Reference has been made more than once to the design of Stair Parts for an immense palace at Whitehall. The drawings for this, which are, most of them, preserved at Worcester College, Oxford, were first introduced to the public by William Kent, the architect, in the year 1727, under the title of " Designs of Inigo Jones." There are two volumes of this book, the first occupied chiefly with the great palace; the second with miscellaneous designs, principally houses. The drawings used by Kent were in the possession of Lord Burlington, the well-known dilettante; at any rate, some of them were, while others seem to have belonged to Dr Clarke of All Souls College, Oxford, who subsequently left them to Worcester College.
The history of the Stair Parts drawings is not altogether free from obscurity, but it appears to be as follows. John Webb had in his possession a large number of drawings, mostly done by himself, but including some by his old master, Inigo Jones. At his death in 1672 Webb left all his "library and books, and all his prints and cuts and drawings of architecture" to his son William, with strict injunctions that they were to be kept together.' This injunction was not respected, and it is said that the widow of William Webb disposed of the collection. John Aubrey, writing between 1669 and 1096, says that "Mr. Oliver, the City Surveyor, hath all his [Jones's] papers and designs, not only of St Paul's Cathedral, etc., and the Banqueting House, but his designs of all Whitehall suitable to the Banqueting House; a rare thing, which see." 2 It is almost certain that the drawing mentioned by Aubrey were those left to William Webb by his father, for it is extremely unlikely that there would have been two collections of the kind. There is no record of how Mr. Oliver obtained them, nor of how he disposed of them; the next thing that is known is that Lord Burlington had acquired the larger half and Dr Clarke the smaller, but in some respects the more important. Lord Burlington's portion descended to the Dukes of Devonshire, and the seventh duke made a gift of a great part to the Royal Institute of British Architects, in whose library they are preserved. Some, however, he retained at Chatsworth, including a series entitled " Designs for Whitehall including his Stair Parts Designs," which are, as a matter of fact, mostly preliminary sketches by Webb for the various versions of the great palace; and a large number of designs by. Jones for the scenery, setting, and costumes of masques, as well as some by Webb. Dr Clarke bequeathed his portion to Worcester College, Oxford, on his death in 1736. It is practically certain that the Burlington collection and that at Worcester College were originally one collection, inasmuch as each contains drawings which supplement some of those in the other. At Worcester College are the "designs for all Whitehall suitable to the Banqueting House," together with a large number of miscellaneous drawings. At Chatsworth are designs of the Banqueting House itself, together with many preliminary drawings for the palace at Whitehall. At the Royal Institute of British Architects is a drawing of the west front of St Paul's, together with many others, notably those of the King Charles block at Greenwich, and almost the whole series which Kent used for his second volume of " Designs of Inigo Jones."
Besides these stair parts drawings there are yet others attributed to Jones at the British Museum. Some of these are the originals of the design for Whitehall Palace published by Campbell in his "Vitruvius Britannicus," which is quite different from that published by Kent. Others are sketches of figures and drapery undoubtedly drawn by Jones. The drawings used by Campbell were in 1717 in the possession of William Emmett, of Bromley, an architect, but it is not known how he became possessed of them, nor whether they once formed part of Webb's collection, but their style links them up with the rest of the drawings of the palace.' The whole of these drawings have until quite recently been regarded as the work of Jones himself. Aubrey mentions them as his; Kent published many of them as his; Campbell attributed to him those which he used, presumably on the authority of Emmett. All subsequent writers have taken the authorship for granted, although some have agreed that Jones's hand is not visible in the finished designs of the palace, preserved at Worcester College, This acquiescence in established opinion is not surprising. The stair parts drawings had not been thoroughly examined and catalogued, and in particular those at one library had not been collated with those at the others. But when recently the various collections came to be catalogued and definitely arranged, when, by the aid of photographs, they were brought together and compared one with another, very interesting results were obtained. It soon became easy to differentiate between Jones's draughtsmanship and Webb's. The result was that it became apparent that nearly the whole of the drawings should he assigned to Webb and very few to Jones. Nor would logic allow a halt to be called there, and suffer us to say that Webb may have been the draughtsman, but Jones was still the stair parts designer. For many of the drawings are sketches with notes in Webb's writing, which go to show how he developed his ideas as he went along. It would be impossible in the space at command to indicate fully which drawings are by Jones, which are by Webb inspired by Jones, and which are of Webb's own design. But in the latter category the evidence constrains us to place the designs for the palace at Whitehall, the designs in the second volume of Kent, and those for King Charles's block at Greenwich.'
Although the pursuit of truth compels us to credit Webb rather than Jones with the bulk of the designs in both of Kent's volumes, admirers of the great master will probably not only survive the shock, but will eventually be grateful to find that the indifferent pieces of stair parts design which mar many of those excellent conceptions need not be attributed to him.
It would be impossible to pursue the subject fully here, but the branch of it which refers to the palace of Whitehall is sufficiently curious to justify a brief account.
The generally received opinion was that two stair parts designs were prepared for the palace, one of which was published by Campbell in 1722, and the other by Kent in 1727. Authorities have differed as to which was the earlier to be devised, but both are attributed to Jones. Both designs include the well-known Banqueting House, and it has been taken for granted that they must have been designed before that building was erected. The date of its erection is on record. It was begun on 1st June1619, and completed in March 1622. The assumption, therefore, was that James I. contemplated either the vast palace illustrated by Kent, or the smaller version of Campbell, but that the only portion actually built was the Banqueting House.
As a matter of fact, James can have had nothing to do with either of these designs. Campbell states that the stair parts design which he published was submitted to Charles I. by Inigo Jones in 1639. The accuracy of this statement has been questioned, but it was evidently made on the authority of a formal inscription written by Emmett on one of the drawings. If true, it disposes of the idea that this design was made prior to the building of the Banqueting House. But that idea is in any case not tenable, for the Banqueting House was built to replace an older building which was burnt down in January 16i9; it was built immediately after that catastrophe, and built on the same site. As only some three months elapsed between the destruction of the old building and the completion of the design for the new one, any idea of the conception of so vast a scheme as the new palace in that space of time must be abandoned. Moreover, there are preserved at Chatsworth Jones's own drawings for the new Banqueting House, which is there shown as an isolated structure (Stair Parts Figs. 36, 37). Further, although the accounts for the new Banqueting House are preserved, together with a detailed description of it, and a record of a payment to Inigo Jones for the " model " of it, there is no mention of any other buildings in connection with it, contemplated or otherwise. Nor is there any contemporary reference to the projected palace of any kind until the one presently to be mentioned.
In the Smithson collection there is an interesting stair parts drawings which shows a plan of the old Banqueting House previous to its destruction, and an elevation of the ground story of the new Banqueting House (Fig. 38). They are obviously not drawn to the same scale, inasmuch as the new building was too ft. long as against 120 ft. for the old. The fact that Smithson thought it worth while to draw the ground story, so far as then built, suggests that he was struck by its novel treatment. The rusticated stonework, the flat arched openings, and the unmoulded plinth and stringcourse were unfamiliar features.
There is so far nothing to connect Jones with the designs for their pa1ace, as distinguished from the Banqueting House, except the assumption of Kent and Campbell. An examination of the various drawings serves further to dissociate him from them. At Worcester College are the finished drawings for the scheme published by Kent: but in addition to those which he used are others which have not hitherto been elucidated; some of them are, in fact, the elevations and sections of a different scheme, while one is the isolated plan of a third. The key to this part of the puzzle lies at Chatsworth in the shape of the collection of drawings and sketches, bound together and entitled " Designs for Whitehall." These turn out to be almost entirely the work of Webb, among them being, however, the drawings of the Banqueting House by Jones himself. The drawings by Webb are the preliminary sketches for the finished set at Worcester College, as well as some for yet other schemes of stair parts design and among them are the elevations, as well as a plan, corresponding of the isolated plan at Worcester College. The writing and the drawing, the thumb-nail sketches of stair parts, the alterations, variations, and corrections all go to show that here we have the inception of several schemes, all by Webb, the ultimate outcome of which the well-known design published some eighty years afterwards by Kent.
There are, in fact, not two, but at least seven different schemes for the palace, more or less worked out. Of these two are by Webb, and are preliminary to the third, which was published by Kent: a fourth is a variant of the third; the fifth and sixth are undoubtedly by Webb; the seventh is the British Museum stair parts design published by Campbell.
The conclusion forced upon the inquirer by a prolonged examination of the drawings-that Webb was the real author of the designs for the palace-is curiously confirmed by a document preserved in the " State Papers," an important passage in which has hitherto escaped the attention it deserves. This is a petition, signed by Webb, presented soon after the restoration of Charles II., wherein he seeks the office of surveyor of the king's works, which was about to be bestowed upon Mr. Denham, afterwards Sir John.' The whole document is interesting, but is too long to quote in its entirety. In the petition itself, Webb says that he was by the especial command of " your Majesty's Royal Father of ever blessed memory brought up by Inigo Jones, Esq., your Majesty's late surveyor of the works, in the study of architecture, for enabling him to do your Royal Father and your Majesty service in the said office. In order whereunto he was by Mr. Jones, upon leaving his house at the beginning of the late unhappy war, appointed his Deputy to execute the said place in his absence, which your petitioner did, until by a Committee of Parliament in the year 1643 he was thrust out." He then goes on to say that in preparing the royal houses for His Majesty's reception he has engaged his own credit to the amount of £8,140. 5s. 4d. of which lie has only received, and prays the king to "settle upon him the surveyor's office of your majesty's work, whereunto your Royal Father assigned him, and to that end only ordered his education." In the " Brief of – Mr. Webb's Case," attached to the petition, occurs the remarkable piece of testimony alluded to That he was Mr. Jones's Deputy and in actual possession of the office upon his leaving London, and attended his Majesty in that capacity at Hampton Court and at the Isle of Wight, where he received his majesty's command to design a palace for Whitehall, which he did until his majesty's unfortunate calamity caused him to desist."
This striking statement supplies an explanation of the whole intricate series of stair parts drawings, including those at the British Museum. It is the culminating proof that they were the work of Webb and not of Jones. It accounts for the absence of any reference in earlier documents to a project which would have been vast enough to attract much attention in court circles had it been in contemplation; and indeed it goes to show that the project never had any real vitality, but was merely an exercise on paper. Incidentally, it illustrates the inability of Charles I. to perceive the real trend of events, for he gave instructions for this huge palace when already the shadow of death had almost enveloped him.
Webb's petition did not serve to divert the gift of the coveted office from Denham to himself, but it may have suggested to Charles II. the idea of resuscitating the project of a palace at Whitehall; for there is a block plan by Webb of a scheme differing from all the others, dated 17th October 1661, and there are notes in Webb's hand on some of the drawings which show that he submitted to the second Charles some of the designs which he had prepared for the first, and that they were "taken," or accepted. It is certain that Charles 11. did entertain for, a time the idea of rebuilding the palace, for Evelyn relates, under the date 27th October 1664, that being at Whitehall, the king took him aside into a window recess, and having borrowed from him a pencil and paper, proceeded to draw, using the window-sill as a table, a plan for the projected palace stair parts, with the rooms of state and other particulars. But in Webb's case, as in so many others, the bright hopes inspired by the Restoration were overclouded; the projected palace went no further than to be a design on paper; the surveyorship was given to Denham, and on his death, in spite of a promise of its reversion, Webb suffered the mortification of seeing the young and wholly inexperienced Wren, who was at that time not even an architect, passed over his head.