VI 

 SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN 



WHEN Charles II. was restored to his inheritance in 1660, he 

 evidently contemplated indulging in the royal pastime of fine 

 building. At this time John Webb was not only the veteran of 

 architecture, but the most notable exponent of the art then 

 living in England. His claims on the favour of the king were 

 founded on his long and intimate connection with Inigo Jones, 

 a name to conjure with both in relation to architecture and to 

 the less stable factor of court influence. They were supported 

 on the practical side by the work he had done, although fruit- 

 lessly, for Charles's father in the preparation of the great schemes 

 for the palace at Whitehall, and by the assistance he had given 

 both in architecture and the artistic hobbies of the time to many 

 of the nobility and gentry. They were supported on the human 

 side by personal services rendered to the late king, especially in 

 furnishing to him, while at Oxford, full designs and particulars of 

 all the fortifications round London, with instructions how they 

 might be carried ; and in conveying to the king, whilst at 

 Beverley, his majesty's jewellery, which he took, concealed in 

 his waistcoat, through the enemy's quarters, suffering, in con- 

 sequence of the fact being discovered, close imprisonment for 

 a month. 



These claims, as we have seen, failed to gain for him the 

 coveted post of surveyor to the king's works, but Charles 

 employed him in resuscitating the idea of a new palace at 

 Whitehall, which never came to fruition, and in actually erecting 

 a considerable part of the projected palace at Greenwich. 



Webb never succeeded in obtaining the official appointment 

 for which he longed, for which he appears to have had the best 

 qualifications, and of which he was actually promised the reversion 

 on the death of Sir John Denham, who was preferred before hi-m 



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