C..A1- III.

GEORGE L 2'il
churcli, equal to its extreme w'ultli. A sestjuialtcral proportion is thus obtained in section
as well as plan. 'I'he eastern end is recessed s(]iiare tor an altar piece, and arclietl with a
semicircular ceiling enriched witli caissons. The galleries are admirably contrived, and in
n) way interfere with the general effect, nor destroy the elegance and sim])licity of the
iesign. The ceilings throughout are horizontal, and planned in compartment's whose
parts are enriched. As regards construction, there is a very unnecessary ex]>enditure of
materials, the ratio of the su])erficies to the points of support being l;0-'iG;3. Ilawksmoor
wa.s not so iiappy in the church of St. George's, Bloomsbury, in wliich he hu) really made
King George I. the head of the church by ])lacing him on the to]) of the steeple, whicli we
must, with Wali)ole, term a master-stroke of absurdity. But many i)arts of the building
are higlily ('(.-serving tlie attention of the student ; and if the commissioners for new churches
in these days had been content with fewer chiKches constructed solidly, like this, instead
of many of the pasteljoard monstrosities they liave sanctioned, tiie country, instead of re-
gretting they ever existed, which will at no very remote period be the case, would have
owed them a deep debt of gratitude. The only gratification we have on this point is, that
a century, and even less, will close the existence of a large portion of them. Ilawksmoor
was deputy surveyor of Chelsea College and clerk of the works at Greenwich, and in that
post was continued by William, Anne, and George I., at Kensington, Whitehall, and St.
James's. Under the last named he was first surveyor of all the new churches and of West-
minster Abbey, from the death of Sir Christopher Wren. He was the architect of the
churches of Christ Church, Spitalfields, St. George, Middlesex, and St. Anne, Limehouse
;
rebuilt some jiart of All Souls, Oxford, particularly the new quadrangle coni|)leted in 17.34,
and was sole architect of the new quadrangle at Queen's. At Blenheim and Castle
Howard he was associated with Vanbrugh, and at the last-named place was employed on
tlie mausoleum. Among his private works was Easton Nestoii. in Northamptonshire, and
the restoration to per])endicidarity, by means of some ingenious machinery, of the western
frgnt of Beverley JMinster. He gave a design for the Radclifii; Library at Oxford, and of
a stately front for Brazenose. His death occurred on the 'i5th of IWarch, 1736, at the
age of seventy-five.
500. Those acquainted with tlie condition of the country will be prepared to expect that
the arts were ni>t much ])atronised by George I. Tiie works executed during his reign
were rather the result of the momentum that had been imparted i)revious to his accession
than of his care for them ; ap.d it is a consolation tliat the exam])les left by Inigo Jones had
an effect that has in this coiuitry never been entirely obliterated, though in the time of
George III., such was the residt of fashionable patronage and misguided taste, that the
Adamses had nearly consununated a revolution. That reign, however, involved this country
in so many disasters that we are not surjjrised at such an episode.
501. After the death of Hawksmoor, succeeded to public patronage the favourite architect
of a period extending from 17l'0 to his death in 1754, whose name was James Gibbs, a
native of Aberdeen, wliere he first drew breath in 1683. Tliough he had no claims to the rank
of exalted genius, he ought not to have been the object of the flippant criticism of WaljJole,
whose ([ualifications and judgment were not of such an order as to make him more than a
pleasant gossip, he certainly hail not suihcient discernment properly to estimate the talent
displayed in Gibhs's works. Every critic knows liow easily phrases may be turned anri
antitheses pointed against an artist wiiom he is determined to set at noui;ht; of wliicli we
liave before had an instance in the case of Sir Jolin Vanbrugh; and e shall not here
further dil.ite upon the practice. We will merely oljserve, that on tlie appearance of aiv
work cf art the majority of the contemporary artists are usually its best judges, and th.it in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the public afterwards sanction their decision
; and we
v\\\ add, in the words of old Hooker, that "the most certaine token of evident goodnesse ii.
if the generall perswasion of all men doe so account it;" and again, "although wee know
not the cause, yet this mucii wee may know, that soine necessarie cause there is, whenso-
ever the judgement of all m n generally or for the most part runiie one and the same way."
We do not, therefore, think it usef'id in resjiect of an artist of any considerable talent to
repeat a criticism more injurious to the wriier than to him of wliom it "as written.
502. 'l"he church of St. Martin's in the Fields is the most esteemed work of our archi-
tect. It was finished in 1726, as ajipears from the inscription on the frieze, at the cost of
33,017/. 9s. 3(/. Tlie length of it, including the portico, is twice its width, one third where-
of, westward, is occupied by the portico and vestibule. The portico is liexastyle, of the
Corinthian order, and surmounted by a pediment, in whose tympanum the royal arms aie
sculptured. Tlie intercolumniations are of two diameters and a half, and the jirojectioii of
the portico of two. Its sides are flanked by anta- in their junction with the main building,
one diameter and a half distant from the receiving pilaster. The north and south eleva-
licns are in two stories, sejiarated by a fascia, wivh rusticated windows in each. Between
the windows the walls are decorated with pilasters of the same dimensions as the columns
of the portico, four diameters ajiart ; but at the east and west ends these elevations
ire marked by insulated columns coupled with antaj. The flanks are connected with the