GERBIER'S "COUNSEL TO BUILDERS" 163 



4 inches in walking ; if, therefore, stairs be only 4 inches high and 

 1 8 from front to back, the ordinary person can walk up them 

 as easily as he can walk on the level. His reasons for these 

 proportions are hardly convincing, but in regard to the width 

 of staircases he is probably nearer the mark, when he says 

 they ought to be so wide that the attendants on each side the 

 noble person who is ascending may not be straitened for room. 



His advice to persons contemplating building, that they 

 should employ an architect and should not be constantly inter- 

 fering with him, is undoubtedly sound : and one reason advanced 

 for employing an architect, namely, that " the several Master- 

 workmen may receive instructions by way of Draughts, Models, 

 Frames, etc.," is interesting as showing that architects were now 

 accustomed to provide more minute details than in the time of 

 Elizabeth and James. One more reference and this curious 

 book, with its few noteworthy observations buried in pages of 

 involved verbiage, may be left. In speaking of such as were con- 

 cerned with building he says, " they may perchance have heard 

 of rare buildings, nay, seen the Books of the Italian Architects, 

 have the Traditions of Vignola in their Pockets, and have heard 

 Lectures on the Art of Architecture." It is interesting to learn 

 that in addition to books on architecture there were opportunities, 

 so long ago, to hear lectures on the> subject ; but it is prob- 

 able that, in his usual egotistical way, Gerbier is here referring 

 to lectures which he himself had given at an academy which he 

 founded in Bethnal Green, in imitation, \Valpole suggests, of 

 another established by Charles I. for instruction in arts and 

 sciences, foreign languages, mathematics, painting, architecture, 

 riding, fortification, antiquities, and the science of medals. 1 



The " Counsel " concludes with a lengthy schedule of prices 

 at which all kinds of building work could be executed. 



Little, if any, architectural work can with safety be attributed 

 to Gerbier. Hamstead Marshall, which is said to be his, is more 

 probably due to his pupil, Wynne, to whom, as Master William 

 Wine, he addresses one of his numerous dedications. 



Walpole says that Wynne, or Winde as he calls him, finished 

 the house which had been begun by his master, making several 

 alterations in the plan ; but the history of the owner and of the 

 house, as well as the character of the work, renders it doubtful 

 whether Gerbier could have had anything to do with it. The 



1 Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting." 



