48 



LIST OF JONES'S WORK 



FIG. 25. Ground Plan, Queen's House, 

 Greenwich, 1635. 



the attributions are 

 supported by con- 

 temporary evidence 

 in the shape of draw- 

 ings or of references 

 in letters and docu- 

 ments ; others by the 

 direct enumeration 

 of his staunch ad- 

 mirer, John Webb, 

 who was his pupil 

 and assistant, who 

 married a kinswoman 

 of his, and was the 

 executor of his will. 

 Others rest upon tra- 

 dition or upon the 

 opinions of critics. 

 Tradition is not al- 

 together reliable, 

 owing partly to a 

 natural tendency to attribute any outstanding piece of work 

 to the most celebrated artist of the time, and partly to the 

 natural desire of owners to attach a well-known name to 

 their possessions. The value of a critic's opinion obviously 

 depends upon that uncertain factor the ability and equip- 

 ment of the critic for his task, and although the opinion of 

 a competent critic will always count for much, it cannot count 

 for so much as direct evidence. The evidence in this case 

 consists of allusions in contemporary letters, not very numerous 

 or helpful ; of architectural drawings by Jones, which are 

 helpful but not numerous ; and of the testimony of Webb, 

 who was in the best position to know what his master actually 

 designed. Webb has occasion in his " Vindication of Stone-Heng 

 Restored," to mention Jones's principal works, which he thus 

 enumerates : The west portico of St Paul's Cathedral, and the 

 reducing- of the body of it " from the steeple to the west end, into 

 that order and uniformity we now behold " ; l St Paul's, Covent 



1 "A Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored," p. 27. All this work was 

 destroyed in the great fire. The loss of the portico was considered a 

 national misfortune. 



