154 FRENCH INFLUENCE 



Most of his successors, while carrying on the style in which 

 he worked, failed to impart to their work that vigour and 

 reasonableness which distinguished his. The rules and regula- 

 tions which served as guides to him became masters to them, 

 and we look in vain among them either for his scientific 

 equipment or his intuitive perception of what was fitting. 

 The grandeur of manner which suited admirably the buildings 

 with which he had to deal, was out of place when applied to 

 ordinary houses ; and the artificiality which sprang from the 

 way in which architecture was then regarded, but which his 

 genius enabled him to avoid, settled down heavily after his death. 



Among the drawings at All Souls are the examples of 

 house-design illustrated here (Figs, 99-102). They are not 

 named, and have not been identified ; it is not even certain 

 that they were ever carried out. But they give some idea of 

 Wren's notions as to the appearance he would have given to 

 houses. In general disposition they conform to the type 

 adopted by Jones and Webb, but the)* have touches about 

 them reminiscent of French architecture, 1 more particularly 

 those in Figs. 99, 101. The others are two rough sketches for 

 the front of a building (probably a house), drawn on a piece of 

 waste paper, and apparently they show two methods of treating 

 the same facade (Fig. 102). They are characteristic of Wren's 

 manner as displayed at Hampton Court (see Fig. 6), more so 

 than the other examples illustrated, and they are certainly more 

 pleasing in their proportions and in the simplicity of their 

 handling. The design for part of a front for the new palace at 

 Whitehall (Fig. 103) is interesting in two respects ; it is a 

 specimen of Wren's treatment of domestic architecture on a 

 grand scale ; and it proves that Charles II. still harboured the 

 idea of a great new palace at Whitehall, an idea which fructified 

 as little under Wren's direction as it had done under Webb's. 

 As a piece of design this is no advance upon what had already 

 been tried before. There is a weediness and crudity of ornament 

 about it which is out of keeping with Wren's actual work ; but 

 of him it may be said, as of Inigo Jones and other great archi- 

 tects, that his designs are less happy on paper than in execution. 

 Indeed a study of all the important collections of architectural 

 drawings inclines one to take the negative side in the interesting 

 controversy, " Is fine drawing necessary to fine architecture?" 



1 It was perhaps Pierre le Muet whose work most influenced Wren. 



