TUDOR ARCHITECTURE. "Henry the Seventh's policy," says the English historian, Hume, "when he came to the throne, consisted in depressing the barons, and elevating and promoting men of new families, who were more dependent upon his will. The nobility therefore now, instead of vying with each other in the number and courage of their retainers, which had hitherto been the case, by degrees acquired a more social and laudable emulation, endeavouring to excel in the splendour of their mansions, stables, and equipage; while the common people, no longer retained in vicious idleness by their superiors, were now obliged to learn some calling or trade, thus becoming useful both to themselves and to the state. Henry VII. was himself a great builder,* and with him, and not at the dissolution of the monasteries, began that style of domestic architecture of which we are now about to treat, The mansions of this period were, however, still calculated, in a slight degree, for defence, and continued to be so till the reign of Elizabeth.+ TUDOR PALACES. PALACE OF KING HENRY VII. AT SHEEN, RICHMOND, SURREY. The Tudor palatial architecture is of three distinct characters, though all modifications of each other. First, we have the turreted style, with bay-windows, the turrets being crowned with bulbous domes, which sprang up under Henry VII. Secondly, that of the turret, the oriel-window, and the gable with pinnacles, in the time of Henry VIII.; and, lastly, that of gables and pinnacles alone, in the reign of Elizabeth. The palace at Sheen, near Richmond, built by Henry VII.,‡ was in a style peculiarly his own, and composed from the Plantagenet castles, with turrets assimilating to those of his chapel at Westminster, and the bulbous domes which crowned them from the Iwan and other public edifices at Moscow.§ Such an agglomeration of turrets, somewhat resembling minarets, gave this edifice much the appearance of a mosque, or an Arabian palace. A perspective representation of the exterior of this picturesque and splendid pile has fortunately been preserved, and may be seen in the volumes of "Vetusta Monumenta," engraved from an original painting in the British Museum, whose dimensions are nine feet ten inches by four feet eleven inches, executed, as is supposed, by a pupil of Rubens, early in the reign of Charles I. * In his reign, among other edifices, he rebuilt the palace of West Sheen, Richmond, in Surrey, and King John's palace, at Eltham, in Kent, he greatly enlarged and ornamented, the hall of which, though dismantled, still remains; both of these structures were of similar characters externally, and that character widely differing from the castellated and the ecclesiastical buildings; although some parts of the interior still retained features which assimilated with the castle and the convent.-(B.) + A licence to build and embattle was still required before the Reformation: although the embattled manor-house had laid aside the defensive character of the castle, and was therefore beneath the jealousy of the crown; still a royal licence was made as necessary for building the one as the other; thus we find an application for granting a licence to build Hengrave-hall in Suffolk: "To the king oure soverigne lorde pleas it your hignese of yor mooste habundante grace, to gunt your most gracious ires patente under yor great seale of England, in due forme, to be made after the tenour ensuying, Rex omnibs ad quos, &c. salutem, &c."-(Gage's History of Hengrave.) Rymer's Fœd. tom. xiv. p. 710. b. ex, § The whole of the buildings at Moscow were constructed of wood, and considered the most imposing and picturesque in the world; they had on their roofs pavilions and gazebows, in the old Russian-Tartar style, with turrets crowned with bulbous domes, rising from every part of the city; but the Russians themselves, in a moment of danger, rashly destroyed this ancient seat of their emperors, to prevent the hostile army, under Bonaparte, from wintering there in 1812. On the French first beholding this city, they were delighted beyond measure at the beauty of the prospect. From the summit of a hill they saw a thousand steeples and spires, gilded cupolas, and domes, and palaces without number. The kremlin, or citadel, and the towers of the Iwan, rising above the rest, with gilt domes emblazoned by the rays of the sun, caused the whole to appear like an enchanted city.-(Labaune, Campagne de Russie, p. 198.) G This royal edifice now no longer exists; it was seized by Cromwell, who caused a survey of the premises to be made previous to a sale; but soon after the return of Charles II. it was restored to the royal family, though probably in a dismantled condition, as after this period it fell rapidly into decay. Description of the rooms which were in this palace, copied from the original returns, made anno 1649, by the commissioners of Cromwell's parliament, may be interesting and useful to the architect, as it shows the internal arrangements of a royal palace at that, period.† PALACE OF KING HENRY VIII., AT CUDDINGTON, Surrey. Of the palatial architecture of King Henry VIII., that of the palace of Nonesuch, built by that monarch at Cuddington near Cheam, and not far from Wimbledon, stands pre-eminent for splendour and pompous elegance. In its outline it had somewhat the appearance of the later castles, but more ornamented, with a keep-tower in the centre, and flanked with octagonal turrets. Queen Elizabeth resided at this palace, and it was afterwards settled on Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I. The edifice being chiefly constructed of timber, was not calculated for long duration, and was pulled down in the reign of Charles II. Of this fanciful and whimsical pile, a print may be seen in Speed's Theatre of Great Britain, published in 1676; and though not very correct in the requisites of drawing, proportion, or the perspective, yet its character may be sufficiently understood and described. King Henry VII. died here in 1509, and afterwards Henry VIII. occasionally resided at this palace; but by letters patent, dated 2 Jan. anno. Reg. Sui. 33°., granted it to his late Queen, Anne of Cleves, for her life; which place she some time afterwards surrendered by her deed-poll to King Edward VI., dated 3d June, anno Reg. Sui. 2do., from which time it remained in the crown. It was here Queen Elizabeth departed this life in 1603.-(Speed's Theatre of Great Britain.) "All that palace and court-house, commonly called Richmond Court, consists of one large and fair structure of freestone, of two stories high, covered with lead; the lower of which story has one very large room, called the great buttery, well floored and lighted; another little room, called the buttery-chamber; another, the silver-scullery; and one little room, called the sancery; and a large fair passage. The higher story, containing one large room, is one hundred feet in length, and forty feet in breadth, called the great hall. This room hath a screen in the lower end thereof, over which is a little gallery, and a fair foot pace in the higher end. The pavement is square-tiled and very well lighted, and ceiled above, and adorned with eleven statues in the sides thereof; in the midst is a brick hearth for a charcoal fire, having a lanthorn in the roof of the hall above to carry off the smoak; turreted, and covered with lead.-Memo. In the north end of the great hall, there is one turret for the clock, covered with lead, which, together with the lanthorn in the middle thereof, are a special ornament unto that building. For a description of the pictures of the kings of England in this pleasant hall, see MS. in the College of Arms, Antiq. Rep. vol. ii. "The privy lodgings consist of a very large freestone building of curious workmanship, three stories high, all covered with lead, having twelve rooms upon every story; the lowest whereof contains one room, called the waiters'-chamber: three rooms, called the robe-rooms; four rooms belonging to the master of the horse; one room, called the servant's dining-room, and three others belonging to the groom of the stole, all well floored, lighted, and ceiled. The middle story contains one room, called the lobby, arched over-head, and covered with lead, in the middle of which roof is a fair lanthorn; another chamber, called the guard-chamber; one room, called the presence-chamber; one, called the privy-closet; one, the privy-chamber; one room as a passage, another room for a bed-chamber, and the withdrawing-chamber; another, the Duke of York's bed-chamber; the school-chamber, and a room for the passage to the bed-chamber, all of them being well lighted and ceiled, and matted upon each floor, and therefore very pleasant. The third story contains twelve chambers, very well lighted, ceiled, and most of them matted.-Memo. The whole edifice is battled and leaded, and hath upon it fourteen turrets, all crowned with domes covered with lead, and rising at a convenient height above the said leads, which turrets do very well adorn and set forth the whole fabric, and are a very graceful ornament unto the palace, being conspicuous to the country round about. In the middle of the structure is a paved court, forty feet long and twenty-four feet broad, which renders all the rooms there that eye inwards, to be very light and pleasant.-P. S. Some writers say there was an open court towards the garden, two hundred feet in length, consisting of three sides, with a piazza or deambulatory, having a gallery above it; but that is not stated in the schedule.-(B.) "APPENDAGES.-A pyramidal tower, as an ornament to the whole fabric, belonging to the chapel, the queen's closet, the princesses' closet, the wardrobe, the privy-kitchen, and livery-kitchen, with turrets. The flesh-larder, pastrie and fishlarder, poultry-house, scalding-house, bake-house, and wood-house, the armory and keeper's-house. 66 The privy-garden contains three roods and twelve perches, surrounded with a brick-wall twelve feet high. In the middle a round knot, divided into four quarters, edged with box for flowers; in the centre of which knot is a fair yew-tree, and, against the walls, sixty-one fruit-trees, and a leaden cistern, with pipes to supply the garden with water. "The great orchard is cut into one great square, and one little triangle and planted with cherries and other fruit-trees, to the number of two hundred and twenty-three. There is also a handsome aviary here, where turtle-doves are kept."— (Speed's Theatre of Great Britain.) The palace itself was a quadrangle, enclosing a court: it had turrets at the four angles formed into stages, rising above the main building to a great height, which were crowned with bell-formed domes, and these were surrounded by multitudes of vanes supported by statues. In the centre of the quadrangle rose a massy square tower, with polygonal cranelated turrets at the four angles. In the front of the tower were oriel-windows and a sun-dial; and at the top of the tower an observatory, surmounted with a gazebow, crowned with a bell-formed dome, and numerous banners and vanes supported by statues and lions rampant. This tower rose majestically to a great height above the other parts of the pile, from which a fine panoramic view was obtained of the surrounding country. Both English and foreign writers have extolled this palace as a paragon of beauty, and a master-piece of its kind; but the basso-relievos with which it was so abundantly decorated on the exterior, it appears, were many of them formed of plaster. From the description given by a German traveller, Hentzner, who visited this place in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we may infer, that those figures in relievo were of Italian workmanship, but that some might even be after the antique.* As the work is scarce, and was written in Latin, we shall subjoin a translation of it from a copy now in the British Museum.† WOLSEY'S PALACE, HAMPTON COURT, MIDDLESEX. The Tudor architecture had not yet been rendered sufficiently attractive, until after Cardinal Wolsey had built his princely palace at Hampton Court. In this essay, the Tudor style was now much improved; though its prototype, in some degree, may be seen in Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster, and partly from that of the gateway of St. Augustine's monastery, Canterbury. In the preceding edifices, the roofs had at first been flat for the operations of warfare, but afterwards, in more peaceable times, they were concealed merely to give the building a castle-mansion appearance. The summits of these latter structures were also cranalated; and some had pendant turrets at various angles, by way of ornament; but they had neither gables, pediments, nor pinnacles. Now, in Cardinal Wolsey's style, the roofs were made to appear, and much elevated and clustered chimneys, gables, and other pediments, after their first introduction, abounded. This beautiful palace has since been In the court, all Ovid's Metamorphoses were sculptured in pannels under the windows. (Herne's Collections.) Pepys says, all the palace on the outside was filled with figures of warriors, and good paintings of Rubens' or Holbein's doing; and that most of the house was covered with lead and gilded, I mean the pannels and quarterings in the walls.(Pepys' Memoirs.) +"Nonsuch, a royal palace at a place formerly called Cuddington in Surrey; a very healthy place, chosen by King Henry VIII. for his residence and retirement, has been built by him with an excess of magnificence and elegance, even to ostentation. Here one would imagine, every thing that architecture can perform has been employed in this one work. There are every where so many statues that seem to breathe, so many miracles of consummate art; so many casts that rival even the perfection of Roman antiquity; that it well and justly claims its name of Nonsuch, being without an equal, or as the poet sung, 'This which no equal has in art or fame, Britons deservedly do Nonsuch name.' "PARK AND GARDENS.-The palace itself is so encompassed with parks, delicious gardens, groves, ornamented with trelliswork, cabinets of verdure, and walks so embowered by trees, that it seems to be a place chosen by Pleasure herself in which to dwell along with Health. "In the pleasure-gardens, which are laid out in various devices of beds, are many columns and pyramids of marble; two fountains, that spout water, one over the other (or two falls) like the frustum of a cone, upon which are perched small birds that spout water out of their bills. In the grove of Diana is a very agreeable fountain, with a statue of Acteon turned into a stag, as he was punished by the goddess and her nymphs. There is besides another pyramid of marble full of concealed pipes, which throw water upon all that come within their reach, (like that at Versailles in France.)"—(Hentzner's Account of England in 1598.) Henry VIII. being engaged in building himself, we are informed, had become exceedingly jealous of the cardinal in consequence of his building this sumptuous palace; and when asked by the king what he meant by erecting a house so much finer than any of the royal palaces, the aspiring minister-thus suddenly and sharply reminded of whose breath he was the creature-had only one part to take, and replied to his majesty's question, “That it was not for himself he was so altered, that it now presents only a combination of mixed and discordant parts of Roman and Tudor, no reference having been had in the alterations to the former style of architecture. Originally this palace consisted of five quadrangles.* The great hall on the north side, at the end of which is a sumptuous oriel-window, still remains, which shows the splendour of the place, and reminds us of the once unbounded feasting within its walls. It was added by Henry VIII., and is one hundred and five feet in length, forty feet in breadth, and fifty-nine feet high, with a richly carved Gothic roof of timber, like the banquetting-hall built by William Rufus at Westminster. Of this gorgeous palace we may form a good idea from a poem written at the time by Andrews, of Bury St. Edmonds. "Let any wight (if such a wight there be,) For kings the rest (he'd say) but thou for gods wert rais'd.” Cardinal Wolsey also built for himself a city house at Whitehall in this style, equally splendid; and erected two colleges, one at Ipswich, his native place, (the gateway of which was composed from the gateway of St. Augustine's monastery, at Canterbury,) the other at Oxford. Cavendish, in his biography of Wolsey, has given us a poetical account of his house, furniture, and gardens at Whitehall; but as they no longer exist, we shall give his description of each. "His buildings sumptuous, the roof with gold and byse, Shone like the sun in mid-day sphere, Craftily entaylled, as cunning could devise, His galleries were fair, both large and long, Of fashions new, he cared not for the old : No vessels but silver before him was brought, Full of dainty viands. The same could not be told. He drank his wine always in silver and gold. His crosses twain of silver, long and great, That daily before him were carried high Upon great horses openly in the street. And massy pillars, glorious to the eye, With poleaxes gilt, that no man durst come nigh; (Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey.) erecting such a dwelling; if the gift might be accepted, the palace of Hampton Court was intended for his sovereign.” Had not Henry obtained his object in this easy and smooth way, he no doubt would have resorted to rougher means. However, the cardinal did not go unrequited; the king took the palace, but in recompense thereof, licensed him to live in his manor at Richmond palace, and so he lay there at certain times. This was in the year 1526; the palace afterwards became the favourite residence of Henry VIII.-(Stow's Annals.) * See Vetusta Monumenta. + In 1527, an entertainment of extraordinary splendour was given here by order of Henry VIII. to the French ambassador, over which the cardinal presided. TUDOR MANOR-HOUSES, HENRY VIII. When the fate of the numerous monastic institutions in England had been decided by Henry VIII., many of his courtiers and favourites became enriched by their spoils; receiving from him gifts of large manors and estates that had belonged to these suppressed houses.* Many of the noblemen afterwards thus caused alterations to be made in these highly ornamented monastic structures, converting them into manor-houses and country seats. As an instance, such was once the beautiful mansion of Layer Marney-hall, in Essex, which was given to Lord Marney, a captain of his guard.† Thus from the above contingent events, originated a further advance in the improvement of our domestic rural architecture, producing a still more enriched style, examples of which are now, through the lapse of time or innovations, rarely to be met with in their perfect and original purity. The characteristics now assumed were multitudes of acute-angled gables, and pediments over the attic-windows, giving light to the roof within; and also breaking their otherwise monotonous outline in the elevation. The pediments and gables were also kneed, moulded, and surmounted with pinnacles, crockets, finials, banners, and vanes. The summits of the buildings during Henry's reign were embattled, and the oriel pendant-windows projected on clustered mouldings. The common windows had each a mullion, with a cross-transum and low-pointed Gothic heads, over which were labelmouldings, and the glass was flourished with tracery. + These edifices, says Bagford, were mostly built of brick, but some were faced with flints, or more generally chequered with fine black glazed bricks; at other times various devices, dates, and even names have been produced, though of an earlier date; quoins, cornices, and other enriched parts were generally of stone.§ The principal decorations of the exterior, however, were reserved for the grand entrance, which usually exhibited the ostentatious embellishments of heraldry. That of Hengravehall, in Suffolk, is of peculiar beauty, and has a picturesque effect, as well as being a fine specimen of the florid style of Henry VIII. Helmingham-hall, in Suffolk, I shall notice here, as being a perfect model of this period, and in a high state of preservation, and which has frequently been selected as a standard specimen of that age. * See Burnet's History of the Reformation, and Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p. 109, where, speaking of the priory of Port Elliot, at St. Germains, he says, at the suppression, this monastery being given to John Champernowne, it "changed its note with its coote;" of which he gives an amusing anecdote of the servility of this courtier. + St. Augustine's Abbey, at Canterbury, was converted into a palace by Henry VIII., and Elizabeth kept her court here in 1573. The palace at York was the dissolved abbey of St. Mary, which Henry kept in his own hands after the Reformation.-(Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum.) The squaring of flints was a practice unknown to the Romans, at first adopted in this country in the reign of Henry VII. (Dallaway's Observations on English Architecture.) Caddy-house, near Ottery St. Mary, in Devonshire, built in the reign of Henry VIII., contains very curious specimens of this mode of mixing flints with indurated chalk, cut into squares and alternated. An engraving of a gateway for Whitehall palace, designed by Hans Holbein, intended to be built in this manner, of chequered work, may be seen in the volumes of Vetusta Monumenta, in the British Mu - (B.) seum. § The diamonds and other fanciful forms, which are seen in the fronts of Tudor buildings, formed of vitrified bricks, were made for the purpose of employing in a manner the least unsightly such as were discoloured by burning. In a clamp or kiln of bricks, a certain number must, from their situation, be more strongly acted upon by the fire than the general mass, and consequently become darkly tinged. With the tact so peculiar to the old artisans, this, like other seeming disadvantages, was turned to account, and what in other hands would have been blemishes, were converted by them into embellishments. Instead of allowing the workmen to use such bricks indiscriminately, and thereby disfiguring the walls with spots, they were selected as being more valuable than the others, and wrought into devices where the plainness of those surfaces on the fronts had neither apertures nor stone-dressings. Many examples of this kind of ornament could be given, such as the gateway of Lincoln's-inn, built in 1518, and the old gateway at Lambeth palace. Those on the ancient Manorhouse at Bermondsey, were perhaps the most striking; they consisted of lozenges with crosses upon their upper points, cross-keys and sword, the arms of the see of Winchester; the sacred cross, curiously constructed; the cross of St. Andrew; intersecting triangles, in allusion to the Trinity; the globe and cross, the merchant's mark, the badge of the borough of Southwark, and the representation of the west front of a church, comprising a centre with a Norman arch under a gable between two towers, whose pointed roof terminated in a cross.-(Buckler's History of Eltham Palace.) H |