person of Thomas Holt, born in Yorkshire and originally
a carpenter. He is said to have taken up his residence at
Oxford in 1600. Three buildings are attributed to him —
the Fellows Quadrangle of Wadham, that of Mei*ton, and
the new Schools which were at this time being begun by
Sir Thomas Bodley. The striking resemblance between
the two former seems to indicate a single hand in their
design, but I fear that there is no satisfactory evidence to
prove that hand to have been Holt"*s. Indeed, most
authorities now concur in regarding him merely as a
master-carpenter who, as Mr. Blomfield surmises, used
" to contract for the design and execution of the wood-
work" in the various buildings such as those at Oriel,
Jesus and Exeter on which he is known to have been
engaged in addition to his traditional association with
Wadham and Merton. He died on September 9, 1624,
and was buried in Holywell Churchyard, where his epitaph
indicates a more important connection with the building of
the Schools than seems consistent with fact.

1 There is a portrait in Gonville and Caius College, which Walpole
considers to be of Haveus who may in any case have been a kind of
consulting architect to the college generally and to Dr. Caius in
particular.

44 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Such men as Acroyde who also worked on the Schools,
Arnold who was employed at Wadham, and Westley who
was connected with certain buildings at Emmanuel and
Clare at Cambridge, as well as Thomas Grumbold who
added ornaments to the turrets and bridge of the latter
college, cannot be regarded in any other light than that
of masons, who may conceivably have supplied here and
there a design cribbed from a pattern book, but can
certainly not lay claim to the distinction of being actual
architects ; although as master-builders or builder-designers,
whichever we like to call them, they may be said to have
formed slight connecting links between those who were.

As in the case of Holt's epitaph, that of Robert Adams
may not improbably have protested a little too much, for
on the latter, in Greenwich Church, we read " Egregio viro,
Roberto Adams, operum regiorum supervisori architectures
peritissimo. ob. 1595. Simon Basil operationum regiarum
contrarotulator hoc posuit monumentum 1601." It seems
a pity that the piety of Simon Basil did not go a little
further, and indicate on what he based his friend's claims.
As it is, so little is known of Adams that, beyond being
one of Queen Elizabeth's surveyors, he has come down to
posterity merely as the author of two plans, one of Middle-
burgh, dated 1588, and the other entitled "Thamius
Descriptio," on which is shown how the passage of hostile
ships from Tilbury to London may be prevented by the
mathematical precision of cannon balls fired at certain
points. Walpole, in recording these two efforts of Adams,
takes occasion to say that he " seems to have been a man
of abilities," which may be regarded as one of those
generalisations that serve so often to cover ignorance of
any actual grounds on which to base the assumption.

Although, as I have pointed out, among Thorpe's plans
is one of WoUaton, giving a slight basis to the supposition
that he was the sole architect of that building, it seems
more probable that he shared the honour with Robert
Smithson.^ Dallaway thought so ; and I confess I do
1 Walpole calls him John.

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 45

not regard, as some have done, the wording on Smithson's
tomb in Wollaton Church to be conclusive testimony
that the latter alone designed the great house. The
epitaph runs thus : " Mr. Robert Smithson, gent., archi-
tect and surveyor unto the most worthy house of
Wollaton with divers others of great account." Smith-
son may very well have been the resident surveyor and
architect (the fact that he lies buried in the church there
in some degree points to this), but that does not prove
that he designed the mansion, while, given that he
had a hand in it, it is not at all improbable that Thorpe
was called in to help and advise in the work. The last
words of the epitaph are capable of a different inter-
pretation to that obviously accorded them, and may
mean that Smithson worked "with divers others of great
account."

Wollaton was commenced in 1580 for Sir Francis
Willoughby. In many respects it is extraordinarily fine
and imposing, but it suffers from being overloaded with
detail, and the centre portion rises so far above the front
as to dwarf the beauty of the fagade. Smithson seems
also to have been employed as a " Free master-mason " at
Longleat, which was begun in 1567; and both Mr. Blomfield
and Mr. Gotch attribute the mass of detail at Wollaton
to what Smithson learned from the Italians who decorated
Sir John Thynne's palace.^

According to Walpole, Smithson built a portion of
Welbeck in 1604 ; but Walpole is no safe guide in this
instance, for he seems to have so mixed up the Smithsons
(there were three of them) that he adds that Robert
Smithson whom, by the bye, he calls John, also erected the
riding-house there in 1623, and the stables two years later,
and that he died in 1648. As a matter of fact, Robert
Smithson died in 16 14, aged 79 ; and the work attributed
to him by Walpole was done much later. His son,
Huntingdon Smithson, also an architect, died on December

1 It is said to have been built by John of Padua, but no satisfactory
evidence of this is forthcoming.

46 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

27, 1648, and was buried in Bolsover Church, with the
following inscription on his tomb :

" Reader, beneath this plain stone buried lie
Smithson's remainders of mortality ;
Whose skill in architeetm'e did deserve
A fairer tomb his memory to preserve :
But since his nobler works of piety
To God^ his justice and his charity.
Are gone to heaven, a building to prepare
Not made with hands, his friends contented are,
He here shall rest in hope, 'till th' worlds shall burn
And intermingle ashes with his urn."

This Huntingdon Smithson was responsible for Bolsover
Castle, which was commenced in 16 13 by Sir Charles
Cavendish. He also worked for Sir Charles' son, William
Cavendish, created Earl of Newcastle in 1628, but the
riding-house and stables at Welbeck are considered of a
later date, and therefore may not improbably have been
the work of yet another Smithson, John, son of Hunting-
don, who is known to have been an architect, and who died
in 1678, but about whom nothing else has, so far as
I know, been recorded. -"^ Huntingdon Smithson is said
to have been sent to Italy by his patron in order to
gather materials and designs, and this, together with
the traditions he bad learned from his father, was
probably responsible for his skill in architecture, but at
the same time for the over ambitious nature of his eleva-
tions and decorative ornaments.

Speaking of Smithson's chief work, Mr. Blomfield says :
" Bolsover Castle has many points of interest in regard to
the development of English architecture. Its details show
a singular mixture of Gothic tradition, of classical ideas
inspired by German examples, and of the individuality of
Huntingdon Smithson himself, who, though evidently of a
thoughtful and inquiring turn, was not able to fuse these

1 It was probably the hazy knowledge of the existence of this "John"
that caused Walpole to make the mistake just referred to.

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 47

three into a consistent architectural design " ; and he adds
that the work of both the Smithsons shows knowledge. of
architectural detail and a good deal of ingenuity, though
it failed in attempting too much.

It is thus, as we see, difficult to arrive at any very clear
conception of the personalities of the Smithsons, or to gain
any accurate knowledge of their work. Nor is the matter
made very much clearer by the discovery of a book of
Smithson drawings, now in the possession of Colonel Coke
of Brookhill Hall, on which Mr. Gotch read a most
interesting and valuable paper some little time ago ; ^ and
on which Mr. Maurice B. Adams wrote a paper in the
journal of the R.I.B.A. in February 1907.

These drawings are attributed to Huntingdon Smith-
son ; but in only a single instance is the Christian name
of their author even hinted at, and this occurs on one
entitled " The platte of the Seelinge of the Greate Chamber
at Thyballes taken 8th of November, 1618, by Jo. S, ; "
This is sufficiently vague, but not so much so but that we
may regard it as indicating John Smithson. Now the only
John Smithson known to us (and that in but a shadowy
way) is, as I have stated, the John, probably son of
Huntingdon, who is said to have died in 1678. And,
although it would indicate that he was an old man at the
time of his death (say eighty), there is no reason why he
should not have drawn the plan mentioned when he was a
young man of twenty. But given that this is so, are we
to assume that the drawings are all by John Smithson.
Hardly, for one is dated so early as 1599, another 1605, and
another 1609 ; while there are others of Bolsover which
we are distinctly told was the work of Huntingdon Smith-
son, and there is a plan of Wollaton in which we know
Robert had a hand. The question therefore arises as to
whether there was not another and earlier John Smithson
than the one of that name just referred to, and if so one
can only vainly ask, it would seem, in what relation did he
stand to Robert and Huntingdon .?
1 Before the Eoyal Institute of British Architects, November i6, 1908.

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 49

Perhaps more interesting still is the record of the
various places in London or its neighbourhood, with which
Smithson had to do, to be found in the collection ; thus
there are several of Arundel House, with details of windows,
chimney-pieces, grates, &c., bearing various dates, such as
1618 and the following year, on one of which is a letter
addressed to '* Mr. Smithson,'^ from " your loving fFrend,
Tho: Ashby," in which the latter says that his price " to
paterne it in every poynt " is £100. There is, too, a plan
of " The Banketinge house at the Whitehall in London " ;
and another of " The fyrste story e of the Newe Banketinge
house.'' Another bears the title : " The Fronte of Bathe
House : Sir foulke Gryvelles (Grevilles) in houl borne
1619'''; another "My Ladye Cookes house in Houlborn
at London " dated the same year ; and yet another, " The
Platform e of my lord of Northamtons house in London " ;
while there are also plans of " The Newe Building at
Sant Jeames 1619"; "The Platforme of the Kings
Chapell at Westminster,"" with other details of the
Abbey, and " The Platforme of Somersett Gardens " ;
and to make an end, there is a plan of " The Inner
Courte of my Lo. of Bedfordes at Twitnam," and " The
Platforme of Sur Tho : Vavesers house at Peterson in
Surree," the present Ham House.

The fact that many of these places could hardly have
been the work of the Smithsons leads one to the conclusion
that the Smithson Collection like the Thorpe Collection
represents not only what its compilers actually accom-
plished themselves, but also much that they thought
worthy of preservation for reference.

The existence, however, of these two valuable assemblages
of drawings is sufficient to differentiate the Smithsons and
the Thorpes from the other designers of the time ; and
it is conceivable that to them may be due, if not all,
at least the better part of the splendid mansions that
came into existence at the end of the sixteenth and the
beginning of the seventeenth centuries.

I have spoken of Huntingdon Smithson in order to place

JO LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

him in collocation with his father, but in doing so I have
had to anticipate the later period which I shall presently
be dealing with. To be chronologically correct I ought
to have placed Stephen Harrison, who flourished about the
beginning of James I.'s reign, after Robert Smithson.
Stephen Harrison has the dignity of a niche in the
Dictionary of National Biography, and as he is termed
a joiner and architect, or rather termed himself so, he
should rightly be included here, although Vertue and
Walpole could find little about him save that he designed
triumphal arches ; and the writer of his memoir in
the Dictionary of National Biography does not add
much to this statement. On what little he gives, how-
ever, I base the following facts. Stephen Harrison is
probably identical with that "Stephen Harryson son
of Peter Harryson '' whose baptismal entry is to be found
in the register of St. Dionis Backchurch, under date of
May 25, 1572. Nothing is known of him till the year
1604, when a thin folio volume was published by John
Windet, bearing the following title : " The Archs of
Triumph erected in Honor of the High and Mighty
prince, James the first of that name. King of England
and the sixt of Scotland, at his Maiesties Entrance and
passage through his Honourable Citty and Chamber of
London, upon the 15th day of March 1603. Invented and
published by Stephen Harrison, joyner and architect, and
graven by William Kip." The work is a rare one, and
besides the engraved title contains seven full-page plates.
It was sold " at the authors house in Lime Street, at the
Sign of the Snayle," and, in addition to thus giving us
this interesting information as to Harrison's place of
residence, is otherwise valuable as it contains two prefatory
odes to which the great names of Webster and Dekker are
attached.

It appears that the arches described were erected under
Harrison"*s personal supervision, 300 men being employed
on the work from the beginning of April till the end of
August when, owing to the plague, James's state entry to

JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 51

the City was postponed till the following year, the
preparations being proceeded with in February 1604.

From these data it will be seen that Harrison's claim to
the title of architect, as we understand the term, is not a
very sound one ; but the man who could successfully design
the elaborate triumphal arches that were erected in those
days may be credited with the ability to have done more
enduring work ; and that there is no record that he did so,
is perhaps rather because no opportunity presented itself,
than from want of capability on his part.

Another so-called architect of this period, who seems to
have added painting to his other accomplishment, was
Moses Glover, who flourished during the reigns of James I.
and Charles I. Glover is supposed to have been connected
with the building of Northumberland House, Charing
Cross,^ on which we have seen Gerard Chrismas engaged ;
that he was the actual architect, however, I think quite
unlikely, but he may probably have worked under Jansen
as Chrismas did, and that there is some reason for suppos-
ing this, is the fact that Glover is known to have drawn on
vellum the large survey of Syon House, at Isleworth, in
1635,2 and he would thus seem to have been in the employ
of the Percy family, particularly as a plan for the rebuilding
of Petworth, at that time belonging to the Percies, dated
16 1 5 and still preserved there, has also been attributed to
him. Beyond this, no details of his work remain, and only
one incident in his private life seems to be recorded ; that
is his marriage ; and among the licences of the Bishop of
London's Court,^ may be read that on September 30,
1622, a licence was issued to M. Glover of Isleworth,
painter- stainer, and Juliana Gulliver of the same, widow
of Richard Gulliver, painter, to marry at St Botolphs,
Aldersgate.

1 In the "New Description of London," it is said that from some
letters on the front it was inferred that he was the architect, but this
is so like the tradition with regard to Chrismas that I imagine the
writer to have confused the two men.

2 See Aungier's "History of Syon."

3 Harleian Soc.

52 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

It will be seen that up to this point, with one or two
exceptions, the architects named have no great claims
to that title; they were for the most part little better
than master-masons or builder-designers who carried
through work that was based rather on traditional designs
and the assistance of the pattern book, than on the out-
come of their own unaided imagination ; they could lay
claim frequently to ingenuity but not to genius ; they
were essentially artisans not artists, and did we not know
how largely the influence and actual work of the Italians
and the Germans entered into the plans and erection of
the splendid houses that arose in the time of Elizabeth
and James I., we might well wonder how it is that no
one even slightly comparable with Inigo Jones is to be
found among them ; while the relative mystery that sur-
rounds the name of the one man who stands out, to
some extent, from those of his contemporaries, will seem
the more astonishing and the more incomprehensible.
The reasons have been so variously and so ably handled
by those who have written not so much on the architects
but on the architecture of this period that it would be
superfluous aud unnecessary to recapitulate them ; but the
fact remains that notwithstanding the existence of many
architects (as they were then termed) and of innumerable
magnificent buildings, the first really great British architect
was Inigo Jones.

CHAPTER III

INIGO JONES

Inigo Jones was born on July 15, 1573, in the Parish of
St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, and was christened four
days later, as is proved by the baptismal register of the
church of St. Bartholomew the Less, where can be read
the entry : " Enego Jones, the sonne of Enego Jones, was
christened the xixth day of July, I573-'' lu two other
entries concerning brothers and sisters of Inigo, the
Christian name of the father is variously spelt Enygo,
Enygoe, and Inygoe, and the surname Johnes and Johans.
Inigo's father, who bore the same unusual Christian
name as his son, was a cloth-worker, and resided either
actually in, or in the close vicinity of. Cloth Fair. He
seems to have been at first in easy circumstances, but the
violence of his passions, as well as the " untamed vehemence
of his language,'' attributes that seem to have been in-
herited to some extent by his son, were perhaps respon-
sible for his later financial troubles. There is extant an
interesting corroboration of his freedom of language, which
at the same time, however, seems to indicate a sort of
anticipation of the Pickwickian sense, in a letter from the
Lord Mayor to the Lord Chancellor, dated September 13,
1 581, concerning a suit pending between one Elizabeth
Rascall as plaintiff, and Inigo Jones defendant, " touching
certain slanderous words," in which a verdict had been
found for the plaintiff, and damages had been assessed by
the jury at ;^io and costs. This the Lord Mayor con-

53

54 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

sidered excessive, and had reduced the fine by half, because
he could find no reason for such heavy damages, " the
plaintiff being very little damaged by the words which were
spoken only in jest, without any appearance of malice ^ ;
whereupon he complains to the Chancellor that the plaintiff,
egged on " by some troublesome and busy solicitors," had
procured a writ to obtain judgment against Jones, and he
asks that his Lordship will give the matter his considera-
tion, and order the writ to be stayed.^ Here the matter
ends, and we are not told whether the Lord Mayor's point
was upheld, or whether Jones was made to pay up.

Of Inigo's mother nothing appears to be known ; of his
curious name, Webb, his nephew and son-in-law, thus
writes : " It is observable that his Christian name is in
Spanish and his father's in Latin,* for which some have
assigned this reason, that, as his father was a considerable
dealer in the woollen manufactory, 'tis probable some
Spanish merchant might have assisted at his baptism.*"
This may have been the case, although there was so little
love lost between the English and the Spaniards at that
period that it seems more probable that the father may
simply have wished his son to bear the same Christian name
as himself; and, notwithstanding that Webb speaks of the
elder Jones's name as being Ignatius, he was certainly called
Inigo, although in those easy-going days of nomenclature,
the name was occasionally Latinised.

In 1589, the elder Jones was obliged to compound with
his creditors, and a decree to that effect in the " Queen's
Honourable Court of Requests " is extant, dated November
15 of that year. Whether in consequence of this or no, he
removed to the Parish of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, and
there, some eight years later, he died (his wife having pre-
deceased him). His will is dated February 14, 1596-97,
and as it was proved on the following April 5, his death
must have taken place between these two dates. In

1 Eemembrancia.

2 He calls him Ignatius, but the name is not so rendered in the church
registers.

INIGO JONES SS

it he appoints his son Inigo as his executor ; desires that
his body shall rest beside that of his wife in St. Benet's
Church ; and leaves what property he had to leave between
his son and his three daughters, Joan, Judith, and Mary,
which thus indirectly indicates that his other son or sons
had already predeceased him.

With regard to Inigo's early training little is known,
and even Webb who might be supposed to have gathered
something reliable about it, is forced to admit that " there
is no certain account in what manner he was brought up,
or who had the task of instructing him." There is, indeed,
a tradition that he was apprenticed to a joiner in St.
Paul's Churchyard, but it is only a tradition ; while the
remark made by the anonymous author of the account pre-
fixed to the " Stonehenge '' book, that Inigo was " early
distinguished by his inclination to drawing, and was par-
ticularly taken notice of for his skill in the practise of
landscape-painting," savours a little too much of the
inference deduced by posthumous knowledge to convey
much conviction.^

One thing, however, seems fairly obvious : Inigo must
have had some grounding in Latin to have successfully
held his own, as he did, in the pedantic Court of James I.,
where a bowing acquaintance, at least, with the classics was
a desideratum ; while his work on Stonehenge bristles with
classical allusions, and could hardly have been undertaken
by one who had little Latin and no Greek. Ben Jonson,
from the heights of his own attainments in such matters,
looked upon Inigo Jones as illiterate ; but Jonson''s pen
was steeped in gall, and what may have appeared elementary
to him did not necessarily stamp a man as being wholly
uneducated.

The lacima in Jones's career which it is difficult to fill, is
the period between his giving up whatever trade or profession
he was following, and his being sent to Italy ; and we only

1 The same authority mentions a tradition that Jones was once at
Cambridge, but this seems so unlikely that it hardly requires considera-
tion.

S6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

know more or less vaguely the name of the nobleman who
became his patron — if, indeed, any such patron really was
forthcoming. The two names mentioned in this connection
are those of the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, both well-
known lovers of art. The former was born in 1586, the
latter in 1580, and as we know that by the year 160$
Inigo Jones had not only returned to England but was
even then regarded as a great traveller, the youthful ages
of the two Earls seem to militate against the fact of their
acting in the light of patrons to him. Walpole and
others ^ have given their names, but without any con-
fidence, and rather, perhaps, because they were both men
who in later life had an instinctive love for art, and who
did afterwards befriend Jones, and were about the only
wealthy noblemen in England at the time to whom the
care of rising artists could be attributed. Webb says
nothing on the matter, which, had it been based on fact,
he would have naturally enough been ready to do ; and I
am inclined to believe, therefore, assuming, as has been
stated, that Inigo's father was — at least, at one time — a
well-to-do man, that he, perceiving the bent of his son's
genius, may have himself sent him abroad, his business
with foreign merchants, perhaps, making this an easier
thing to accomplish than it would have been to the majority
of men in his position.

Inigo himself thus refers to these years at the beginning
of his " Stonehenge Restored '' : " Being naturally inclined
in my younger years to study the arts of design," he says,
" I passed into foreign parts to converse with the great
masters thereof in Italy, where I applied myself to search
out the ruins of those ancient buildings which, in despite
f time itself and violence of barbarians, are yet remain-
ing." The fact that he makes no mention of either Lord
Arundel or Lord Pembroke who were then both alive and
whom he could hardly have decently passed over had

1 Among them the anonymous writer of the memoir prefixed to
" Stonehenge Eestored," who says Jones attracted Lord Pembroke's
notice by his skill in landscape-painting.

INIGO JONES 57

they contributed to the expenses of his travels, seems
rather conchisive that they had nothing to do with the
matter.

It is not known in what year Inigo Jones left England,
nor is the date of his departure from Italy recorded ; what,
however, is known is the fact that he seems not only to
have impressed the Italians with a sense of his capabilities,
but that the report of these reached so far north as
Denmark where the King, Christian IV., the brother-in-
law of our James I., himself somewhat of an amateur
architect, heard of Jones and invited him to enter his
service. This occurred probably about the year 1603, ^^^
what Jones did in Denmark in an architectural capacity
is very uncertain, and the tradition that he designed the
Castles of Fredericksborg and Rosenberg, and the Bourse
at Copenhagen, is unsupported by any conclusive testimony.
Cunningham, indeed, quotes a Danish gentleman as once
remarking : " Your great architect left nothing to my
country but the fame of his presence " ; while Mr. Blomfield
assumes that Jones"'s sole business was merely to assist the
King in some of his excursions into amateur architecture.

In 1604 Jones returned to England, but under what
circumstances is not quite clear. Possibly he had done all
he could for King Christian ; and he may have had a
natural yearning to be again among his own people.
Chalmers speaks of his accompanying Christian to this
country in 1606, which is obviously inaccurate on a ques-
tion of dates alone ; Walpole, on the other hand, says
that James I. found him at Copenhagen ; but this is
as erroneous, for James never was in Denmark after his
accession to the English throne. In any case, Jones
came home, probably with recommendations from the
Danish King, for not long after he had arrived he was
appointed surveyor to Anne of Denmark. At this period
he seems to have had a greater reputation as a traveller
than as an architect, and it was in the former capacity that
he attracted the attention of the authorities of Oxford
University ; for when, in 1605, they were making arrange-

58 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

ments for entertaining James I. with certain plays in the
hall of Christ Church, they hired, among others, according
to Leland, " one Mr. Jones, a great traveller, who under-
took to further them much and furnish them with rare
devices, but performed very little of that which was
expected. He had for his pains, as I heard it constantly
reported, £S'^''"

It must have been about this time that Jones was intro-
duced to the notice of Queen Anne, for we find him in the
same year associated with Ben Jonson in the production of
one of those portentous masques in which the Court
delighted. This particular one was presented on Twelfth
Night (1605) at Whitehall, and Ben Jonson has left a vivid
description of the scenery, largely painted by Jones who
was no mean artist/ and the machinery with which his me-
chanical skill contrived a fitting setting to the poet's lines.

This " Masque of Blackness," as it was called, was
followed during the next year (1606) by the " Masque
of Hymen,"" also the joint work of Jonson and Jones,
which celebrated the marriage of Robert Earl of Essex
and Lady Frances, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, a
union which was followed by disgrace and crime, as
students of the reign of James I. know. Jonson speaks of
this masque with enthusiasm : " There was not wanting
either in riches, or strangeness of the habits, delicacy of
dances, magnificence of the scene, or divine rapture of
music," he writes, adding : " Only the envy was, that
it lasted not till now, or, now it is past, cannot by
imagination, much less description, be recovered to a part
of that spirit wath which it glided by."

Jones seems to have put the coping-stone to his work
in the arrangement of such ephemeral splendours, in the
famous "Masque of Queens," and during the reign of
James he was continually employed in gratifying the royal
love for these shows, in which his ingenuity, no less than
his artistic taste, made him pre-eminent.

1 Indeed, he seems to have followed the art of painting before taking
up architecture, and at Chatsworth there is a landscape fi-om his brush.

INIGO JONES 59

By a curious anomaly it is in the records of Ben Jonson
that we learn of Jones's successes in this field, just as it is
by the poet, at a later date, that we are furnished with
any details of his extraction or education, which were
likely to throw, if not discredit, at least ridicule on the
architect. But whatever their feelings towards each other
at a later day, it is evident that at this time the play-
wright and the architect worked together harmoniously
enough in their efforts to please their royal patrons and
amuse their Court.

Jones did not confine his labours to those in collaboration
with Ben Jonson, however, for when Prince Henry was
created Prince of Wales, in 1610, the masque which was
given on that occasion was the joint work of Daniell and the
architect, and the former has left this generous record of
the circumstance : " In these things, wherein the only life
consists in show, the art and invention of the architect
gives the greatest grace, and is of most importance, ours
the least part and of least note in the time of the perform-
ance, whereof and therefore have I intersected the descrip-
tion of the artificial part which only speaks M. Inigo
Jones." Prince Charles performed in this, as he and other
members of the royal family had done in other masques,-^ and
there can be little doubt that the association with Jones,
who, I imagine, acted as a kind of stage- manager, into
which the Prince was thus brought, did much to strengthen
that bond of sympathy between them which in after days
Charles still further consolidated.^

It is also obvious that in these masques, apart from the
many trivialities with which, as it seems to us, they
abounded, Jones made use of much of the architectural

1 For details see Ben Jonson's works, Winwood's ' Memorials,' and
contemporary letters, &c. passim.

2 For another masque, probably exhibited in 1609, Jones's bill was
£22^2> odd, and he received as a fee for himself £/^o, a like amount being
given to Ben Jonson ; while in one which was presented by Prince
Henry in the banqueting house of Whitehall on New Year's Eve 1610-11,
and which was written by Ben Jonson, and entitled " Oberon," Jones as
its " devyser " received £16. Account of the "Eevels at Court," printed
for the Shakespeare Society.

6o LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

knowledge he had gained in Italy ; and it is not difficult
to suppose that when courtiers saw representations of
splendid palaces as the backgrounds of sylvan scenes, and
gorgeous temples from which dramatic divinities issued,
they regarded their constructor as a man who could
worthily rear in stone and marble what he had so well
simulated in pasteboard and paint. Indeed the masque
of 1610 seems to have greatly strengthened Jones's grip on
the Court, for it was in this year that he was appointed
Surveyor of the Works to Henry, Prince of Wales,^ and
among the fees paid to members of the Prince's household
the following entries occur :

Inigoe Jones, Surveyor of the Workes, for his

fee^ at iij per diem for one whole year and

a halfe, and xl^^® dayes, begonne the 13^^

Jan^ 1610 (1611) and ended at the feast of

St. Michael the Archangel^ 16 12 . . Lxxxij ij vj*^

Inigo JoneSj Surveyor of the Princes Workes^

for his fee by (Lres) pattentes at iij per diem

for xxxiij days, begonne the first of October

161 2 and ended the vj*^ of November

folio wynge ....... cxj^ (;£'iii)

In addition to these payments, the architect also received
a gift of ^30 from the Prince.

In his new capacity Jones superintended various works
at Richmond and St. James's, and in the " Domestic
State Papers " are references to alterations and repairs
carried out under his supervision at these two royal resi-
dences; while in 161 1 he, together with Francis Carter,
clerk of the works at Richmond, drew up a report and
estimate of " the charge of the pyling, plancking, and
brickwork for the three islands (aits) at Richmond;*"*
an undertaking apparently first suggested by Solomon de
Caux who had been the previous Surveyor of the Works

1 Birch's " Life of Prince Henry," appendix.

2 Domestic State Papers, May 17, 161 1, where there are other references
to the same work.

INIGO JONES 6i

and had in that capacity built a picture-gallery at
Richmond Palace, and had also laid out the gardens at
Wilton.

It is difficult to say whether Inigo Jones did any purely
architectural work at this period of his career, no signed
design of his earlier than 1616 being in existence, and it
seems not improbable that what work he did for his
royal master, or for the courtiers, if any, was rather in
the nature of alterations and the renovation of earlier
buildings than the original outcome of his own genius.
There is a tradition that he designed Bramshill and
Charlton House, which are known to have been residences
of Prince Henry, but although there is a similarity,
between the latter and Chilham, which was Jones"'s work,
it does not prove that he designed Charlton ; indeed,
according to Evelyn, that residence was the work of Sir
Adam Newton, and was erected in 1599. Nor does there
seem anything but tradition for assigning Bramshill to
the architect.

On the death of Henry, Prince of Wales, in 16 12,
Jones's appointment lapsed, and he seems to have con-
sidered this a favourable opportunity for making a second
visit to Italy, to perfect himself in the architectural educa-
tion which he had so well begun during his former sojourn
in that country. He had, too, been assured of the rever-
sion of the office of Surveyor-General,-^ which was then held
by Simon Basil who was growing old and infirm, and he may
have thought that, with such a prospect in view, a year or
two would be better spent among the glories of Rome and
Venice than in superintending masques in England. Wal-
pole assumes that "those buildings of Inigo which are less
pure, and border too much on that bastard style, which
one calls King James's Gothic," were produced by him
between his two Italian visits ; but, as Mr. Blomfield
points out, there is no direct evidence for this, and even if
Jones did any work in design other than that for masques,
before his return from his second tour on the Continent,

1 By a deed executed on April 27, 1613. Domestic State Papers.

62 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

it could not have been of any particular importance, and
was only significant in feebly indicating, as first attempts
sometimes do, his possession of exceptional architectural
ability.

Indeed it was this second visit to Italy that, in all
probability, determined him in the final choice of a pro-
fession ; hitherto he had expended something of his latent
gifts in designing masques and superintending repairs ;
he returned from the land of Palladio, with his brain
teeming with ideas which only required opportunity to
become splendid concrete conceptions.

There seems to be some doubt as to how long this
second Italian journey lasted, GifFord in his Life of Ben
Jonson, says that Jones left England in the winter of
1612; on the occasion of the wedding festivities of the
Elector Palatine and Princess Elizabeth which took place
in the middle of the following February, however, a
masque, presented by the Inns of Court, was performed,
written by Chapman, and " invented and fashioned by our
kingdom's most artful and ingenious architect Inigo Jones,"
as the title phrases it.-*- As it is probable that Inigo Jones
personally superintended this entertainment, it seems
likely that he left England some time later in February or
in the following March, which would be consistent with
the statement that he went in the winter of 16 1 2, as, it
will be remembered, the New Year did not commence at
this period till March 25.

In the following September, he was in Vicenzia, as a
drawing preserved on the margin of the "Palladio "formerly
in his possession, and now in the library of Worcester
College, Oxford, testifies. The first date in the book,
written by his own hand, is Vicenzia, Thursdaie, 23 Septr.
1613"; then follow: "Tivoli, June 13, 1614"; "Rome,
1614"; "Naples, 1614"; "Vicenzia, Aug. 13, 1614";

1 There is preserved at Montacute House, Somersetshire, a receipt
signed by Jones for £110 which he had received in the preceding
year (January), towards preparations for this masque, which incidentally
shows the time expended on these matters.

INIGO JONES 63

and lastly, " London, Jan. 26," 16 14 (16 15). This in-
teresting volume seems to have accompanied its owner in
all his excursions ; the margins of its pages are crowded
with notes and rough sketches ; and we can imagine Jones
among the remains of antiquity jotting down impressions
or making rapid drawings for future reference and use.

He remained in Italy about a year and a half, returning
home apparently in the autumn of 16 14, although there
are some reasons for believing that he came back to
England for a short time in the January of this year.

In Italy he made a comprehensive study of the archi-
tectural remains at Rome, Vicenza, Venice and Tivoli ; and
he carefully applied himself also to the works of the famous
architects, Palladio, Serlio, Vignola, Fontana, &c. He
seems to have acted, at the same time, as an agent for the
Earl of Arundel in the acquisition of some of those
treasures of antiquity with which Arundel House, under
this splendid art-patron, was gradually being filled ; while
the intervals between these studies and vicarious duties,
were occupied by conversations with some of the notable
architects then residing in Rome and elsewhere.

On his return to England, Jones entered the service of
James I. as Surveyor of the Works.^ He was obliged, in this
capacity, to wear a regulation livery, and among the royal
household expenses is an order, dated March 16, 161 5, to
the Master of the Wardrobe, giving directions for the pre-
paration of this badge of office. The salary commenced on
Oct. I, i6i4,and amounted to 8^. a day "for entertainment,"
;^8o a year for "recompence for avails," or as we should say

1 Apart from his employment by the King in the preparation of
masques, he had, on one occasion in 1609, gone on a mission to France
for him, the nature of which has not transpired, except so far as can be
gathered from the following record : " To Inigo Jones, upon the Earle
of Salisburie's warrante, dated 16 June 1609, for cra-reinge Lres (letters)
for his Ma*3 servyce into France, xij^i vi^ viij*." The relative largeness
of this amount for a single journey leads me to think that he may have
been sent several times, and, indeed, may have acted as a kind of King's
messenger. On one occasion when in France, he visited Chambord, and
in his copy of " Vitruvius" has left a manuscript note on the remarkable
staircase there.

64 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

for his services ; and 2s. ^d. a day for travelling expenses.
The details of the dress have been preserved. Thus he
was to be furnished with " five yards of broad cloth for a
gown, at twenty-six shillings and eightpence a yard ; one
' fur of budge,"* for the same gown, price four pounds ; four
yards and a half of baize to line the same, at five shillings
the yard ; for furring the gown, ten shillings ; and for
making it, ten shillings ; " while the royal order, under
James's sign manual, further commands, that a similar
provision shall be made to Jones every year on the Feast
of All Saints, so long as he shall occupy the position of
Surveyor of his Majesty "'s Works. The date of this docu-
ment is March 16, 1616.^

Inigo Jones had now an opportunity of proving what
Walpole terms Roman disinterestedness, and I give the
details of the circumstance in the words of Webb : " The
office of His Majesty's works of which he was supreme
head, having through extraordinary occasions, in the time
of his predecessor contracted a great debt, amounting to
several thousand pounds, he was sent for to the lords of
the Privy Council, to give them his opinion what course
might be taken to ease his Majesty of it, the exchequer
being empty, and the workmen clamorous. When he, of
his own accord, voluntarily offered not to receive a penny
of his own entertainment, in what kind soever due, until
the debt was fully discharged. And this was not only per-
formed by him, himself; but upon his persuasion the
Comptroller and Paymaster did the like also, whereby the
whole arrears were discharged."

Indeed, Jones does not seem to have profited largely by
his office, for the salary he received can hardly be termed
liberal, even had it been regularly paid, which we know
was not the case for there is a document extant, under
the King's sign manual, which states that : " Whereas,
there is due unto Inigo Jones, Esquire, Surveyor of his
Majesty's AVorks, the sum of thirty-eight pounds, seven
shillings and sixpence, for three years arrears of his levy
1 MS. in the British Museum.

INIGO JONES 65

out of the Wardrobe . . . these are therefore to will and
require you to make payment unto the said Inigo
Jones, or his assignees : and for so doing this shall be
your warrant."

It seems obvious that if Jones could wait three years for
his payment, and still more if he could, as we have seen
he did, forego his fees altogether until a heavy debt on his
office had been wiped off, he must have had private means,
and as he could hardly as yet have saved anything from
what he gained by devising masques and doing other in-
termittent work, it seems probable that his father before
his death must have retrieved his fortunes, and left his son
comfortably off.

Apart from his ordinary duties as Surveyor of the
Works, Jones, who was one of those adaptable men to
whom nothing comes amiss, was, in 16 16, given the charge
of the furniture and pictures of the Chapel Royal, which
was, however, probably but an honorary appointment,
carrying with it certain privileges but no monetary
recompense.

In the following year he started his first actual archi-
tectural work, and prepared designs for the Queen's House
at Greenwich. The plans must have been completed in
the spring of 16 17, for we find Chamberlain writing to
Carleton, in the June of that year, and remarking that :
'' The Queen is building at Greenwich, after a plan by
Inigo Jones."" But although begun thus early, the com-
pletion of this scheme was so much delayed that the
residence was not finished till 1635. At the same time
Jones was engaged in designing new buildings for the Star
Chamber, " which," writes Chamberlain, " the King would
fain have built, if there were money." Want of funds,
indeed, prevented the scheme from being carried out,
and all there is to show for it are the original drawings,
preserved in Worcester College, Oxford.

Another work, dating from 161 7, which was carried out,
was the new chapel of Lincoln's Inn intended to replace, on
an adjoining site, the old one which tradition attributes

66 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

to William Rede, Bishop of Chichester, and which had be-
come ruinous. Jones's estimate for the work was ^^2000,
a sum raised by voluntary contributions and by a tax
levied on the members of Lincoln's Inn.-"^ It is interesting
as being the only authenticated instance of the architect's
use of the Gothic style,^ a style that he was obviously
forced to adopt to suit his design to the existing buildings
of the Inn.

In the following year (161 8), Jones was appointed one
of the Commissioners to lay out Lincoln's Inn Fields, and
he was asked to prepare a plan for this purpose. A rare,
if not unique, print, attributed to Hollar, a copy of which
is contained in Mr. Heckethorn's book on Lincoln's Inn
Fields, shows the complete nature of Jones's conception —
a conception unfortmiately never realised, for had it been
we should have possessed a remarkable example of the
domestic architecture of this period from the hand of its
greatest exponent. As it is, Lindsay House is the only
existing specimen of Jones's work in thg square ; unless
indeed, as has sometimes been supposed, he really designed
the insignificant archway that gives access to Sardinia
Street ; which is quite unlikely.^ Lindsay House is in the
Doric style, and isone of the best examples of Jones's
purely domestic architecture, while it is also interesting as
showing the manner in which he intended, more or less, the
whole square to be built. Originally it had a beautiful
entrance gate and six brick piers, but the former has long
since disappeared, and of the latter only two remain.*

1 Heckethorn's " Lincoln's Inn Fields." The chapel was consecrated
in 1623.

2 Although St. Catherine Cree and St. Alban, Wood Street, destroyed
in the Great Fire, and built in the Gothic style, were attributed to Jones,
there are no good grounds for this.

3 There was, however, a fragment of his design for the west side stand-
ing till recently.

4 The ornamental column and fountain, formerly in the centre of New
Square, were also designed by Jones. He has, besides, left one or two
examples of his treatment of gates ; one at Chiswick, which will be
spoken of later, and the one at Holland House, for which he designed
the stone piers which were executed by Nicholas Stone.

INIGO JONES 6^

But a far more heroic scheme even than the laying out of
Lincoln's Inn Fields was to occupy the architect during
the following year. In the January of 1619, the old
Banqueting House in Whitehall had been destroyed by
fire, and the rest of the buildings had fallen into a
dilapidated state ; Jones was accordingly ordered to prepare
designs for a new palace. It seems improbable that the
King contemplated anything beyond a rebuilding of the
existing fabric on practically the same lines, or at any
rate nothing more daring than what would bring it up to
then modern requirements. The ideas of Jones, however,
were very different. He had, for those days, travelled
much ; he had become imbued with the glories of Italian
architecture ; his brain was teeming with memories of
Vitruvius and Palladio ; and his genius conceived a palace
which should out-rival anything in France or Italy. His
great opportunity had arrived, and mindless of self-seeking
parasites and a perennially empty exchequer, he produced
a scheme at which succeeding generations have wondered ;
he created, on paper, a palace that should far outshine the
glories of the Louvre ; and it is safe to say that had his
conceptions been put into concrete form, they would alone
have succeeded in rescuing the reign of James I. from the
insignificance that attaches to it.

As if to give no loophole for his royal master to escape
from the realising of his scheme, Jones prepared two sets
of plans. The first of these was relatively moderate in
size, the outside dimensions being 630 feet by 460 feet ; ^
but Jones's appetite grew on what it fed on, and he soon
produced another set in which the dimensions were no
less than 1280 by 950 feet.^ This latter is entitled : " The

1 This:, preserved in Wo cester College, formed the original of the set
published by Colin Campbell in his " Vitruvius Britannicus " in 1717-25,
Campbell dates them 1639, but they appear to be merely draughts by
Webb from Jones's designs of 1619.

2 It is necessary to anticipate some years here in order to say all I
want to about Jones's Whitehall scheme. Of course, it was carried on
in the reign of Charles I., although nothing but the Banqueting Hall
was ever completed.

.>

68 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

ground plant for the palace of Whitehall for King Charles
ye first taken John Webb architect," and is now preserved
at Chats worth, having been that from which Kent or
rather Lord Burlington published the set of plates, in

^727-.

It is not necessary here to indicate the various alterations

that were made in the plans as they progressed ; and the
bird's-eye view of the final form Jones wished the Palace
to take, will give a better idea of the vastness of his
conception than whole pages of description. It may,
however, be pointed out that the site it was intended to
occupy was roughly from Whitehall Gardens to ground at
the back of the Treasury. One of its principal facades
was to have faced the river and to have been divided from
it by a long and broad terrace ; on its north it would
probably have been open to Charing Cross ; its south side
would have reached to what is now Parliament Square ;
while St. James''s Park would have formed a fitting-
boundary on the west.

Mr. Loftie in his valuable monograph on Whitehall,^
deals elaborately with the various details of this stupendous
scheme, and as the bird's-eye view here reproduced does
not show the river frontage, I cannot do better than quote
his description of it, although, as he himself says, no
description can do it adequate justice.

"The centre was of three storeys, the lowest with
rusticated pilasters. The next storey has features common
to much of the design, but two flanking buildings only
two storeys high are marked by a studied plainness, flat
pilasters being between the windows. At either end of
the front we find three storey pavilions, we can hardly
call them towers. They, like the centre, have engaged
columns standing well out. The most beautiful thing on
this front is a projecting portico in the centre, three
arches wide and one deep. This beautiful balcony — the
most elegant little bit in the whole design — is of the
Corinthian order, two storeys high, the lower rusticated,
1 " The PortfoliD," No. 16, April 1895,

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INIGO JONES 69

and on a balustrade above are the statues with which Inigo
always liked to relieve his sky- line. ""'

Nicholas Stone, the then fashionable statuary, who was
master-mason in the building of the Banqueting Hall,
and who made the famous dial in the Privy Garden, would
undoubtedly have been employed on these statues, the
total number of which intended by Jones may be realised
when it is known that 176 were provided for on the
Westminster front alone. When it is remembered that
Jones's immense pile would have outrivalled in size any
of the great continental palaces, even the Escurial and
the still larger palace at Mafra, and that every detail had
been carefully thought out by him personally, even to the
subsidiary ornaments on the terrace embankment, some
idea can be gained of the comprehensiveness of the
architects designs. Of course certain parts are open to
criticism ; fault has been found with the inner circular
court, although in our own day the idea has been used in
the new Local Government Board buildings, but as a
whole no conception on such a scale has ever emanated
from an architect's brain, and the one point against it, as
a whole, seems to be that it was too vast even for a royal
residence.

The exquisite fragment that exists — so small a part of
the whole that four similar sections alone were to have
been subsidiary buildings in the great court — is known to
all as the Banqueting Hall. This was the first portion to
be built, in order, as I have said, to replace the former one
destroyed by fire and it really thus forms the keynote
of the great palace. It was begun hurriedly for it was
urgently needed. Jones's estimate for it was £gS^o,'^ and
a model was submitted for the king's approval.^ The
first stone was laid on June i, 16 19, and the work was
completed on March 31, 1622.

In the accounts of the Paymaster of the Works, which

1 Calendar of State Papers, April 19, 1619.

2 Jones was paid ^37 under a council's warrant, dated June 27, 16 19,
for models of this and of a new Star Chamber

70 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Peter Cunningham first printed, is a roll entitled : " Charges
in building a Banquetting House at Whitehall, and erect-
ing a new pier in the Isle of Portland, for conveyance of
stone from thence to Whitehall," by which we find that
the total cost of the erection of the building was ^^14,940
odd, and the expense of the pier £712^ thus exceeding
the original estimate by nearly -^6000. Considering what
we know of the dilatory methods of payment which
obtained at this period, it is not, perhaps, surprising to
learn that this account was not finally settled till eleven
years after the completion of the work.

The technical description of the Banqueting House as
given in this document is as follows :

"A new buildings with a vault under the sarae_, in length
no feetj and in width 55 feet within ; the wall of the founda-
tion being in thickness 14 feet, and in depth 10 feet within
ground, brought up with brick ; the first storey to the height
of 16 feet, wa'ought of Oxfordshire stone, cut into rustique on
the outside and brick on the inside ; the walls 8 feet thick,
with a vault turned over on great square pillars of brick, and
paved in the bottom with Purbeck stone, the walls and
vaulting laid with finishing mortar ; the upper storey being
the Banqueting House, 55 feet in height, to the laying on of
the roof; the walls 5 feet thick and wrought of Northamp-
tonshire stone, cut in rustique, with two orders of columns and
pilasters, Ionic and Composite, mth their architrave, frieze,
and cornice, and other ornaments ; also rails and ballasters
about the top of the building, all of Portland stone, with
fourteen windows on each side, and one great window at the
upper end, and five doors of stone with frontispiece and
cartoozes ; the inside brought up with brick, finished over
with two orders of columns and pilasters, part of stone and
part of brick, with their architectural frieze and cornice, with
a gallery upon the two sides, and the lower end borne upon
great cartoozes of timber carved, with rails and ballasters of
timber, and the floor laid with spruce deals ; a strong timber
roof covered with lead, and under it a ceiling divided into
fret made of great cornices enriched with carving, with paint-
ing, glazing, &c."

INIGO JONES 71

Such is, as it were, the skeleton of the beautiful building,
the ceiling of which was afterwards to be adorned by that
Apotheosis of James I., which Rubens painted in 1635,
which remains, to-day, one of the most perfect archi-
tectural features of London and a small but eloquent proof
of its designer's splendid conception.

The year after it had been begun, Jones was busy on
several other matters. One of these was his duties as
architectural adviser to the Commission that had been
appointed to draw up a schedule of all the buildings
erected in London since the accession of James, and to
report on them, as well as to enforce certain regulations
that had been passed as to the size and position of new erec-
tions. Walpole notices a commission, printed in Rymer''s
Foedera, to the Earl of Arundel, Inigo Jones, and others
" to prevent building on new foundations within two miles
of London and the Palace of Westminster," to which there
is a further reference in several of Garrard's letters, in the
Strafford Papers. Another important matter was his
share, a leading one, in the proposed repairs to St. PauFs,
a scheme, however, which was not proceeded with till 1633,
owing largely to that want of funds which perennially
handicapped the king in such matters ; although we know
that James had countenanced a sermon in favour of the
project being preached at PauFs Cross.

The third scheme which occupied the architect's atten-
tion was one which Walpole designates as " very unworthy
of his genius " ; this was his investigation into the origin
of Stone-henge. In the book he subsequently wrote, in
which he incorporated the fruits of his labours, he thus
speaks of the circumstance which gave rise to them.
" King James, in his progress in the year 1620, being at
Wilton, and discoursing of this antiquity, I was sent for by
William, then Earl of Pembroke, and received there his
Majesty's commands to produce out of mine own practice
in architecture and experience in antiquities abroad, what
possibly I could discover concerning this of Stone-Heng." ^
1 Five years earlier he had been at Wilton during the King's former

72 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

It does not appear that Jones hurried himself in the
matter ; perhaps it was hardly one that could be hurried ;
indeed the printed result of his inquiries did not appear
till three or four years after his death, notably in 1655.
In consequence of the scarcity of this edition, most of the
copies of which were destroyed in the Great Fire, another,
together with Webb's vindication, was issued in 1725,
with the following title : ^' The Most Notable Antiquity
of Great Britain, vulgarly called Stone-henge, on Salisbury
Plain, restored by Inigo Jones, Esq., &c." With all the
enthusiasm of an admirer, Webb speaks of the work as
being " wrote with so much accuracy and skill, that 'tis
uncertain which most deserves our commendation his *^
(Jones's) Industry or his Sagacity " — and he proceeds to
summarise the conclusions arrived at, thus : " After much
reasoning, and a long series of authorities, he concludes at
last, that this antient and stupendous Pile must have been
originally a Roman Temple inscribed to Coelus, the senior
of the Heathen Gods, and built after the Tuscan order."

Jones's theory did not meet with the approbation thus
accorded it, in other quarters, and in 1663, Dr. Charlton
published his " Chorea Gigantum," in which he confutes
the architect, and proves, at least to his own satisfaction,
that not the Romans but the Danes were responsible for
this collocation of seemingly meaningless stones. Although
Dryden wrote a panegyric on Charlton and his work, the
conclusions of the latter did not appeal to the learned any
more than Jones's had to him, and in the controversy that
ensued — a clergyman, in 1730, falling foul of both writers
— Webb championed Jones's work in a book entitled " Vin-

stay there, as is evidenced by the following extract from a letter
addressed by Lord Arundel to Lady Salisbury, dated July 30, 1615, and
printed by Mr. Inigo Triggs in his " Inigo Jones and his Works " :

" Upon Thursday nexte, the Kinge dineth at Wilton by which time
my lo. of Pembroke hopes that Mr. Jones will be come hither. I tell
him I hope he will, but I cannot promise because I spake not with him
of it when I came out of towne. I mean (by God his grace) to be at
Arundell on Tuesday or Wednesday come seavennight w"^ is the
eighth or ninthe of Auguste. If Mr. Jones come hither I will bring
him w*'! me, if not you must w^^ you."

INIGO JONES 73

dication of Stone-henge restored.'*'' Since that day much
has been written on the subject, and in 1792 a daring
gentleman even produced a poem on it ; but no satisfactory
solution seems to have been arrived at ; and Stone-henge,
in common with the authorship of the " Letters of Junius "
and the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask, will
probably always be one of those debatable matters, about
which the disputants — even if an angel from Heaven
imparted the truth — would still continue to argue and
vociferate.

Little of architectural importance is traceable to Jones
in his official capacity during the remainder of James I.'s
reign, and what work he did other than that connected with
the ordinary duties of his office as surveyor, seems chiefly to
have been in the nature of repairs and alterations. Thus
in the Calendar of State Papers, under date of Septem-
ber 2q, 1622, we read that New Hall, in Essex, then
recently acquired by Buckingham, "is to be altered by
Inigo Jones, the King's surveyor."''' In the following year,
when the Spanish match was regarded as a fait accompli^
Chamberlain, writing to Carleton, in May, remarks that
the Spanish Ambassador (Gondemar) surveyed the lodgings
for the Infanta, in course of preparation at Denmark House
and St. James''s, and ordered a new chapel to be fitted up
in both places, " which Inigo Jones is to prepare with
great costliness'**; and on June 14 following we are told
that the Duke of Richmond and six other nobles went to
Southampton ^ to arrange pageants for the reception of
the Infanta and that " Inigo Jones and Allen, the old
player, went with them,'"* but, adds the writer, "• could have
done just as well without so many Privy Councillors.'''*

But one important work on which Jones had been
employed for some years, was completed in 1623 ; this was
the rebuilding of the chapel in Lincoln''s Inn. The first
proposal for a new chapel was mooted so early as 1609 ;
nothing, however, appears to have been done till 1 617 or
16 18, when, as we have seen, commissioners were appointed
1 On this occasion Jones was made a burgess of the town.

74 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

for laying out Lincoln's Inn Fields. Certain embellishments
which Jones added, such as the rather fanciful parapet and
the vases which were placed on the buttresses, have been
removed ; but in the crypt those " Roman Doric pilasters
creeping up the sides of the bastard Gothic"' which
Cunningham mentions, and other additions are thought
to have irrevocably spoilt the original work, although the
chapel has since undergone so many other alterations
that one should hesitate to accuse Inigo Jones of the
various incongruities that to-day exist in it. The first
stone was laid by the famous Dr. Donne who also
preached the consecration sermon on Ascension Day 1623,
the Bishop of London performing the actual ceremony of
consecration.

Jones was never quite at home in dealing with Gothic
work, and it is probable that nothing but a desire for
consistency with the adjacent buildings in Lincoln's Inn,
and perhaps the wishes of the Benchers, would have induced
him to attempt anything of the sort.

Among other lesser works which occupied the architect
during the year 1623, were various repairs and additions
to Theobalds, the favourite residence of James, and
there is extant a letter written by Jones, and dated
August 16 of this year, referring to the matter and
mentioning some stables that he was erecting for his royal
master there. ^

On the death of the King, Jones was naturally selected
to design the funeral car which, after the custom of the
times, was one of those elaborate arrangements formerly
associated with the last earthly journey of sovereigns.

At this point a word may be conveniently said about
the somewhat mysterious origin of the quarrel between
Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. When this actually began,
it is rather difficult to say, although the cause of it seems
to have been that caustic, rather quarrelsome, and very
jealous nature which actuated Jonson in his various
passages of arms with men like Marston, Dekker and
1 Preserved in the Soane Museum.

INIGO JONES 75

others. Certain it is that so early as Christmas 1610,
when the playwright produced his masque of "Love
freed from Ignorance and Folly,''"' although so much of its
success was due to Jones's scenic skill and mechanical con-
trivance, no mention whatever was made of him in the
printed copy of the work ; nor did his name appear in
that of "Oberon" given on New Year"'s Eve, 161 1,
although he is elsewhere expressly termed its " designer."
Indeed, unlike Daniell who, as we have seen, generously
attributed the success of one of Ms masques to Jones's co-
operation, Jonson seldom seems to have been willing to
concede anything to the architect, or where he does,
concedes it in a grudging and condescending way. By
16 1 7 the tension between them had become so acute that
Jonson is said to have told Charles, Prince of Wales, that
" when he wanted words to express the greatest villain in
the world, he would call him an Inigo."-^

Instead of passing years smoothing over such asperities,
they seem to have exacerbated them, and even Jones tried
some retaliation ; for Jonson having printed his name before
that of the a,rchitect on the title-page of " Chloridia," the
latter was so annoyed that he is said to have used his
influence to Jonson's detriment on the occasion of the pro-
duction of Townshend's "Albion's Triumph" in 1632.
Jonson retorted by his " Expostulation with Inigo Jones "
and his " Corollary to Inigo Marquis would be," and would
have held him up to ridicule as Yitruvius Hoop in his
" Tale of a Tub," had not the licenser of plays. Sir Henry
Herbert, a friend of Jones, struck out the offending part
before the play was performed.

But Jonson was not to be thus baulked of his prey, and in
a piece he wrote for the entertainment of the king when the
latter stayed at Bolsover in 1634, ^^ brought the architect
on to the stage as a ridiculous character, one " Coronal
Vitruvius." Here, however, he reckoned without his host, for
Charles was so annoyed that soon afterwards Howell, the

1 " Conversations of Jonson with Drummond of Hawthornden."
Edited by the Shakespeare Society, 1842.

76 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

letter- writer, advised Jonson to cease his satiric attacks,
as the king " was not well pleased therewith." This
seems to have given Jonson, who was, besides, quite old
enough to know better, pause, and two years afterwards
the grave closed over the indomitable and irreconcilable
old fighter.

With the accession of Charles I., it might have been
thought that an ampler day still was dawning for Jones's
genius. The king was a man of the most cultivated
taste, and of consummate judgment in whatever pertained
to the arts, his patronage was extended to the great
painters of the time, and his gallery was already largely
filled with the productions of earlier artists. Charles
had long been associated with Inigo Jones. He had,
as we have seen, taken part in many of those gorgeous
masques in which the architect's capabilities had first
shown themselves ; he had, undoubtedly, carefully studied
the designs for Jones's great palace at Whitehall ; and he
must have taken a very close and personal interest in the
work at Denmark House and St. James's. His accession
thus promised great things for the architect, and, inasmuch
as the latter was continued in his ofiice of Surveyor of the
Royal Works, and went on designing those splendid
masques, which, in the early years of this reign, reached
their apogee, his hopes were to some extent fulfilled. But
other circumstances occurred to embitter his later years.
Jonson, with whom he had so long worked amicably, turned
upon him with all the bitterness of one who could bear no
brother near the throne ; his restoration of St. Paul's
brought upon him the wrath of the Parliament, and like
many another friend of the unfortunate Charles, his
closing years were clouded by grief and misfortune. This
is, however, anticipating matters.

During the time that had elapsed since Jones first
entered the royal service, he had been occasionally em-
ployed on the building or restoration of private houses in

INIGO JONES ^^

various parts of the kingdom, and one of the earliest
instances we have of his domestic architecture was the
addition he made to Houghton Hall, Bedfordshire, for
Mary Sidney Herbert. What he appears to have done
here was the addition of the north front, which is
said, for it is now a ruin, to have resembled the Convent
della Carita at Venice, the work of Palladio, and the open
Ionic loggia, a characteristic of the great Italian, although
then new to this country, was used effectively here by Jones
just as he used it about the same time at the Queen's
House at Greenwich, and as Webb did subsequently at
Amesbury.

The difficulty which has been experienced in identifying
the architects of the majority of Jacobean houses, has
caused many to be attributed to the one man who had then
made a name for himself, and so we find Flixton Hall, built
in 1616, Dorfield Hall, Crewe Hall, Aston Hall, the garden
front of Brympton, and certain parts of Hinton St. George,
Wimbledon House in the Strand erected in 1628 and very
soon after burnt down, and Forty Hall, Middlesex, built
in the following year, for St. Nicholas Raynton, assigned
to Jones. There does not, however, appear any good
reason for supposing that he had a hand in all of these.
Tradition may, of course, be nearer truth than those who
require chapter and verse for every attribution are willing
to allow, and the fact that many of these houses do not
exhibit the now recognisable characteristics of Jones's
work, should, I think, be no more regarded as absolute
disproof in his case than it should be in that of Thorpe,
as I have already pointed out. For instance, another
private residence that is conceded to Jones is Chilham
Castle, in Kent, where the Jacobean doorway, similar
to that at Houghton, so far as can be traced of the
latter, is quite unlike Jones's later work, and where the
curious hexagonal plan of the mansion more closely
approximates to what Thorpe might have produced.
Chilham was built in 1 61 6 for Dudley Digges, the author
of that well-known contribution to Civil War literature,

78 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

"The Unlawfulness of Subjects Taking up Arms against
their Sovereigne," first published in 1647.

Another lesser domestic work, which can be allotted to
the latter part of James I/s reign, was the gateway at
Beaufort House, Chelsea, which Jones designed in 162 1,
for the Lord Treasurer Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex,
who was occupying the place from 1619 to 1625.-'^ When
Sir Hans Sloane purchased the property in 1736, he
demolished the old house and presented the gateway to
Lord Burlington, who had it re-erected in the grounds of
Chiswick House, a circumstance thus recorded by Pope :

'' Passenger. O gate, how earnest thou here ?
Gate. I w^as brought from Chelsea last year,
Battered with wind and weather,
Inigo Jones put me together ;
Sir Hans Sloane
Left me alone,
Burlington brought me hither."

Three years after he had designed this gateway, Jones
was employed in adding a gallery to Castle Ashby, where
he was also engaged later in other work, which, how-
ever, was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War.
Local tradition also attributes the design of the Town Hall
at Bath to him. He is known to have visited the city
about the time James had commissioned him to undertake
his work on Stone-henge in 1620, and according to Wood
of Bath, the architect, the citizens took this opportunity of
engaging him to prepare a design for their municipal
buildings.

Jones"'s work in the reign of Charles I. was appropriately
inaugurated by one of his smaller but most famous creations
- — the celebrated w^ater-gate, which he designed for the Duke
of Buckingham in 1626, and which was executed by Nicholas

1 See for drawings of this gateway and a technical description,
" Ini^o Jones and his Works," by H. Inigo Triggs and Tanner. There
is a letter from Lord Middlesex to Inigo Jones, dated 1622, in the
SackTille MSS.

55,

INIGO JONES 79

Stone. Buckingham had only recently (1624) acquired
York House ; and when he demolished the old residence,
he erected a large building chiefly to store the wonderful
collection of pictures which he was getting together.^ It
seems almost certain that had he lived the Duke would
have built a mansion consonant with his grandiose ideas,
and probably Inigo Jones would have been its architect,
although the Duke's factotum, Sir Balthazar Gerbier, de-
signed the temporary house, and has for this reason been
credited by some with that of the water-gate itself. Stone
too, who actually carved it, says in his account book that
he " dessined " it ; but I think there can be little doubt
that its creation emanated from Jones"'s brain and from his
only ; and I also think it probable that Buckingham in-
tended it merely as an " episode " in the scheme for a new
and magnificent palace to be carried out by the architect.
When, in 1767, a suggestion was made to remove this
work of art, various protests were made, in one of which,
drawn in the form of an epitaph : " Sacred to the Memory
and Reputation of Inigo Jones,"" the gate is made to
exclaim : " I am the only perfect Building of the kind in
England," while another contains the lines :

" 'Twas Inigo Jones
Plan'd the piling these stones^
And superb is the architecture."

The arms and motto of the Villiers are still traceable
on the front of the gate ; and that rustic work which
Jones was so fond of introducing into his buildings is,
perhaps, more appropriate In an erection of this kind than
in any other.

The gateway designed for Lord Weymouth at Oatlands
Park, and the beautiful south entrance porch to St. Mary's

1 Gerbier, writing to the Duke on December 2, 1624, says, " The
surveyor, Inigo Jones, has been at York House to see the house, and he
was like one surprised and abashed. It would only require me to get
the reversion of his place to be an eyesore to him, for he is very jealous
of it. He almost threw himself on his knees for your Secretary of
Titian." — Bishop Groodman's " Court of James 1."

So LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Church, Oxford, erected in 1637, ^^ ^^ expense of ;£230,
by Laud's chaplain, Dr. Morgan Owen, have both been
assigned to Jones, although no evidence, other than their
intrinsic merit and style, is forthcoming to support the
supposition.

But Jones was soon to be engaged on a far more
important work — the erection of the Church of St. Paul's,
Covent Garden, and the laying out of that piazza which
to all intents and purposes inaugurated the square of later
days. The scheme was due to Francis, fourth Earl of
Bedford, who commissioned the architect to prepare plans.-^
The piazza was formed and the church built in 163 1. As
may be seen from old prints, this piazza ran along the en-
tire north and east sides of the square, the church complet-
ing the west, and the gardens of Bedford House extending
along the south. The church was completed and conse-
crated by Bishop Juxon in 1638. In 1795 it was destroyed
by fire, but was rebuilt on the original plan and elevation,
and although certain minor alterations have been made
since, it substantially remains as planned by Jones. " No
architect but Inigo Jones,'"* says Mr. Blomfield, "could
have made such an audacious design. The elements are very
simple. A plain I)oric portico, with a triangular pedi-
ment and a cupola above it, form the east elevation ; but,
as usual with Inigo Jones, his genius is shown in his treat-
ment of these simple elements." Speaker Onslow used to
relate a story which, if only ben trovato^ is at least apt
after these remarks : " When the Earl of Bedford sent for
Jones, he told him he wanted a chapel for the people of
Covent Garden, but," he added, " I sha'n't go to much
expense — in short, I would not have it much better than
a bam.' ' Well, then,' replied Jones, ' you shall have the
handsomest barn in England.' "

In the same year in which Jones was engaged on the

Piazza and Church of Covent Garden a commission was

issued for that long crying want, the repair of St. Paul's.

The cathedral had been in an almost ruinous state for

1 A coloured plan of Covent Garden Piazza is at Wilton.

INIGO JONES 8i

many years, and, so far back as 1620, Jones had been
ordered to survey and report upon it. Want of money
seems to have been chiefly responsible for the delay in
the work, and it was not until Laud, who always had
such matters closely at heart, became Bishop of London,
that any active steps were taken with regard to it. The
idea seems to have been to rebuild the entire fabric,
and the bishop, with all the zeal of a churchman and the
ardour of one who was working for a pet scheme, raised
the great sum, for those days, of ^^ 10 1,000 towards this
object.

A commission, appointed on April 10, 163 1, ordered,
among other matters, that once a year a certificate should
be made of money contributed ; that the work should not
be begun until there was ^^ 10,000 in the Bank, and that
when building was commenced and the scaffolding erected,
" two or three chests should be set in the church, in
convenient places, for receiving the benevolences of well-
disposed persons." ^ A certain number of Commissioners
was also chosen to negotiate and compound with the
owners of houses in the vicinity, which it was found
necessary to demolish, and with regard to the adjacent St.
Gregory's Church, it was first resolved that a vault beneath
it which threatened to aff'ect the foundation of the cathe-
dral should be shortened, afterwards that the wall of the
church should be demolished, and, finally, that the entire
building should be pulled down and the congregation,
numbering about 3000, provided for elsewhere.

The work was begun in 1631, and continued until the
outbreak of the Civil War put an end to it. By this
time Jones had only got so far as the south transept ; but
he had completed the portico, which Webb describes as
*' magnificent," and by which Lord Burlington was so
impressed that, on seeing Wren"'s completion of the cathe-
dral, he exclaimed, " When the Jews saw the second
temple they reflected on the beauty of the first, and could
not refrain from tears." Hollar executed a print of the

1 Eushworth.

82 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

west front as finished by Jones, and this shows it to have
been much finer than the original drawing prepared by
the architect ; Mr. Blomfield accounts for this by the fact
that Jones (as did Wren) trusted far more to personal
supervision of his work, and to directions to be given as
the building proceeded, than to his original draught.-'^

The restoration of St. Paul's proved, in other ways
besides the initial delays caused through want of funds, a
very unsatisfactory business for Jones. In the course of
the work he had found it necessary to demolish the Church
of St. Gregory, which was actually adjoining the south
wall at the west end of old St. PauPs. This proceeding
appears to have given great annoyance to the citizens,
not only on account of the actual pulling down of the
church, but because the work was undertaken by a Roman
Catholic working under the auspices of a bishop who, in
the popular eye, was all but one ; and some years later
(1640) Jones was brought before the Long Parliament on
a formal complaint from the citizens. In vain he pointed
out that by the removal of St. Gregory's he had increased
the dignity of St. PauFs and added to the beauty of the
city, and that, after all, he had been but obeying orders
specifically given him, even if based on his advice, by the
King in Council. This last plea was just then only calcu-
lated to add fuel to the fire of popular indignation, and,
irritated by the rough treatment he experienced in his
examination, Jones scornfully told the Parliamentarians
that he would take the whole responsibility on his own
shoulders. This was probably all that was wanted, and
the architect was incontinently mulcted in a large sum ;
according to certain authorities no less than ;^5oo.

To return to the date of the commencement of his work
on St. PauFs, we find Jones occupied with the designs for
the Queen's House at Greenwich which was completed in
1635. Among his drawings, now preserved in the Soane
Museum, are two showing the river front, and the side

I " History of the Renaissance,"

INIGO JONES 83

elevation of King's Charles's block, as it was called, which
it is conjectured are from the hand of the architect him-
self. There is no doubt that this was one of Jones's most
successful and beautiful designs, although Wren's magni-
ficent work has cast somewhat into the shade that of his
great predecessor.

One or two lesser works occupied Jones's time during
these years ; thus, in 1633, he restored the Church of St.
Helen's, Bishopsgate, and it was probably about the same
time that the older portions of West Woodhay House and
Aldermaston Manor House, as well as the red-brick Pend-
hill or Glyd's House as it was sometimes called, near
Bletchingly, Surrey, all of which seem with good reason to
be attributed to him, were completed ; although in the
case of additions which he made to many private dwellings,
the actual year is, in the absence of any authoritative data^
a difficult matter to determine with any certainty.

The years 1636-7 were fall ones for the architect, for
during the former, besides the superintendence of the
masque which was presented by Prince Charles (afterwards
Charles II.) to the King and Queen at Richmond, on
September 12, one of the many in which Jones collabo-
rated during the reign of Charles I.,-"^ and his exacting
labours in connection wdth St. Paul's, he was engaged in
designing the Barber Surgeons' Hall, in Monkwell Street.
Nothing of Jones's work here now remains, for much has
been taken down and other portions were rebuilt by Lord
Burlington in 1752, but Walpole speaks of it as one of the
architect's best works, although he owns that he (Walpole)
wanted the taste to appreciate it. Unfortunately the last
remains of what Jones erected were demolished in 1783 ;
but its original design and proportions can still be seen in

1 Among them were " Love's Triumph," by Jonson and Jones, 1630 ;
"Chloridia," by the same, in the same year ; "Albion's Triumph," ditto,
Twelfth Night, 1631 ; "The Temple of Love," by Davenant and Jones,
1634; "CcElum Britannicum," by Carew and Jones, 1634; "Britannia
Triumphans," Twelfth Night, 1637; "Salmacida Spolia,'- by Davenant
and Jones, January 21, 1639 ; " Love's Mistress," by Haywood and
Jones, 1640.

84 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the drawing preserved in Worcester College. The architect
was also engaged on the Chapel of Old Somerset House,
which was completed in 1637. It is probable that this
work drew the King's attention to the necessity for
improvements to Somerset House itself, as in the following
year, Jones prepared those plans for additions and altera-
tions to the palace, which are now also to be seen at
Worcester College. As we know, nothing came of the
scheme, and the plans are marked " not taken "*' or as we
should say " not used." To this year also belongs the
choir-screen which he designed for Winchester Cathedral,
but which was taken down about 1820.

In 1640, Jones was engaged on some works at the Tower,
and I find a record of an estimate he prepared for taking
down defective walls, filling up stabling, and removing
certain battlements and turrets, &;c., the whole to cost
something over ^'joo. During the year, too, he was busy
reporting with others, on various buildings in London ; ^
while Thanet, afterwards Shaftesbury, House once one of
the glories of Aldersgate Street, which is assigned, with
every degree of probability, to Jones, was possibly erected
between 1640 and 1642, at about which time Lindsay
House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was also built. It is curiously
similar to the houses in Great Queen Street, which have
been attributed to him, but which were actually erected by
Webb, and merely based on one of Jones's designs.

The architect had now become a justice of the peace, in
which capacity we hear of him sitting, on December 29 and
30, 1 64 1, when one Benjamin Downes gave evidence of
certain disturbances in Whitehall, disturbances that appear
to have been but the rumblings that denoted the coming
storm ! Indeed, although Charles on his return from
Scotland in the previous November had been, through the
instrumentality of the Lord Mayor who was a Royalist,
received with a magnificent welcome, constant riots broke
out in London during December ; and in the following
January, after the abortive attempt to arrest the five
1 Calendar of Domestic State Papers, 2)assim,

INIGO JONES 8s

members, the King left London for York, never to return
to it till just before his death.

In the previous July, Charles was at Beverley, and
Inigo Jones was either there or he sent from somewhere
else the £soo which he at this moment lent his royal
master. In the Domestic State Papers is an entry dated
from the Court at Beverley, July 28, of a receipt given
for this loan which, it states, that the King " promises
to satisfy again,'' but which it seems more than probable
he never had an opportunity of doing.

That Jones had also left London on the outbreak of
hostilities seems certain, and there is a tradition that before
he left, he, with the help of Nicholas Stone, buried what
money he had about him in Lambeth Marshes, after having
first concealed it in a private place in Whitehall, probably
in the garden of his official residence there. ^ He had reason
to fear for his treasure if not for his own safety. He was a
Roman Catholic ; he was an adherent of the royal cause ;
his manners were considered somewhat arbitrary, perhaps
as a justice of the peace he had not improved this repu-
tation ; and therefore we can hardly be surprised to learn
that in 1643 he was deprived of his office, and as a
" malignant," was forced to pay £^^^ ^ by way of compo-
sition for his estate.

It seems hard that a man of seventy, who, as Walpole
rightly says, " had saved England from the disgrace of not
having her representative among the arts," should have
been thus harassed ; but, however much these misfortunes
may have affected him as a man, they were powerless to
militate against his activity as an architect ; and, as we shall
see, he still had work to do, and did it in such a way as to
prove, if nothing else of his had remained, his remarkable
ability.

1 It is said that four of his workmen knew of this, and gave informa-
tion to the Parliament which had encouraged servants to act as spies.

2 In a list of those who compounded for their estates, given by
Fellowes in his "Historical Sketches of the Keign of Charles I.," how-
ever, Jones, who is described as of Martin's-in-the-Fields, is stated to
have only paid ;C345-

86 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Perhaps what affected him most was the cessation of
the Avork on St. Paul's, and the contumely with which the
mighty fabric was treated. He is said to have wandered
about London at a later day, contemplating with sorrowful
eye the stately portico with which he had ornamented the
cathedral, and where he now saw " the shops of seamstresses
and other trades " ^ set up, and the statues thrown down
and broken ; or in Whitehall, the splendid fabric of what
he had intended to be an unrivalled royal palace, from
one of the windows of which his master had stepped to a
tragic death.

But in the country he could for the moment forget some
of his troubles, and to the country he went,^ and there for
the next few years was engaged on some of that domestic
architecture with which his name is associated. What
architectural work Inigo Jones did during this period is,
beyond one or two exceptions, rather doubtful. Walpole
gives a long list of mansions which the architect designed,
or which have been attributed to him with more or less
probability ; but he gives no dates as to the exact, or
even approximate, year of their erection. Many of
these are now known to have been executed by Webb,
although based on Jones's designs, such as Ashburnham
House ; Gunnersbury (demolished in 1802), and Ames-
bury. Brympton was entirely Webb's work, but Lindsay
House and Shaftesbury House, in London, were both,
as we have seen, probably finished between 1640 and
1642, at which time Jones designed new buildings for
Furnival's Inn (1640), and the garden fa9ade of Northum-
berland House (1642). The stairs and some of the ceilings
at Ford Abbey and The Grange, in Hampshire, have
Mr. Blomfi eld's imprimatur as being Jones's work, as well
as Castle Ashby, in which, as I have said, he was inter-

1 Dugdale.

2 In 1644 he was at Basing House and remained there during the
famous siege of that mansion. When it was taken by Cromwell, Jones,
as well as the engravers, Peake, Faithorne, and Hollar, fell into the
conqueror's power.

INIGO JONES 87

rupted by the outbreak of the Civil War. Chevening is
attributed to him by AValpole, who also says that Sir
William Stanhope demolished a house at Wing which had
been erected by Jones ; while another mansion which is
no longer in existence, but which is allocated to him,
was the residence of Sir Edward Peyto, near Banbury,
and Mr. Triggs says that the red rubbed brick gateway
which leads into the churchyard, is evidently a relic of
the old mansion, and the design of Jones.

I can now mention one or two later works to which a
date may be assigned, in their proper place. Of these the
most important was what he did at Wilton between 1647
and 1649. It is said that Charles I., so much earlier as
1633, had suggested to Philip, fourth Earl of Pembroke,
that he should commission Jones to design the garden
front. As, however, the architect was then busily engaged
on the Queen's House at Greenwich and the restoration of
St. PauPs, he a,ppears to have recommended M. Solomon
de Caux — who, we know, had once been in the service of
Henry Prince of Wales, at Richmond — to do the work,
which he accordingly completed to the EarPs satisfaction.
In 1647 the south front of Wilton was destroyed by fire,
and it was then rebuilt from Jones's design, Webb acting as
superintendent of the work.-^ Jones also designed a re-
markable ceiling which was not carried out, although the
interior of the south wing was entirely his ; he also, says
Mr. Blomfield, " recast the east elevation, but this and the
north side of the house were altered by Wyatt, when the
forecourt was shifted from the east to the north side, and
all that is now left of Inigo Jones's work is a portion
of the east side and the south block (partly altered),
including the suite of rooms on the first floor." These
apartments include the famous Double Cube Room, with
its glorious chimney-piece, which well earns the distinc-
tion of being " probably the most beautiful room in
any house in this country"; and the great Banqueting
Hall, of a similar shape, no feet by 55 feet; both of

1 Blomfield.

88 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

which are remarkable examples of Jones's powers at their
ripest and best.

To those who know anything of the history of that worse
than eccentric peer, the fourth Earl of Pembroke, it will
hardly be surprising to learn that Inigo Jones could not
get on with him. Anthony Wood tells us that " he was so
illiterate that he could scarcely write his name,"" and the
lampoons of the day, amongst which is that curious '^ Testa-
ment'" said to have been written by Samuel Butler in
1650, show the hatred and contempt felt for him by the
Royalists whose ranks he deserted. Walpole says that the
disagreement between the Earl and the architect " was
probably occasioned while the latter was at Wilton.'' This
is very likely. Jones was of an imperious temper, and he
was a devoted adherent to the Royal cause, and it is not
at all impossible that the Earl gave expression to some
remarks reflecting on the King which caused annoyance to
the architect. In the Harleian Library was a copy of the
work on " Stone-henge," on the margins of which Lord
Pembroke seems to have vented his spite against his
architect in the form of innuendoes and abuse of all kinds.
There he calls him " Iniquity Jones," and twits him for
receiving -^16,000 from the King for merely keeping his
houses in repair. The quarrel must, one imagines, have had
its source in some sudden disagreement, for otherwise Lord
Pembroke would hardly have commissioned Jones to do
the work at Wilton at this time, particularly as the King
had recommended his employment.

Wilton is probably the finest example of Jones's domestic
architecture ; but luckily other authenticated work of his
in this direction beyond what I have already mentioned is
extant. Thus Raynham Park, the seat of the Townshends,
which was built earlier, about 1636 it is supposed, is an
excellent specimen of his quieter, more restrained methods,
and in the admirable dignity of its exterior, and the
beautiful refinement of its internal decorations, it remains
an excellent object-lesson in Jones's well-known habit
of attending personally to every detail in any house he

INIGO JONES 89

designed, and of stamping his individuality on all its
features.

In 1647, the architect was engaged on some additions
to Kirby of which, as we have seen, John Thorpe laid the
first stone in 1570; and he also did certain work at
Cobham Hall, Kent. At Worcester College, is a drawing
by Webb, styled : " Purfyle of ye Duke's Pallace at
Cobham, 1648,"" but as has been pointed out, the date on
this particular fac^^de is 1667, which shows that Inigo
Jones had nothing to do with its actual erection, although
he may conceivably have prepared plans for it, which were
not carried out till after his death.

Another building assigned to this year (1647), and cer-
tainly by Jones, is the west wing of Cranborne Manor ;
while Coleshill, in Berkshire, which was erected three years
later is another, and such a complete, example of his later
marmer, that it has been described as his " most perfect
work " in this genre ; and Lord Burlington is even said to
have commissioned Ware to make drawings of it, in order
that he (Lord Burlington) might have them to study con-
tinually. Its erection m ist have preceded by only a very
short time Jones's last design, which was, however, never
carried out — that for the College of Physicians.

Jones was now an old man, and a sad one. He had seen
disappear tragically that brilliant court for which he had
conceived so many spectacular marvels ; many of his most
cherished plans, such as the building of Whitehall and the
restoration of St. PauPs, were never to be completed ; he
had been forced to pay a large sum to satisfy the greed of
those who had murdered his master and set the kingdom
by the ears ; he had, indeed, " outstayed his welcome
while,'' and, in the absence of any authoritative information
as to the actual cause of his death, we may rightly attribute
it to that gradual wearing out of the body to which so
many strong old men quietly succumb, accelerated, in his
case, by that breaking of the spirit which only those
experience who have outlived happier days and have seen

90 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

their friends, not falling in the course of nature, but
snatched away tragically by inexorable fate.

His death occurred at Somerset House, on July 21,
1651-'^, when he had exceeded his seventy-eighth year by
exactly six da3^s. He was buried, by the side of his
father, in St. Benet's Church where a monument on the
north wall, some distance from his grave, for the erection
of which he left ;£ioo,^ once marked his last resting-
place. The old church, however, was destroyed in the
Great Fire, so that no memorial remains of the man who
was one of England"'s most illustrious architects.

There has been a question as to whether Inigo Jones was
ever married. At Charlton House, Kent, were certainly
two portraits stated to be of the architect and his wife, and
Cunningham ^ says that early in life Jones had become a
husband, but he has to confess that both the maiden name
of the lady and the date of the marriage are unknown ;
while the so-called daughter, Anne, who married John
Webb, a nephew of Jones, seems to have been really his
niece.

Of his various residences one is said to have been at
Staines where, perhaps, on this account, the steeple of the
church was traditionally regarded as his work ; another,
known as Cherrygarden Farm, at Charlton, in Kent ; and
in London he once had a house in St. Martin's Lane, and
for a time occupied the official residence of the Cro^vn
Surveyors in Whitehall, whence a letter of his, dated
August 16, 1620, is addressed from the " Office of Works,
Scotland Yard."

Several portraits of Inigo Jones are in existence, one of
the earliest being a print executed by Villamoena when

1 Anthony Wood, on the authority of James, son of J^hn Webb,
'states this, although iu another place he affirms that Jones died on June

24, 1652, and that he was buried two days later, which is confirmed by
the Parish Eegister, quoted by Dallaway in his edition of " Walpole's
Anecdotes."

2 He also left ;^ioo for his funeral expenses, but I grieve to say only
;^io to the poor.

3 " Lives of the Painters."

INIGO JONES 91

the architect was in Italy. Vandjck painted him two or
three times ; one of his portraits being engraved by R. V.
Vorst ; while another, en grisaille, was engraved by Hollar
in 1655, and later by R. Hall. There is also a portrait by
the same artist in the possession of Lord Darnley, while
there used to be one at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. There
is besides the one (with that called " his wife ") at Charlton
House, and there are also extant prints by Gaywood and
Bannerman. Besides these there is a medallion in lime-
wood of Jones in the Victoria and Albert Museum ; and
a terra-cotta bust of him in the Royal Society of British
Architects'' possession, which Society also possesses a most
interesting and valuable brown ink sketch of his head
drawn by himself^ Among his sketches that have been
preserved are those in Worcester College Library, Oxford,
bequeathed by Dr. Clarke ; those illustrating costumes
and scenes for masques now at Chats worth, where is aJso
his original sketch-book from which a few facsimile copies
were taken, one of which, presented by the Duke of
Devonshire to Sir John Soane in 1832, is in the Soane
Museum ; the plans for shifting scenery of masques in the
Lansdowne MSS., and the many drawings and plans in
the Soane Museum and the Library of the Royal Society
of British Architects.

Beyond his Stone-henge book it is not known that Jones
made any excursions into authorship, although some very
bad verses of his were printed in Coryat's " Crudities."

" It was," says Webb, " vox Europoe that named Inigo
Jones Vitruvius Britannicus, being much more, than at
home, famous in remote parts, where he lived many years,
designed many works, and discovered many antiquities,
before unknown, with great applause." A later day has,
however, recognised that in Inigo Jones England found
her finest exponent of architectural art, for his influence

1 It is interesting to know that Jones also secured tlie immortality of
a sign, for Dart's " Cathedral of Canterbmy " was published in 1726 by
"J. Smith, at Inego Jones's Head, near the Fountain Tavern."

92 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

in firmly establishing a recognised standard of design in
place of the uncertain experiments that had preceded
him, was no less memorable than was the consummate
mastery which he brought to bear on the details and
general conception of the buildings he designed. The
scope of his imagination was unbounded ; but his vigor-
ous understanding and the admirable quality of restraint
that characterises his work prevented his ever wandering
into the realms of flamboyant exaggeration. Like all
great masters of their art, he gave as much attention to
minute detail as he did to comprehensive design. His
universality enabled him to plan palaces and to construct
summer houses and grottos ; to superintend a masque
and to design a windmill.^ In his character as a man, as
in his capacity as an architect, he was ever, to use words of
his own in another connection, " masculine and unaffected."
Knowledge of superior mental power made him at times
arbitrary and difficile ; but in the two conflicts with con-
temporaries, of which we have record, he never descended
to the low abuse of the one or the indirect attacks of the
other. A man with a less balanced character might well
have been spoilt by the adulation which he received and
the court favour of which he was the object ; one with
less philosophy might well have been overcome by the
reverses and sorrows that saddened his later years ; but
few men seem to have been less " passion's slave " than he,
and up till his latest day he preserved inviolate that splen-
did enthusiasm for his work and his belief in himself which
is the hall-mark of great men.

1 One at Chesterton, near Banburj^, is traditionally assigned to him.

CHAPTER IV

JOHN WEBB, HOOKE, AND JERMAN

Inigo Jones left but one pupil who ever attained anything
like celebrity, and his name was John Webb. It is true
that a little-known architect, named Marsh, worked in
Jones''s manner and may possibly have been employed in
his office, but his output was so inconsiderable that had
Walpole not allowed him three lines in his " Anecdotes of
Painting," it is more than probable that his name would
never have come down to us.-'^

John Webb or Webbe, as it is variously spelt, came of a
Somersetshire family. He was born, however, in London,
in 1611, although no more precise information as to the
exact date of his birth is forthcoming. Nor is anything
known of his early days, except that he was educated at
the Merchant Taylors"* school, where he appears to have
remained three years (1625-8). He was a nephew of
Inigo Jones, but which of the architect's three sisters was
his mother is unknown ; what is known, however, is that
he was taken by Jones as a pupil on his leaving school
which, for those days, he did rather late in life, being then
seventeen years old. With his uncle he learnt mathematics
and architecture ;^ and he must have had splendid oppor-

1 " Marsh," says Vertue, " designed the additional buildings at Bols-
over, erecteti after the Eestoration, and was the architect of Nottingham
Castle" (Walpole). By the last phrase Vertue probably means to
indicate that Marsh was the architect to the Castle.

2 Anonymous writer of Memoir prefixed to " Stone-henge Eestored."

93

94 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

tunities for doing so not only as being under the eye of the
greatest master of the art in England at the time, but of one
whose office, from the varied nature of his work, must have
been an exceptionally busy one. It is conceivable, too,
that in his character of a relation, Webb would be selected
to accompany the great architect on many tours of inspec-
tion, and would thus have acquired that practical insight
into his profession which we know he possessed. Indeed,
he appears to have had a hand in many of the designs
which Inigo Jones produced during the reign of Charles I.,
but one can hardly allocate to him any individual work,
as it is obvious that even if he actually designed anything
at this period it would be so largely under the supervision
of Jones as to prevent our giving the whole credit of it to
Webb. It is for this reason that when we read of the
latter planning the large brick house on the south side of
Great Queen Street when that thoroughfare was formed by
Jones, we shall not be far wrong, I think, in assuming that
the pupil either merely carried out the master's instruc-
tions, or that, if he himself did actually design the house,
he was so largely influenced by his uncle's ideas as to make
any originality of his own in the matter, highly prob-
lematical ; while it appears more than likely that this
particular house was really erected on the lines on which
Jones intended the whole of the thoroughfare to be built,
and that, like Lindsay House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, it
remains a solitary example of a comprehensive scheme.

Until Jones's death in 1651 or 1652, I think we may
fairly assume that what work Webb did was, for all
practical purposes, merely the superintendence of his
uncle's designs ; we know definitely that he acted thus at
Wilton in 1648 ; and certain of his work after Jones's
death was so obviously based on the greater man's actual
plans that he can only take the credit of carefully and
reverently carrying them out.

One of the most notable of these achievements was
the famous Ashburnham House at Westminster, which
was built some time during the Commonwealth. Batty

JOHN WEBB 95

Langley, in 1737, was the first to attribute a share in its
erection to Webb, for before his time it was considered to
be wholly the work of Jones, and there is little doubt that
the finest portion of it, notably the magnificent staircase,
was designed by the latter, as it exhibits all his distinctive
characteristics ; but the house was erected after his death,
and although the bulk of it was from his own plans, much
also was added by Webb. The lesser man, however, failed
to set that personal touch on the work which his great pre-
decessor had done, and if he carried on the traditions of
his general principles, and treated the details as Jones
would more or less have treated them, his handling of the
plaster-work (to take an instance) was rougher and less
reserved, than would certainly have been the case had
Jones lived to complete the mansion.

As I have before remarked, Jones was accustomed to
rely so much on personal supervision as a work proceeded,
that his completed buildings are always far finer than the
plans for them. It is, therefore, obvious that when this
supervision was withdrawn, or replaced by that of a less
gifted architect, there could hardly fail to be observed a
falling off, however slight, in the completed work ; and it
is just this that differentiates the buildings planned by
Jones but finished by Webb from those for the erection of
which Jones was himself entirely responsible.

Only a fragment of Ashburnham House now remains,
but luckily it happens to be that portion which con-
tains the great staircase, with its perfect proportions,
its fine panelling and fluted columns, and its effective
oval dome supported by the extraordinarily rich and bold
entablature.

The rule of Cromwell was not one calculated to advance
the fine arts in any of their branches, and if architecture
had a better chance than pictorial art of making not
perhaps advance but headway against the puritanical
stream that now set in and well nigh swamped all the
charm and graces of life, it was because it was, in the
nature of it, partly utilitarian, and because although

96 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

pictures and statues were often deemed mere profanities
■end superstitious increments, the most uncompromising
Roundliead had to confess the necessity of having a roof
over his head. He probably took good care to have as
plain a one as possible. If, however, it was not a remunera-
tive time for artists or architects, of the making of books,
at this period, there was no end, and Webb, probably
having a good deal of time on his hands, set about the edit-
ing of his uncle's " Stone-henge Restored,'** which appeared
in 1655. I may here state that just ten years later he
answered the attacks of Dr. Charlton on that work by the
publication of his " Vindication of Stone-henge Restored."
His regular professional labours, indeed, were not impor-
tant, and were practically confined to the continuation of
Ashburnham House, the designing of some chimney-pieces
at Drayton (1653), and the addition of a portico and
summer-house as well as some minor alterations at Vyne,
near Basingstoke, the seat of Chaloner Chute, at that time
Speaker of the House of Commons.^

In 1656, however, Webb did have an opportunity of
showing what he could do in the way of independent
design, for he was commissioned to build Thorpe Hall, near
Peterborough, for that Oliver St. John (i 598-1 675), who
had defended Hampden in the famous " Ship Money "" trial
in 1637, and who was Solicitor-General from 1641 to 1643,
besides being Chief Justice of Common Pleas, and holding
other high office during the Commonwealth.

The mansion Webb erected on high ground is, to quote
Mr. Blomfield, " a singularly dignified building, and a
good instance of that very interesting phase of architecture
which extended from about 1640 to 1670, an architecture
directly inspired by Inigo Jones and as yet uninfluenced by
Wren." Although Thorpe Hall indicates certain prominent
characteristics in Webb's methods which a little departed
from the restraint and artistic simplicity of Jones, yet on
the whole it is so largely redolent of the latter's influence

1 Blomfield's " Kenaissance." For an account of Chute see " Lives of
the Speakers."

JOHN WEBB 97

that it could hardly fail to be assigned to a pupil who had
carefully laid to heart his teaching.

Apparently Webb carried out the work to the satisfac-
tion of St. John, although the latter was not a man of an
easy temper, as is proved by the incident, related by Pepys,
of his pulling the nose of Sir Andrew Henly in West-
minster Hall, in the very presence of the judges on the
Bench, when Sir Andrew returned the insult by giving his
antagonist " a rap over the pate with his cane." It will be
remembered that Andrew Marvell is supposed to have indi-
cated St. John and his overbearing ways in the character of
Woodcock, in his " Instructions to a Painter."

During the years 1657 ^^^ 1658, Webb is recorded as
doing some work, chiefly in the nature of alterations and
the addition of mantelpieces, at Northumberland House ;
while it was probably about the same time that he pre-
pared plans for the rebuilding of Durham House, Strand,
which had then come into the possession of the fifth Earl
of Pembroke who, however, never proceeded with the
matter.^

At the Restoration Webb, not unnaturally, expected to
receive the post of Surveyor-General to the Crown, and he
made a formal application for it, asserting that Charles I.
had intended him to have the reversion of the office, for
which his long training and his duties as deputy surveyor
to Inigo Jones peculiarly fitted him. He urged further
the significant fact that there were arrears of salary still
owing him, and he stated that when Charles was at Oxford
he sent him, at serious personal risk, plans for fortifications
which were calculated to be of the greatest practical benefit
to the royal cause. ^

Webb's professional ability and his knowledge of the
requirements of the office should have stood him in good
stead in his application, but at this moment there was a

1 The plans are preserved in Worcester College, Oxford.

2 Calendar of Domestic State Papers, June (?) 1660. Webb says that
no less than ;^ 1 500 was due to him as Jones's executor, being money
owing to the latter from the Crown.

O

98 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

rush of applicants for every office in the gift of the Crown,
and Sir John Denham, whose former activity on behalf of
the royal cause had been even greater than that of Webb,
for during the Civil War he had taken up arms for the
King, had been made Governor of Farnham Castle, and
had besides suffered imprisonment for his principles,
received the post, without, it must be confessed, having
apparently any technical qualifications for it whatever. ^

Webb recognised this, and made, perhaps not quite
judiciously, a point of it in his memorial to the King,
where he states that " though Mr. Denham may, as most
gentry, have some understanding of the theory of archi-
tecture, he can have none in practice, but must employ
another. Whereas he (Webb) has spent thirty years at it,
and worked for most of the nobility." ^

Charles II. seems, indeed, to have felt that some reward
was due to Webb, and besides Denhamj himself may have
been only too anxious to have in his office one who under-
stood the duties appertaining to it, and who was, also, a
skilled architect, and we find Webb granted the reversion
of Denham's post, as he had been that of Inigo Jones, and
employed again as the assistant to the Surveyor General,
which if better than nothing was certainly small compensa-
tion for what he had a sort of prescriptive right to expect.

By the memorial j ust quoted, we learn that at this very
time Webb had received instructions from Parliament to
make a survey of the King's houses with a view to pre-
paring them for his reception, of which says the architect
" the cost will be ;^8i49 5^. 2d. " ; for this sum, he adds,
he is engaged on credit, having only received £s^o ^

1 Pepys records tliat on December 9, 1660, Lord Sandwich wrote him,
asking him " to go to Mr. Denham, to get a man to go to him to-morrow
to Hinchingbrooke, to contrive with him about some alteracion, in his
house, which I did, and got Mr. Kennard."

2 In the Domestic State Papers is a warrant for allowing " Sir
John Denham, surveyor of the works, £12 \6s. lod. for livery," the
same to be paid yearly.

3 In May 1660, however, I find in the Calendar of Domestic State
Papers a warrant to Webb for ;^2000 towards these repairs.

JOHN WEBB 99

towards it. One of these palaces was Whitehall which
the architect put in order in the extraordinarily short space
of a fortnight, again working, as he pathetically remarks,
" on his own credit."

Just as what was said at an earlier day to have been
Webb's own work was to all intents and purposes that of
Inigo Jones ; so for the remainder of Denham"'s life what
was attributed to him in his capacity of surveyor, may
fairly be regarded as the sole production of his assistant.

In his new capacity one of Webb''s first works was the
carrying out of a portion of Jones's original plan for
Greenwich, it being that part subsequently incorporated
by Wren in the west side of the main facade of the build-
ing. His salary appears to have been ;^200 a year, and
an additional £1 13.9. id. a, month for travelling expenses.

In the accounts for work done at Greenwich he is
described as " of Butleigh, county Somerset," which indi-
cates either that this was the place where his family had
been settled, or that he had already purchased property
there, which in any case he is known to have done at
some period during the latter years of his life.

Among other lesser work in connection with his office
as Deputy Surveyor, Webb carried out some repairs at
St. PauFs in 1663 ; while in the same year he appears to
have superintended the building of Gunnersbury House,
plans for which had been left by Jones. ^ This work was
undertaken for Sergeant Maynard, a well-known lawyer of
the day, who, on becoming King's Serjeant, was knighted
by Charles II. The house was a square, plain, solid build-
ing, three storeys in height, and having six pillars with an
elaborate entablature on one of its facades. It had no
wings, and shows markedly Jones's distinctive influence.
Sir John Maynard died here, in 1690, when the property
passed to his widow, who subsequently married, as his
second wife, the fifth Earl of Suftblk.

Amesbury in Wiltshire, built for Lord Carleton, was

1 Campbell in his " Vitruvius Britannicus," gives plans and elevations
of Gunnersbury House, and there speaks of it as being the work of Webb,

100 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

another and earlier example of those mansions completed
by Webb, for which Jones had left more or less complete
plans. It was erected two years before Gunnersbmy
House, and although there can be little doubt that the
general outlines were the conception of Jones, the carrying
out of them, as well as the various additional details, was
the work of Webb. Plans and elevations of this mansion
are given by Colin Campbell in his " Vitruvius Britannicus,*"
and Mr. Blomfield made drawings of certain interesting
details connected with it, such as the curiously shaped
garden-house, and one of the piers to the entrance gate which
is excellent in its calm restraint and perfect proportions ;
the same authority also mentions the staircase at Amesbury,
the idea of which, he says, was borrowed from the famous
double staircase at Chambord. It will be remembered
that Inigo Jones saw this, and made a note about it in a
copy of one of his books ; it seems probable, therefore, that
at least this portion of Amesbury emanated from him,
Webb probably working up his uncle's rough sketch.

In 1665 Webb was occupied on two important undertak-
ings, one being the erection of Horseheath Hall, Cambridge-
shire, and the other, that of Burlington House which was
ostensibly the work of Sir John Denham, but of which, it
seems fairly certain, Webb executed the chief portion.
The house was begun in the spring of 1665, and Pepys
speaks of seeing the building operations going on in the
February of that year. It was erected for Richard Boyle,
Earl of Burlington, although there was once a report that
Denham built it for his own use, a fact which appears
improbable for several reasons. Lord Burlington's grand-
son rebuilt the house, and since his day it has been much
altered and enlarged ; but Webb's (or Denham's) original
mansion must have been an important one, although it
was undoubtedly thrown into the shade by the splendour of
Clarendon House close by, which was erected about the
same time.

It is rather doubtful as to when the other great London
mansion with which Webb's name is associated, was built,

JOHN WEBB loi

but it was certainly between 1660 and 1668 that South-
ampton, or as it was later called, Bedford House, came
into existence. Extant views of this fine building show it
to have had so many of the characteristics of Inigo Jones's
more imposing domestic architecture that it is very likely
he may have prepared rough plans for it. Its chief fault
seems to be that its height is not commensurate with the
length of its facade, and its sloping roof is obviously too
heavy for the rest of the building. Evelyn's trained eye
detected this at once, but the Diarist records the nobleness
of the rooms, and speaks of " a pretty cedar chapel " as
being an adjunct to the mansion ; while one of London's
historians ^ speaks of the house as being " elegant though
low, having but one storey.'"

Among the other work which can be attributed with
reason to Webb, was Lees Court, erected for Sir George
Sandes, which, with its long facade ornamented by no less
than fourteen ionic columns, bears a strong resemblance to
that part of Greenwich with which the architect was associ-
ated ; one of the fronts of Lamport Hall, Northampton-
shire ; the delightful Ramsbury Manor, Wilts, the seat of
Sir Francis Burdett ; and Ashdown Park, Berks, in which
latter building Webb seems to have been less influenced,
perhaps unfortunately, by Inigo Jones than in any of his
other work.

In March 1669, Sir John Denham died, and Webb
might naturally have expected to step into his shoes, as it
had been promised him he should do, had not "a certain
Mr. Wren " come between him and promotion, and for a
second time his hopes were dashed to the ground. As a
matter of fact Wren had been introduced to Charles by
Evelyn many years before, and had been taken into the
royal favour so completely that Webb must have known
on how slight a tenure he held the former promise of the
post made to him, and I cannot but think, or perhaps I
hope for the sake of Charles's reputation as a mindful and

1 Noorthouck.

102 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

grateful master, that some adequate compensation was
given to Webb to induce him to forego his claims. When,
therefore, we are told that on learning that he was not to
fill the vacant post the architect, in disgust, retired toBut-
leigh and built himself a house there, we should probably
understand that he did so quite willingly and was enabled
to lead the few remaining years of his life as a private
gentleman on what he had himself saved, increased by
some allowance (or sum down) paid by the King. The
fact that no such arrangement is recorded in the State
Papers need not be considered as militating against this
supposition, when we remember how many large sums were
paid out at that time without their destination transpiring.

Another point that leads me to think that Webb knew
quite well what was coming is the fact that Wren actually
acquired the post rot at Denham's death, but during
his last illness culminating in the unhinging of his mind,
when Denham gave it up voluntarily to him ; while, besides
this, so early as 1662, Wren had had the post of " Assist-
ant to the Surveyor-General,'"* specially created for him,
and as we know that Webb occupied a similar position it
is quite likely that he and Wren worked amicably together,
and that he recognised that his coadjutor would eventually
step over his head.

In any case, before bowing to the inevitable, Webb made
an attempt to secure the post that was slipping from him,
and the year before Denham's death he sent in a formal
application for it. In this memorial he points out that
he had a promise of the reversion of the surveyorship in
1660, but states thah Denham opposed its passing the
Great Seal ; he reiterates the services he had rendered the
Crown, not only at Greenwich and on the fortifications at
Woolwich, but on the Whitehall Theatre where he made
" discoveries '''' in the scenic art ; he shows, too, that the
salary was so slowly paid that he had already spent ;^iooo
" of his own estate ; " and he adds that he cannot now
act under Mr. Wren, who, he points out, " is hy far his
inferior,^'' but states his willingness to instruct him in the

JOHN WEBB 103

course of the office of works of which he (Wren) professes
ignorance, if he is joined with him in the patent.^

Webb lived in retirement a little over nine years after
he had left London, dying at Butleigh on October 30, 1674.
It is not recorded as to whether his wife predeceased him
or how many children he left, but a son James is known to
have survived him ; and it seems likely that the John Webb,
whom Luttrell mentions as being chosen M.P. for Ludger-
shall, Wiltshire, in October 1695, was one of the same
family.

The anonymous author of the memoir prefixed to Inigo
Jones's " Stone-henge Restored " describes Webb as " a
person of credit and character,'' and there is every reason
to suppose that he was a straightforward honest man, just
as he was an able, painstaking, though certainly not an
inspired, architect. It is difficult to say what position he
would have taken in his profession had he not worked so
long under the eye and in the methods of Inigo Jones ; on
the one hand he might have given proof of an originality
which under existing circumstances is not very apparent ;
on the other, without the splendid training he received,
he might conceivably have proved as mediocre as some of
those who, at a later day, have usurped the title of
architect. As it is his work is curiously reminiscent of
that of his great master without its restraint and without
that something which is as much genius in architecture as
it is in painting or music or anything else. What Webb
did was to carry on ably the splendid tradition which he
inherited, — the torch flickered somewhat feebly in his hand,
but he kept it alight. In the mechanical part of his art
he was too well trained to make mistakes, and if he can
only be placed in the third or fourth rank of British archi-
tects, what he did in that capacity was sound and honest
work.

1 Domestic State Papers. Before we smile at one or two of the
above expressions we should remember that at this time Wren was
known as a marvellous mathematician, but not yet as an architect.

lOA LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

HOOKE

When Webb was twenty-four years old and was working
in the office of Inigo Jones, a child was born who was to
become famous during the second half of the seventeenth
century as one of the most remarkable mathematicians
that this country has produced — his name was Robert
Hooke, and he properly takes his place in these pages, not
because he was a great mathematician and natural philo-
sopher, but because had he not been, it is probable that
he would have been well known as a distinguished
architect. As it is, his other multifarious interests have
led to his being forgotten as the designer of two famous
hospitals and of one of London^s then splendid private
houses.

Robert Hooke was born on July 26, 1635, at Fresh-
water, of which village his father was rector. As a child
he was noticeable for an active intelligence, but he was
physically weak, and to this may perhaps be ascribed the
fact that he employed his time rather in the invention of
such things as a wooden clock that marked the time, and
a ship the guns on which were discharged by a clever
mechanical contrivance, than to the more usual pursuits of
boyhood — he was, unlike most children, constructive not
destructive. His father had intended him for the church
in which he anticipated his rising to distinction, but he
died when his son was thirteen, and the latter, apparently
at his own desire, was placed in the studio of Sir Peter
Lely. His inherent weakness, however, was such that
the smell of the artist's pigments caused him severe
neuralgic pains, and made it necessary for him to leave.
He was then entered at Westminster where the famous
and formidable Dr. Busby personally looked after him
while he was at the school. In 1653 he went to
Christ Church, Oxford, where he was one of that band

HOOKE 105

of brilliant youths who were elected annually from
Westminster.

At Oxford he became known, through his scientific
attainments which had already made an impression, to
such men as Robert Boyle, and Seth Ward then Savilian
Professor, and to this period is ascribed his application
of the principles of the pendulum which, in 1658, resulted
in his invention of the pendulum watch ; while the air-
pump and various astronomical instruments further
attested his practical knowledge of science. Indeed such
was his reputation in this respect that when the Royal
Society was established in 1662, he was elected Curator of
Experiments. In 1663 he took his M.A. degree, and in the
following year he was appointed Professor of Mechanics,
then being but twenty-eight years of age.

Some references to Hooke are to be found in the
pages of the two great diarists of the period ; thus, on
February 15, 1665, Pepys was admitted a member of
Gresham College, and records how, after the ceremony,
he and others retired to the " Crown Tavern behind the
'Change " to a supper, when among those present was
" Mr. Hooke, who is the most, and promises the least, of any
man in the world that ever I saw." A month earlier Pepys
had bought Hooke's then recently published work entitled
" Micographia," being a description of the results obtained
by magnifying glasses,-^ and finds it " a most excellent
piece " ; and in the August of the same year John Evelyn
calling at The Durdans, Epsom, found there Dr. Wilkins,
Sir William Petty, and Mr. Hooke intent on all sorts
of recondite experiments, on which the Diarist remarks,
" perhaps three such persons together were not to be found
elsewhere in Europe for parts and ingenuity."

Indeed Hooke's versatility is well exemplified by the
varied character of his researches ; Evelyn finds him con-
triving chariots, new rigging for ships, ike. ; Pepys hears

1 Charles IT. had asked Wren to do something of the sort, and on his
desiring to be excused, Hooke was suggested by Dr. Wilkins as an
excellent substitute.

io6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

him lecture on the trade of felt- making, " very pretty ""
at Gresham College, on February 21, 1666 — as he had
done on the nature of the new comet twice in the previous
year; and in August 1666 we find the musical secretary
to the Admiralty discoursing with him on the nature of
sounds, a discourse which Pepys describes, in a rapture, as
" mighty fine " ; while Hooke's " Lampas,"' on the improve-
ment of lamps (1667), and his " Philosophical Collections "
(1681), prove that nothing came amiss to his comprehensive
mind. What, however, chiefly concerns us here is the fact
that architecture was one of the many subjects to which he
turned his thoughts.

After the Great Fire of London it is known that the
Royal Society no longer met at Gresham College, which
had been appropriated by the Corporation, but at Arundel
House, Strand, by invitation from Mr. Howard (afterwards
Duke of Norfolk). The place was not, however, very
convenient for such a purpose, and Mr. Howard, who was,
by-the-bye, a great friend of John Evelyn's, having pre-
sented a site to the society, that body determined to build
a Hall upon it. Hooke, who liked to have a finger in
every pie, and was, perhaps, not averse from showing his
fellow members yet another side of his versatile mind, at
once volunteered a design for the new building ; but, for
some reason or other, it was not liked, and Wren was
asked to furnish one, which he did, although, through
lack of money, the projected Hall was not built.

In 1675, however, Bethlem Hospital was commenced
from designs by Hooke, and so rapidly was the work
carried out that the building was finished in the following
year, at the not extravagant cost of ;^ 17,000. It is,
however, painful to have to record that when it was
demolished in 18 14, the foundations were found to be very
defective, " it having been built on a part of the town
ditch, and on a soil very unfit for the erection of so large
a building''"'; a Frenchman, however, who saw it in 1697,
speaks of it as being " well situated, and having in front
several spacious and agreeable walks," adding, with a

HOOKE 107

touch of his native wit, that " all the mad folks of London
are not in this hospital." ^

In the " Historical Account of Bethlem Hospital "
(1783), the author states that the design was copied from
that of " the Tuilleries at Versailles^'' and the story is that
Louis XIV. Avas so enraged at what he considered an insult,
that he caused St. James's Palace to be taken as a model
for a still more ignoble building in Paris. The tale seems
wholly apocryphal (one can hardly give much credit for
accuracy to a writer who supposed the Tuileries to be at
Versailles), but it is not uninteresting, inasmuch as Hooke
seems to have had a liking for the French style of archi-
tecture, as is evidenced by Montagu House, Bloomsbury,
which he designed about 1675. This fine mansion was
erected for Ralph Montagu, afterwards Duke of Montagu.
Evelyn speaks of visiting it, soon after its completion, in
May 1676, and in the entry referring to this, remarks that
the "palace" was built in the French manner. Some
years later (1683) the Diarist again went to see "the
stately and ample palace," as he calls it, and his criticism
on its construction is interesting : " The front of the house
[is] not answerable to the inside," he says ; " the court at
entrie, and wings for offices, seeme too neere the streete,
and that so very narrow and meanly built that the cor-
ridore is not in proportion to ye rest, to hide the court
from being overlooked by neighbours, all which might
have been prevented had they placed the house further
into ye ground, of which there was enough to spare." He
adds, however, that " it is a fine palace." It was totally
destroyed by fire in 1686, and a new house was erected on
the foundations of the old one by Peter Paul Puget, a French
architect who had been sent for from Paris for that pur-
pose. The well-known view engraved by Sutton Nicholls
is of this second mansion, and I am not aware of a repre-
sentation of Hooke's design being in existence. It is
somewhat curious that Hooke was not employed to plan
the new house ; but it may be that Montagu, who was
1 Quoted in " London, Past and Present."

io8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

often in France — he had been Ambassador there at an
earlier day — may have seen some of Puget's work and
determined to employ him should occasion serve.

Another important building which Hooke was employed
to design was Aske's Hospital at Hoxton, which was
erected by the Haberdashers' Company, in pursuance of the
testamentary wishes of William Aske, who, in 1688, had
left to the Company ^£20,000 for that purpose.^ The
building was a very fine one, having a covered piazza run-
ning along the entire front, which extended to no less than
340 feet; and a statue of the founder stood in a niche
ovcir the chief entrance. The chapel attached to the
hospital was built rather later, and was consecrated by
Bishop Tillotson in 1695.

For the rest Hooke was one of the Commissioners
appointed to superintend the rebuilding of that part of
London destroyed in the Great Fire, so that his architec-
tural ability was recognised thus early ; and he was chosen
as successor to Isaac Barrow in the Professorship of
Geometry at Gresham College fthe Royal Society) where
he had had lodgings for many years. Here he was looked
after by his niece, Miss Grace Hooke, but on her death in
1687, his temper which had never been one of the mildest,
became so rough and cynical that we are not surprised to
learn that he quarrelled successively with the great
Helvetius and the greater Newton, and seems to have
been so ready for " entrance to a quaiTel," that the weak-
ness of a friend was as likely to excite his sarcasm and
anger, as was the ignorance of an enemy. His splendid
and universal gifts lost in consequence much of the advan-
tage they should have brought him, through the wayward-
ness of his temper and his tongue"'s ungovernable passion.
He died at his lodgings in Gresham College, after a residence
there of forty years, on March 3, 1 703, and, as the register
attests, was buried in the Church of St. Helen's, Bishops-
gate.

1 Hooke's original plans are preserved in the Court Boom of the
Company.

s

JERMAN 109

JERMAN

Another architect of this period about whose general
career, however, little is actually known, was Edward
Jerman, or Jarman. The date and place of his birth are
both unknown, and his early life is wrapt in obscurity.
What is known of him is that he was surveyor to Gresham
College, and in that capacity was appointed, with Dr.
Hooke and Mr. Mills, the City surveyor, on November 2,
1666, to report on the havoc made by the Great Fire, and
to draw out plans for the rebuilding of that portion of the
City which had suffered. The corner-stone of this under-
taking was the erection of a new Royal Exchange, and
Jerman was commissioned to prepare plans for one to take
the place of Gresham's original structure.

In February 1667, the joint committee of the Corpora-
tion and the Mercers' Company gave directions for the
clearing away of the ruins of the old Exchange ; and in
the following April, we read that " the Committee being
aware of the great burthen of business lying upon Mr.
Mills for the City, at that time, and considering that Mr.
Edward Jerman was the most able known artist besides
him, that this City then had unanimously made choice of
Jerman to assist the Committee in the agreeing for,
ordering, and directing of that work." On May 3, in
reply to Jerman's request for definite instructions, the
Committee "agreed that the new Exchange should be
built upon the old foundations, and that the pillars, arches,
and roof, should be left for him to model, according to
the rules of art, and for the best advantage of the whole
structure."*' Jerman at once set to work on the preparation
of the plans, and these were ready to be placed before the
King about the middle of September (1667). Charles
approved of Jerman's designs, and on the following
October 23, laid the first stone of the column on the

no LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

west side of the north entrance,^ after which ceremony it
is interesting to know that his Majesty was entertained
"with a chine of beef, fowls, hams, dried tongues,
anchovies, caviare, and wines.^' A week later the Duke of
York laid the first stone of the other side of the north
entrance, and on November 19, Prince Rupert performed
a similar ceremony at the Cornhill entrance.

Jerman's plans had also been laid before, and approved by,
the Houses of Parhament, and under date of December 9,
1667, the matter is referred to in the Journals of the House
of Commons.

The building was publicly opened on Sept. 28, 1669,
and its cost is stated to have been ;^58,962, which was
defrayed equally by the Corporation and the Mercers'*
Company. Before the completion took place, however,
Jerman had died (on Nov. 20, 1668), whereupon Cartwright,
his chief mason, thought fit to publicly declare that he was
" master of the whole designe for the Exchange " ; a
somewhat ambiguous form of announcement which was
hardly likely to impose on those who knew anything about
the matter. However, Cartwright had naturally, during
the progress of the work, made himself master of the plans,
and on Jerman's death he was allowed to complete the
structure.

An extant print shows what this new erection looked
like on the Cornhill side. Its lines followed largely those
of Gresham's original building ; it was quadrangular in
form, and had a clock tower on the south side, and an inner
cloister or walk, around which were shops ; and above, what
was termed a pawn for the sale of fancy goods, the ascent
to these upper shops being by a large staircase of black
marble ; while the colonnade beneath was of chequered
black and white marble. The central open space was paved
with small Turkey stones, traditionally supposed to have
been the gift of a Turkey merchant. One of the chief

1 Pepys records seeing the King going to the City on this occasion,
and afterwards himself went and examined the stone that had just been
laid.

JERMAN III

features of the new building, as it had been of the old, was
the series of royal statues that decorated it at various
points. These, for the most part, were the work of Caius
Gabriel Gibber ; but that of Charles II. which stood in
the centre of the inner court was by "the ingenious
hand of Mr. Gibbons" as Maitland phrases it. The
inscription upon it told a wondering city that it repre-
sented the " British Caesar, the father of his country ! " ^

It seems probable that Jerman's selection for so impor-
tant a work as the rebuilding of the Royal Exchange, was
the cause of his being chosen by various City Companies
to design the new buildings of their respective Halls, made
necessary by the destruction of the old ones in the Great
Fire. It may seem strange that Wren was not employed
more in such work, but, after Wren's splendid design for
the wholesale rebuilding of that portion of the City affected,
had been refused on account of financial disabilities, the
great architect seems to have turned his attention chiefly
to the erection of the churches with which alone he must
have had his hands quite full enough.

Notwithstanding this, certain work in which he had no
hand, was once attributed to him, and, among other, the
erection of the second Hall of the Fishmongers' Company
in Thames Street. As a matter of fact this building was
designed by Jerman.^ A view of it taken from the river
is extant, and certainly seems to indicate Wren's growing
influence, although it was not his work. This river front is
stately, and appears to have been built of red brick faced
with stone. The windows recall Inigo Jones's methods,
and there is a restraint about the facade which is very
pleasing. The Thames Street front, we are told, was a
mere cluster of houses, but there was amid them an
imposing entrance ornamented with sculptured pillars
supporting a pediment on which were carved the arms of

1 A technical account of the Exchange is given in Britton and
Pugin's " Public Buildings of London."

2 It was rebuilt in 1831-3.

112 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the Company. " The buildings," says Thornbury, " en-
vironed a square court, handsomely paved. The dining-
hall formed the south side of the court, and was a spacious
and lofty apartment, having, besides the usual accompani-
ment of a screen of Grecian architecture, a capacious
gallery running round the whole interior, and a statue of
Sir William Walworth, said by Walpole to have been
carved by an artist named Pierce. The rooms for business
lay on the west side of the court, and those for courts and
withdrawing at entertainments on the east, which were
ornamented with many rich decorations.*' ^

Drapers' Hall in Throgmorton Street was another of
Jerman's works. The original building, destroyed in the
Great Fire, had formerly been the house of Thomas Crom-
well, on whose attainder the Company had purchased it
from Henry VIII. Jerman designed a new one which was
begun in 1667, but at the time of his death it was not
finished, and Cartwright completed the work, as vve have
seen he did the Royal Exchange. At a subsequent
period another fire occurred here (1774) when the Adams
added some further decorations to the rebuilt portion ;
and in 1866-70 the whole fabric was remodelled.

Another Hall, once attributed inaccurately to Wren, was
that of the Haberdashers' Company in Gresham Street
which is now generally assigned to Jerman ; while
it seems also pretty certain that the lesser architect
also designed the Mercers' Hall and Chapel, although as
these were not built till 1672, he had, of course, no hand
in the superintendence of their actual erection which was
probably carried out by Cartwright. The hall is supported
by an open arcade, consisting of columns of the Tuscan
order, and the interior is lofty and well proportioned, and
exhibits some interesting Italian work and an ornamental
ceiling in stucco.

Jerman is also credited with the design of the Merchant
Taylors' Hall which, however, was not completed till three

1 The Hall is said to have been selected by Hogarth as the scene of
Plate VIII. of his ' Industry and Idleness."

JERMAN 113

years after his death, and was then very soon after enlarged
and altered. What probably happened was that Jerman,
seeing his opportunity, prepared a number of plans for
various City companies, not at first necessarily to order, but
on the chance of their being required, and that a few of
these were actually utilised either during his lifetime or
after his death. In one instance, however, he is said to
have worked in conjunction with Wren ; in this case on
the Hall of the Innholders"* Company, in Elbow Lane,
which was replaced by anew building so recently as 1886 ;
but when two such unequal men as these collaborated, any
excellences that may have been present in their joint
work would so obviously be attributed to the greater, that
this particular building could hardly ever have been
identified with Jerman's style or methods.

As I have incidentally mentioned, Jerman died in 1668,
and although what we know of him properly gives him a
place among British architects, that place was neither a
high nor an influential one.

H

CHAPTER V

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN

Foil many people Sir Christopher Wren stands for the
beginning and end of architecture in this country.
Wykeham's fame in this direction is so illusive and is,
besides, so merged in his even greater qualities as a
statesman and ecclesiastic, that his connection with the
building of Windsor and Winchester is but dimly remem-
bered; Inigo Jones is, if I may so express myself, an
architect's architect, and as such occupies a position
second to none in the annals of the art, but his actual
work is not largely known except to those who have given
themselves to the study of architecture, and, indeed, many
of his finest and most ambitious conceptions have either
disappeared, or have never been realised ; while, for the
rest, Chambers, to take an example, is known by name to
many who would be hard put to it to point out examples
of his work, and the Adam brothers are identified, in the
general mind, rather with the graceful decorations which
they applied indifferently to houses and furniture than
with those schemes of a larger kind that stamped them as
once prominent architects.

But with Wren the case is wholly different, and had
he produced nothing else, the delicate beauty of the
steeples of his churches which meet us at all points in
London, would have been sufficient to keep his name
permanently before the world ; but when is added to this
the fact that the magnificent cathedral in which are con-

114

Photo by Emery Walker
PORTEAIT OF SIK CHEISTOrHER WEEX, 15 Y KXKLLKE

To face, p. lU I

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 115

centrated all the splendid resources of his incomparable
genius, dominates the metropolis, it is not surprising that,
just as its ample dome towers above the other buildings of
London, so his fame over-tops that of all the men who
worked in the same direction in this country before and
after his day.

Christopher Wren was born on October 20, 1632, at
East Knoyle, Wiltshire, of which parish his father, the
Rev. Christopher Wren, was rector. He was a second son,
and his elder brother who died in infancy had been given
the same christian name — a name borne by many sub-
sequent members of the Wren family.

It is said that the family was of Danish origin, in any
case we find members of it occupying important positions
in this country at least one hundred years before the
future architect's birth ; thus Geoffrey Wren was a Privy
Councillor and Canon of Windsor under both Henry VII.
and Henry VIII., to which monarchs he acted as confessor ;
while another, Francis, younger brother to Geoffrey, was
steward to Mary Queen of Scots.

Francis Wren, Christopher's grandfather, was a mercer
of London, but his two sons rose to important positions
in the church, the elder, Matthew, attaining to the
Bishopric of Ely, and the younger, Christopher, father
of the architect, becoming Dean of Windsor and a. persona
grata with Charles I. Christopher's mother was Mary Cox,
daughter and heiress of Robert Cox, of Fonthill, Wiltshire,
and besides him and his elder brother bore to her husband
three daughters : Anne, married to Rev. H. Brunsell ;
Catherine, married to Richard Fishburne of New Windsor ;
and Susan, who became the wife of the Rev. W. Holder
of Bletchingdon. Nothing is known about these ladies,
except that the last named seems to have had a nice taste
in medicinal knowledge, and it is recorded of her that she
once cured King Charles II. of a swollen hand which had
baffled the efforts of his regular doctors ; while her husband
is said to have been '* a handsome, graceful person of

^

ii6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

delicate constitution " (which it is to be hoped his wife did
something to ameliorate), and to have helped young
Christopher in his youthful studies — studies that were
chiefly prosecuted, apparently on account of his inherent
delicacy of constitution, beneath the paternal roof, under
the tutorship of the Rev. William Shepheard.

In his tenth year, however, Christopher was sent to
Westminster, which school may not improbably have been
selected by his father on account of its pro-royalist
sympathies. There, under the famous Dr. Busby, the boy
showed marked ability, especially in his mathematical
studies, and he is even said to have invented at this time,
certain astronomical instruments one of which, according
to Parejitalia,^ was " of general use "*** ; while some Latin
verses, in which he dedicated to his father one of his school
exercises, indicate unusual facility for so young a boy.

In 1646 Wren left Westminster, although he did not go
to Oxford for another three years, and this period, one of
storm and stress for the country, was passed by him in
London. At this time Christopher's father, the Dean, was
harried hither and thither by the Roundheads ; his Deanery
at Windsor was ransacked ; his rectory and church at East
Knoyle despoiled ; and even those who had been employed
by him to embellish the chancel of the church, which he
had himself designed, were found ready to come forward
and bear witness against him. As a royalist and a high
churchman he fell an easy prey, and while he was deprived
of his living, the so-called superstitious ornaments of his
church were ruthlessly destroyed.

While these things, that here but remotely interest us,
were taking place, Christopher was living in London where
he seems to have been placed more or less under the
supervision of Sir Charles Scarborough, then a rising doctor
attached to the Court, who later became physician to
both Charles II. and James II.

Scarborough had given much time to the study of

1 "Parentalia" was written by Wren's son and translated by his
grandson, and is the chief authority for his career.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 117

mathematics, and in young Wren he found a congenial
spirit. Miss Mihnan prints an English translation of a
Latin letter addressed by Wren to his father in 1647, in
which he speaks of "enjoying the society of the famous
physician,'' who, he says, " is most kind to me,'' adding,
" so gracious and unassuming is he as not to disdain those
mathematical studies in which he has so distinguished
himself, to what I will not call my judgement but rather my
Taste, so that he even lends a patient Ear to my opinion
and often defers to my poor reasonings." As Wren was
to become one of the most profound mathematicians of the
age, it is not improbable that he was already advancing
beyond his mentor in his knowledge of that science. In
addition to the exercises which he undertook with
Scarborough, Wren was engaged by the latter to turn into
Latin the tract entitled " Golden Key " in which its author,
Dr. Oughtred, a famous mathematician of the day, had set
forth, in the vulgar tongue, the result of his inquiries on
" Geometrical Dialling " ; which circumstance helps to show
that Christopher's proficiency in Latin was not far
behind his skill in mathematics. He sent the results of
his labours to Oughtred, accompanied by a long letter in
the course of which he says that he has endeavoured " with
no more than a boy's skill to match your words which
need no adorning but sparkle by their very Brevity."

Another notable person with whom Wren came in
contact at this period of his career was Dr. Wilkins,^ at
that time chaplain to the Elector Palatine, to which prince
Christopher was soon after presented by his new friend.
Wilkins was one of that band of earnest thinkers, which
included the great Boyle and the learned Evelyn, who in
the midst of war's alarms, gave themselves over to philo-
sophic inquiry, and were able to forget political and
religious differences over an experiment. In their so-
called " Invisible College " they held themselves as much
aloof from the civil troubles of the period as, at a latei*

1 It will be remembere 1 that Malthew Wren, Christopher's cousiu,
dedicated his '"Monarchy Asserted, Sec." (1669) to ^^' Wilkins.

ii8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

time, Goethe and his circle did amidst the very disintegra-
tion of their country ; and when Wren (in a letter to his
father) speaks of passing Easter in a noble country mansion
(not identified), where " delightful gardens . . . furnished
with innumerable . . . groves of trees, whose topmost
branches support a clamorous commonwealth of rooks " —
in short, " out of doors a terrestrial Paradise ; within,
Heaven itself" — one well might imagine that the Utopia
dreamed of by the philosopher had been at last discovered
under surrounding conditions that would seem to have
excluded the possibility of its existence.

In 1649-50 Wren was entered as a gentleman commoner
at Wadham College, Oxford. The Warden was that Dr.
Wilkins, with whom, as we have already seen, Christopher
was acquainted. Wilkins had been nominated to the post
only about a year previously, at the instance of the
Parliament, but his reputation — a well-earned one — for
tolerance made his rule acceptable even to the most un-
compromising of Cavaliers. He particularly appealed to
Wren, moreover, as his reputation as a scientist was in
advance of that of any other " Head "*" at this time ; and it
seems probable that this fact, coupled with Wren's early
acquaintance with him, was the reason for Wadham being
selected by the young man from among the Oxford
colleges.

Wren, indeed, was now in his element. Dr. Wilkins
had organised weekly meetings, at which those interested
in scientific investigation were wont to foregather, and
Wren, although but a freshman, was invited to these
Symposia. Here he not only heard, but took no incon-
siderable part in, learned discussions and the solution of
abstruse problems, and it is probable that had any one cared
to foretell the future career of the youth, the last thing
dreamed of would have been that his name was to become
immortal, not through his scientific attainments, but in
the regions of an art in which at that time he seems to
have felt no interest nor made any excursions.

While Wren was occupied in such deep studies, matters

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 119

were going badly with the cause he espoused, and with his
relations who had been exposed to the full force of the
storm : his father was without a benefice ; his uncle was
in the Tower; his cousin Matthew was scouring the
country at imminent peril in a vain attempt to help the
losing cause ; and if Christopher himself was debarred
from taking any active part in the struggle, his mind
seems to have been occupied with a natural anxiety and
apprehension. Indeed, on one occasion he dreamed a dream
of such dire import that he can hardly have been surprised
to learn, the next day, that it had been realised in the
defeat of Charles II. at Worcester. The relaxation of the
tension, tragic for the royal cause as it was, must have
come almost as a relief after the suspense which even a
philosopher under such circumstances would experience,
and Wren, feeling perhaps that regret was useless and
hope hardly any longer possible, must have turned his
mind to the prosecution of those studies in which he was
making such rapid advance that Evelyn, visiting Oxford
in 1654, could speak of him as "that miracle of a youth,"
and " that prodigious young scholar," and refer to him in
his " Chalcography " as " a I'are and early prodigy of
universal science."

A year before this Wren had become a Fellow of All
Souls, where, in the midst of the congenial spirits of the
so-termed " Philosophical Club," he exercised his ingenuity
in the construction of a variety of scientific instruments,
and more than held his own in the discussions of his elders.
Indeed, his fame already extended beyond the academic
walls of Oxford, and in 1657, on the resignation by Mr.
Laurence Rooke of the Professorship of Astronomy in
Gresham College, the post was offered to Wren. He was
now but twenty-four, and seems to have thought himself
too young for so important a position ; at any rate, he at
first declined the honour on these grounds ; but his friends,
who knew his capabilities and had no reason to be
restrained by the natural modesty of Wren himself, over-
ruled his decision, and he accepted the post. He delivered

120 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

an inaugural address in Latin, so well turned and so full
of flowing periods and excellences of style as to remind us,
as Miss Milman points out, that he was a contemporary
of Sir Thomas Browne.

Wren's father had died in the previous year, so that he
did not witness the important position which Christopher
had so early attained, but his indomitable old uncle was
still living, though a close prisoner in the Tower, and he
would be sure to hear of it. Matthew Wren, indeed, relates
an anecdote that has been preserved with regard to the
one and only interview which his famous nephew is supposed
to have had with Oliver Cromwell.

The Protector's son-in-law, Claypole, was an ardent
mathematician and as such seems to have sought
Christopher Wren's acquaintance. On one occasion the
latter was dining at his house when suddenly the door
ojjened, and in stalked the Protector himself, and sat
moodily and silently down. Then, observing young Wren,
he remarked : " Your uncle has been long confined in the
Tower." " He has so, sir," replied Wren, " but he bears
his afflictions with great patience and resignation." " He
may come out if he will," retorted Cromwell, whereupon
Wren asked, eagerly, if he might tell him so. " Yes — you
may," replied Cromwell. On this Wren hurried off to
inform his uncle of the good news, when he was surprised
on learning from the Bishop that the latter knew he could
obtain his liberty on conditions, but that the Protector's
conditions were such as he could not and would not agree
to, and that he felt that he would not have to wait long
for an unconditional release. His words were soon to be
verified, for Cromwell's life was drawing to a close, and the
Restoration was near at hand.

During the Protector's last days the meetings at Gresham
College went on undisturbed, and Wren's time was fully
taken up in prosecuting his astronomical studies, and in
making excursions into physics at the instigation of Robert
Boyle. It was now that he attacked the famous problem
with which Pascal had hoped to mystify his learned confreres

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 121

in England. A prize of twenty pistoles was offered for the
solution, and a time limit was fixed. Wren successfully
solved the problem, although he never appears to have
received the prize, and in return sent such a difficult
scientific puzzle to Pascal that even that remarkable man
was unequal to the task of its solution.

The correspondence thus be^un with the recluse of Port
Royal continued for some time, the cycloid, about which
Wren at this time produced no less than four dissertations,
being one of the subjects discussed. Wren was also busy
with his duties as lecturer on Astronomy, which, however,
were soon interrupted by the troubles that broke out on
the death of Cromwell in September 1659. Gresham
College " became a quarter for soldiers," as Sprat its
historian pathetically records, and in a letter to Wren the
Bishop gives the following unsavoury picture of the place
as it then appeared : " This day I went to visit Gresham
College, but found the place in such a nasty condition, so
defiled, and the smells so infernal that if you should now
come to make use of your tube, it would be like Dives look-
ing out of hell into heaven,**"* and he adds with a touch of
characteristic humour : " Dr. Goddard, of all your col-
leagues, keeps possession, which he could never be able to
do, had he not before prepared his nose for camp perfumes
by his voyage into Scotland, and had he not such excellent
restoratives in his cellars."

Indeed the place had been turned into a garrison, and
we find Christopher's cousin Matthew going there in
October, and being denied admittance on this account.
But better times were at hand ; Richard Cromwell was
deposed, and Charles II. ended his long wanderings on
May 29, 1660. Eight months before, Evelyn wiites that
he communicated to Robert Boyle his proposal " for erect-
ing a philosophic-mathematic college," a scheme that was
to bear fruit early during the new reign in the foundation
of the Royal Society. Towards the close of the Restora-
tion year, a meeting held in Wren's rooms inaugurated
those weekly assemblies in which have been discussed ever

122 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

since the more recondite subjects in science and natural
philosophy ; although, as we know, the learned members,
at one period at least, gave themselves to deep speculation
on the merits of tar-soap and its efficacy in the cure of
broken bones !

At the beginning of the year i66l, Beth Ward was
appointed Bishop of Salisbury, and thereupon resigned the
Savillian Professorship of Astronomy at Oxford. The post
was immediately offered to Wren, and accepted by him on
February 5, whereupon he vacated his Gresham professor-
ship and removed to Oxford. It was about this time that
he constructed his lunar globe, or model of the moon, an
account of which reaching the ears of the king who was
always deeply interested in scientific matters. Wren was
commanded to submit the model for the royal inspection ;
this he did personally at a private audience, when Charles
was pleased to accept it and to have it placed in his
cabinet. This was not the first time that the king had
received a scientific gift from Wren, for by a letter written
to " the Savillian professor,"" by R. Moray ■'• and P. Neile,
it appears that these gentlemen had been commanded by
Charles to ask Wren " to perfect the Design wherein he is
told you have already made some progress ; to make a
globe representing accurately the figure of the Moon . . .
and to delineate by the Help of the Microscope the Figures
of all the insects and small living creatures you can light
upon, as you have done those you presented to his Majesty.""
This must refer to some enlargements that Wren made in
conjunction with Robert Hooke some years previously, and
which provoked Harrington, who was annoyed by Matthew
Wren's strictures on his " Oceana,'"* into describing Chris-
topher as " one who had talents for magnifying a louse and
diminishing a Commonwealth."" ^ The fresh labour which
Charles wished Wren to undertake was, however, now

1 It was Sir E. Moray, who, on the establishment of the museum
attached to theKoyal Society, in 1665, presented to it "the stones taken
out of Lord Balcarres's heart in a silver box," and " a bottle full of stag's
tears."

2 In his " Politicaster," published in 1659.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 123

either uncongenial to him, or was too arduous for the
time at his disposal, and Hooke, at the suggestion of
Dr. Wilkins, undertook the fulfilment of the royal
behests.

Wren was now once again established at Oxford, and in
the following September the University conferred upon him
the D.C.L. degree.^ But his activity on behalf of Gresham
College and its transformation into the Royal Society in no
way abated, and when it was necessary to draw up a pre-
amble to the already promised charter. Wren, who be it
remembered was not yet thirty, was chosen from among all
the other members to do it. The Royal Society, in the
foundation of which Wren took such a prominent part,
was enrolled by charter on July 15, 1662, a further charter
being given it in the following year.

It was at this moment that Charles seems to have first
regarded Wren as a fit person for royal favour and advance-
ment. Up to this period, as we have seenj the latter had
attained something like a European reputation for scientific
and indeed general knowledge. His solution of the problem
which Pascal probably regarded as unsolvable, must have
turned the eyes of all scientific France to the marvellous
youth; his further development (1608-1647) of one of
Torricelli's ^ experiments must have made his name known
beyond the Alps ; while in England his innumerable experi-
ments and discoveries, his learned discourses at Gresham
College, and his private reputation, placed him among the
leading scientists of the day, just as his amiable character
and unpretending manners made him beloved by those who
might otherwise have been jealous of his attainments.
Indeed, as has been well said, " Wren possessed more than
perhaps any other man of his time that conciliatory way
which smooths the path of genius and renders its ascent in

1 At Cambridge he was made an LL.D. shortly afterwards. He
had taken his B.A. degree in March 1651, and his M.A. in December

1653.

2 Italian mathematician and physicist, and amanuensis of Galileo. He
discovered the principle of the barometer in 1643, ^^^ published his
"Opera Geometrica " in the following year.

124 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the approbation of mankind easy.'' ^ He had thus become
a great scientist, and few were the byways in this direction
which he had not trodden and in which he had not left
some trace of his mental activity ; but he seems never to
have turned his attention to architecture, or at least in no
more determined way than as a clever man might toy with
the subject, and the remarkable mystery of his life is that,
making for himself a name in the world of science at a time
when most youths are struggling with the intricacies of the
aorists or the more advanced problems of Euclid, Wren
was to achieve a lasting fame as one of the very greatest
masters of an art to which he had hitherto, apparently,
paid no serious attention.

It must, of course, be conceded that his brain was of
such a calibre as enabled him to thoroughly master any-
thing to which he chose to turn his thoughts, and just as
Da Vinci from a pre-eminent painter became as pre-eminent
a man of science ; or as Michael Angelo turned to archi-
tecture when he had exhausted his possibilities with the
brush and the chisel, so Wren discarded his retorts, and
suddenly blazed upon the world as a designer of incom-
parable power and breadth of conception.

But another problem then presents itself: where did
he learn the art, and above all, when ? We have seen
that his time — such a relatively short time it was too —
had been so fully occupied with other matters that it seems
impossible that he could have given attention, even had he
thought of doing so, to architecture. Then as to where
he gained any insight into the art seems as difficult to
arrive at. In England at this time, except for such works
as Inigo Jones had been able to complete, there was little
of the pure Renaissance architecture existing ; Wren had
only been abroad once — to Paris — before he produced the
first and, as some think, the finest of his designs for St.
PauPs ; true there were some architectural books in exist-
ence, but, at the best, he could have gained but an academic
conception of his predecessors'* activity from them.
1 Cunningham, " Lives of the Painters."

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 125

All that can be suggested, therefore, seems to be that
Wren's brain, capable of absorbing much was capable of
creating more, and that a mere suggestion here, or a line
there, became, in the alembic of his powerful intellect the
nucleus of splendid conceptions. So far as that illusive
characteristic of architecture, proportion, was concerned,
Wren's scientific training must have been of immediate
help ; but beyond this he coald have had no preparation
for the extraordinary career that was now opening out
to him, and just as Mozart was master of sweet sounds
when but a child, just as E-aphael's inspired pencil was first
wielded by an infant's hands, just as Pope " lisped in num-
bers," so Wren having rounded off", as it were, an earlier
life of scientific endeavour, began a new birth with the
precocity and power of genius.

The first post which Charles desired Wren to fill was
that of surveyor of the fortress of Tangier, which was a
portion of Catharine of Braganza's dowry, but which proved
to be in a ruinous condition. The king wished Wren to
go out and thoroughly overhaul his new possession with a
view to putting it in a sound defensive state. Charles
promised a large fee, immunity to Wren from his duties as
Savillian Professor, and above all the reversion of Sir John
Denham's post of surveyor-general of the royal works.
This tempting offer was made through Christopher's cousin,
Matthew Wren, who had become secretary to Lord Claren-
don. Wren, however, on the grounds of health, declined
it, asking that his Majesty would be pleased to command
his services at home ; whereupon Charles immediately
created a place specially for him, that of assistant to the
Surveyor-General.

As I have pointed out in the chapter on John Webb,
Denham was a mere figure-head, but Webb was his assistant
and had already been promised the reversion of his office,
an office by-the-bye that he had every reason to suppose
would have passed direct to him after the death of Inigo
Jones. Webb was after all, if not a genius, at least a
respectable and a tried architect, and one cannot but ask

126 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

oneself how it happened that the king selected Wren to
fill his place, when we remember, that, splendid as were
Wren's capabilities, those capabilities had not been
directed previously towards architecture, nor so far as we
know had he at any time ever shown any predilection for
the art. The circumstance is as mysterious as is Wren"'s
w^onderful fulfilment of the new role thus provided for him ;
and one can only suppose that Charles, who was proverbi-
ally clever at reading character, must have satisfied himself
or been satisfied by Evelyn, who has the credit of pushing
his friend''s interests on this occasion, that Wren was a man
who, placed in whatever position he might be, or given
work of whatever character it might partake, would amply
justify the selection. If this was the only ground for the
king's choice, it was one of those daring experiments that
must have succeeded far beyond the royal expectations.
Miss Milman acutely observes that at this period men did
not specialise as they do now and that Wren's sudden
change of occupation did not give rise to the curiosity that it
might have excited at a later time.-^ We must remember,
too, that Wren possessed that very necessary accomplish-
ment of an architect, correct draughtsmanship, besides, as I
have before remarked, the scientific training which gave him
the sense of proportion so essential to all architectural
work.

There were, at this time, three important undertakings
which Charles had closely at heart, and which there is little
doubt he hoped to get forwarded by his energetic assistant
surveyor : the completion of Inigo Jones's palace of Green-
wich ; various alterations and repairs at Windsor Castle ;
and the advancement of the rebuilding of St. Paul's, with
the reparation of the injuries done to the cathedral during
the Civil Wars. Apparently, however. Wren's earliest com-

1 There was a certain architectural tradition in the family, as Christo-
pher's father, when rector of East Knoyle, designed a new roof for the
church there, and was also employed by Charles I. to design a building
for the Queen's use ; while his uncle Matthew had rebuilt Peterhouse,
Cambridge, and added a chapel. See article by Mr. Penrose in Diet, of
Nat. Biog.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 127

missions were private ones ; the first being the Sheldonian
Theatre at Oxford, so called from Gilbert Sheldon, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, who expended sixteen thousand
pounds on it ; the second, the memorial chapel at Pembroke
College, Cambridge, which Matthew Wren commissioned
his nephew to undertake.-^ The former of these works was
not completed till 1669, although a model of it had been
prepared by Wren six years earlier ; while Pembroke Chapel
was building from 1663 ^^ 1666.

But even before any actual work from his designs had
been taken in hand, Wren had been desired, some time
during the year 1662, to make a thorough examination
of St. Paul's. The result of his elaborate survey was not
published till 1665 however, and may be more conve-
niently noticed when we come to the rebuilding of the
fabric after the great fire.

It is obvious that Wren'^s time must have been so fully
occupied as to compel him to neglect some of his duties. A
man could hardly, in those days, be superintending work in
London and fulfilling the requirements of his professorship
at Oxford, at one and the same time, and we find Sprat
writing an amusing letter to him on the subject of his
absence and the remarks made upon it by the authorities.
Just at this moment, too, certain other matters cropped up,
requiring his presence in the capital. Charles was about
to visit the Royal Society, and its President, Lord Brouncker,
writes to Wren to ask for suggestions as to suitably enter-
taining the Sovereign ; to which Wren replies in a long
letter setting forth the kind of experiments easily exhibited
in public and likely to interest the king. The other matter
was the determination of the Royal Society to re-organise
its arrangements, to which end certain committees were
formed, on no less than three of which Wren was appointed
to serve.

Indeed this seems to have been one of the busiest periods
of the architect's life, for he had not in any way relaxed his

1 Actually Wren's first architectural work was the doorway in Ely
Cathedral, which he designed for the Bishop.

128 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

scientific activity, and he is found, with Evelyn and Boyle,
observing the Discus of the Sun for the transit of Mercury,
from the Tower of the Schools, at the same time as he dis-
cusses the model of the New Theatre at Oxford with the
Diarist (" not," writes the latter, " disdaining my advice ""),
and designs the chapel of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Now, however, some relaxation and change of scene were
forced upon him. In 1665, the Great Plague desolated
London, and Wren, having procured an inti'oduction to
the English Ambassador in Paris, set out for France.
Considering his new career as an architect, in which he
had already made some slight — but only relatively slight —
progress, the importance of this visit can hardly be over-
estimated. It enlarged his views on the art which nothing,
short of a sojourn in Italy, could have done so well; for
we know that Mansard and Bernini, under the cegis of the
roi soleil and his gorgeous court had already raised public
and private buildings which, to a receptive mind, must
have been of vital use as applications of principles which
the traveller could have only hitherto seen in the works of
Inigo Jones, or the engraved representations of what
Palladio and Vitruvius had done in other lands.

Wren made the most of his opportunities and scomred
Paris and its environs in search of fine buildings ; and as
the Louvre was then in course of construction we may be
sure that he followed the progress of the work with close
attention, and must have assimilated valuable information
as regarded the practical details of building, as well as
the more decorative features of architectural adornment.
Certain criticisms which he makes, in his letters, on the
buildings either completed or in progress, prove that he
was no blind admirer of a fabric simply because it was
generally admired ; and when he contemplated the vast
proportions of Versailles, he was alive to the want of
dignity in many of its trivial details, and sententiously
remarks that " Building certainly ought to have the
Attribute of eternal, and therefore the only thing
incapable of new Fashions."" Besides Versailles he appears

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 129

to have visited no less than fourteen chateaux in the
environs of Paris, some of which he criticises in his letters ;
and there was, apparently, nothing of interest in Paris itself,
from famous buildings to famous libraries, which he did not
carefully investigate. It is evident that when he returned
to England in February 1666, he had stored his mind with
more than sufficient materials for those " Observations on
the present State of Architecture, Art, and Manufactures in
France," which he speaks of as having " on the anvil '' ;
and we are not surprised at his telling his correspondent
that he will bring him *' almost all France on paper," when
we know that besides the notes he took of what he saw, he
made a great number of drawings during his stay in the
French capital.

On his return. Wren was more than ever anxious to
proceed with the restoration of St. PauPs, but his plans did
not commend themselves to Chichely and Pratt, his
fellow Commissioners, and although he prepared a long and
exhaustive report on the matter, a report which in the
main gained the approval of Evelyn who accompanied the
Commissioners on their systematic survey of the cathedral,
on Aug. 27, 1666,^ Wren was, luckily perhaps, never
destined to repair the old building, for on the following
Sept. 2, the Great Fire broke out which completed the ruin
of the fabric, and made way for that complete reconstruction
which the architect had always strongly recommended.

Wren saw at once the opportunity that presented itself
to him, but some of the Commissioners were still anxious to
repair, rather than re-build, the ruin, and so far carried
their point at first as to persuade the architect to prepare
plans and specifications for patching up the remnant left
by the fire; although Wren, in the elaborate statement
which he presented after the conflagration, points out that
" to repaire it sufficiently will be like the mending of the
Argo-navis, scarce anything will at last be left of the old.''
The work was, however, proceeded with, and months were
occupied in merely clearing away the debris.
1 See " Evelyn's Diary " under this date.

130 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

During the progi'ess of this work. Wren returned to
Oxford to superintend the building of the theatre and the
restorations at Trinity, which were then proceeding ; he
seems, however, toihave come to London occasionally during
this year (1667), either for meetings at the Royal Society,
then held at Arundel House, Strand, or to give an eye to
the progress of the work among the ruins of St. Paul's ;
while at the same time his active brain was divided
between learned papers read before the Royal Society, and
a design which he made for new headquarters for that
body, an account of which is contained in a letter from
him, dated at Oxford, June 7, 1668. Notwithstanding
the amount of work on his hands at this time, he under-
took another important commission : the designing of a
new chapel for Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which
William Sancroft, then Dean of St. Paul's, was instrumental
in placing in his hands. This work was begun in March
1668, and, so far as the exterior was concerned, completed
five years later, although the interior was not ready for
use for another four years.

The chapel with its flanking galleries, and classic
fapade, shows how far Wren had advanced in architectural
knowledge, but compared with his matured work it also
shows how far he was yet to go ; and that the actual
structure varied considerably from the original plan was to
be expected from one who had not as yet found himself.
During this year Sir John Denham resigned the surveyor-
ship of the king's works, and the post was immediately
conferred on Wren, noth withstanding Webb's pathetic
appeals to be allowed to work jointly with the architect to
whose splendid gifts he seems to have been, perhaps not
unnaturally, entirely blind. This fresh proof of royal
favour must have added considerably to Wren's labours,
for although much of the work connected with the office
could be transacted vicariously, Wren was not a man to
allow anything to pass under his name, about which he was
ignorant, or on which he had not set the seal of his
consideration and approval.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 131

Thus then matters stood when suddenly the removal of
the remains of old St. Paul's, and the repairs which had by
now been begun on it, were brought to an abrupt conclusion,
by a disaster which the architect had indeed foretold but
which the king and his advisers had systematically ignored.
Dean Sancroft in a letter to Wren, dated April 25, 1668,
makes known to the latter (then at Oxford) the fact that
the work proceeding at the west end of the Cathedral had
suddenly collapsed about the ears of the restorers. Wren
had, indeed, from the first observed that the pillars were
out of the perpendicular, but others of the Commissioners
had satisfied themselves that they had been intentionally
constructed so ; and it had been determined to encase them
with stone. This absurd patching up was in progress about
the third pillar from the west end on the south side,
when, to use Bancroft's words " a great weight falling from
the high wall, so disabled the vaulting of the side-aile by
it, that it threatened a sudden Ruin, so visibly, that the
workmen presently removed ; and the next night the whole
Pillar fell, and carry 'd Scaffolds and all to the very
ground " ; a result which the Dean is bound to confess had
been anticipated by the " quick eye "'"' of the architect.

Wren and those who agreed with him that nothing short
of rebuilding would be effectual in making St. PauPs a
cathedral worthy of London, must have regarded this inci-
dent with no small satisfaction, for the architect's great
opportunity had now indeed come. In reply to the earnest
solicitation of the Archbishop, the Bishops of London and
Oxford, and the Commissioners who had met a second time
(July I, 1668) to consider the letter which he wrote in reply
to Bancroft's information — a letter that, as need hardly
be said, reiterated his former advice as to the necessity of
rebuilding — Wren came to London and set to work, un-
trammelled by the previous desires of the authorities that
merely restoration should be attempted.

On July 25 a royal warrant was issued for proceeding
with the work, although it is there specifically stated that
" care be taken of the Cornishes, Astlers, and such parts of

132 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the Former toward the west, as shall be deem''d usefull for
the new Fabrick,"" and that the cathedral shall follow, so far
as possible, the lines of the old foundations. It is eloquent
of the delays and hindrances that attended Wren's labours,
that it was not till 1673 that consent was finally given,
under the Great Seal, for an entire rebuilding of the whole
cathedral.

In the meantime Wren had prepared elaborate alterna-
tive plans, and had had constructed a model of that which
he himself regarded as the best. This model still exists,
and many authorities, comparing it with the present cathe-
dral completed from a later design, have considered that it
far exceeded the latter in originality and beauty. Wren
was one of the first of that band of architects engaged on
public works in England whose ideas have been made sub-
servient to other considerations, and whose plans have had
to undergo the ordeal of uncritical criticism and alteration.
But it has to be confessed that in many respects Wren's
favourite design, beautiful as it is, seems hardly to have met
the exact requirements of the case ; its very form, that of
a Greek cross, was so inconsistent with any preconceived
ideas of what a cathedral in this country should be, that
one cannot but think that the authorities blundered into
a right determination in rejecting it. But the proper
discussion of such technical matters does not find its place
in such a book as this, and besides, it is unnecessary for me
to dwell on the relative merits of Wren's different designs,
for this has been elaborately done not only by Mr. Reginald
Blomfield, in his " History of the Renaissance," but still
more fully by Miss Milman in the chapter she devotes to
these considerations in her " Life of Wren."

It will therefore suffice for me to state that not only was
the present cathedral the outcome of at least three separate
designs, but that, as it progressed, so many alterations and
improvements were introduced by Wren, that essential
differences will be observed between the completed work
and the plans actually accepted. Thus, although the
ground-plan was adhered to, such marked changes from

rhoto by Valejitine

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL FE03I THE WEST

To face p, 132

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 133

what was originally conceived by Wren, as a new dome over
the crossing ; the circular recesses to the windows in the
choir aisles ; the contraction of the north and south tran-
septs by a single bay ; and the circular peristyles on the
north and south, together with considerable alterations in
the nave,i were among the after-thoughts. Some of the
most effective points in the whole conception were the
double orders of columns on the west front, said to have
been due to the impossibility of procuring sufficiently large
blocks of Portland stone suitable for the immense single
columns that would have been necessary ; and the inner and
outer dome, by which Wren was able to combine outward
size and dignity with inward grace and proportion.

The clearing away of the rubbish of the old building
must have been a work of immense labour, no less than
forty-seven thousand loads being, we are informed, removed.
While this work was in progress Wren, on a platform raised
for the purpose above the debris, scanned the ground on
which his new cathedral was to rise, and worked at his
plans with an army of workmen labouring round him.
Men lost their lives by falling stones, and others worked
with the timidity born of such catastrophes. If a pier
could not be removed without the use of gunpowder, gun-
powder was used ; and the neighbourhood, in consequence
of another experiment by which a huge fragment of stone
crashed into one of the adjacent houses, protested, and
implored Wren to discontinue the use of such drastic
measures ; whereupon he devised a battering-ram, which
only after two days' strenuous labour on the part of thirty
men succeeded in demolishing a portion of the still stand-
ing structure.

A tax had been placed on coal to provide funds for the
rebuilding of St. Paul's and the various parish churches
destroyed by the fire, and by 1675, sufficient money having
been raised to justify a commencement of the actual re-
building, and the king having issued a warrant, dated
May 14, 1675, ft)r its inception, the first stone was laid by
1 Tabulated thus by Mr. Blomfield.

134 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Wren^ on June 21 following. Under the architect's
supervision, Thomas Strong acted as the master-mason,
and Richard Jennings as the chief carpenter ; Grinling
Gibbons was employed on the wood-carving, Caius Gabriel
Gibber and Thomas Bird on the exterior stone carving, and
Tijou on the beautiful ironwork. The sum stated to have
been expended on the whole fabric, viz., ^£747 ,954, is
probably below the mark.

I may here anticipate events somewhat, by noting that
the choir was first opened for public worship on Decem-
ber 20, 1697, the day set apart for public thanksgiving
on the signing of the Peace of Ryswick, although Evelyn
notes going to see the cathedral on October 5, 1694, when
it was, he says, " finished as to the stone work." ^

St, PauFs was, of course, the corner-stone of Wren's
design for the new city ; but he was concurrently occu-
pied in the erection of the various parish-churches, the
spires of which are among the best known of his London
work, and so early as 1668, on succeeding to the surveyor-
ship of the Royal works, he had drawn up a masterly
plan for the rebuilding of the City ; employment on
which Evelyn also occupied himself. Had Wren's plan
been carried out, it would have anticipated by more
than two hundred years, what is gradually being attempted
in our own day, but which owing to various considera-
tions can never be compassed with a like completeness.
Although Charles immediately gave his consent to Wren's
scheme, the perennial want of money prevented it from
being executed. The plans for it are preserved at All
Souls', Oxford, and there may be seen how comprehen-
sive and how well adapted to the needs of the citizens
it was. Wren had realised (perhaps his visit to Paris
helped him to do this) how important it was that great
buildings, such as the Royal Exchange and St. Paul's,

1 So says Miss Milman ; Mr. Blomfield, however, states that Hench-
man, Bishop of London, perfox'med the ceremony. JProbably more than
one stone was laid, as in the case of the Koyal Exchange.

2 Father Smith built the organ, the position of which caused some
contention between Wren and the Dean and Chapter,

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 135

should have not merely open spaces in front of them, but
vistas from which they could be seen at a distance ; he
also foresaw the necessity of wide streets,-^ and the
importance of the circus or square ; and he appreciated,
as it never seems to have been appreciated until an
attempt was made in Regent Street, the necessity of
having ample thoroughfares running north and south as
well as east and west.

Compared with what London has grown to nowadays, his
scheme appears to us restricted, but when we consider
what London was before the Great Fire, and what, had he
been allowed. Wren would have made it, we shall realise
how far in advance of his times his conceptions were, and
we shall be the more ready to regret that a worthless court
absorbed money which might have been so splendidly
employed.

After St. Paul's, the City churches are perhaps Wren's
most notable achievement. Apart from the intrinsic
beauty, not only of their spires but of their interiors, they
possess another merit in that they are so admirably
adapted to the irregularity of their sites ; in a word, Wren,
subject to all the disabilities to which a designer could be
subject, produced a series of little masterpieces ; and
although they are not all on the same high level as the
best, the worst of them are better than the best of lesser
men.

From the earliest of them, St. Mary-le-Bow, built
between 167 1-3 (the steeple was later, 1680), to the last,
St. Mary Somerset, Thames Street, erected in 1695, over
fifty of these churches were designed by him. Many of
these have had, of course, to undergo various alterations and
restorations at a time when such matters were not under-
taken with the pious and learned care bestowed on them
to-day ; and, here and there, stained glass has been intro-

1 The principal ones were to have been ninety feet v/ide, the secondary
sixty feet wide, and the alleys not less than thirty. The Parish Churches
were all to be seen at the end of vistas of houses, and the better-class houses
were to have been uniform and supported, in many cases, on piazzas.

136 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

duced and allowed to remain, which was never in Wren's
scheme of decoration ; some of the churches have been
demolished, but there are more than a sufficient number
standing to impress the most impassive with the genius of
the man, and to show what great strides the Renaissance
was making in his consummate hands.

Six of these churches have domes, and it is conjectured
that Wren was practising on these smaller edifices, for the
benefit of his culminating effort on St. PauFs. There
seems some reason to credit this, because these domed
churches were all commenced before the cathedral, and
after the plan for the latter was finally decided upon the
subsequent churches erected by him are found, in all cases,
to be without domes.

It is impossible to speak of these splendid monuments
seriatim ; and they have been so frequently dealt with in
works allotted to this particular subject, that it is also
unnecessary to do so.-^ Those who know their London
know St. Mary Aldermary (1682) and its beautiful fan
groining and clustered columns ; the perfect proportions of
St. Stephen's, Walbrook (1672-9), concerning which Canova
is said to have declared that he would gladly journey to
London merely to gaze at it ; the steeple of St. Dunstan's-
in-the-East with its flying buttresses, of which it is told
that when Wren was informed that a great storm had
damaged all his spires he remarked, " No, not St. Dunstan's,
I am sure " ; or that of St. Bride's, Fleet St, which Henley
called " a madrigal in stone," but which is only saved from
a certain monotony by the perfect proportions of its
gradually diminishing stages of repeated design. Those
who know these, know, too, the beauty of the spire of
St. Mary-le-Bow, perhaps the finest example of Wren's
genius in this direction ; or his consummate use of lead-
work (where funds would not allow of stone) in the steeples

1 See, iTvter multa alia, Mr. Bumpus's work on "London Churches,"
and Mr. Birch's on the same subject, besides details indicated in the
various Lives of Wren and Histories of London, Excellent photographs
of many of these are given in " The Passer By in London," by Mr. W.
S. Campbell.

PJtoto by Cyril E lis

INTERIOE, LOOKING WEST, ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBEOOK

To face p. 136

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 137

of St. Martin's, Ludgate, and St. Edmund the King,
Lombard Street ; or the treatment of Gothic (which he
affected to despise) in the spires of St. Mary Aldermary,
and St. Michael's, Cornhill, and St. Dunstan's-in-the-East.

What cannot fail to strike any one with regard to Wren's
steeples is not only their extraordinary, if unequal, beauty,
but their remarkable variety. So far as one steeple of the
Renaissance period can recall another, Wren's steeples
resemble each other ; but only so far. On comparison,
even those that have most in common will be found to be
differentiated from each other in a variety of ways which,
considering the relatively short time that elapsed between
the designing of each of them, and their number, is little
short of marvellous. If one of them could be described
as a madrigal, then I think that, taken as a whole, they
may fitly be termed a sonnet sequence in architectural
expression.

The mention of the Gothic spires of St. Michael's,
Cornhill, and St. Mary Aldermary, makes it convenient
to say a word here about the few other examples of Wren's
work in this particular style. He himself used to call
Gothic " Saracenic," and he seems to have shared the half-
contemptuous feeling of his generation for it. AVhen,
therefore, we find him using it, it will be when force of
circumstances or expressions of individual wishes obliged
him to do so, and not from any desire on his own part to
make excursions into what he probably regarded as more
or less barbaric.

One of his earliest examples of it was " Tom " Tower at
Oxford, which Dr. Fell, Dean of Christ Church, commis-
missioned him to erect in 1681. Wren's work here seems,
so far as can be gathered from a drawing of the original
tower, by Neele, dated 1566, in the Bodleian Library, to
have commenced with the sexagonal caps to the tower
flanking the gateway, although the central window, also
obviously his, descends almost to the top of the archway,
and the older masonry must have been cut away for its
reception. The famous tower has been called Gothic

138 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

because it was supposed to partake of the characteristics
of that portion of Christ Church completed in Henry VIII.'s
time, but it really has nothing in common with it, and in
most respects is as much renaissance as anything else of
Wren's. Its beauty lies in its excellent proportions ; and
it is one of those buildings to which our eyes have become
so accustomed that we feel as if nothing else could have
been equally appropriate to round off Wolsey's great gate-
way. It is an exceedingly clever forgery, but it is a
forgery that will take few of us in.

St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, and St. Alban, Wood Street,
are the two other examples of Wren's so-called Gothic
among the City churches, and they are alone sufficient to
show what variety he could introduce into his work, even
when it was not after his own heart.

As I have said, the building of the City churches went
on concurrently with that of St. PauFs, but not even these
vast labours, interspersed as they were with discussions at
the Royal Society, and other cognate matters, exhausted
the energy of the architect. Many of the Ciliy Halls, such
as, for example, the Mercers' and the Pewterers', are said to
have been from his hand, or when undertaken by others,
such as Jerman, to have received his imprimatu?', which, in
the case of a conscientious man like Wren, meant the
careful consideration of the plans submitted to him.
Besides these there are a number of works, some of the
greatest importance, which claimed his attention ; and
these I must deal with in chronological order.

The earliest was the building of Temple Bar which
many of us can remember as it stood at the boundary of
the City, and which now exists in honourable retirement
amid the sylvan surroundings of Theobald's Park whither
it was removed thirty years ago. Temple [Bar was de-
signed in 1670, and although it must always be regarded
as an interesting landmark its architectural features call
for no particular comment beyond the fact that it served
its purpose and possessed a distinction that probably
no other architect of the period could have invested

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 139

it with ; while the Monument, begun in the follow-
ing year to commemorate the Great Fire, although not
completed for a considerable time, hardly lends itself to
inspiration, and certainly does not succeed in indicating
much. The present structure was the second of Wren's
designs, and it is said that his idea of a single high column
was largely dictated by the thought that it might be found
useful for scientific experiments.

In 1673 Wren was employed on something more worthy
of his genius, notably the Library of Trinity College,
Cambridge. For this he prepared two designs, the first
providing for a circular building crowned with a dome, a
feature greatly favoured by the architect at this period of
his career. This did not appeal to the authorities, how-
ever, and Wren in consequence designed the oblong
building supported by cloisters, which is now such a
dominant feature in the College buildings, and completes,
a purple patch indeed, the quadrangle known as Nevile's
Court. It was Isaac Barrow who was chiefly instrumental
in placing the work in Wren's hands. Barrow had been
an early admirer and friend of the architect, and had, some
years before, vainly tried to rouse the University authorities
to the necessity of having a theatre at Cambridge similar
to that erected at Oxford. He was determined at any
rate that his own College should possess a suitable building,
and when the old library at Trinity was destroyed by fire
he himself is said to have marked out the ground for
another and more spacious one. Wren was here undoubtedly
handicapped by the necessity of conforming his buildings
with the existing portions of Nevile's Court, and techni-
cally there are points to cavil at, both in the quadrangle
facade and that facing the river, but the interior deserves
nothing but praise, and it remains one of the finest, if not
the finest, of book-rooms in existence.

Curiously enough Wren was working on the design of
another library at the time he was employed on that at
Trinity ; this was the Honywood Library attached to
Lincoln Cathedral, and so called after Dean Honywood

140 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

who was responsible for the commission. The building
erected by Wren is a long, low one, painfully out of
harmony with the Gothic cloisters on which it abuts ;
and although in the exterior there are various skilful
contrivances, such as the added elaboration to certain
of the windows, and a clever connecting scheme between
them and the doric pillars of the arcade that supports
the building, yet the whole gives an impression of monotony.
The interior, however, is excellent in its adroit adaptation
to requirements, and certain features (for instance the
doorway to the library) are of great beauty. At the
same time the building, as a whole, can only be considered
as one of Wren's minor works.

In 1672 old Drury Lane Theatre was burnt down, and
Wren was commissioned to design another one. The new
building was ready for use two years later. Dry den, in
his prologue of " The Opening of the New House," terms it
"plain built; a bare convenience only"; and in Gibber's
" Apology," the theatre is spoken of as lofty and magnifi-
cent, and praise is given to the architect for managing to
bring the performers ten feet nearer the audience than was
subsequently thought to be feasible when fresh alterations
had to be made.-^

A far more congenial task, however, must have been the
planning of an Observatory for Greenwich, which Wren
was called upon to undertake in 1675. The discoveries of
Flamsteed,^ who had been created Astronomer Royal, and
had hitherto prosecuted his inquiries at the Tower of
London, seem to have caused the King to determine that
proper headquarters should be allotted for such a purpose.
A committee, of which Wren was a member, was formed
to select a suitable site, and it was due to his initiative
that the mound in Greenwich Park was chosen. A royal
warrant dated June 22, 1675, made known that the
Observatory was to be erected in this situation, and the

1 It is said to have cost ;^4(XO.

2 Flamsteed was a Fellow of the Koyal Society, and Wren had known
him in that capacity for at least five years.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 141

foundations were laid in the following August. £s^^ was
granted from the Rojal Exchequer, bricks were supplied
from the fortifications at Tilbury then being pulled down,
and lead came from the gate-house of the Tower, so that
it is apparent that the work was carried out on economical
lines. The building is, indeed, essentially a utilitarian one,
and its red-brick stone-faced ungainliness may still be seen.
It was proceeded with in such haste and with so small a
fund of money, that Wren is supposed to have made use of
existing foundations, and thus to have built an Observa-
tory that has not a correct north and south aspect !

Although now more busily engaged than ever on St.
PauPs, the first stone of which, it will be remembered, was
laid on June 2 1 of this year, and the erection of the many
parish churches which it had been determined to build
(no fewer than thirteen were begun during the next three
years). Wren found time to design the base of Le Sueur's
statue of Charles I., at Charing Cross, and to erect the
houses in King's Bench Walk, ^Temple, the brickwork and
beautiful doorways of which are an object-study for
architects ; ^ and above all he was required to design the
Royal Hospital at Kilmainham. The idea for this seems
to have originated with Lord Granard, at that time
commanding the royal forces in Ireland, who, having
interested the Duke of Ormonde in the scheme, laid it
before the King for his consideration. Charles, that easy-
going sovereign who was always ready to lend an ear to
such matters, without apparently a thought of where the
money to pay for them was to come from, immediately
acquiesced in the proposal, and funds were finally obtained
by a levy of sixpence in the pound on all army pay in Ireland.
The Duke of Ormonde laid the foundation-stone on April
29, 1680, and the work was completed six years later.^

In the meantime a number of other buildings were

1 The Middle Temple Gateway, so full of distinction and so excellently
proportioned, was built a few years; later (1684-8).

2 For an interesting account of the actual building see Miss Milman's
" Christopher Wren " ; the only biography of the architect which nien-
tions his work herp.

142 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

being erected from Wren's designs ; thus in 1682 he
designed the Latin School of Christ's Hospital (destroyed
in 1825), in which his masterly use of rabbed brickwork
was particularly noticeable, and the same year also saw
the commencement of Chelsea Hospital.

Chelsea Hospital is one of those buildings about whose
walls sentiment loves to linger. Its massive and essentially
little altered fabric and its less altered institutions, trans-
port the mind to the days of the Merry Monarch whose
reign saw its inception and whose interest helped so largely
in its development. Nor is the tradition that the influence
of the pleasure-loving Nell Gwynn was responsible for its
establishment — unreliable as that tradition unfortunately
is — without its weight in adding a halo of romance to the
place. The fact that " poor Nelly " has been associated
in the public mind with pity for the old and destitute,
serves alone to differentiate her from the rapacious favour-
ites whose systematic endeavour it was to get as much out
of the country as they could, and to be lavish in return
with nothing but the good name they never possessed and
the honour of which they took no account.

There seems, however, little doubt that the idea of
the Hospital really first originated with Sir Stephen Fox,
who, as Paymaster-General, had accumulated a great
fortune, but had, at the same time, preserved his name
from the slightest suspicion of peculation or dishonesty ;
something of a triumph in those days. It is not improb-
able that the building of Kilmainham Hospital directed
Fox's attention to the need of something analogous near
London, and there being some vacant ground at Chelsea,
which Charles II. had given to the Royal Society for the
erection of headquarters, but which for various reasons
had not been utilised for this purpose. Fox proposed to
purchase it and to raise on it a home for old soldiers.
To this end the property was sold to the Crown for ■£1300,
and Charles, having approved of the scheme, promised to
contribute ;^5ooo a year to the maintenance of the Hos-
pital, and a sum of -£20,000 towards the building ex-

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 143

penses. Fox was also a great contributor to the cost of
the building, which is said to have amounted to no less
than ;^i 50,000, and he and Evelyn spent laborious days in
minutely discussing the matter in all its bearings.^

On February 16, 1682, the first stone was laid by the
King, but although Wren had prepared plans which, says
Evelyn, took the form of " a quadrangle of 200 feet square,
after the dimensions of the larger quadrangle (Tom Quad)
at Christ Church, Oxford," he does not, for some reason,
appear to have been formally appointed architect to the
building till the following year. However, on May 25,
1682, we find him, in company with Fox and Evelyn,
proceeding to Lambeth Palace to obtain the Archbishop"'s
formal consent to the scheme — a consent readily granted.
A quadrangle, probably on the lines of that at Kilmain-
ham, had been first suggested by Wren, and had received
the Church's assent ; the architect, however, subsequently
altered the form of the Hospital substantially as it exists
to-day. He must undoubtedly have supervised its erection,
but the task of carrying out the work in detail, which,
by the bye, occupied two years, was placed under the
direction of one of his best-known pupils, Hawksmoor,
of whom I shall have something to say in the next
chapter.

It is characteristic of Wren's forethought that, just as
at Kilmainham he had designed a cloister that should serve
as a sheltered exercise-ground for the infirm inmates of
that institution, so in the case of Chelsea Hospital he took
care that there should be a piazza for the same purpose,
and arranged that the staircases should also suit the needs
of those whose days of activity were past.

Carlyle is said once to have remarked that the Hospital
was "the work of a gentleman^'' and if the particular
epithet is nowadays somewhat the worse for wear, and
often implies anything but what is really intended, in
this case, it seems just the appropriate word to denote at
once the quiet restraint obvious in the building, and those
1 See "Evelyn's Diary."-

144 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

essentials of Tightness which indicate not only technical
ability but distinction of mind in their conception.

The year after Wren had drawn out the plans for
Chelsea Hospital found him not only busy over his
churches (St. James's, Piccadilly : St. Mildred, Bread
Street ; St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, and others date from
this year), but occupied with two Royal commissions : that
for a memorial to Charles I., and that for a palace at
Winchester. Neither of these was, however, destined to be
completed ; indeed, in the case of the memorial, nothing
beyond the preparation of the designs seems to have been
even attempted, for although Parliament had voted, in a
fit of loyal enthusiasm, a great sum towards the erection
of a monument to the royal martyr, as well as for a public
funeral, nothing was done in the matter, and the in-
scription on the drawings (in Wren's own hand), clearly
indicates the architect's disappointment at the nonful-
filment of the scheme. Nor did the proposed palace at
Winchester emerge from its initial stages. A writer, in
1722, certainly speaks of its main portion as being nearly
roofed in when Charles II. died ; but although Queen
Anne, on one occasion, went to look at it, the place does
not seem to have appealed to her, and the unfinished
building was gradually allowed to fall into ruin.-^ The
Duke of Bolton was permitted subsequently by the King
(George II.) to carry away marble columns and other
ornaments, and certain portions that still remained so late
as the last century were incorporated in the barracks then
being erected at Winchester. The palace stood on the
hill overlooking the town, fronting the west end of the
cathedral, and Wren appears to have conceived the idea
of an immense street of houses between the two. This
conception was a favourite one with him, for he planned
a somewhat similar avenue to extend from Chelsea Hos-
pital to Kensington, and we know what use he made of

1 William III. appears to have once thought of continuing the work,
for he visited the place with Wren, " in order to goe on with the build-
ing," on March 10, 1694, says Luttrell, but nothing came of it.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 145

such great vistas in his proposed rebuilding of London.
Had that at Winchester ever taken shape, there would
have been a direct communication between the work of
England's earliest architect, Wykeham, and her greatest,
Wren.^

In the following year, Wren was again employed at
Winchester, this time on the great Schoolroom of the
College, a beautiful and symmetrical piece of work, sentient
with the grace and restraint usual with him when un-
hampered by outside influences — which was unfortunately
not always the case. He was also occupied with certain
repairs to Chichester Cathedral ; and two houses, one in
West Street and the other known as Dodo House, in that
town, are said to be from his hand, and to date from this
year (1684). About the same time another residence,
Fawley Court, just below Henley, well known to boating
people, with its red brick walls and stone copings, was
planned by him. "

In 1685, Charles II. died, and with him the architect lost
a friend and an admirer, although, considering that the
always needy monarch was not averse from turning funds
voted for other purposes to his own more insistent de-
mands, it would be affectation to say that architecture, as
such, lost in him a great and liberal patron.

In the year of the king's death, a fresh batch of City
churches was commenced, and from this period date St.
Martin's, Ludgate Hill ; St. Al ban's. Wood Street, and
St. Mary Magdalen, Knightrider Street ; St. Benet, Grace-
church Street, and St. Matthew, Friday Street (the last
three since demolished) ; and during the two following-
years, St. Mary Abchurch (1686), and Christ Church,

1 There are some grounds for thinking that Wren designed the Chapel
of Trinity College, Oxford, during this year ; but, although many of his
characteristics are present in it, there is no actual evidence of his having
done so. It seems likely that it was designed by Dean Aldrich, with
hints from the greater man.

2 Belton Hall, Grantham, built in yellow or "Ancaster" stone, has
also been attributed to Wren, with good reason, although no documen-
tary evidence of his connection with it is known to exist.

K

146 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Newgate Street ; St. Margaret Pattens, Rood Lane, and
St. Andrew's, Holborn (all 1687), were begun.^

As if, however, these herculean labours were not suffi-
cient to exhaust the fiery energy of the man, we find him
in 1685, returned to Parliament by the electors of
Plympton,^ that town to become famous as the birthplace
of Sir Joshua Reynolds ; and we know that his attendances
at the Royal Society were as frequent as ever, and his
interest in its proceedings as vital as it had been twenty
years earlier.

Nor does the unrest of 1688, culminating in the change
of dynasty, seem to have caused any interruption to his
activity, for apart from the work proceeding on the
churches begun in the previous year, another was now
commenced — viz., St. Michael, Crooked Lane, which was,
however, demolished in 183 1, to make way for the widening
of the approach to new London Bridge, and three other
only relatively important structures were planned and
built : the Town Hall at Windsor, in which the archi-
tect had some obvious difficulties as to site and inequality
of ground to contend with, and for which all that it seems
possible to say is that it was what was required and no
more ; the library for Archbishop Tenison, adjoining his
school in Leicester Sqnare, (afterwards the home of
Hogarth), which was subsequently absorbed by the National
Gallery ; and the College of Physicians, in Warwick Lane,
which existed till 1866.

Evelyn, who properly calls Tenison's scheme for a public
library, " a worthy and laudable design," seems to have
consulted both with the Archbishop and Wren as to the
form it should take, and we find him accompanying the
latter on February 23, 1684, to visit Tenison, " where," he
whites, " we made the drawing and estimate of the expence
of the library, to be begun this next spring." As we have

1 The Town Hall, Eochester, was one of Wren's lesser works during
1687.

2 In 1698 Wren was returned by the electors of New Windsor, " pay-
ing lot and scot," and on petition was re-elected by the Mayor and
Corporation in the following year.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 147

seen, however, four years were to elapse before the work
was commenced ; a delay that we may feel assured was in
no way due to the architect.

The College of Physicians, designed by Wren, was
evidently a rebuilding of the premises which that body
was then occupying, and whither the members had removed
in 1674, from their former headquarters in Amen Corner.
A golden ball surmounted the summit of Wren's erection,
an ornament which Garth, in his " Dispensary,'' said looked
like " a gilded pill " !

During the short and unsettled reign of James II., the
architect was occupied in forwarding the works, chiefly eccle-
siastical, which he had begun under Charles II., and what
other buildings he planned were not the outcome of royal
patronage ; indeed, ever since James had caused the rejec-
tion of Wren's favourite design for St. Paul's, and had
insisted on the admission of side chapels, with a view, it is
supposed, to the conversion of the Cathedral, in due course,
into a Roman Catholic place of worship, there seems to
have been no love lost between the king and the Surveyor-
General ; and it is not, therefore, a matter of surprise
that Wren's royal employment at this time was confined
to the routine work connected with his office, and to
that only.

With the accession of William and Mary, however,
Wren enjoyed a fresh term of royal favour, and although
William was a monarch to whom art did not mean much,
and in whose eyes a barrack was always of more significance
than a palace, his consort had less utilitarian ideas, and
from the first extended her patronage to the architect.
The first fruits of this patronage was Hampton Court
Palace, or rather that portion which Wren added to
Wolsey's splendid pile.

There is such a delightful sense of homeliness about the
warm red walls of Hampton Court ; its long facades give it
such an air of quiet dignity that one overlooks the essen-
tially monotonous character of its extended rows of windows
in which no attempt at differentiation of design is made, and

148 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

a certain want of height in the upper storeys which gives
to its large rooms the outward appearance of attics. As
a matter of fact it is simply a country house on an immense
scale, and few other designs could have been so appropri-
ate to the simple unostentatious characters of the two
Sovereigns for whom it was planned. Wren is not to be
blamed by those who consider that as a palace Hampton
Court is wanting in dignity and ornamentation ; for, as
was usual with him, he prepared more than one set of
designs, and that chosen by William is said to have
been the set prepared merely as a foil to the more
elaborate one which Wren had set his heart on carrying
out.

The well-known Fountain Court is perhaps, so far as the
exterior is concerned, the least satisfying portion of Wren's
work at Hampton Court, as it is overcrowded and heavy ;
although the cloisters, whose chief defect, the inner arches
would, it is said, have been higher and therefore better,
had not William interfered in the matter, add a decorative
note here which is wanting in the east front.

A detailed description of Wren's work at Hampton
Court,-^ however, is unnecessary here, and it will therefore
be sufficient to rapidly trace the history of the actual
building. It was begun in April 1689, and proceeded
with much despatch till 1694, when Queen Mary died, and
William, overcome by grief, appears to have no longer
interested himself in the place. Four years later, however,
the fire at Whitehall compelled him to reconsider the
advisability of prosecuting the work at Hampton Court ;
a fresh impetus was, therefore, given to architects and
builders, and with the decorative aid of Grinling Gibbons,
Caius Gabriel Cibber, and Tijou, the building was
gradually completed. Talman was clerk of the works,
and differences soon arose between him and Wren on the

1 Tor full details of this work I would refer the reader to Mr. Ernest
Law's " Hampton Court," vol. iii. ; and to Miss Milman's " Life of
"Wren." Boughly, Wren's work embraced the Kind's apartments to the
south-east, the Queen's (now the principal front) to the east, and the Long
Gallery.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 149

question of the stability of some of the stone work already
finished ; Talman asserting that some of the piers were
cracked ; Wren replying that this was done purposely as a
precautionary measure against possible expansion. The
report drawn up by the experts who were called in,
decided in favour of Wren ; and it appears not improbable
that Talman knew as well as his superior, the reasons for
these " cracks " about which he seems to have hoped to
frighten the ignorant, and thus to throw discredit on the
architect.

Two years before Hampton Court was begun,
William III. had purchased Lord Nottingham's house
at Kensington. We are accustomed to-day to regard
this part of London as an integral portion of the city,
but at that time it was but a mere suburb renowned for
its healthiness and its gravel pits, and it is likely that the
king, whose chest was weak, was recommended to this
particular spot by his physicians as being more salubrious
than Whitehall and less exposed to river fogs than
Hampton Court.

Wren was, of course, called upon to alter and prepare
the house in a way suitable for His Majesty's reception,
and Kensington Palace, substantially as we know it, was the
result. The original structure was not demolished, but was
so added to and remodelled that it has all the appearance
of the architects' unobstructed design, although it must
have caused him much more trouble to add to an old build-
ing than it would to have designed an entirely new one. As
a matter of fact Kensington Palace is merely a commodious
residence in which comfort, and a sort of utilitarian dis-
regard for superfluous ornament highly characteristic of
the monarch for whom it was planned, are the dominant
notes. To say it wants distinction would be to say that
Wren had no hand in it, for in nothing that he touched is
that attribute lacking, and in some of the over doors, and
particularly in the beautiful proportions of the staircases
and the principal rooms, the touch of the master is
apparent. But the most interesting, as it is the most

ISO LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

beautiful, example of Wren"'s work at Kensington is
the Orangery which he designed for Queen Anne in
1704, the interior of which is a model of grace and
refinement.

Kensington Palace was not completed till 1706 ; bnt
between that year and the date of its commencement,
1690, Wren was engaged on a number of lesser works,
notably The Mint in the Tower (1691); possibly the
Chapel of Trinity College, Oxford (169 1-4); some school
buildings at Appleby in Leicestershire, and the charming
Morden College at Blackheath (1695) ; while the churches
that date from this period are St. Margaret, Lothbury
(1690) ; St. Andrew by the Wardrobe (1692) ; All
Hallows, Lombard Street (1693); St. Michael Royal,
College Hill (1694) ; St. Vedast, Foster Lane, and St.
Mary Somerset, Thames Street (1695), the letter of which,
all but the tower, was demolished in 1872. Besides these
Wren designed the tower of St. Mary^s Church, Warwick,
in the latter year, and in 1692 had also occupied himself
with planning one of those splendid thoroughfares — in this
case from Hyde Park Corner to Kensington — which his
inventive mind was always creating, but which other
influences were always too powerful to allow of being
executed.

In 16965 Wren was called upon to undertake the design-
ing of what is, if we except St. PauPs, his finest public
building — Greenwich Hospital.^ Theplans^for this splen-
did work are preserved in the Soane Museum, and Hawks-
moor has left a description of the magnificent pile which
would have been, under other circumstances, the finest
palace in England.

Its genesis was due to Queen Mary who was anxious to
do for seamen what her uncle had, at least interested
himself in doing for soldiers, at Chelsea, and the philan-

1 Three years earlier, i.e., in January 1693, Luttrell records that
" Last Saturday the Lords of the Admiralty and Sir Christopher Wren
went to Greenwich to view the King's house there, to convert it into an
hospitall for sick and wounded seamen, which is approved for that
purpose."

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 151

thropic Sir Stephen Fox and Evelyn again came forward
with substantial aid and advice ; but before anything was
done the Queen died. As we have seen two important
buildings were already in existence at this spot ; the
Queen's House, and that portion of the proposed palace
already finished, both of which had been designed by Inigo
Jones, and had been carried out under the superintendence
of John Webb. As it was desired that these buildings
should not be interfered with, Wren had the difficult task
of incorporating them into his designs. It was, in a sense,
a pity that he should have been thus hampered, but at
the same time it is pleasant to know that at the end of
the seventeenth century such a pious feeling for earlier
work existed; and that the Queen should have been
willing to hamper the beauty of the building with which
she hoped her name would be identified, rather than
permit any desecration of what was associated with her
grandmother, Henrietta Maria, and her uncle, Charles 11.,
is very creditable to her feelings and good taste.

Wren's first design ^ for Greenwich substantially shows
the hospital as it exists to-day, for as we shall see,
Vanbrugh, Colin Campbell, and Ripley, all added to it,
and they each, in an inferior way it is true, helped to give
it more the resemblance of what Wren intended, than he
himself was permitted to do.

What he eiFected was to make the Queen's House at the
extreme end from the river, the central feature, and at a
little distance from this he planned two courts with
colonnades, between which the Queen's House was to be
seen down a vista ; nearer still to the river he designed a
great court, the west side of which was occupied by
Charles II. 's block, and opposite to this and forming the
eastern portion, he erected what was known as Queen
Anne's quarter ; at the corners of these two blocks (for he

1 " June 30, 1696, I went with a Select Committee of the Commis-
sioners for Greenwich Hospital and with Sir Christopher Wren ; where
mth him I laid the first stone of the intended foundation, precisely at
5 o'clock in the evening, after we had din'd together." "Evelyn's
Diary."

IS2 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

added to that of King Charles in order to make it
uniform with his original work) rose the two magnificent
domes which for grace and proportion probably excel any-
thing he ever did.

Wren, I think, seldom proved his innate greatness of
character or his realisation of the true functions of an
architect more incontestably than when he made his new
work subsidiary to that of his illustrious predecessor, Inigo
Jones. But although he did this, and although three of
his successors worked on the building, so that it is not
always easy to say where the work of one begins and that
of the other leaves off, his genius dominates the whole
building, and has produced the finest public edifice in or
near London. At a later date Hawksmoor was instructed
to make a report to Parliament about the structure, and
in the course of this report, he thus speaks of it : " The
principal front of this magnificent pile lies open to the
Thames ; from whence we enter into the middle of the
royal court, near 300 feet square, lying open to the north,
and covered on the west with the court of King Charles the
Second, and on the east with that of Queen Anne, equal
to it, and on the south, the great hall and chapel. The
court of Queen Anne contains the great range, or wing,
next the royal court, and holds 140 men. To the east of
this is another range of building, which contains sixty-six
persons ; and the great pavilion, near the Thames, contains
four very commodious apartments for officers. The Court
of Charles contains the great wing on the west of the
royal court. It is a noble pile, having in the middle a
tetra -style portico with arcades ; the walls ai'e rusticated,
all in Portland stone ; the windows artfully decorated and
proportioned ; the order is Corinthian ; the body of the
building is crowned with an entablement of that order,
and two extremes, in two great pavilions, all in the same
style, rise with an attic order above.**'

This is interesting for two reasons ; it shows more or
less the use of the Hospital at that period, and gives a
clear and succinct account of the building ; while it also

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 153

pleasantly indicates the admiration Hawksmoor had for
the work of his consummate master.

Although the dome of St. PauFs was not finished till
1 710, most of Wren''s active work seems to have been over
five years earlier when Greenwich Hospital, so far as he
was concerned with it, was completed.

For the rest the work that falls under the years 1698-
1705, includes the beautiful steeples of St. DunstanVin-
the-East, and St. Bride's, Fleet Street ; the church of Isle-
worth ; the Orangery (already mentioned) at Kensington
Palace; additions to Greenwich (1705); improvements
to the Houses of Parliament, and restorations, &c., at
Westminster Abbey; and finally the designs he prepared
for the rebuilding of that portion of Whitehall which
had been destroyed by fire in 1696. To this end we find
him making a careful survey of the site, in January
1698, as "his majestie designs to make it a noble place,'**
says Luttrell, who adds that " by computation it may
be finished in 4 years." But although no less than two
hundred men were employed in clearing away the debris,
William's great project dwindled down to " a range of
buildings at the end of the banqueting house next the
privy garden, to contain a council chamber and 5 lodg-
ings " ; Luttrell remarking significantly that " the rest
will be omitted till the parliament provide for the
same " ; in other words, the matter was postponed sine
die.

Marlborough House, of which the first stone was laid
by Duchess Sarah on May 24, 1709, would seem to be
Wren's last architectural work of any importance. It is
characterised by the simplicity of most of his domestic
architecture, and is obviously intended rather as a com-
fortable living house than as an imposing dwelling. Its
internal arrangements, however, so far at least as the
connection between the offices and the reception rooms
were concerned, were at one time notoriously bad, but for
this Wren was probably not responsible. The mansion
has, too, been so much altered since his day (an upper

1 54 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

storey has been added) that as an object-lesson in the
architect's treatment of private houses it has no longer
any great value. -^

The latter years of Wren's life — a life that had hitherto
been unattended by the jealousies and intrigues which
success so often creates — was unfortunately to be embittered
by the petty annoyances of inferior men. Chief among
these were certain of the Commissioners appointed for the
rebuilding of St. Paul's (five out of the seven of whom were
clergymen), who first thwarted the architect in his work
of completing the cathedral, and then persecuted him
because of the delay. All sorts of trivial accusations were
brought against him ; he had very properly wished a
wrought-iron railing to surround the building ; the Com-
missioners determined to have a cast-iron one, and had the
stupidity to assert that the latter would be the more
durable ; they said the great bell was unsound and there-
fore useless ; they accused the head mason, Jennings, of
applying to his own use money which was intended for the
workmen. The very nature of the charges shows that
Wren's enemies were unable to fix on any of his actual
work as being unsatisfactory ; but anything does to justify
injustice. Unfortunately Evelyn, the life-long friend and
admirer of Wren, and one of the few Commissioners who
understood their duties and carried them out without fear
or favour, had died in 1706, so that the architect stood prac-
tically alone against his critics who also contended that his
delay in the completion of the cathedral w^as due to his
wish to prolong the payment of his remuneration which,
be it told, he had himself fixed at the insignificant sum of
;^200 per annum !

An Act of Parliament for the completing of St. Paul's
was passed, and the people's representatives had the incre-
dible meanness to decree " a suspension of a moiety of the

1 One, however, which lias, if its attribution to Wren be correct, is
Groombridge Place, Kent. I may here note that in 1709, Wren was
ordered to fit up Westminster Hall for the trial of Dr. Sacheverell,

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 155

surveyor's salary until the said church should be finished ;
thereby the better to encourage him to finish the same
work with the utmost diligence and expedition." Upon
this Wren addressed a petition to the Queen (February 13,
1 7 10), in which his anxiety, not for his salary, but for
permission to complete the cathedral, is set forth clearly
and honestly ; this was laid before the Commissioners, so
that the matter was revolving in a vicious circle, and
they retorted with fresh accusations ; whereupon Wren
sent an appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury. In
consequence of this the Attorney- General was invoked,
who laid it down that as the Commissioners had ruled
that Wren's salary was to be halved until the build-
ing was completed, this edict must be adhered to.
To this Wren rejoined (in an address to Parliament)
that the cathedral so far as he was concerned was
actually completed within a reasonable acceptation of
the word.

It is not surprising to find, at a time when such
forms of argument were daily resorted to, that a
pamphlet war on the subject now broke out. "Frauds
and Abuses at St. Pauls," was the title of one ; " Letter
to a Member of Parliament," of another, and they accused
Wren of peculation, and teemed with spite and malevo-
lence ; Wren replied to them ; so did an unknown admirer
in " Facts against Scandal," to which a " Continuation of
Frauds and Abuses " appeared, only to be answered by a
second part of " Facts against Scandal," and even the great
Addison is supposed to have taken Wren's part, in the
adumbration of the architect's character as " Nestor," in
The Tatler ioY AugM&t 9, 1709. So matters went on until,
with the death of Queen Anne in 17 14, Wren lost his last
royal support, and in the following year, after having
been Surveyor- General for forty-eight years, he was super-
seded in the post, largely through the machinations of
George I.'s unsavoury mistress, the Duchess of Kendal,
who, because he would not allow her to mutilate Hampton
Court, sold his office^ to the insignificant Benson. This

156 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

incompetent person did his best to spoil some part of the
general effect of St. Paul's by adding a ridiculous flight of
steps to the chief front.^

Wren was now in his eighty-sixth year, and he at once
retired to his residence (Old Court House " it is now called)
at Hampton Court, where for the next five years of his
life he chiefly lived, busied with those mathematical and
scientific problems with which, as we have seen, he first
made his reputation. He had also a house in St. James''s
Street, and to this he occasionally came when his duties
as Surveyor to Westminster Abbey — a post which even
the malevolence of his enemies allowed him to retain till
the end of his life — necessitated his presence in London.
His death was not uncharacteristic. He was accustomed
once a year to visit St. Paul's, and to sit for a time under
the dome his genius had created,^ and the last time he was
destined to do this — on February 25, 1723 — he contracted
a chill. On his return to Hampton Court he dined, and as
he sat afterwards at an open window for an unusual time,
his silence gave rise to apprehension, when his servant
going to him, found him calmly sleeping the sleep of
death. A few days later he was buried in the crypt of St.
PauPs.

Wren had been twice married, first on December 7,
1669, to Faith Coghill, daughter of Sir John Coghill, of
Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire. By her he had two sons —
Gilbert, who died while yet an infant ; and Christopher,
born on February 18, 1675, three years after his father had
been knighted. Lady Wren died a few months after the
birth of this second son, and in the following year Sir
Christopher married Jane Fitzwilliam, daughter of Lord
Liffbrd, by whom he had a daughter and a son — the
former, Jane, being born in 1677, and the latter, William,

1 Mercifully removed in 1873.

2 He had in 1708 obtained a fifty years' lease, at ;^io per annum, from
the Crown. At that time it was a very fragile structure, and "Wren
appears to have largely rebuilt it.

3 It Avill be remembered that Inigo Jones was also seen occasionally
wandering about the facade of the Cathedral, which he had built.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 157

in 1679 ^^ which year the second Lady Wren died.
Christopher and William both survived their father, but
Jane predeceased him by twenty years.

It seems superfluous to say anything further with regard
to Wren's splendid gifts as an architect, or his quiet, un-
assuming character as a man. The work he has left is
eloquent of the former, and all the testimony of those of
his contemporaries who were best fitted to speak accurately,
is sufficient proof of the latter. Nor is it particularly
helpful to institute comparisons between his work and that
of his predecessors or successors. Only one man during
his day, in this country, could in even the feeblest way be
compared to him ; and all that it seems necessary to point
out is that that Renaissance which in the consummate
hands of Inigo Jones made such strides in England, reached
its highest power in those of Wren. In all human work
fault can be found (it is curious what a Jlair for doing
this those have whose inability to produce anything at all
comparable to the best is continually being exhibited),
and here and there Wren, like Homer, may have nodded,
but he never went to sleep ; and during the whole of his
long and strenuous life he kept one constant aim in
view — the determination to give only of his best, and to
make, by incessant study and practice, that best better.
Unspoilt by praise, unmoved by Court favour or popular
applause, he was as simple in prosperity as he was calm
and dignified under the attacks and innuendoes of malevo-
lence ; and as his most magnificent monument towered
above the dwarf buildings that then surrounded it, so does
his character stand forth from those of his latter-day
assailants. He was, indeed, one of those great spirits
that have sojourned on earth, and have left for all time,
the impress of their personality on the history of the
country.

Hooke, looking rather to Wren's splendid gifts than to
his private character, once said : " I must affirm that since
the time of Archimedes there scarce ever met in one man.

iS8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

in so great a perfection, such a mechanical hand and so
philosophic a mind '' ; Isaac Barro^y, with an eye to some-
thing even better than mere Avorldly success, exclaimed
that it was doubtful whether Wren " was most to be com-
mended for the divine felicity of his genius or for the sweet
humanity of his disposition."

CHAPTER VI

BELL OF LYNN; TALMAN; PRATT; HAWKSMOOR;

VANBRUGH

The great age to which Sir Christopher Wren lived
resulted in certain lesser architects being properly his con-
temporaries, although in the natural course of events they
would have been regarded as his successors at least in point
of time if not in style and achievement ; and, indeed, inas-
much as Wren's life extended to practically the close of
the first quarter of the eighteenth century, his career even
overlapped those of men whose work really dates from this
later period. The architects with whom I deal in this
chapter were actually contemporaneous with the latter
portion of his career, however, for Bell of Lynn, born in
1653, died in 1717 ; Talman, died two years earlier; Pratt
was born in 1620, and died in 1684; Vanbrugh's dates are
1666 to 1726 ; and Hawksmoor's, 1661 to 1736. Of these
the most famous is, of course, Vanbrugh, whose reputation,
however, is, as largely based on his literary output as on
his architectural activity ; Hawksmoor, a name well known
to students of architecture is not genei-ally familiar to the
ordinary reader; and Bell of Lynn and Talman and
Pratt are examples of men who did good work in their
day, but whose fame has been eclipsed by the dominating
personality of their illustrious contemporary.

Indeed, there is painfully little known about the first.
He has not even received the recognition of a niche in the
" Dictionary of National Biography," and his reputation is so

159

i6o LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

purely of a local character, that had not the excellent work
he did in his native town survived, it is probable that his
name would never have come down to us, and that he w^ould
have been one of that numerous band of men whose foot-
prints on the sands of time have been long since entirely
obliterated.^

Bell had at least one thing in common with Wren in that
he appears to have received no specific architectural train-
ing ; indeed, his earlier years were devoted to mastering the
art of engraving, in which he made excellent progress, as is
shown by some of his prints of various parts of Lynn and its
neighbourhood, and it is probable that the examination of
the buildings of his native town for the purposes of this work
drew his attention gradually to the study of that architecture
in which he afterwards excelled to a remarkable degree.

Henry Bell was born at King's Lynn in 1653, and was,
in all probability, the son of another Henry Bell, twice
mayor of Lynn, who died in 1686, and who was descended
from a younger son of Sir Robert Bell, chief baron of the
Exchequer in the reign of Elizabeth. About his education
or early years nothing is known. That he must, however,
have laid aside engraving for architecture early, is proved
by the fact that in 1681, or as some say, 1683, he designed
Lynn Exchange or Custom House which was erected at
the expense of Sir John Turner. In an account of King's
Lynn published in 18 18, this building is described as being
" of handsome freestone, with two tiers of pilasters, the
lower in the Doric, and the upper in the Ionic order, with
a small open turret, terminating in a pinnacle." A statue
of Charles II. graced the front, and the interior of the
building consisted of several large rooms ; the whole being
surmounted by an open turret on Corinthian pillars,
and completed by an obelisk crowned with a ball on w^hich
stood a statue of Fame.

The sense of proportion indicated in the building, and
also the delicate nature of the details, are surprising in the

1 Mr. E, M. Beloe in his "King's Lynn ; our Borough; our Churches,"
has collected all there is likely to be knovvn about Bell.

BELL OF LYNN i6i

work of so young a man as Bell, and seem to indicate that
inborn sense of the art, not to be learned by any amount
of study, which has characterised the great men ; and it is
fairly certain that had BelPs scope of activity been more
extended, he would have taken at least a high place in the
second rank of British architects.

The next building on which Bell was engaged seems to
have been the Duke's Head tavern in the market-place of
Lynn, which was erected some eightyears after the Exchange.
The Cross in the market-place was also his work. This was
set up in 1 710, and is described by the writer I have before
quoted, thus : " The lower part is encompassed by a hand-
some peri-style, formed by sixteen columns of the Ionic
order. Over this is a walk, secured by an iron balustrade,
including a neat octagonal room, the outside walls of which
are ornamented with four niches, containing statues of the
cardinal virtues. The upper part is finished with a cupola,
in which hangs the market-bell, and the whole is seventy
feet in height. From the cross, in a semi-circular direc-
tion on each side, extends a range of covered stalls, or
shambles, having a small turret at each end.'"' -^

This most elaborate of market-crosses was demolished
in 183 1, as were at subsequent periods two altars, in St.
Margaret's church (founded in the reign of William II.)
and St. Nicholas's chapel (dating from the time of
Edward III.), both the work of Bell, and designed a few
years after the Exchange.

It is obvious that as the leading, if not the only, local
architect. Bell was responsible for various other erec-
tions in the town, which the edacious tooth of time has
destroyed, but only one other piece of work attributed
with good reason to him, exists in Lynn to-day, notably a
house in Queen Street, the charming entrance of which,
with its twisted columns and beautifully proportioned over-
doorway, is figured by Mr. Blomfield in his " History of
Renaissance Architecture."

Bell's last known undertaking was the rebuilding of North
1 "Excursions through Norfolk."

i62 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Runcton church close to Lynn. In 1701 the old tower had
fallen making havoc of the body of the church, and Bell
had practically completed the new building by 171 3. The
work is interesting not only on its own account, but also
as showing that its designer was as much at home in eccle-
siastical architecture as he was in so wholly secular a build-
ino- as an Exchang-e.

In the little that can with any certainty be placed
to his credit. Bell exhibits a sense of proportion and
a distinction which mark him out from the large band
of lesser architects whose works but feebly reflect the influ-
ence of greater men. These, as a rule, w^hile not daring
to trust to their own unaided efforts, seem to have felt it
necessary to graft on to what they purloined from others
some feeble marks of their own individuality, and thus to
have added insult to injury by spoiling what they had
annexed. Bell is differentiated from such by a certain
native vigour and grace, and it is unfortunate that so little
is known of him and of the other work which it seems
probable he must have executed.

He died on April 11,1717, and was buried in the church
of St. Margaret which he had helped to adorn, and where
a memorial tablet commemorates his excellent gifts.

Apart from his architectural activity, Bell took a leading
part in local aff'airs, and he is recorded as having twice
occupied the post of mayor of the to^Mi which had been
incorporated so early as the reign of King John, having
filled the office in 1692 and in 1703 ; but on one occa-
sion he is known to have been fined for refusing to serve.^

TALMAN

Although Talman^s name is one that has been practically
forgotten by those who have not given particular atten-

1 Kindly communicated to me by J, W. Woolstencroft, Esq., Town
Clerk of Lynn.

TALMAN 163

tion to the study of architecture in this country, we know a
good deal more about him and his works than we do of Bell
of Lynn. He never, however, exhibited in his designs the
individuality which characterised that of his little known
contemporary, and although he may not have erred into
solecism or anachronism in his buildings, at the same time
these are as a rule formal and cold, and have just that
touch of the well- trained artisan as differentiated from
the born artist. His most famous work is undoubtedly
the princely Chats worth, although one wonders how many
who know that ducal abode remember, or have ever heard
of, the name of its architect. Here Talman's usually
uninspired methods seem to have been galvanised, perhaps
by the very splendour and size of the place, into some-
thing approaching natural genius, but at the same time
the glories of Chatsworth are derived from such a variety
of sources that one is apt, I think, to attribute much to
the actual design of the mansion itself, which is in reality
due to its striking situation, its unrivalled gardens, and its
magnificent contents.

William Talman was born at West Lavington, in
Wiltshire, where the fact that he is known to have owned
no inconsiderable amount of property perhaps indicates,
although it, of course, does not prove, that his famil}' had
been for some time established in that village. He is one
of those men who, in the absence of any information re-
garding their earlier years or training, are labelled as
having " attained repute." In Talman's case, however, it
is impossible to say whether his reputation as a designer
of buildings was attained early or late in life, for the years
of his birth and death are both unknown, and we are
obliged to be contented with the recognised fact that he
flourished during the last thirty years of the seventeenth
century, from which time such work as is known to be his
dates.

Of this the earliest example recorded was Thoresby
House, which was erected about 167 1, but which has
since been demolished ; as, however, sufficient is known of

1 64 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

its general plan to enable Mr. Blomfield to state that " it
appears to have been chiefly taken up with halls and stair-
cases,'' I think we are justified in regarding it as an
immature undertaking. It is said to have been designed for
the Duke of Kingston, but as the first Duke was exactly six
years old in 1 671 it is probable that whoever was originally
responsible for this blunder had in mind the work Carr of
York did at Thoresby in 1770, three years before the
death of the second Duke, the husband, it will be re-
membered, of a painfully notorious wife.

A better- known example of Talman's architecture is
Swallowfield Park, near Reading, which he erected for
Henry, second Earl of Clarendon, in whose " Diary "" men-
tion is made of his paying a subsequent visit there on
April II, 1689, probably with reference to further addi-
tions, although the fact is not stated. But, as I have said,
Chatsworth is Talman's most important undertaking, and
those who know the size of that princely seat will not be
surprised to hear that it occupied no less than nineteen
years in building, notably from April 1687 to 1706. It
was designed for William, fourth Earl and first Duke of
Devonshire, " the finest and handsomest gentleman of his
time,'"* as Macky terms him, but as it was commenced only
three years after he had succeeded to the earldom (he was
made a Duke in 1694) and not completed till a year
before his death, he enjoyed his new possession but a short
while. It has been said that '^ the elegance and lightness
of the front do great honour to the artist,'' but that '' the
other sides are not equally beautiful." That a later archi-
tect thought one portion of it worthy of imitation, how-
ever, is proved by the fact that Kent borrowed the design
of the grand staircase when he was planning Holkham.^

The Duke of Devonshire was, as is well known, not only
the holder of high ofiice under William III. and Mary (he
acted as Lord High Steward at their Coronation), but was
also a personal friend of the King, and it is not improbable
that he recommended Talman as Comptroller of the Works
1 See "Nichols' Anecdotes," vol. vi.

TALMAN i6s

at Hampton Court which Wren was then designing. In
any case this office was conferred on Tahnan when William
began his vast additions to the palace, and as he received
6s. lod. a day for his superintendence of the work and
Wren but 4<y., Talman's position would seem to have been
a superior one in this particular case, although he no
doubt had to give constant daily attention to the building,
whereas Wren's presence would only be required at more
or less long intervals.

The work at Hampton Court was begun in 1690, but
the architect and the comptroller were almost from the
first antagonistic, or it would, perhaps, be nearer the truth
to say that Talman was jealous of the greater man, and
sought to throw difficulties and obstacles in his path at
every turn. The record of these attempts on Talman's
part to cast discredit on Wren is not an edifying one ; in-
deed they appear to have been obviously undertaken with
the object of arrogating to himself the entire work of re-
building. If such was the case it was unfortunately more
or less successful, for although in one instance, that of
the substantiability of a wall, over which an altercation
took place before the Lords of the Treasury, Wren was
able to prove that his work was sufficiently durable,
Talman, in 1699, had gained the ears of the authorities to
such an extent that he was commissioned to design certain
portions of the palace independently of Wren, and various
estimates are extant, dated in the November and December
of this year, and amounting to over ;^5ooo, prepared
solely by him. Certain other work of an expensive
character (involving over ;^ 10,000) in Bushey Park was
also handed over entirely to his care. In the preceding
September the King, who was then abroad, was anxious
that Hampton Court should be ready for him on his re-
turn, and Talman, having pushed on the work, writes to one
of the Court officials that certain rooms, including " the
King's great bedchamber and two closetts are in hand,"
and he adds : " His Ma*^® will find I have made use of
my time, for it proves a greater work than I expected.

i66 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

and I hope it will be to his Ma^"^ satisfaction," by
which, reading between the lines, we can see that the archi-
tect was, perhaps not unnaturally, anxious and certainly
very well qualified, to make his court to his royal master.

It is undoubtedly the fact that Talman made a much
better comptroller than he did architect ; and it is unfor-
tunate that, in his anxiety to further his ov/n interests, he
allowed his zeal so to carry him away as to try to depreciate
the work of Wren, who was so immeasurably his superior.

One other architectural achievement is attributed to
Talman, namely, the designing of Dyrham (often mis-spelt
Dynham) House, Gloucestershire, which he planned for
William Blathwayt, the politician, in 1698, and of which
Colin Campbell, in his " Vitruvius Britannicus,"' gives a plan
and elevation.

For the rest little or nothing is known of Talman, and
although it has been conjectured that he died in 1715 no
authority actually exists for this. Among the members of
the " Gentleman's Society " at Spalding, was a IMr. Talman
who seems to have been a pretty close attendant at the
meetings about the year 1707, but as William Talman is
known to have had a son, John, who v/as an amateur
artist of some pretensions, and who died in 1726, the latter
may be the Talman mentioned in the minutes of the
Society. ■'^

Many architects have either left published works or manu-
script books of plans behind them, which in most instances
materially help to throw light on the work they did, but in
the case of Talman only one such memorial is, so far as is
known, in existence — a book containing some drawings
which we have the great authority of Mr. Wyatt Papworth
for attributing to him.

This interesting and valuable volume is now in the

library of the Royal Society of British Architects. It is

bound in leather, and would appear to have been used as

a sort of scrap-book, for although it contains numerous

1 See "Nichols' Literary Anecdotes," vol. vi. p. 159.

PRATT 167

ground-plans of houses erected, or merely designed, by
William Talman, there are to be found in it, also, several
pen-and-ink sketches of scenery on the Rhine, elevations of
Italian buildings (heightened in colour), and some draw-
ings of stained-glass windows in Upton Church (dated
August, 1708) by John Talman, whose " J. T. fecit" may
be seen on some of them ; while the book also contains a
few old engTavings.

Of William Talman's work in it, which alone here inter-
ests us, there are some ground-plans of a " house designed
for Lord Carlisle"; of one "designed to be built at
LamVs Conduit Fields for ye Ld. Devonshire " ; another
inscribed " For Duke of Leeds, at Keiton, in Yorkshire " ;
and still other plans executed " for Sir John Woodhurst,
at Kimberley in Norfolk." Whether any or all of these
were ever actually executed is a question ; nor is it any
easier to identify the ground-plan of the building " made
by direction of K. William," which, however, was in all
probability a specimen prepared, but never used, for some
suggested erection in the grounds of Hampton Court, or
in Bushey Park.-'^

PRATT

Readers of " Evelyn's Diary " will not need to be told
why Sir Roger Pratt takes a place, although a small one,
in these pages, for it will be remembered that he is there
distinctly referred to as the architect of the once splendid
Clarendon House, and is also mentioned in other ways ;
otherwise one fears that his name has, like those of so
many architects of importance in their day, been
forgotten.

Sir Roger Pratt (he was knighted by Charles II.) was

1 In 1766 a Talman Collection was sold in Covent Garden and de-
posited in Eton College Library, although it does not appear to be there
now. See Gwynn, "London Improved," 1766, p. 6^ ; and Kiou, " The
Grecian Orders," 1768, p. 57. There is a portrait of Talman m.
" Walpole' 3 Anecdotes " (1798);

i68 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

born at Marsworth, in Buckinghamshire, in October 1620,
the register of his native village church recording the
fact that he was baptized on November 2. He was
the son of Gregory Pratt, at that time in business in
London, his mother being a daughter of Sir Edward
Tjrell, of Thornton in Buckinghamshire.

Nothing is known of his early youth, but he is subse-
quently found completing his education at Magdalen
College, Oxford, which he entered in 1637, ^^^ ^^^^ appa-
rently without taking a degree ; and in 1640 he became a
student of the Inner Temple. It was after this that
Pratt made what would later have been called the Grand
Tour, and he must have been in Rome in 1644 or 1645,
as Evelyn was there during those years, and speaks of
first meeting Pratt in the Eternal City, referring to him
on more than one subsequent occasion as " my old friend
and fellow traveller (inhabitants and co-temporaries at
Rome)."

It is very likely that the sight of the magnificent
buildings in Italy influenced Pratt in choosing architecture
as his profession ; although he may possibly have made
his Continental journey with the specific object of training
his mind and eye to become an architect. In any case, we
are told that " Pratt took to architecture and achieved a
high reputation " ; and that he must have become well
known soon after his return to England, is proved by the
fact that he was one of those (including Wren, Evelyn,
and May) who were commissioned to survey St. Paul's with
a view to its restoration. Evelyn, himself a theoretical
architect of distinction, writing on August 2"^^ 1666, thus
refers to one of the first of these meetings : " I went to St.
Paul's church, where, with Dr. Wren, Mr. Prat, Mr. May,
Mr. Thos. Chichley, Mr. Slingsby, the Bishop of London,
the Deane of St. PauFs, and sereral expert workmen, we
went about to survey the generall decays of that ancient
and venerable church, and to set downe in writing the par-
ticulars of what was fit to be done, with the charge thereof,
giving our opinion from article to article. Finding the

PRATT 169

maine building to recede outwards, it was the opinion of
Chichley and Mr. Prat that it had been so built ah origme
for an effect in perspective, in reguard of the height ; but
I was, with Dr. Wren, quite of another judgement, and so
we enter'd it ; we plumVd the uprights in severall places.
When we came to the steeple, it was deliberated whether
it were not well enough to repaire it onely on its old
foundation, with reservation to the four pillars ; this Mr.
Chichley^ and Mr. Prat were also for, but we totally
rejected it, and persisted that it required a new foundation,
not onely in reguard of the necessitie, but for that the
shape of what stood was very meane, and we had a mind
to build it with a whole cupola, a forme of church-
building not as yet known in England, but of wondrous
grace."

It is interesting to see by this that Pratt took a leading
part in the discussion, and that Evelyn thought it worth
while to specifically record his opinions. After the Great
Fire Pratt seems to have taken something more than a
merely academic position as a designer of much of the
rebuilding of the City, and for his services in this respect
he was knighted on July 18, 1668. It seems probable
that the work he had already done for Lord Clarendon in
Piccadilly may also have been instrumental in securing
him this honour ; in any case, it was a distinct advantage
to Pratt that he had been able to secure the good- will of
the then still powerful Chancellor.

Clarendon House is, indeed, Pratt's best, perhaps only,
known work, and, from contemporary prints of it, it must
have been extensive and stately. Foreign influence is
observable in much of its contour, its mansard-roof and
broken sky-line, but its projecting wings were a character-
istic of the English mansions of more imposing proportions
at this period.

So much has been written about the place that any
detailed description is not required here ; and in " Evelyn's

1 Chichley was a sort of King's representative, and therefore he would
be, of course, listened to with respect, although not a regular architect.

170 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Diary," and other records of the period, the progress of
its erection, from the time (August 1664) when it was
commenced to the moment (September 1683) when its
demohtion was begun, is sufficiently told.

Pepys, who was no critic of bricks and mortar, found it
" a beautiful house, and most strongly built in every
respect"; Evelyn, whose criticpJ judgment was consum-
mate in such matters, allowed that it was " a goodly pile
to see," and " placed most gracefully," but found '' many
defects as to ye architecture." And, indeed, one of the
most obvious of these was a certain air of heaviness about
the fabric, as if its architect, like a far better known one
whom I shall soon be dealing with, thought that he could
produce dignity by mere massiveness, and by laying heavy
loads upon a long-suffering earth, could hide what was
wanting in his architectural ability. Hov/ever, the place
pleased the great man for whom it was planned, and that
was probably all that Pratt desired or expected.

Another house which was designed by Sir Roger, was
Horseheath, in Cambridgeshire, which was erected a little
after Clarendon House. Evelyn notes, on July 20, 1670,
going to dine with Lord Allington there, and mentions
that the place, then newly built, cost no less than ^20,000,^
and that Pratt was its architect. As I have mentioned
in chapter iv., Webb was employed in the erection of
Horseheath Hall, but either the two places (although both
in Cambridgeshire) were not identical, or Webb must have
been succeeded, soon after the commencement of the work,
by Pratt, in which case it would seem probable that the
latter worked out his predecessor's designs ; although I
cannot but think that had this been the case Evelyn would
have mentioned it. For the rest there is no record of any-
thing else that can be traced to Pratt ; and as about this
time his father, who had purchased the estate of West

1 Lysons says as much as ;^7o,ooo, but perhaps he was taldug into
account, the relative value of mouey then and at the time he wrote. He
adds that in 1687 the whole estate was sold to John Bromley for ;!^42,ooo.
The Allingtons had been seated there since 1239.

HAWKSMOOR 171

Ruston, in Norfolk, died, and Sir Roger succeeded him as
a country gentleman, it is likely enough that the latter gave
up architecture and turned his attention to country pur-
suits. It is not known, however, whether he became
learned in crops or known for the management of live stock.
His death occurred on February 20, 1684, and he was
buried at West Ruston. He had married Anne, daughter
and CO -heiress of Sir Edward Monins, Bart., of Walder-
shere, Kent, who survived him and, although marrying a
second time, was, in 1706, laid to rest by the side of her
first husband.

As to whether they had any children is not recorded ;
but the " Dictionary of National Biography "' states that
a portrait of Sir Roger, by Lely, was at one time (1866) in
the possession of the Rev. Jermyn Pratt.

Note.

Hugh May, brother of Baptist May who ^\^as something
of an architect himself, was the designer of old Berkeley
House, Piccadilly, which he erected for Lord Berkeley of
Stratton at a cost of '' neere ;^30,ooo," as Evelyn tells us,
in 1665. Among other houses designed by him was
Cassiobury Park for the Earl of Essex, and Lady Fox's
villa at Chiswick ; and Evelyn, in 1671, speaks of May as
being then '' going to alter and repaire universally "
Windsor Castle. Like Pratt, May w^as one of the numerous
Commissioners for the repair of St. Paul's Cathedral, and
he also hoped to succeed Denham as Surveyor of the Works
(see Pepys's Diary, passim).

HAWKSMOOR

Although Hawksmoor became in course of time deputy
to Vanbrugh in various royal and private works undertaken
by the latter, his seniority in point of age and his long
experience in architectural matters before Vanbrugh turned

172 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

his attention to building (for during the first thirty odd
years of his life Vanbrugh devoted himself wholly to litera-
ture), necessitate his being dealt with before his more not-
able contemporary. Indeed, Hawksmoor knew much more
about the secrets of his profession than did Vanbrugh, and it
is not improbable that he was frequently the " ghost "' of the
latter's work. Vanbrugh's claim to be considered a famous
architect was largely confined to the vastness of his concep-
tions— size seems to have been with him a sort of mania —
whereas Hawksmoor, by a long course of training under
the incomparable Wren, gradually became a master of his
art in all its branches ; and that his name has not attained
the same celebrity as has Vanbrugh'*s is due to the fact that
he was a quiet, unassuming earnest worker, with here and
there flashes of inspiration, whereas Vanbrugh secured a
sort of esoteric notoriety as a playwright who had turned
architect, and whose vast conceptions were at once objects
of interest and wonder to his generation. As we shall see
later, this does not necessarily indicate that Vanbrugh
possessed neither originality nor knowledge, but in his case
they were not based on the long training necessary to pro-
duce a consummate architect, unless a man possesses the
extraordinary natural gifts of an Inigo Jones or a Wren.
Hawksmoor had no more marked natural gifts than had
Vanbrugh, but close application, careful attention to detail,
and a long and laborious apprenticeship produced, in his
case, something that only just fell short of greatness.

He was born at East Drayton,^ in Nottinghamshire, in
1 66 1, and was christened Nicholas. Nothing is known of
his forbears, nor have any data survived bearing on his
early days. At the age of eighteen, however, he is found
working under Wren as his " scholar and domestic clerk."
When, in 1683, Wren began his creation of the palace of
Winchester, it was Hawksmoor who was made "super-
visor" of the building arrangements, or, as we should
now say, clerk of the works ; and he also acted as

1 Or at Kagenhill or Ragnall close by, according to " Diet, of Nat.
Biog."

HAWKSMOOR 173

deputy-surveyor at Chelsea Hospital. Here he probably
first had a chance of doing some original, if subsidiary,
work, for we find him receiving the sum of ^10 "for
drawing designs for ye hospital," although of course, it
is quite possible that what he then did was merely
to copy a set of the plans prepared by Wren himself.
That he gave satisfaction to his master in these under-
takings, however, is proved by the fact that, in 1698, he
was called upon to fill the office of clerk of the works of
the far more important building of Greenwich Hospital,
his salary being fixed at 5^. a day.

At the same time he acted as assistant to Wren in the
protracted re-building of St. Paul's, and had, in 1692,
carried out the work at Queen's College, Oxford, from the
designs of his master : notably the south quadrangle
which, including the front facing the High, was not
completed till 1730. The library which was finished in
1695, was also part of the original scheme, and although
much of the re- building has been attributed to Hawks-
moor, it seems now pretty generally conceded that he was
merely carrying out Wren's designs, although here and
there, especially after Wren's death, he may have intro-
duced some original features of his own into the scheme. ^
As we shall see, other work at Oxford can be allotted to
Hawksmoor with no uncertainty.^

The year before Hawksmoor was at Oxford, he had
obtained through Wren's influence, the post of clerk of
the works at Kensington Palace which was at this time
being enlarged for William HI., and iiiter alia he superin-
tended the erection, from Wren's design, of the south
front. For the next twenty-four years Hawksmoor
retained this post, giving it up in 17 15 the year in
which he was made clerk of the works at Whitehall.

1 The drawings are preserved in Queen's College.

2 Mr. Hamilton Thompson, in his "Cambridge and its Colleges,"
seems to think that Wren may have handed over his work at Emmanuel
College to Hawksmoor, but this is impossible as it was begun in 1668
and practically completed in 1677, two years before Hawksmoor became
his pupil.

174 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

The salary he received by this latter appointment was
£()0 per annum ; and after having held it three years he
resigned on being created Secretary to the Board with an
increased remuneration. At the same time his superin-
tendence of the works at Greenwich still continued (he
had been made deputy-surveyor in 1705), and he was
responsible for the carrying out of the north-east, or
Charles II. block ; Queen Anne's block ; and the west
front and colonnade. At a later date (1735), Queen
Mary's block was also begun under his auspices, although
not wholly completed till 1752.^

Notwithstanding these onerous duties, Hawksmoor,
whose energy w^as quite surprising, having become associ-
ated with Vanbi'ugh, assisted him in the erection of Castle
Howard, and was also deputy- surveyor of the works at
Blenheim Palace. That his position here was an important
one is proved by the fact that he received ;£200 a year,
and ;^ioo for travelling expenses, while engaged on it;
and that he gave full value, in time and thought, for the
money is evidenced by his letters ^ to Joynes (the resident
comptroller) which are full of care and anxiety about
detail — a characteristic which was one of Hawksmoor's most
notable qualities.

He seems to have been employed at Blenheim from
1710 to 1715, but between these years he found time to
give his attention to a variety of other work ; thus, for
example, in 17 13, he was responsible for the erection of
Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, although the designs
for the mansion were probably by Wren who had added wings
to the place some thirty years previously ; and in the same
year he surveyed Beverley Minster, then little more than a
ruin, and directed the repairs undertaken there.^ Nor
did all this exhaust his energy, for we find him rebuild-

1 In the Soane Museum are preserved the accouuts for the works at
Greenwich ; and in the E.I.B.A. Library is an engraved plan, by Hawks-
moor, of the Hospital at Greenwich.

2 Preserved in the British Museum.

3 He drew a view of the north front, which was engraved by
Fourdrinier and published in 1737.

HAWKSMOOR 17s

ing the Church of St. Alphege at Greenwich during the
years 1711 and 1718, and giving advice (1714) concerning
the restoration of All Souls', Oxford, about which I shall
have something to say presently w^hen we come to the year
in which he actually did work there.

But a still more important undertaking was to demand
all Hawksmoor's activity and attention, and one on which
he chiefly bases his claim to be considered an independent
architect. This was the part he played in the erection of
some of those fifty churches which the Act of 1708 had
provided for. Hitherto he had been working in a sub-
ordinate capacity under Wren and Vanbrugh, and what
original designs he may have provided in the case of the
latter, were incorporated in the output of his master.
Now he w^as to show what he could do by himself, and
in the direction of ecclesiastical architecture to which he
had not hitherto paid any particular attention.

Mr. Blomfield speaking of the influence of Wren and
Vanbrugh on Hawksmoor, acutely remarks that the latter's
original work indicates that he was continually trying " to
translate Vanbrugh into terms of Wren ;" and there is no
doubt that, as a follower of two such unequal men, he had
all the defects of their mingled qualities, and never quite
succeeded in freeing himself from their opposing influ-
ences. The result was very often excellent proportion,
knowledge of the art he had gained from Wren, and atten-
tion to detail for which he himself had a natural aptitude,
overwhelmed by that tendency to pile masses of stone one on
the other, with which Vanbrugh astonished his generation.

Hawksmoor was responsible for the designs of half a
dozen of the fifty churches which it had been proposed to
erect, but of these one — St. Giles-in-the-Fields — was not
subsequently built according to his original designs ; the
five that were erected from his plans, however, are St.
Anne's, Limehouse ; St. George's-in-the-East ; St. Mary
Woolnoth ; St. George's, Bloomsbury ; and Christ Church,
Spitalflelds.

The first named, as we know it to-day is a restored, though

176 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

a judiciously restored, edifice, for it was seriously damaged
by fire in 1850. It was erected between the years 171 2
and 1720, and is said to have cost ;^38,ooo. It is a
striking example of Hawksmoor's susceptibility to other
influences, being a combination of various styles, and it
was once likened to *"' a very large ship under easy sail, with
a flag flying at her maintop. ^ St. George's- in-the-East was
begun in 17 15 and occupied fourteen years in building.
The original estimate for it was something over ;^ 13,500,
but it cost nearly ;^5ooo more. It is built of Portland
stone and has a tower 150 feet high; and in exterior
appearance it somewhat resembles St. Anne*'s, Limehouse.
The year after its erection Hawksmoor, in conjunction
with James of Greenwich, succeeded Gibbs as surveyor to
the fifty churches, and this has perhaps led to the report
that James shares with Hawksmoor the credit of this
design, but there seems no other reason to suppose that
the latter was not alone responsible for it.^

The next church designed by Hawksmoor was that of
St. Mary Woolnoth, which was erected during 17 16-19,
a shorter time than any of the others occupied in building.
Standing at the corner of Lombard Street it is known to
all Londoners some of whom may have wondered at its
massive gaol-like appearance ; but the inside, like most of
Hawksmoor's, is ample and indeed fine, and if the massive
heaviness of Vanbrugh was undoubtedly beginning to
influence the architect, the large and well-proportioned
interior may be placed to his own individual craftsman-
ship.

The year following the completion of St. Mary Wool-
noth was to see the commencement of St. George''s,
Bloomsbury, which was completed in 1730. It is said to
have been the first church furnished with a portico — a
feature which subsequently, for a time at least, played an
important part in church architecture. The interior of

1 Malcolm's "Londinium Kedivivum," vol. ii. p. 83.

2 The working plans are preserved in the King's Library. Hawksmoor
kept the account of expenses for the churches erected from 17 13 to 1734.

CHRIST CHURCH, SPITALFIELDS

To face p. 177

HAWKSMOOR 177

St. George's is good ; large and airy, as are practically all
those of Hawksmoor's churches, but the steeple is dwarfed
by the imposing portico and badly placed, besides being
made ridiculous (through no fault of the architect's) by the
statue of George I. which surmounts it.

Christ Church, Spitalfields, is the best and the most
notable of Hawksmoor's contributions to the fifty churches,
and, in some respects, the most original of any in London.
It has often been described, and there is no need to give
full details of it here; its bold portico supported by
columns and surmounted by a semi-circular roof, and the
remarkable originality and shape of its tower crowned
by a spire, differentiate it from any other ecclesiastical
edifice, and show that although its designer was largely
influenced by men like Wren and Vanbrugh, he could on
occasion strike out a distinct line of his own. Christ
Church, Spitalfields, will not please all tastes, but it cannot
be denied that its planning was an inspiration, whether for
good or bad will depend largely on the feelings of its critics.
It was begun in 1723, and finished six years later, and
when completed was the largest of the modern London
churches.^

On the death of Wren, Hawksmoor succeeded him as
surveyor-general of Westminster Abbey, and it was
from his first design ^ that the two west towers were com-
pleted, the portions he added commencing about half-way
up. There has always been some doubt as to who was
actually responsible for q.hese very unfortunate additions to
the Abbey. They have been attributed to Wren by some ;
others will not admit that he had a hand in them. What
is very possible is that the design originated with Wren
who, had he lived to complete it, would in all probability
have so improved on his first rough draught (as was his
custom) that something more in harmony with the rest of

1 Its steeple is no less than 225 feet in height.

2 Probably James of Greenwich actually superintended the work as
Ralph, in 1736 the year in which Hawksmoor died, notes that " there is
a rumoar that the Dean and Chapter still design to raise the towers."

M

178 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the fabric would have been the result, but that Hawksmoor
prepared fresh designs based on Wren's work, not liking to
produce an actually new plan. That this feeling may
have alone restrained Hawksmoor, is, I think, borne out by
the fact that he had a very marked, and for that period,
exceptional, reverence for old work, as is proved by a
circumstance that had occurred at Oxford as early as 17 14.
In that year when restoration was rampant at All Souls,
the authorities desired to pull down the whole college and
rebuild it ; Hawksmoor was consulted and although the
opportunity was thus given him to produce a complete
college of his own design, he pleaded for the preservation
of " all that was strong and durable (in the existing fabric)
in respect to antiquity as well as our present advantage."
What Hawksmoor did affect at All Souls is bad enough,
but was probably attempted out of deference to the
depraved architectural taste of the authorities who no
doubt insisted on Gothic and got for their pains about
the worst example of it possible.

Hawksmoor's ability, however, is better represented
elsewhere in Oxford, such as in the south quadrangle of
Queen's, with its fine facade to the High, the Hall and
Chapel ; and in the old Clarendon Press in which, how-
ever, Vanbrugh worked with him. For the latter he
made the designs and received £100 " to gratify him for
his work." But other plans he drew out for buildings in
Oxford did not find favour with the authorities, and those
for the rebuilding of Brasenose and the RadclifiPe Library,
as well as for a new front to All Souls, all prepared about
1 7 20, were not carried into effect.^ At an earlier date he
had drawn plans, which were issued with an appeal for
funds, for building a tower to St. Mary's Church in con-
sequence of the fall of the spire in 1699, but nothing
came of it. Nor was he more successful at Cambridge
where Gibbs's later designs for the rebuilding of King's
College were preferred to those that Hawksmoor had

1 There are no less than seventy of fiawksmoor's designs in the
RadcliiSfe Library.

HAWKSMOOR 179

executed in 17 13. It was possibly at this time that he
prepared " PJans of ye Town of Cambridge as it ought to
be reformed," a vast scheme that may not unnaturally
have given pause even to a generation in which re-building
was rampant ; and his design for a new portion of St.
Johns (now in the King's Library) never survived its
initial stage.

Among other work that occupied Hawksmoor''s busy life
was the designing of the Town Hall and Gates of Chester ;
a chui'ch for St. Albans; a monument to the Duke of
Marlborough ; and a column, and statue of Queen Anne, to
be erected in the Strand (171 3), and in 1736, he was
engaged on a Mausoleum at Castle Howard. In 1726,
during an illness of Vanbrugh, he filled the post of Deputy-
Comptroller of the Royal Works, and in 1735 became
deputy-surveyor ; and he was also " Draftsman " to the
Board of Works at Windsor and Greenwich. At the
same time he found sufficient leisure to produce his
'* Remarks on Founding and Carrying on of Buildings at
Greenwich " for the perusal of Parliament in 1728, and
his " Short Account of London Bridge," in 1736. Indeed
he was working almost up to his death which occurred at
his house at Millbank, on March 25 of the latter year,
although the London Daily Post for the preceding day had
contained a premature announcement of his decease. He
was buried at Shenley, Hertfordshire, and in the church
is a stone slab to his memory.

He left a wife (to whom he bequeathed property in
various parts — Westminster, Highgate, Great Drayton
and Shenley), and an only child — a daughter who had been
twice married during her father's lifetime.

As a private man, Hawksmoor was courteous, considerate
and unaffected ; a good husband and father ; an unpretend-
ing, earnest worker ; indeed a proof of his unassuming
character is given in an application made by Vanbrugh to
the Duke of Marlborough, on his behalf, in which the
former asks " for some opportunity to do him (Hawksmoor)
good because he does not seem very solicitous to do it for

i8o LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

himself/' He was besides a scholar, a clever draughtsman
and a good mathematician ; and as an architect, although
over-burdened by much of that ponderousness which
Vanbrugh was to make almost magnificent in its daring,
he showed a very marked vein of originality in much of
his work, and he had a minute technical knowledge of his
art. Indeed even what he did in a wrong direction was
done with so much sincerity and earnestness, that, in an
age so largely artificial as his, if he cannot claim to be
a pre-eminent architect, he may be regarded as greater
than many whose names are better known, and whose
claims to the admiration of posterity appear at first to
rest on more solid foundations.

VANBRUGH

Of those I have just indicated, Vanbrugh is perhaps the
most notable example. A wit, a soldier, a fine gentleman,
a dramatist of a high order ; after some thirty-six years of
activity in such fields, he suddenly determined on becoming
an architect, and so effectually did he exert himself that he
has taken a prominent place even among those who laboured
all their lives at the art, and who have not succeeded in
attaining anything like his fame. There is no gainsaying
the fact that a man who could effect so much must have
been no ordinary man ; and Vanbrugh, though a very
ordinary — or, perhaps, one should say extraordinary —
architect, was anything but an ordinary man. Indeed, he
possessed many of the essentials of a very great one, and
had he applied himself to architecture early in life, we
should probably have lost a witty playwright and have
gained a very fine architect. This seems the more probable
because his work shows a gradually increasing improvement
as he advanced, and indicates clearly enough that he had
grasped the fundamental elements of the art, and was

SIR JOHN YAXBRUGH

To face p. 180

VANBRUGH i8i

slowly but surely mastering its less defined but no less
necessary attributes. He was, however, ridden by a demon
which no amount of effort would apparently have succeeded
in unseating — the demon of size ; and thus when he was
called upon to plan a Blenheim, or design a Castle Howard,
he did so on Brobdingnagian principles, and the dwellers in
these stupendous palaces crept about between his huge
columns and found themselves uncomfortable homes.

It has long been a recognised truth that size alone does
not give dignity, either in men or mansions, but Van-
brugh never seems to have remembered this ; and to apply
what Pope once said of the princely Chandos :

" Greatness with (Vanbrugh) dwells in such a draught
As brings all Brobdingnag before your thought ;
To compass this his building is a town,
His pond an ocean, his 'parterre a down."

But notwithstanding this mania for the heaping of stones
one on the other, it was only in the exteriors of his great
buildings that dignity was sought in mere size ; the interiors
were relatively insignificant, and where impressiveness
might legitimately have been produced by large and well-
proportioned apartments, the insides of some of Vanbrugh's
most pretentious achievements are divided up into more
or less small, in some cases even insignificant, rooms ; so
that, taking these in conjunction with the immensity of
the buildings as a whole, one can appreciate the question
said to have been addressed to the noble owner by one who
saw Blenheim for the first time : " And where do you
live.?"

Where or how the dwellers in houses built by him lived,
seems to have been Vanbrugh's last thought ; and so long
as immense facades, clustering pinnacles, and huge
rusticated columns were present, he apparently cared or
troubled about little else. The scene-painter was, indeed,
always peeping out, and had Vanbrugh's huge houses been
merely transferred to canvas, one might have supposed that
their interiors were on the same immense scale as their out-

1 82 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

sides. But one need not further insist on this curious
phase in Vanbrugh's character as an architect ; his con-
temporaries, from Pope and Swift downwards, exhausted
their Avit, and sometimes their venom, in ridiculing the
pretentiousness of his edifices ; and it will be a pleasanter
task to record the details of his life, and its many and varied
interests.

He was the son of Giles Vanbrugh by Elizabeth, youngest
daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton, of Imber Court, Surrey.
His grandfather had fled from Ghent when the Duke of
Alva laid waste the Low Countries, and had settled in the
securer neighbourhood of Walbrook where he carried on
business as a merchant, with success and credit. On his
death, Giles Vanbrugh inherited his not inconsiderable
fortune, and appears to have increased it by business both
in London, and at Chester whither he migrated in i667,and
where he is said to have been concerned in what would be
now called, I suppose, a sugar refinery. As, however, he
had been liberally educated, and was a well-to-do man,
besides having married in a highly satisfactory manner, it
need occasion no surprise when we find that he obtained
the position of Comptroller of the Treasury Chamber, nor
need we smile on learning that he also resided for a time
in Walbrook which in those days was as fashionable as
much of the West End is now.^

There was, at one time, a considerable amount of doubt
as to the birthplace of John Vanbrugh, but it is now known
that it was in the parish of St. Nicolas Aeon, and not in
the Bastille as a rather cryptic expression in one of his
subsequent letters, where he speaks of the Duchess of Marl-
borough's endeavour, " so to destroy me as to throw me
into an English Bastille, there to finish my days as I begun
them in a French one,'' seems to indicate. We shall see,
however, that in early life he was for a time incarcerated
in that formidable prison, and the expression used by him
refers to the incident. At a later date he built for himself

1 Giles Vanbrugh was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Chester, July
19, 1689 J his wife lived till 17 11, and was interred at Thames Ditton.

VANBRUGH 183

a small residence at Greenwich which he called the " Bastille
House," and therefore the memory of his confinement was
apparently not a very terrifying one.

Vanbrugh who was born in 1 664, probably received the
rudiments of his education at the Chester Grammar School,
but at the age of nineteen he was sent to France, whether
in order that he might make himself master of the language
or in furtherance of some commercial transaction or
political scheme is not known, but it seems likely that he
there received what architectural training he ever had.
That it could not have been a very complete one is proved
by the fact that he came back to England in 1685.

Shortly after his return he entered the army, receiving
a commission in the Earl of Huntingdon's regiment, on
January 30, 1686. If he never saw service, he probably
fulfilled that other requisite of a soldier of the period, of
posing as a fine gentleman and man about town, and
for many years he was known in London as Captain
Vanbrugh, a grade he attained to in 1702. Four years
after receiving his commission, Vanbrugh was seized at
Calais and charged with travelling without a passport.
At first the matter seemed trivial enough, and it was hoped
that he would be speedily exchanged for one of the French
prisoners then in this country ; but somehow or other this
was not effected ; and so long after as May 1691, he was
removed to Vincennes and there kept in durance. Nor was
this the worst that was to befall him, for after being im-
prisoned at Vincennes for nearly a year, he was transferred
in January 1692, to the Bastille, and there would probably
have languished an indefinite time had not some mysterious
influence caused his release, not, however, until he had
spent the best part of another year in that fortress ; his
discharge not taking place till the November of 1692.

On his release Vanbrugh made no haste to identify him-
self with the profession of architecture. Instead of this,
indeed, his impressionable mind was led away into a
very different channel. During his military career he
had become acquainted with a fellow soldier, Sir Thomas

1 84 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Skipwith, who was interested in a theatrical company,
and Vanbrugh, who had apparently already occupied
some of his idle hours in trying his hand at dramatic com-
position— Voltaire indeed states that he wrote a comedy
duringhis imprisonment in the Bastille,^ — showed his friend
one or two scenes of a play which he had completed. Skip-
with's enthusiasm encouraged the writer to complete the
work, and in 1697, The Relapse which had been inspired
by Gibber's Love's last Shifty and written in six weeks,
was produced and received with unstinted applause. So
successful was it indeed, that the all-powerful Halifax
extended his patronage to the new playwright, and under
his a^gis^ The Frovoked Wife appeared in the May of
the same year and with as triumphant a success.

But even in those days there were some who were horri-
fied at the loose morality and questionable situations which
neither the wit nor the comic invention of Vanbrugh could
atone for, and the more successful his plays the more
vehement were the denunciations of a section of the
public. Vanbrugh attempted to defend himself, and we
shall smile on being told by him that " there is not one
woman of real reputation in town but, when she has read
the play {The Relapse) impartially over in her closet, will
find it so innocent she will think it no affront to her prayer-
book to lay it upon the same shelf" ; Autres temps ^ autres
mceurs ; I fear in these days Vanbrugh''s witty indecencies
would hardly bear so severe a test ; and that even then he
realised something of the questionable taste of his produc-
tions is proved not only by his attempting to justify him-
self, but also by the fact that in the following year (1698)
he annexed a French comedy, Boursaulfs Esope a la Cour^
overlaid it with the most unimpeachable sentiments and
moral lessons, and produced what he called "^sop,"
which ran a few nights and was an absolute failure ! Van-
brugh's dramatic work is on the whole so excellent, that to

1 " Lettres sur les Anglois." Voltaire adds, " Ce qui est k mon sens
fut etrange c'est qu'il n'y a dans cette Piece aucun trait centre le pays
dans lequel il essuia cette violence. "

VANBRUGH 185

deal with it fully would be to discuss not only the par-
ticular plays {The False Friend appeared in 1702 ; Tlie
Confederacy^ and The Country House taken from Dan-
court, three years later ; and A Journey to London^
which he left unfinished, was completed by Gibber, and
brought out in 1728, as The Provoked Husband)^ and
special characters such as Mrs. Amlet and Dick and Brass ;
Lord Foppington and Sir John Brute ; but also the
dramatic tendencies of the age, and the special qualities
of the Restoration Dramatists — in a word to do (I fear it
would be but feebly) what Leigh Hunt and Hazlitt and
Lamb have done so well already.^

What alone, concerns me here is what Vanbrugh pro-
duced in another direction — that of architectui^e. Having
arrived at the age of thirty-six, with two remarkably
successful plays behind him, he seems to have sought other
worlds to conquer, and to the surprise of every one who had
probably forgotten by now, if they ever knew, that he had
once paid any attention to architecture, he laid down the
pen and blossomed forth as the designer — not of some
small tentative effort, but of one of the largest and in
some respects most splendid of English mansions — Castle
Howard.

This imposing structure, although not so vast as Blen-
heim, possesses a total frontage of 660 feet, or exactly
one-eighth of a mile ! As was usual with Vanbrugh's
designs, the main body of the palace, which has a frontage
of 300 feet, is supported by two great wings each of which
is built round a courtyard ; one being the kitchen court,
the other the stable court ; while colonnades join the two
blocks to the main building and enclose an immense cen-
tral courtyard. The interior with its entrance hall and
staircases on each hand leading to suites of rooms is effec-
tive, but the grand saloon is only 34 ft. by 25 ft., and the
two largest rooms (those at each end of the garden front)

1 Vanbrugh borrowed largely from Boursault and Dancourt and
Molik'B, and he collaborated with Congreve and Walsh and Betterton,
but there is always his own individuality in even such composite work.

1 86 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

are but 40 ft. b}' 15 ft., and conclusively show what has
been before said, that Vanbrugh's one aim was to create
buildings that should impress by the massiveness of their
exteriors alone.

The general effect of Castle Howard is, however, lighter
and, if one remembering Pope's assertion of " How Van
wants grace,'"" can use the epithet, more graceful, than
that of Blenheim ; indeed it seems to me extraordinarily
fine when compared to the colossal mausoleum at Wood-
stock ; and it is probable that had Vanbrugh not earned a
name for heaviness in his buildings it would not have been
considered ponderous except when compared with the rela-
tive insignificance of its rooms. It was erected for Charles
Howard, third Earl of Carlisle, and that he seems to have
been satisfied with the work is evidenced to some extent by
the fact that, in his capacity of Deputy Earl Marshal
(170 1-6), he appointed the architect Clarenceux King-at-
Arms, in 1703. As this office placed Vanbrugh over the
heads of all the other heralds, they not unnaturally remon-
strated, even to the length of a formal petition against the
appointment, but in vain ; and a man who was absolutely
ignorant of the arcana of heraldry and knew nothing of
the requirements of his office, and besides neglected his
duties ^ and even ridiculed them in one of his plays,
retained the post for over twenty years, only giving it up
a month before his death in 1726.^

While engaged on Castle Howard Vanbrugh was
appointed Comptroller to the Board of Works, in succession
to Talman, with a salary of 8^. 8cZ. a day. This post,
although not infrequently filled by practical architects,
had been on occasion given to men so devoid of knowledge
of the art as Sir John Denham (to take a striking instance),
its duties, in such cases, being undertaken by deputies who
really had something more than a superficial acquaintance
with architecture, so that when Vanbrugh was appointed

1 His first official signature appears in 1704. Dallaway.

2 In 1706 he went to Hanover to invest Prince George (afterwards our
George I.) with the Order of the Garter,

VANBRUGH 187

it was probably thought that the best man had been
chosen.

The erection of Castle Howard was not the only private
work confided to Vanbrugh at the outset of his career as an
architect, for in the year in which it was commenced he was
engaged in rebuilding Addicombe House for Mr. Draper,
the son-in-law of John Evelyn ; and the Diarist speaks of
visiting the mansion on July 11, 1702, when it must have
" been on the eve of completion : " I went to Adscomb,"
says Evelyn, " to see my son-in-law's new house, the out-
side to the covering being such excellent brickwork, bas'd
with Portland stone, with the pilasters, windows, and
within, that I pronounced it, in all the points of good solid
architecture, to be one of the very best gentlemen's houses
in Surrey when finished." In the following year Vanbrugh
received a commission from Sir Godfrey Kneller (a fellow
member with him of the Kit-Cat Club) to erect a house at
Whitton near Hounslow. When finished the mansion was
called Whitton House, but in more recent days it has
become well known, though so much altered and added to
as to be practically a new building, as Kneller Hall.

A little later we find Vanbrugh engaged on the erection
of the Opera House in the Haymarket (a congenial task one
supposes), on ground which the architect had secured for
the moderate sum of £2000. The first stone of this was
laid in 1703, by the beautiful Lady Sunderland, and so
expeditiously was the work completed that on April 9,
1705, the theatre was opened with a performance of
Dryden's Indian Emperor. Vanbrugh was not only the
architect but also the lessee and manager, and was soon
joined in the latter capacity by Congreve. But things did
not go well, chiefly owing to the fact that the acoustic
properties of the auditorium were so defective that hardly
anything that the actors said could be heard by the
audience ; in a word Vanbrugh had again fallen into his
besetting sin of sacrificing utility to architectural effect.
Worried by an unsuccessful venture he subsequently
transferred the management to Owen MacSwiney who was

1 88 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

in turn followed by various impresarios, including the
notorious Heidegger under whom the place as a house for
singing seems to have done better than when plays were
alone performed there, and as the scene of wonderful and
costly masquerades, when it did best of all.

The year which saw the opening of the Opera House
or Theatre, witnessed also the commencement of the work
with which Vanbrugh''s name is inseparably connected —
the building of Blenheim Palace.

All the world knows that this vast pile originated in the
desire of the country to bestow a fitting reward on the
great captain who had taught the doubtful battle where
to rage, and had made England feared on the continent
as she had not been feared since Edward III. had carried
his victorious arms over France, and Henry V. had led his
soldiers to victory at Agincourt and had occupied Paris
itself.

In 1706 Parliament ratified this general desire and
voted the erection of a splendid mansion. One not un-
important point was, however, overlooked : no funds were
assigned for payment of the work. The Queen, with
whom at this time both the Duke and his illustrious
Duchess were in high favour, ordered the building to
proceed ; and Vanbrugh seems to have been selected as
architect not only with Her Majesty's ready consent, but
also at the express desire of the Duke, and Duchess Sarah.
Plans were prepared — and what plans ! They must have
required, one imagines, a special house for their reception
alone. The work was put in hand ; but things did not go
smoothly from the beginning. In the first place dissen-
sions arose between Vanbrugh and the redoubtable
Duchess on the question of retaining and incorporating
in the new building, the old manor house of Woodstock,
which, to the architect's credit he was desirous of preserv-
ing on account of its antiquity and associations. Then
the Treasury payments, when they could be obtained at
all, were eked out in a fitful and altogether unsatisfactory
manner, and although during her life the Queen paid for

VANBRUGH 189

such of the work as was then completed, the payments
were often terribly behindhand, neither Vanbrugh nor the
workmen liking to complain, as feeling sure that they
would eventually be fully remunerated. It was a vain
hope, and neither architect nor subordinates realised that
it was possible for an English Parliament to vote the
erection of a house and to leave the payment of it to be
divided between the Queen who had approved the object,
and the soldier to whom it was supposed to be a gift.
Few more scandalous miscarriages of propriety have been
recorded than the secret history of the building of
Blenheim.

On Marlborough's fall from power in 17 11, and the
upsetting of his duchess's influence over the Queen, it
Avould seem that the representatives of the nation thought
themselves freed from any obligation to the great soldier
who had upheld the honour, as he had preserved the
safety, of the country. Anne, to her credit, did not think
thus, and no odium attaches to her name in the sordid
history of an event probably unparalleled in history. It
is but fair to state that no less than _^200,ooo had already
been expended on the palace ; but this seems no reason
why the Treasury, which must have seen the plans and
perused the estimates, should have refused to spend more.^

Vanbrugh finding that if he could not make the Duke
personally responsible for the expenditure that was going
on unceasingly, he would himself be entirely (as he very
nearly actually was) ruined, did all he could to inveigle
the Duke into some acknowledgment of responsibilty on
which he could have a claim against his Grace. Marl-
borough, however, was too acute to be thus caught, and
far too fond of money to be willing to pay, and, in any
case, he naturally enough thought that he should be the
last person to be called upon to do so. However, during one
of his absences abroad, Vanbrugh seems to have obtained
from Lord Godolphin a warrant constituting him Marl-

1 The Blenheim Palace accounts are preserved in the British Museum.
Additional MSS. 19592-605.

190 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

borough''s architect with power to contract on his behalf.
How he obtained this does not appear, but that he did
hold it is as certain as that he carefully held it in reserve.

In the meantime Marlborough appears to have com-
pounded with the workmen, undertaking to pay them as
the work proceeded, and on the understanding that their
wages should be discharged regularly and not according
to the Treasury methods which had been intermittent to
the last degree ; on which undertaking the workmen agreed
to accept a third of their original wages. In doing this
Marlborough undoubtedly thought that he would be
recouped by the Treasury — as he had a right to think ;
but as the Treasury seemed further off paying than ever,
and as the Duke began to have misgivings, he stopped
payment altogether and the workmen immediately struck.
This was in 17 15, three years after the new arrangement
had been put in force. At this juncture Vanbrugh
delivered a veritable coup de Mdtre, by producing the
warrant he had obtained from Lord Godolphin. But
Marlborough was not to be frightened with such false
fire, and he calmly disowned the warrant, pointing out,
truly enough, that were such an instrument to be con-
sidered binding, no one would be safe ; and Vanbrugh is
found lamenting the loss of near ;f 2000 due to him " for
many years' work," and casting abuse on " that wicked
woman of Marlborough,'' whom he regarded, with good
reason, as being even more ready than her illustrious
husband, to ruin him.

There seems little doubt that Vanbrugh was so anxious
to complete Blenheim that he went on relying on promises
that he must have known were idle, rather than allow
the work of his imagination to remain unfinished. It is
also obvious that his plots to involve the Duke in the
matter of payment will not bear a severe moral test. But
he probably thought that by such an intrigue — worthy, as
Isaac Disraeli ^ says, of one of his comedies — he would,

1 See for an interesting account of the whole matter, " The Secret
History of the Building of Blenheim" in the "Curiosities of Literature."

VANBRUGH 191

through the Duke, force the hands of the Treasury ; and
that when he found this impossible, he turned in despera-
tion on the man who was after all to possess the splendid
palace, and sought recompense for himself and his subordi-
nates from the immense wealth which Marlborough was
known to have accumulated. The matter cannot be de-
fended, and excuses are idle ; all that can be said is that
Vanbrugh did the whole of his share of the work and was
paid for very little of it ; and the chief blame seems to lie
with a Government that could order a present and then
refuse to meet the bill.

The whole affair is somewhat complicated, but one
fact stands out from it — the now historic quarrel that
ensued between the imperious Duchess and the disap-
pointed architect. After the Duke's death in 1722, this
war of words between the two continued with increased
fury ; and Vanbrugh remarks that the Duchess "was left
■£10,000 a year to spoil Blenheim her own way^ and
;£i 2,000 a year to keep herself clean and go to law." The
indomitable Sarah retorted in a practical way by com-
pleting Blenheim (1724) from Vanbrugh's designs, but
without his assistance, and by refusing to allow her enemy
to enter the palace to which he had given, for so many
years, his thought and care. When, indeed, on one occasion,
Vanbrugh and his wife stayed at Woodstock with a party
of ladies from Castle Howard, the Duchess, in an access of
malevolence, " sent an express the night before he came
there,'"* writes the indignant architect, " with orders that
if she {i.e.^ Lady Vanbrugh) came with the Castle Howard
ladies, the servants should not suffer her to see either
house, gardens, or even to enter the park, so she was
forced to sit all day long and keep me company at the
inn."

Nor was this the extent of the Duchess's vindictiveness,
for we find Vanbrugh writing thus in 1725 : "I have been
forced into Chancery by that the Duchess of Marl-
borough, where she has got an injunction upon me by her
friend the late good Chancellor (the Earl of Macclesfield),

192 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

who declared that I was never employed by the Duke, and
therefore had no demand upon his estate for my services
at Blenheim. Since my hands were thus tied up from
trying by law to recover my arrear, I have prevailed with
Sir Robert Walpole to help me in a scheme which I
proposed to him, by which I got my money in spite of the
hussy's teeth. My carrying this point enrages her much."" ^

Those who are acquainted with the history of this
period will not be surprised to hear that Sir Robert
Walpole proved ready to thwart the Duchess of Marl-
borough, and to help Vanbrugh, so far as he could, against
the intrigues of his enemy. Sir Robert and the Duchess
had for some time been mortal enemies, and Walpole had
so elFectually succeeded in circumventing some of old Sarah's
manoeuvres, that one can almost understand her assertion
that it was only common justice to wish Sir Robert
hanged !

Vanbrugh built a summer-house for the gardens of
Walpole's Chelsea residence ; and altogether seems to have
found favour with that remarkable man. Nor was this
the only circumstance that helped to soften the annoy-
ances to which the architect had been exposed over the
building of Blenheim, for in 17 14 he had been created a
knight, and two years later was made surveyor to Green-
wich Hospital in succession to Wren, with a stipend of
;^200 a year. Indeed, the antagonism of the Marlboroughs
seems to have little affected his professional work, for in
17 1 6, we find him employed by that very curious and
notorious person, Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe, in the
erection of Eastbury in Dorsetshire, which was completed in
1718 ; and during the next six years he designed a number
of private houses, including King's Weston, near Bristol
for the Hon. Edward Southwell ; Easton Neston, in North-
amptonshire ; a mansion for Mr. Duncombe in Yorkshire ;

1 Horace Walpole indicates that as a further annoyance the Duchess
employed Wren to design Marlborough House, instead of Vanbrugh,
but Marlborough House was erected in 1709-10, before Blenheiiii was
commenced.

VANBRUGH 193

Oulton Hall, Cheshire; and Seaton Delaval in North-
umberland, the latter being erected in 1720. The last
of his work on large mansions was the very considerable
additions he made to Grimsthorpe. He here showed, as he
had gi-adually been showing in the other houses mentioned,
more restraint and less ponderousness of design, and it
therefore seems obvious that his work, had he lived, would
have advanced still further in the right direction.

Among other undertakings on which Van br ugh was
employed at various times, mention may be made of the
erection of Dalkeith Palace for Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch
and Monmouth, in 1705 ; the restoration of Kimbolton
Castle, for the Earl of Manchester, in 1707 ; the erection
of the old house at Claremont for the Earl of Clare (after-
wards Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister under George II.
and George III.) three years later ;^ the building of Floors
Castle, near Kelso, since greatly altered however ; the
planning of the gardens at Stowe in 17 19 ; and certain
alterations, very unsuccessful in the main it must be con-
fessed, to Audley End, two years later.

This is no bad record for a man who, before he attempted
architectural work, had made his name famous as a
dramatist ; and whatever may be the final judgment on
Vanbrugh's claims as a designer of houses, and there has
been no slight reaction in this respect from the contempt
and ridicule of many of his contemporaries, there can only
be one opinion as to his activity and belief in his own
powers.

But although he had met with triumphant success in
one direction, and, in view of the satisfaction of his clients,
could, as an architect, afford to smile at the sneers of his
detractors, there is no doubt that the worry and anxiety
incident on his unfortunate connection with Blenheim,
helped to shorten his life ; and even if many of his troubles,
such as when, in 17 13, he had been dismissed from the

1 There used to be a tablet in the grounds mentioning this fact, and
stating that the property belonged to Vanbrugh himself in 1708, which
seems to indicate that he sold it to Lord Clare.

N

194 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

office of Comptroller to the Board of Works on account of
a letter he had written protesting against the conduct of
the Treasury, had been short-lived (for in 17 1 5 he was
reinstated in the post), they must have left a sting behind
which time could alone efface ; and it was time that now
failed him, for his life was drawing to a close.

In 17 1 8 he had applied for a lease of some ground in
Scotland Yard, and had there built himself a small but
somewhat pretentious house in a very mixed style, which
was on more than one occasion the butt of Swiffs satire.-*^
Here when in London he resided, dividing his time be-
tween it and the residence at Greenwich, the Bastille
House, as it was called, in the company of his wife (Hen-
rietta Maria, daughter of Colonel James Yarburgh, of
Snaith Hall, whom he had married in 17 19), who was
many years younger than himself and who long out-lived
him,^ dying in 1776 at the age of ninety.

As we have seen, Vanbrugh had been Clarenceux King
at Arms for many years, and it appears that he was about
to be raised a step higher by being created Garter, but on
being informed that one John Anstis ^ had a reversion to
the post, he withdrew his claims and resigned the office of
Clarenceux, in February 1726 ; a little more than a month
later (March 26) he died in Scotland Yard, aged sixty,
from an attack of quinsy.

Vanbrugh was in every way a remarkable man ; indeed,
considering that he made an enduring name as a play-
wright and an architect, perhaps one of the most remark-
able men of his time. The wit, knowledge of life, and
easy familiarity with the habits of good society — and bad
— make his dramatic compositions, in spite of their

1 The original lease from 1719 was renewed to " Dame Henrietta Van-
brugli," and again so much later as 1767 to "Lady Vanbrugh."

2 An idolised and only eon, Charles, became a soldier, and was killed
at the battle of Tourney in 1745. He had been married at Trinity
Chapel, Knightsbridge, on June 9, 1721, to Anne Burt ; both he and his
bride being described in the register as of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

3 For a notice of Anstis, see " Hearne's Diary," vol. ii. p. 231.

VANBRUGH 195

frequent indecencies, amusing and instructive reading, and
enable their author to take a high place even among such
masters as Congreve and Wycherley and Farquhar. His
architectural achievements were, in spite of his prevailing
fault, often original in conception, and, so far as their
exteriors are concerned, frequently majestic in appearance;
and, as the best authorities on their technical attributes
attest, they showed in advancing years so marked an im-
provement in sincerity and restraint of design that had
Vanbrugh lived another ten years it is probable that such
remarkable lapses into the gigantic as Castle Howard and
Blenheim (have I mentioned that the latter''s total frontage
is no less than 856 feet?) would not perhaps — how could
they ? — be forgotteo, but would be remembered chiefly as
the early attempts of one who had not then really found
himself.

Vanbrugh's architecture was in his own day the butt of
innumerable satirists, and has been adversely criticised by
later generations of men fully constituted to judge without
being biassed by the thousand and one circumstances that
often ed poisoned the shafts of contemporaries, but he
has had one famous defender in Sir Joshua Reynolds ;
while Sir lived ale Price and others at a later day were
found to substantially re-echo the great painter's eulogism,
and even to say a word in defence of the much-abused
Blenheim Palace.

For the rest Vanbrugh's character was an amiable and
easy-going one ; all his clients became his personal
friends, and it is significant that not one of those who
laughed at his buildings and ridiculed his style of archi-
tecture is found to say one word against the man himself.
Of the innumerable friends which his wit and pleasant
manners gained him he seems never to have lost one, and
even Marlborough was ready to introduce him to George I.
at Greenwich on the occasion of his receiving his knight-
hood. He appears never to have made an enemy, if we
except Duchess Sarah with whom hardly any one ever
succeeded in preserving a long friendship, and this not

196 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

only shows the engaging sociability of his character, but
also proves that his wit was entertaining without sting
and did not, like that of some of his famous contem-
poraries, scintillate at the expense of others.^

1 A little-known architect named William Wakefield is spoken of as
the designer of Duncombe Park, Kokeby Park, and Atherton House, and
according to Walpole, Helmsley. But nothing else seems to be known
of him, and Mr. Blomfield surmises that he was probably entrusted with
the carrying out of some of Vanbrugh's designs, which would account for
the attribution of Duncombe Park to him.

CHAPTER VII

ARCHER; JAMES OF GREENWICH; CAMPBELL;
BURLINGTON; PEMBROKE; KENT

In order to be as correctly chronological as possible I
have placed the six architects whose names appear at
the head of this chapter, together. By far the greatest
was of course James, although Campbell did good work
in his day; but the rest were merely distinguished
amateurs, except Kent who was an all-round man,
though certainly not pre-eminent either in architecture,
landscape-gardening, or painting, all of which, however,
he attempted with some measure of success.

ARCHER

Thomas Archer properly comes first after Vanbrugh,
for he was for a time Vanbrugh's pupil, and the influence
of his master is to some extent apparent in his designs ;
although it cannot be denied that he possessed a sort of
originality which, in the absence of any careful training,
appealed to a generation that was ready to receive, with
becoming rapture, anything new and unexpected.

Archer was the son of Thomas Archer who had been
Member of Parliament for Warwick in the reign of
Charles II., and was again returned for the county,

197

198 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

together with Mr. Bromley, in 1695.^ I^ i^ not known in
what year Thomas Archer the younger was born, but it
was probably between 1675 and 1680, as his first architec-
tural work dates from 1705. At this time, also, he first
received the office of groom-porter to Queen Anne,
possibly through his father's influence, succeeding Mr.
Rowley 2 in the office, in the February of that year, an
office which he continued to hold under George I. and
George II. What the exact duties of this post were is a
little vague ; the official description of it is " Groom
Porter of all Her Majesties houses in England and else-
where""; and from a passage in Lady Cowper's Diary,^ it
w^ould seem to have been something equivalent to that of
the modern Gentleman Usher.

There is no doubt that Archer was a person of some
importance in his day, and he seems to have studied
architecture as many fine gentlemen of the period were
then beginning to do, as a part of a liberal education; and
as Vanbrugh was also a persona grata at Court, Archer
found a master made to his hand.

In 1705 he plunged into his initial attempt at house
planning by designing Heythrop Hall, in Oxfordshire ; but
after this effort he appears to have done nothing for four
years, and even then to have executed but a minor, although
in its way an elaborate, piece of work, notably the pavilion
at Wrest Park. In the following year, hoAvever, we find
him designing a house for Mr. Gary at Roehampton, a
building which is reproduced in the *' Vitruvius Britannicus,""
and which Walpolie mentions as an example of its archi-
tect's " wretched taste.""

Walpole, however, was not quite just in this, for,
although Archer's work is far below the level of the best,

1 "Luttreli's Diary." 2 lUd.

3 "This was Twelfth Night (January 6, 1715), and such a Crowd I
never saw in my life. My Mistress and the Duchess of Montague went
halves at Hazard and won £600. Mr. Archer came in great Form to
offer me a place at the Table ; but I laughed, and said he did not know
ine if he thought that I was capable of venturing two hundred guineas
at play — for none sit down to the Table with less."

ARCHER 199

several of liis designs are not only free from wretched taste,
eccentric as some of them undoubtedly are, but reveal a
certain amount of originality, which, had it been chastened
by more restraint and knowledge,would have deserved praise.
Roehampton House, as it is called, is an unpretentious
red-brick structure, somewhat plain and heavy, and just
such a mansion as we should expect from an uninspired
architect, but the drawing-room, with its ceiling de-
corated by Sir James Thornhill, was well proportioned,
and the broken pediment, a feature Archer was fond of,
is introduced not ineffectively, although it is more fully
developed in another of the architect's subsequent designs,
that for the Church of St. John, in Smith Square.

A far more notable example of his powers is St. Philip's
Chui-ch, at Birmingham. Colin Campbell gives a ground
plan and elevation of this in his " Vitruvius Britannicus,"
and there mentions the building as being "justly esteemed
a very beautiful structure '' ; and Mr. Blomfield, who con-
siders the actual church finer than can be judged from
Campbell's plate of it, speaks with enthusiasm of the
beautiful and original tower, which he considers one of the
finest steeples in England. Indeed, notwithstanding that
the influence of Hawksmoor is traceable, there is, in this
church, so much of really individual design and excellent
proportion attributable to the architect himself, that had
he done nothing else he might, like single-speech Hamilton,
have lived by this solitary but excellent effort.

Unfortunately, Archer has left other and less praise-
worthy productions, such as St. Paul's at Deptford, de-
signed in 1730, of which the steeple is again the most,
perhaps the only, notable feature ; and a church at
Umberslade in Warwickshire, planned eleven years later.-*-
But the building with which his name is chiefly associated
has proved sufficient to counterbalance what good, though
if we except the steeple at Birmingham never essen-
tially great, work he did in other directions. This is the

1 He also designed Umberslade Park, close by, for Lord Archer, a
relative.

200 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

famous — or perhaps notorious would be a fitter adjective —
Church of St. John, Westminster, which was built between
1714 and 1728, being consecrated on June 20 of the latter
year, although not opened for public worship till the follow-
ing November. It is square, and has, as Londoners know,
four towers or belfries at the corners, and Walpole dubs it
a " chef d'ceuvre of absurdity " ; while similes have been
ransacked to describe its extraordinary appearance — Lord
Chesterfield remarking that it reminded him of an elephant
with its legs in the air, and Charles Matthews likening it
to a dinner-table in the same position.

It was the second of the fifty churches which were
ordered to be erected at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, and it is stated to have cost no less than 240,ooo.
It must have been begun at the end of Queen Anne's
reign, for I find that by 17 15 a thousand pounds had
been paid to the workmen, the orders for such payments
being signed by the Commissioners of whom Vanbrngh was
one, which latter circumstance may have led to the once
general supposition that he was responsible for the
building.

In looking into the history of St. John's Church, one
wonders whether, after all, Archer deserves the ridicule
that has been cast upon him ; for it appears that during
the erection, the ground suddenly began to settle through
the swampy nature of the soil, and in order to balance the
foundations the four corner towers were added more from
necessity than choice ; besides which, when the architect
found that this was the only practicable way of getting
out of an unforeseen difficulty, he intended to raise the
body of the church and to surmount it with a large central
tower and spire. In the Crowle Pennant is a drawing
entitled " Mr. Archer's design for St. John's Chui'ch,
Westminster, as it was resolved upon by the Commis-
sioners," and this is so diff^erent in outline from the existing
edifice as to prove that the character of the latter was an
afterthought, due to circumstances over which the architect
had no control.

ARCHER 20I

Chamberlaine, in his "Survey of London and West-
minster," thus refers to the church and the unfortunate
circumstances attending its erection : " It is," he says,
" remarkable for having sunk while it was building, which
occasioned alteration in the plan. On the north and
south sides are magnificent porticos, supported by vast
stone pillars, as is also the roof of the church. At each of
the four corners is a beautiful stone tower and pinnacle :
these additions were erected that the whole might sink
equally, and owe their magnitude to the same cause. The
parts of this building are held together by iron bars which
cross within the aisles."

The interior is ample, and parts of it are more or less
dignified, but it is plain, as the " assembly-room " class of
churches generally are, and, except for some good wood-
carving, not particularly interesting.^

Besides the houses and churches I have mentioned,
Archer does not seem to have done much other work, but
Cliefden House, for Lord Orkney, subsequently destroyed
by fire, which Walpole attributes to him, can, with every
show of reason, be placed to his credit. ^

His death occurred on May 23, 1743,^ and that he
amassed a large fortune (although part of it may have
been bequeathed him by his father) seems evidenced by
the fact that he left no less than ^^i 00,000 to his nephew,
H. Archer, Esq., who was at one time M.P. for Warwick,
as Thomas Archer the elder had been.

As an architect. Archer, although he did, as we have
seen, some not wholly indifferent, in fact, in one instance
at least commendable, work, is not of any particular im-
portance. He was a pupil of Vanbrugh, but what of

1 It will be remembered that Churchill was once curate and lecturer
here, and here preached with so soporific an efi"ect that, as he himself
states, "Sleep at my bidding crept from pew to pew."

2 In 17 10 he designed an elaborate Pavilion for the Duke of Kent's
seat in Bedfordshire, a representation of which Campbell gives in his
" 7itruvius Britannicus," where Cliefden is also given as his work.

3 Gentleman's Magazifie.

202 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Vanbrugh's style he seems to have preserved was that in
which his master was least praiseworthy ; he carried on no
tradition, and, in common with many of the eighteenth-
century designers, he was too tied down by formula to
exhibit any very marked individuality. Like Colin
Campbell (a much finer architect, however), and Lords
Burlington and Pembroke, he should rather be classed
among the clever amateurs than among those whose
hfe-work was entirely dedicated to the mastering of the
innumerable intricacies of an exacting profession.

JAMES OF GREENWICH

With the architect we now come to — John James — the
case is altogether different. Here we have a man who was
bred to the profession, and whose difference from Archer
is just the difference between his master, Hawksmoor, and
that of the latter, Vanbrugh ; that is to say, between the
carefully trained native intelligence, and the fine gentleman
who, having mastered certain elementary essentials of the
art, regarded himself, with some complacency, as a finished
designer.

John James, known as James of Greenwich from the
fact that in later life he lived there, was the son of Thomas
and Eleanor James, the latter a person of some pretensions
to fame as a political writer, and evidently a woman of a
masculine turn of mind, for, after her husband''s death in
171 1, she continued to carry on the printing business in
which he had been interested. She seems, too, to have been
rather eccentric ; indeed, she is described as " a mixture of
benevolence and madness." This need not trouble us, how-
ever, and when we know that she was the mother of three
sons : John, the architect ; Thomas, afterwards a type-
founder; and George, a printer, we know all that is
necessary for our purpose about Mrs. Eleanor James.

The date of John James's birth is unrecorded, nor has

JAMES OF GREENWICH 205

any information come down to us as to his early education
or architectural training, but that he must have made a
mark in the latter by 1705, is proved by the fact that in
that year he was chosen to succeed Hawlcsmoor as clerk of
the works at Greenwich, a post he continued to hold till
his death forty years later. In this capacity he worked
under such unequal architects as Wren and Vanbrugh,
Colin Campbell and Ripley, and the experience he thus
gained must have been of inestimable benefit to him, at
least in preventing him from becoming stereotyped in style
or conventional in method.

James's first attempt at independent work was in the
direction of domestic architecture, for in 1710 he designed
for the Hon. James Johnstone — the " Mr. Secretary John-
stone " whom Pope so bitterly satirised — the mansion at
Twickenham which has since been known as Orleans
House, in consequence of its later association with the
French royal family when in exile. According to Ironside,^
the house was built " after a model of the country seats
in Lombardy"; and the same writer thus describes the
place as it was at the end of the eighteenth century : " It
is a handsome building of brick, but the front has been
spoiled by removing the entrance and throwing out a bow
from the bottom to the upper story. Before this altera-
tion, there was a handsome door-case of Portland stone,
with a window over it suitably ornamented. The present
way into the house is in the centre of a wing added to it,
or a passage to an elegant octagon room at the end, which
was built on purpose for the reception and entertainment
of her late Majesty Queen Caroline. These additional
buildings make one very long wing, which has an awkward
appearance, for want of somewhat to answer it on the
other side for the sake of uniformity. This passage to
the octagon is made use of as a musick room." ^

1 "History of Twickenham."

2 The octagon referred to above was designed and added by Gibbs.
There is a representation of the mansion in the " Vitruvius Britannicus,"
vol. i. Plate 77.

204 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

The year after the planning of Secretary Johnstone's
house we find James employed at St. Paul's in the rather
curious capacity of master carpenter; a post, I imagine,
equivalent to that of overseer or superintendent of the
final work on the edifice.

Five years later (17 16) he became assistant surveyor
with Hawksmoor, which is sufficient proof that he must
by that time have shown no little capacity as an architect,
an additional proof of which is afforded by the fact that
in the same year, on the resignation of Gibbs, he was chosen
as surveyor to the Commissioners of the " fifty churches.^'

But, before this, James had been employed on two other
churches, St. George's, Hanover Square, and St. Mary's,
at Twickenham. The former is probably his most not-
able production, certainly attention has been centred on
it, perhaps more than on any other church in London,
for it has long been the proverbial scene of the more
important weddings, although in these days other sacred
edifices have almost rivalled it in this respect. It was
commenced in 1732, the first stone being laid on June 20
of that year, and finished eleven years later, being conse-
crated by Bishop Gibson on March 23, 1724. It was one
of the fifty new churches, but, as we see, was designed by
James before he became surveyor to the Commissioners.

It has been rightly said that the portico would be
thought handsome if there were space to admire it;-*^ and
there is no doubt that, in common with so many other
fine buildings in London, St. George's suffers by the rela-
tively small open space in front of it ; but, notwithstanding
this, the portico is handsome, and compares favourably
with that of St. George's, Bloomsbury, or even with the
still finer one of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. What is not
so excellent is the steeple, which, according to a system
which James is said to have introduced, is placed on the
roof with apparently no proper support. The interior of
the church — and who does not know it ? — is sombre, but
well-proportioned, and possesses that kind of quiet dignity

1 Pennant,

o

O
O

JAMES OF GREENWICH 205

by the aid of which even lesser men sometimes almost
rivalled the perfect lines of the great Wren himself.

St. George's is Corinthian in st3'le, and is built of stone ;
St. Mary's, Twickenham, is, on the other hand, a remark-
able example of brickwork — indeed, Cobbett ^ calls it, in
this respect, "inimitable,'' and adds that "the walls are
of prodigious thickness ; every detail is carried out con-
scientiously and thoroughly, and in such respects it puts
to shame many more pretentious modern structures." The
well-known tower is, of course, of very much earlier
date, indicating, indeed, that the original church must
have been erected in the time of Edward III. ; and it was
only the body of the building which James was called upon
to rebuild. The edifice fell to the ground in 17 13, and that
at least one person foresaw what was likely to happen is
proved by a passage in one of Lady Wentworth's letters,
dated May 12, 17 13, in which she says : " Did I ever tell
you the church is fallen down, and the fat minister is dead
and Dr. Pratt is minister ? Soe before it fel he preached
one Sarment in it, but would preach noe more, but ordered
Pasmore to make a tabernakle in the church-yard, which
al has and must contribute to. Soe he preached there
and exhorted al to give thancks for thear great deleverence
for the church not falling when they wear in it, it being
then standing. The people all laughed at him, and in a
week's time it fel down to the grownd, soe all the parrish
contrebutse to the building of it."

The churchyard was at the same time enlarged, and we
find Sir Godfrey Kneller and Thomas Vernon, the then
churchwardens, applying, in 1713, to the Duke of Somerset
for a grant of additional ground for the purpose.

It seems probable that James was selected as architect
on account of the work he had done a few years earlier
for Secretary Johnstone close by ; and at that time the red
brick stone-pointed church and mansion must have made
(as to some extent they still do) two dominant and warm
notes at this part of the river.

1 " Memorials of Twickenham."

2o6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

The next work which we have any evidence of James
undertaking was certain repairs, such as re-facing, &c.,
to the older courts and the chapel at Caius College, Cam-
bridge, on which he was employed intermittently from
1718 to 1726. But between these years — notably in 1721
— he was commissioned by Sir Gregory Page to design a
house at Blackheath. It was said to have been a miniature
copy of Houghton Hall, but as Houghton was not
designed by Colin Campbell till two years after the house
at Blackheath was erected, there must be some mistake
here. Mr. Blom field states that the place was demolished
in 1787 ; the "Dictionary of National Biography" places
this event two years later. In Walford's " Old and New
London"" is a view of a small house, known as West
Coombe, and dated 1794, which is said to have been
erected for Captain Gilfridus Walpole and designed by
Lord. Pembroke, on ground leased from Sir Gregory Page.
In outline this house is so like Marble Hill, which Pem-
broke is known to have planned, that it seems not
improbable that he was its architect ; on the other hand,
in view of the contradictory statements regarding it, it
may have been the identical mansion erected by James.

In 1725 James became Surveyor to Westminster Abbey,
and the completion of the two west towers from Wren'si
designs, now, however, generally allowed to be the work
of Hawksmoor, has been attributed to him.

In the following year he was engaged on the rebuilding
of the old East India House, which had hitherto been
domiciled in the mansion leased to the company by Sir
AVilliam Craven in 170 1. James*'s design was apparently
a very modest one compared with the later building with
its long facade and central portico supported by eight Ionic
columns, which, with other improvements, was added during
1799 and subsequent years. Four years after completing
this work James designed a new steeple for the church of
St. Alphege at Greenwich ; indeed the plans for the whole
church have been attributed to him, but it is more likely
that they originated with Hawksmoor. It is rather diffi-

JAMES OF GREENWICH 207

cult, in the absence of any actual proof, to discriminate
between certain work of these contemporaries, just as it is
uncertain which of them was actually the pioneer in the
introduction of the portico as a characteristic of church
building — one introducing it into St. George's, Blooms-
bury, and the other into St. George's, Hanover Square,
at about the same time.

For some years before this the Duke of Chandos had
been engaged in erecting his splendid seat at Canons, and
James, in conjunction with Gibbs and an architect named
Sheppard (of whom nothing more appears to be known),
was employed to design it. No plan or elevation of xhe
structure as a whole is known to exist, but from the eleva-
tions of the north and south fronts, prepared by Hulsberg
in 172 1 and 1730, we can see that the whole Palladian
palace was one of such splendour as to be a fitting resi-
dence for its princely owner. Its foundation walls were
twelve feet thick ; those above ground only three feet
less; and its four fronts each extended to 120 feet.
Unlike those in Vanbrugh's huge erections, the rooms
were of fine proportions, the saloon being supported by
marble pillars, and the whole decorated by the combined
skill of the architects, and the Italian artists — Bellouchi,
Pergotti, and Paulocci ; while Grinling Gibbons added
the fruits (and flowers) of his inimitable imagination and
w^orkmanship.-"^

Canons was completed before 1730 in which year, as we
have seen, James was engaged at Greenwich, and it must
have been about the close of his undertaking for the Duke
that he took the unfortunate step of entering into partner-
ship with his brother Thomas, William Fenner, and Wil-
liam Ged,^ in an attempt to work a patent for block-

1 For a long descripliou of the place, see "The Princely Chandos," hy
J. E. Eobiuson.

2 In 1736 Ged issued his "Proposals for Printing by Subscription"
a correct edition of Sallust's works, &;c., "from the .most beautiful
small types done by plates in the manner lately invented by William
Ged, Goldsmith in Edinburgh." It consists of a folio leaflet printed
on both sides, and is probably unique.

2o8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

printing and stereotyping invented by the latter. James
appears to have been associated in the matter with the
hope that his large acquaintance among the nobility and
other persons of distinction would be likely to forward a
scheme greatly depending for its success on patronage and
introduction. But the anticipations of the little company
were not destined to be fulfilled, and in 1729 the under-
taking failed, and James lost heavily by it.

Luckily for him, his professional work was not affected
by this disaster, and in 173 1 he was employed by the city
authorities to take down the old Bishopsgate which had been
erected in 1471, and to put up a much less elaborate gate
in its place. The more or less utilitarian structure which
he built only remained standing for about thirty years,
being removed in consequence of the passing of an Act
(1760) empowering the city authorities to remove certain
entrances to the city, which had no longer any meaning or
use. A little later James is said to have designed the
church of St. Luke, Old Street, but it is more generally,
and with reason, attributed to Dance who was at this time
clerk of the works to the Corporation. As, however, St.
Luke's was Dance''s first work, it is not improbable that he
may have sought James's help in this initial attempt, espe-
cially as his earlier training — he is said to have been origi-
nally a shipwright — had hardly prepared him, one would
suppose, for the planning of churches. The tradition that
James was the architect of St. Luke's may have thus
arisen, and perhaps, if we knew all, he might still properly
claim it as his own.

That he was commissioned to repair and re-case the
tower of St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1735, for which
undertaking a Parliamentary grant was passed, seems,
however, satisfactorily established, as his duties as as-
sistant surveyor would naturally connect him with such
a work. The year after it was completed James suc-
ceeded Hawksmoor as Surveyor of the Royal Works, and
as such may be said to have arrived at the goal of his
ambition.

JAMES OF GREENWICH 209

Beyond that already mentioned, no other architectural
work is assigned to James ; but, in addition to what he
did in this direction, he produced several books, chiefly
translations or disputatious publications. Thus so early as
1707, he brought out " Rules and Examples of Perspective
proper for Painters and Architects," from the Italian of
Andrea Pozzo, with plates by Sturt ; in the following year
he published an English edition of Claude Perraulfs
" Treatise on the Five Orders of Columns in Archi-
tecture," which was also illustrated by Sturt; in 1712
appeared his " Theory and Practice of Gardening, from the
French, it is supposed, of Alexandre Le Blond, and illus-
trated by thirty-two fine plates by Van der Gucht.
About the same time (T711 to 17 17) he was engaged in a
pamphleteering war over the matter of a survey he had
been commissioned to make of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury's (Tenison's) residence, and a demand for the payment
of dilapidations, instituted by Tenison's successor. Wake ;
which was, however, finally settled by arbitration after a
long and somewhat acrimonious dispute. James produced,
at a later day, a small work entitled "A Short Survey of
several Schemes that have been offered to the Publick in
relation to the Building of a Bridge at Westminster." It
was published in 1736, the year in which an Act for con-
structing a bridge here had been passed. Batty Langley,
who had previously made a design for the bridge, replied
to James's pamphlet in 1737, but the work was entrusted
to Labeyle, a naturalised Swiss, who, in 1739, issued his
" Account of the Method made use of in laying the Foun-
dations of Westminster Bridge."

Nothing further is known of James whose private life
has successfully evaded that glare of publicity which
generally falls upon men who have made a name for
themselves; and when it is recorded that he died at
Greenwich after a long illness on May 15, 1746, leaving a
wife; and that his only child, a son, predeceased him by
two years, I have, I think, set down all that is known
of a man who was a painstaking and carefully trained

2IO LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

designer, but who, it must be confessed, wanted, with
all his knowledge, that touch of inspiration which goes to
the making of a pre-eminent architect.

COLIN CAMPBELL

Although Colin Campbell designed some fine mansions,
it is probable that had he not worked under the cBgis of the
influential and gifted Lord Burlington, nor published his
extensive " Vitruvius Britannicus," his name would have
been almost unknown to a later generation than his own.
Walpole, in his condescending way, dismisses him in less
than a dozen lines,-^ and in them takes the opportunity of
having a characteristic side-hit at Gibbs, to whom he is
curiously unjust, by stating that Campbell had fewer faults
but no more imagination than his countryman ; which is
the sort of damning with faint praise by which one might
as easily say that an oyster has little more flavour than a
truffle ! That he lacked individuality is only to say that
he shared with various other architects of the day the
inability to stamp on his works that personal touch which
the great men have always succeeded in doing, but he had
distinct ability of a limited kind, and he seems to have
been a master of the technical part of architecture — in
short he was a good, though certainly not a great, architect.

As in the case of James of Greenwich, nothing is known of
his early life or training except that, as his name indicates,
he was a Scotchman, and was patronised at the beginning
of his career by the Duke of Argyle, of whom, as a Camp-
bell, he may probably have been a kinsman. Like many
of his countrymen, he determined to push his fortunes in
the south, thus adding point to Dr. Johnson's well-known
saying ] but before leaving his native land he designed a

1 Campbell has been unfortunate, too, in having but scanty notice
taken of Mm in the " Dictionary of National Biography," where several
works known to be his are not eyen mentioned.

COLIN CAMPBELL 211

small house at Shawfield, near Glasgow, for a Mr. Daniel
Campbell, in 171 2. Indeed, he left traces of his early
activity on his route to London, for he appears to have
erected a somewhat similar dwelling at Beverley for Sir
Charles Hotham, and another at Chester-le-Street,
Durham.

Arrived in London he was taken under the protection of
Lord Burlington, the Maecenas of the arts at that period,
probably through the introduction of the Duke of Argyle,
and during the years 17 17 and 17 18 he was engaged on the
improvements being carried out by the earl at Burlington
House, Piccadilly. There has been a good deal of doubt
as to the exact extent of CampbelFs work here, and the
matter has been so carefully discussed by Mr. Phene Spiers^
and others, that it is not necessary to recapitulate it ;
according, however, to Colin CampbelFs own showing, he
was responsible for " the front of the house, the conjunc-
tion from thence to the offices, the great gate, and the
street wall"; and elsewhere in his "Vitruvius Britannicus,"
he indicates that he built the western wing in conformity
with that on the east which had been previously (Lord
Burlington began his improvements in 17 16) erected by
another architect.

The credit of this earlier work has been given to Leoni,
not because it was actually known to be his, but because he
was brought from Italy by Lord Burlington, and was not
improbably responsible for the famous colonnade ; but I
have recently found, in Gibbs's MS. account of his own life,
preserved in the Soane Museum, the following words :
" The Earl of Burlington had him (Gibbs) to build and
adorne his house and offices in Piccadilly, they are all built
in solid Portland stone, as is likewise the fine colonnade
fronting the house, of the Dorick order."

This throws a fresh light on a point that has been for
long an obscure one, and introduces into the rebuilding of
Burlington House yet another architect besides Campbell,

1 In two articles of the highest value in " The Architectural Eeview "
for 1904.

212 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Burlington, Kent, and Leoni, who all seem to have had a
finger in it.

It will be observed that Campbell claims by far (with one
exception — the remarkable colonnade) the most important
features of the new work at Burlington House ; but for
several reasons it seems more than likely that although he
may have superintended such work, and may even have
translated rough drawings into architectural terms — an
office for which he was admirably fi tted — he did not actually
design all the portions to which he indirectly lays claim.
Thus the front has such a marked resemblance to that of
the Palazzo Porto at Vicenza, that it is reasonable to
suppose that Lord Burlington brought drawings of it from
Italy and employed Campbell to copy them. The much-
praised gateway had, also, so distinct an JtaMsm prove7ia7ice,
that it is not improbable that something of the same kind
occurred with regard to its genesis. The wall — the most
expensive in England, it was termed — was, however, no
doubt designed and erected by Campbell ; nor might we
have doubted his sole claim to the other portions men-
tioned but for the reasons given, and also for the additional
one that he was clearly not averse from laying claim by
implication, in his published works, to designs of which he
was rather the publisher, or perhaps one should say the
adapter, than the author.

As I shall have something more to say about Burlington
House when speaking of the amateur architect for whom
it was designed, I need not enlarge on the subject now, but
will pass to certain other works with which Campbell was
connected. One of the most important of these, on which
he seems to have been employed between 17 15 and 1720,^
was the once famous Wanstead House, demolished in 1822.
Campbell, who figured the really splendid mansion in his
" Vitruvius Britannicus,'' there speaks of it thus : " You
ascend from the court by double stairs on each side, which
land in the portico, and from thence into the great hall
51 feet long and 36 wide and in height the same. This
1 He made two designs for this, the latter of which was selected.

COLIN CAMPBELL 213

leads into the salon, being an exact cube of 30 feet, attended
with two noble apartments of state, all fronting the
gardens.""

Old views of the place show it to have been very im-
posing, and built in that classic style of which Stowe
and Wentworth Woodhouse are existing examples. The
central block rises slightly above the two wings, and is
ornamented in the centre by six columns supporting an
entablature, the main entrance being beneath this portico
and reached by a returned double flight of steps. The
over- windows and the use of rusticated work remind one
of Inigo Jones from whom doubtless Campbell borrowed
these points. We can quite understand that when first
erected the mansion was regarded as " one of the most
elegant houses in England." Indeed, the author of the
" Complete English Traveller,'' published in 1771, waxes
quite enthusiastic over the details of the building, but
he adds that " it seems to want some of that proportion
necessary to set off* the whole."" It is but fair to Campbell
to state that his original design was considerably modified,
and that his first intention was to erect the whole in three
stories, whereas only the centre portion was carried out ;
and the pavilions for the ends, which he had designed, were
never built. However, as it was, the " noble house or rather
palace,"*"* as it was termed, was considered to equal if not
surpass Canons itself. It was erected for Sir Richard
Child, son of Sir Joseph Child, of the well-known banking-
house, who was created successively Baron Newton, Viscount
Castlemaine, and Earl Tylney.

In addition to Campbell's architectural work at Wan-
stead,^ Kent was employed to decorate certain of the ceil-
ings, and the interior was as lavishly embellished as we
know Canons to have been. Horace Walpole visited the
place in 1755 and^even he who was not uniformly j ust to
Campbell's merit, allowed that the mansion was very fine.

Shortly after its completion, the architect was employed

1 According to him the povtico of six columns was the first of its kind
in England.

214 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

by Sir Robert Walpole to design Houghton Hall.^ This
immense and imposing place has a total frontage of 450
feet and reminds us of the colossal size of some of Van-
brugh's buildings ; but it is far better proportioned and
has not that meaningless assemblage of parts which is
to be found in some of the earlier man"'s work. Indeed
Houghton, although the hypercritical may find fault, is a
very fine example of a splendid country house of the period,
and gives us a better conception of CampbelFs occasional
lapses into rightness than anything else he attempted. As
we shall see Ripley had something to do with it later, as he
replaced Campbell as architect, but it is essentially Camp-
belFs design, and as such he deserves the credit of it. The
great central block has a frontage of 166 feet, and its four
corners are sui'mounted by cupolas ; the wings (allocated
to domestic purposes) being joined to it by a series of
colonnades. What appears a defect is that these subsidi-
ary buildings do not carry out the scheme of the main
building ; but allowing for this, the work as a whole is a
magnificent example of what Campbell could do, and is
one of which a much greater architect would not need to
be ashamed.

Houghton 2 was a great English mansion adapted to
the needs of a great English noble and more or less in
harmony with the characteristics of the country, but
Campbell was not always permitted to work on this
straightforward plan, or did not always permit himself to
be so restrained, and in Mere worth in Kent, which was
his next important undertaking, he copied the design
which Palladio had once made for Almerigo ; a design
suitable enough in Italy but absurdly out of place in this
country.

The chief feature of Mereworth, like the better known
example erected for Lord Burlington at Chiswick, was a
circular hall inclosed in a square, and surrounded by rooms

1 Commenced in 1722 and completed 1735.

2 Plans of it are given in Horace Walpole's " (Edes Walpolianae," and
descriptions are to be found in the various histories of Norfolk,

COLIN CAMPBELL 215

671 suite. At this moment that fashion which in a few years
time was to produce the Society of Dilettanti, had already
set in and had brought with it a passion for the antiquities
of Greece and Italy, which impelled noblemen and gentle-
men returning from the Grand Tour, not only to import
into this country innumerable remains scattered in the
environs of Rome and Athens, but also to try and emulate
the architectural features of these two countries by setting
up reproductions of their buildings in an alien land. Much
good was done by this enthusiasm and also no little harm.
It supplied architectural models, but it helped to smother
native talent and to narrow native taste ; and it is for this
reason that, as a whole, the eighteenth-century architects
are so deficient in invention and so stereotyped in their
designs. Besides, in the anxiety to copy anything of
Roman and Greek origin, the English architects (or perhaps
the blame should more rightly be laid at the doors of their
patrons) did not always remember that what was appropriate
in a land of warmth and sunshine, was not suitable for one
ill which the first necessity of house-building is that cold
and damp shall be vigorously battled against.

From this point of view Mereworth cannot be considered
a success ; but as a careful copy of an Italian villa it
had its interesting features. It was erected for the sixth
Earl of Westmoreland, and was completed in 1723.
Campbell designed a very similar house for the Duke of
Richmond at Goodwood, in the following year, but this
was never carried out. At the same time he was engaged
on the planning of Pembroke House in Whitehall for
Henry, Lord Herbert, the *' Curio " of Pope's Moral Essays,
and one of those noblemen who gave themselves with
enthusiasm to the collecting of " Statues, dirty gods and
coins" as the same mordant wit describes it. This was
not, however, Campbell's earliest design for a London
building, for in 17 17, he had planned the Rolls House in
Chancery Lane, of which the first stone was laid on Sep-
tember 18 of that year. It is stated to have cost ;£5ogo
• — a moderate sum, especially when we know that much

2i6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

labour and time were expended on its erection, it not being
actually completed till 1725. Those who remember it
(for it was only demolished some twelve years ago) will not
need to be told that it was an excellent and unpretentious
building. That Campbell was himself satisfied with it
seems to be indicated by the fact that, when he was subse-
quently commissioned by Mr. Plumptre to build a residence
at Nottingham, he repeated the design of the Rolls
House ; and it is stated that another of his houses, at
Stourhead, is taken, with some variations, from the same
motif. Among CampbelPs other designs, which were carried
out, was that for a square mansion at Newby in Yorkshire,
and a pretentious garden house at Hall Barn, in Bucking-
hamshire ; while Drumlanrig Castle has also been assigned
to him.

Of the official posts which Campbell filled, the most
important was that of Surveyor of the Works at Greenwich
with which building nearly every architect for a hundred
years, was in some way or other associated. In 1725 he
was, too, appointed architect to George, Prince of Wales.
This position, owing to the Prince's absolute lack of in-
terest in artistic matters, was not, however, likely to give
Campbell many opportunities for displaying what archi-
tectural gifts he possessed, and during the four remaining
years of his life, nothing of any importance has been traced
to him. He died on September 13, 1729, leaving a widow
but no children.

In Campbell's day it was the fashion for architects to
publish weighty folios filled with the designs of their
illustrious predecessors, interspersed with not a few of their
own, and dedicated to patrons whose purses must often
have been considerably lightened in the process of publica-
tion. Campbell was a notable example of this custom,
but the selection he issued in three volumes, under the title
of " Vitruvius Britannicus " during the years 1717 to 1725,
does not do particular credit to his taste or judgment, for
where he perpetuates the name of Benson, an inadequate
amateur who had been allowed to supplant Wren, he only

THE EAKL OF BURLINGTON

To face p. 217

LORD BURLINGTON 217

gives three examples of the work of the greatest of English
designers. Of course he includes many of his own works
and plenty of eulogy of his patrons ; but notwithstanding
these blemishes the work has an undeniable value, and as
our judgment will not now be likely to be biassed by the
editor's partiality, it is of interest to have the elevations and
ground-plans of many of the principal buildings in England
preserved in so sumptuous a form.^

Shortly before his death Campbell was advertised as
being engaged on an English edition of Palladio's " I
Quattro Libri delf Architettura," but it was apparently
never produced.

LORD BURLINGTON

As we have seen, CampbelFs chief patron was the Earl of
Burlington. A more critical age than his own will hesitate
to allow to Lord Burlington the pre-eminent position as
an architect which was accorded to him by a somewhat
fulsome and panegyrical generation, when his claims seem
to have been seriously compared with those of men like
Inigo Jones and Wren ; but there is no doubt that he
was an exceedingly accomplished man and very keenly
interested in architectui'e of which his theoretical know-
ledge considerably outbalanced his practical ability,
although the latter was by no means inconsiderable, and
even on occasion noteworthy.

VValpole has described Lord Burlington's extensive
patronage and absorbing love of the art, in his " Anecdotes
of Painting," but it will be observed that Walpole's praise
is almost entirely confined to the encouragement that Lord
Burlington gave to others, by helping them both with his
purse and with the splendid reproductions of the architec-
tural masterpieces of a past time, which he caused to be

1 Wolfe and Gandon brought out another edition, with many addi-
tions, during 1767-71.

2i8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

published, but that wheu there is any reference to his own
designs, the praise is half-hearted and occasionally the
criticism frankly adverse.

Born to a great position both by station and wealth,
Lord Burlington was early enabled to gain that instruc-
tion and experience by foreign travel which many a less
favoured but, so far as mental capacity is concerned
equally well endowed mortal has found the want of; and
what demands special praise is that, in an age when people
in his position frequently lived self-indulgent lives and
kept for themselves what was meant for mankind, Lord
Burlington gave his mind to the study of the fine arts and
literature with a whole-hearted enthusiasm. His reward is
that from the crowd of titled and untitled nonentities, he
stands forth as a splendid example of a great noble who
was also a finished gentleman and an accomplished man.

Richard Boyle, eldest son of Charles, 2nd Earl of Bur-
lington, was born on April 25, 1695. Before he had reached
his ninth year, his father died, and he succeeded to the
earldom and a string of subsidiary titles. He was thus
one of those whose career is in their own hands, and he
made a far better use of his early opportunities than
might have been expected when the character of the age
and the temptations that beset titled and wealthy youths
at all periods, are considered.

On coming of age he made the then usual Grand Tour,
visiting Rome among other continental centres ; and the
sight of the relics of antiquity in the Eternal City, but
particularly the works of Palladio, seem to have quickened
into life the love of art and admiration for architecture in
particular, which lay dormant within him. It is uncertain
how long he remained abroad, but it was long enough for
him to become steeped in the spirit of classicism, and if he
did not return to this country a finished architect, he at
least came back imbued with the work of the greatest
architects of a past time, and with a large-minded sense of
the duties of an art patron.

No sooner had he returned than he began to build ; the

LORD BURLINGTON 219

first evidence of his activity in this direction being the re-
construction of his town mansion which had been originally
erected for the first Lord Burlington, from the designs,
it is said, of Sir John Denham, but more probably of John
Webb, in the days of Charles II. As an assistant in this
work the third Earl of Burlington associated with himself
Colin Campbell, and to this architect, as we have seen,
was due some of the features of the new building — features
which he had copied from the most beautiful remains in
Italy whither Lord Burlington had sent him for this
express purpose. There seems little doubt that Campbell
was responsible for the bulk of the alterations at Burlington
House, even if he did not actually design all the new work ;
something was undoubtedly done here, too, by Giacomo
Leoni, another of Lord Burlington's proUg^s, whose most
notable achievement is Moor Park, Hertfordshire ; and
Gibbs and William Kent whom Burlington befriended and
lodged at his house, had also a hand in it. Indeed, after
looking into the matter somewhat closely, I do not think
the evidence that Lord Burlington was the actual designer
of any part of Burlington House is based on probability,
and it seems likely that Leoni designed the famous
colonnade which appears to have been attributed to Lord
Burlington rather because Campbell does not himself
claim it than because his lordship did.

The whole matter is a somewhat difficult one, because
between Walpole, who airily attributes the whole building
to Burlington, and later and better authorities who refuse
to allow him any credit in it — except the anything but
negligible one of paying che bills — there is so great a gulf
fixed that Truth has every chance of being for ever
hidden in the abyss. The probability is that Burlington
indicated what he wanted, perhaps he drew out rough
plans (although none are certainly known to exist) of his
requirements, and that men like Campbell, or Leoni, or
Kent worked them up into finished plans. Popular
judgment on wealthy and titled people is so often in
extremes that a man like Lord Burlington has to run the

220 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

chance of being over-praised or under-valued. It is to his
credit that if he was not the genius that contemporary
criticism would have had him be, he was at least one of
those highly-cultured men, who, giving themselves to
thought in an unthinking generation, could appreciate the
splendid relics that antiquity had left them and could
patronise talent in men of their own time as well.

Just as the famous colonnade (over which Walpole
waxed eloquent) was taken from that of Palladio at the
Palazzo Viericati at Vicenza, so was another building
erected under Burlington''s auspices — Chiswick House — a
more or less close imitation of Palladio's Villa Capsa, near
the same town. Chiswick House was built in 1729, and
as Campbell states that the " Casino " in the gardens
there, apparently erected about the same time as the house,
was " the first essay of his lordship's happy invention,'' it
would seem, if these words are to be taken literally, that
such architectural work as is attributed to him before
that date, was also as little his as was Burlington House.
If this be so, then the house built for General Wade in
Cork Street, which was so ill-contrived within but so
decorative without that Lord Chesterfield once remarked
that, " as the General could not live in it at his ease, he
had better take a house over against it and look at it " ;
the dormitory at Westminster School, built at the same
time ; the house for the Duke of Richmond in Whitehall,
designed much earlier; and Petersham Lodge, rebuilt,
after the destruction of an earlier house by fire in 1721,
for the Earl of Harrington,^ can only be attributed to
Lord Burlington on the basis of his being so greatly
helped by the architects in his pay as to deny his soJe
claim to any of them. But men like Pope and Swift and
Gay, whose works are full of allusions to Burlington's
attainments, could hardly have printed encomiums which
they knew to be undeserved, even in the fulness of adula-

1 General Wade's house, and Nassau House, at Bath, occupied at
one time by Lord Burlington himself, are both said to have been de-
signed by him. — See Meehan's " Famous Houses of Bath."

LORD BURLINGTON 221

tion, had they not known — and they had every oppor-
tunity for doing so — the extent of their noble friend's
share in his architectural productions ; and I therefore
conclude that, as Lord Burlington was not a finished
draughtsman, he collaborated with Kent or Campbell
in producing those buildings which have since been attri-
buted solely to him ; where either of these architects
was alone responsible, the truth quickly leaked out, and
Burlington was apparently not the man to wish to claim
anything in which he had not had a hand

Where Lord Burlington failed as an architect vvas in
want of originality. Vitruvius and Palladio and Inigo
Jones were his exemplars, and he was content to reproduce
their consummate styles rather than attempt anything of
his own ; and although he may thus have made no advance,
he, at least, helped to popularise the works of splendid
masters. His importance lies in his excellent development
of patronage. Without his aid, Campbell and Kent and
Leoni, and a host of others (I need say here nothing of his
encouragement of poetry and painting), would have been
hard put to it to make names for themselves ; and he
was ever ready to finance the publication of those archi-
tectural volumes in which the work of former men is per-
petuated, spending large sums on sumptuous volumes.
In this M^ay " The Villas of the Ancients," by R. Castell,
was published by his liberality in 1728 ; two years later
he caused " Fabriche Antiche disegnate da Andrea
Palladio ^ to be printed ; he assisted Kent in bringing out
his designs for Whitehall, and, indeed, showed his friend-
ship for the latter not only by giving him apartments in
Burlington House, but also by publicly evincing his par-
tiality for him, as when he aided him in the design for a
new Mansion House — a design, however, rejected in favour
of that prepared by Dance. -^

1 When subsequently Lord Burlington was asked by the Corporation
to name a fitting person to carve the bas-relief on the pediment, he
replied that "the city mason should be employed," adding, "anybody
will do to carve the ornaments of such a building."

222 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Lord Burlington, besides the energy he exhibited in the
furtherance of the fine arts, occupied many important
positions in the State, and was given the Garter in 1730.
He was also, from 17 16 to 1733, Lord Lieutenant of
Yorkshire, during which period York Assembly Rooms
were built, and were supposed to be designed by him ; but
his share in the matter was probably confined to suggest-
ing one of Palladio's buildings from which they are taken.

He died on December 4, 1753, leaving a widow {n6e Lady
Dorothy Savile, eldest daughter of the Marquis of Halifax)
but no children, so that the Earldom of Burlington of the
Boyle line ceased with him.

Lord Burlington was a member of the Society of Dilet-
tanti, a body that did so much — as I have before pointed
out — to further the interest in the architectural remains
of a past time, both by importing into this country relics
that were gradually being destroyed, as they had been long
neglected, in Italy and Greece, and by making possible the
publication of the discoveries of such men as Stuart and
Revett, Chandler and Gell.

LORD PEMBROKE

Another notable member of this Society, who has some
claim to be considered an amateur architect, was Henry
Herbert, ninth Earl of Pembroke, who was born on January
29, 1693, and who, besides filling a variety of important
official posts, showed that the virtuoso spirit of his father
was an hereditary passion. Walpole says that " no man
had a purer taste in building than Earl Henry " ; and there
is no doubt that in the restoration carried out at Wilton
under his direction, reverent care was taken to preserve the
splendid work which Inigo Jones had done there. Of
Lord Pembroke's more individual designs. Marble Hill is
perhaps the best-known example ; another close by was

LORD PEMBROKE 223

the new Lodge in Richmond Park, better known as White
Lodge, of which the Earl is said to have designed the
centre portion ; while a less adventurous undertaking was
the Water-house at Houghton, which he planned for
Lord Orford.

Marble Hill is quite unpretending, but, as usual with
eighteenth-century houses, everything is sacrificed to the
first-floor rooms, and in consequence those on the lower
and upper storeys are low and inconvenient. It cost a
great deal of money, however, George II. contributing no
less than ^^ 12,000 ; but that this did not pay for it entirely
is indicated by Swift's " Pastoral Dialogue between Marble
Hill and Richmond Lodge," in which the Dean (who was
chief butler and keeper of the ice-house, as Pope was
" contriver of the gardens ") says that henceforth Lady
Suffolk (for whom it was erected) :

. . . will not have a shilling
To raise the stairs, or build the ceiling.

Lord Burlington is said to have had a share in the design,
but he probably merely gave Lord Pembroke advice on
the matter.

I have spoken, in the previous chapter, of the erection
of Westminster Bridge, for which Hawksmoor and Batty
Langley both prepared plans. The successful competitor
was Charles Labeyle, and one of his most strenuous sup-
porters was Lord Pembroke who laid the first stone of
the bridge in 1739, as well as the last, eighteen years later.
As Labeyle had a very much greater technical knowledge
of bridge-construction than any of those who sent in plans,
and as it seems to have been due to Lord Pembroke's
advocacy that he was employed at Westminster, Dallaway
is right in stating that the nation owed a debt of gratitude
to the peer for having had the courage to support the
claims of a foreigner; for those claims were based on
special knowledge not hitherto possessed by the bridge-
builders of this country.

224 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

liOrd Pembroke died on June 9, 1751, leaving a wife, and
family of whom the eldest son succeeded to the title, and
distinguished himself as a soldier, and in other ways.

As an architect Lord Pembroke's claims are small
enough ; but, at a period when influence and patronage
went for much in the development of the art, he exerted
himself in the right direction, and thus his name, in con-
junction with that of Lord Burlington, counts for some-
thing in the history of British architects.

KENT

Among the architects whom Lord Burlington patronised
was, as we have seen, William Kent. Kent's name is now
chiefly known in connection with landscape-gardening,
and Walpole, in a somewhat hyperbolic expression, speaks
of him as the father of modern gardening, who created
many Elysiums while Mahomet but imagined one ! But
the development of modern gardening had been carried so
far by Le Notre in France and Bridgeman in England,
that Kent can but be allowed the credit of adopting and
developing the styles, even if he here and there branched
out into something original, of his immediate predecessors
in the art. What Kent really was can be estimated by
the variety, and on the whole the mediocrity, of his work ;
whether it was planning houses, planting gardens, painting
ceilings, or designing ladies'* dresses and articles of furni-
ture. He was an all-round and accomplished artisan to
whom nothing seems to have come amiss, but whose very
variety of accomplishment prevented his being consummate
in any one direction.^

1 His chief excellence showed itself in his internal decorations, in
which he at times reached an extraordinarily high level. At No. 31 Old
Burlington Street, a house by-the-bye which he planned, Messrs . Lenygon
and Co. have rehabiiitated some of the rooms, not only in his style,
but filled with furniture actually designed by him.

WILLIAM KENT

To face p. 224

KENT 22S

Kent was born at Rotherham in Yorkshire in 1684, and,
in his fourteenth year was apprenticed to a coach-painter ;
but after five years of such work, " feeling the emotions
of genius," it is Walpole who thus phrases it, he ran
away from his master and came to London. What
he did here to attract attention is not very clear,
and the fact that he first set himself to paint portraits, is,
from what we know of his painting, not likely to have
helped him with the virtuosi. However, he did, somehow
or other, secure patronage, and was enabled by it to
accompany Talman to Rome, in 1710. There he studied
under the Cavaliere Luti, a man of no inconsiderable
eminence,^ and to such good purpose as to gain the
second prize in the second class at the Academy. At
Rome, too, he fell in with some patrons, in fact during
his life he was always lucky in this respect, and one
of them. Sir William Wentworth, allowed him a stipend
of £^0 a year for seven years. But it was his in-
troduction, at Rome, to Lord Burlington, that proved
most beneficial to the young artist. We have seen
that this peer was a veritable friend in need to many
who were then struggling if not for life, at least for
recognition, and he seems to have taken at once to
Kent whose manners were accommodating and engaging.
He not only brought him to England but gave him a
home in Burlington House — a home that was to be
Kent's headquarters, off and on, for the rest of his life.
Nor was this the only advantage that Kent gained from
Lord Burlington's friendship, for through it he was in-
troduced to many who looked up to the young Earl as
an arbiter in taste just as they did to Chesterfield
as a pattern in manners, and Kent was soon engaged in
trying to paint the portraits, and in succeeding in covering
with allegories and arabesques the ceilings, of half the
nobility.

I say "trying" to paint the portraits, for there is no
doubt that his work in this direction was past praying for,
1 See the " Biographie Universelle " for an accoiiiit of him.

226 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

and fully deserved Hogarth'^s -^ sneer that neither England
nor Italy had ever before produced such a contemptible
dauber. Even Walpole allowed that " his drawing was
as defective as the colouring of his portraits, and as void
of every merit/' One of Kent's most execrable attempts
at pictorial decoration was an altar-piece at St, Clement's
Danes, which Hogarth mercilessly caricatured, and which
even the Bishop of London thought so preposterous that
he ordered its removal.^ He, also, painted a staircase for
Lord Townshend at Rainham as well as the Hall at
Wanstead, and although Sir Robert Walpole was per-
suaded, says his son, to employ him at Houghton on the
ceilings of several rooms, he wisely did not permit him to
work in colours " but restrained him to chiaro-scuro." ^

But Kent, who probably lacked a sense of humour as he
certainly did a sense of proportion and colour, went on
gaily, and when not painting portraits or ceilings, occupied
himself in designing chimney-pieces and doorways, picture-
frames and furniture, even cradles ; indeed he became so
much the rage that two great ladies, Walpole tells us,
persuaded him to design gowns for them, with the result
that, " the one he dressed in a petticoat decorated with
columns of the five orders ; the other like a bronze, in a
copper-coloured satin, with ornaments of gold."

It is not perhaps surprising to learn that Kent's
mediocrity in this respect, was no bar to his enjoying
Court favour ; and the fruits of this were once to be seen
in the gilt rails he designed for Queen Caroline's Hermitage
in Richmond Gardens, and may still be inspected at
Hampton Court where two pictures, from his brush,
" Henry V.'s first meeting with Katherine " and " Ihe

1 Hogarth was continually holding up Kent and his patron, Lord
Burlington, to ridicule ; two notable examples being his plate entitled
"Masquerades and Operas, Burlington Gate" (1724), and "The Man of
Taste" (1734). See the various lives of "Hogarth" for full accounts of
these pictorial satires.

2 Kent is said to have retaliated by preventing, through Court influ-
ence, Hogarth from painting a group of the royal family.

3 "Walpole's Anecdotes,"

KENT 227

Marriage of Henry V.," still hang, and where his model of
a proposed palace in Hyde Park is also preserved.

On the death of Charles Jervas in 1739, Kent was made
chief painter to the Crown, and Chesterfield produced one
of his biting epigrams on the occasion ; it runs thus :

As to Apelles, Ammon's son
Would only deign to sit,
So, to thy pencil, Kent alone
Will Brunswick's form submit.

Equal your envied wonders, save
This difference we see,
One would no other painter have —
No other would have thee.^

In addition to the post of Court painter Kent was also
given that of Master Carpenter, architect, and keeper of
the Pictures, which offices, together with an income of
;^ioo from the Civil List, were worth no less than ;£6oo a
year to him. If he did nothing very well he at least
attempted something of everything. In 1734, on the
occasion of the marriage of the Princess Anne with the
Prince of Orange, he designed the decorations of the
Chapel Royal, and lest posterity should mourn the loss of
his handiwork, he published an engraving of it.^

His efforts in landscape-gardening included the laying-
out of the grounds of Carlton House, and those belonging
to Sir C. C. Dormer ; while he even engaged himself in the
illustrating of books ; producing some pictures (in con-
junction with Wootton) for Gay's Fables ; certain vignettes
for Pope's works, and some execrable plates to The Fairy
Queen.

I have now more or less cleared the ground for a short
consideration of Kent's architectural achievements. These
he initiated by assisting Lord Burlington in the recon-

1 Preserved among the papers at Felbrigg, Norfolk, and printed in
the Historical Manuscripts Commissions publications.

2 He also issued a print of Wolsey's Hall at Hampton Court.

228 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

struction of Burlington House, although the actual part
he played in this work is as uncertain as is that of the Earl
himself. In any case we may suppose him to have been
busy over the preparation of plans, even if they were not
original ones, and the general superintendence of the re-
building.

In 1727 he published under his own name, but at Lord
Burlington's expense, "The Designs of Inigo Jones,"
supplementing them with some of his own (chiefly of
chimney-pieces and doors and one for a royal art gallery),
some of his patron's, and one by Palladio — a purple patch
indeed. Some years before this he had paid a second
visit to Rome, and in 1730 he was there a third time,
studying architecture and buying pictures for the Earl.
In a notice of Luti in the Biographic Universelle, Kent is
stated to have purchased (after the death of Luti in 1724)
the collection of prints formed by the latter, and it was,
I imagine, during this visit that he did so.

On his return he was employed in altering and decorat-
ing Kensington Palace, and it was probably about the
same time that he designed what Mr. Blomfield regards
as perhaps his best piece of work ; the Temple of Ancient
Virtue at Stowe. Shortly after, he was employed to put
a new facade to the Treasury (1734), and in the same year
he planned the not very successful Devonshire House in
Piccadilly ; although it is but fair to his memory to say
that later alterations have still further spoilt his original
work. Among other town houses which he designed were
Lord Yarborough's, in Arlington Street, for Mr. Pelham,
and No. 44 Berkeley Square, now Mr. Godfrey Clark's,
but then belonging to Lady Isabella Finch, the staircase
of which, considering the somewhat limited space, is a
masterly piece of contrivance, and worthy Walpole's well
known encomium. But by far his most important, as they
are his most successful efforts, are Holkham Hall and the
Horse Guards, two buildings which have several features
in common. Holkham was designed for Thomas Coke,
Earl of l^eicester. The exterior is only I'elieved by the

KENT 229

great portico from being little better than a glorified
workhouse ; but it is impressive by its mere size, although
the Earl apparently hardly thought this a merit, for he
once remarked : " It is a melancholy thing to stand alone
in one's county. I look round ; not a house is to be seen
but my own. I am Giant of Giant's Castle, and have ate
up all my neighbours.^

The chief beauty of Holkham is the splendid entrance-
hall, v/ith its colossal statue of Jupiter, and its flight of
steps said to have been copied from that at Chatsworth.
Although the " palace " is monotonous, it was considered
at the time of its erection, as to some extent it may be
now, a very impressive and splendid country seat. So
much so, indeed, that Matthew Brettingham, who was
Kent's pupil and assisted him as Clerk of the Works here,
published the plans and elevations of it as his ov, n work,
entirely ignoring Kent's name in his book, and even in the
Preface, speaking of Lord Leicester as concerting with him
(Brettingham) the publication of the work, as if to prove
that the Earl willingly allowed him to arrogate to himself
the production of some one else.

Holkham is only known to a relatively few, but all the
world knows the Horse Guards. It was one of the last of
Kent's designs, and was, indeed, left incomplete at the
time of his death, Vardy being employed to finish it.
Nothing better proves Kent's devotion to the work of
Palladio than this really fine piece of work which, al-
though, of course, fault can be found with it, is on the
whole as successful as could be wished, and is a surprisingly
adequate production, especially when we remember how
banal Kent could sometimes be. Here he seems to have
determined on something tangible and to have carried it
out in a straightforward way, whereas much of his other
work is hampered by a miserable convention, and is
obviously influenced by the wishes of patrons whose indi-

1 Although not responsible for another immense country seat —
Badminton, Kent did some alterations there during the third Duke's
time, and al-?o designed Vv'orcester Lodge in the Park.

230 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

vidual requirements he seems never to have been able
to withstand. Indeed, while he was ostensibly the arbiter
of taste in such matters, Kent was really the veriest
weather-cock of artistic fashion.

Among his other work was the King's Bench at West-
minster, and a mansion for Mr. Pelham at Esher, a sort of
Chinese-Gothic edifice Dallaway calls it, pleasing neither
to gods nor "men unless they be Chinamen. He also put
up a terrible choir-screen in Gloucester Cathedral and a
statue to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey, about which
the less said the better !

In 1743 he had, according to Walpole, " a disorder in
his eyes that was thought to be paralytic ; but recovered "" ;
five years later, however, he was attacked by a kind of
general inflammation, and to this he succumbed on
April 12, 1748, at Burlington House. He was buried in
the Burlington family vault at Chiswick, an additional
proof, were one wanting, of the friendship and respect of
his chief patron. He left a fortune in money, books, and
pictures of ;^ 10,000, and if in the acquisition of it he did
not materially advance the cause of architecture, he at
least worked hard in a variety of ways to supply the wants
of a not very critical generation.

/ . / . ; '•..n, ^/at iw

Alt'liOr dr ( (.ii.-iili?) 'liiriliiiis (|iwim (riiicifiriii Cdcntct.s

BATTY LANGLEY

To face p. 231

CHAPTER VIII

BATTY LANGLEY, GIBBS, WOOD OF BATH, ETC.

Before saying anything about James Gibbs who was not
only a fine architect, but probably the most eminent of
those of the eighteenth century, it is necessary to devote a
short space to one who was so far from being a good
architect that, at one time, his name was a byword for
conventional treatment of design carried to its highest
power. As, however, Batty Langley whom I here indicate,
established a school of architecture and wrote much on
the subject, he properly takes his place among better men,
although in the practical side of his art he was strangely
limited and deficient.

He was the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Langley, and
was born at Twickenham in 1696, being christened on
September 14 of that year, at the Parish Church. His
father was a gardener, and young Langley seems at first
to have followed in his footsteps, and to have occupied
himself in landscape gardening which he probably re-
garded as a step beyond the horticultural calling, and
which was then beginning to be quite a fashionable pur-
suit. If he achieved any success in this direction it must
have been but a local one, for nothing is known of him in
this capacity. Indeed the first record we have of his
activity, and that in a very different direction, is in 1724
when he published an " Account of Newgate." From this
year till 1737, he issued a number of works dealing with a
variety of subjects, gardening being on several occasions one

231

232 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

of them ; thus, in 1726, he issued his "Practical Geometry;"
in 1727 "The Builder's Chest Book ;" and in the following
years his " New Principles of Gardening " (1728); " Method
of Improving Estates" (1728, it was reprinted thirteen
years later) ; " Sure Guide to Builders," illustrated with
eighty-two engravings ; " Pomona, or The Fruit Garden "
(both in 1729); "The Young Builder's Rudiments"
(1730-6); "Ancient Masonry," an elaborate work illus-
trated with many plates (1734-6) ; "The Builders Com-
pleat Assistant ; " and various other works on the same
subject. Walpole, in the few remarks he devotes to Batty
Langley in the " Anecdotes of Painting," says that " all
his books achieved has been to teach carpenters to massacre
that venerable species (Gothic architecture), and to give
occasion to those who know nothing of the matter, and
who mistake his clumsy efforts for real imitations, to
censure the productions of our ancestors." But his new
orders of Gothic, for he invented five, appealed to a large
and uncritical public, and he had something of a vogue
simply because those who praised him and his books knew
no better. If, at a later day, his name became a byword,
and " Batty Langley's Gothic " a term of architectural
opprobrium, in his own times he had a certain following
and a not inconsiderable success.

During the compilation of his various works, Langley
had lived at Twickenham probably with his parents, but
in 1736 he took up his residence in London, settling in a
house near Parliament Stairs, Westminster. At this spot
he erected " a curious grotesque temple in a taste entirely
new," for Nathaniel Blackesley the son-in-law of Hawks-
moor,^ and he had, in 1735, published designs for a new
Mansion House, which he engraved himself. He was also
one of those w^ho hoped to be selected as the architect of
the new bridge at Westminster, and in 1736 he was among
the many who published designs for it. We have seen
James occupied in the same matter and writing a " Survey

1 Malcolm in Ids " Londinium Redivivum " quotes this from the St.
Jameses Evening Pod.

GIBBS 233

of several schemes for building of a Bridge, &c. " ;
Langley replied to this in 1737 by another pamphlet, but
the selection of Labeyle for the work put an end to what
might have degenerated into a tractarian movement.

In or about 1740, Langley removed from Westminster
to Soho where he took a house jointly with his brother
Thomas. Here he set up a school of architecture in which
Thomas, who was an engraver, assisted him in teaching
drawing. According to Elmes, all the pupils were
carpenters, and many skilful artisans were turned out from
the Langley s"* Academy. As a matter of fact Batty
Langley was really an excellent practical builder who had
mistaken his vocation when he set up as an architect. He
had a large surveying connection and was an expert valuer
of timber ; in short he was an excellent builder of many
of the edifices which he had himself indifferently designed.

In 1741 he brought out his "Ancient Architecture
Restored and Improved," the original di'a wings for which
are now preserved in the Soane Museum where is, too, a
book of his drawings copied by Carr of York, apparently
in 1770.

Langley died at his house in Soho, on March 3, 1751.
Ten years previously J. Carruthers, who had engraved the
plates to several of his works, published a mezzotint
portrait of him.

GIBBS

We now come to one of the few architects whose inde-
pendence of aim and excellent qualities as a designer
helped to rescue the art, as understood in this country
during the eighteenth century, from being a merely
colourless reflex of the Grecian and Italian schools. James
Gibbs was in many respects a fine architect ; he had a
sound knowledge of technique and a cultivated sense of
proportion ; and his buildings are impressive, not by size

234 LIVES OP BRITISH ARCHITECTS

as were Vanbrugh's, but by a careful adherence to those
recognised formulas to which the greatest men have owed
so much. If he had not the touch of genius with which
artists like Inigo Jones and Wren have impressed their
own individuality on whatever they touched, he had, on
occasion, something so nearly akin to it that he properly
occupies a place in the second rank of British architects.
Where he seems to have been less happy is in his treatment
of ornament and detail. The greatest men have been as
careful over the subsidiary parts of their designs as over
the whole ; and it is no small merit in Gibbs that, given
he was to fail somewhat in one of the two, it should have
been in the former that he did so. Gibbs had a great
reverence for, and knowledge of, classicism, and this
sometimes resulted in his allowing tradition to curb
what might otherwise have been a genius of the very
first order.

At one time there was a good deal of uncertainty as to
the date of his birth, Chalmers placing it so early as 1674,
and Walpole so late as 1683 ; Allan Cunningham pre-
ferred the former, because he asserts that Gibbs's " talent
in architecture had gained him fame in a foreign land
before 1700." In the Soane Museum, however, is a
manuscript volume evidently in the architect's own hand-
writing, which sets the matter at rest. The first part of
the book is taken up by " A Few Short Remarks on some
of the Finest Ancient and Modern Buildings in Rome and
other parts of Italy, by Mr. Gibbs,'' and represents the
results of his investigations during his early travels on the
Continent ; the second portion is headed : " A short
accompt of Mr. James Gibbs, architect, and of several
things he built in England, &c., after his returne from Italy."
From this indisputable source we learn that Gibbs was
born on December 26, 1682, at a place " belonging to his
ancestors," near Aberdeen, called Fittysmire. His father
was Peter Gibbs, a merchant of *•* an ancient family and
small fortune," who had married twice, and had children
by both wives. James was one of the second family, his

JAMES GIBBS

Emery Jl'alkey
To face p. 234

GIBBS 23s

mother having been a Miss Isabel Farquhar/ and he and
a half-brother William were the only two of the family
who sm'vived childhood.

Gibbs was educated at the Aberdeen Grammar School,
and afterwards at the Mareschal College where he took
his M. A.. Degree. At the period of doing this, being then
in his twentieth year, he determined to apply a somewhat
unusual knowledge of mathematics to the study of architec-
ture, and, like so many of his countrymen, resolved to pro-
secute his search for knowledge and fortune in some other
land than his own. Cunningham supposes that he had by
this time lost both his parents, and this seems likely as he
is known to have lived some time with his aunt Elspeth
Farquhar and her husband, Peter Morison, in Holland
whither he first went. While there he attracted the
notice of the eleventh Earl of Mar, whom Scott calls " a
man of quick parts," and who is famous for his share in
the 17 1 5 rebellion. Lord Mar, besides being a soldier,
was something of an amateur architect himself, and be-
friended Gibbs not only with money and introductions,
but with the excellent advice that he should travel in
Italy. Armed, therefore, with funds and letters of recom-
mendation from the Earl, Gibbs set off, via Paris, for
Rome. There he studied under Garroli, an architect of
some standing, and Carolo Fontana the younger who had
been a pupil of the great Bernini, and was Surveyor-
General to Pope Clement XI. Gibbs at the same time
set himself to study carefully the chief buildings in
Rome, while he provided for his daily wants by making
drawings for various English amateurs then residing in
Rome, to whom he had received introductions from Lord
Mar and the Duke of Argyle.

He returned to England about the year 1709, in conse-
quence of the dangerous illness of his only half-brother,

1 In the MS. account of Gibbs, preserved in the Soane Museum, the
elder Gibbs is simply said to have "married a gentlewoman ... of the
name of Gordon" (evidently his first wife), and to have "had several
children by her."

236 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

and there, under the cegis of such men as Lord Mar, the
Duke of Argyle, and Sir Christopher Wren who is de-
scribed as "much his friend," he seriously commenced
work as an architect. His first official post was that of
one of the surveyors to the Commissioners for the building
of the Fifty Churches which I have had occasion already to
mention more than once, as in several instances the office
of assistant surveyor to them was the first stepping-stone
of the architects already dealt with. Gibbs made use of his
opportunity in a singularly notable way, for his first
independent design was that for St. Mary-le-Strand, in
1 7 14. According to his own account, this church " being
situated in a very publick place, the Commissioners . . .
spared no cost to beautify it." It occupies, indeed, the
site of the famous Maypole, and Pope refers to this in the
" Dunciad,'*' where he says :

Where the tall Maypole once o'erlooked the Strand,

But now (so Anne and Piety ordain)

A church collects the saints of Drury Lane.

The foundation-stone was laid on February 15, 17 14,
and the building was completed on September 7, 17 17,
although it was not consecrated for another six years.
Gibbs, in his " Book of Architecture," gives a description
of the church. " It consists," he writes, " of two orders,
in the upper of which the lights are placed ; the wall of
the lower being solid, to keep out noises from the street,
is adorned with niches. There was at first no steeple
designed for this church, only a small campanile, or turret.
A bell was to have been over the west end of it ; but at a
distance of eighty feet from the west front there was a
column, 250 feet high, intended to be erected in honour of
Queen Anne, on the top of which her statue was to be
placed. My design for this column was approved by the
Commissioners . . . but the thought of erecting that
monument being laid aside upon the Queen's death, I was
ordered to erect a steeple instead of the campanile first
proposed. The building being then advanced twenty feet

GIBBS 237

above ground, and therefore admitting of no alteration from
east to west, I was obliged to spread it from north to south,
which makes the plan oblong which should otherwise have
been square.""

The narrowness of the church, as well as the shallowness
of the steeple when seen from the north or south, are thus
accounted for ; and these defects, the only ones in this fine
building, are excusable for this reason. St. Mary-le-Strand
is, indeed, a remarkably fine creation, especially when we
remember that it was Gibbs's initial attempt at church-
building. Its steeple may be favourably compared with
those of Wren himself; and if the influence of the master
can be traced in much of the general design, it is but natural
that an architect like Gibbs, who was not exactly an original
genius, should have been dominated by the great man
whose work was to be seen on every side. What can be
said is that if the defects of the church were due to con-
ditions over which Gibbs had no control, its beauties were
the result of his careful training in a good school.

In 17 19 Gibbs was employed in adding the belfry-stage
and spire to St. Clement's Danes, which thus exhibits the
joint work of the two best architects of the period. A
print of the church, dated 171 1, shows that Wren had
designed merely the tower, with a small belfry surmounting
it; Gibbs's addition, rising from just below the clock
upwards, adds so materially to the beauty and symmetry
of this delightful building as to shew that he was
thoroughly imbued with the master's methods. As an
independent designer he was, however, to prove soon after
his excellent qualities, for in 172 1 he planned St. Martin's-
in-the-Fields, certainly one of the most beautiful of
London's many beautiful churches. Well might Savage
exclaim, as he did in his " Wanderer " :

O Gibbs ! whose art the solemn fane can raise,
Where God delights to dwell and man to praise.

The building of St. Martin's occupied five years, and the
cost of it is stated to have been ^32,000. Walpole, in

238 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

one of his sweeping assertions, remarks that " no man talks
of one edifice of Gibbs." I do not know if ignorance of the
architects of some of our finest buildings was as general in
his day as it seems to be even now, but I think it probable
that St. Mary-le-Strand and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields are
better known to the general public than any other churches
in London. Their commanding and open positions are, of
course, in a large degree responsible for this ; but this
would, alone, be insufficient to justify the attention,
bestowed on them were their intrinsic merits not enough
to stamp them as masterpieces ; and if we do not talk of
Gibbs's churches as we do of Wren's, it is probably because
the man in the street, as he is not infrequently termed, is
unaware that Gibbs designed them.

There has, of course, been much spilling of critical ink
over St. Martin's, as over most edifices in the Metropolis,
and Fergusson — who, by the bye, was not a practical archi-
tect— ^has made several ridiculous suggested emendations
to Gibbs's work. These have been dealt with by a great
authority, Mr. Blomfield, who is a practical architect, and
have been shown to be based on a defective theoretical
basis, and at least in one instance, where Fergusson speaks
of the steeple as standing " over the portico," which it
does not, to have been the result of a perfunctory exami-
nation of the building.

The foundation-stone of St. Martin's was laid, with
great ceremony, on March 19, 1722, by William Talbot,
Bishop of Salisbury ; and the church was consecrated on
October 20, 1726. George I. was churchwarden here, and
on being elected to this post gave ;£i5oo for the acquisi-
tion of the organ, which was built by Schreider.

That Gibbs recognised the importance of his undertaking
is proved by the fact that he prepared several alternative
plans for the church, and in his " Book of Architecture ""
gives no less than seven illustrations of the work. Two
of these are for a circular church, but the Commissioners
rejected these because " of the expensiveness of erecting
them." Some authorities have considered that had Gibbs

ST. MAETIXS-IX-THE-FIELDS

To face p. 238

GIBBS 239

been able to construct the steeple at the side of the build-
ing, as Hawksmoor did when he designed St. George''s,
Bloomsbury, the effect would have been finer. I confess
I am not in agreement with those who hold this opinion ;
but it is not, perhaps, for one who is not a technical
expert to express any views on such a matter. I cannot,
however, but think that a want of homogeneity results
from such a separation of the most noticeable feature of a
church from the main building, and I do not suppose I am
alone in regarding St. Martin's as it is, as one of the, if
not the, most dignified and imposing of the sacred edifices
of London.

During the building of this church Gibbs was employed
(1722) in erecting St. Peter's, Vere Street, originally
known as Mary bone or Oxford Chapel, at the expense of
the Earl and Countess of Oxford, as a place of worship
for the houses on their great Marylebone property. Its
exterior is of brick, and is plain enough, but the interior
exhibits all Gibbs's characteristic " elegancies," and is
somewhat like that of St. Martin's, although, of course,
on a smaller scale. It is adorned, as was its prototype,
by the two Italian artists, Artari and Bagutti, who worked
much under the architect ; ^ and on the pediment at the
west end were formerly the arms of Lord Oxford, in stone ;
these were, however, removed in 1832.

The church was finished in 1 724, and in the following year
Gibbs completed the building of All Hallows', Derby,
which had been begun in 1723. Three years earlier he
began the extensive works at Cambridge, on which he
w^as employed for a considerable time. The first and most
important of these was the erection of the Senate House.
Sir James Burrough, of Caius College, of whom I shall have
a word to say at the close of this chapter, is by some
considered as the actual designer of this dignified building,
and it seems likely that he had a considerable hand in it ;

1 It will be remembered that, at a later date, the church was closely
identified with the teaching of Frederick Denison Maurice, who was
perpetual curate there from i860 to 1869.

240 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

but Bnrrough, although an amateur of no mean attain-
ments, was not universally successful in the work he did
at Cambridge, and it is probable that even if he did pro-
duce a design, that design was " edited " by Gibbs to such
an extent as to make the work practically Gibbs's own.

The Senate House, in the building of which much harm
was done to the older remains of Cambridge, was finished
in 1730, Artari and Bagutti being employed on its
internal decoration. In the meantime (1724) Gibbs was
commissioned to erect the new buildings for King's College.
The result is a fine though very plain piece of work,
carried out in the architect's usual thorough style.
Hawksmoor had already made a design for the building
in 171 3, at the request of Provost Adams, but for some
reason or other it was not proceeded with, and on Adams's
death in 17 19, Hawksmoor's plans were definitely laid
aside.

Gibbs's plan consists of three sides of a quadrangle, each
of which is detached, his reason for this being that his
work differed in design from the chapel which occupied
the fourth side, and also as a measiu'e of precaution in
case of fire. Only one, the west, side of the quadrangle
w^as, however, completed according to his design ; and
early in the nineteenth century, when the authorities
determined to complete it, it was finished in the Gothic
style, although, luckily, Gibbs's block was not interfered
with ; its graceful, dignified facade being still a notable
feature in the University that teems with architectural
beauties.

In Gibbs's " Book of Architecture," which he published
in 1728, are included elevations and plans of the work he
did at Cambridge ; and it will be convenient to mention
here some of the private houses he designed which are also
illustrated in the work — by which publication, I may
parenthetically mention, he is said to have made some
;^i5oo, besides receiving an additional ;^400 for the plates.

Among the plans is one of a house in Somersetshire ;
one in Northamptonshire, erected for W. Hanbury, Esq.;

GIBBS 241

and another at Ditchley, Oxfordshire, designed for Lord
Litchfield. Sudbrook Park, Petersham (now the head-
quarters of the Richmond Golf Club), was also erected by
him, for the Duke of Argyle.^ It is of red brick, with stone
copings, the garden front being dignified by a large portico
supported by four columns. The date of its erection is
not quite satisfactorily established. The Duke appears to
have first built a hunting-lodge here about 17 17, of which
the drawing-room and the arched rooms (with walls four
feet thick) and passages beneath, still remain ; later, some-
time during the first quarter of the eighteenth century,
the bulk of the present mansion was designed by Gibbs.
Another large residence planned by him was that for
Lord Fitzwilliam, at Milton, near Peterborough ; and in
his book there are designs for a number of places which
were never actually erected, among them being one for a
house at Seacomb Park, Herts, for Edward Rolt, and
that for Matthew Prior, at Down Hall, Essex, both of
which were anticipated by the deaths of Rolt and Prior. 2

Among other domestic work which can be traced to
Gibbs is a design for a house at Hampton Court, for the
Earl of Islay ; an octagon room at Secretary Johnstone''s
(now Orleans House) at Twickenham, which was adorned
in fretwork by Artari and Bagutti (1720) ; a house at
Twickenham for Sir Challoner Ogle, and one at Isleworth
for Sir John Chester.

In the manuscript account of his own life mentioned
before, Gibbs speaks also of designing Canons, at Edgware,
for the Duke of Chandos, erected " at a vast expense "" ;
building houses for the Earl of Shrewsbury, at Isleworth ;
for General Cornwall, at By fleet ; for the Hon. Charles
Leigh, at Leighton, Bedfordshire ; for Mr. Cotton, at East
Barnet ; Patt's Hall, Staffordshire, for Sir John Astley ;
a house for Mr. Thomas Pattin, near Warrington ; one for

1 The second edition, published in 1739, of G-ibbs's " Book of Archi-
tecture" was dedicated to the Duke.

2 He prepared plans for great additions, &c., to Arundel, but these
were never carried out, as " the Duke altered his mind " ; but Gibbs did
erect a house in Arlington Street for the Duchess of Norfolk.

Q

242 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the Hon. J. Barry Smith, known as Aston Park, Cheshire ;
another for Sir Philip Parker Long, in Leicester Fields ; -^
and a library for Dr. Mead, in London. He was, too,
from time to time employed in making additions and
alterations to various private residences, notably for Pope,
at Twickenham; for the Earl of I slay, at Whitton; for
Governor Phillips, at Stan well ; for Lord Bolingbroke, at
Dawley ; and for Lord Weymouth, at Old Windsor.
He also designed several of those pavilions without which
no gentleman ""s country seat seems to have been considered
complete, notably those at Stowe, for Lord Cobham, and
at Hackwood, for the Duke of Bolton, as well as one for
Sir John Cooper's grounds, near Derby.

The exact years when these various buildings were
erected, are not recorded ; nor is the matter of gi'eat
moment. In 1730, however, we find Gibbs engaged in
adding to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, the quadrangle of
which he designed in that year, the foundation-stone being
laid on June 9. This quadrangle was not completed,
however, till many years after the architect's death. It is
interesting to know that Gibbs carried out the work here
con amore, and gave his time and labour gratuitously for
the benefit of the poor ; the interest he took in the insti-
tution being further proved b}^ the bequest he made to it
in his will.

In 1732 he brought out his "Rules for Drawing the
Several Parts of Architecture in a more Exact and Easy
Manner than has been hitherto practised," a work of great
architectural erudition, and one of those guides to the
proper understanding of the technical details of the art,
which must have been of immense value to eighteenth-
century architects in a variety of ways, if not exactly in
that of cultivating originality.

Some four or five years after the publication of this work
— to be precise, in 1737 ^ — he began what is, apart from

1 For what Gibbs is said to have done at Burlington House, see the
notice of Colin Campbell in the previous chapter.

2 The foundation-stone was laid on June 11 of that year.

Hills &• Sanndirs

THE KADCLIFFE LIBRAKY

To face p. 243

GIBBS 243

the churches I have already mentioned, his most notable
achievement : the designing and erection of the Radcliffe
Library, at Oxford. An earlier plan for this building had
been prepared by Hawksmoor, but as at King"'s College,
Cambridge, Hawksmoor's design was fated to be super-
seded by that of Gibbs. " The RadclifFe,'' as it is called,
is one of Oxford's famous landmarks, and deserves the praise
that has been lavished on it. Had the great Wren designed
it, it would have been regarded as one of his more notable
achievements, and one can hardly indicate Gibbs's success
here more forcibly than by this admission. That the
architect fully recognised the importance of his work, is
proved by the fact that he published an elaborate set of
plans of it, under the title of the " Bibliotheca Radcliviana,''
in 1747 the year in which it was completed. There
must be very few people interested in such matters as are
treated of in this book, who have not seen " the RadcliiFe,"*'
or at least views of it, and I will therefore spare the reader
a description of the building, but I may point out one
rather obvious defect in the exterior, fine on the whole as
it is ; I mean the general effect of lowness, which is, how-
ever, only an effect, as the building is really of considerable
height. This seems to be due to the fact that the upper
portion, with the coupled columns, is considerably higher
than the rusticated base, so that the appearance is produced
of a very much higher building gradually rising, but never
rising sufficiently, from its surrounding lower part. In the
interior, too. Wren would have attained better proportions,
and would hardly have permitted the Jiamboyant embel-
lishments with which Gibbs allowed Artari to decorate it.
But even with these flaws it is a splendid piece of work,
and shows that Gibbs, on occasion, could rival even the
greatest ai'chitects of his own country.

In 1752 was commenced what appears to have been
Gibbs's last building — the Church of St. Nicholas, in
Aberdeen, the design of which he sent, apparently gra-
tuitously, to the magistrates of that town as a testimony

244 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

of his regard for his native place ; "^ and in the same year
he proved his versatility by bringing out an excellent
translation of Osorio da Fonseca's "De Rebus Emanuelis,''''
under the title of " The History of the Portuguese during
the Reign of Emmanuel.'" He seems to have begun this
work in order to occupy his mind during a residence at Spa,
in 1749, whither he had been sent by his doctors on account
of an internal malady from which he had suffered for a
considerable time, and to which he succumbed on August 5,

^754-

At his own request he was buried in the parish church

of Marylebone, where a small tablet was put up to his

memory.

Gibbs was never married, and, at his death, had only a
few surviving relations. Indeed, by his will, dated May 9,
1754, the bulk of his not inconsiderable property, valued at
between ;^ 14,000 and ;^ 15,000, was left by him to the son
of his earliest patron, Lord Mar, whose estates had been
impoverished by forfeitures consequent on the family's share
in the risings of 17 15 and 1745. Gibbs also left legacies
to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and to The Foundling, and
his valuable collection of books, including many fine editions
of the classics, and splendid architectural works collected
probably during his sojourn at Rome, went appropriately
to enrich The Radcliffe which, on the whole, perhaps
remains his most notable monument.

I have not mentioned the fact that, besides his archi-
tectural achievements and his important publications,
Gibbs produced much work of a subsidiary character,
such as elaborate sketches for chimney-pieces (two par-
ticularly fine specimens being designed for Messrs. Clark
and Young for their house at Roehampton, which he had
planned), gate-piers, obelisks, and many of those lesser
embellishments to great houses or their gardens, of which
the taste of the time took so much account. As a de-
signer of cenotaphs he had, too, a great vogue. Of
these the best known are those to the Duke of Newcastle,
1 "Diet, of Nat. Biog."

WOOD OF BATH 245

in Westminster Abbey (the actual execution of which was
carried out by Francis Bird in 1723) ; to Prior, also in the
Abbey ; to Colston, at Bristol, for which Rysbrack sculp-
tured the figures; to Mrs. Katherina Boney (1727); to
John Smith (1718) ; to John Freind, M.D. (1728) ; and to
the Marquis of Annandale (1723) ; while the monument
to Ben Jonson, in Poets' Corner, and one to Montague
Gerrard-Drake, in Agmondesham Church, are also his
work.

The personal appearance of Gibbs has been handed
down to us by Hysing, who painted him as a youth,
and Hogarth, who produced a magnificent portrait of him
as a middle-aged man ; besides which M'Ardell, who
engraved the latter work, also engraved a portrait painted
by S. WilHams. There are, too, busts of him in The
RadclifFe, and in the Church of St. Martin's-in-the-
Fields.

WOOD OF BATH

The city of Bath — confessedly one of the finest and most
picturesque in the country — owes its beauty and its splen-
dour so greatly to the Woods, father and son, that
although they were merely provincial architects, their
fame is more than local, and they properly take their
place beside the better- known architects of the eighteenth
century. Nor is their place a subsidiary one, for although,
in common with other designers of the time, they were tied
down by a classic convention, they at least, within the
limits set themselves, did far better work than many whose
names are more widely remembered.

John Wood, the elder, was not actually a native of
Bath ; indeed, he seems, although the fact is not abso-
lutely certain, to have been a Yorkshireman. He was
born in the early years of the eighteenth century, some
say in 1705 or thereabouts, but he did not begin to be

246 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

identified with Bath til] some twenty years later, although
he is said to have visited the city in his boyhood. His
first official connection with the place was in the capacity
of Surveyor of Roads, and while thus engaged his attention
was drawn to the improvements required, and the possi-
bilities for carrying them out, in the city ; indeed, it seems
probable that from this moment the scheme, which he was
afterwards largely to carry into effect, of " Haussmannis-
ing,*" as we should now term it, Bath, took shape in his
brain. His methods were not unlike those which the
Adams employed later in various parts of London ; a
feature common to them being the principle of making a
number of houses present the appearance of one large
building.

The whole of Bath is redolent of the work of Wood and
of his son who carried on his schemes, and at least two
thoroughfares, John Street and Wood Street, perpetuate
their names, as the streets of the Adelphi do those of the
Adam brothers. Among the earliest buildings erected by
the elder Wood were the North and South Parades — which,
however, do not present the appearance they had when he
completed them, as certain alterations, such as the removal
of the balustrades, &c., have taken place — Chapel Court,
and Church Buildings. These considerable undertakings
date from 1727, and in the following year he designed what
were known as Dame Lindsey^s, or Lower, Rooms, for one
Humphrey Thayer, of London, who built them as a specu-
lation, and opened them in 1730.-^

About the same time he was employed in erecting a
house in Bath, for Ralph Allen who became his most
munificent patron, and for whom he was to design, a few
years later, the splendid Prior Park. Allen had about this
time become associated in the undertaking for working the
Bath stone-quarries, and much of his wealth came from
this prolific source. The house he commissioned Wood
to erect in Bath seems to have been little more than the
rebuilding of an earlier edifice; but Wood's style of
1 They were burnt down in 1820.

^

WOOD OF BATH 247

domestic architecture may be recognised in the elaborate,
and even beautiful, front with which he faced the main
block, at the time that additions were being made to the
north portion.^ This house was commenced in 1727, and
the next year Wood, while engaged on Dame Lindsey's
Rooms, was commissioned by the Duke of Chandos not
only to restore St. John's Hospital in Bath itself, but also
to design certain portions of Chandos Court in the neigh-
bourhood ; and he was also engaged in converting that part
of the Avon between Bath and Bristol into a canal for the
same nobleman. In the following year (1729) one of Wood's
most notable achievements in Bath was begun, notably
Queen Square. Only the north side was, however, actually
completed during his lifetime, owing to some difficulties
attending the acquisition of certain portions of the ground
on the other sides. The portion he did put up is an
excellent example of his style, and it is to be regretted that
he was unable to complete the scheme which he had pre-
pared for dealing with the whole square. He did, however,
design, a few years later (1732), the chapel dedicated to St.
Mary, which formerly stood in the precincts, but this has
long since disappeared, as have the poor-houses of Lyncombe
and Widcombe, which he planned about the same time.

But it is the magnificent mansion known as Prior Park
which, even more than his comprehensive work in Bath,
will keep Wood's name alive. This imposing building
was designed for Ralph Allen in 1736, and was in
course of erection from 1737 to 1743. It is constructed
of the Bath stone with the quarrying of which Allen
was identified, and is said to have been planned as a
practical rejoinder to certain critics who doubted the
efficacy of the material in its application to large buildings.
Few more effective practical rejoinders can be imagined.
The situation chosen for the erection of the mansion has,

1 See Wood's account of the building. A picture of the house is given
in his book, and has been reproduced in Meehan's " Famous Houses of
Bath," and will also be found, with much interesting information about
Wood, in Mr. Mowbray G-reen's " The Eighteenth-Century Architecture
of Bath."

248 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

no doubt, something to do with its imposing and princely
appearance, and Wood, a past-master in such matters,
was, we may be sure, fully alive to this ; but apart
from its position it is a beautiful creation, and one with
which any architect's fame would be secure. Its fac^ade is
extraordinarily fine ; so impressive and well proportioned,
indeed, as to be considered by competent critics unsurpassed
in this country ; and it is a satire on contemporary fame that
Walpole makes no mention of a building which was one
of the finest and most distinctive of any of the private
residences erected during the reign of George 11.^

During the progress of Prior Park, Wood was busy over
a number of other schemes. In 1734 he had designed
Belcomb Brook Villa for Francis Yerbury, and in the follow-
ing year he was employed in erecting a house in Lansdown,
Bath, as well as on certain restorations at Llandaff
Cathedral. During 1738-42 the Royal Mineral Water
Hospital was being built from his designs, and for this
work he gave the whole of his services gratuitously. He was,
too, as a matter of course, commissioned to plan the various
pavilions and temples that were at this period erected over
the different natural springs that from time to time made
their appearance in or near Bath, such as Lyncomb and
Limekiln Spas and Bathford. In 1740-43 Wood went
farther afield, and was engaged on the erection of the Bristol
Exchange. Five years later he was asked, probably in conse-
quence of the success of this work, to design a similar
building for Liverpool. This was in course of construction
for seven years (1748-55), and Wood therefore did not
live to see it actually completed.

Among other examples of his later work was a loggia at
Titanbarrow, designed for Sir Howell Pigott in 1745, and
Redland Court, near Bristol, which dates'from about the same
year. In 1750 he erected " Shockerwick "" for Walter Wilt-
shire, and in 1752 rebuilt Bath Grammar School with all
his old care and distinction. His last undertaking seems

1 The bridge, and flight of steps on the north side of the house, were
not designed by Wood.

WOOD OF BATH 249

to have been the erection of a house in The Circus, at Bath
(No. 7), for William Pitt, in January 1753.

Wood himself occupied various houses in Bath, one of
the first being 24 Queen Square,^ where he resided with his
son, until he moved to Eagle House, Batheaston, which
he had designed in 1727. He probably in the meantime
let the house in Queen Square, as although he resided many
years in Eagle House, and is also said to have occupied
41 Gay Street, he had returned to Queen Square before his
death, which took place there, on May 23, 1754-

Although passing a busy life as a practical architect.
Wood found time to do a considerable amount of literary
work, and among his publications are "The Origin of
Building," &c., a folio published at Bath in 1741 ;
a "Description of Bristol Exchange," 1745 ; a "Descrip-
tion of Bath," in two vols., 1742 (later editions appeared
in 1749 and 1765), which is valuable because of the
descriptions and illustrations of his own buildings, con-
tained in it ; and a " Dissertation on the Order ot
Columns," 1750 ; and he was one of the numerous band
who have written on Stonehenge, his " Choir Gaure, com-
monly called Stonehenge," appearing in 1747.^

The younger Wood was closely associated with his
father in the rebuilding of Bath, and after the latter"'s
death carried out many of the designs and unfinished
buildings left by him ; and he also did a large amount
of work on his own account. Thus he completed the
Circus in 1764, and three years later commenced the
Royal Crescent, which was finished in 1769, in which
year he began the New Assembly Rooms which occupied
three years in building and cost ;^20,ooo. In 1776 he
designed the Hot Bath and Royal Private Baths, and before
this had been intermittently engaged on a vast number of
practical improvements to the city, of which York Build-

1 " The Eighteenth-Century Architecture of Bath," by Mr. Mowbray
Green. A tablet on the house front commemorates Wood's residence here.

2 In the Harleian MSS. are preserved some notes by Wood (Nos.

354-55)-

250 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

ings, in 1753, Edgar Buildings, in 1762, Prince's Buildings,
in 1/66, may be mentioned. Of the thoroughfares he
formed in Bath, Brock Street dates from 1765, Alfred Street
from 1769, and Russell Street from 1775.

Besides this activity, he was responsible for some domestic
work in other parts of the country, notably Buckland, in
Berkshire, for Sir R. Throckmorton ; Standlynch, in Wilt-
shire, for James Dawkins ; Kelston Park (1764) ; and Bel-
mont (1770). Two churches are also placed to his credit,
that of Woolley, and that of Hardenhuish, near Chippen-
ham, the latter of which was consecrated in 1779.

Wood ^ died on June 18, 1782, and lies buried near his
father in the chancel of Swains wick Church, although no
memorial of them is said to exist there.

Although there were one or two greatly inferior archi-
tects working in Bath and Bristol at this period — John
Strahan of Bristol, who built an ornate piece of domestic
architecture, much ridiculed by the elder Wood, in Kings-
mead Square was one ; and William Killigrew, who designed
Weymouth House, Bath, for Dr. Bellensen in 1720, and
some other insignificant work in the city, another — the
Woods, father and son, had practicall}^ the whole building
development of Bath at this period in their hands. By one
of those lucky chances which are few and far between, they
both proved worthy of the great task that fell to their
share; and if rebuilding wants defence, no better object-
lesson can be held up than the work they did in the city
which they found an indifferent, though always an intrin-
sically interesting one, and left one of the most beautiful
in England.

CARR OF YORK

A somewhat analogous case to that of Wood of Bath, is
that of Carr of York whose life was spent at York, and

1 He resided during his later years at No. 41 Gay Street, Batli, on
which house a tablet is affixed.

CARR OF YORK 251

whose architectural activity to some extent embelHshed
that city as did that of Wood, Bath. Carr ^ was born at
Horbury, near Wakefield, in May, 1723. His early life is
said to have been passed as a practical working man, but,
settling in York, he gradually built up for himself a reputa-
tion as an efficient architect of that Palladian school which
was then so fashionable. He seems to have had his thoughts
turned to architecture when he was acting as contractor or
clerk of the works at Kirby Hall, which was erected from the
designs of Morris in 1750, and from this time till nearly the
end of the century his hands were full of work in the north
of England, where he and Paine (whom I deal with in the
following chapter) divided the architectural supremacy.

In 175 1 he commenced Lytham Hall, in Lancashire, a
fine building which was not, however, actually completed
till 1764, before which year he had erected Tabley, in
Cheshire, and, what was perhaps his most notable effort,
Hare wood House, Yorks, which Avas decorated by Robert
Adam, and subsequently altered by Barry. Harewood was
designed in 1760, and exactly ten years later Carr was em-
ployed in erecting the east front to Went worth House, a
portion of the mansion which contained the great gallery
180 feet in length. In the meantime Carr had erected a
court-house, the Castle, and the Gaol at York, the well-
known Crescent at Buxton, and a town-hall at Newark. In
1776 he built Basildon Park, in Berkshire, on an eminence
overlooking the Thames, apparently his sole effort in the
southern counties, and two years later Dunton Park was
erected from his designs. Among other private houses
which he planned may be mentioned Thoresby Lodge,
Notts ; Oakland House, Cheshire ; Constable Burton and
Farnley Hall, Yorkshire. Indeed, Carr seems to have
confined his attention chiefly to domestic architecture,
although he did design the mausoleum at Wentworth, a
bridge over the Wye at Borough bridge, and, in one in-

1 Carr is really chronologicallj' much later, as Ms death did not occur
till 1807, but here seemed the best place to say what little I want to
about him.

252 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

stance a church, that of Horbury, which he erected at
his own expense, and where he lies buried. He could very
well afford to build even so costly a thing as a church, for
although he had been twice Mayor of York (in 1770, and
again in 1785), an office which is proverbially an expensive
one, he left at his death, which occurred at his residence,
Askham Hall, on February 22, 1807, no less than ;^i 50,000.
No wonder the GenilemarCs Magazine for that month
mentions the decease of one who had worked so hard and
so profitably.

Mr. Blomfield thus sums up Carr's attainments : " Carr
appears to have been a good practical architect, who was
kept within reasonable limits of taste by a sound tradition
and an abundance of excellent pattern books." This exactly
indicates the architect's power, and also indirectly points
to the secret of his, in many cases, fine buildings : which
are fine, not because their designer was original, but because
he was always determined to be on the side of the angels.

THOMAS RIPLEY

A man who has been pilloried in the " Dunciad " and
sneered at in the " Imitations of Horace '' would stand an
excellent chance of being considered a negligible quantity
so long as books are read, were not Pope's partiality as well
known as his wit, and his readiness to sacrifice any victim
on the altar of political expediency, or for the sake of
gratifying a patron as clearly established as either. Thomas
Ripley, who received at the hands of the poet what has
proved, in other cases, the only chance of immortality which
the victims of the " wicked wasp " would ever have secured,
cannot be regarded, by more impartial critics, as so hope-
lessly bad an architect as Pope would seem to insinuate,
and had he never fallen under the lash of satire he would
still claim a place, although an inferior one, among British
architects.

THOMAS RIPLEY 253

At the period when the poet produced his satirical verse
Lord Burhngton was the bright particular star of society ;
the arbiter of taste ; the open-handed pabron. He was, too,
the friend of Pope and his circle — Swift, Gay, and Ar-
buthnot ; when, therefore, any artist or architect was taken
under his lordship's (rgis^ Pope and Gay combined to cele-
brate both patron and patronised in fulsome numbers. But
if an architect or painter happened to be looked favourably
upon by some one else. Sir Robert Walpole in particular,
then, as being a henchman of the enemy, nothing was bad
enough for him ; and we find the greatest poet of the day
degenerating into a party scribbler, and sacrificing, as a
Grub Street hack might have sacrificed with some slight
excuse, for it often meant meat and drink to him, accuracy
to partisanship.

So much for a matter which seemed worth a few remarks,
because Ripley"'s fame, never, it is true, very great, has been
still more unfairly dimmed by the unfortunate attentions
of the author of the " Dunciad.'"'

Thomas Ripley was a Yorkshireman, but neither the
place nor date of his birth is known. His parentage was
probably obscure ; and when, as a youth, he determined to
push his fortunes in London, he walked there. On his arrival
he obtained work with a journeyman carpenter, and that
he must have made some progress in the trade seems proved
by the fact that on March 14, 1705, he was admitted to
the freedom of the Carpenters" Company. We next find
him in the unexpected role of the keeper of a coffee-
house in conjunction with a carpenter''s shop, in Wood
Street, Cheapside.^ By this time it is probable that he
had married. His wife is known to have been a domestic
servant in the household of Sir Robert Walpole, but whether
this circumstance brought him under the notice of the
Minister, or whether he had already done work for him, and
thus met his future wife, is uncertain. One thing, however,
is certain, that however Walpole's patronage was obtained,
it was not long before it bore fruit, for, in 17 18, Ripley
1 Hawkins's " Life of Johnson*"

254 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

was made clerk of the works at the Royal Mews ; and was,
in the same year, selected to rebuild the Custom House
(designed by Wren in 1671), which had been destroyed by
fire in 17 15 — a fate which, curiously enough, also overtook
Ripley's edifice in 1814. Three years later, Ripley was
appointed chief carpenter to all the king''s works and
buildings in England, in succession to Grinling Gibbons,
the patent for this post being dated August 10, 172 1 ; and
in the following year he was commissioned by Walpole
to cany out the erection of Houghton Hall, which was
designed, as we have seen, by Colin Campbell about this
time. When engaged on this work Ripley seems to have
introduced certain features of his own into the building ;
but although such variations may have been not unnatu-
rally considered as improvements by Ripley himself, and
even by Sir Robert, the credit of Houghton Hall as a
whole belongs to Colin Campbell.^

Another undertaking for Walpole, which, however, can be
regarded as Ripley's own unaided work, except that it was
obviously inspired by Inigo Jones, was Wolterton Hall, which
Horace Walpole calls " one of the best houses of the size
in England." This mansion was erected during the years
1724 to 1730, during most of which time (1724-26) the
architect was engaged on what is probably his best-known
work, the building of the Admiralty in Whitehall. Wal-
pole, who only appears to have found Ripley's designs
worthy of praise so long as they were employed on behalf
of his father, speaks of the Admiralty as " a most ugly
edifice " ; and it must be confessed that it is clumsy and
its portico pretentious and out of proportion. Pope in-
directly refers to it when he writes :

See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall,
While Jones's and Boyle's united labours fall.

The cost of the work was estimated by the architect at
;^2 2,400. The slavish adherence to classic rules, which is

1 Eipley published " Plans and Elevations of Houghton," 2 vols,, folio
in 1755-60, as if it were entirely his own ; much as Brettingham did in
the case of Holkham.

THOMAS RIPLEY 255

noticeable in the building, and which in the hands of really
great designers was a safeguard, if not an advance, for
British architecture, is largely responsible for its heaviness.
The screen which Adam subsequently put up does not
greatly improve it, but perhaps has the merit — at least
Walpole thought it one — of hiding the main building.

The year that witnessed the completion of Wolterton
and the Admiralty, saw Ripley advanced a further step in
official recognition, by being created Comptroller of the
Board of Works in succession to Vanbrugh. Campbell
was at the same time made Surveyor-General, and in this
capacity continued the perennial works at Greenwich.
Three years later, however, Ripley superseded him as chief
in command there, and, among other work, designed the
interior and roof of the chapel (which was burnt down in
1779), and the west front of Queen Mary's block, for which
his estimate, presented to the House of Commons on
March 6, 1734, amounted to £So,^^/\. 16s.

In 1737 he was appointed " Keeper of the king's private
roads, gates, bridges, &c., and Conductor of the royal pro-
gresses " ; ^ and that he now considered himself a person of
some importance is proved by the fact that a few years
later (1742) he applied for, and obtained, a grant of arms
from Heralds"' College.

In 1739 he was associated with Kent in the erection of
the new Law Courts at Westminster, and in connection
with this undertaking is said to have actually advised the
removal of the beautiful old vaulting of the chapter-house,
and the substitution of an ordinary low roof. At the same
time he collaborated with Kent in the scheme for rebuild-
ing the Houses of Parliament, the cost of which was esti-
mated at ;^ 1 67, 000 ; but the matter was never proceeded
with, although the plans met with the approval of the
authorities.

There does not appear to be any record of further archi-

2 See the Gentleman'' s Magazine for this year. When this office was
transferred to the Board of Works soon after, Kipley received a pension
of ;i^200 per annum.

256 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

tectural work on the part of Ripley, although he lived for
another nine years. He is known, however, to have taken
considerable interest in municipal affairs, and, in 1744,
to have reached the position of Sheriff of London and
Middlesex. For some reason, however, he begged to be
excused from serving, and, on being so, paid the usual
fine.^

He possessed an official residence at Hampton Court,
connected with his duties as Surveyor of Roads, &c., and
here, on February 10, 1758, he died, and was buried seven
days later in the neighbouring church, where a slab on the
floor records the circumstance.^

As I have mentioned, Ripley married one of Sir Robert
Walpole's servants ; she died, apparently childless, on
November 17, 1737, and five years later he married
(April 22, 1742) Miss Bucknall, of Hampton, who was an
heiress, and is said to have brought her husband no less
than ;^40,ooo ; by her he had three sons and several (the
number is unknown) daughters. Two painters, Gardiner
and Highmore, perpetuated the features of Ripley ; the
former picture being preserved at Wolterton Hall, and the
latter being in the possession of the architect ''s descendants.

Ripley cannot be regarded in any sense as an important
architect. What, however, can be said for him is that
he did on occasion, as at Wolterton, some good work.
He was pre-eminently an example of the official designer
who seems to have been contented to satisfy the not very
critical requirements of his employers. When an architect
is commissioned to design for a private person he is gene-
rally given a free hand ; when he works officially he is
frequently tied down by all sorts of disabilities. Our own
day has witnessed too many examples of this for people to
be ignorant of the fact, and it is therefore due to Ripley's
memory to suggest that, as he succeeded at Wolterton (a
private enterprise) and failed at the Admiralty (an official
undertaking), he would probably have made a better archi-

1 Gentleman's Magazine.

2 Lyson's " Environs of London."

Hills &■ Saunders

ALL SAINTS', OXFORD

To face jj. 25 7

DEAN ALDRICH 257

tect had he been less lucky in attracting official recognition.
This sounds paradoxical, but is not really so ; and although
Wren and Inigo Jones were official architects, if ever there
were such, they were remarkable exceptions to the rule ; and
we know that, in any case, Ripley was not an Inigo Jones,
much less a Wren.

FOUR AMATEURS
DEAN ALDRICH

It will be convenient to say a few words here about four
amateur architects whose work was confined to the Univer-
sities of Oxford and Cambridge ; but in doing so I shall
have to dispense with correct chronological order, for the
first, Dr. Aldrich, died in 17 10, and the last, James Essex,
was still doing work in 1770. As, however, they would
not properly take their place among the earlier architects
or those who came later, and as it is better to group
them together, this seems the best place in which to speak
of them.

Dr. Aldrich is a famous Oxford worthy, noted as being
one of the more prominent of the Deans of Christ Church,
and also for his musical abilities and his love of his pipe,
two passions which he once welded together in his well-
known " catch " to be sung by four vocalists whilst smoking.
What, however, I must here confine myself to are his archi-
tectural achievements which found their most fitting and
notable embodiment in the Church of All Saints at Oxford,
the spire of which is one of the beautiful objects in a city
full of beautiful objects. The church was erected, in place
of an older one which had been almost entirely demolished
owing to the fall of its spire, in 1699, and, apart from its
classic exterior, is remarkable for the great span of its roof
which is unsupported by pillars. As both Wren and
Hawksmoor were much in Oxford during the period of Dr.

25 8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Aldrich's architectural activity, it is not unlikely that,
to some extent, the latter may have benefited by their
suggestions, but, at the same time, his right to be regarded,
in the main, as an original designer has never been
questioned.

In 1706 he planned the cloister and Fellows' Buildings
on the south side of Corpus Christi ; and about the same
period (it was begun in 1705) he built Peck water Quad at
Christ Church, its name commemorating an old inn that
once stood on part of the site. The library, on its south side,
was not connnenced, however, till eleven years later, six
years after Aid rich's death. "Peckwater'' is a good, though
rather monotonous, example of those correct Palladian rules
which obtained at this period, and which Aldrich incul-
cates in the MS. notes he left,^ on the elements of civil
architect ui^e.

When Trinity College Chapel was rebuilt in 1691-99, he
is said to have prepared the plans, but as Wren is known also
to have had a hand in it, and as it is redolent of his charac-
teristics, we can hardly attribute it, with the certainty that
we can the other buildings mentioned, to the gifted Dean.

Aldrich, who was born in 1647, ^^^ ^^^ early life had
resided much in Italy, died in 17 10. He not only proved
a successful head of Christ Church, but was a notable figure
in the 'Varsity life of the seventeenth century.^

DOCTOR CLARKE

When the completion of Peckwater Quad, on the south
side, was interrupted by Aldrich's death, the library which
was to stand there was designed by another amateur. Dr.

1 They were published in 1789.

2 A well-known story illustrates his love of smoking. An under-
graduate made a bet that at whatever hour he might be called upon the
Dean would be found with a pipe in his mouth. The bet was, however,
lost, for Aldrich was discovered on the occasion selected, not actually
smoking, but filling his pipe !

SIR JAMES BURROUGH 259

George Clarke, who was a close friend of the Dean's. This
library dominates the quad and overpowers the Aldrich
buildings ; but even as it is, it only faintly resembles what
Clarke originally intended ; for it was to have been sup-
ported by columns, and the lower portion would have been
open to the gardens of the Deanery behind it. It appears,
indeed, that it was actually commenced on these lines, but
as it progressed it was found that the space thus lost could
not be spared, and the building (which was not finished
till 1 761) was altered to its present form. There is no
doubt that Dr. Clarke's original intention, had it been
carried out, would have greatly improved " Peckwater "
by giving it that touch of lightness which it now sadly
needs.

Clarke is traditionally connected with Hawksmoor in
the designing of the towers and quadrangle of All Souls,
but it is probable that the work (nothing to be proud of)
was due to the professional man alone, labouring under an
official incubus.

The library at Worcester College, although not actually
designed by Clarke, was erected under his superintendence,
and he undoubtedly gave advice during the progress of the
work.

For the rest, he is known to have represented Oxford in
Parliament, and during the reign of Queen Anne to have
been a Lord of the Admiralty, a post for which his apparent
ignorance of maritime affairs seems hardly to have quali-
fied him. On his death, in 1736, he left his fine collection
of architectural books and manuscripts (among which were
those of Aldrich already mentioned) to Worcester College.

SIR JAMES BURROUGH

As Oxford had its own particular architects in Aldrich
and Clarke, so did Cambridge in Sir James Burrough and
James Essex. Burrough became Master of Gonville and

26o LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Caius College in 1754, in which post he succeeded Sir
Thomas Gooch. Long before this he had applied himself
to the study of architecture, and during his life seems to
have had something to do with the alterations and rebuild-
ing of nearly every college at Cambridge. In view of this
comprehensive labour, it is not surprising to find his work
very unequal, and as he was, although a good amateur, not
sufficiently certain of himself, his designs reflect rather the
varying tastes of his time than the developed talent of a
great architect.

He was born in 1690, and although he became known
as " that ingenious architect," " in what manner his pre-
vious education had prepared him for it does not appear,"
we are told.^ His earliest work seems to have been the
superintendence of the refacing of the older courts of Gon-
ville and Caius College, and the decoration of its chapel,
which was carried out in 17 19. Nine years later he designed
a cupola for the college, and a little later he converted, says
Mr. Blomfield, the old hall of Queens' into an " Italian
chamber." Indeed, wherever practicable — or impracticable,
for the matter of that — Burrough seems to have been bent
on Italianising everything he touched. This is particularly
evident at Peterhouse where, in 1754, he translated the
old quadrangle from mediaeval into his favourite form.
He might have even done worse, for at an earlier date
(1736) he produced a plan for taking down Perne's library,
as well as Wren's additional cloisters, and rebuildmg them
after his own designs. Nothing, indeed, but a want of
funds saved the college from this desecration. Curiously
enough, however, what he was enabled to do here was, on
the whole, satisfactory ; and by keeping in mind Gibbs's
Avork at King's, he produced an imposing and successful
north wing to the college in 1742. Other effects of his
mania for a particular school, regardless as to whether it
was appropriate or not, are to be seen in the quadrangle of
Trinity Hall and that of Gonville and Caius. In 1769 he
designed the chapel of Clare ; and about the same time

1 Willis and Clarke.

SIR JAMES BURROUGH 261

the new north and west buildings at Emmanuel, which he
had planned some years earlier, were erected under the
superintendence of Essex.

Nor is it only in the actual college buildings that Bur-
rough's dominating personality is conspicuous. About
1740 "he did his best to spoil" — the words are Mr. A.
Hamilton Thompson's ^ — the University church by fitting
the chancel-arch and chancel with a gallery known as the
" Throne," where the seats of the mighty, the Vice-
Chancellor and Heads of Houses, were placed, and by
other inappropriate and unnecessary additions.

When George I. made his famous, and wholly surprising,
gift of books to the University, it was found that there was
no suitable place for their accommodation, and it was there-
fore decided to store them in the existing Senate House, and
to erect a new one. Burrough, of course, was soon in the
field with a design. This was carried out, and proved quite
an adequate building, its excellence probably being due to
the large share that Gibbs is known to have had in its
planning. But its erection was subsequently attended by a
terrible circumstance ; for Rotherham's beautiful library
was found not to accord with the new building, and in 1754
the authorities calmly destroyed it, and erected a Georgian
facade, which was supposed to be — although it was not at
all — in harmony wdth the new Senate House.

There is no doubt that, iconoclastic as Burrough was,
much of his work was well designed, if not always appro-
priate ; but he was badly bitten by the mania so prevalent
in the eighteenth century for destroying existing buildings
simply because they did not agree with certain rules laid
down in the text-books — productions which, although they
obviously contained many excellent and unexceptionable
rules, were as fatal to a sense of reverence for older work
as the pattern-books of the sixteenth century had been to
the development of originality.

1 *' Cambridge and its Colleges."

262 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

JAMES ESSEX

BuiTough was greatly assisted in the work he did at
Cambridge by James Essex, who was a native of that
town where his father, to whom he was originally appren-
ticed, was a joiner. He, later, attracted the notice of
various amateurs for whom he did a considerable amount
of work. His first individual design was for a garden at
King's College, which he executed in 1741 ; and sixteen years
afterwards we find him employed in erecting certain build-
ings at St. Catherine's Hall ; but what work he did during
the lifetime of Sir James Burrough is, as a rule, largely in-
corporated in that of his patron. After the latter's death,
however, Essex seems to have stepped into his shoes as the
head and front of the offending brought about by building
development in Cambridge, and from 1770 to 1776 he
did a quantity of work, chiefly bad ; half a dozen of the
colleges suffering by his " improvements.'' But it was not
so much what he added in the way of building as what of
older work he destroyed, that makes one irritated with a
man like Essex, and still more with the college authorities
who gave a rein to his iconoclastic methods. In 1770 he
refaced the old court of Peterhouse, a hideous patch on the
older buildings which, for some unaccountable reason, he
luckily left alone; at Emmanuel, about the same time,
he carried out Burrough's designs for the north and west
buildings, and erected the hall, of which Mr. A. Hamilton
Thompson says that " it is cold and stiff*, and the plaster
roof brings bad taste to a climax," adding that it is
probably the least agreeable building of the kind in
Cambridge.

In 177 1 Essex is found making alterations at Trinity,
to a corner of the great quadrangle and in other parts of
the college, and erecting the bridge connecting the lime-
walk with the new quad, a piece of work that some con-

JAMES ESSEX 263

sider the best he did here, which is, after all, not saying a
great deal.

Two years later he modernised .the chapel of Queens',
and rebuilt the portion known as Erasmus Court; and
in 1774 he refaced the south side of the quadrangle
of St. John's, at the same time that he was permitted to
desecrate the east end of the chapel of King's by some
indifferent wood-carving.

What seems to have been his last attempt at " beautify-
ing" Cambridge was the new chapel he erected, in 1776,
at Sidney Sussex College. Much more subsidiary work^
at Cambridge can undoubtedly be traced to him, but
sufficient has been noticed to indicate that he was a
man who in a new town, might have been comparatively
harmless, but who, in a place full of ancient architectural
beauties such as Cambridge, was to the last degree danger-
ous. Coming, too, after Burrough who had sinned in the
same way, even if he had not done so to the same extent, he
did infinite harm to the University ; and it is a matter of
congratulation for Oxford that what of rebuilding was done
there at this period, if not of the best kind, was at least
carried out by men like Aldrich and Clarke, with a reverence
due to its existing buildings and their manifold associa-
tions.

1 He designed the Beauclerk Closet, at Strawberry Hill, for Horace
Walpole, in 1776.

CHAPTER IX

JOHN VARDY

John Vardy is one of those architects about whose early
life little has been recorded, neither the place nor the year
of his birth being known ; as, however, he was, although a
sound architect, not a particularly notable exponent of
the art, the matter is not of such importance as it might
otherwise have been. His principal work was done in
association with William Kent, whose pupil he was. Kent
died in the spring of 1748,^ and all Vardy 's individual
work dates from that year ; so that up to that period we
may regard him as merely an assistant of the better-known
man, and what designing, if any, he may have done, as
being incorporated in the undertakings of his master.
With one of these, indeed, Vardy was closely identified
after Kent's death, for he had the principal share in
carrying out the plans for the Horse Guards. He was
appointed architect to this work in 175 1, and although,
apparently, chief in command, he was associated in the
matter with another architect, namely, William Robinson,^
who acted as joint clerk of the works with him during the
period of the building operations ; each of them receiving
a salary of ;£ioo, a like amount being paid to Isaac Ware
in his capacity of draughtsman.^

1 In this year certain old houses in Pall Mall, between Marlborough
House and St. James's Palace, were removed under Vardy's direction,

2 Kobinson held various official positions, and largely assisted
Walpole at Strawberry Hill.

3 See Horse Guards accounts, in the library of the K.I.B.A.

264

JOHN VARDY 265

The building of the Horse Guards occupied about three
years, 175 1 to 1753, but additions were made later, during
1756-60. It was, however, essentially the production of
Kent, although he did not live to see it even begun.

Concurrently with his supervision of the Horse Guards,
Vardy acted as clerk of the works at Kensington Palace,
between 1748 and 1754, succeeding H. Joynes in this post.
Indeed, he seems to have been largely occupied in such
offices, for he held, in addition, a similar post at St. James's
and Whitehall at the same time ; and, at the period of
his death, he was clerk of the works at Chelsea Hospital.

In 1753 he was engaged in designing and erecting the
Court of King''s Bench at Westminster, where he had
done much other work in his capacity of assistant to Kent ;
and he even produced a design for a palace at Whitehall,
and one for a north facade to St. James\s Palace, in 1748 ;
neither of which, however, emerged from this initial stage.

When the members of the Society of Dilettanti were
thinking of erecting new headquarters, Vardy was one of
those who sent in designs in 175 1. Three years later we
find him engaged on the more ambitious task of planning
a home for the British Museum which had been instituted,
as a result of Sir Hans Sloane's great bequest, in 1753 ;
but although he was commissioned by the Trustees to do
this, nothing came of his design, as the authorities, instead
of building, purchased Montagu House, Bloomsbury, from
the Earl of Halifax, for the housing of their treasures.

Vardy seems to have done little in the way of domestic
architecture ; perhaps his official duties precluded his giving
any serious attention to this branch of the art ; when,
however, he did design a private house he was so successful
that it seems likely that had he done more in this way his
reputation would have been far greater than it is. His
solitary excursion into domestic work, unless a house
which he is said to have designed for Colonel Wade in
Whitehall, a plan and elevation of which he certainly
prepared, be an exception, is Spencer House, St. James's.

James (Athenian) Stuart is known to have had a hand

266 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

in this fine example of eighteenth-century work, and it
seems that a talented amateur and leading member of
the Society of Dilettanti, Colonel Edward Grey, also co-
operated ; but the main lines of the mansion and the front
looking on to the Green Park, which forms its most decora-
tive and beautiful exterior portion, are the work of Vardy.
The excellence of the interior arrangements, which have
been described as "more modern than any plan of the
time," and the boldness and beautiful proportions of the
park facade are so noticeable even to the untrained eye,
that Spencer House may be regarded as the one and only
beautiful and original creation of a man whose work was
otherwise of little importance. The house was begun
either at the close of 1755 or the commencement of the
following year, and its mere shell is said to have cost
50,000 guineas. Stuart's contribution, the very ordinary
front in St. James's Place, was not, however, designed till
some four years later. ^

Although no other buildings are known to have been
erected from Vardy's designs, he produced certain sug-
gested ones for various more or less unimportant buildings,
such as one for a nobleman's stable and terrace near Hyde
Park, as well as a sketch for a bath for a house (not named)
in Suffolk. He also tried his hand at engraving, and in
this medium issued a print of the pulpit of York Minster,
after Kent, and one of a vase in Hampton Court Gardens
(1749) ; while a coloured view of a Gothic hall, dated the
same year, is also signed by him, and bears written evidence,
on the* margin, that it was taken ft'om one of Kent's
designs.

Vardy's death occuiTed on May 17, 1765. Unlike many of
the eighteenth-century architects, he did not publish much ;
in fact, his only work in this direction seems to have been

1 Uxbridge House, in Burlington Gardens, was designed by another
John Vardy, in conjunction with Bonomi, in 1790-92. This Vardy was
probably a son of the elder man. I am ashamed to say I have followed
many others in the error of confounding them as one and the same
person, on p. 340 of my "Private Palaces of London."

ISAAC WAKE

To face 1), 267

ISAAC WARE 267

" Some Designs by Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William
Kent," brought out in 1744, in which the collocation of
such unequal names with the implication of equal merit,
will raise a smile.

ISAAC WARE

I have said that Vardj was only responsible for one
publication ; the architect whom we now come to was, on
the other hand, no less active in writing on architecture
than in its practice ; in fact, he M^as a voluminous author,
or perhaps it would be more correct to say a voluminous
editor, translator, and publisher of architectural designs.

A good deal of mystery enshrouds his early years. J. T.
Smith, however, in his life of Nollekens, relates that the
sculptor had heard from his father the following anec-
dote concerning the future architect : " A thin, sickly little
boy, a chimney-sweeper, was amusing himself one morning
by drawing with a piece of chalk the street front of White-
hall upon the basement stones of the building itself, carry-
ing his delineations as high as his little arms could pos-
sibly reach ... it happened that his operations caught
the eye of a gentleman of considerable taste and fortune
as he was riding by. He checked the carriage, and, after a
few minutes' observation, called to the boy to come to him;
who, upon being asked as to where he lived, burst into
tears, and begged of the gentleman not to tell his master,
assuring him that he would wipe it all off. 'Don't be
alarmed,' said the gentleman, at the same time throwing
him a shilling to convince him that he intended him no
harm.

" His benefactor then went to his master in Charles
Court, in the Strand, who gave him a good character, but
declared he was of little use to him, on account of his being
so bodily weak. He said he was fully aware of the boy's
fondness for chalking ; and showed his visitor what a state

268 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

his walls were in from the young artist having drawn the
portico of St. Martin's Church in various places.

" The gentleman purchased the remainder of the boy's
time ; gave him an excellent education ; then sent him to
Italy ; and, upon his return, employed him and introduced
him to his friends as an architect."*"*

The boy was Isaac Ware, and that this story is founded
on fact is proved by his relating it himself, when he was
sitting to Roubiliac, the sculptor.

The identity of the " gentleman '** who figures in this
picturesque incident is not quite satisfactorily established,
although it has been asserted that it was no less a personage
than Lord Burlington ; nor is the exact period when it
took place known ; but as Ware's name is found among the
subscribers to Kent"*s " Designs of Inigo Jones,"" published
in 1727, and as in the following year (October 4) Ware
was appointed clerk of the works at the Tower, it must
have been during the early years of the eighteenth cen-
tury, which would put Lord Burlington, who was born
in 1695, completely out of court as being the patron
referred to.

In 1729 Ware was made clerk of the works at Windsor;
and five years later began his more public career as an archi-
tect by converting old Lanesborough House, at Hyde Park
Corner, into what is now known as St. George"*s Hospital,^
but which was then termed the Lock Hospital, calculated
to hold but sixty patients.^ Two years later we find Ware
named as " draughtsman and clerk itinerant '"* to the Board
of Works ; and to this time belongs his first publication,
brought out in conjunction with Kent and Ripley, and
consisting of a series of illustrations of Houghton Hall,
and Rookby Hall, Yorkshire. He also published on his
own account fifty -three plates from Inigo Jones"*s designs,
&c., a work, as Mr. Blomfield properly points out, of

1 Afterwards rebuilt (1828-29) ^7 William Wilkins, E.A.

2 In Maitland's "History of London" is a lengthy account of the
inception of the hospital, and a print of how it appeared after Ware's
conversion.

^

o

Q

1—1

H

a

ISAAC WARE 269

small value, on account of the inaccuracies of many of
the drawings.

In 1736 Ware was advanced a step at the Board of
Works by being made Secretary, in place of Flitcroft who
was promoted to the Comptrollership, and at the same time
he succeeded Hawksmoor as " draughtsman " at Windsor
and Greenwich Hospital.

In the following year he was engaged on a design for the
Mansion House, the building of which, however, was placed
in the hands of Dance. Indeed, at this time Ware, although
holding the official appointments akeady named, does not
seem to have been engaged on any special architectural
work, and, perhaps as a means of bringing his name more
prominently before the public, he made, as in the case of
the Mansion House, chance designs, or occupied himself
on the literary side of his profession. He published
in 1738, a translation of Falladio's book, which prob-
ably answered this puipose, for when, some seven or eight
years later. Lord Chesterfield projected a mansion that
should combine French charm and dignity with English
substantiability and comfort, he selected Ware to furnish
the design, the result being the still beautiful, though much
altered and mutilated, Chesterfield House, Mayfair.

What Ware's complete design looked like may be seen
from the print of the building, issued by E. J. Eyre in
1750 ; how long the " palace " took to complete may be read
at large in Chesterfield*'s letters to his friends, and else-
where. The house-warming took place in 1752,^ but even
then much of the interior was still incomplete ; but this
was not Ware's fault, and what he was commissioned to do
was practically finished by this date. As in all eighteenth-
century houses, the bedchambers were sacrificed to the
reception-rooms, but the latter, as can still be seen,
were beautifully proportioned, and combined comfort and
splendour to a remarkable degree. Certain parts of the
house, such as the fine staircase and the pillars which

1 Lord Chesterfield is said to have actually taken possesion on
March 13, 1749, but the place was then in a very unfinished condition.

270 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

flanked the central block, and which came from Canons, were
adventitious embellishments to which Ware has, of course,
no claim ; but notwithstanding these purple patches, his
work was both satisfactory to his employer and admired
by the gay throng that visited at Chesterfield House ; and
architect could hardly ask for more. During the progress
of Chesterfield House, Ware was employed on various
other buildings, and was also acting (1741-48) as sur-
veyor to the Board of Works, to which office, as we have
seen, he had previously been appointed secretary and clerk
of the works. Among the private work he did may be men-
tioned various alterations, including the rebuilding of the
south and east fronts, at Chicksands Priory, Bedfordshire,
then the seat of Sir Danvers Osborn. I imagine this to have
been about the period of the renovation of the Priory, as,
in a long letter, dated October 14, 1750, Mrs. Osborn in-
forms her son, Sir Danvers, that various alterations in certain
rooms are by then completed, and these would naturally be
left till after the structural repairs were finished.^

Two years later Ware was employed at Oxford in
building the Town Hall and Market. The former was
erected chiefly at the expense of Thomas Rowney, whose
statue was subsequently placed in the centre of the
building which was restored and added to in 1790.

About the time that he was engaged on these designs.
Ware was also commissioned to erect Wrotham Park,^
Herts, now the seat of the Earl of Strafford, for the ill-
fated Admiral Byng. As Byng was a brother of the Mrs.
Osborn just referred to, it seems probable that this com-
mission was due to the satisfaction Ware had given at
Chicksands. In the meanwhile the architect was, as we
have seen, employed as draughtsman, at a salary of ;^ 100
per annum, on the works being carried out, (175 1-2, and
1757-58), at the Horse Guards, from Kent's designs.^

1 " Political and Social Letters of a Lady of the Eighteenth Century,"
edited by Emily F. D. Osborn.

2 The wings were not added till 1810.

3 Horse Gruards accounts, in the library of the E.I.B.A*

ISAAC WARE 271

Nor was he less active in other ways, for in 1756
appeared his translation of Sirrigatti's " Practice of Per-
spective," and a large number of the private houses in
London, chiefly in Mayfair, which he is known to have
designed and which he illustrates in his book on architec-
ture, must have been erected largely between 1750 and
1760. One such private residence, in a different part of
the town — that is, Lindsay House, Lincoln's Inn Fields —
has been attributed to him,^ this report probably arising
from the fact that he may have been employed on some
repairs there, as the mansion is known to have been the
work of Inigo Jones. When the building of Blackfriars
Bridge was contemplated in 1760, Ware sent in a design
which was placed among the first eleven provisionally
selected, but was not eventually chosen.

In 1763 he is recorded as being Master of the Carpenters"*
Company, and three years later, on January 5, he died at
his house at Hampstead, being buried in the chancel of
the old church at Paddington. In the year of his death
appeared a new edition of Brook Taylor's " Method of
Perspective," which he had edited.

There has been a good deal of confusion and error with
regard to the various residences that Ware is known to
have owned. In the first place, he is said to have built and
occupied No. 6 Bloomsbury Square, later notable as the
home of Isaac DTsraeli. Mr. W. L. Button went very
fully and carefully into the matter some years since, ^ and
the result of his investigations shows that, although no
trace of Ware's name is to be found in the Bedford Estate
books, the evidence leans to the fact that the house he
built and occupied was that which has its entrance in
Hart Street, now numbered 5 Bloomsbury Square, but
which never was No. 6. As an example of Ware's domestic
architecture, the exterior of the house is not distinctive,
and, indeed, with No. 6 appears to form a single block,
although they have, as a matter of fact, always been

1 See The Builder, 1882, vol. 42, p. 27.

2 In the Hmrie Counties Magaziyie for July 1902,

272 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

separate houses ; but, inside, the small hall, with its Ionic
columns and pilasters, its decorative marble flooring and
graceful ceiling and cornice, as well as the noticeable
mouldings and chimney-pieces in the various rooms, point
to the hand of no ordinary architect, and may, I think, be
regarded as an excellent specimen of Ware's treatment of
an ordinary London mansion, just as Chesterfield House
is a splendid example of his more ambitious manner.

Of his other residences, it is recorded that, in February
1742, he, then being described as of Scotland Yard where,
of course, he had his official residence, purchased from
Reginald Heber and Jane Allam, a property at West-
bourne Green where he built himself a house, called
Westbourne Place, largely with materials brought from
Chesterfield House ^ which he had then recently completed.
At a later date, 175 1, he is described as *' late of St. Martin's
in-the-Fields and now of Westbourne Green " — indicating
a former home in London. In 1764 he appears to have
disposed of his property at Westbourne Green to Sir
William Yorke, Bart., Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
in Ireland, and to have purchased what was known as
Frognal Hall, from one Robert Slaughter.^ It was in this
house that he made his will on February 8, 1765, and
here he died in the following year, as I have stated.

Ware was married twice ; first to Elizabeth Richards,
and secondly to Mary Bolton. By his former wife he had
one son, Walter James ; and by the latter, two daughters,
Charlotte and Mary, who were unmarried at the time of
his death. He is said to have possessed property in Ken-
sington, between the years 1741 and 175 1 ; but Park, in his
" Hampstead," is incori'ect in stating that he died " at his
house in Kensington Gravel Pits," and is also wrong in
affirming that he was " in depressed circumstances " at the
time of his decease — errors in which he has been followed
by Howitt in his " Northern Heights of London."

1 Lysons.

2 The above details were gathered from Ware's will, by Mr. Rutton
whose investigations saved me from burrowing in the same source.

DANCE 273

A portrait of Ware, engraved from the bust executed
by Roubiliac, was published in 1802, and was reproduced
in vol. ii. of the Home Counties Magazine^ but the where-
abouts of the original is not known, I believe.

Ware seems to have been sociable and popular, and in
that haunt of the arts, the old Slaughter's Coffee-house,
he was wont to foregather with such men as Hogarth
and Roubiliac and Richard Wilson ; Gwynn and Mylne,
who both competed with him for the design of Black-
friars Bridge, the latter being the successful candidate ;
Gravelot, the well-known engraver ; Luke Sullivan, who
issued a print of Hogarth's March to Finchley ; and
Theodore Gardelle, who painted portraits, and was hanged
for the murder of his landlady in Leicester Square. As
an architect Ware's style was refined, and if not exactly
original was always conformed to the best of earlier models,
for Palladio was as much the god of his idolatry as he was

of Lord Burlington.

DANCE

George Dance, the elder, to distinguish him from his son
who was also a well-known architect, was a man of a very
different calibre ; he was not, in any sense, a great designer,
nor did he possess any of that originality which has some-
times caused an architect to be regarded as one who must be
reckoned with, even if he breaks all rules and casts tradition
to the winds ; on the contrary. Dance was just one of those
men whose natural mediocrity is saved by a careful adher-
ence to tradition, and his best known — perhaps his only
generally known — production, the Mansion House, has
something of the impressiveness which he learnt from earlier
masters, and is thus notable not so much as an example of
his ability per se^ as an instance of how he could adapt
hard and fast rules, and sink his individuality in that of
greater men.

s

274 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Dance was born in 1700, and is said in earlier life to
have been a shipwright, a calling which, according to the
satirical Ralph, he never forgot. How or when he deserted
the building of vessels for the planning of buildings is not
clear ; but in 1732 we find him engaged on the erection of
St. Luke's Church, Old Street Road, which was consecrated
on October 16 of the following year. Within, St. Luke's
is not unimposing, being spacious and well proportioned ;
but the exterior is remarkable for its tower surmounted by
a fluted obelisk in place of a spire, an innovation not un-
naturally dubbed by Timbs, adopting Walpole's phrase,
"a masterpiece of absurdity." Apparently, however, it
did not present itself in this light to a less critical age, and
three years after its completion Dance was commissioned
to design a new church at Shoreditch on the site of one
that had become ruinous. This edifice, known as St.
Leonard's, occupied four years in building, being completed
in 1740. It is a solid and plain erection, with a Roman
Doric portico at the west end, and has a tall steeple which
Dance, it is said, intended should rival that of Wren at St.
Mary-le-Bow ; in any case, it has a certain resemblance, and
the whole structure bears that sort of affinity to the work
of the great man, which might be expected from one who
realised what was right but had not the skill to compass
it in an original way. St. Leonard's is, however, certainly
the best of Dance's churches. These include, besides, St.
Matthew's, Bethnal Green, planned about 1740, and built
in red brick with Portland stone facings, and having a
square tower with large stone vases at the angles ; and St.
Botolph's, Aldgate, commenced, in pursuance of an Act
obtained for the purpose, in I74i,and completed in 1744,
at a cost of some ;^55oo odd;-^ while, although he did
not build it. Dance is stated to have made considerable
additions to Faversham Church in 1754.

In the meantime Dance had become City Surveyor, and

* Dance's drawings for this were once in the possession of H. Batho,
Esq., clerk to the vestry. See Godwin and Britton's " Churches of
London," 1839.

3._->>^.

DANCE 27S

in this capacity was commissioned to prepare a design for
the Mansion House, to be erected on the site of the old
Stocks Market. When the idea was first mooted Lord
Burlington had been applied to for plans, whereupon he
sent in an original design by Palladio. The story goes
that a member of the Common Council thereupon asked,
" Who was Palladio ? Was he a freeman of the city, and
was he not a Roman Catholic ?" It sounds just a little
too good to be true (although we know, on great authority,
that the wise men of the East do sometimes make slips, as
when the Lord Mayor on a certain occasion, quoted a story,
and added : " Se non e vero, ben traviata "), and it was
probably invented in Pall Mall or St. James's Street. One
thing, however, is certain : Lord Burlington's Palladian
design was rejected, and that of Dance found favour in the
sight of the magnates. Burlington did not forget this
when, at a later period, he was again consulted as to the
best sculptor to carve the bas-relief on the pediment of
the building, for he replied : that anybody would do to
decorate such a building as Dance had erected.

The first stone of the Mansion House ^ was laid on
October 25, 1739, but the edifice was not completed till
1753, the delay being largely due to the fact that while
the foundations were being prepared, the ground was found
to be so full of springs that it was necessary to build on
piles. Burlington's inferred criticism is an unfair one, for,
when all is said, the Mansion House is a bold and effective
piece of work, and admirably answers the purpose for
which it was undertaken. Practical authorities speak of
the details as being bad and ill-contrived, but even such
critics allow that as a whole the design is a good and
sound one. The famous Egyptian Hall was exactly copied
from one designed by Vitruvius, and consequently no
one has been found willing to stultify himself by criticis-
ing it adversely.

Since its erection many alterations have taken place in
the building, the younger Dance being responsible for some
1 Dance's drawings for this are now in the Soane Museum,

276 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

of them, such as the lowering of the ceiling of the Egyptian
Hall, in 1796. The most important, however, was the re-
moval, in 1 842, of the original and hideous attic story which
may be seen in old prints, an eye-sore dubbed by some wit,
" The Mare's Nest." The complete work cost upwards of
^£71,000, and although the present top story is an ana-
chronism, and looks more like a temporary structure than an
integral portion of the building, the Mansion House is not
unworthy of the traditions it embodies and the important
place it holds in City life.

Dance died on February 8, 1768, and was buiied in St.
Luke's, Old Street Road. He left three sons ; of these,
George became a well-known follower of his father's pro-
fession. He was born in 1741, and died in 1825. Educated
in his father's office, he afterwards travelled in France and
Italy, and in 1761 sent in an unsuccessful design for Black-
friars Bridge. Seven years later he succeeded the elder
Dance as City Surveyor, and in this capacity designed
Newgate Prison in 1770, his most successful undertaking,
as well as Giltspur Street Prison and St. Luke's Hospital.
He also planned a number of private houses — Wilder-
ness Park ; The Grange, Alresford ; Stratton Park ; and
Coleorton, in Leicestershire, among others ; and his
work in London includes the laying out of Fins bury
Square. He was one of the foundation members of
the Royal Academy, and was Professor of Architecture
there from 1798 to 1805, though he never lectured. In
1 81 5 he resigned the City Surveyorship, and turned his
attention to painting and drawing, publishing in 1793 a
collection of portraits engraved from the original chalk
drawings by W. Daniell. The younger Dance died in
Upper Grosvenor Street, on January 14, 1825, and was
buried in St. Paul's. His second brother, Nathaniel, who
was also a painter, was afterwards known as Sir Nathaniel
Dance- Holland ; and the third, James Dance, under the
assumed name of Love, became a well-known and successful
comedian.

HENRY FLITCROFT 277

HENRY FLITCROFT

Although, for the sake of convenience, and as a sort
of sacrifice to correct chronology, I shall in this chapter
speak of one other architect after I have said what I want
to about Flitcroft, it is he who really represents the last
of the school of earlier eighteenth-century designers who,
however feebly in some cases they may have followed the
master, were all more or less influenced by the consummate
art of Inigo Jones. Flitcroft, like Kent and Colin Camp-
bell, was one of Lord Burlington's " young men," and was
thus brought under the influence of the unimpeachable
classicism of which his lordship set up, in this country, as
the high priest; and if Flitcroft had his limitations, he
was certainly not the least successful of those who attempted
to put in practice what they had learnt in the Piccadilly
palace.

Henry Flitcroft was born on August 29, 1697. He was
the son of Jeffrey Flitcroft, one of the royal gardeners
at Hampton Court, his grandfather, who bore the same
Christian name, Jeffrey, being a native of Winwick, in
Lancashire. At the age of fourteen young Flitcroft was
bound apprentice for seven years to one Thomas Morris,
a joiner living in London. At the end of his term he
was admitted a freeman of the Carpenters'* Company, on
November 3, 1719 ; but a year or two before that he
appears to have been engaged on certain work for which
his master, Morris, was employed at Burlington House, and
to have thus attracted the attention of Lord Burlington.
The story goes that one day, being at work on a scaffold
in one of the rooms, he slipped and fell, breaking his leg,
and that it was in these circumstances that he came under
the EarFs notice. The accident proved a lucky one, for,
finding that the young man had a good deal of facility
with his pencil, Lord Burlington commissioned him to

278 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

execute some of the drawings from Inigo Jones's works, the
publication of which was at that time proceeding at Lord
Burhngton's expense, and under the supervision of Kent.^
The patronage thus extended to young Flitcroft was, too,
in other ways helpful : it brought him in contact with a
circle whose every thought turned to the arts in general
and architecture in particular ; and it resulted in his
attaining certain official positions with which Lord Bur-
lington's proUgts were, through his influence, generally
connected.

The first step towards this was his employment, as a
subordinate, in the Board of Works ; but very soon after-
wards he was advanced to the position of clerk of the
works at Whitehall and St. James's, being also employed
in a similar capacity at Richmond and Kew, where,
during the reign of George II., he was strenuously
occupied in superintending those fantastic erections —
Merlin's Cave, and the like — which Queen Caroline amused
her leisure by constructing, as a sort of mystical en-
vironment for her thresher-poetaster, Stephen Duck !
In the meantime Flitcroft's reputation was gradually
extending, and he is found engaged on the erection of
various private houses and churches ; thus, in 1729 he
was commissioned by John Baynes to design a resi-
dence near Havering, in Essex ; and three years later
he was employed in the demolition of the old church of
St. Giles-in-the-Fields and the erection of a new one on
its site.

This work represents his earliest important achievement,
but it followed too closely the lines of Gibbs's church of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields to permit of its being regarded as
characteristic of Flitcroft's originality. The architect, how-
ever, in the first instance designed something different, but
this not being approved by the authorities, he prepared a
second plan, the first one being subsequently used by him in
the building of St. Olave's, Tooley Street. According to

1 Some of Flitcroft's drawings for this are preserved in the R.I,B.4..
library,

^

,e

S

HENRY FLITCROFT 279

Dobie,^ in June 1731 "articles of agreement were entered
into with Mr. Henry Flitcroft, architect, who contracted
to take down, by or before the ensuing first of August,
the old church and steeple, and to rebuild on the same
ground a new one, in a complete manner, on or before
December 25, 1733." The church was opened on April 14,
1734, and the amount paid to the architect for the entire
work was £S/\.^6 igs. 6d. — a very reasonable sum, consider-
ing the size of the building and the labour involved.
Ralph, who is an admittedly severe critic, speaks of the
edifice as being " one of the most simple and elegant of
the modern structures," and he describes the steeple as
" light, airy, and genteel," adding that it " argues a good
deal of genius in the architect, and looks very well, both
in comparison with the body of the church, and when
it is considered as a building by itself in a distant
prospect."

While engaged on this building Flitcroft was commis-
sioned to make alterations and additions to old Carlton
House, which had, in 1732, been purchased from Lady
Burlington, by Lord Chesterfield acting on behalf of
Frederick, Prince of Wales. There was not much room here,
however, for the architect to exhibit his individual qualities,
and these had better play when, in 1737, he was employed
in the erection of St. Olave's, Tooley Street. This church,
as we have seen, was built from the designs first pre-
pared for St. Giles-in-the-Fields ; but even then Flitcroft's
original design for the spire, as Mr. Bumpus 2 points out,
appears to have been omitted, and the Commissioners were
content to have a square tower and a flagstaff. As the
edifice was nearly destroyed by fire in 1843, and was sub-
sequently much restored, the present building can hardly
be regarded as exhibiting much of the original work which
Flitcroft completed, at a cost of but ;^5ooo, in 1739. A
year before this (March 10, 1738) the architect had been

1 "History of the Parishes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields and St. George,
Bloomsbury," 1829.

2 " London Churches," vol. ii,

280 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

appointed Comptroller of the AVorks, in succession to
Ripley, a post which he held until his death.^

Among other of his undertakings was Hampstead Parish
Church, which he designed and built in 1747, at a cost
of ^4500. It is not, in itself, a particularly attractive
object, but seen at the end of the delightful Church Row,
one of the most picturesque and least spoiled bits of
Queen Anne architecture anywhere near London, it gains
a sort of adventitious charm from its surroundings.

Outside London, Flitcroffs most important w^orks were
the erection of Wentworth House for Lord Rockingham,
and the building of Woburn Abbey for the Duke of
Bedford. The former was planned in 1740, and at the
end of Kent's edition of Inigo Jones's drawings, appears a
large double-page engraving of Flitcroft's design for it.
It would appear, however, that the plans were much
modified and altered, as the existing building differs very
considerably from that shown in the engraving, and,
according to Mr. Blomfield, the architect seems to have
planned it bit by bit, and to have incorporated in his
work the designs of others, notably, so far as the central
block is concerned, that at Wanstead by Colin Campbell
whose favourite spreading pediment he also adopted.

Woburn was rebuilt seven years later. It is large and
massive, but wants grace and distinction, and is rather the
work of a painstaking journeyman than of a clever artist.
In the year (1747) in which he began this work, Flitcroft
was engaged in designing a house in St. James's Place, over-
looking the park, for the beautiful Mary Lepel, Lady
Hervey, the wife of Pope's " Sporus." During the pre-
vious year he had been appointed Master Carpenter, by a
warrant dated November 20, and in 1748 he succeeded
Kent in the office of Master Mason (May 10).^

Throughout his long life " Burlington Harry," as he

1 See Gentleman^ s Magazine^ viii. 166.

2 He rebuilt Wimpole Church, in 1749 ; and in 1750 he produced a
book of drawings, which he dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland, and
which is now in the British Museum,

BRETTINGHAM 281

was familiarly called, in allusion to the friendship and
patronage of Lord Burlington, was held in general esteem,
not only on account of his undoubtedly excellent gifts as
an architect, but also because he was an amiable, straight-
forward man. Such was his reputation in this respect,
indeed, that in June 1745, he was chosen one of the
Sheriffs of London and Middlesex. But either his pro-
fessional work was too exacting, or his inclinations did not
lie in the direction of public life, for two years later he is
recorded as having paid the fine on being excused from
serving in the capacity of Sheriff; while, on being elected
to the Court of the Joiners'* Company, he paid a similar
fine on refusing to act as Renter Warden.

Flitcroft resided for a time at a house he had erected
for himself at Frognal, called Montague Grove,^ not far
from the residence of Isaac Ware in that neighbourhood.
He did not, however, die here, but at Teddington where he
also had a small place. This event occurred on February
24, 1769, and he was buried at the v/est end of Teddington
Churchyard, his tombstone bearing the following inscrip-
tion :

Manibus Henrici Flitcroft sui temporis architectwn facile
principis, hoc marmor decavit Henricus Flitcroft filius.
Virtutes ejus laude nulla sepulchrale indigent^ omni majores.
Non aliter fieri quam me fleturus ademptus lUe fuit.

Born 3 Cal. Sept. 1697.
Died 5 „ March 1769.

BRETTINGHAM

The architect who properly takes his place at the close of
this chapter does not stand for very much in the develop-
ment of the art, nor is his name known to the general
public ; but as he was identified with several notable

1 Howitt's " Northern Heighta of London," p. 141.

282 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

undertakings, and was also, to some extent, a person of
importance — even if of but relative importance — in his
day, he demands at least a few words.

Matthew Brettingham was a native of Norwich, where
he was born in 1699. He seems to have laid the foundation
of his architectural knowledge by travelling abroad when
still a youth ; and during various subsequent years, from
1723 to 1738, he published the results of his studies
and investigations, in a series of folio volumes entitled
" Remarks on several Parts of Europe." It is known, too,
that he became a pupil of Kent, but it is not quite clear
whether this was subsequent to his first visit to the Con-
tinent, although the evidence seems to point to its being
so. At any rate, by the year 1729 he was sufficiently
advanced in the art to take a considerable part in the pre-
paration of the designs for Holkham which was at that
time commenced by Kent. There do not, however, appear
any grounds for disputing the master's claim to be con-
sidered the architect of the main outlines of this immense
mansion, but Brettingham, as clerk of the works, had
undoubtedly a very large share in not only superintending
the work, but also in adding certain features. On the
death of Kent in 1748, he became chief in command and
finished the building himself; with the result that when,
in 1761, the mansion was nearing completion, he brought
out an elaborate set of plans of it, and arrogated to him-
self the entire credit of the undertaking, ignoring Kent
altogether.-^

There is obviously a good deal of difficulty in allocating
the exact amount of work done by the two architects,
especially as one was labouring for a time under the
direction, and in the office, of the other ; and Brettingham
may very possibly have designed much that went forth
under the name of his master, especially as that master
was not a pre-eminent designer. But this hardly justifies

1 A later edition of this was published by Brettingham's nephew
K. F. Brettingham, in 1773, in the introduction to which Kent la
grudgingly allowed a small share in the work |

BRETTINGHAM 283

him in absolutely ignoring Kent's connection with Holk-
ham, especially as the latter was the recognised official
architect.

In this undertaking Brettingham was, after all, merely
a subordinate, but for the erection of Langley Park,
Norfolk, which occupied three or four years (1740-44), and
the designing of the north and east fronts of Charlton
House, Wilts, he appears — although Kent was still alive
— to have been alone responsible ; and at least two
notable London houses were planned by him : Norfolk
House, St. James's Square, and Cumberland House, Pall
Mall. The former was built for the ninth Duke of
Norfolk, on the sites of old St. Alban's House, and the
residence next door which the Duke had purchased from
the representatives of its last owner, Mr. Joseph Banks, in
1747. The new mansion was apparently begun in the fol-
lowing year, and completed, structurally, in 1752, although
three or four years elapsed before it was actually ready for
the great entertainment with which the Duke inaugurated
his new possession. The old house was not taken down,
and is still in existence behind the present Norfolk House,
there being an ample courtyard between the two. It
was in this former residence, now used as a kind of store-
house, that George III. was born. Brettingham's erection
is practically to-day as he designed it, with the exception
of the balcony running along the front, which was added
subsequently.-"-

Cumberland House, on the other hand, is now no longer
in existence, it having but recently been demolished. It
was originally built for the Duke of York, brother of
George III. What it appeared like when finished may
be seen in vol. iv. of the " Vitruvius Britannicus," where
there are two plates of it. The architect was obliged
to deal in this case with a^ somewhat circumscribed site,
and did so not ineffectively, although a man like Ware, to
take an example, would probably have evolved something

1 I have fully described Norfolk House in my " Private Palages of
London/'

284 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

still more ingenious than was effected bj Brettingham,
who broke the flight of the grand staircase at the first floor
in order to obtain uninterrupted light from the lantern
roof.

The Duke of York died in 1767, and subsequently his
mansion became the town residence of his younger
brother, the Duke of Cumberland, from whom it took
its name. After his death it was for a time a club, but
later became the Ordnance Office, the precursor of the
War Office which had its headquarters here till quite
recently.

Other work which has been traced to Brettingham was
the original design for at least a portion of Kedleston
Hall, more closely associated, as we shall see, with Paine ;
and an alcove in the garden of Ashburnham House, West-
minster, which for long was attributed to Inigo Jones, but
which Brettingham, in one of his publications, claims as
his own.

As we have seen, the architect travelled abroad con-
siderably during his early years ; he was to repeat his expe-
riences at a later date, and in 1748 he set out for Italy ^
and Greece, on an extended tour, which lasted some two
years. He journeyed in company with Gavin Hamilton,
James Stuart, and Nicholas Revett, in search of those un-
considered relics of antiquity which, through the agency of
these antiquaries, were destined to be imported, in large
quantities, into this country to enrich the galleries of the
noble patrons who helped to finance the undertaking, and
the Society of Dilettanti from whom the explorers held a
sort of official commission, and of which body they were all
members.

Brettingham died at Norwich in 1769, and was buried
in St. Augustine's Church in that town, leaving behind

1 In a list of " Caricatures which I did at Rome, 1751," Reynolds
speaks of including Mr. Bretengam {sic) in the large caricature of the
"School of Athens." It is mentioned in Leslie and Taylor's life of
Sir Joshua, where the original is then said to be in the possession
of — Henry, Esq., of Straffan, Ireland, A Mr. Henry is one of the
jgroup.

BRETTINGHAM 285

him a son (1725-1803), who followed in his father's steps
in perpetuating, with much skill and no little know-
ledge, that Palladian style of which Kent is perhaps the
best known, although not the best, eighteenth-century
exponent.

CHAPTER X

SIR ROBERT TAYLOR AND OTHERS

The Taylorian Museum at Oxford will perpetuate, as its
founder no doubt expected it to, the name of Taylor ;
though who Taylor actually was and what Taylor actually
achieved is generally little known beyond the circle of
those who have studied the architectural annals of this
country.

Robert Taylor was the son of one Taylor, a stonemason
working in London at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, and was born in the capital in the year 17 14.
His father appears to have been a successful man, and,
indeed, to liave amassed a considerable fortune which,
however, he dissipated by living beyond his means, if not
by riotous methods exactly, at least by emulating his betters
in the style and upkeep of his establishment ; he having
besides his town house a villa in Essex. But before he had
wasted his substance he apprenticed his son to Sir Henry
Cheere, a well-known mason of the day who had his yard,
as had so many others at that time, in Piccadilly, and who
was responsible for, among other things, that famous statue
of the Duke of Cumberland once in Cavendish Square, which
was set up at the expense of General Strode, with an
amusingly ungrammatical inscription. How long young
Taylor remained under Cheere is not recorded, but at the
end of his term, his father sent him to study in Rome
where he spent some time in acquainting himself with
the famous works of sculpture; for at this period he

286

SIR ROBERT TAYLOR

Emery Walker
To face p. 286

SIR ROBERT TAYLOR 287

appears to have had no leanings towards architecture
other than to that branch of it with which sculpture and
masonry were connected. On his return to England he
first heard of his father's death, and to his astonishment
found that the apparently well-to-do parent had left him
absolutely penniless. In these circumstances he turned to
Peter Godfrey, the head of the old Godfrey family of
Woodford, in Essex, with whom his own people had been
on terms of intimacy, with the result that the latter
helped him to set up as a sculptor, a calling he followed
for a number of years, only relinquishing it for archi-
tecture in 1753.

Taylor's best- known works, as a sculptor, are the monu-
ments to Peter Godfrey, M.P.,^ who died in 1742, in
Woodford Churchyard, which was raised at a cost of
;^i5oo ; to Cornwall, and Guest, in Westminster Abbey,
which were executed between 1743 and 1746 ; the figure
of Britannia in the centre of the chief facade of the Bank
of England ; and the alto-relievo in the pediment of the
Mansion House, which he completed in 1753, and which
was his last work of this kind.

There is no evidence that Taylor was a particularly
successful sculptor ; and, considering the years he gave up
to it, relatively few examples of his work are recorded ; it
was therefore probably for this reason that he determined
to try his hand at that branch of art which seemed to
promise a better chance of success. The result justified
him, for from the moment he started on his new career he
seems to have had his hands pretty full, and before his
death, as we shall see, he designed a great number of
important buildings, private houses being his speciality,
although public offices and at least one church can also be
placed to his credit.

His first design appears to have been that for a house on
the site of what is now 112 Bishopsgate Street Within,

1 The monument, a tall Corinthian column surmounted by an urn,
also commemorates " the ancient and knightly family of Godfi-ey," a
member of which was the well-known Sir Edmundbury Godfrey.

288 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

which he carried out for John Gore, then a resident at
Edmonton ; but soon after he was engaged on a far more
important work, notably Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn,
which was erected in 1756. The actual working drawings
for this were prepared by one of Taylor's pupils named
Leech, who in later life gave up architecture for the law,
and died Master of the Rolls.^

Stone Buildings is wholly out of keeping with the
surrounding architecture ; but taken by itself it is not in-
effective, and the severity and plainness of the Chancery
Lane front is compensated for by that looking on to the
garden, with its rustic basement and the entablature and
pediment supported by six Corinthian columns, which
forms a wing at the north end.

About this time Taylor was also employed on the erection
of houses for several of his clients ; thus he designed one
at Parbrook, in Hampshire, for Peter Taylor— whether a
relation or not I am unaware, and he was the architect of the
Duke of Grafton's mansion in Piccadilly, at the corner of
Clarges Street. The exact year when this house was erected
is not quite clear, but assuming it to have been after 1757,
then it must have been built for the third Duke, who
succeeded to the title in that year. In the previous year
Taylor was employed by Sir Charles Asgill, Lord Mayor
of London in 1758, to design what is now No. 70 Lombard
Street, and he gave such satisfaction that Asgill commis-
sioned him a little later to build the villa at Richmond over-
looking the river, and still known as Asgill House. Parti-
cular features in this residence are the octagon rooms ; and
although the place is distinctly Classic in style, the architect
was fully alive to the fact that comfort was a desideratum
in a suburban riverside dwelling. Like Marble Hill, how-
ever— and, for the matter of that, like all eighteenth-
century houses — the reception rooms were the chief objects
in view, and very spacious and pleasant ones they are.
Like, too. Marble Hill, Asgill House is one of the few
river residences dating from this period that practically
1 These drawings are preserved in Lincoln's Inn Library,

SIR ROBERT TAYLOR 289

remain unimproved or restored. In the " Vitruvius Britan-
nicus" is an engraving of it, and there it is described as of
" the Tuscan order, after a design by Palladio, remarkable
for its chaste and simple elegance '' !

About 1770 Taylor was engaged in erecting Danson
Hill House, at Welling, in Kent, for John Boyd, a
merchant of London, who was shortly afterwards created
a baronet. The architect's designs were modified in
the course of building, but Hughson speaks of the prin-
cipal rooms as being " large and elegant." The house,
consisting of a centre and wings, followed the Classic
lines beloved of eighteenth-century architects, and was
constructed of Portland stone. A year or two after this,
Taylor rebuilt the house. No. 37 Dover Street, which
by Act of Parliament had been allotted to the see of Ely
in lieu of Ely Place, Holborn, which reverted to the Crown
in 1772. The first bishop of that diocese to take possession
was Edmund Keene, and he employed Taylor to make the
necessary alterations to the existing house, and to reface
it in the form in which it exists to-day. An outcome of
the architect's connection with Keene, was certain work
which he was commissioned to do at Ely Cathedral
shortly afterwards. To this period of his career also belongs
the designing of Gopsal Hall for Lord Howe, and some
alterations and additions, including a mausoleum, at Chil-
ham Castle, Kent, for James Colebrook, in 1775. He
appears, too, to have been employed as surveyor on various
estates ; but such architectural work as he did in these
instances, calls for no particular comment, although it
will be convenient to mention here the chief country
houses, in addition to those already referred to, which
were erected from his designs.

Of these Heveningham Hall, in Suffolk, begun about
1778, for Sir Gerard Vanneck, Bart., was one of the
most important. Although not actually completed by
Taylor — for James Wyatt put the finishing touches to
it — -it is substantially his work, with the exception of the
west wing. The front extends to about 200 feet, and the

T

290 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

centre block as well as the extremities of the wings
are adorned with Corinthian columns, in the latter case
supporting a pediment and entablature. The commanding
position of the mansion greatly adds to its imposing effect,
but in any case it is a dignified and, to use a word freely
applied at the time, a chaste, building. Something of the
same — though in a more modified degree, for it is a much
smaller place — may be said of Harleyford House, near
Hurley on Thames, for which Taylor was also respon-
sible. Other mansions to the architects credit are Gor-
hambury, which he designed in 1778, and which was
completed in 1785, for Lord Grimston ; Normanton Hall,
Rutland ; Copfold Hall, Essex, for Richard Holden ; and
Clumber, which last was, however, subsequently destroyed,
and rebuilt in 1879.

During this period Taylor was engaged on a variety of
architectural work, other than that connected with private
houses. Thus he had become official architect to the
Bank of England,-^ and in this capacity was engaged
during the years 1776 to 1781, and again in 1783, in
making additions and improvements to Sampson's original
structure. The principal facade had been put up in
1733, and Taylor's additions included wings on either side
of the old building, the formation of the quadrangle and
the Bank parlour. Much of Taylor's design, as well as
that of Sampson, was done away with when Soane, who
succeeded Taylor as architect to the Bank on October 16,
1788, altered and enlarged the premises, and completed the
building substantially as it is to-day, in 1827.^ There is
no doubt that Taylor's work on the Bank of England was
the cause of his receiving a number of commissions from
various banking-houses in the City ; and for many years he
was extensively employed on these, in addition to his other

1 The Bank authorities have no record of the year in which Taylor
received this post, but the secretary informs me that in 1765, he is referred
to as "surveyor," and in the same year he produced plans for building
the Stock Offices and the Eotunda, which M^ere accepted.

2 In 1848 many alterations and improvements were made by C. E,
Cockerell, E.A.

SIR ROBERT TAYLOR 291

labours ; indeed, according to Hard wick ,^ he and James
Paine practically divided the architectural practice of the
period between them, until the Adam brothers, bringing
in a new fashion, became formidable competitors.

Besides being architect to the Governors of the Bank of
England, Taylor occupied a like position to the Foundling
Hospital, the Board of Works, and the Admiralty ; while
he was also surveyor to Greenwich Hospital, having suc-
ceeded Stuart in that post.

One or two other important works which he undertook
I have not yet mentioned. One of these was the encasing
in stone of the original Carlton House, but when this was
done is not clear, although it was probably before the
death of the Princess Dowager of Wales, which occurred in
1772 ; for when, eleven years later, the place was assigned to
George, Prince of Wales, as a residence, Henry Holland
was employed to improve and enlarge it to what we know
it from numberless engravings. Another of Taylor's works
was the so-called "Six Clerks and Enrolment Offices," in
Chancery Lane, which were being built during 1775-77 ;
and in 1780 he designed Maidenhead Bridge, erected at a
cost of ;J 1 9,000. This was not Taylor's only attempt at
this kind of work, for earlier in his career, notably in 1759,
he had, in conjunction with Dance, designed the central arch
of London Bridge, which replaced two of the older arches.^
Only once, so far as I know, did Taylor undertake the
planning of a church, and that at Long Ditton, which he
designed in 1776, and which preceded the present struc-
ture, was so unsatisfactory — one authority terming it " a
hideous brick structure, utterly nondescript in style" —
that it is perhaps lucky for his reputation that he did not.

As might have been expected of one who was so
intimately connected professionally with the City, Taylor
occupied himself in no small degree in civic affairs, and

1 "Memoir of Sir W. Cham'bers," 1825, p. 13.

2 The reports, &c., of the two Dances on London Bridge may be
read in the "History of London Bridge," by "An Antiquary," pp.
369 et seq.

292 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

in 1782-83, being then one of the Sherifi's, he was knighted
by George III.^

He died on September 27, 1788, at his residence in
Spring Gardens, a house which he held, apparently, in his
official capacity as architect to the Admiralty, and was
buried in a vault in St. Martin ""s-in-the-Fields, close by.^
His prosperous career resulted in his leaving the large
fortune of ^^180,000, the bulk of which was bequeathed
to the University of Oxford for the founding of a school
of modern European languages. This bequest did not
take effect till 1835, and six years later the Taylorian
Institute was commenced, and finished in 1845.

Taylor is commemorated by a tablet in the Abbey, but
the splendid benefaction which he made to the University
will help to keep alive his name better than any sepulchral
monument, and better even, perhaps, than the architectural
work on which he spent a long and busy life.^

JAMES PAINE

We have seen that with Sir Robert Taylor was bracketed
James Paine as being one of the two architects who, before
the advent of the Adams, practically divided the practice
of the profession between them. Notwithstanding this,
however, Paine's name is as generally little known as is that
of Taylor ; indeed, when we remember the world-renowned
foundation which Oxford owes to the latter, Paine is prob-
ably less known than his contemporary. And yet the

1 In this connection it is interesting to know that he designed the
Town Hall at Salisbury, and the Assembly Eooms at Belfast.

2 He left a son, Michael Angelo Taylor, who lived for many years at
4, Whitehall Yard, formerly Holdernesse House.

3 Thirty-two plates from Taylor's designs were drawn and beautifully
engraved by T. Malton, and published in 1790-92. There is an anony-
mous portrait of Taylor in the Institute of British Architects, and a
stipple portrait, also anonymous, in the Crowle Pennant ; and the; e is
a water-colour drawing of him^by Ozias Humphry, R.A., in the National
Portrait Gallery.

JAMES PAINE AXD HIS SOX

To face p. 292

JAMES PAINE 293

amount of work he did was immense, and his claim to be
considered a good designer is based on solid grounds.

James Paine, or Payne, as it is sometimes written, was
born in 1716.^ Of his family nothing is known, and even
the place of his birth has not been recorded, although it
seems probable that he first saw the light in London. In
any case he drifted early towards the capital, for he was, on
his own showing, a pupil there of Thomas Jersey, a forgotten
architect who died in 175 r, and afterwards became a student
at the well-known St. Martin's Lane Academy, the precursor
of the Royal Academy, where he is said to have made
extraordinary progress in drawing and design. He
must have been singularly precocious, for when but nine-
teen, he tells us, he was entrusted by Sir Rowland Wynne
with the erection of Nostell Priory, Yorkshire,^ which,
even allowing for the fact that it was built "after a
design seen by his client during his travels on the Conti-
nent,"" was no small achievement for so young a man.

It seems probable that this early work v/as the means
of introducing him favourably to those inhabitants of the
county who required architectural assistance, for in the
list of his works private houses in Yorkshire bulk largely,
and between 1740, when he added two wings to Cusworth
House ^ for William Wrightson, and 1744, when he com-
menced the Mansion House at Doncaster, which was
completed four years later, and of which he published an
elaborate description, with twenty-one plates, in 175 1, Paine
himself records that he was employed in erecting or adding
to a number of country mansions in this part of England.
Indeed, throughout his life he was closely identified with
the architectural development, as it may be termed, of
the county, and in the elaborate book which he published
at a later date, entitled " Plans, &c., of Noblemen [sic] and
Gentlemen's Residences executed in Various Counties ; and

1 The " DictioDary of National Biography" says 1725, and yet it
correctly states that he was seventy-three when he died in 1789.

2 Neale's "Seats," vol. iv.; Wolfe and Gandon's "Vit. Brit." (1717),
plates 57-63 and 70-73.

3 Neale, vol, v.

294 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

also of stabling, bridges, public and private temples, and
other garden buildings,'" ^ he speaks of the following houses
for which he was responsible, in Yorkshire alone :
Answorth, commenced in 1740 ; Cowick Hall, the de-
sign of which he prepared in 1752, for Lord Downe ;
Stockeld Park, built for W. Middleton, Esq. ; Lumley
Castle, 2 at Sand beck, for the fourth Lord Scarborough
(1752-82) ; Heath House, erected during 1744-45, for Mrs.
Hopkinson ; St. Ives, for B. FeiTand, Esq. ; and Stapleton
Park, which he designed and built for Edwin Lascelles,
Esq., who was created Lord Hare wood in 1790.

Besides this not inconsiderable list, Paine's work in the
north of England included Gosforth (1755), Belford, and
Bywell, all in Northumberland, erected respectively for
Charles Brandling, A. Dixon, and W. Fenwick, ; and
Axwell Park, Durham, built for Sir Thomas Clavering,
Bart; the fine stables and the bridge at Chatsworth,
erected during 1758-63 ; while Serlby, Notts, then the
seat of Viscount Gahvay ; Thornden Hall, Essex,^ the seat
of the Petre family, designed in 1763, and finished six
years later ; Ward our Castle (1770-76), in Wiltshire,
designed for the eighth Lord Wardour ; Hare Hall, near
Romford, for J. A. Wallenger ; Shrubland Hall, Suffolk ; *
and Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, which was erected for
Sir Matthew Lamb, afterwards Lord Melbourne, can all
be placed to Paine's credit, and show that his industry
was as great as the patronage he enjoyed. Indeed, as
Mr. Blom field has pointed out, between 1760 and 1770 he
appears to have been employed on the majority of the
great houses that were erected in this country during those
years.

Two of the most important, however, have still to be
noticed : Kedleston Hall, and the Manor House, Worksop.
The former was originally designed by Paine in 1761,

1 The first volume appeared in 1767, the second in 1783 ; they
were illustrated by no less than 175 fine plates.

2 Watts's " Seats of the Nobility," plate x.

3 See Wright's " Essex," and Neale. * IMcl,

<^

JAMES PAINE 295

although Brettingham had already begun the mansion, by
the erection of one of the wings. It would thus appear
that Paine was commissioned to complete the undertaking
by incorporating his predecessor's work into a structure of a
size not previously contemplated. In furtherance of this
scheme Paine designed three other wings to match Bret-
tingham's work, and adapted its details to the great
central block, which, although he speaks of it as his own
design, is, after all, with certain necessary additional
features, but an amplification of the wings. When, how-
ever, he had advanced so far in the design his place as
architect was transferred to Robert Adam. There seems
some mystery as to the reason for this. Paine states that
he himself asked Lord Scarsdale, for whom he was design-
ing the place, to relieve him of his duties, as he was too busy
in other parts of the country to give proper attention to
them ; but one can hardly imagine an architect voluntarily
relinquishing so important an undertaking, without there
being some secret cause for his action. What seems not
improbable is that, as he was about this time employed by
the Duke of Norfolk to rebuild, on a magnificent scale,
Worksop Manor House, which had been burnt down in
1 76 1, the Duke may have made it a condition that he
should give his undivided attention to the new work, and
thus, having practically completed the designs for Kedle-
ston, Paine may have been satisfied to leave its completion
in the hands of " those able and vigorous artists," as he
terms Robert and James Adam.

Had not circumstances arisen which put a stop to the
undertaking after it was already begun, Worksop Manor
House would have been a worthy monument of an architect
who did so much for domestic architecture as Paine. It
was to have been a square, with fronts no less than 305 feet
in length, and would have contained two courts, besides an
Egyptian Hall, dividing them, 140 feet long and half as
wide. The access to this hall was to have been through
a Tribune, and this in turn was entered from an outer
hall of splendid dimensions ; while from the inner side of

296 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

the Egyptian Hall rose the grand staircase. The idea
was a magnificent one, for a vista was thus created which
for light and spaciousness would probably have been un-
equalled ; but unfortunately the north front had alone
been finished, when the Duchess of Norfolk, the Mary
Blount of Blagden, whose portrait may be seen in Nor-
folk House, died,^ and the work at Worksop, which
had already been going on for nearly ten years, was
stopped.

Before I say a word about Paine's various official posi-
tions, it will be convenient to mention the other important
buildings for which he was responsible. Of these were at
least four houses in London, the most noticeable of which
was Melbourne House, Whitehall, known later as Dover
House. In 1754 Sir Matthew Featherstonehaugh ob-
tained a lease from Lady Falmouth of the original house
on this site, and immediately commissioned Paine to
design a new mansion, which was completed four years
later. The house, now one of the Government offices, still
exists, but the well-known entrance and cupola were added
by the Duke of York when he purchased the place from
Sir Matthew's son in 1787, and before he exchanged it
with Lord Melbourne for the building in Piccadilly now
known as the Albany. It is curious that Lord Melbourne,
for whom Paine had built Brocket Hall, should thus have
obtained a London residence designed by the same archi-
tect. Another instance in which the town and country
house of a nobleman were both due to Paine, was when he
planned for Lord Petre, Thornden Hall in Essex, and a
mansion in Park Lane.

The other two London residences erected from Paine's
designs were the houses in Pall Mall occupied respectively
by Dr. Heberden and the Hon. T. Fitzmaurice. Dr. Heber-
den, who is remembered as one of the physicians attending
George III., employed the architect to rebuild the old
house, now No. 79 Pall Mall, which had once belonged to
Nell Gwynne, and of which she had obtained the freehold
I May 27, 1773. The ninth duke himself died four years later.

JAMES PAINE 297

from Charles II. It has since Heberden's day been again
rebuilt, and no trace of Paine's work remains.

Besides the general plans for houses, Paine, as usual,
designed many of their subsidiary ornaments, such as
chimney-pieces, mirror-frames, vases, &c., and of these two
volumes of drawings are preserved in the Victoria and
Albert Museum ; while examples of his chimney-pieces
were formerly in Sir Joshua Reynolds's house in Leicester
Square, in Melbourne House, and in Lord Petre's, in Park
Lane. He also, on one occasion at least, laid out a public
thoroughfare, viz., Salisbury Street, Strand, which he
planned in 1783 ; and he also designed the Middlesex
Hospital, the first stone of which was laid on May 18,
1755, although the building (which, by the bye, has fre-
quently been enlarged since) was not completed till twenty
years later.

Apart, however, from his purely domestic architecture,
Paine's most successful work was, curiously enough, on
the bridges he designed, no less than four being from his
hand, viz., those of Richmond, Kew, Chertsey, and Walton.
In the erection of the first he was associated with a Mr.
Couse, who was probably responsible for the technical, as
differentiated from the ornamental, portion of the work.
It was in course of erection between 1774 and 1777, the
first stone being laid by the Hon. Henry Hobart on
August 23 of the former year.^ It is a picturesque struc-
ture, and fully merits the praise which was lavished upon
it when it was completed. In these days, however, when
all bridges seem to be regarded as possible viaducts for
tramways, its narrowness and inconvenient gradient is a
source of continual complaint. The same may be said,
and was said, of old Kew Bridge, which has, alas ! suc-
cumbed to the exigencies of increased traffic. Paine's
bridge here replaced the original wooden one, which had
been built in 1758-59, and was erected at the instance of
one Robert Tunstall, the direction of the work being
given to " Mr. James Paine, of Salisbury Street, Strand,*"
I- The cost of the work was ;^25,ooo,

298 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

The first stone was laid on June 4, 1783, and the bridge
opened to the public on September 22, 1789, about two
months before Paine's death.^ It existed till 1899, when
the present structure was begun. Chertsey Bridge pre-
ceded that at Kew by a few years, being commenced in
1780, and completed five years later at a cost of ;^i3,ooo ;
while that at Walton dates from the same period. All
these bridges are similar in character. What that character
is may be seen by all and sundry in the three that still
remain.

As I have mentioned, Paine was a student at the
Society of Artists in St. Martinis Lane ; later he became
a member of that body, and subsequently, until 1772, he
filled the post of one of the directors. In the society's
catalogues his name appears frequently as an exhibitor
of drawings, from 1761 onwards. In 1771 he was elected
president, and when the society determined to build an
exhibition room, having outgrown its original home, it
was Paine who supplied the design of an academy to be
erected near Exeter Change, in the Strand. The exact
site of this building was that on which the old Lyceum
Theatre (destroyed in 1830) stood. The first stone of the
academy was laid on July 23, 1771, and it was opened on
May II, 1773. It did not, however, prove as successful as
had been anticipated, and, a few years later (1777),^ was
sold, and converted into the playhouse whose name per-
petuates its former existence, in 1790.

Besides occupying for a time the position of President
of the Society of Artists, Paine held various official posts ;
thus, he was clerk of the works, under the Board of Works,
connected with Greenwich Hospital, and later filled the
same post at Newmarket and Richmond New Park. At a
still later date he became architect to the King, in which
capacity he was attached to the Royal Board of Works ;

1 The contract price was ;^i 1,864, as may t)e seen by the documents
preserved in the British Museum.

2 The Society this year exhibited at Mr. Phillips's new great rooms
near Air Street, Piccadilly.

JAMES PAINE 299

but in consequence of Burke's great measure for economical
reform, introduced in 1780, he was dismissed from this
post, without, apparently, receiving any pension or com-
pensation.

Although Paine's work carried him so often and so far
into the country, he seems to have remained faithful to
London and Greater London as dwelling-places until his
death. His earliest known residence was in St. Martin's
Lane, and here he was living in 1764, in a house he had
designed and built for himself on the site of what are now
Nos. 76 and 77. This house had then a garden attached
to it, and at the end of this garden were two smaller
dwellings which the architect had planned for John Gwynn,
the author of " London and Westminster Improved,'' and
himself a well-known architect, and Samuel Wale, the
painter and Royal Academician, respectively. Two years
later Paine moved to Salisbury Street, which, as we have
seen,he rebuilt in 1783, and here he apparently remained till
this work was completed, as in or about 1785 he acquired
Addlestone, or Sayes, Court, near Chertsey, from Mr.
Belchier, and, making additions to the place, continued
to reside there ^ until his death which, however, occurred in
France, whither he had gone for a time, in the November
of 1789.

He bequeathed Sayes Court to his son, James, who was
also an architect of some pretensions. Besides this son,
Paine left two daughters, one of whom became, in 1777, the
wife of Tilly Kettle, the portrait-painter, who had studied
in the St. Martin's Lane Academy, and at the Duke of
Richmond's gallery in Whitehall, and who died in 1798 at
Aleppo.

Apart from his architectural work, private and official,
Paine occupied other high and important positions, being
not only a magistrate for Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey,
but also holding, in 1783, the post of High Sheriff for the

1 It is, of course, not improbable that he still retained his London
residence. He was living, however, at Sayes Court while constructing
Chertsey Bridge (Brayley and Britton's " History of Surrey ")*

300 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

last-named county. Several portraits of him are extant.
First and foremost there is that, with his son, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, which is one of the painter''s masterpieces, and
which the younger Paine bequeathed to the Bodleian
Library. It was engraved by Watson in 1764, and a curious
circumstance in regard to it is the fact that the painter
has introduced into the work a scroll bearing the legend
" Charter of the Society of Artists,*' when it is known that
this charter was not granted till January 26, 1765. Per-
haps, however, Reynolds knew enough to justify him in
indulging in this daring anticipation.^ An earlier portrait
by Hayman, engraved by Grignion, was prefixed to Paine's
book, in 1751 ; while two later prints — one a stippled
portrait, and the other an engraving by Falconet after a
picture by Parisot — are dated respectively 1798 and 1769.
Paine, if not a pre-eminent architect, was at least an
industrious and a successful one. Like his contemporaries,
he w^as too apt to allow himself to be influenced by the
Italian school, which, excellent as that influence was,
became in the hands of any but the born geniuses of
architecture, often but a weak and shadowy imitation of
itself. If, however, he frequently lacked a virile concep-
tion of the more decorative features of his art — and it must
be said that he w^as as often distinguished and sure in his
designs — one thing helps to raise him above many of his
contemporaries, and that was his really excellent power
of planning houses that should fulfil the first conditions
of a residence : the convenience of those who were to live
in it.

ROBERT MORRIS

Robert Morris was neither a very prolific nor, on the
whole, a particularly successful architect, but he properly

1 In Reynolds's list of sitters are given the Miss Pains (sic) (two
sittings), in December 17^7, and Miss Paine and Mrs. Paine for July 1765.

ROBERT MORRIS 301

takes a place here, because he represents another facet, as
it were, of the building activity of the day. Morris was,
apparently, a native of Twickenham ; at least he is de-
scribed as of that place, on the title-page of the earliest of
the books he published, and as this work, " An Essay in
Defence of Ancient Architecture,'"* was brought out in
1728, his birth probably occurred very early in the
eighteenth century. He is said to have received instruc-
tion in the art he was to follow, from a kinsman, one
Roger Morris, who was himself an architect of some pre-
tensions, besides occupying the post of "Carpenter and
principal Engineer to the Board of Ordnance," and Robert
in the preface to one of his books speaks of him as his
"loving kinsman," and describes himself as "obliged to
him for the erudition he had received in his services."

Roger Morris died in 1744, and apparently at the time
of his decease was engaged on the plans of Inverary Castle,
for the Duke of Argyle, as this mansion was begun in
1745, under the supervision of Robert, who had hitherto
been working in conjunction with his relation. The
moment for commencing such a work in Scotland was
most unpropitious, for the whole country was disturbed by
the rising under Prince Charles Edward, and it is not,
therefore, a matter of surprise to learn that the castle
was not completed till 1761. It was constructed of lapis
oUaris, or pot-stone, brought from the other side of Loch
Fyne, and was considered of such importance at the time —
as, indeed, it might be at any time — that William Adam,
the father of the famous Adam brothers, who was then pub-
lishing his " Vitruvius Scoticus," included engravings of it
in that work,^ although his own designs form the staple of
the publication. The building is so unlike any of Robert
Morris's work, being Gothic in style, whereas his designs
were almost uniformly Palladian, that the theory that
Roger was chiefly responsible for it seems well founded.

Robert's connection with the castle, as general super-

1 The central portion was destroyed by fire in 1877, but was rebuilt
three years later.

302 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

visor, probably led, however, to the next commission he
received. This was from no less a person than the king,
George II., to whose notice the Duke of Argjle possibly
brought the architect. In conjunction with S. Wright,
Morris was employed to erect the centre block of the
lodge in Richmond Park, now known as White Lodge,
but then called The Stone Lodge. The design for this has
been attributed to Lord Pembroke, as we have seen, and
this amateur may have had a hand in it, particularly as
it partakes of some of the characteristics of Marble Hill,
which he is known to have planned ; but Wright and
Morris had the building of it, and I think it probable that
the latter had also no small share in the actual designing.
However, it is heavy and uninspired, and nothing to be
very proud of, particularly as the wings, that give to
the whole a certain coherence, were added at a later
date.

About 1748, in which year the egregious Bubb Dod-
ington, afterwards Lord Melcombe, had purchased the
property, Morris was employed to repair and modernise
the mansion at Fulham afterwards known as Branden-
burgh House, but called by its new owner, I..a Trappe.
Servandoni was also employed on the house, and to him
was due the long gallery which was one of its chief
features. Dodington, on his death in 1762, bequeathed
the place to Thomas Wyndham ; and this circumstance
has led several writers into the mistake of stating that
Morris built it for the latter. -"^

Among other places which Morris designed may be
mentioned Coombe Bank, Kent, erected for the Duke of
Argyle, who was a good friend to the architect, and Wim-
bledon House, Surrey, which he designed for Mr. Spencer,
afterwards created Earl Spencer. In the planning of this
mansion he is said, by a writer in the "Dictionary of
National Biography," to have been associated with Lord
Burlington. This, however, is incorrect, for Sarah, Duchess

1 The house was pulled down in 1822, and another, bearing the same
name, was erected in the grounds, close by.

ROBERT MORRIS 303

of Marlborough, who had purchased the estate with the
original Wimbledon House upon it — viz., the mansion built
by Sir Theodore Jansen on the site of Sir Thomas Cecil's
huge residence — pulled the place down, and erected a new
one from Lord Burlington"'s designs; not liking the latter,
however, she also caused it to be demolished. When she
died in 1744, she left the estate to her grandson, John
Spencer, youngest son of Charles, Earl of Sunderland,
whose son, John, in turn inherited it, and he it was who
erected another mansion from Morris's designs. This
house was burnt down in 1785, and still another was built
on, or near, its site, and finished in 1801, from Holland's
designs.

Another residence in which Morris may, however, have
been associated w^ith Lord Burlington (who died in 1753)
w^as Kirby Hall, Yorkshire, which was erected in 1750,
and on the interior of which Carr of York was em-
ployed. It was built for S. Thompson, Esq., who is
himself said to have suggested the main features of the
design.

This exhausts what is known of Morris's architectural
work, unless one adds the Palladian bridge which he
erected in the grounds of Wilton, so early as 1736. A
large portion of his activity was expended on the publica-
tion of books bearing on his profession, by which he may
have hoped to attract a larger clientele than he apparently
succeeded in doing. As we have seen, he brought out an
"Essay in Defence of Ancient Architecture " in 1728. Two
years later he commenced a course of lectures on the same
subject before a Society of Arts and Sciences which he had
established, from October 1730 to January 1735 ; these
lectures he published in book form between 1734 and
1736 ; and he dedicated them to Roger Morris, with the
acknowledgment of obligations I have before referred to.
Li 1750 appeared his "Rural Architecture," and in the
following year his " Architectural Remembrancer ; " while
" Architecture Improved" (1755) ; " Select Architecture "
(1755-59); and "The Modern Builder" (1742-57), in which

304 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

he was associated with T. Lightoler and John and WilHam
Halfpenny, help to show that he was an assiduous wielder
of the pen.

Many of the plates, too, that illustrate these works
were drawn by the author about whom, beyond the
fact that he was residing near Hyde Park in 1750, nothing
more appears to be recorded. And, truth to tell, it hardly
matters, for Morris was, like a number of other architects
of his day, uninspired by the splendid exemplars with
whose work, however, they seem to have been familiar. The
Hiorns, who built Foremark Hall, Derbyshire ; and Sander-
son, who was responsible for Kirtlington, Oxfordshire,^
stand as further examples of this inability to profit by
what they were obviously acquainted with. As a matter of
fact, the flame of architecture in this country was gradually
dying out, and would have quite done so, had not the
Adams given it a sort of factitious vitality, and Sir William
Chambers fanned it into a splendid but temporary blaze.

ROBERT ADAM

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, writing in January 1758,
to Lady Bute, remarks : " I saw, some months ago, a
countryman of yours who desires to be introduced to you.
He seemed to me, in a short visit, to be a man of genius,
and I have heard his knowledge of architecture much
applauded." The architect here indicated was Robert
Adam, the most famous of those brothers whose inaugura-
tion of a new style of design gave, for a time, the death-
blow to that heavier Palladian form which had for many
years dominated this country. Of these brothers Robert
is by far the most important ; indeed, although the others,
James, John, and William, were more or less associated
with him in his building ventures, they were, with the

1 Mr. Blomfield.

ROBERT ADAM 305

possible exception of James,^ quite subsidiary to him in work
and development. It is, of course, often difficult to allo-
cate accurately the individual share which properly belongs
to several persons who are associated in the same work ; in
this instance it is particularly so, and I shall, therefore, here
regard Robert as best representing the architectural ability
of this unquestionably gifted family.

Robert Adam was the second son of William Adam,^ of
Maryburgh, and was born, in 1728, at Kirkcaldy. He
received his early educational training at Edinburgh Uni-
versity, where he formed friendships with such men as
David Hume, Robertson, the historian, and Adam Smith,
also a native of Kirkcaldy, friendships that lasted during
their lives. Having completed his course at the university,
Adam, who appears to have always been intended by his
father to follow his footsteps as an architect, was sent to
enlarge his mind and gain experience by travel, and, in
1754, he visited Nimes, on his way to Italy where he
eventually arrived in the company of Clerisseau, the French
architect. In 1756 he reached Rome, and spent the summer
of the following year in Venice, and while there went down
the Adriatic to Dalmatia, and was engaged with his com-
panion, for five weeks, in measuring and making drawings
of Diocletian's famous palace at Spalatro, drawings that
were published in 1764, the engravings from them being by
Bartolozzi. During this period of his life Adam kept a
journal in which are recorded his adventures and investi-
gations during his four years'* sojourn on the Continent.

1 T must dismiss James iu a footnote. He was the third of the four
sons of William Adam, and was associated with Eobert in practically all
his works, although Portland Place has been usually assigned to him
alone. He once held the appointment of architect to George III., a
post he lost on the passing of Burke's Economical Eeform Bill ; and he
was also Master Mason to the Board of Ordnance in North Britain. He
published " Practical Essays on Agriculture," and was writing a history
of architecture at the time of his death which occurred, from apoplexy,
at his house in Albemarle Street, on October 20, 1794.

2 William was himself an able architect, and held the post of King's
Mason at Edinburgh ; he designed Hopetoun House, and the Royal
Infirmary at Edinburgh, among other things^

u

3o6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

On his return from his wanderings in 1758, he began the
practice of architecture, and from that date till his death
in 1792, he was busily engaged in erecting houses and public
buildings in tha,t well-known form of decoration which
he applied not only to his buildings but also to furniture,
and with which his name is indissolubly connected.

His first important private undertaking was Shardeloe, in
Buckinghamshire, which he designed in 1759, and which
was completed in 1761. During its erection he was com-
missioned to add the screen to the Admiralty which even
Walpole, who was in general no admirer of his works which
on one occasion he calls '' harlequinades," praised. The fact
was that this screen hid Ripley's heavy and uninspired build-
ing, and thus gained a meed of excessive admiration which,
good as it is, it hardly seems to deserve. The year after,
Adam was employed by the Duke of Northumberland to
remodel Sion House, Isle worth, and to erect the gates which
face the high-road. These gates, connected by colonnades
with the two lodges, have been described as " elegant," and
so they are ; but they form an excellent object-lesson in
showing the mistake Adam was so often guilty of : the
application of detail, which was appropriate enough for
ordinary doorways or picture-frames, to erections requiring
above all the appearance of strength and solidity, which
such flimsy ornamentation was powerless to give. The fact
is that the "Adam style"' is appropriate and, when not
over-elaborated, charming for internal decoration, but wants
virility when applied to the exteriors of large buildings.

About the time that he w^as occupied at Sion, Adam was
engaged, with his brother James, to replace Paine as archi-
tect of Kedleston Hall, and he here carried out, with certain
modifications, the design which the older man had already
prepared and begun to work on. On this Adam was
engaged for four years, but before its completion he was
employed by Lord Mansfield to rebuild Caenwood, or Ken-
wood, House, Hampstead (purchased from Lord Bute in
1755). Howitt^ gives a description of the place, and
1 "Nortliern Heights of London," p. 328.

u

o

o

p

1-3

ROBERT ADAM 307

remarks that the rooms are " spacious, lofty, and finely-
proportioned,'''' adding that " within, Adam, as was usual
with him, was more successful than without."" On this the
architect was engaged for three years, during which period
he also built Luton House, Bedfordshire, and, what is his
finest achievement in London domestic architecture, Lans-
downe House, then Shelburne House, Berkeley Square.

This splendid mansion was finished about 1769, for
although Lord Shelburne gave a house-warming there in
August 1768, an entry in Lady Shelburne"'s diary, dated
three weeks later, proves it to have been still uncompleted,
although she expresses herself much pleased with it, and
terms it a noble place. I have recently described this
house,^ and there is no necessity to recapitulate what
I have already said about it ; but I may remark that
the original plans and drawings for it, now preserved,
with an immense number of Adam's other designs,^ in the
Soane Museum, show it to have been carried out, not
according to the earliest drafts, but substantially on the
basis of later designs. It is probably the most complete
example of Adam's particular methods. The interior is
full of his elaborate ornamentation, the dining-room
being specially noticeable in this respect. The whole
house, indeed, proves his skill in the planning of large,
and at the same time comfortable, rooms ; and the
exterior is far more dignified than many of those
which are full of the "harlequinades" that Walpole
resented.

To this period also belongs the erection of the Deputy-
Ranger's Lodge in the Green Park, which formerly stood
opposite Down Street, and of which Adam was the architect.
The lodge about which Ralph waxes satirical, remarking
that "the enormity of the balcony which environs it looks
like the outriggers to an Indian canoe, to prevent it from
oversetting,"" was taken down in 1841, and the two stags

1 In the " Private Palaces of London," 1908.

2 There are no less than fifty-five folio volumes of these, by Kobert
and James Adam, preserved here.

3o8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

that surmounted the piers of its gateway were subsequently
removed to their present position at Albert Gate.

In the following year (1769) the Adams embarked on
the first, and most important, of those wholesale building
developments with which their name is so largely
identified. Robert Adam had obtained possession of a
patent stucco invented by Liardet, and having induced a
certain Pergolesi to come from Italy to this country, to
superintend the plaster-work, he proceeded to apply it
to such buildings as he erected on his own initiative,
or, where his clients permitted him, to the houses he
designed for them, which does not, however, appear to
have been very often. Adam's one idea, when erecting a
number of small adjoining houses, was to give them the
appearance of a single large building ; and the use of this
relatively cheap material afforded him an opportunity of
doing this without his having to resort to a more expen-
sive medium, such as stone. It also more easily enabled
him to decorate the exteriors of such buildings with those
arabesques and Classic designs in which he delighted.

In 1768 Durham Yard, as it was then called, occupying
the site of old Durham House, was the property of the
Duke of St. Albans, and was occupied by a number ot
small houses and coal-sheds ; in fact, it was little better
than waste ground. The Adams, however, saw possibilities
in it, and succeeded in obtaining a ninety-nine years' lease
from the Duke, at an annual rent of ^1200. Having done
this, they set to work to clear the whole place, and, throw-
ing a series of arches over that portion which descended to
the river level, they erected on these a number of streets,
one of which contained the house for the then newly-formed
Society of Arts, and a terrace from which one of the finest
views of the river can still be obtained. The streets were
named after the four brothers, and the whole property
was generically termed, as it still is, The Adelphi.

But profitable as the undertaking was, it was not with-
out its troubles, for apart from hostile criticism, — Walpole
said the Adelphi buildings were merely " warehouses, laced

ROBERT ADAM 309

down the seams, like a soldier's frill in a regimental old
coat," — the Adams were involved in a law-suit with the
Lord Mayor, the chief official conservator of the Thames,
who accused them of encroaching too far on the river-bank.
This proved but a temporary vexation, however, for the
brothers gained the case, according to Walpole, through
the influence of the Crown which was known to be friendly
to them.

This was a time when Scotchmen were not personw gratce
in the South, owing largely to Lord Bute's unpopularity,
and this feeling, increased by the opposition of the city to
the Court, is supposed largely to have embittered the feeling
of the Thames Conservancy against the Adams. The
writer of the " Foundling Hospital for Wit " tells how

Four Scotchmen_, by the name of Adams {sic)
Who keep their coaches and their madams.
Quoth John, in sulky mood, to Thomas,
Have stole the very river from us.

However, the Adams probably cared very little for such
harmless pasquinades, and as they were as successful in the
law^-courts as they were in their speculation, they had little
need to.

An amusing reference to the building operations in the
Strand, is given in a book entitled "Pilgrimages to London."
" Scotchmen," writes the author, " are proverbially fond of
their country, and the immense building speculations into
which the Messrs. Adam had entered afforded them an
opportunity of giving employment to their countrymen, as
well as of obtaining their services, when engaged in Scot-
land, at a lower rate of wages than was demanded by
English bricklayers and labourers. Some hundreds were
therefore imported from Scotland, and came attended by
half a dozen bagpipes, for the purpose, as was asserted, of
keeping up the national feeling. These pipers played daily
while the embankments were formed and the foundations
laid ; and as the sweet chords of the classic lyre of Orpheus
are said to have moved inanimate objects, so arose the

310 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Adelphi to the squeak of the Scotch bagpipes.'' After a
time, however, the workmen found that they could get better
pay from the English market, and threw off in a body " the
curse of Adam," as they called it ; whereupon the adelphi
had to import workmen from the sister isle who were willing
to labour for less wages, and could dispense with the national
instrument of Scotch melody !

But more serious difficulties beset the Adams ; their
capital ran short, and they were forced to have recourse to
a public lottery, for which they obtained an Act of Par-
liament (13 Geo. III. cap. 75) in 1773. There w^ere 4370
tickets of ;^5o each, out of which there w^ere 108 prizes,
ranging from ;i£"5o,o8o to ;^ioo. The drawing began on
March 3, 1774, at the great room, formerly Jonathan's
Coffee-house, in Exchange Alley, and continued a con-
siderable time.-"^

As a result, it would seem that not only by this means
did the Adams extricate themselves from what threatened
to be grave financial disaster, but their names became so
well advertised that businesss flowed in upon them in even
greater volume than before.

In speaking of The Adelphi I have rather anticipated
dates. The lottery took place, as we have seen, in 1774,
and included, besides The Adelphi, the houses forming
Mansfield Street and Queen Anne Street. The former
street had been built by Robert Adam in 1770 ; and he
had also designed certain residences in the latter, about
the same time, on ground that formerly contained a
reservoir of water. ^ In this year, too, we find the
Adams among those who applied for ground-leases of plots
in the then about to be formed Manchester Square ;
while to the same period belongs Bolton House (now
divided), in Russell Square, the drawings for decorations of

1 The Adams'.issued, in January 1774, a now scarce pamphlet entitled
" Particulars composing the Prizes in the Adelphi Lottery," and in Mr.
Austin Brereton's "History of The Adelphi " further interesting facts as
to this circumstance are related at length.

2 " Old and New London."

ROBERT ADAM 311

which are in the Soane Museum, and No. i Bedford
Square, which was designed for Sir Lionel Lyde, the
famous special pleader ; as well as certain other residences
in this square where is exhibited in the centre of each
side that construction whereby two or more houses have
the appearance of one, which I have noted as being a
feature in Robert Adam's domestic work.

It is unnecessary to mention here every building with
which the Adams were connected, or of which their
drawings are extant, but it seems probable that No. 3
Queen Square, Bloomsbury, and in all probability Hare-
wood House, Hanover Square, which they designed for
the bibliophilic Duke of Roxburgh who sold the place to
Lord Harewood in 1795, were both erected during this
year or very soon after. Among other work which one or
both of these indefatigable architects produced in London
may be mentioned the British Coffee-house, in Cockspur
Street, rebuilt by Robert Adam in 1770, and demolished
in 1886 to make way for shops ; Sir Watkin Williams
Wynne's house (No. 20) in St. James's Square, which
they designed, and cleverly designed, on a small and
difficult site, for that baronet, between 1772 and 1774;
the lodge and gateway, and possibly alterations in the
mansion itself, at Ashburnham House, Hay Hill (1773),
the site of which is now covered by an immense block of
flats ; No. 23 Grosvenor Square, rebuilt by Robert Adam
for the Earl of Derby in 1773 ; and various improvements
carried out at Northumberland House, Charing Cross,
chief among them being the great ball-room which was
added on the south side of the mansion, and including
also such minor objects as a drawing-room mantelpiece,
and even a circular table-top. ■•

Nor was the activity of the Adams confined to private
residences, although the bulk of their work was connected
with these, for we find them engaged in adding a new
fa9ade to Drapers' Hall, Throgmorton Street, when the

1 The drawings of these are in the Soane Museum, and are dated July
1774.

312 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

building was restored after a fire there, in 1774 ; in
rebuilding the front of Wren^s original erection of Drury
Lane Theatre, in 1776, for David Garrick, who,^by the
bye, was one of the occupants of the Adelphi Terrace
houses ; and in designing Boodle's Club-house in St. James's
Street, the classic front of which still exists, for John
Crunden some ten years earlier.

Beyond this, they wore responsible for such important
undertakings as the formation of the row of houses just
west of Hamilton Place, then known as Piccadilly Terrace,
on the site of the " Hercules Pillars,^' where Squire Western
when in pursuit of Tom Jones put up, it will be remem-
bered ; Stratford Place, Oxford Street, designed for
Stratford, second Earl of Aldborough, in 1775; Portland
Place, laid out three years later ; and the south-east and
south sides of Fitzroy Square, built during 1790, and 1794,
which, although somewhat heavier in design than is usual
with the Adams, are good examples of their comprehensive
treatment of a number of separate houses.

Outside London their works are hardly less numerous
and important. Osterley Park, now the seat of the Earl
of Jersey, was rebuilt by them for Mr. Child, the banker ;
Witham, in Somerset ; Compton Verney, in Warwickshire,
and Gosford House, in East Lothian, one of their latest
achieA^ements, may all be mentioned ; and, in addition, the
Record Office (1771) and some new buildings for Edinburgh
University (1778), are credited to Robert alone.

The latter is also said to have once designed a church,
that of Mistley, in Essex — alone sufficient to prove that his
proper metier did not lie in this direction ; while for the
rest, besides innumerable other houses either planned
or decorated, he expended his energy in designing furniture
in harmony with his classic mansions, chimney-pieces (one
he constructed, for Walpole, in the Round Drawing-room
at Strawberry Hill), picture-frames, &c. &c. ; and he even
exerted his powers on plate and carriages, and on one
occasion designed a Sedan chair for Queen Charlotte.
Indeed, some idea of the activity of Robert Adam (who, I

ROBERT ADAM 313

may mention, was also a landscape-painter of no small
merit) may be gained from the fact that in the year pre-
ceding his death he is said to have designed no less than
eight public and twenty-five private buildings.

Besides this he held the post of Architect to the King,
to which he had been appointed in 1758, but which
he was obliged to relinquish on being elected Member
of Parliament for Kinross ten years later. He had also
early in life, while yet in Italy, been elected a Fellow of
the lioyal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries ; and
in 1773 he began, in conjunction with his brother James,
the publication of his work on architecture, which appeared
in folio parts at intervals, making two volumes in all,
till 1778 ; a third book of which, completing the work,
was subsequently brought out in 1822.

Both Robert and James had resided together for a
number of years at 13 Albemarle Street, and here, on
March 3, 1792, the elder died from the breaking of a
blood-vessel. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and
the high esteem in which he was held is shown by the
fact that the pall-bearers at his funeral consisted of such
well-known and important men as the Duke of Buccleuch,
the Earls of Coventry and Lauderdale, Lord Stormont,
Lord Frederick Campbell, and Mr. Pulteney.

So much has been written on the style and tendency of
the Adams that it would be superfluous to enlarge on the
matter here ; I may, however, point out that what they
seem to have complacently regarded as originality was
in fact but a reflex of earlier work. Robert considered
himself an innovator, and to some extent he was one, but
it was rather in the juggling with ornamentation than
in the creation of new methods. Quite self-satisfied, and
having an immense belief in his own powers, he seems
to have thought that by being fashionable he was being
original, and that when he introduced his " Etruscan "
stucco-work, or his abundance of classic ornaments, he
was, in fact, initiating a new and lasting style into the
architecture of this country. As a matter of fact he

314 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

was pandering to a taste for such things, a taste that had
promised well in the earlier years of the eighteenth
century, but had gradually degenerated into a weak and
colourless parody of true Classicism. One has only to
compare the virile and splendid achievements of men like
Wren and Inigo Jones with the best work of the Adam
brothers to realise this. Where, however, the latter do
deserve praise is in the felicity of their house-planning.
Given a good site, they could construct such an excellent
dwelling as Lansdowne House; given a contracted one,
they could so adapt their plans as to produce such satis-
factory results as at 20 St. James's Square or 23 Grosvenor
Square.

Their work stands alone, for no one else has attempted to
apply to house-building the decorations which they loved.
The result has been that their work is unmistakable ; but
the fact also proves that, so far as influence is concerned,
their style died with them.

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS

After Inigo Jones and Wren, Sir William Chambers is
the best known of British architects. A variety of reasons
combined to account for this : he was a persona grata at
Court (George III. had been his pupil) ; he was popular in a
society which included such men as Johnson and Reynolds
and Burke ; he was the author of a " Treatise on Civil
Architecture "" which made a considerable stir at the time,
and was the result of much study and research ; and he was
a designer who upheld the true spirit of the Henaissance
against the prevailing fashion for a dilettante rendering of
Greek models on the one hand, and Gothic on the other,
into a weak modernism. He was, indeed, the last of the true
Classicists. Added to this is the fact that he was not only
an industrious worker, but also that it fell to his lot to
design one of those notable buildings which have always

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBEKS

Emery Jl'al^er

To face p. 314

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS 315

bulked largely in the public eye, and have thus helped to
keep alive the fame of their creators.

William Chambers ^ was the son of a Scotch merchant
domiciled at Stockholm, in which city he was born in 1726,
although neither the maiden name of his mother nor her
nationality has been recorded. Two years after his birth
his father left Sweden and settled at Ripon where young
Chambers received his early education. At the age of
sixteen, being then intended to follow his father's business,
he was sent, as supercargo, to the East Indies and China.
At Canton he seems to have been fascinated by the Oriental
style of architecture, and to have largely occupied his time
in making drawings of joss-houses and pagodas ; some years
after his return to England he published the fruits of his
investigations in an unfortunate " Dissertation on Oriental
Gardening." But otherwise, this visit had a very im-
portant influence on Chambers's after-career, for his obser-
vations among the Celestials so completely turned his atten-
tion to design, that two years later he definitely abandoned
the idea of becoming a merchant, and, according to the words
of Hardvvick who was later his pupil and biographer, he
"followed the bent of his genius" — in other words, he
gave himself heart and soul to the study of architecture.
In furtherance of this he went to France, and studied in
Paris under Clerisseau, with whom, as we have seen, Robert
Adam was, rather later, to be associated. After some
time thus occupied. Chambers proceeded to Italy, where
he carefully studied the architectural works of the great
masters, and seems to have made some impression on the
v'wtuosi then living in Rome and elsewhere, by his drawings
from the antique. On his return to England, however,
although he was apparently full of the knowledge of his
art, he would probably have struggled for years to make a
name, had not a circumstance occurred which gave him an
opening to the road of success.

1 A family legend says the ancestors of Chambers had been Barons of
Tartas, in France, and that later the name was invariably spelt Chalmers,
until "William Chambers's father changed it on settling in England.

3i6 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

He had taken a house in Poland Street, and might have
waited long enough for clients, had not Lord Bute been
at this moment, on the look-out for some one who could
adorn the gardens at Kew for the Princess Dowager of
Wales, and who might also instruct the Prince of Wales in
drawing. Having applied to John Carr of York to
recommend a suitable person, the latter named Chambers
as being likely to fill both posts with credit, and he,
accordingly, became designer of the temples and gardens at
Kew, and artistic instructor to the Prince. This in itself,
beyond providing him with an addition to his income for
a time, might not have been of great importance, but the
Prince of Wales during the course of his studies, became
so attached to Chambers, whose manners were proverbially
taking and refined, that on his accession in 1760, he
appointed him to be the royal architect, and during his
life advanced his interests on all occasions.

While still superintending the Prince's studies, however,
Chambers seems to have received a few private commissions,
one of which was for the villa formerly known as Park-
stead, at Roehampton, which he designed and erected for
Lord Bessborough, and in which he gave as much satisfac-
tion in the design (the portico became quite famous among
the fashionable amateurs) as in the skill with which he
superintended the actual building and kept an eye on the
monetary interests of his client. To this period belongs the
publication of his " Treatise on Civil Architecture," for
long regarded as a text-book, which appeared in 1759, and
later editions of which were published in 1768 and 1791.^
In the following year George HI. ascended the throne,
and continued the so-called improvements at Kew Gardens

1 About a dozen years later he brought out his rather absurd " Disser-
tation on Oriental Gardening," in which he praised the Chinese method
of horticulture as opposed to that practised in Europe. This work
called forth a number of satirical rejoinders, chief of which was '* An
Heroic Epistle to Sir W. Chambers," followed by " An Heroic Post-
script." For long these were anonymous, but are now known to have
been the work of Mason, who apparently received some help from Horace
Walpole. Wraxall speaks of these effusions in vol. iii. of his "Post-
humous Memoirs."

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS 317

which had been begun under the cegis of the Pidncess
Dowager of Wales. It is unnecessary to set forth in
detail all the features of the gardens which owe their
genesis to Chambers, and in which he was accused of
creating " unmeaning falbalas of Turkish and Chinese
chequerwork." In 1763 he issued a folio of drawings of
these, entitl ed " Plans, Elevations, &c., of the Gardens
and Buildings at Kew," with engravings from his designs
by such masters of the art as Woollett, Sandby, Major, and
Grignion. In this book he says that he erected the Temple
of Pan in 1758, planned the Physic and Exotic Garden
and the Temple of Beilona, in 1760, and designed the
Orangery in the following year. Indeed, the whole place
seems to have then been divided between the Classic temples
beloved of that time, and the Chinese bridges and pagodas
with which Chambers's early travels had filled his head ; all
of which were placed cheek by jowl with those pseudo-ruins
and grottoes with which Queen Caroline had delighted to
surround Stephen Duck.

But Chambers was equal to better things than this
rather cheap pastiche of Classic and Oriental architecture.
Once, writing on the duties of an architect, he remarked
that these require him '' rather to be a learned judge than
a skilful operator, and when he knows how to direct and
instruct others with precision, to examine, judge, and
value their performances with masterly accuracy, he may
truly be said to have acquired all that most men can
acquire."

Taking this as a not inadequate standard of perfection.
Chambers may be said to have lived up to it ; but in his
earlier jears he seems, as at Roehampton, to have under-
taken a still more personal interest in the carrying out of
his designs, and to have been a skilful operator as well as
a learned judge.

Like many others, Chambers was concerned, in his
earlier designs, on the casinos and arches with which
the grounds of large country mansions were wont to
be decorated at this period, and to him are due those

3i8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

at Wilton and Tansfield Hall, that erected for Lord
Tilney, at Wanstead, and one for Mr. Willoughby ; while
a far more elaborate one at Marino, near Dublin, which he
designed for Lord Charlemont, is supposed to have cost no
less than ;^6o,ooo.^ During the erection of this costly
freak, Chambers was employed on certain additions to
Trinity College, Dublin ; and in 1767 he began the
erection of Duddingston House, near Edinburgh. Indeed,
he now seems to have come to his own, and to have been
fully occupied in architectural work all over the country.

In 1768 he designed the Observatory in the old Deer
Park at Richmond, and at the same time he was employed
in building Castle Hill, Dorset, and the entrance gateway
and certain additions to the mansion at Blenheim Palace ;
while Charlemont House, Dublin, the Market House,
Worcester, and additions to Milton Abbey are also assigned
to him. During this year, too, he was elected Treasurer of
the Royal Academy, and in 1769 he succeeded Flitcroft
as Comptroller to the Office of Works, in which capacity
he had an official residence at Hampton Court.

To the following year is ascribed Melbourne House, Pic-
cadilly, which he planned for Lord Melbourne, and which
is now the main portion of the Albany ; and the far more
important and beautiful residence he designed for Lord
Gower in Whitehall, afterwards known as Carrington
House, but since demolished to make room for the present
War Office. The exterior of this mansion was plain, and
curiously uninspired when compared with the classic
beauty of the hall and the grand staircase. The interior,
too, showed that Chambers, apart from his decorative skill,
was as capable as the Adams of designing well-proportioned
apartments, and also proved that he did not sacrifice
comfort to the exigencies of fashionable ornamentation.

Besides these extensive works, Chambers was busy over
a number of less important matters until the year 1776,^

1 Mr. Blomfield.

2 In the previous year he had been appointed architect to Somerset
House, with a salary of ;^20op ^ jeav.

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS 319

when he began the erection of Somerset House, the building
with which his fame is chiefly identified. This great work
occupied him practically to the end of his professional
life, and is an eloquent tribute to his consummate ability
as a designer of large and important erections ; or perhaps
it would be more correct to say that it indicates what he
could have done elsewhere had he had the opportunity ; for
as a matter of fact it stands alone, in size and importance,
among his works.

Somerset House has been described as often as the
history of later London has been written, and, besides, all
the world can see it as it now stands — one of the landmarks
of the city ; but a word or two about certain points
which are not patent to every one, inay not be out of
place. Firstly, then, Chambers's original scheme was not
carried out in its entirety, for his idea had been to extend
the facade on the river side to no less than 800 feet,
by building, to the east and west of the main portion,
" detached rows of private houses running north and
south, uniform in style with Somerset House, and connected
with it on the south side by great archways opening
on the Terrace."^ Of this comprehensive scheme only
the western portion was carried out. Again, the ground
on which old Somerset House, demolished in 1775, stood,
and which was to be the site of the new erection, ran
right down to the river before the present Embankment
gave it a fine and permanent roadway ; the inequality
of the ground available for Chambers's new building
presented, therefore, a difficulty of no small magnitude.
This the architect cleverly overcame by forming the
rusticated basement story, which should combine utility
with grace by containing warehouses flanking the water-
gate ; which latter, taken by itself, is not unworthy to be
placed even in comparison with Inigo Jones's master-
piece at the end of Buckingham Street.

1 See Mr. Blomfield's "History of the Eenaissance." As early as 1772
Chambers had been consulting with Reynolds as to Somerset House,
in which the king had intended the Royal Academy to be housed.

320 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

Before Waterloo Bridge was erected and Bazalgette
conceived his magnificent engineering feat of forming the
Embankment, the river front of Somerset House reached
to the water ^^'hose tiny weaves lapped the stonework of
the water-gate and gave it the appearance of a useful
object ; now, of course, it is more or less meaningless ;
but it is not Chambers's fault that it is so.

The building was erected in Portland stone, and remains
in massiveness of appearance and in solidity of construction,
as it is in classical detail and beauty of exterior ornamen-
tation, probably the most striking of the great buildings
of London, and certainly the finest architectural work of
George III/s reign. What pains the architect took over it
is w^ell known ; nothing was spared to make it a splendid
and permanent work of art, from the selection of the finest
examples of ancient architecture which might serve as
patterns, to the employment of the most capable artisans
to carry out the scheme. Of course there is room for
criticism ; except in an actually inspired undertaking
of equal magnitude, it would be remarkable were there
not ; but although the Strand front leaves something
to be desired, and fault may be, and has been, found with
much of the detail, as a whole Somerset House remains a
striking example of Chambers's capability for dealing with
a great and important work ; and it also proves that he
could not only produce something very like a masterpiece,
if it be not actually one, but could also overcome difficulties
of elevation and site which do not always present them-
selves to architects of buildings of equal size.-*-

Somerset House was practically completed in 1786, and
Chambers seems then to have rested on the laurels he had
gained by the undertaking. In 177 1 he had been knighted
by George IH., on the occasion of receiving from the King
of Sweden the Order of the Polar Star, in return for
having sent that monarch a set of drawings ; and three
years after, he completed the design for that state coach

1 For an account of Somerset House see Mr. ISTeedham's history of it,
recently published, as well as the various histories of London,

SOMERSET HOUSE

To face p. 320

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS 321

which has carried the sovereign ever since on great occa-
sions of state.

In the remarkable Hterary and artistic society of his
day, a society that included such men as Burke and
Garrick, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Johnson, Chambers
was a prominent figure ; and in the Royal Academy and
at the Architects'* Club he was a power. Indeed, in
the inception of the former he took a leading part,
and we find him waiting twice on the king, in November
and December 1768, with the object of placing before
his Majesty the formulated scheme of the institution,
and procuring the royal approbation and sanction to
it. Chambers had been one of those, including Reynolds
and Gainsborough, who had withdrawn from the earlier
incorporated society, and in the records of that insti-
tution his name is crossed through, with the somewhat
unnecessary and misleading word " Expelled " written
against it.

At one time the architect was credited with carrying
matters with rather a high hand at the Royal Academy
(he certainly acted with some energy, and perhaps not
altogether with due consideration, at a later period,
when he opposed the election of Bonomi), and Peter
Pindar, who had his fling at most of the notable people
of the day, and frequently introduced Chambers into his
lyrics, is found remarking, in 1785 :

Thouj thou 'midst dullness may'st be pleased to shine,
Reynolds shall ne'er sit cheek by jowl with swine,

which seems, like many of Peter Pindar's effusions, rather
pointless and offensive.

Chambers had married the beautiful daughter^ of his
friend Joseph Wilton with whom he had resided in Rome,
early in life ; and had five children, four daughters and
a son, the latter of whom became the husband of one of
Lord Rodney's daughters. About 1770 he removed from

1 Rej^nolds painted her portrait, in Paris, in 1752.

X

322 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS

his house in Poland Street, to No. 53 Berners Street built
by himself, where he was residing three years later.
Subsequently he went to live in Norton Street,-^ and here,
on March 8, 1796, he died from an asthmatic complaint to
which he had been subject for some years. He was buried
in Westminster Abbey where he lies in company with
James Wyatt, Sir Charles Barry, and Sir Gilbert Scott,
followers in the art hs practised so well, and not far from
Garrick and Johnson, with whom in his later years, as a
member of The Club, he had been so closely associated.*

Sir Joshua painted a well-known portrait of Chambers,
and Zoffany, in his famous Academicians^ introduces him
leaning against a rail immediately on Reynolds's right hand,
and between the President and Wilton.

Among Chambers's pupils was, as I have mentioned,
Hardwick ; another and more important one was James
Gandon, of whom I must say a word or two. Gandon
was born in New Bond Street in 1742, and, retiring in 1808,
died fifteen years later. He thus falls rather outside the
scope of this work, and as his life has been written,^ it is
only necessary to roughly recapitulate the chief works for
which he was responsible.

In 1757 he gained a premium at the Society of Arts,
and on Chambers's arrival in London, became his pupil and
general assistant. In 1765, however, he began to follow
the profession on his own accomit, and two years later,
in conjunction with John Wolfe architect to the Board
of Works, he published the continuation of Campbell's
" Vitruvius Britannicus."

His first important undertaking, gained in competition,
was the designing of the County Hall and Prison of
Nottingham, which were erected in 1769-70, in the former
of which years he had obtained the second prize in the

1 He possessed also a country house at Whitton.

2 He was also a friend of Gainsborough, at whose funeral, in 1788, he
was one of the pall-bearers.

3 " Life of James Gandon, arranged by his Son," Dublin, 1846. The
book contains a portrait of Gandon.

SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS 323

competition for a design for the Royal Exchange at
Dublin ; but he was unable to secure the actual building
of it ; nor was he more successful with the New Bethlehem
Hospital, in London, although in this case he was awarded
the first prize and a hundred guineas as a sort of solatium.
In 178 1 he went to Dublin, and, owing largely to the
patronage of Lord Carlow, was engaged to design the new
Docks and the Custom House in that city, which were
completed in 1791. The latter was by far his most
important undertaking, and the most arduous, owing to the
inequalities of the site and other difficulties ; though the
result is a remarkably fine building. During its erection,
Gandon was employed in designing the United Court House
and Gaol, at Waterford (1784), and a portico and circular
screen wall to the Parliament House, Dublin (1785). In
the following year he began his additions to the Four
Courts, in the same city, which had been commenced by
Cooley in 1776, and which were first opened in 1796. Other
work in the Irish capital followed, but, foreseeing the re-
bellion which soon afterwards broke out, Gandon came to
London in 1797. Two years later, however, he returned to
Ireland to give the finishing touches to the Inns of Court,
a work he relinquished to one of his pupils, Baker, in 1808.
He then retired to Lucan, near Dublin, where he died of
gout many years later, after having designed numerous other
less important buildings. He left behind him a reputa-
tion for sound, and in one instance pre-eminent, workj
only less notable than that of his master, Chambers.

LIST OF SOME OF THE

AUTHORITIES

CONSULTED

Moberley's "Life of Wykeham/ '

Lowth's « Life of Wykeham."

Triggs and Tanner's "Inigo Jones and his Works."

"Stonehenge Restored/' edited by Webb.

Wren's " Parentalia."

Miss Milman's " Life of Wren."

Loftie's " Wren and Liigo Jones."

Prior's " Cathedral Builders of England."

Blomfield's " History of Renaissance Architecture in
England."

Gotch's "^^ Early Renaissance Architecture in England."

Belcher and Macartney's " Later Renaissance Architecture
in England."

Prior's " History of Gothic Art in England."

Birch's " London Churches in the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries."

Fergusson's " History of Architecture."

Fletcher's " History of Architecture."

Taylor's " Fine Arts in Great Britain."

Britton and Pugin's " Public Buildings of London."

Bumpus's "London Churches."

Gwynn's " London Improved."

" Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting," edited by Dallaway.

325

326 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

Colin Campbell's " Vitruvius Britannicus."

Cunningham's " Lives of the Painters."

Pepy's, Evelyn's, Luttrell's and Hearne's '^^ Diaries."

Nichol's '^ Literary Anecdotes."

Hogarth's Works,

Mowbray Green's '^Eighteenth Century Architecture of
Bath."

Ironside's " History of Twickenham."

Beloe's "King's Lynn."

Thompson's '' Cambridge and its Colleges."

Wells' " Oxford and its Colleges."

Law's " Hampton Court."

Ellis's '' Original Letters."

Kerr's "The Gentleman's House."

Ward's " Lives of the Gresham Professors."

" History of the Society of Dilettanti."

Hardwick's " Memoir of Chambers."

" Remembrancia."

" Domestic State Papers " ; " Notes and Queries " ; " The
Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects " ;
" The Architectural Review " ; " The Dictionary of National
Biography"; "The Gentleman's Magazine"; "The Royal
Historical MSS. Commissions Reports " ; " La Biographie
Universelle," &c.^ passim.

The published works of the various architects dealt with.

In the Soane Museum: The MS. "Life of Gibbs " ;
Adam's " Drawings " ; Thorpe's " Book of Drawings/' &c.

INDEX

ACROTDE, 44

Adam, James, 295, 304-7
Adam, John, 304-5
Adam, Kobert, 255, 295, 304-14
Adam, William, 304-5
Adam, W., senior, 305
Adams, Maurice B,, 47
Adams, Kobert, 44
Adams, tbe, 114, 304, 309-14, 318
Addiscombe House, 187
Addison, 155
Adelphi, the, 308-10
Admiralty Buildings, 306
Alan of Walsino^ham, 5-6
Albany, the, 296, 318
Aldborough, Earl of, 312
Aldrich, Dean, 257-8
Allen, Kalph, 246-7
Almaine, William, 3
Amberley Castle, 7
•Amesbury, 99, 100
Ampthill, 36
Anstis, John, 194
An s worth, 294
Archer, H., 201
Archer, Thomas, 198-202
Archer, Thomas, senior, 197, 201
Architects' Club, the, 321
Arnold, 44
Artari, 239-41, 243 •
Arundel, Earl of, 56
Asgill, Sir Charles, 288
Asgill House, 288-9

• Ashburnham House, 94, 95, 284,

312

• Ashdown Park, loi
Ashe, William, 108
Asheley, Hector, 25
Aske's Hospital, 108
Aston Hall, 34

Aston Park, 242
Athelwold, Bishop, 17
Audley End, 34-5, 41
Axwell Park. 294

Bagutti, buildings decorated by,

239-41
Baker, pupil of Gandon, 323
Bank of England, 287, 290
Banks, Joseph, 283
Banqueting Hall, Whitehall, 69-71
Barrow, Isaac, 108, 139,. 157
Barry, Sir C, 322
Basil, Simon, 44, 61
Basing House, 86
Bath, work of the Woods in, 246-8,

250
Battle Abbey, i
Beaufort House, lines by Pope on

gateway of, 78
Bedford, Earl of, 80
Bedford House, loi
Belchier, Mr., 299
Belcomb Brook Villa, 248
Belford, 294
Bell, Henry, 160-2
Bell, Henry, senior, 160
Bell, Sir Robert, 160
Bellouchi, decorative work of, at

Canons, 207
Belmont, 250
Benson, 155-6
Bessborough, Lord, 316
Bethlem Hospital, 106-7
Bettes, James, 24
Bird, Francis, 245
Bird, Thomas, 134
Blackfriars Bj idge, 273
Blanchard, Robert, i
Blathwayt, William, 166

327

328

INDEX

Blenheim Palace, erection of by Van-
brugli, 188-92; additions to, by
Chambers, 318

Blickliug-, 33

Bodley, Sir Thomas, 43

Bolsover Castle, 46

Bolton, Mary, 272

Bolton House, 310-1

Boney, Katherine, 245

Bonomi, 321

Botewrite, Benedict, 3

Boyd, Sir John, 289

Boyle, Robert, 105, 117, 120-1, 128

Bramshill, 61

Brandenbnrgh House, 302

Brandling, Charles, 294

Brettingham, Matthew, designs of,
282-3, 284, 294-5 ; pupil of Kent,
229, 282 ; tour of, in search of anti-
quities, 284 ; works published by, 282

Brettingham, K. F., 282

Brocket Hall, 294

Brouncker, Lord, 127

Browne, Sir Thomas, 120

Bruusell, Anne, 115

Brunsell, Eev. H., 115
• Brympton, 86

Buccleuch, Duke of, 313

Buckhurst, 34

Buckingham, Wykeham's agent, 15

Buckingham, Duke of, 26, 79

Buckland, 250

Bucknall, Miss, 256

Burdett, Sir Francis, loi

Burghley House, 33-5

Burghley-on-the-Hill, 34

Burke, Eimund, 321

Burlington, Lord, applied to for plans
of Mansion House, 275 ; architec-
tural books brought out by, 221 ;
assists Kent, Leoni, and Campbell,
219, 221 ; buildings designed by,
219-21, 303 ; comment of, on Dance's
Mansion House, 275 ; criticism of
Walpole on, 217-8 ; friendship of,
with Pope, Gay, Swift, and Arbuth-
not, 220, 253 ; influence of, on Flit-
croft, Kent, and Campbell, 227-8 ;
influence of Palladio on, 273 ; mem-
ber of Society of Dilettanti, 222 ;
merits of, as an architect, 217

Burlington House, 100, 21 1-2

Burrough, Sir James, buildings de-
signed by, 239-40 ; 260-1 ; criticism
of work of, 260-1 ; influence of
Italian school on, 260

Busby, Dr., 104, ii6
Bute, Lady, 304
Bute, Lord, 309, 316
Byng, Admiral, 270
Bywell, 294

Caenwood House — see Kenwood
House

Caius, Dr., 27, 42-3

Campanile Xovum, 6

Campbell, Colin, aided by Lord Bur-
lington, 210; appointed Surveyor of
Works at Greenwich, 216 ; buildings
designed by, 212, 215-6 ; criticised
by Walpole, 210; influence of Lord
Burlington on, 277 ; " Vitruvius
Britannicus" published by, 210

Campbell, Lord Frederic, 313

Campbell, W. S., 136

Canons, 207, 241

Canova, 136

Canterbury Cathedral, i, 4, 19

Carleton, Elizabeth, 182

Carleton, Sir Dudley, 182

Carlow, Lord, 323

Carlton House, 291

Carlyle, Thomas, 144

Carr, John, belonged to Palladian
School, 251 ; buildings designed by,
251-2, 303 ; recommends Chambers
to Lord Bute, 316

Carrington House, 318

Carruthers, J., 233

Cartwright, claims to have designed
Eoyal Exchange, no

Castell, R., 221

Castle Hill, 318
' Castle Howard, 185-7

Cavendish, Mary, 41

Cecil, Sir Robert, 39

Cecil, Sir Thomas, 303

Cecil, Sir William, 35

Chambers, Sir William, architectural
abilities and position of, 114, 304;
best known of British architects
after Wren and Inigo Jones, 314;
buildings designed by, 316, 318-20,
323 ; burial of, in Westminster
Abbey, 322; early years and train-
ing of, 315 ; knighted by George
III., 320 ; marriage of, 321 ; offices
held by, 316, 318 ; on the duties of
an architect, 317 ; social popularity
of, 314; portrait painted by Reynolds,
322 ; publications of, 317 ; teacher
of drawing to royalty, 314, 316

INDEX

329

Chandler, Society of Dilettanti causes

discoveries of to toe published, 222
Chandos Court, 247
Chapel Koyal, the, 227
Chapman, 62
Charlemont, Lord, 318
Charlemont House, 318
Charlton, Dr., 72
Charlton House, 61, 283

• Chatsworth, 163-4
Cheere, Sir Henry, 286

' Chelsea Hospital, 142-4

Chertsey Bridg-e, 297-8

Chesterfield, Lord, 269-70; epigram
of, on Kent's house, 227 ; on General
Wade's house, 220

Chesterfield House, 269-70

Chichely, Mr., 129, 168-9

Chicksands Priory, 270

Child, Mr., 312

Chilham Castle, 61, 77-8

Chiswick House, 220

Chrismas, Gerard, 40-1

Chrismas, John, 41

Chrismas, Mathias, 41

Christ Chui'ch, Oxford, 26

Christ Church, Spitalfields, 177

Church of All Saiuts, Oxford, 257-8

Chute, Chaloner, 96

Gibber, Caius Gabriel, carves exterior
stonework of St. Pauls, 134 ; deco-
rative work of on Hampton Court
Palace, 148 ; work of on Eoyal Ex-
change, III

Clarendon, Earl of, 164

Clarendon House, 100, 167, 169-70

Clarke, Dr. George, 259

Claveting, Sii* Thomas, 294

Clerisseau, architect, 305, 315

Cocke, William, i

Cockerell, C. R., 290

Coghill, Faith, 156

Coghill, Sir Johu, 156

Colebrook, James, 289

Coleorton Park, 276

• Coleshill, 89
Coleston, 245

College of Physicians, the, 147

Compton Verney, 312

Cooley, 323

Coombe Bank, 302

Cope, Sir Walter, 37

Copfold Hall, 290

Copthall, 34

County Hall and Prison, Notts, 322

Couse, Mr., 297

Coventry, Earl of, 313
Cowdray, 26
Cowick Hall, 294
Cowper, Lady, 198
Cox, Mary, 115
Cox, Kobert, 115
Cranborne Manor, 89
Crunden, John, 312
Cumberland House, 283-4
Custom House, Dublin, 323
Cusworth House, 293

Dalkeith Palace, 193

Dance, George, works of, 221, 273-4 >

criticised by Lord Burlington, 275
Dance, George, junior, 276
Dance, James, 276
Dance-Holland, Sir N., 276
Daniell, 59, 60, 75
Danson Hill House, 289
Daundley, Sir Kobert, 7
Dawkins, James, 250
De Berham, Helias, 4
De Blois, Henry, 14
De Caux, Solomon, 60-1, 87
De Trevise, Jerome, 23
De Weston, Walter, 5
De Xaintes, Isemb&rt, 3
Denham, Sir John, 98, loi, 130
Derby, Earl of, 311
Devonshire, Duke of, 164
Devonshire House, 228
Digges, Dudley, 77-8
Dixon, A., 294
Docks, Dublin, 323
Dodington, Bubb — see Melcombe,

Lord
Donne, Dr., 74
Dorchester Abbey, i
Dover House, 297
Downe, Lord, 294
Drapers' Hall, 112, 31 1-2
Druell, John, 25
Drury Lane Theatre, 140
Duck, Stephen, 278
Duddingston House, 318
Dunkeld, Bishop of, 16
Durham Yard, 308
Dyrham House, 166

Eagle House, Batheaston, 249
Easton Neston, 174
Edingdon, Bishop, 7, 18, 19
• Eltham Palace, 30
Ely Cathedral 5, 127, 289
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 130

33°

INDEX

Essex, Earl of, 58

Essex, James, 262-3

Evelyn, John, 121, 143, 151, 154, 167,
171, 187 ; relations of with Sir
Christopher Wren, loi, 117, 119,
126, 128, 129, 134 ; visits St. Paul's,
134, 168-9 ; on Bedford House, loi ;
on Clarendon House, 170 ; on Mon-
tagu House, 107 ; references to Hooka
in diary of, 105

Faber, William, i

Falconet, engraver, 300

Falmouth, Lady, 296

Farquhar, Isabel, 235

Fawley Court, 145

Featherstonehaugh, Sir Matthew, 296

Fell, Dr., 137

Fenner, William, 207-8

Fenwick, W., 294

Ferrand, B., 294

Fishbume, Catherine,, 115

Fishburne, Richard, 115

Fishmongers' Hall, m

Fitzmaurice, Hon. T., 296

Fitzodo, Edward, 4

Fitzroy Square, 312

Fitz William, Jane, 156-7

Flamsteed, Astronomer Eoyal, 140

Flitcroft, Henry, buildings designed
by, 278-80; influence of Burlington
on, 277-8 ; inscription on tombstone
of, 281 ; succeeded by .Chambers
as Comptroller of Office of Works,
318

Flitcroft, Jefii-ey, 277

Floors Castle, 193

Fontana, 63

Fontana, Carolo, 235

Foremark Hall, 304

Four Courts, Dublin, 323

Fox, Sir Stephen, 142-3, 151

Freind, John, 245

Fumival's Inn, 86

Gainsborough, 321

Gandon, James, architectural reputa-
tion of, 323 ; buildings and designs
by, 322-3

Gardelle, Theodore, 273

Gardiner, painter, 256

Garrick, David, 312, 320, 322

Garroli, 235

Ged, William, 207-8

Gell, 222

Gerbier, Sir Balthazar, 79

Gervasius, 4

Gibbons, Grinling, 148, 207

Gib bs, James, buildings and designs by,
236-7, 239, 240-1, 243-5 ; influence
of Wren on, 236-7 ; place of, among
British architects, 233-4 ; publica-
tions of, 240, 244; studies under
Garroli and Foutana, 235 ; visit of
to Italy, 234-s

Gibbs, Peter, 234-5

Gilpin, 20

Glover, Moses, 51

Goddard, Dr., 121

Godfrey, Sir Edmundbury, 2S7

Godfrey, Peter, 287

Gooch, Sir Thomas, 260

Gopsal Hall, 289

Gore, John, 288

Gorges, Lady, 31

Gorges, Sir Thomas, 31

Gorhambury, 290

Gosfield, 26

Gosford House, 312

Gower, Lord, 318

Grafton, Duke of, 288

Gravelot, engraver, 273

Great Hall, Christ Church, 25

Green, Mowbray, 247

Greene, Eebecca, 26
• Greenwich Hospital, 150-3

Greenwich Observatory, 140-1

Gresham College, 105-6, 108-9, ^^9>
120-1, 123

Greville, Hon. Charles, 40

Grey, Colonel Edward, 266

Grignion, engraver, 300

Grimsthorpe, 26

Grimston, Lord, 290

• Groombridge Place, 154

Grose, Captain, 11

Grumbold, Thomas, 44

Gulliver, Juliana, 51

Gundulf, Bishop, 2, 3

Gwynn, John, 273, 299

Gwynne, Xell, 142, 296-7

Haddon, 26
Halfpenny, John, 304
Halfpenny, William, 304
f Ham House, 37-8
Hamilton, Gavin, 284
Hampton Court, 24-5, 147-9, 165-6
Hardwick, 315, 322
Hare Hall, 294
Harewood, Lord, 294, 311
Harewood House, 311

INDEX

331

Harlaxton, 26

Harleyford House, 290

Harrington, author of " Oceana," 122

Han-ington, Earl of, 220

HaiTison, Stephen, 50-1

Hatfield, 33

Hatton, Sir Christopher, 33

Haveus, Theodore, 43

Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 152-3 ; build-
ings and designs hy, 174, 176-8, 223,
240 ; offices held by, 173 ; training
of, under "Wren, 172-3

Hayman, painter, 300

Heath House, 294

Heberden, Dr., 296

Heidegger, impresario, 188

Helvetius, 108

Hengrave, 26

Henley, 136

Henley, Sir Andrew, 97

Herbert, Sir Henry, 75

Hervey, Lady, 280

Heveningham Hall, 289-go

Hever, 26
> Heythrop Hall, 198

Highmore, painter, 256

Hiorns, the, 304

Hobart, Hon. Henry, 297

H- 'garth, friendship of with Isaac
Ware, 273; portrait of Gibbs by,
245; ridicules Kent and Burlington,
226

Holbiin, influence of on architecture
of his period, 23

H olden, Eichard, 290

Holdenby, 33

Holder, Susan, 115

Holder, Eev. W., 115

Holkham Hall, 228-9

Holland, Henry, 291, 303

Holland House, 34, 37

Hollar, II

Holt, Thomas, 43

Honywood, Dean, 139

Honywood Library, 139-40

Hooke, Grace, 108

Hooke, Kobert, 104-5 ' buildings and
designs of, 107-8; offices held by,
105, 108-9; 0^ ^^^ ^- Wren, 157-8 ;
scientific work of, 104-6, 122-3;
versatility of, 105-6

Hopetoun House, 305

Hopkinson, Mrs., 294

Horse Guards buildings, 228-9, 264-5

Horseheath, 170

Horseheath Hall, 100

Hospital of St. Cross, 13 ; summary of

institutions of, 14
Houghton Hall, 77, 214, 254, 268
Houses of Parliament, 255
Howe, Lord, 289
Howitt, describes Kenwood Hotise,

306-7
Hughson, comment of on Danson

Hill House, 289
Hugo of Avalon, i
Hume, David, 305
Humphry, Ozias, 292
Hysing, painter, 245

Inns of Court, Dublin, 323
Inverary Castle, 301

James, Eleanor, 202

James, George, 202

James, John, buildings and designs
by, 203-8 : lack of inspiration of,
210; offices held by, 208; publica-
tions of, 209

James, Thomas, 202

James, Thomas, junior, 202, 207-8

Jammet, M,, 37

Jansen, Bernard, 35, 40-1

Jansen, Sir Theodore, 303

Jennings, Eichard, 134, 154

Jerman, Edward, buildings and de-
signs of, 109-13 ; designs of, con-
sidered by "Wren, 138

Jersey, Earl of, 312

Jersey, Thomas, 293

Johnstone, Hon, James, 203, 205

Johnson, Dr., 321, 322

Jones, Inigo, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61-3, 72,
74-6, 82, 83, 85-6, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97;
birth and parentage of, 53 ; build-
ings and designs of, 57, 65, 67-71,
73-4, 78-9, 89 ; character and art of,
91-2 ; classical knowledge of, 55 ;
first great British architect, 52 ;
influence of on eighteenth-century
designers, 277 ; monument to, 245 ;
offices held by, 57, 60, 63-4, 71, 73,
84; personal impress left by on
British architecture, 29 ; position
of in British architecture, 114;
progress of Eenaissance under, 23,
157 ; publications of, 71-3 ; style
of reproduced by Burlington, 221 ;
Ware publishes plates of designs of,
268

Jones, Inigo, senior, 53-4

Jonaon, Ben, 55, 58-9, 62, 74-6

332

■INDEX

Kedleston Hall, 284, 294-5, 306

Keene, Bisliop, 289

Kelston Park, 250

Kemp, Peter, 35

Kendal, Ducliess of, 155-6

Kendal, John, 24

Kenningliall, 26
• Kensington Palace, 149-50, 228

Kent, William, buildings and designs
by, 164, 213, 221, 227-9 '• Chester-
field's epigram on, 227 ; derotion of
to Palladio, 229, 285 ; influence of
Burlington on, 277 ; landscape gar-
dening of, 224 ; publications of,
228 ; Walpole on, 224, 225, 226,
228

Kenwood House, 306-7

Kettle, Tilly, 299

Kew Bridge, 297-8

Kew Gardens, 317

Keys, Roger, 25

Killigrew, William, 250

King's College, Cambridge, 240

Kirby Hall, 29, 251, 303

Kirtlington, 304

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 187

Kneller Hall, 187

Labetee, Charles, 233
Lamport Hall, loi
Lanfi-anc, Bishop, 4
Langley, Batty, 223, 231-3
Langlt'y, Thomas, 233
Langley Park, 283
Langton, John, 7
Lansdowne House, 307
Latomus, Henry, 2
Lauderdale, Earl of, 313
Law Courts, Westminster, 255
Layer, Marney, 26
Le Scot, 40
Lee, Sir Eichard, 25
Leech, 288
Lees Court, loi
Leicester, Earl of, 228-9
Lely, Sir Peter, 104, 171
Leoni, Giacomo, 219
Liardet, 308
Lifford, Lord, 156
Lightoler, T. , 304
Lincoln Cathedral, i
Lincoln's Inn, 65-6, 73-4
■ Lincoln's Inn Fields, 66
' Lindsay House, 66
London Bridge, 3, 291
Longleat, 35, 45

Loseley, 34
Lumley Castle, 294
Luti, Cavaliere, 225, 228
Luton House, 307
Lyde, Sir Lionel, 311
Lynn Exchange, 160
Lyvedon, 32

Magdalen Tower, 24
Maiden Hall, 16
Maidenhead Bridge, 291
Maijano, Giovanni de, 24
Mansfield Street, 310
Mansion House, 221, 275, 276
Mansion House, Doucaster, 293
Mar, Earl of, 235
Marble Hill, 222-3
Marie de Medicis, 36-7
Marino, 318

Market House, "Worcs, 318
Marlborough, Duchess of, 303
•Marlborough House, 153-4
Marshall, Eustace, 25
Mason, 316

Maurice, Frederic Denison, 239
May, Baptist, 171
May, Hugh, 168-9, 171
Maynard, Sir John, 99
Melbourne, Lord, 294, 296, 318
Melbourne House, 318
Melcombe, Lord, 302
Membury, Simon, 18
Mercer, Serle, 3
Mercers' Hall, 112, 138
Merchant Taylors' Hall, 11 2-3
Mereworth, 214-5
Middlesex Hospital, 297
Middleton, W., 294
Mills, Mr., 109
Milton Abbey, 318
Mistley Church, 312
Montagu, Duke of, 107-8
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 304
Montagu House, 107
Montague Gerrard-Drake, 245
Monument, the, 139
Moray, Sir R., 122
More Hammer Hall, 16
Morris, Robert, 251, 301-4
Morris, Roger, 301, 303
Morris, Thomas, 277
Mount Surrey, 26
Mylne, architect, 273

Nassau House, 220
Neele, 137

INDEX

333

Neile, P., 122

Nevill, Sir Henry, 39

New BetMehem Hospital, 323

New College, Oxford, 15, 17, 20, 21

Newcastle, Duke of, 244-5

Newton, Sir Adam, 61

Newton, Sir Isaac, 108

Norfolk, Duchess of, 296

Norfolk, Duke of, 26

Norfolk House, 283

Normanton Hall, 290

North Kuncton Churcli, 161-2

Northumberland, Duke of, 306

Northumberland House, 40, 41, 86,97,

311
Nostell Priory, 293
Nottingham Castle, 48

Old Longford Castle, 31-2, 34
Opera House, Hay market, 187
Orchyerde, W., 25
Orleans House, 203
Osborne, Sir Dan vers, 270
Osborne, Mrs., 270
Osterley Park, 312
Oughtred, Dr., 117

Padua, John of, 23, 27

Paine, James, 291 ; buildings and de-
signs by, 293-7 ; influence of Italian
school on, 300 ; official posts held by,
298-300 ; replaced by Adam as archi-
tect of Kedleston Hall, 306

Paine, James, junior, 299

Palladio, Andrea, influence of, on
Aldrich, 258; on Burlington, 218,
221-2, 275 ; on Carr, 251 ; on Inigo
Jones, 63 ; on Kent, 229, 285 ; on
Morris, 301 ; on Ware, 269, 273

Parisot, painter, 300

Parkstead, 316

Parliament House, Dublin, 323

Pascal, famous problem of, solved by
Wren, 120-3

Paulocci, decorative work of, at Canons,
207

Peckwater Quad, Ch. Ch., Oxf ord,258-9

Pekis, Richard, 21

Pembroke, Earl of, 56, 72

Pembroke, fourth Earl of, 87, 88

Pembroke, ninth Earl of, 222-4, 3^2
• Pembroke Coll. Chapel, Camb,, 127-8

Pepys, Samuel, 97, 100, 105-6, no,
170

Pergolesi, 308

Pergotti, 207

Peter of Colechurch, 3

Petersham Lodge, 220

Petre, Lord, 297

Pett, Peter, 41

Petty, Sir William, 105

Pewterers' Hall, 138

Pindar, Peter, 321

Pitt, William, 249

Pope, poet, 252-4

Porter, Margaret, 27

Portland Place, 312

Pratt, Gregory, 168

Pratt, Rev. Jermyn, 171

Pratt, Sir Roger, 159 ; buildings and
designs by, 167, 170; knighted for
services in rebuilding City, 169 ;
visits Rome, 168 ; Wren's plans for
restoration of St. Paul's not ap-
proved by, 129

Price, Sir Uvedaie, 195

Prior, poet, 245

Prior Park, 246-8

Puget, Peter Paul, 107-8

Pulteney, Mr., 313

QuARR Abbey, 12

Quarr, Abbot of, 12, 13

Queen's House, Greenwich, 'j'j, 82-3,

151
Queenborough Castle, 11

RADCiiiFFE Library, 243-5

Raglan, 26

Ramsbury Manor, loi

Rascall, Elizabeth, 53-4
-Raynham Park, 88-9

Record Office, 312

Rede, William, 6, 7

Renaissance, the, 23, 157, 314, 319

Revett, Nicholas, 222, 284

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 195, 297, 321 ;
portraits painted by, 300, 321, 322

Richards, Elizabeth, 272

Richmond Bridge, 297

Richmond Observatory, 318

Richmond Palace, 22, 23

Ripley, Thomas, buildings and designs
of, 151, 254, 306 ; influence of Inigo
Jones on, 254 ; offices held by, 255 ;
pilloried by Pope in "Dunciad,"
252-3 ; Walpole on designs of, 254

Robert de Boloigne, i

Robertson, historian, 305

Rodney, Lord, 321
• Roehampton House, 198-9

Rookby Hall, 268

334

INDEX

Kooke, Laurence, 119
Kotherham, 261
Kothwell, 32

Koubiliac, sculptor, 268, 273
Kounceby, "Wykeham's agent, 15
Kowney, Thomas, 270
Roxburgh, Duke of, 311
Royal Academy, the, 318, 321
Royal Exchange, the, 109-11
Royal Exchange, Dublin, 323
Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, 141
Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 305
Royal Society, the, 105-6, 108, 123,

127, 130, 138, 146, 313
Rubens, painter, 71
Rushton Hall, 31-2
Rutton, W. L., 271-2
Rysbrack, sculptor, 245

St. Albans, Duke of, 308

St. Alban's, Wood Street, 138

St. Anne's, Limehouse, 175-6

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 242

St. Botolph's, Aldgate, 274

St. Bride's, Fleet Street, 136

St. Clement's Danes, 237

St. Dunstan-in-the-East, 136-8

St. Edmund the King, Lombard Street,

137
St. George's, Bloomsbury, 176-7, 239
St. George's, Hanover Squai-e, 204-5
St. George's Hospital, 268
St. George's-in-the-East, 176
St. Giles-in-the-Fields, 278-g
St. Gregory's Church, 81-2
St. Ires, 294
St. John, Oliver, 96-7
St. John's, Westminster, 199-200
St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, 274
St. Luke's, Old Street Road, 274
St. Margaret's, Westminster, 208
St. Martin's-in-the Fields, 237-9
St. Martin's, Ludgate, 137
St. Mary Alder maiy, 136-7
St. Mary College — see New College'
St. Mary-le-Bow, 135
St. Mary-le- Strand, 236-8
St. Mary, Somerset, 135
St. Mary's, Twickenham, 205
St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green, 274
St. Michael's, Cornhill, 137
St. Nicholas's, Aberdeen, 243-4
St. Olave's, Tooley Street, 279
St. Paul's Cathedral, proposed repara-
tion of old building, 71 ; work of
Inigo Jones on, 80-2 ; work of Webb

on, 99 ; annual visits of Wren to,
156 ; first stone of, laid by Wren,
133-4 ; expenditure on, 134 ; fame
conferred on Webb by, 114-5 ;
pamphlet war on subject of, 155 ;
rejection of Wren's favourite design
for, 147 ; site cleared for, 133 ; tax
to provide funds for building, 133

St. Paul's Church, 80

St. Peter's, Vere Street, 239

St. Philip's, Birmingham, 199

St. Stephen's, Wal brook, 136

St. Swithin's Priory and Convent, 17,
18, 20, 21

Salisbury Cathedral, 4, 20

Salisbury Street, Strand, 297

Sampson, architect, 290

Sancroft, Dean, 130-1

Sanderson, architect, 304

Sandes, Sir George, loi

Savile, Lady Dorothy, 222

Scarborough, Sir Charles, 116-7

Scarborough, Lord, 294

Scarsdale, Lord, 295

Scott, Sir Gilbert, 322

Scures, Sir John, 7

Serlby, 294

Serlio, 63

Servandoni, 302

Shardeloe, 306

Shelburae, Lady, 307

Shelburne, Lord, 307

Shelburne House, 307

Sheld Hall, 16

Sheldon, Gilbert, 127

Sheldonian Theatre, 127, 130

Shepheard, Rev. William, 116

Sherry, Margaret, 26

Shers, John, 34

Shrewsbury, Countess of — see Caven-
dish, Maiy

Shrubland Hall, 294

Sion House, Isleworth, 306

Sirrigatti, 271

Skipwith, Sir Thomas, 183-4

Slingsby, Mr., 168-9

Sloane, Sir Hans, 78

Smith, Adam, 305

Smith, Father, 134

Smith, John, 245

Smith, J. T., 267-8

Smithson, 45

Smithson, Huntingdon, 45-7

Smithson, John, 47

Smithson, Robert, 35, 44-5

Smithson Collection, the, 49

INDEX

335

Soane, Sir John, 40, 290

Soane Museum, 150, 307, 311

Society of Antiquaries, the, 313

Society of Artists, the, 298

Society of Arts, the, 308

Society of Dilettanti, the, 222, 265,

284
Somerset House, 34, 84, 318-20
Spencer, John, 303
Spencer House, 265-6
Sprat, Bishop, 121, 127
Standlynch, 250
Stapleton Park, 294
Star Chamber, the, 65
Stockeld Park, 294
Stone, Nicholas, 41, 78-9
Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, 288
Stone Lodge, the — see White Lodge
Stonehenge, investigations of Inigo

Jones into origin of, 71-3 ; Wood's

monograph on, 249
Stormont, Lord, 313
Stow, 2, 3
Stowe, 228
Straham, John, 250
Stratford Place, 312
Stratton Park, 276
Strong, Thomas, 134
Stuart, James, 222, 265-6, 284
Suffolk, Duke of, 26
Suffolk, Lady, 223
Sullivan, Luke, 273
Sunderland, Earl of, 303
Surrey, Lord, 26
Sutton, 41

Swallowfield Park, 164
Swift, Dean, lines of on Lady Suffolk,

223
Symons, Ealph, 41-2

Talman, John, 166

Talman, William, 148-9, 159, 166-7 '»
buildings and designs of, 163-4, 166

Tansfield Hall, 318

Taylor, Brook, 271

Taylor, Michael Angelo, 292

Taylor, Peter, 288

Taylor, Sir JKobert, buildings and de-
signs by, 288-9, 291 ; knighted by
George III., 292 ; name of per-
petuated by Taylorian Museum, 286 ;
offices held by, 291 ; tablet in West-
minister Abbey to, 292

Temple Bar, 138

Thayer, Humphrey, 246

The Grange, Alresford, 276

Theobalds, 35, 74

Thompson, S., 303

Thoresby House, 163-4

Thornbury, 26

Thorndeu Hall, 294

Thorpe, George, 27

Thorpe, John, 26, 27, 39; book of
drawings left by, 28 ; buildings and
designs of, 29, 30, 36-40 ; offices
held by, 38-9 ; studies at Padua, 27

Thorpe, John, junior, 39

Thorpe, Ealph, 27

Thorpe, Kebecca, 26

Thorpe Collection, the, 49
' Thorpe Hall, 96-7

Throckmorton, Sir R., 250

Thynne, Sir Thomas, 35

Tigou, 134, 148

Tilney, Lord, 318

" Tom " Tower, Oxford, 137-8

Torricelli, 123

Town Hall, Salisbury, 292

Townley, Nicholas, 24

" Treatise on Civil ArchitectiU'e," work
by Sir W. Chambers, 314, 316

Tresham, Sir Thomas, 32

Triggs, Inigo, 72

Trinity College, Dublin, 318

Trinity College Library, 139

Troisrieux, Dominique, 35

Tunstall, Robert, 297

Turner, Sir John, 160

Tyrell, Sir Edward, 168

United Court-house and Gaol, Water-
ford, 323
Uranlenborg Castle, 31
. Uxbridge House, 266

Vanbrugh, Charles, 194

Vanbrugh, Giles, 182

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 159, 181, 194 ;
buildings and designs of, 151, 185-7,
188-93 ; causes of notoriety of, 172 ;
character of, 195-6 ; imprisonment
of in Bastille, 182-3 > offices held by,
192 ; plays produced by, 184-5 •
versatility of, 180

Vandyck, painter, 91

Vanneck, Sir Gerard, 289-90

Yardy, John, 262, 265, 267 ; buildings
and designs of, 229, 262, 265-6 ;
publishes designs of Inigo Jones
and Kent, 267

Vardy, John, junior, 266

Vetulus, Theobald, i

336

INDEX

Vignola, designs and details of bor-
rowed by John Thorpe, 40 ; works
of studied by Inigo Jones, 63

Vlllamoena, painter, 90-1

Vitravius, 221, 275

"Vitruvius Britannicus," 198, 203,
212-3, 283, 289, 322

'* Vitruvius Scoticiis," 301

Voltaire, 184

Vorst, K. v., engraver, 91

Wade, General, 220
Walkelin, Bishop, 17
"Wallenger, J. A., 294
Walpole, Horace, 24, 27, 28, 44, 198,
222, 224, 226, 228, 232, 237-8, 254,
306-7, 316
Walpole, Sir Eohert, 193, 253-4
Walton, Nicholas, 24
Walton Bridge, 297-8
Wanstead House, 212-3
Ward, Seth, 105, 122
Warde, Roger, 35
Wardour, Lord, 294
Wardour Castle, 294
Ware, Charlotte, 272
Ware, Isaac, anecdote of, 267-8 ; archi-
tectural style of, 271-3 ; buildings
and designs of, 268-71 ; publications
of, 271
Ware, Mary, 272
Ware, Walter James, 272
Wate, Samuel, 299
Wayte, John, 18
Webb, James, 103

Webb, John, 90, 93, 97-8, 102-3 ;
buildings and designs of, 86, 96-7,
99, 100, loi ; on Inigo Jones, 54-6,
72-3, 91 ; influence of Inigo Jones
upon, 94 ; publications of, 96 ; train-
ing of, and rank as an architect,
103, 125
Wentworth, Sir William, 225
Wentworth House, 280
Westley, 44
Westminster Abbey, 177-8, 245, 287,

313
Westminster Bridge, 223
Westminster Chapel, 22-3
Weymouth House, Batb, 250
White Lodge, the, 223, 302
White Tower, the, 2
.Whitehall, 67-71, 99
Wigge, Gilbert, 42
Wildness Park, 276
Wilkins, Dr., 105, 117-8,123

Wilkins, WilUam, 268

William of Sens, 4, 5

"William the Englishman," architect,

4>S
Williams, Henry, 25
Wilson, Eichard, 273
Wilton, Joseph, 321
•Wilton, 87-8, 222, 303, 318
Wimbledon House, 34, 302
Winchester Cathedral, 6, 13, 15, 17,
18-20, 84
' Winchester School, 15, 20-1
Winchester Tower, 10- 11
Winford, William, 6, 18
Witham, 312
Woburn Abbey, 280
Wolfe, John, 322
Wollaton, 29, 34, 45
Wolsey, Cardinal, 22, 24, 25-6
"Wolsey architecture," the, 25
Wolterton Hall, 26, 254, 256
Wolvey, Eichard, 24
Wolvey, Thomas, 24
Wood, John, 246-50
Wood, John, junior, 250
Woolstencroft, J. W., 162
Worcester Cathedral, 5
Worksop Manor, 48, 295-6
Wren, Eev. C, 11 5-6, 119-20, 126
Wren, Sir Christopher, 101-2, 115,
n8, 120, 128, 134-7 ; buildings and
desig-ns of, 124, 127, i33-4» 138-411
145-50, 153-4^ 177-8] character and
genius of^ 123-4, 157-8; designs of
for rebuilding St. Paul's, 131-2 ; in-
trig-ues against, 154-5 ' ™arriage of,
155 ; offices and degrees held by,
122-3, 125, 130, 146; personal im-
press left by on British architecture,
29 ; position of in British archiiec-
tui'e, 114; progress of Eenaissance
under, 22-3, 157 ; scientific training
of, 119-23, 126, 128 ; studies ait in
France, 128-9
Wren, Christopher, 156
Wren, Francis, 115
Wren , Geoffrey, 115
Wren, Gilbert, 156
Wren, Jane, 156-7
Wren, Matthew, cousin of Sir C. Wren,

115, 119, 121, 122, 125
Wren, Matthew, uncle of Sir C. Wren,

120, 126, 127
Wren, William, 156-7
Wright, S., 302
Wrightson, William, 270

INDEX

Wrotham Park, 270

Wyatt, James, 289, 322

Wyattville, architect, 9

Wykeham, William of, i, 7, 12, 20, 21 ;
buildings of, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 ; character
and education of, 14-5 ; England's
earliest architect, 145; offices held
by, 7, 8, 9, 11,15; position of in
British architecture, 114 ; reforms

abuses in religious houses, 13 ; tradi-
tions left by, 22

Wyndham, Thomas, 302

Wynne, Sir W. W., 311

Yarburgh, Henrietta Maria, 194
York Cathedi'al, 1, 19
York, city, embellished by Carr, 251
York House, Whitehall, 25-6

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Art NA 996 . C5 1909

Chancellor, E. Beresford
1868-1937

The lives of the British
architects from William of