258 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Sept. 



oienlly passable of their own — such, at least, is the very natural inference, 

 because no one who has any power as an artist would voluntarily forego 

 the opportuniiy of displaying it, and take up with other men's ideas, when 

 he might brinR forward his o«n, — least of all so, when that opportunity 

 is one ivhich does not present itself every day, but is, on the contrary, an 

 exceedingly rare one. Not a lillle curious it surely is, that of two club- 

 houses, one parlly cxeculi-d and another about to be begun, the designs 

 should be by Jacojio Tatti — or, to give him the name he is more generally 

 known by, Jacopo Sansovino. Not less extraordinary is it, that in what 

 calls itself a Fine Art, wholesale plagiarism of the kind should be prac- 

 tised without so much as any attempt at concealment, just as if it were 

 decidedly meritorious instead of being at all reproachful. To endeavour 

 to appropriate to ourselves the excellencies of former works is not only 

 allowable, but praiseworthy ; jet, to be legitimate, such appropriation 

 must be that which results from that thorough study of the original, which 

 enables us to extract from it its better qualities and finer essence, and to 

 infuse them into what the express occasion demands. 



HISTORY OF AUCHITECTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



A Brief Sketch vr Epitome of the Rise and Progress of Architecture 

 in Great Britain, liy James Elmes. 



" Epitomes are helpful to the memory, and of good private use." 



Sir Henry VVotton. 



(Continued from page 2Z9.J 



Wren's immediate successors were his cotemporary, Sir John Vanbrugh ; 

 his ffiend and colleague, Robert Ilooke ; his pupil, Nicholas llawksmoor ; 

 Gibbs, who finished the church of St. Clements Danes ; and a few others of 

 less notability. 



Robert Hooke was the assistant and soraetitnes rival of Wren, during the 

 greater part of that architect's career. He, like Wren, was an experimental 

 philosopher; like him, had received a doctorial degree, when that honour 

 was conferred only upon men of first-rate talent. To use a theatrical phrase, 

 Ilooke may be considered as Wren's double, and took the part of his prin- 

 cipal whenever called upon. Hooke added much to the useful inventions of 

 the day, as may he seen in his memoirs by Dr. Waller, and in the cotempo- 

 rary proceedings of the Royal Society. He appears to have been more of 

 an imitator than an inventor, for when \k'ren, or any other original genius 

 of the day, brought forward a scheme or an invention, Ilooke was always 

 ready with another of a similar nature. 



The great and extensive charge which devolved upon Wren after the fire 

 of London, induced him to take to his assistance his ingenious and able 

 associate, Robert Ilooke, the learned professor of geometry at Gresham 

 college; whose avocations, under Wren, were chiefly those of measuring, 

 ailjusting, and setting out the ground of the houses in the private streets 

 to the several proprietors, while he reserved the higher and more important 

 works of designing and superintending the execution of the public works 

 to himself. Hooke, at the same time, <iivided the labours and honours of 

 the Royal Society with Boyle, Moray, Wren, and other philosophical mem- 

 bers. Among the sulijects submitted by Ilooke to the Royal Society, were a 

 new method of making bricks, with less charge and more speed than had 

 been then practised, and a design for a collegiate building for the use of the 

 Society, to be built on a site of ground presented to them by their munificent 

 associate, Mr. Howard of Norfolk. Tliis volunteer design did not please 

 tlie Society, nor did the manner in which Hooke appeared to trench upon 

 his master's ground, for at a meeting of the council on May 4, 1668, the 

 Ii'ebidcnt ('.ord Brouncker) moved, that the building of the Society's college 

 niiglit be begun forthwith, and Dr. Wilkins was desired to procure, at the 

 next meeting of the council, Dr. Wren's design for tlie building.* This waj 

 done, and Hooke ordered to get a model made of the approved design, to 

 contract with proper persons for the execution of the work, as also to find 

 someone to be constantly present, and to see the workmen do their duty ■ 

 thus appointing Wren as architect, Ilooke as surveyor and valuer, with a 

 resident clerk of the works. 



Of Ilooke's repe.ited invasions into his mailer's province, abundant prrofs 

 are found in the records of the Society, and Wren at last complained of 

 ~ * Bircli's U'M. Roy. Soc. Vol. II. p. 27i. 



I these interferences. Few men had more reason to say sic vos nan tolia than 

 Wren. Hooke appears throughout to have followed, thrust, and attempted 

 to supersede in the public estimation his friend, patron, and principal, in 

 every thought, invention, and discovery. Not content with his inroads upon 

 Wren's reputation, he dared to impugn the philosophical theories of the then 

 youthful Newton, whose important discoveries were the constant theme of 

 the discussions of that eminent Society of which he had just been admitted 

 a member. It may not be irrelevant to mention in this place, that this 

 greatest of modern philosophers was, at the commencement of his illustrioui 

 career, in such straitened circumstances, that it is recorded, in the history 

 of the Royal Society for 1675, that at a meeting of the council, .Mr. Uldeu- 

 burg having mentioned that Mr. Newton had intimated his being in such 

 circumstances, that he desired to be excused from the weekly payments, it 

 was therefore agreed to by the council that it should be dispensed with. 

 Hooke's audacity in impugning the doctrines of our great philosopher is not 

 without its parallel, even in our own times, wlien the truth of all hit 

 theories has been so firmly estiblished. The late Sir Richard Phillips, 

 author of many clever imaginative works, has informed the writer of thi« 

 article more than once, that all he desired after his death, was to be buried 

 in Westminster Abbey, and to have inscribed upon bis tomb — " Here libs 

 THE Refuter of Sir Isaac Newto.v." 



Hooke's attempts to supersede Wren have been alluded to. Among the 

 most prominent is that recorded iu the transactions of the Royal Society, of 

 his suhmitting to the council on September 19, 1666, a model for rebuilding 

 the city, with which the Society is said to have been well pleased. It 

 appears thai he had previously shown it to the lord mayor and some of the 

 aldermen of the city, as Sir John Laurence, the late lord mayor, addressed 

 himself to the Society, and expressed the lord mayor's (Sir Thomas Blud- 

 worth) and aldermen's approbation of the said model, and their desire that 

 it might be shown to the king, they preferring it very much to that which 

 was drawn up by the city surveyor. The president answered, that the 

 Society would be very glad if thej or any of their members could do any 

 service fur the good of tlie ciiy ; and that .Mr. Hooke should wait upon the 

 king with them and his model, if they (the lord mayor and aldermen) 

 thought fit to present it : which was accepted, with expressions of thanks 

 to the Society. 



Dr. Waller, in his life of Ilooke, affects to wonder why this model wai 

 not accepted. The reason was, that the superior and more digested plan of 

 Wien, to say nothing of Evelyn's, had been previously before the king and 

 council. Wren had no opportunity to communicate his design either to the 

 Royal Society or to the city authorities, before it was sent to the king ; and 

 it is probable that neither of tliese bodies bad then seen it. 



Hooke is believed to have been the architect to the Duke of Montague's 

 house in Bloomsbury, afterw.inls the British museum, and recently pulled 

 dowu to make room fur Sir Robert Smirke's improvements. Of his authen- 

 ticated works, the best are the royal Hospital of Bethlehem, which forineriy 

 stood on the site now occupied by Finsbury-circus, Moorfields, — and Aake'a 

 Hospital, at Hoxton, built and endowed by Sir John Aske, an alderman and 

 past lord mayor of London, for the use of aged and decayed liverymea of 

 the worshipful company of haberdashers, of which he was a liberal and 

 distinguished member. The former of these buildings had a Frenchified 

 palatial look, not in accordance with its destination — a hospital for lunatics ; 

 and the latter, a collegiate appearance, with colonnaded ambulatories for the 

 aged inmat' s, a hall and chapel for their accommodation, and a school for 

 the education of orphan boys of the company, with a handsome statue of 

 its founder in the centre. The style of both these buildings ujay be seen In 

 the various illustrated histories of London ; and a large perspective drawing 

 of Aske's Hospital, by the architect, is among the pictures that decorate the 

 court room of the haberdashers' company, who are the trustees and govern- 

 ors of the hospital. This building bas also been pulled d'>wn, and its place 

 supplied by one of smaller dimensions, and of less arcliitectural preten- 

 sions. 



It must be recorded, however, to the honour of Robert Hooke, that he, 

 Boyle, and Wren, formed that illustrious trio of philosophers that paved the 

 way to tlie important results established by Sir Isaac Newton. 



He died, after a long and useful life, on the 3rd of March, 1705, in the 

 C8th year of his age. He was buried in the church of St. Helen, Bishopi- 

 gate, and was attended to his resting-place by all the members of the Royal 

 Suciety who were then in London. 



llawksmoor, the pujiil of Wren, one of the most original and inventive 

 architects that England has produced, was born, singular enough, in 1666, 

 the year of the great fire of London. He erected many fine and substantial 



