1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND AIICHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



20!) 



buildings in the metropolis, and other parts of England, which still remain 

 to prove his skill as a huilder, as well as his taste and science as an architect. 

 In Ills seventeenth year, he was placed as a domestic clerk, or pupil, with 

 Wren. His genius is unquestionable, hut his taste not of the most refined 

 order — nearer approaching the hold flights of Vanbrugh than the chastened 

 correctness of his master, llis knowledge of every science connected with 

 his art is allowed, and his character has been spoken of, from authority, 

 with commendation, lie was deputy-surveyor, under Wren, at the building 

 of Chelsea college, and clerk of the works at Greenwich hospital ; in which 

 offices he remained during the reigns of William, Anne, and George I., at 

 Kensington, Wbiti-hall, and St. James's. He was appointed superintending 

 surveyor to all the new churches, and of Westminster abbey after the death 

 of Sir Christopher; and designed many that were erected in pursuance of 

 the statute of Queen Anne, for building fifty new churches. 



Ilawksmoor's best works are the churches that he built pursuant to the 

 above-named statute : among which are, Christ church, Spitalfields, that was 

 seriously injured a few years since by a destructive fire — but which, owing 

 to the substantial nature of its construction, did comparatively little damage 

 to the body of the fabric ; — the church of St. George, Middlese-t, called 

 St. George's in the East, to distinguish it from its namesake in Bloomsbury: 

 this is also a large and capacious edifice, with a singular tower, which with 

 its lofty flag staff, when viewed from the opposite side of the river, looks, 

 amidst the forest of masts with which it appears to be encircled, like a tall 

 ship with its white sails dangling from the topmast ; — its neighbour, St. 

 Anne, Limehouse, alike distinguished for originality of design, solidity of 

 construction, and utility of its interior arrangements ; — and St. George's, 

 BlooEusbury, which has been condemned by hasty critics, from not falling 

 within their narrow rules of art. This church is a bold, original, and 

 itriking composition, built in a masterly and scientific manner, and designed 

 in a masculine style. The interior is commodious, appropriate, and pictu- 

 resque — worthy of its author, his master, and his school. The portico, of 

 the Corinthian order, is remarkably handsome and well proportioned, and 

 the tower is placed in a judicious and proper situation. The steeple is novel, 

 ingenious, and picturesque ; and the statue of George I., in spite of the 

 epigram, looks like the father of his people, surveying his good city with 

 complacency, and holding forth his protecting hand over it. i^or must his 

 beautiful church of St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard- street, be forgotten. Its 

 exterior is singularly substantial and well proportioned ; its twin towers, 

 resembling, in application only, those of some of our Gothic cathedrals, 

 look particularly striking from Mansion-house-street, since the destruction 

 of the old houses by which it was formerly surrounded, and the opening of 

 the vista of King William-street, to which it forms a beautiful architectural 

 foreground. The interior is well arranged for the service of the Analican 

 church, and is characterised by a most happy union of elegance and substan- 

 tiality. The proportions of the Corinthian order that support the richly- 

 panelled roof and cotTred ceiling are scarcely inferior to those in the interior 

 of Wren's masterpiece — St. Stephen's, Walbrook. A correct and well- 

 engraved plan and section of this church are given in Britton and Pugin's 

 8vo. work of " London Edifices." 



Hawksmoor also rebuilt part of All Souls college, 0.\ford, but, I believe, 

 from Wren's designs ; as also the mansion of Easton Neston, in Northamp- 

 tonshire ; restored a defect in Beverley minster with great skill ; and re- 

 paired the west end of Westminster abbey in a judicious manner : and at 

 Blenheim and Castle Howard was associated with Vanbrugh. He died in 

 March, 1736, in nearly his seventieth year. 



The witty, hut too often indecent, Vanbrugh, of whom Pope says — 

 " Van wanted grace but never wanted wit," 

 contributed in a considerable degree to the architectural reputation, as well 

 as the dramatic literature, of his country. Blessed with considerable talents, 

 good education, and manners deteriorated by a profligate age, Vanbrugh 

 figured as a gentleman, a dramatic author, a builder and manager of thea- 

 tres, a lierald, and a would-be engineer. Swift ridiculed this latter propensity 

 and his ludicrous imitation of a fortified residence in his Vanbrugh castle, 

 Greenwich, by saying, that he expected the queen (Anne) would 



" Dialie next year 

 A mousetrap-man cliief engineer.'* 



In 1C9C, shortly after the commencement of Greenwich hospital, Van- 

 brugh was appointed secretary to the commissioners, on the nomination of 

 Mr. Evelyn. In 1716, he was appointed surveyor of the works at Green- 

 wich hospital, comptroller general of his majesty's woiks, and surveyor of 

 the gardens and waters : thus superseding his illustrious predecessor, who 

 was still in the full possession of his faculties. This was not the only insult 



that this eminent architect had to encounter, at a time when bribery and 

 corruption existed in a greater degree than ever before known in English 

 history. Mr. Ker, of Kersland in Scotland, asserts in his autobiography, 

 that " it is very well known that Mr. Benson was a favourite of the Germans ; 

 and I believe nobody had more occasion to be convinced of the power of 

 this influence than myself : so great, indeed, that Sir Christopher Wren, the 

 famous architect who contrived the stately edifice of St. Paul's church, and 

 finished it in his own time, was turned out of his employment of being 

 master of the King's works, which he had possessed with great reputation 

 ever since the Restoration, to make way for this favourite of foreigners." 

 The influence of Benson over the king and his German advisers, obtained by 

 means to which Wren could not stoop, was so great, that even Walpole, who 

 resisted, with just indignation, an open otfer of a large sum, which Benson 

 made to the minister for a place for his son, was obliged to succumb to this 

 back-stairs influence. 



Benson and Vanbrugh were thus in full possession of Wren's offices, the 

 principal of which Wren had held, with unparalleled honour and abilities, 

 for nearly half a century. But what a contrast did these disgraceful trans- 

 actions present ! Benson held the situation scarcely a twelvemonth, with 

 unexampled incapacity, and was disgraced by an ignominious expulsion from 

 his office to avoid a prosecution, and by an immortality in the " Dunciad ;" 

 while Wren retired to a peaceful home at Hampton Court. 



In the first edition of the " Dunciad," this architectural empiric is thnt 



celebrated : — 



*' Beneath his reign shall Eusden wear the hays, 

 Ciljber preside Lord Chancellor of piays, 

 Benson sole jU'lge of architecture sit, 

 AoU namby-pamby be preferr'd for wit." 



In the subsequent editions the poet altered these lines to — 



** See, see, our own true Phcebus wears the bays ! 

 Our Midas sits Lord Chancellor of plays ! 

 On poets* tombs see Be.nson's titlea writ I 

 Lo 1 Ambrose Phillips is preferr'd for wit I** 



Atid in a note he adds — " In favour of this man, the famous Sir Christopher 



Wren, who had been architect to the crown for above fifty years, who built 



most of the churches in London, laid the first stone of St. Paul's, and lived 



to finish it, had been displaced from bis employment at the age of near 



ninety years." 



But of Wren our great poet says : — 



'* See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall, 

 Whi e Jones* and Boyle*s united labours fall ; 

 While Ween with sorrow to the gra^-e descends. 

 Gay dies unpeusion'd with a hundred friends.*' 



Vanbrugh built the first theatre in the Haymarket, and managed it con- 

 jointly with Congreve. It is singular that this theatre has been rebuilt by 

 the late John Nash, himself an actor, manager, and architect. An eminent 

 comedian of the present day, who was originally an architect and joint 

 surveyor to a public company with the author of this article, before be had 

 quite abandoned his former profession, requested him to state in his " Life 

 of Wren," as an apology for his uniting the two professions, that in addition 

 to Vanbrugh and Nash, might he added the name of our great English 

 Vitruvius, as being an actor as well as an architect. He informed me that 

 in an old quarto play, translated from the " Plutus" of Aristophanes, is the 

 following manuscript remark, in the handwriting, and with the signature, of 

 Isaac Reid, the commentator : — " This is the play in which Sir Christopher 

 Wren, our great English architect, performed the character of Neaniast 

 before the Elector Palatine, Dr. Seth Ward, and many others, probably in 

 1652." 



The works of Vanbrugh are solid and judicious ; but he neglected the 



lighter graces of his art, and is, in spite of all bis picturesque beauties, 



cumbrous and inelegant in detail. Swift's epigram on this architect is well, 



and in some instances he merited the satirist's 



*' Lie heavy on him, earth, for he 

 Laid many a heavy load on thee.'* 



There is, however, another version in a rather better spirit, and more like 



the sit levis of the ancient l^omans, and is 



" Lie light upon him, earth, though he 

 Laid many a heavy load on thee." 



Yet, Castle Howard and Blenheim will keep alive the memory of the witty 



and accomplished Vanbrugh among those of our greatest architects. A fair 



specimen of his picturesque and singular style maybe gathered from his own 



house near the Privy-gardens, which was also a subject of Swift's satire, 



who compared it to a dirt pie heaped up by children. 



Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his inimitable discourses on painting, gives grMt 



and deserved praise to the artist-like compositions of this architect, partien- 



