70 WEBB'S PART IN THE WORK 



the office upon his leaving London, and attended his Majesty 

 in that capacity at Hampton Court and at the Isle of Wight, 

 where he received his majesty's command to design a palace 

 for Whitehall, which he did until his majesty's unfortunate 

 calamity caused him to desist." 



This striking statement supplies an explanation of the 

 whole intricate series of drawings, including those at the British 

 Museum. It is the culminating proof that they were the work 

 of Webb and not of Jones. It accounts for the absence of any 

 reference in earlier documents to a project which would have 

 been vast enough to attract much attention in court circles had 

 it been in contemplation ; and indeed it goes to show that 

 the project never had any real vitality, but was merely an 

 exercise on paper. Incidentally, it illustrates the inability of 

 Charles I. to perceive the real trend of events, for he gave 

 instructions for this huge palace when already the shadow of 

 death had almost enveloped him. 



Webb's petition did not serve to divert the gift of the coveted 

 office from Denham to himself, but it may have suggested to 

 Charles II. the idea of resuscitating the project of a palace at 

 Whitehall ; for there is a block plan by Webb of a scheme 

 differing from all the others, dated I7th October 1661, and there 

 are notes in Webb's hand on some of the drawings which show 

 that he submitted to the second Charles some of the designs 

 which he had prepared for the first, and that they were " taken," 

 or accepted. It is certain that Charles II. did entertain for a 

 time the idea of rebuilding the palace, for Evelyn relates, under 

 the date 2/th October 1664, that being at Whitehall, the king 

 took him aside into a window recess, and having borrowed from 

 him a pencil and paper, proceeded to draw, using the window-sill 

 as a table, a plan for the projected palace, with the rooms of 

 state and other particulars. But in Webb's case, as in so many 

 others, the bright hopes inspired by the Restoration were over- 

 clouded ; the projected palace went no further than to be a 

 design on paper ; the surveyorship was given to Denham, and 

 on his death, in spite of a promise of its reversion, Webb suffered 

 the mortification of seeing the young and wholly inexperienced 

 Wren, who was at that time not even an architect, passed over 

 his head. 



With regard to the design of the palace much has been 

 written in praise, something in dispraise. Nearly all that has 

 been said has been founded upon Kent's version. The vastness 



