CORNELL UNIVERSITY LBRARIES ITHACA, N. Y. 14853 Fine Arts Libtaty Sibley Hall Cornell University Library NA 996.C4S The lives of the British architects from 3 1924 015 677 770 M Cornell University M Library The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924015677770 THE LIVES OF THE BRITISH ARCHITECTS IXIGd JOXES THE LIVES OF THE BRITISH ARCHITECTS FROM WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM TO SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS BY E. BERESFORD CHANCELLOR M.A., F.R. rifst. Soc. ADTHOR OF "THE SQUAKES OF LONDON," "THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON," ETC. LONDON: DUCKWORTH AND CO. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1909 Printed by Ballantvne &■ Co. Limited Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London TO MY FATHER PRlEFACE 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Painters," dealt with a few of the better-known men ; but Cunningham wrote so long ago (1830) that his work is quite out of date, besides being not always accurate, nor wholly satisfactory in other ways.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 Blomfield'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. 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 o^ 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. ?9 Elm Pabk Gardens, S.W. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Wykeham and his Predecessors i II. Thorpe, Chrismas^ Symons, Holt, Acroydk, , 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 b LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO PACE PAOS InigO Jones Frontispiece William of Wykeham : Bust I New College, Oxford 55 Winchester Cathedral 19 Holland House 38 Holland House : Thorpe's Ground-plan 38 WoUaton 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 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 235 James Paine and his Son 292 Kedleston Hall 295 Lansdowne House loy The Adelphi -qo Sir William Chambers Somerset House 314 320 BUST OF WILT,IA:M of IVYKKHAM. l:)34 On a corbel in Muiiiiiieiil. Hoom, ]\'indi<:sler Collet/e To I'lu;' p. 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 Fronde's " Short Studies." « As at Battle Abbey, where the first buildings were entrusted to William Faber, Theobald Vetulus, William Cocke, Bobert de Boloigne, and Bobert Blanchard ; or at Dorchester Abbey, where the monks 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," &o, &e. 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 would 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 undertaking 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 architects or at lea^t 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, four 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 » The letter of Gervasius was incorporated in the " Daoem Scriptores " published by E. 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 modem 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, tliese 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 1 33 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,i then he also con- structed the Campanile Novum vchich occupied twenty years in building, and cost the great sum, for those days, of over ;£2400. Alan is styled "Vir venerabilis et artificiosus 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, j ust 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- cienles^ discretos, et in arte ilia approbates, 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 best mathematician of his time, and is credited 1 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 Aran, 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 pei-sonal 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-blanche 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 Seauty 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 Eanulphi 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 Wykeham." 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. lo 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 your 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 ;^5S,ooo of our present money ; nor did this actually com- plete the improvements which appear to have been inter- WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS ii mittently going on for at least another six years, by which time the building was considered finished. Simultaneously with the great work at Windsor, Wykeham 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 whom Bums 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 eoiceinte 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 tui-ned 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 diiFerent 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, Southwark, 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 ot 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 (;^i 3,000) on the repairs and reconstruction of the episcopal buildings within his diocese. But it was not only the structui-al 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 own 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, refen-ing 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- 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 hall 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 Prioiy 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 1079. 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. 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 oflSces 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 > Winford, Membury an4 Wayte are all mentioned in Wykeham's will, being directed by him to carry out the work in the event of his death. WYKEHAM AND HIS PREDECESSORS 19 qatbedralj 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 weis 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 Eeoently, as we all know, the foundations have given cause for the graveet 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 what 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 nob so dominant a note in his personality, as the striving after what would enduie as a lasting benefit to his country ; he may not have reached the gieat heights to which those wh^ 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 Winciiester 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, was 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 Wykehara'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 Fkom 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 grasideur 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 were 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 sufBcient 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, could 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 enjoyed. 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 athempt 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 m^ 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 the reign of Richard II. ; that John Kendale * was a supervisor of the royal buildings in that of Edwai'd 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 Coxirt inclines 1 Dallaway remarks that the stupendous timber roofs of Westminster and Eltham were probably designed and executed by Walton. Ho is mentioned in a Patent 17, Kichard 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 fairlj' 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 Eoyal 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. Frldeswide'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 Koger Keys, as the architects of All Souls, Oxford, and W. Orohyerde as that of Magdalen ; but I have been unable to find anjrthing 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 SuiFolk, Grirnsthorpe 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,Cowdrayand 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 with 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, 1604), 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 Thoi-pe ; 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 tnink 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 Ealph Thorpe mentioned in a letter from Sir John Puckering to the Lord Mayor, dated April 29, 1595, may have been a relative. See " Batoembranoia," p. 285. * See " Notes and Queries," 6th series. 3 Even Dr. Caius of Cambridge has been identified with John of fadtta. 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 reliance 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, ini 597, " 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 sufiicient 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 perpendicular 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 architecture 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 jn 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 1590,^ 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 161 8, 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. Th^re was, too, some political justification 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 Jiceuce from the Queen. February 22, J574, 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 was 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. Rushton was erected for Sir Thomas Tresham, and as plans not only of it but also of other houses, notably Rothwell and Lyvedon, built for him are contained in Thorpe's book of designs, Mr. Gotch has assumed th*at the latter was 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 c 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, Rushton, and Holdenby, the Thorpe collection of drawings comprises plans of Buck- hurst in Sussex, Audley End, Wimbledon House, Copthall, Wollaton, Loseley, Burghley House, Aston 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 Tcnown 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 3^ 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 btiilding, 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 Xheobalda, supposed to be the work of Thorpe. * Nor is this inconsistent with the fact that Eohert 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, which 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 some 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 Jo 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 conjectiu-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 Pai-ie, 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 aftei- 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 Kensingr 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, tue 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 Kirby, 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 I and T Joyned together as you see is meant for a dwelling house for mey 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. Wyatb 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 ;£52 3«. 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 i6j 1600 (the p < o a 11-4 1 B H D ST I- ■—'/'- f^=^£-i^— ^rrj. i- )} * n ri__ M J E>r>— —i ^n" V l,^ jpll WW V- -/ ==n'^_J_ ryr^r Ji; 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 areversion of one of the higher places of that kind." It is now generally recognised that Thoi-pe 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 lliorpe (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 mediaevalism 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 Ihauches 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 j he worked in conjunction with Bernard Jansen. At the same time there is a slight I 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 aa Walpole speaks of the volume as being in Lord Warwick's possession in his day, it possibly belonged to the Barl 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 facade ; for on this was sculptured in stone the letters " C. jE.," which Vertue assumes to have stood for the words " Chrismas ^Edificavit." 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 coUege; while it is known that he supplied plans to Dr. Nevile, who between 1593 and 1615 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 Vertue 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- masons, and who carved the ship built by Peter Pett in 1 637. In Gough's " Topography " (vol. i., 'p- ^7^) "s 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. Architect! sua aetata peritis- simi qui prseter plurima aedificia ab eo praeclare facta, duo collegia Emanuelis hoc Sydneii illud exstruxit integre. Magnam etiam partem Trinitatis reconcinnavit amplissime." Perhaps Dr. Caius, who refounded Gonville and Caius College, may be regarded as another Cambridge architect, 1 " Cambridge and its OoUeges." 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 Humihty, no longer standing, and that of Virtue, in which he blended Gothic and Renaissance ; while the Gate of Honour, finished in 1574, may also have been his work, for the once generally received tradition that it was 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 architecturae 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 1 600. Three buildings are attributed to him — the Fellows Quadrangle of Wadham, that of Merton, 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 bm^ied 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 GonviUe and Cains College, which Walpole considers to be of Saveua who may in any case have been a kind of consulting architect to the college generally and to Dt. Caiua 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 architecturae 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 ^fliddle' 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.1 Dallaway thought so ; and I confess I do > Walpole calls him John. JOHN THORPE AND OTHERS 45 not regard, as some have done, the wording on Smithson's tomb in WoUaton 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 fa9ade. 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 architecture 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 ofder to gather materials and designs, and this, together with the traditions he had 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 prol)aWy 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 WoUaton 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 16, 1908, 48 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS Mr. Gotch in his paper on the Smithson drawings has gone into the technical qualities of the plans so fully and so learnedly that it is unnecessary to say anything in this respect about them here ; but it will be, perhaps, inte- resting if I note a few of the more important of them. They bear various dates ranging from 1599 to 1632, and may therefore have all been the work of one man, although a father and son, or even two brothers may have collabo- rated ^ in their production. There are one hundred and twenty-five of them ; and the majority bear a short description : Thus No. 2 is entitled " Offices at Bolsover " : No. 5, "my lorde houghton Plate at houghton, Anno l6i8"; and "my lorde Hawghtons house," and Mr. Gotch considers that it was prepared with a view to the enlargement of the mansion, for John Holies of Houghton who had been created a peer in 1616. No. 6 is inscribed " The Platfoi-me of my Lo. of Exceters house at Wymbelton 1609," of which there is a much less com- prehensive plan among the Thorpe drawings ; No. 26 is a plan of WoUaton, with some out-buildings such as " The gatte House," " The Statute," " The Dairye and Laundrie," &c. One, No. 41, resembles Hardwicke Hall, which if it can be conclusively identified, might result in the interesting fact that a Smithson was the arclfltect of that window-full erection. No. 29 is a plan of " Kinges College Chappell at Cambrige," and with it is a drawing of "The Platforme of ye Kinges Statute at Tyballes" (Theobalds) ; while another. No. 66, consists of no less than eight drawings of details in the same palace. Warwick Castle under the title of " a great castle " is represented, and there are several of "Worsop Mannor," (Worksop); and others of country places include " The first floor of Bulwell Park " ; " my Lord Sheffields house " ; " The Newe Piatt at Twyforde"; "A Plan of Nottingham Castle," dated 1617 ; and " Part of A house desighned by Smithson for Morton Corbet in Shropshire 1627.," to mention but these. 1 Could it be that Robert was the father ; John and Huntingdon both Bona ; and the later John a son of one of the latter 1 T^ i^'-°-i:r^;;», '•It"',*;- ■ ^ ^.t ~T' r\ -life bWp t- J 9- J „„U,.,»..,-. '■.!..,«, "4 m -Tl" f"""l''''^'>;-' (smitiison's I'LAN) 'J'lijiice p. 4S 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 ;^ioo. There is, too, a plan of " The Banketinge house at the Whitehall in London " ; and another of " The fyrste storye of the Newe Banketinge house." Another bears the title : " The Fronte of Bathe House : Sir foulke Gryvelles (Grevilles) in houlbome 1619"; another "My Ladye Cookes house in Houlborn at London " dated the same year ; and yet another, " The Platforme 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 50 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS him in collocation with his father, but in doing so I have had to anticipate the later period which I shail 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 Sniithson. 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, be should rightly be included here, although Vertue and Waipole 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 yegy 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 Chaniber 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 gi-eat 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 Si 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 Mpses 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,* 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 1615 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 Coturt,* 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 Boc. 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, 1S73." In 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 5 81, 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 ^^lO 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 haV6 assigned this reason, that, as his father was a considerable dealer in the woollen manufactory, 'tis probable some Spanish merchant might have slssisted at his baptistti." 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 Christiah 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, 1596-9^, 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 tegisterS. INIGO JONES 55 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 lacuna in Jones's career which it is difficult to fill, is the period between his giving up whatever ti-ade or profession he was following, and his being sent to Italy ; and we only 1 The same authority mentions a tradition that Jones was onoe 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 1 605 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, • 1" 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 I 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 conclusive 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, V. 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- •J 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, but what Jones did in Denmark in an architectiu^al 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 jplays 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, ;^5o.'" 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 sp^ks 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 with 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 td have followed the att of painting before taking up architectufej and at Chatsworth there is a laadecapg froia 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 latet 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 workSj Winwood's ' Memorials,' and contemporary letters, &o. passim. 2 For another masque, probably exhibited in 1609, Jones's bill was ^^238 odd, and he received as a fee for himself £^0, 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 1610-1 1 , and which was written bv Ben Jonson, and entitled " Oberon," Jones as its "devyser " received £i6i Account of the "Revels 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 ij**" Jan^ 1610 (161 1) and ended at the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, 161 2 . . Lxxxij ij vj* Inigo Jones, 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 followynge cxj' (_;^iii) In addition to these payments, the architect also received a gift of £20 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 firsb suggested by Solomon de Caux who had been the previous Surveyor of the Works 1 Birch's " Life of Prince Henry," appendix. a Domestic State Papers, May 17, 1611, -vrhere 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 Ki/iig 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 Febi-jiary or in the following March, which would be consistent with , the statement that he went in the winter of 16 12, 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, 16 14"; "Vicenzia, Aug. 13, 1614"; 1 There is preserved at Montaoute House, Somersetshire, a receipt signed by Jones for ;^iio which he ha^ 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," 1614 (1615). 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 1614, 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, 1615, to the M9,ster of the Wardrobe, giving directions for the pre- paration of this badge of office. The salary commenced on Oct. I, i6i4,and amounted to 85. a day "for entertainment," ;^8o a year for "recompence for avails," or as we should say I 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'a warrante, dated 16 Jijne 1609, for carreinge Lres (letters) for his Ma's servyce into France, xij" vis 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 " Vitruviua" has left a manuscript note on the remarkable staircase there. 64 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS for his services ; and 2s. 8d. a day for travelling expenses The details of the dress have been preserved. Thus h was to be furnished with " five yards of broad cloth for gown, at twenty-six shillings and eightpence a yard ; on ' fur of budge,' for the same gown, price four pounds ; fou yards and a half of baize to line the same, at five shilling the yard ; for furring the gown, ten shillings ; and fo making it, ten shillings ; " while the royal order, unde James's sign manual, further commands, that a simila provision shall be made to Jones every year on the Feas of All Saints, so long as he shall occupy the position o Surveyor of his Majesty's Works. The date of this docu ment is March 16, 16 16.-^ Inigo Jones had now an opportunity of proving wha Walpole terms Roman disinterestedness, and I give th( details of the circumstance in the words of Webb : " Thi office of His Majesty's works of which he was suprem( head, having through extraordinary occasions, in the tim« of his predecessor contracted a great debt, amounting t( several thousand pounds, he was sent for to the lords o: the Privy Council, to give them his opinion what cours< might be taken to ease his Majesty of it, the exchequei being empty, and the workmen clamorous. When he, o: his own accord, voluntarily offered not to receive a" pennj of his own entertainment, in what kind soever due, unti! the debt was fully discharged. And this was not only per- formed by him, himself; but upon his persuasion th« Comptroller and Paymaster did the like also, whereby th« whole arrears were discharged." Indeed, Jones does not seem to have profited largely b\ 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 Works, 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 6s 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 waiTant." 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 comfoi-tably off. Apart from his ordinary duties as Surveyor of the Worlcs, Jones, who was one of those adaptable men to whom nothing comes amiss, was, in 1616, given the charge of the ftimiture 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 1617, 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 Chambei', " 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 1617, 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 ta: levied on the members of Lincoln's Inn.^ It is interesting as being the only authenticated instance of the architect'i use of the Gothic style,^ a style that he was obviousb forced to adopt to suit his design to the existing building of the Inn. In the following year (1618), Jones was appointed oni of the Commissioners to lay out Lincoln's Inn Fields, anc he was asked to prepare a plan for this purpose. A rare if not unique, print, attributed to Hollar, a copy of whicl is contained in Mr. Heckethorn's book on Lincoln's Inr Fields, shows the complete nature of Jones's conception— a conception unfortunately never realised, for had it beer we should have possessed a remarkable example of th( domestic architecture of this period from the hand of its greatest exponent. As it is, LindsEty House is the onlj existing specimen of Jones's work 'in~the""square ; unles! indeed, as has sometimes been supposed, he really designee the insignificant archway that gives access to Sardinif Street ; which is quite unlikely.^ Lindsay House is in th( Doric style, and isone of the best examples of jTones'i purely domestic architecture, while it is also interesting ai showing the manner in which he intended, more or less, th( whole square to be built. Originally it had a beautifu entrance gate and six brick piers, but the former has long since disappeared, and of the latter only two remain.* 1 Heckethorn's " Lincolti's Inn Fields." The chapel was consecratec in 1623. 2 Although St. Catherine Ores and St. Alhan, Wood Street, destroyet 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 itig till recently. 4 The ornamental column and fountain, formerly in the centre of Nevi Square, were also designed by Jones. He has, besides, left one or twt examples of his treatment of gates ; one at Chiswick, which will bf spoken of later, and the one at Holland House, for which he designee the stone piers which Were executed by Klcholas Stone. INIGO JONES 61 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 L 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 95b feet.^ This latter is entitled : " The 1 This, preserved in Wo ceBter College, formed the original of the set published by Colin Campbell in his " Vitruvius Britaanicus " in 1717-25. Campbell dates them 1639, but thfiy appeaf 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 completedi 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 Chatsworth, 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 Portfolij," No. 16, April 1895. O 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 architect's 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 ;^985o,^ 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 £yi under a council's warrant, dated June 27, 1619, for m(»lelB 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 £7^2, 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 building, with a vault under the same, in length 1 10 feet, 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 heig-ht of 16 feet, wrought 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 Purbeek 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, with 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-r tions. Walpole notices a commission, printed in Rymer'a 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. Paul's, 1 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 Paul's 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 investigatioa 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 1055. 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., Ac." 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 Tiiscan oi-der." 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 " : " Dpon 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 2=;, 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 161 7 or 1618, 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 s babies 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 his 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 1617 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 architect 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 Vitruvius 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 wa^ 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 office 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 yeai"s. 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 77 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 FHxton 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 i6i6 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 1621, 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 was 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 Civii«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 olie of his smaller but most famous creations — the celebrated water-gate, which he designed for the Duke of Buckingham in i626,and which was executed by Nicholas 1 See for drawings of this gateway and a technical descriptionj " Inigo Jones and his Worlis," by H. Inigo Triggs and Tanner. There is a letter from Lord Middlesex to Inigo Jones, dated 1622, in the Saokville MSS. INIGO JONES 79 Stone. Buckingham had only recently (1624) acquired York House ; and when he demolished the old residence, he erected ft 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 gi-andiose ideas, and probably Inigo Jones would have been its architect, although the Duke's factotum, Sir Balthazar Gerbier, de- signed the temporary housCj 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 ; ftnd I also think it probable that Buckingham in- tended it mefely as an " episode " in the scheme for a new and magtlifi(!ent 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 toy Other. The gateway designed for Lord Weymouth at Oatlands Park, and the beautiful south enti'ance porch to St. Mary's 1 Gerbier, %riling to the Duke on December 2, 1624, says, " The suf veyor, 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 oiE it. He almost threw himself on his knees for your Secretary of Titian."--*'Blsht)p aoodrbian's " Court of Jataes I." 8o LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS Church, Oxford, erected in 1637, at an 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. PauPs, 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 1631. 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 Doric portico, with a triangular pedi- ment and a cupola above it, forai the east elevatidli ; 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 hen trovato, is at least apt after these remarks : " When the Earl of JBedford 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 bam 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 8 1 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 bhe 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, 1631, 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 thi-ee 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 aflf'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. Paul's. 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. Paul's 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,Jby 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. Paul's, 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 1 " 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 full 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 with 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 ; " Ooelum Britannicum," by Oarew and Jones, 1634 ; " Britannia Tiiumphans," Twelfth Night, 1637 ; " Salma.cida Spoli%" by Davenant and Jones, January 2i, 1639; "Love's Mistress," by Heywood 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 ;^7oo. 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, 1641, 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, passim. 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 ;^5oo 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 ;^54S ^ 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 Eeign of Charles I.," how- ever, Jones, who is described as of Martin's-in-the-Fields, is stated to have only paid ;^34S. 86 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS Perhaps what affected him most was the cessation of the work 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 Ashbyrnham House ; Gunnersbury (demoHshed 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 Fumival's Inn (1640), and the garden facade of Northum- berland House (1642). The stairs and some of the ceilings at Ford Abbey and The Grange, in Hampshire, have Mr. Blomfield'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 Walpole, 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 J 647 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, ho wever, the architect was then busily engaged on the Queen's House at Greenwich and the restoration of St. Paul's, he appears 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 Earl's 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^ 1 10 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 mai-gins 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 ;^ 1 6,000 from the King for merely keepjng 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 Paik, 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 1 570 ; 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 fa9ade 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), ^'^^ ^^^' 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 ]ast 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. Paul's, were never to be completed ; he had been forced to pay a large sum to satisfy the greed of those who had mui'dered 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 days. 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 Kenl ; and in London he once had a house in St. Martin's Lane, and for a time occupied the official residence of the Crowh 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 John Webb, states this, although in another place he affirms that Jones died on June 24, 1652, and that he was buried tvro days later, which is confirmed by the Parish Register, 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 poof. 3 " Lives of the Painters." INIGO JONES 91 the architect was in Italy. Vandyck 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 tliat 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 irawn by himself.^ Among his sketches that have been preserved are those in Worcester College Library, Oxford, Dequeathed by Dr. Clarke; those illustrating costumes md scenes for masques now at Chatsworth, where is aJso lis original sketch-book from which a few facsimile copies vere 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 L.ansdowne MSS., and the many drawings and plans in ;he Soane Museum and the Library of the Royal Society »f British Architects. Beyond his Stone-henge book it is not known that Jones nade any excursions into authorship, although some very »ad verses of his were printed in Coryat's " Crudities." " It was," says Webb, " vox Eiiropce that named Inigo ones Vitruvius Britannicus, being much more, than at lome, famous in remote parts, where he lived many years, designed many works, and discovered many antiquities, lefore unknown, with great applause." A later day has, owever, recognised that in Inigo Jones England found er finest exponent of architectural art, for his influence 1 It is interesting to know that Jones also secured the immortality of sign, for Dart's " Cathedral of Canterbury " was published in 1^26 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 j place of the uncertain experiments that had preceded j him, was no less memorable than was the consummate! mastery which he brought to bear on the details andj general conception of the buildings he designed. The 1 scope of his imagination was unbounded ; but his vigor- 1 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 j 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 Banbury, 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 Somersetshii-e family. He was born, however, in London, ill 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," sa;. s Vertue, " designed the additional buildings at Bols- over, erecte.l 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." 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 m9,ny 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 tp 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 th^t 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 Latigley, 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 fa-eated 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 stiaircase, 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 und superstitious increments, the most uncompromising Roundhead 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 (1598-1675), 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 I Blomfield's " Eenaissance." 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 and 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 ;^iSoo 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 Denham| 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 just 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 ;£5oo ' 1 Pepys records that 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 alteraoion, in his house, which I did, and got Mr. Kennard." s In the Domestic State Pajjers is a warrant for allowing " Sir John Denham, surveyor of the works, ;£i2 i6s. lorf. for livery," the same to be paid yearly. 3 In May 1660, howeyer, I find in the Calendar of Domestic State Papers a warrant to Webb for ;f 2000 towards these repairs. JUHJN WEUB 99 towards it. One of the^e 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 £i 13*. 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 oifice as Deputy Surveyor, Webb carried out some repairs at St. Paul's 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 Suffolk. Amesbury in Wiltshire, built for Lord Carleton, was 1 Campbell in Ma " Vitruvius Brltannious," gives plans and elevations pf Gunnersbury House, and there speaks of it as being the work of Webb. loo 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 obher, that of Burlington House which was ostensibly the work of Sir John Denhara, 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 gi-eat 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, oi- 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. 161 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS grateful mastei*, that some adequate cdtnpetiSation 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 to But- 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 £1000 " of his own estate ; " and he adds that he cannot now act under Mi'. Wren, who, he points out, " is by fiir his inferior,"" but states his wilHugnesS 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 atButleigh 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 Papfets. Before we smile at one or two of the abore expressions we should remember that at this time Wren was known as a maivellous mathematician, but not yet as an architect. 104 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 jising 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 los 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 Dui'dans, 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 i-igging for ships, &c. ; Pepys hears 1 Charles II. 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, i666"-6,S 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 " iTiighty fine " ; while Hooke's " Lampais,'" 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 toueh 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. was 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 etatrie, 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 NichoUs 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 I 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 Pugefs 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 over 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 (the 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 enem}\ 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, 1703, and, as the register attests, was buried in the Church of St. Helen's, Bishops- gate. 1 Hooke'a original plans are preserved in the Court Eoom of the Company. 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 Ur. 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 Parliament, 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 Ki^g going to the City on this ooc^sipn, and afterwards himself went and examined the stope that had just beei) laid. JERMAN in 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 C^sar, 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 atti'ibuted 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 fa9ade 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 ia given in Britton and Pugin'a " Public Buildings of London." a 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 we 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. 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 !'y n»iery I/'alksJ- rOKTKAIT OF SIH CHKIST( ITHEK \\'KEX, I!V KXKI.LICR Tu face p. 114 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 chui'ch, the elder, Matthew, attaining to the Bishopric of Ely, and the younger, Christopher, father of the architect, becoming Dean of Windsor and Sipersona 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 Fishbume 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 effoi-ts 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 Pareiitalia,^ 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 Milman prints an English translation of a Latin letter addressed by Wren to his father in 1647, ^» 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 remembered that Malthew Wren, Christopher's cousin, dedicated his " Monarchy Assarted, &c." (1669) to Dr. 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 ^jeing 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 rare 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 opened, 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 begun 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 writes 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 eflBcacy in the cure of broken bones ! At the beginning of the year i66l, Seth 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 the Koyal 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 1639. 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 seen, 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 (i 608-1 647) 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 165 1, and his M.A. in December '653- * 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. Paul's ; 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 CunniDgham, " 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 could 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 Raphael'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 wonderful 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 ^ve 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 Xnoyle, 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 to 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, howevei', some relaxation and change of scene were forced upon him. In 1665, the Great Plague desolated London, and Wren, having procured an introduction 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 scoured 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. Paul's, 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. I30 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS During the progress of this work, Wren returned to Oxford to superintend the building of the theatre and the restorations at Tiinity, 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 worl% 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. Dtu-ing this year Sir John Denham resigned the surveyor- ship of the king's works, and the post was immediately conferred on Wren, nothwithstanding 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 Bancroft 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 Sancroffs words " a great weight falling from the high wall, so disabled the vaulting of the side-aile by it, that it threaten'd a sudden Ruin, so visibly, that the workmen presently remov'd ; 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. Paul's 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 1, 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 vei-y 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 blunde^d 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 t hp plaijs actually fl.cfpptpd.J Thus, although the ground-plan was adhered to, such marked changes from riiolo by ]'a/,:y ST. PAUL'S CATHJiDKAL I'ltOM THE WEST Tofavi: II. 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, for 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., ;£7475954j 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 Byswick, although Evelyn notes going to see the cathedral on October 5, 1694, when it was, he says, " finished as to the stone work." ' St. Paul's 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, performed the ceremony. Probably more than one stone was laid, as in the case of the Eoyal 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 1671-3 (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 wide, 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 t 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. Paul's. 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, inter mvMa 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. Photo by Cvril F. //.? INTETUOII, LOOKrXG WEST, ST. STKI'HKN'S, AVALlJIMtOK 7b f'acc II. I 3G 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. When, 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. y 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. Paul's, 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 City 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 imprimatur, which, in the case of a conscientious man like Wren, meani; 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, althou^ 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 Wi-en'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 wa^ 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 teen 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 facjade 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 I40 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. Dryden, 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, "lade known that the Observatory was to be erected in this situation, and the 1 It is said to have cost ;f4000. 2 Flamsteed was a Fellow of the Eoyal 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. ;^5oo was granted from the Royal 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. Paul's, the first stone of which, it will be i-emerabered, 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 Ml of distinction and so excellently proportioned, was tuilt 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 men- tions his work here. 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 rubbed 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 diflerentiate her from the rapacious favoiu-- 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 ;^Sooo 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 gfeat 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, biit 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 caiTying 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. ij 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 rightness 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 WUlinm 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 earhest 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. Alban'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 thinkiDg 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 Bean 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 1831, 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, adjoiijing his school in Leicester Square, (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 writes, " 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, Rochester, was one of Wren's lesser works during 1687. « In 1698 Wren was returned by thp electors of New Windsor, " pay- ing lot and scot," and on petition was re-elected by the Mayor arid 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 sijmmit of Wren's erection, an ornament which Garth, in his " Dispensary," said looked like " a gilded pill " ! During the short and unsettled reigp 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 tlie warm red walls of Hampton Court ; its longfa9ades give it such an air of quiet dignity that one overlooks the essen- tially monotonous character of its extended rows of wipdows 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 For full details of this work I would refer the reader to Mr. Ernest Law's " Hampton Court," vol. ill. ; and to Miss Milman's " Life of Wren.'' Roughly, Wren's work embraced the King'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 I50 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 grate and refinement. Kensington Palace was not completed till 1706; but between that year and the date of its commencement, 1690, Wren was engaged On a number of lessef works^ notably The Mint in the Tower (1691); possibly the Chapel of Trinity College, Oxford (1691-4); 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 Hdllows, Lombard Street (1693); St. Michael Hoyaly College Hill (1694) ; St. Vedast, Foster Lane, and St. Mary Somerset, Thames Street (1695), the latter 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 i6g6, Wren was called upon to undertake the design- ing of whelt is, if we except St. Paul's, his finest public buildihg-^Greeilwich Hospital. ^ Theplans-for this splen- did work are pteserved in the Soane Museum, andiHawks- moor has left a description of the magnificenb 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 Thfde J'elai's earliei', i.e., in January 1693, Luttrell records that " Last Sattirday the Lords of the Admiralty and Sir Christopher Wren went to Greenwich to view the King's house there, to convert it into an hospitali for sick and wounded seamen, which is approved for that phtpiMe." SIR CHRISTOPHER WRBN 151 thropic Sir Stephen Fox and Evelyn agaiil estme fofWard with substantial aid and advice ; but before anything was done the Qtieetl died* As we have seen twd important buildings were already in existence at this spot ; the Queen's House, and that portion of the ptbposed palace already finished, both of which had been defeigiied by liiigd Jones, and had been carried out under the feuperihtetideilee of John Webbj As it was desired that these buildiflg§ 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 cetitbry such a pious feeling for earlier work existed; and that the Queen should hetVe beeu 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 II., is very creditable to her feelings and good taste< Wren's first design ^ for Greenwich substantially shows the hospit&l as . it exists to-day, for as we shall see, Vanbrugh, Colin Campbell, and Ripley, all added td it, and they each, in an inferior way it is true, helped to give it more the resemblance of what Wreii intended, than he himself was permitted to do. What he effected was to make the Queen's House at the extreme end from the river, the central feature, add 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 k Select doitimittee of the OolBtfliS- sionera for Greenwich Hospital and with Sir ChtistephW Wren ; ^here with him I laid the first stone of the intended foundation, precisely at k o'clock iij the evehihg, alter we had din'd together." "Evelyn's 152 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 jving, 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 are 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. Paul's 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. Dunstan's-in- 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 Parlianient, 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 majestic 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 cUbris, 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 154 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 tnen. 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 actiial work as being unsatisfactory ; but anything does to jjustify 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 yfho also contended that his delay in the completion of the cathedrfll was due tfl hi^ 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, whiot has, if its attribution to Wren he correct, is GWoftiWidgd Place, KeHt. I may here note that in ijrog. Wren Was ordered to fit up Westminster Hall for the trial of Dr. Saeheverell, SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 155 surveyor's salary until the said church should be finished ; thereby the better to encourage hiin to finish the same work with the utmost diligence and expedition," Upon this Wren addressed a petition to the Queen (February 13, i^io), 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 toj 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 acciised 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 " afjpeared, only to be answered by a Second part of " Facts against Scandal," and even the great Addison is supposed to have taken Wren's pa.rt, in the adumbration of the architect's character as " Nestor," in 77ie Tatler {or Augxist g^ 1709. So matters went on until, with the death of QUeen Anne in 17 14, Wren lost his leist 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 Eendal, who, because he would not allow her to mtitilate Hampton Court, sold his oifice^ 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. Paul's. 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, bom on February 1 8, 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 Lifford, 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. « He had in 1708 obtained a fifty years' lease, at ;f 10 per annum, from the Crown. At that time it was a very fragile structure, and Wren appears to have largely rebuilt it. 3 It will be remembered that Inigo Jones was also seen occasionally wandering about the fafade of the Cathedral, which he had built. SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 157 in 1679 in which year the second Lady Wren died. Christopher and William both survived their father, but Jane predeceased him by twen,ty 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, 1S8 LIVES OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS in so great a perfection, such a mechanical hand and so philosophic a mind " ; Isaac Barrow, with an eye to some^ thing even better than mere worldly 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; PJflATT; HAWKSMOOB; 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 BeU of Lynn, bom 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 generally 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 NationalBiography,"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 would have been one of that numerous baud 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 Kobert 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 1818, 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 pillai-s, and completed by an obelisk crowned with a ball on which 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 known 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 Bell's 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 1710, 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 knownundertakingwas the rebuilding of North 1 " Excursions through Norfolk.'' L 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 17 13. The work is interesting not only on its own account, but also as showinsr that its designer was as much at home in eccle- • ^Tl 1 I'll siastical architecture as he was m so wholly secular a build- ing as an Exchange. 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, while not daring to trust to their own unaided eflbrts, 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, 17 17, 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 affairs, and he is recorded as having twice occupied the post of mayor of the town 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 sei-ve.* TALMAN Although Talman^s name is one that has been practically forgotten by those who have not given particular atten- 1 Kindly communioated to me ty 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 Chatsworth, 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 family 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 1671, 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 1671 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 Hem-y, 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 office 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. 'W TALMAN 165 at Hampton Court which Wren was then designing. In any case this office was conferred on Talman 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 45., 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 own 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 apian 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 Mv. 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 was 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 * 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, flso, several pen-and-ink sketches of scenery on the Rhine, (^levations of Italian buildings (heightened in colour), anci some draw- ings of stained-glass windows in Upton C|mrch (dated August, 1708) by John Talman, whose ^^ J.^T. fecit" may be seen on some of them ; while the book f,lso contains a few old engravings. / Of William Talman's work in it, which a|one here inter- ests us, there are some ground-plans of a '1 house designed for Lord Carlisle"; of one "designed to be built at Lamb's Conduit Fields for ye Ld. Devonshire " ; another inscribed " For Duke of Leeds, at Keiton, In YorJsshire " ; 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 he there now. ^ee Gwynn, "London Improved," 1766, p. 63 ; and Eiou, " The Grecian Orders," 1768, p. S7- There is a portrait of Talman ia " Walpole's Anecdotes " (1798)1 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 Tyrell, 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 27, 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. Paul's, and several 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 Cliichley and Mr. Prat that it had been so built ah origine 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 plumb'd 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 requir'd 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 Chiohley 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 1 683) when its demolition 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 critical 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. However, 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 AUington there, and mentions that the place, then newly built, cost no less than ^^0,000,* 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 ;f 70,000, but perhaps he was taking into account, the relative value of money 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 architectm-e 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 hve 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 was something of an architect himself, was the designer of old Berkeley House, Piccadilly, which he erected for Lor'd Berkeley of Stratton at a cost of " neere ^^30,000," 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 was 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 i 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- j 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 ai'chitect, 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, imless 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 1661, 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 ;^io " 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 enlai'ged for William III., and inter 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 ilmmanuel 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 ■^90 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 was quite surprising, having become associ- ated with Vanbinigh, 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 £'2C>o 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. V He seems to have been employed at Blenheim from 1710 to 171 Sj ""^I- between these years he found time to give his attention to a variety of other work ; thus, for example, in 1713, 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 accounts 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 175 ing the Church of St. Alphege at Greenwich during the years 171 1 and 171 8, and giving advice (17 14) concerning the restoration of All Souls', Oxford, about which I shall have something to say presently when 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 was 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-Pields — 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. Maiy Woolnoth ; St. George's, Bloomsbury ; and Christ Church, Spitalfields. 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 1712 and 1720, and is said to have cost ;£'385O0O. 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 171 S 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 1716-19, 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 " Londinlum Kedlvivum," vol. ii. p. 83. s The working plans are preserved in the King's Library. Hawksmoor kept the account of expenses for the churches erected from 1713 to 1734. iJllKiyT CHCHCH, SITTALl'MELUS Ttifua-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 chtu-ches.^ 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 ihese 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 Probalily James of Greenwich actually superintended the work as Balph, in 1736 the year in which Hawksmoor died, notes thai " there is a rumcar that the Dean and Chapter still design to raise the towers." 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 1 714. In that year when restoration was rampant at AH 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 lattftt he made the designs and received ;^ioo " 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 Radcliffe Library, as well as for a new front to All Souls, all prepared about 1720, 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 t There are no less than seventy of Hawksmoor*s designs in the Eadoliffe Library. HAWKSMOOR 179 executed in 1713. 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 church for St. Albans; a monument to the Duke of Marlborough ; and a column, and statue of Queen Anne, to be erected in the Strand (1713), and in 1736, he was engaged ou 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 Batly 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 tnat 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 im.provement as he advanced, and indicates clearly enough that he had grasped the fundamental elements of the art, and was (~ , o////. . ////// ////// ,*. ■ . A if.,' ,. ",. ■' ■ ni.:~ SIR JOHX VAXBULGH 7(./«Cf /I. ISU 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 imseating — 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 er 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 wit, and sometimes their venom, in ridiculing the pretentiousness of his edifices ; and it will be a pleasanter task to record the (fetalis 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 1667, and where he is said to have been concerried 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