Search -
Sir John Vanbrugh - Architect & Dramatist 1664-1726
Sir John Vanbrugh Architect Dramatist 16641726 Author:Laurence Whistler j Sir John VANBRUGH Architect Dramatist 1664-1726 LAURENCE WHISTLER Pyramids, Arches, Obelisks, were but the irregularities of vain glory and wilds enormities of ancient magnanimity NEW YORK The Macmillan Company MCMXXXIX SIR JOHN VANBRUC, n, Ike jioiiniil jxiinlcd by Sir Godfrey Kndlcrfor Ike Kil-Cal Chib. THE AUTHORS NOTE i WISH TO THANK the m... more »any friends who have given me help and encouragement in the writing of this book my brother Rex, Lady Ridley, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Miss Edith Olivier, Miss Jill Furse, Mr. Kenneth Rae, Mr. Ian Robertson and Mr. Edward Croft Murray. I am also indebted to those who kindly allowed me to study their houses, including Mrs. Napier Miles, Lord Ancaster, Captain Alistair Miller, the Duke of Manches ter, the Duke of Roxburghe, and the Duke of Marl borough above all to my friend Miss Christian Howard, whose hospitality I so often enjoyed while studying Castle Howard. Lastly, I am particularly grateful to Sir Edward Marsh and Mr. Arthur Bolton for reading the proofs and making valuable suggestions. The sonnets on Castle Howard and Seaton Delaval are reprinted from The Emperor Heart by courtesy of Wm. Heinemann Ltd. and all the illustrations with the exception of those facing pages 72, no, 168, are repro duced by courtesy of Country Life. CONTENTS The Authors Note page vii CHAPTER I Late Arrival 13 II The Provokd Moralist 32 III Comptroller of the Works 49 IV The School of Wren 63 V The Club 77 VI Dramatist and King at Arms 90 VII The Opera House 101 VIII A Nations Gratitude 116 IX An Interlude and a Conclusion 130 X Destroyer and Preserver 144 XI Decline 161 XII The Price of Allegiance 174 XIII The Rewards 188 XIV The Duchess 206 XV Pyramids, Arches, Obelisks 221 XVI The Last Resort 236 XVII Bloody, but Unbowed 254 XVIII Ripeness is All 272 Postscript 290 APPENDIX I Minor Works and Attributions 297 II The Blenheim Warrant 301 III Reasons for Preserving Woodstock Manor 302 IV Vans House, and its History, by Swift 304 V The French Vanbrugh 310 Bibliography 311 Index 317 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE I Sir John Vanbrugh frontispiece II Castle Howard, the South . Front facing page 50 III Castle Howard, the Hall 56 IV Greenwich Hospital and the City of London about 1704.5 after Jan Griffier 72 V The Italian Opera House 1 10 VI Blenheim Palace, the North Front 1 20 VII Blenheim Palace, the South Front 1 26 VIII Kings Weston 168 IX Eastbury, the Garden Front 204. X Castle Howard, the Temple and Mausoleum 224 XI Lumley Castle Grimsthorpe Castle 264. XII Seaton Delaval, the North Front 272 XIII Seaton Delaval Grimsthorpe Castle 278 XIV Grimsthorpe Castle, the Hall 384, CASTLE HOWARD Roll on, great Howard, through the gorgeous stars Toward the golden fountain of the dale, Salute the Sun with capital and vase And the vast heads upon your Satyr Gate, Those looks compact of evil and delight Full into morning fat with sunlight, roll, As once you rolled them into fiery night In the great storm when you received your soul When lightning traced you with his fingering flame, Arch unto arch and cupola to ground, And thunder all about your streaming frame Ruined his monstrous Parthenons of sound, Till you, that scraped acquaintance with the stars, 4 in the rumble of jour window bars Chapter One LATE ARRIVAL Well hast tlwu done The World was a Fool, eer since it begun, And since neither Janus, nor Chronos, nor I, Can hinder the Crimes, Or mend the Bad Times, Tis better to Laugh than to Cry. V TN Restoration London no parish hummed with more 4 A industrious life than St. Nicolas Aeons, whose gabled to houses were full of such worthy men as had for cen-Q turies made their City a market of the world mercers JQ and grocers and silver-smiths, corn merchants and wool o merchants tradesmen of every description, from humble apprentices seldom exploring beyond the sound of their Sunday bells, to grave and solemn persons like Sir John Bridges, who had imbatailed the church and l been elected Lord Mayor...« less