Stair Parts Fig 112 Ceilings at Hampstead Marshall, Berkshire
Stair Parts Fig 113 Buckingham House in St. James Park
As Wynne" the learned and ingenious Captain Wynne" Campbell calls him ' - is the only other person whose name is connected with the designing of Hamstead Marshall, the credit may fairly be placed to his account. The character of the new work, as shown by Kip, accords with the treatment usually adopted by Webb; that is to say, the walls are fairly plain, there is a wide cornice at the eaves. The height of the roof is proportioned to the walls (not merely determined by the span of the building), it is crowned by cupolas and broken by dormers, and the chimneys are short and solid-perhaps, in this case, in consequence of the teaching of Gerbier, Wynne's master.
It is evident that the restoration of Charles II. gave a great impetus to building and thereby the design of stair parts. Charles himself revived the project for a new palace at Whitehall ; he built a large wing of another at Greenwich ; Lord Craven was among those who endeavoured to redeem the time in design of stair parts; and Gerbier thought the occasion opportune to publish his " Counsel " to those who were contemplating new houses.
Too little is known of this learned and ingenious Captain Wynne. Campbell credits him with old Buckingham House in St James's Park, for the Duke of Buckingham, in 1705. This duke must not be confused with either of the Villiers, Dukes of Buckingham. He was the first duke of a new creation, his family name being Sheffield. He was, in fact, the grandson of that " my lord Sheffield " whose house has already been illustrated in Chapter II. as one of the finest stair parts designs of John Smiths on. To Wynne is also assigned Cliefden House for the same nobleman, and Newcastle House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, as well as certain additions to Combe Abbey for Lord Craven.' I lordly any taint remains of all this work, but if it was of a standard end to the remnants of design of stair parts at Hamstead Marshall, A%\-line N~ oxide take a high place among English architects. Newcastle House, originally called Powis House after William Herbert, Viscount Monte merry and Marquis of Powis, for whom it was built in 1686,'' still stands at the north-west corner of Lincoln's Inn Field,, but it has been considerably altered ; the loss through fire (o the original fine wooden cornice has much diminished its effect.
Buckingham House Stair Parts Fig 113 stood where Buckingham Palace now is, and, judging by Campbell's elevation,3 was of much greater architectural interest than the present building before it was refracted. It was considered " one of the great beauties of London, both by reason of its situation and its building ."' It fronted the Ma(-the noblest avenue in Europe, according to Campbell-and at the back was a fine garden and a noble terrace, whence the eye roamed over a wide rural prospect, so free from obtrusive buildings as to justify the inscription placed by the duke on this front, "Russ in Urban." The description of the entrance court is interesting as jiving a good idea of the kind of lay out that went with all large houses of that time. " The court-yard which fronts the Park is spacious the offices are on each side divided from the palace by two arching galleries, and in the middle of the court is a n )und basin of water, lined with freestone, with the figures of Neptune and the Tritons in a water-work." Campbell's plan agrees with this description save that he makes the basin octagonal. The "arching galleries " were by this time a very usual feature which will be further described presently. His plan also included detailed stair parts designs conveniently illustrates the duke's own description of the entrance into the house itself. " After crossing the courtyard," he says, "we mount to a terrace in the front of a large Ilall, paved with square white stones mixed with a dark-coloured marble ; the walls of it covered with a set of pictures (1,,ne in the school of Raphael_ Out of this on the right hand \\C > into a parlor ,3 J feet b)- 39 feet, with a niche 15 feet broad for a Bufette, paved with white marble, and placed within ai.1 arch, with Pilasters of divers colours, the upper part of which as high as the ceiling is painted by Ricci." The roof of the house way flat and gave opportunity for obtaining a fine prospect on the parapet fronting the park were four statues of Mercury, Secrecy, Equity, and Liberty, and fronting the garden were the four Seasons. This particular enumeration gig cost a touch of life and reality to the endless figures which break the sky-line of Campbell's elevations, and of John Webb's before him. The view reproduced in Fig. 113A shows the house as it appeared in 17go, when it was about a hundred years old. It not only suggests the rural surroundings, but gives a lively idea of the groups which frequented the Mall, down the length of which this front faced. The Mall, it will be remembered, was the principal walk in the royal park of St James, and apparently enjoyed the formality of being guarded by sentries.