84 THE WORK OF JOHN WEBB 



ments 1 a warrant dated "the 2ist day of November 1666," 

 and directed " To Our Trusty and Wellbeloved John Webb, of 

 Butleigh, in Our County of Somerset, Esq'Y' which begins 

 thus : " Charles R. Trusty and wellbeloved, wee greet you well. 

 Whereas wee have thought fit to employ you for the erecting 

 and building of Our palace at Greenwich, Wee doe hereby 

 require and authorize you to execute, act, and proceed there, 

 according to your best skill and judgment in Architecture, as 

 our Surveyor Assistant unto S r John Denham, K nt - of the 

 Bath, Surveyor General of Our Works, with the same power of 

 executing, acting, proceeding therein, and graunting of Warrants 

 for stones to be had from Portland, to all intents and purposes, 

 as the said Sir John Denham have or might have . . ." The 

 salary is to be 200 per annum with travelling charges. This 

 appointment, together with Webb's drawings and the absence 

 of any preliminary drawings or sketches by Jones, seems to 

 establish Webb as the actual designer. 



It is not at all probable that Webb destroyed any sketches 

 that might have been in existence, with a view to his own 

 reputation. For he preserved several slight sketches by Jones, 

 and whereas he nowhere publicly pushes himself, he was extremely 

 jealous of Jones's fame, as appears on page after page of his 

 " Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored." Indeed, he subordinates 

 himself completely to his old master, and posterity appears to 

 have taken him at his own valuation. 



He must have been, nevertheless, a very clever man, an apt 

 pupil, and a most painstaking student, judging by the voluminous 

 notes as to proportions, and so forth, which he wrote on his 

 drawings. He went to Jones in 1628 at the age of seventeen ; 

 and according to the brief attached to his petition, already men- 

 tioned, "he was brought up by his Unckle Mr Inigo Jones upon 

 his late Maiestyes command in the study of Architecture, as well 

 that w ch relates to building as for masques Tryumphs and the 

 like." It will be remembered that Mr John Denham, as he then 

 was in the year 1660, had been granted the post of surveyor of 

 the king's works, although he had received no suitable training ; 

 the brief concludes with the following apt remarks : " That Mr 

 Denham may possibly, as most gentry in England at this day 

 have some knowledge in the Theory of Architecture ; but nothing 



1 Vol. vi. p. 129, printed in full in Peter Cunningham's "Life of Inigo 

 Jones," p. 48. 



