In such matters as tombs it is beyond question that the workmen supplied the designs. In the year 1525 there is an entry in the accounts of St. John's of a small sum "given to the master mason of Ely for drawing a draught for my lord's tomb," meaning Bishop Fisher's. In 1533 "Mr. Lee the free mason" was paid for making and setting up the tomb. Upon the Bishop's execution, the monument was taken to pieces and thrown aside, but towards the end of last century the remains were discovered during the process of clearing away the rubbish in an "old disused chapel." A rough drawing was made of them, from which it is evident that the design was quite in the Italian style. It shows an altar tomb with a pilaster at each corner, ornamented with arabesques similar to those on Henry VII.'s tomb. The side is occupied by a large panel supported by two amorini, and surrounded with foliage and scrollwork; the end has a shield within a garland. The whole work is described by an eye-witness as being elegant, neat, and ornamented in great taste, from which we may gather that both in design and execution it was a worthy specimen of the style prevalent in Henry VIII.'s time. We have already seen that it was designed by the master mason at Ely, and executed by Mr. Lee, the free mason. If these two were not one and the same man, at any rate there is no reason to suppose that they were other than Englishmen.[35]
[35]For particulars of these contracts, &c., at Cambridge, see Willis and Clark's Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, Vol. II.
Some fifty years after Bishop Fisher's tomb was erected, there was drawn up a contract (in 1581) between the executor of Thomas Fermor, of Somerton, in Oxfordshire, and Richard and Gabriel Roiley, of Burton-upon-Trent, "tumbe makers." The latter agree "artificially, cunningly, decently, and substantially to devise, work, set up, and perfectly and fully finish" a very fair tomb of very good and durable alabaster stone and of certain specified dimensions. It is to have on it "a very fair decent and well-proportioned picture or portraiture of a gentleman representing the said Thomas Fermor," with certain specified accessories; and also "a decent and perfect picture or portraiture of a fair gentlewoman with a French hood, edge and habiliments, with all other apparel, furniture, jewels, ornaments and things in all respects usual, decent and seemly for a gentlewoman." There are also to be the "decent and usual pictures" of a son and two daughters with escutcheons in their hands—somewhat after the fashion, no doubt, of those on the Bradbourne tomb in Fig. [9]. The son is to be in armour and as living; one of the daughters is to be "pictured in decent order and as living," the other "as dying in the cradle or swathes." There are to be four shields, one containing "the very true arms" of Thomas Fermor; two others his arms and those of his two wives, severally; and the fourth the arms of his second wife. They are all to be placed as most may serve for the "shew and setting forth of the said tomb." Once again, towards the end, it is stated that all the "devising, colouring, gilding, garnishing, workmanship, carriage, conveying, setting up, and full finishing of the said tomb," is to be done by the Roileys; but the executor will provide "wains, carts and cattle" to draw the parts of the tomb to Somerton. The price for the tomb is to be £40.
It is here expressly stated that the workmen are to do the "devising" as well as the making of the tomb. The features which it is to comprise are stated, but the designing and arranging of them are left to the workmen. It is interesting to notice that the male figure is to be the portraiture of a gentleman representing Thomas Fermor, but it does not seem to be implied that the likeness was to be very accurate. In the case of the lady, evidently no resemblance was expected, and we are left to conjecture whether it was the first or the second wife who was the more nearly represented. All those who are familiar with Elizabethan tombs will recognize the son and daughter holding escutcheons, and the child in "swathes," as well as the four shields bearing the arms of Thomas Fermor and his two wives. If additional proof were wanted that the design was left in the hands of the workman, it is to be found in the stipulation that everything is to be placed so as best to "set forth" the tomb. This important part of the business is not to be arranged by the executor or any one acting on his behalf, but by the contracting tomb-makers.
Tombs are comparatively small structures, and might possibly have been subjects of special custom; but the same custom prevailed in the building of large houses like Burghley House and Cobham Hall. When the latter building was in a suitable condition, the plasterer was sent for in order that he might submit patterns and models of the ceilings for Lord Cobham to select from. During a considerable part of the time occupied in building the earlier portions of Burghley, a number of letters passed between the foreman and Lord Burghley, in which the foreman sought instructions from his lordship about many minute particulars, which would certainly have been settled by the architect had there been one. Among Lord Burghley's papers is one showing the plan and elevation of a window, endorsed in Burghley's own hand "Henryck's platt of my bay window"; suggesting that, as occasion arose, his lordship applied to some skilful craftsman for drawings. It is certain that he made a point of studying books on architecture, for in August, 1568, he wrote to Sir Henry Norris, ambassador in France, asking him to provide for him "a book concerning architecture, entitled according to a paper here included, which I saw at Sir Thomas Smith's; or if you think there is any better of a late making of that argument." The enclosure containing the title of the book is not in existence, so we do not know what it was; but from this reference we gather that Sir Thomas Smith (who was a Secretary of State, and had been ambassador to France) was interested in architecture as well as Lord Burghley, and that Sir Henry Norris was sufficiently acquainted with the subject to be able to recommend the latest work dealing with it. Some years later Lord Burghley was again asking for a French book on architecture, but this time he gave the title, in phraseology indicating that he was something of a student of the subject. "The book I most desire," he says, "is made by the same author, and is entitled 'Novels institutions per bien bâster et à petits frais, par Philibert de Lorme,' Paris, 1576." From these instances it would appear not improbable that had Lord Burghley lived in the days of Pope, he might have shared with Lord Burlington the reputation of being one of the foremost architects of the age; but as a matter of fact he did not pretend to that distinction: all that he did, apparently, was to direct the energies of others who had received special training in architectural matters.
The Henryk who provided the platt of Lord Burghley's bay window was a Dutch mason in the employ of Sir Thomas Gresham—who built the first Royal Exchange, or Bourse, as it was called—and he passed backwards and forwards between London and Antwerp as occasion demanded. Many of the materials for Gresham's Bourse came from the Low Countries, and were shipped thence under the superintendence of Gresham's agent, Richard Clough. Clough's letters from Antwerp, where he was stationed, give in quaint phraseology a good deal of information as to the progress of the work which was being prepared over there both for Sir Thomas Gresham and the more exalted "Sir William Cecil, the Queen's Majesty's principal Secretary," afterwards Lord Burghley. In July, 1566, Clough congratulates himself on Gresham's liking Henryk so well, and on the work being so well forward, that when Henryk returns to Antwerp he can get on with the rest. By the beginning of August Henryk had arrived, and "your carpenters also, whom I do mean shortly to return." In the next few letters he is greatly troubled about "Master Secretary's" paving stones. On the 29th September, he says that he calls daily upon Henryk, who is looking daily for them, and he has sent a man to the place where they are in making in order to hasten their departure. Notwithstanding this, on the 20th October Master Secretary's paving stones were not come, "but Henryk saith he knoweth well they will be here within a day or two," and then he will not fail to send them away out of hand, even if he has to "hire a small hoy of purpose." But delays in the delivery of goods vexed the souls of overlookers in as great a degree then as now, and still on the 10th November "Master's stones are not come, which maketh Master Henryk almost out of his wit, for I never fail a day but I am once a day with him, so that they cannot be long, unless they be drowned by the way." The hopeful expectation was fulfilled, for a fortnight later Clough writes, "and as touching Master Secretary's stones, I do not doubt but that you have received them long since; and that they have been so long—Henryk saith he could do no more and if his life had been upon the matter." So the paving stones were sent off at last, and at the same time Henryk sent a pattern how they should be laid; it was unnecessary to send a man, for he thought "that him that paved Master Secretary's house can so well lay those stones as any that he should send from hence."
The trying episode of "those stones" being closed, Clough returns to the subject of the Bourse, and promises to send off further materials; on the 5th December he says he has shipped a certain amount "in Cornelius Janson's sprett," and trusts that before Easter everything will be despatched. Soon after this, it seems, he went away to get married, and his letters cease; but in the following April (the 27th) an apprentice of Gresham's informs him of such matters as had passed in Antwerp since Clough's departure, among which was the discharge from the "Prince's men" of two of Gresham's retainers, whom he intended to send to London "in one of the ships laden with stone for the Bourse," of which there were three ready to depart "as to-morrow." As Easter Day fell on the 30th March in the year 1567, Clough's hope that everything would be despatched by then was not absolutely fulfilled.
Henryk was now apparently sufficiently at liberty to be allowed to turn his attention from Gresham's work to Cecil's, and on the 21st August, 1567, the former writes to the latter, "As for Henryk, you shall find him so reasonable as you shall have good cause to be content, and by this post I have given order for the making of your gallery, which I trust shall both like you well in price and workmanship." Four months later, on the 26th December, it was a door for Cecil which was in question, and as "Henryk my workman" intended to go over sea after the Christmas holidays, and to stay till April, Gresham desired to know whether Cecil would have his "port (door) set up before his departure, or else at his return." In the following February, Gresham again writes to Cecil reminding him that "Henryk hath lost the pattern of the pillars for your gallery in the country, so he can proceed no further in the working thereof until he have another." He urges Cecil not to fail to send the pattern at once, as Henryk would be back in London by the last day of March at the farthest. This inability of Henryk's to proceed without the "pattern" shows that in this case, at any rate, he did not supply the design. But already four years earlier (in January, 1563) there had been some correspondence between Clough and Cecil about a gallery and a pattern which the latter had sent; and if the two galleries were one and the same, it was probably the old pattern which Henryk had to work to, and there was no need for him to devise a new one. In the case in which Clough was concerned there was some discrepancy in the pattern or instructions sent by Cecil for the pillars and arches, which required correction; he therefore sent back the pattern, so that Cecil might confer with his mason at home. As to a mason going over from Flanders to England, there was no need for it, since the work would be so wrought that it could not be set amiss, besides which a pattern in paper should be sent. The Dutch mason's advice was that the pillars should be made all of one stone, and the arches accordingly, "for they must be made, to be well made, either antique or modern, and this, with the whole pillar, is antique; wherefore according as I shall hear from your honour, so I shall proceed therein." The difference intended to be conveyed between "antique" and "modern" is not very clear, inasmuch as "antique" was the term generally applied in describing work executed in the style which we call Renaissance. But this is a detail which does not affect the general conclusions to be drawn from the whole correspondence, which are, first, that there is no one concerned in these various transactions who acts in the capacity of the architect, but that when instructions are required by the workmen they are sought from the proprietor himself: second, that Dutch workmanship and design were procured by men of eminence in England: and third, that English workmen were thought to be quite as capable of dealing with the worked materials as any that could be sent from abroad.
The books on Architecture which were published during the sixteenth century point somewhat in the same direction, namely, that there was no all-controlling architect, but that buildings were carried out by co-operation in design as well as execution. At the same time, they make it evident that the idea of the architect as the person who should have chief control had arisen: an idea which took more and more hold until it received its first striking embodiment, so far as England is concerned, in Inigo Jones. Hans Bluom's book on the Five Orders, published at Zürich in 1550, is declared on the title-page to be useful to painters, sculptors, workers in brass and wood, masons, statuaries, and all who require sure measure; no mention being made of architects. The same omission occurs in the English translation published in 1608, which mentions on the title-page free-masons, carpenters, goldsmiths, painters, carvers, inlayers and Anticke-cutters, who must not be taken for anything but cutters of "antique" patterns. The address to the reader professes that the book is offered for the benefit of "Masters, Builders, Carvers, Masons, Lymners, and all sorts of men that love beauty and ornament." The publisher of Vries's book of monuments of 1563 exhorts, on his title-page, all painters, statuaries, architects and masons to inspect, buy and use it; and the same author's book on Perspective of 1604 is addressed to painters, sculptors, statuaries, smiths, architects, designers, masons, clerks, woodworkers, and all lovers of the arts. We have, therefore, the appellation of "architect" introduced, but it is ranked with the statuaries, masons, and smiths; and indeed the term was probably used in its original signification of "master-workman."
There was a book published in 1600, of which the title is interesting, although the contents do not enlighten us in regard to the subject under enquiry. It was called "The hospitall of incurable fooles: erected in English, as near the first Italian modell and platforme, as the unskillful hand of an ignorant architect could devise"; but beyond the use of the word "architect," and the deductions to be drawn from its connection with the "Italian modell," there is no help to be obtained in this quarter.