Nicholas Stone, that it was begun in 1619, and finished in two yearsa fmall part of the pile defigned for the place of our kings; but fo complete in itself, that it ftands a model of the most pure and beautiful tafte. Several plates of the intended palace at Whitehall have been given; but, Mr. Walpole thinks, from no finished defign. The four great sheets are evidently made up from general hints; nor could fuch a fource of invention and taste as the mind of Inigo, ever produce fo much famenefs. The ftrange kind of cherubims on the towers at the end are prepofterous 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 feen in Gothic, not in Roman buildings. The circular court is a picturefque thought; but without meaning or utility. The whole fabric, however, was fo glorious an idea, that one forgets for a moment (fays Mr. Walpole) in the regret for its not being executed, the confirmation of our liberties, obtained by a melancholy fcene that paffed before the windows of that very Banqueting-house.

In 1623 he was employed at Somerset-house, where a chapel was to be fitted up for the Infanta, the intended bride of the prince. The chapel is ftill in being. The front to the river, part only of what was defigned, and the water-gate, were erected afterwards on the defigns of Inigo, as was the gate at Yorkftairs.

On the acceffion of Charles, Jones was continued in his pofts under both king and queen. His fee, as furveyor, was eight fhillings and four pence a day, with an allowance

of 461. a year for houfe-rent, befides a clerk, and incidental expences. What greater rewards he had, are not upon record. Confidering the havock made in offices and repofitories during the war, one is glad of being able to recover the smallest notices.

During the profperous state of the king's affairs, the pleasures of the court were carried on with much taste and magnificence. Poetry, painting, mufic, and atchitecture 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 fhews exhibited at Whitehall, in his time the most polite court in Europe. Ben Johnson was the laureat; Inigo Jones the inventor of the decorations; Laniere and Ferabofco compofed the fymphonies; the king, the queen, and the young nobility, danced in the interludes. We have accounts of many of thofe entertainments, called mafques: they had been introduced by Anne of Denmark.

Lord Burlington had a folio of the defigns for thefe folemnities, by Inigo's own hand, confifting of habits, mafks, fcenes, &c. The harmony of these masks was a little interrupted by a war that broke out between the compofers, Inigo and Ben; in which, whoever was the aggreffor, the turbulent temper of Johnson took care to be most in the wrong. Nothing exceeds the groffnefs of the language that he poured out, except the bad nefs of the verses that were the vehicle. There he fully exerted all the brutal abufe which his contemporaries were willing to think wit, because they were afraid of it; and which only feems to fhew the arrogance of the man,

who,

who prefumed to fatyrize Jones and rival Shakespear.

Another perfon, who feems to have borne much refentment to Jones, was Philip earl of Pembroke. In the Harleian Library there is an edition of Stone-henge, which formerly belonged to that earl, the margins of which were full of abufe of Jones and others. Earl Philip's refentment was probably occafioned by fome 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 Hiftory of Arts and the Belles Lettres Sir Philip Sidney wrote his Arcadia there for his fifter; Vandyck drew many of the race; Holbein and Inigo Jones imagined the buildings; earl Thomas compleated the collection of pictures, and affembled that throng of statues ; and the last earl Henry has fhewn, by a bridge defigned by himfelf, that had Jones never lived, Wilton might yet have been a villa worthy of ancient Rome.

The works of Inigo Jones are not fcarce; Surgeons-hall is one of his beft works. One of the most admired is the Arcade of Coventgarden, and the Church: "Two tructures, fays Mr. Walpole, of which I want tafte to fee the beauties. In the Arcade there is nothing remarkable; the pilafters are as ar rant and homely ftripes as any plaifterer would make. The barnroof over the portico of the church ftrikes 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 faw a beautiful Tufcan building Would the Ro

mans have chofen that order for a temple?" The expence of building that church was 4500 1.

Ambrefbury in Wiltshire was defigned by Jones, but executed by his fcholar Webb. Jones was one of the firft that obferved the same diminution of pilafters as in pillars. Lindfay-houfe in Lincoln's-InnFields, which he built, owes its chief grace to this fingularity. In 1618 a fpecial commiffion was iffued to the lord chancellor, the earls of Worcester, Pembroke, Arundel, and others, to plant, and reduce to uniformity, Lincoln-s-Inn-Fields, as it fhall be drawn by way of map, or ground-plot, by Inigo Jones, furveyor-general of the works. That fquare is laid out with a regard to fo trifling a fingularity, as to be of the exact dimenfions of one of the pyramids: this would have been admired in thofe ages, when the Keep at Kenelworth Caftle was erected in the form of a horsefetter, and the Escurial in the shape of St. Laurence's gridiron.

Coleshill in Berkshire, the feat 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 progrefs there and at Stokepark in Northamptonshire. Shaftfbury-houfe, now the London Lyingin-hofpital, on the eaft fide of Alderfgate-street, is a beautiful front. The Grange, the feat of the lord chancellor Henley in Hampfhire, is intirely of this mafter. It is not a large houfe, but by far one of the beft proofs of his tafte. The hall, which opens to a fmall veftibule with a cupola, and the ftair-cafe adjoining, are beautiful models of the pureft and molt claffic antiquity.

The

The gate of Beaufort-garden at Chelfea, defigned by Jones, was purchased by lord Burlington, and tranfported to Chifwick, where, in a temple, are fome wooden feats with lions, and other animals for arms, not of his moft delicate imagination, brought from Tart-hall. He drew a plan for a palace at Newmarket; but not that wretched hovel, that ftands there at present. One of the most beautiful of his works is the Queen's houfe at Greenwich. The first idea of the hospital is faid to have been taken by his scholar Webb, from his papers.

Inigo tafted early the misfortunes of his mafter. He was not only a favourite, but a Roman catholic: in 1646 he paid 545 1. for his delinquency and fequeftration. Whether it was before or after this fine, it is uncertain, that he, and Stone the mason, buried their joint ftock of ready money in Scotland-yard; but an order being published to encourage the informers of fuch concealments, and four perfons being privy to the fpot where the money was hid, it was taken up, and reburied in Lambeth-marth.

Grief, misfortunes, and age, put an end to his life at Somerset houfe, 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 politenefs and refpect. He had a very commodious apartment, in which every thing was elegantly neat, tho' there was nothing rich or expenfive. He was ferved with the utmost punctuality, and the landlord was fo very attentive, that he often forefaw his wants, and provided for them before they were mentioned. The count de Gages, one of the honefteft, moft grateful, and beft tempered men in the world, was perfectly pleased with his fituation, and quite charmed with his landlord, who was ever ready to serve him, though not troublefomely officious.

The count had a great many papers, memorials, inftructions, relations, and other pieces of that nature, in the digefting of which, he had great occafion for a secretary, and his own was fick. The landlord offered his affistance, and told his excellency, by way of apology, that he had obtained this little employment by his fervice in the fecretary's office. The count very gladly accepted this offer, and was equally amazed at his dexterity and diligence, and was above all furprised at a certain perfpicuity in method and propriety of tile, which he had scarce obferved in any other man's writings. In fhort, he found him at once fo ufeful and fo agreeable, that he refolved not to part with him; and therefore, without faying a word, he recommended him to the minifter, as a perfon that might be extremely neceffary to him in Italy, as a commiffary of provifions: defiring, that as he meant to take him along with him, his commiffion and his inftruc

tions might be expedited by his fecretary, who was now fo well recovered as to be in a condition to join his mafter. This request was accordingly complied with; and from a fmall place in the customs, which fcarce brought him five hun dred dollars a year, he was graced with a title and an appointment of five thousand pieces of eight, with a power of drawing upon the treafury for one hundred times that fum; all which was but an earnest of his future fortunes,

The count de Gages being pof feffed of the commiffion, fent immediately for him to whom it belonged, and after many expreffions of his entire fatisfaction, in reference to his conduct and capacity, as well as in regard to the entertain ment he had received in his houfe, afked him if he was willing to go with him to Italy. He answered very fubmiffively to this, that he looked upon the honour done him by his excellency as fo great, that he was ready to follow him to the end of the earth, and that he defired only twenty-four hours time, to fettle his accounts. Monfieur de Gages prefented him with his commiffion, which Enfenada 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 deferve it, and that if he found this exceeded his powers, he would refign his commiffion, rather than difgrace his benefactor. At the fame time he was appointed commiffary, a perfon was fent down to fucceed him in his former office, who was defirous of taking the furniture, and whatever elfe belonged to M. En

fenada, at a reasonable price. The new commiffary gave a fpecimen of his temper which furprised the count de Gages, for instead of naming any fum, he told him that he left a clerk and a couple of fervants behind him, and that provided he was kind to them, all that be longed to him, was entirely at his fervice; which his fucceffor promifed, and took him at his word.

His conduct in Italy did honour to the count de Gages' recommendation; he was equally affiduous and exact, indefatigable in business, attentive to the general officers, difinterested in respect to those of inferior rank, and extremely affable to all who had any concern with him. In the courfe of that war, as every body knows, the count de Gages met with incredible difficulties: 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 of his mafter Philip V. a monarch who tho' he had an excellent heart, had alfo a temper very unequal. His minifters likewife were very far from living on good terms, or in any degree of confidence, with each other; and it was the intereft of the count to be well with them all, which he heartily endeavoured, and fucceeded in it, better than could be expected.. But what created the greatest uneafinefs, was the flowness of the fupplies; and it was this circumftance that enabled M. Enfenada to distin

guifh himfelf by continuing to find refources, 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 wore out; fo that monfieur de Gages, his ge

neral

neral officers, and his commiffary, found themselves fairly at their wits end, with the untoward profpect at no great distance, of having an army without either pay or magazines. In this ftate of things, the count de Gages, and thofe whom he confulted, unanimoufly refolved to fend M. Enfenada into Spain, in hopes he might follicit, better in perfon, than even by the many excellent memorials which he had tranfmitted to the court, on the melancholy subject of their diftreffes. He chearfully accepted this commiflion, tho' at the fame time he observed, that he had ftretched his personal credit to the very utmost; and that he was lefs afraid of falling into the hands of the enemy, than of being exposed to the refentment of his disappointed creditors. They expreffed a very grate ful fenfe of his condefcenfion, in accepting this commiffion; and the rather, because they knew he had ever lived within bounds, and had only borrowed to preserve his friends from being pinched by neceffity; and therefore they loaded him with recommendations to all the perfons in power, with whom they had, or believed they had, any degree of interest.

With these credentials M. Enfenada made the best hafte he could to Madrid, and entered upon his follicitations with all the fpirit and address poffible. He was exceed ingly well received by the ministers, who made him ample acknowledgements for the many fervices he had rendered to the army; gave him abundant affurances, little affiftance, and not a fingle real, though they did not pretend to question the truth of his reprefentations. Inftead of fhunning, he fought out all his creditors, and after affording them the

moft convincing proofs, that he had not fquandered away their money, he told them plainly, that they must exert their interefts with the great, in order to put it in his power to repay them. This was of more real fervice to him, than all the numerous packets that he brought from Italy, and procured him, by degrees, confiderable fums, which thofe very perfons enabled the minifter to raife; for the real source of all this diftrefs was the emptiness of the royal coffers, an evil that a war very quickly brings on under a defpotic government, where the knowledge that the ftate is under difficulties, drives individuals into feeking every method of concealing their money, without offering them any one motive to part with it. In the midst of these embarraffments, Philip V. was gathered to his fathers, and was fucceeded by his fon Ferdinand the fixth. A circumftance that naturally put a stop to public business of every kind.

This event, which would have difpirited any other man than our commiffary,quickened his thoughts, and added a new spring of action. He entered into an acquaintance with fome of the minor courtiers, in order to learn from them the character of the new monarch. This he found to be abfolutely impoffible; fince they all agreed that he was fo filent and reserved, that the only thing they knew about him was his extreme affection for the queen. As to her majefty, they reprefented her as a pious, virtuous, and affable princefs, very fond of fruit, and who had a prodigious paffion for jewels. M. Enfenada, reflecting a little upon this, took the proper meafures for having a great quantity of the finest peaches from the king