Nicholas Stone, that it was begun n 1619, and finished in two years -a small part of the pile designed for the palace of our kings; but so complete in itself, that it stands a model of the most pure and beautiful taste. Several plates of the intended palace at Whitehall have been given; but but Mr. Walpole thinks, from no finished design. The four great sheets are evidently made up from general hints; nor could such a source of invention and taste as the mind of Inigo, ever produce so much sameness. The strange kind of cherubims on the towers at the end are preposterous ornaments, and, whether of Inigo, or not, bear no relation to the rest. The great towers in the front are too near, and evidently borrowed from what he had seen in Gothic, not in Roman buildings. The circular court is a picturesque thought; but without meaning or utility. The whole fabric, however, was so glorious an idea, that one forgets for a moment (says Mr. Walpole) in the regret for its not being executed, the conirmation of our liberties, obtained by a melancholy scene that passed before the windows of that very Banqueting-house.

of 461. a year for house-rent, be sides a clerk and incidental expenses. What greater rewards he had, are not upon record. Considering the havock made in offices and repositories during the war, one is glad of being able to recover the smallest notices.

During the prosperous state of the king's affairs, the pleasures of the court were carried on with much taste and magnificence. Poetry, painting, music, and architecture were all called in to make them rational amusements. Mr. Walpole is of opinion, that the celebrated festivals of Louis XIV. were copied from the shews exhibited at Whitehall, in his time the most polite court in Europe. Ben Jonson was the laureat; Inigo Jones the inventor of the decorations; Laniere and Ferabosco composed the synphonies; the king, the queen, and the young nobility, danced in the interludes, We have accounts of many of those entertainments, called masques; they had been introduced by Anne of Denmark.

Lord Burlington had a folio of the designs for these solemnities, by Inigo's own hand, consisting of habits, masks, scenes, &c. The barmony of these masques was a little interrupted by a war that broke out between the composers, Inigo, and Ben; in which, whoever was the aggressor, the turbulent temper of Jonson took care to be most in the wrong. Nothing exceeds the grossness of the language that he poured

On the accession of Charles, Jones as continued in his posts under oth king and queen. His fee, as rveyor, was eight shillings and ur pence a day, with an allowance

that were the vehicle. There he fully exerted all the brutal abuse which his contemporaries were willing to think wit, because they were afraid of it; and which only seems to shew the arrogance of the man,

who

who presumed to satirize Jones and rival Shakespear.

Another person, who seems to have borne much resentment to Jones, was Philip earl of Pembroke. In the Harleian Library there is an edition of Stone-henge, which for merly belonged to that earl, the margins of which were full of abuse of Jones and others. Earl Philip's resentment was probably occasioned by some disagreement while Jones was employed at Wilton: there he built that noble front in a grotto at the end of the water. Wilton is one of the principal objects in the History of Arts and the Belles Lettres: Sir Philip Sidney wrote his Arcadia there for his sister; Vandyke drew many of the race: Holbein and Inigo Jones imagined the buildings; earl Thomas completed the collection of pictures, and assembled that throng of statues; and the last earl Henry has shewn, by a bridge designed by himself, that had Jones never lived, Wilton might yet have been a villa worthy of ancient Rome.

The works of Inigo Jones are not scarce; Surgeon's-Hall is one of his best works. One of the most admired is the Arcade of Coventgarden, and the Church: "two structures, says Mr. Walpole, of which I want taste to see the beauties. In the Arcade there is nothing remarkable; the pilastres are as arrant and homely stripes as any plasterer would make. The barnroof over the portico of the church strikes my eyes with as little idea of dignity or beauty, as it could do if it covered nothing but a barn. It must be owned, that the defect is not in the architect, but in the order. Who ever saw a beautiful Tuscan building? Would the Ro

mans have chosen that order for s temple?" The expense of building that church was 45001.

Ambresbury in Wiltshire was designed by Jones, but executed by his scholar Webb. Jones was one of the first that observed the same diminution of pilastres as in pillars. Lindsay - House, in Lincoln's-In Fields, which he built, owes its chief grace to this singularity. In 1618 a special commission was issued to the lord chancellor, the earls of Worcester, Pembroke, Arundel, and others, to plant and reduce to uniformity Lincoln's-Inn Fields, as it shall be drawn by way of map, or ground-plot, by Inigo Jones, surveyor-general of the works. That square is laid down with a regard to so trifling a singularity, as to be of the exact dimensions of one of the pyramids : this would have been admired in those ages, when the Keep at Kenelworth Castle erected in the form of a horse-fetter, and the Escurial in the shape of St. Laurence's gridiron.

was

Coleshill in Berkshire, the seat of Sir Matthew Pleydell, built in 1650, and Cobham-hall in Kent, were Jones's. He was employed to rebuild Castle Ashby, and finished one front; but the civil war interrupted his progress there and at Stokepark in Northamptonshire. Shaftsbury-house, now the London Lyingin Hospital, on the east side of Aldersgate-street, is a beautiful front. The Grange, the seat of the lord chancellor Henley, in Hampshire, is entirely of this master. It is not a large house, but by far one of the best proofs of his taste. The hall, which opens to a small vestibule with a cupola, and the staircase adjoining, are beautiful models of the purest and most classic antiquity,

The

The gate of Beaufort-garden, at Chelsea, designed by Jones, was purchased by lord Burlington, and transported to Chiswick, where, in temple are some wooden seats with lions, and other animals, for arms, not of his most delicate imagination, brought from Tart-hall. He drew a plan for a palace at Newmarket; but not that wretched hovel that stands there at present. One of the most beautiful of his works is the Queen's house at Greenwich. The first idea of the hospital is said to have been taken by his scholar Webb, from his papers.

Inigo tasted early the misfortunes of his master. He was not only a favourite, but a Roman Catholic; in 1646 he paid 5451. for his delinquency and sequestration. Whether it was before or after this fine, it is uncertain, that he, and Stone the mason, buried their joint stock of ready money in Scotland-yard; but an order being published to encourage the informers of such concealments, and four persons being privy to the spot where the money was id, it was taken up, and re-buried n Lambeth-marsh.

Grief, misfortunes, and age, put an end to his life in Somerset-house, July 21, 1651.

cellency was informed by the merchants of Cadiz, was the greatest economist in Spain. Thither he went, and was received with equal politeness and respect. He had a very commodious apartment, in which every thing was elegantly neat, though there was nothing rich or expensive. He was served with the utmost punctuality, and the landlord was so very attentive, that he. often foresaw his wants, and provided for them before they were mentioned. The count de Gages, one of the honestest, most grateful, and best-tempered men in the world, was perfectly pleased with his situation, and quite charmed with his landlord, who was ever ready to serve him, though not troublesomely officious.

The count had a great many papers, memorials, instructions, relations, and other pieces of that nature, in the digesting of which he had great occasion for a secretary, and his own was sick. The landlord offered his assistance, and told his excellency, by way of apology, that he had obtained this little employment by his service in the secretary's office. The count very gladly accepted this offer, and was equally amazed at his dexterity and diligence, and was above all surprized at a certain perspicuity in method and propriety of style, which he had scarce observed in any other man's writings. In short, he found him. at once so useful and so agreeable, that he resolved not to part with him; and therefore, without saying a word, he recommended him to the minister, as a person that might be extremely necessary to him in Italy, as a commissary of provisions: desiring, that as he meant to take him along with him, his com

mission

mission and his instructions might be expedited by his secretary, who was now so well recovered as to be in a condition to join his master. This request was accordingly complied with; and from a small place in the customs, which scarce brought him five hundred pounds a year, he was graced with a title and an appointment of five thousand pieces of eight, with a power of drawing upon the treasury for one hundred times that sum; all which was but an earnest of his future fortunes.

The count de Gages being possessed of the commission, sent immediately for him to whom it be longed, and after many expressions of his entire satisfaction, in reference to his conduct and capacity, as well as in regard to the entertainment he had received in his house, asked him if he was willing to go with him to Italy. He answered very submissively to this, that he looked upon the honour done him by his excellency as so great, that he was ready to follow him to the end of the earth, and that he desired only twenty-four hours time to settle his accounts. Monsieur de Gages presented him with his commission, which Ensenada received with all the marks of respectful gratitude, but without any fawning adulation; only telling his excellency, that he was afraid he had conceived too good an opinion of him, that he would do his utmost to deserve it, and that if he found this exceeded his powers, he would resign his commission, rather than disgrace his benefactor. At the same time he was appointed commissary, a person was sent down to succeed him in his former office, who was desirous of taking the furniture, and whatever else belonged to M. En

senada, at a reasonable price. The new commissary gave a specimen of his temper which surprised the count de Gages; for instead of naming any sum, he told him that he left a clerk and a couple of servants behind him, and that provided he was kind to them, all that belonged to him was entirely at his service; which his successor premised, and took him at his word.

His conduct in Italy did honour to the count de Gages' recommendation; he was equally assiduou and exact, indefatigable in business, ! attentive to the general officers, disinterested in respect to those of inferior rank, and extremely affable to all who had any concern with him. In the course of that war, as every body knows, the count de Gages met with incredible difficul ties; he was expected to do with a very small army, what would have been a hard task to perform with one much more numerous. He was obliged to bear with the caprices ei his master Philip V. a monarch who, though he had an excellent heart, had also a temper very unequal. His ministers likewise were very far from living on good terms, or in any de gree of confidence with each other; and it was the interest of the count to be well with them all, which he heartily endeavoured, and succeeded in it better than could be expected. But what created the greatest uneasiness, was the slowness of the supplies; and it was this circumstance that enabled M. Ensenada ty distinguish himself by continuing to find resources, which he did much longer than perhaps any other man could have done.

But as all things have a period, at length these were quite worn out; so that monsieur de Gages, his ge

neral

neral officers, and his commissary, found themselves fairly at their wits end, with the untoward prospect at no great distance, of having an army without either pay or magazines. In this state of things, the count de Gages, and those whom he consulted, unanimously resolved to send M. Ensenada into Spain, in hopes ae might solicit better in person, han even by the many excellent memorials which he had transmitted to the court on the melancholy subject of their distresses. He chearfully Accepted this commission, though at the same time he observed, that he had stretched his personal credit to the very utmost; and that he was ess afraid of falling into the hands of the enemy, than of being exposed o the resentment of his disappointed creditors. They expressed a very grateful sense of his condescension, n accepting this commission; and the rather, because they knew he had ever lived within bounds and ad only borrowed to preserve his riends from being pinched by necessity; and therefore they loaded im with recommendations to all he persons in power, with whom hey had, or believed they had, any egree of interest.

With these credentials M. Enseada made the best haste he could o Madrid, and entered upon his solicitations with all the spirit and address possible. He was exceedingy well received by the ministers, who made him ample acknowledgements for the many services he had endered to the army; gave him abundant assurances, little assistance, and not a single real, though they did not pretend to question the truth of his representations. Instead of shunning, he sought out all his creditors, and after affording them the

most convincing proofs that he had not squandered away their money, he told them plainly, that they must exert their interest with the great, in order to put it in his power to repay them. This was of more real service to him than all the nume rous pacquets that he brought from Italy, and procured him, by degrees, considerable sums, which those very persons enabled the minister to raise; for the real source of all this distress was the emptiness of the royal coffers, an evil that a war very quickly brings on under a despotic government, where the knowledge that the state is under difficulties drives individuals into seeking every method of concealing their mo ney, without offering them any one motive to part with it. In the midst of these embarrassments, Philip V, was gathered to his fathers, and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand the Sixth. A circumstance that naturally put a stop to public business of every kind.

This event, which would have dispirited, any other man than our commissary, quickened his thoughts, and added a new spring of action. He entered into an acquaintance with some of the minor courtiers, in order to learn from them the character of the new monarch. This he found to be absolutely impossible; since they all agreed that he was so silent and reserved, that the only thing they knew about him was his extreme affection for the queen, As to her majesty, they represented her as a pious, virtuous, and affable princess, very fond of fruit, and who had a prodigious passion for jewels. jewels. M. Ensenada, reflecting a little upon this, took the proper measures for having a great quantity of the finest peaches from the

kingdom