VII 



IT is needless to insist upon the fact that there was a large 

 amount of work executed during the seventeenth century by 

 men other than Jones, Webb, and Wren. Some of this has 

 already been considered, in so far as it illustrates the gradual 

 change of style in small buildings. But during the reign of 

 Charles II. important work was done by men little known to 

 fame, and much else by others whose names have either not 

 survived or have not yet been disinterred from the ruins of the 

 past. So few architects contemporary with Jones are known 

 that it will be of interest to mention one who, if not intimately 

 connected with architecture himself, wrote a book about it, and 

 trained a pupil who merits more attention than his master. 



This individual was Sir Balthazar Gerbier, to whom Horace 

 Walpole devotes several pages in his " Anecdotes of Painting," 

 where he treats of him as a painter. But Gerbier does not 

 appear to have pursued any art with much application. He 

 hung on the fringe of state affairs, and was a versatile adventurer 

 of indifferent character, if Walpole does him no injustice. 

 Among other things he dabbled in architecture. He was 

 surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham, for whom he is said to 

 have designed a temporary house on the site of old York House 

 in the Strand. According to Gerbier's own account, in a letter 

 to the duke dated 2nd December 1624, Inigo Jones came to 

 see this house, and " was like one surprised and abashed ... he 

 is very jealous of it." l It may have been so, but it is certain 

 that Gerbier was jealous of Jones, for he makes several slighting 

 references to him in the little book which he published, "Of 

 Counsel and Advice to all Builders." It is, indeed, this book 

 which gives him a claim to be mentioned in connection with 



1 " Lives of the British Architects," by E. Beresford Chancellor, p. 79. 



161 



