plot to secure a large body of secret adherents in the metropolis, ready at any time to start into sudden activity, by obtaining from the King a commission of array, which Crisp was to fill up with the proper names. The plan was, however, discovered by Parliament, about the same time that it discovered the poet Waller's, and the two not unnaturally became intimately blended together in the minds of the people. The only remaining churches that we shall notice are those of Mary Abchurch, and Mary at Hill. The former exhibits in the interior a large and handsome dome supported on a medallion cornice, and is adorned with paintings by Sir James Thornhill, according to Mr. Britton, whilst, in the Pictorial England, Isaac Fuller, one of the indigenous scholars of the Verrio school, is mentioned as the painter. The Corinthian altar-piece is decorated by some of the finest carvings of the finest of masters in the art, Gibbons, whose name we have had occasion to mention so frequently in connexion with the churches of London, that one cannot help wondering where he found time to execute his manifold commissions. The delicacy of the carvings of St. Mary Abchurch reminds one of the story of the pot of flowers carved by the same artist whilst living in Belle Sauvage court, "which shook surprisingly with the motion of the coaches that passed by." St. Mary at Hill we mention not so much for the sake of the architecture of the present structure, as for the opportunity of giving another illustration from the history of the former of the magnificence of the old churches of the metropolis. St. Mary's had no less than seven altars, each with its chantry priest regularly and permanently attached, and three brotherhoods, comprising of course a still larger number of religious. This gives us a pretty fair glimpse of the magnitude of the former establishment of St. Mary; the inventory of the apparel for the high altar, only, with the date 1485-6, gives us more than a glimpse of its splendour. It occupies great part of three quarto pages in Malcolm, and includes such items as altar cloths of russet cloth of gold; curtains of russet sarsenet, fringed with silk; a complete priest's "suit of red satin, fringed with gold," which comprised, it appears, three copes, two chasubles, two albs, two stoles, two "amytts," three fanons, and two girdles ;* another suit, of white cloth of gold; a third, of red cloth of Lucchese gold; vestments of red satin, embroidered with lions of gold, and of black velvet, powdered with lambs, moons, and stars; canopies of blue cloth of bawdekin, with "birds of flour in gold," and of red silk with green branches and white flowers, powdered with swans of gold between the branches; copes, streamers, and mitres, for the boy-bishop and his followers" at Saint Nicholas tide." How inadequate, after all, are the most glowing descriptions of our romancists to convey to us a sufficient idea of the scenes that must have been presented in our ecclesiastical buildings four or five centuries ago! The costs of erection of Wren's churches of course varied greatly in accordance with their great differences in plan and amount of decoration. Some were built for less than 2500l., as those of St. Anne Aldersgate Street, St. Matthew Friday Street, and St. Nicholas Cole Abbey; many for about 50007. or 60007., * The amice was an under garment, over which was worn first the alb like a robe or surplice, then the girdle and stole; the fanon or maniple was a towel held by the priest during mass; the chasuble was a kind of smaller cope. among which may be enumerated St. Bartholomew, St. Peter Cornhill, and St. Edmund the King; whilst three, St. Bride, Christ Church, and St. Lawrence Jewry, cost nearly 12,000l., and one, Bow, above 15,400l. In contrast with these last four stands the most beautiful of all Wren's ecclesiastical structures, St. Stephen's Walbrook, which was erected for 76521. 13s.; a significant proof how little the true architect's fame need depend upon the mere amount of funds at his disposal-upon the extent of space he has to cover-the quantity of brick or stone to pile. 6 If it were Wren's ambition to found a school of ecclesiastical architecture in England, as well as to distinguish himself practically as an architect, he was not only successful, but lived long enough to enjoy that success personally in witnessing the two most eminent of his successors follow in the path he had marked out. Despising the Gothic crinkle crankle' as much as Wren himself, and having as little feeling for the simple elegance of the Greek, Gibbs and Hawksmoor (the latter Wren's pupil), went to the same sources of inspiration as the architect of St. Paul's, namely, the works of the Italian artists, who revived the Roman school of architecture; but who in so doing, whilst affecting the severest strictness in following its rules, sadly overlooked its spirit. The desire for the magnificent which formed an essential part of the character of the Roman people, and which had led them to alter, to adapt, and to extend the architectural principles they had derived from Greece, and, in many points at least, with the most signal success, became, too frequently, an almost insane passion with their Italian descendants, to which all higher qualities were sacrificed, through which all perception was dimmed of the elements that had combined to the construction of the great works of antiquity, making them, at once and for ever, consummately grand and beautiful. With what zeal were the ancient writers studied whilst the VOL. V. buildings from which they had drawn their precepts were left to moulder in unregarded oblivion, or examined only to support pre-conceived theories! With what precision was every feature of every order systematized, whilst the uses of the orders were left to individual taste or caprice! With what eloquence was the purity of the Doric and Tuscan, and Ionic and Corinthian, expatiated upon, whilst building after building was being erected, apparently but to show how far and farther still corruption could be carried! Great differences prevailed, of course, between the architects of this class; some of them, whilst avoiding the worst features of debasement, were enabled through the originality of their minds to shed a glory over their productions, that made the eye at once less capable of, and less inclined to measure accurately the latent defects of the style: pre-eminent among these was Palladio in Italy; to their numbers also belong Inigo Jones and Wren in England, and perhaps, though in a much more limited degree, Wren's immediate successors, the architects before mentioned. The splendour of Palladio's reputation shows how popular the Italian-Roman style became among his countrymen, and its introduction into England by Jones, and more extensive diffusion as well as higher developement by Wren, was marked by an equally brilliant reception: as well it might be, when it gave us such works as the Banqueting House, St. Paul's, and St. Stephen's, Walbrook, the majestic grandeur of the two first, and the strikingly harmonious combinations of the last, enhanced by their being seen through the most delusive and enchanting of all atmospheres that of novelty. Well, two centuries have passed since the erection of the first of these buildings, and the style has passed too. Of all the churches (to refer only to such works) built in London, during its prevalence, how few are there that now possess any higher claims to notice than those derived from their pointing the moral and adorning the tale of this somewhat remarkable phase in the history of English architecture! Never was time more propitious for an artistical revolution than that which witnessed the growth of the style in question among us. With one stroke, as it were, of the parliamentary pen, fifty new churches were ordered to be built in consequence of the destruction caused by the fire; and when these were erected, and Wren had developed his views, fifty more were determined upon by the same authority, thereby presenting a similar opportunity for the development of the views of his successors. We refer to the Act passed in the 10th year of the reign of Queen Anne, having for one of its objects, to remedy the insufficiency of accommodation afforded by the churches of London and the vicinity; and for another, as we learn from the commission subsequently issued to regulate the necessary proceedings, the "redressing the inconvenience and growing mischiefs which resulted from the increase of Dissenters and Popery." The expense was to be defrayed by a small duty on coals brought into the port of London, for a certain period. We may here observe in passing, that the intentions of this Act, as regards the number of structures to be built, were but very imperfectly carried out. And now, as to the men who were to avail themselves of the magnificent field opened to their exertions. James Gibbs was born about 1674, and educated at Aberdeen, where he took the degree of Master of Arts. In his twentieth year he visited Holland, and entered into the service of an architect. In 1700, through the advice and by the assistance of the Earl of Mar, his countryman and patron, he went to Italy, and studied for ten years. He then returned to England, to find the Earl of Mar in the ministry, at once able and willing to obtain employment for him from the Church Commissioners. The first stone of St. Mary's in the Strand was laid in 1714, the steeple finished in 1717, and the whole consecrated in 1723. As this-the first of Gibbs's ecclesiastical structures, has already been noticed in our pages,* and as he greatly improved upon it in his second, it will be sufficient here to describe the latter-St. Martin's in the Fields, the building on which Gibbs's fame chiefly rests-that fanc, according to the poet Savage, who expressed only the general opinion of his time "Where God delights to dwell, and man to praise." St. Martin's was finished in 1726 at an expense of 37,000. The chief feature of the exterior, the portico, needs neither description nor eulogy, it is so universally known and admired. How much of that admiration has been owing to our want of familiarity with the Roman originals (the Corinthian order, the one here used, we need hardly observe, was one of the results of the adaptation by Rome [St. Martin's Church.] |