Servant B. Gerbier TO Sr. PHILIP WARWICK KNIGHT YOu have many Years past been known to possess a Genius capable of all good Impressions and therefore I thought it not beyond the purpose but suitable to the Acknowledgement of the particular Esteem I am oblidged to make of Virtues excelling in Men to offer you this Little Treatise being sufficiently convinc'd of your Judgement in all particulars not doubting but you will believe me to be Your most Humble and Affectionate Servant B. Gerbier To Sr. JOHN BABER Kt. one of his sacred Majesties Physitians in Ordinary Establisht by Letters Pattents under the great Seal of England and one of the Fellows of the Colledge of London I Look not for particular thanks for the Presenting this Manual to you as to others It 's but to express the rescents of my Obligation for your having made good the saying of the Ecclesiastes concerning Persons of your Capacity For they shall also pray unto the Lord that he would prosper that which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life which you did in that person whom it had pleased the Almighty to suffer me to enjoy during the space of 43 Years and to whom I ow this true Testimony that during so many years time she never gave me any just cause of discontent But to the contrary to wish that you might long before the encrease of her indisposition have been invited for the lengthening of her days in this World where truly I should not spend time about Notes concerning Building when the wishes of the great Apostle urgeth men to think more on a desolution were not preservation the first fundamentall Principle of man And doth not the Scripture command to mind it as it doth very particularly point at the Physitians who doth know what those various most admirable dimentions in the Microcosme do require And that as it is a good Aire which coroborates the most subtile parts of that Master Piece of the great Architect of Heaven and Earth A House to a whole Family ought to be so contrived as to enjoy that general necessary benefit In which respect the offer of this Discourse concerning Building may be said proper to you and my reason therein not to be gain-said by malicious Criticks who are wont to feed on flowers of the most sweet scent and may to your Honey-Bee-like disposition this be so from Your humble Affectionate Obliged Servant Balthazar Gerbier TO Mr. POVY Treasurer to his Royal Highness the Duke of York YOu are known and reputed to be as the Virtuosi say a lover of Art The inside of your Habitation speaks it and truly one good inside is to be prefered before a hundred of such as signifie but a show of something the love one hath to Musick argueth a well composed Harmonius mind so the love to Art consisting in perfect Rules Dimensions and Formes infers the party to be a true Rational who blusheth not at the Bees their Geometricall contrivances even in the dark I do present you with one of the Examples for true Building I hope you will reflect on it as coming from Honoured Sir Your most Humble Affectionate Servant B. Gerbier TO Mr. WILDES KNowing what Building is and shown it at your owne Charge this Little Treatise is then as I do conceive well addrest to you without any tedious repetitions in this Epistle nor doth the Treatise by many Lines entrench on the time and patience of a Reader It recommends to a good Clark of the Works to see the Workmen perform what they know ought to be done to Build well and this cannot be offensive to men that mean so nor more then the respects of Honoured Sir Your most Humble and Affectionate Servant B. Gerbier To Master William Wine HEre is an Epistle to you a lover of that which Marc Varro saith was the second thing accepted by all the world to wit Letters which the Aegyptians did attribute unto them though the Assyrians would have the glory thereof by them are taught to speak well though they are mute and what good seasonable speech is Papirus found in the Senate of Rome Grotius by Henry the great at the 14th year of his Age. And you will no doubt having begun betimes continue to proceed vigorously in all virtuous exercises and make good in the Royal Society of Phylosophers at Gresham Colledge that you are not of those who content themselves with gilt out sides of books but every day to remember the great Artist in the drawing of a line whereby he meant a continual exercise to perfection the scope of True Knowledge I must therefore by this Epistle whereby I do send to you as to others this little Manual freely tell you that though never the hand of man could draw a perfect Line himself being imperfect yet must a lover of perfection strive to do his best both in straight lines in the Military Art which you have studied and the ground-plats for an Habitation But those Lines must be visible no affected ones nor small as a hair since Courtaines Bastions and Contrescarps are to be traced for old eyes as well as for young adventurers Nor are the lines for the ground-plats of Houses to serve for Castles in the air And therefore good Drauftsmen do express them strongly what is to be built in Brick by a red line what with Stone white what Partitions in Timber-colour a mote-like water Gravel walks or others accordingly that the Workmen may have the less cause to excuse Which I thought fit to note wishing you all encrease of Virtue being Your Affectionate Servant B. Gerbier TO THE Courteous Reader WHere as all Creatures from the Mole that hath no great sight to the most Argus like above ground are continually a Building and stand in need of Mechanical more then of Phylosophical Rules This little Manual doth therefore point at the Choise of Surveyors the duty of Clarks of the Works Brick-layers Masons Carpenters c. who must be spoken unto in plain intelligible termes for that divers Work-men ressemble those whereof the Ecclesiastes faith That when a Tale is told then they will say What is the matter This Manual doth both now and then proffer a word or two to cherish the Readers patience for that bare names of Materials of Forms and several parts of works will too soon tire Noble Persons Nor is this present Age void of number of Authors who have written more on Architecture then any Clark of the Works will have time to learn by Art These summary Notes will serve for such as are intrusted by Owners of Building that they may the better perform their task and have more credit with the several Master Workmen who do love to be spoken unto in their own phrases And Owners of Buildings their Trustees Stewards and Pay-Masters being possest with the Rates of Materials will be more at rest than otherways if they should be to seek to make perpetual enquiries after them and be vext with
as My Lord I was being then honoured by the late King of blessed memory with a Publick imployment but My Lord it being my scope onely at this time in the putting forth this small discourse to leave some advice to Builders I must rather resolve to suffer in the opinion of those Great Men whose Capacity makes them write on matters answerable to their Great Parts and therewith to make Addresse to your Lordships then commit the paying this Duty to a Person who hath enricht with a Noble Building one part of this Metropolitan and thereby encreased the number of those who have endeavoured to Build better then those of past Ages may Your Lordship in this have all Satisfaction and Contentment according unto the wishes of Your Lordships most humble Zealous Servant B. Gerbier TO The Right Honourable THE Earle of Denbigh YOur Lordship who during the time of your extraordinary Embassage in Italy hath not only seen the best Buildings and knoweth how to order what is best convenient needs no advice since your Lordships experiences in Building hath already proved it yet my respects in the offering to your hands a little Manual for a Testimony that during my travels I did not attach my Eyes onely on the generality of Objects but did exactly consider some particulars worthy of note will not as I do humbly conceive be rejected as being contrary to the disposition of Persons of your high Descent that of Habsburgh who have not been abused in their Education though it happens but too much Neither is it natural to all those which are born under one Constellation to have like Influences since it hapned that when Charles the Fifth Emperour of Germany had his great genius elevated in Imperial thoughts at the same moment he was Crowned and a Baker his Nurses Son born in the very same moment as Charles the Emperour was who was observed only to be merry among his Friends at the same instant of the said Emperours Coronation Wherefore reflecting upon your Noble Birth My Lord my confidence to offer such a little and Inconsiderable Piece of Work cannot be lookt upon as unseasonable My Mark being Respect and the Effect my Duty and so I do humbly beseech you my Lord to let it pass for though to so great an experience as that of your Lordship it should signifie nothing New It may nevertheless by your Lordships Favour finde a place where things are made good and so may prove as pleasing as your Lordships Paradise-like-Garden at Neewnem where an Euphrates flows And truly my Lord a Ground without such Waters is as a fair Ladies Chamber without a large and clear Looking-Glasse With more I shall not presume to abuse your Lordships Patience since as the French say Ilfaut se lever de table avee bon apetit Mine shall never long more than receiving the Honour of your Lordships Commands as being my Lord. Your Lordships most humble Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE the EARLE of BRISTOL YOur Lordship who hath seen both Spain Italy and France and therein observed what is worthy as a Person of that Great Judgement as makes a true distinction between things that are and are not will at the first view judge of this Counsel and Advice to all Builders who will not have just cause to dislike the Offer since the several Materials comprized therein are of the best Rate as any can be they are gratis and accompanied with the Zealous Respects to all as to Your Lordship in particular By Your Lordships most Humble Zealous Servant B. Gerbier TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARLE of NEUPORT MY Zeal and Respect to the Nation in general obligeth me in the Addresse of this Little Treatise to your Lordship to mention some things of old as true as some were groundlesse For as your Lordship in the Expedition for Rochell had the Command of Horse the French Mercury then had no just cause to write that there were five thousand English slain in that Expedition since at the return of the Army foure thousand five hundred men of those five thousand that went were Mustered at Plymouth The Retreat was as good as the Attempt by matchless Buckingham most Caesar-like Glorious And Richelieu had no just cause to assume unto himself the glory of the Conquest of Rochel since providence had onely permitted it for if the Town had held out till the Sea over-turned the Ditch and the Estacade neither had the unresistable work which I was commanded to build in three Ships according to the example of those of the Duke of Parma at the Seige of Antmerpe to blow up Ditches Estacades and Chandeliers been necessary nor the hazarding the life of men for the succour of that place In fine My Lord I should fail as I do humbly conceive as much in memory as in duty if in the offering this my little work to your Lordships hands I should not speak in a language differing from that of workmen as in reference to Building I might not omit this Addresse to your Lordship as to others since your Lordship hath been exemplary to better Building on that part of ground where your Palace is then the old Norman gotish Lime and Hair-like daubing custome out of which it hath been so hard to turn men too constant therein but my profession not being changeable I shall with more confidence stile my self Your Lordships Most humble Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier To the Right Honourable HENRY Earle of St. ALBANS Lord Chamberlain to her Gracious Majesty the Queen mother and of his Majesties most Honourable Privy COUNCIL THis little Treatise mentions the best way for Building of Habitations the Choice of Surveyours Clarks of the works Master-Work-men and Materials as likewise the Rates and Prizes of them and of the Works even the manner of the East Indians burning of Lime which could serve your Lordships Builders in St. James-fields if les Ardennes were near it to burn more Lime in twenty four hours time then would be necessary for morter to all that precinct As for the rest your Lordship hath seen abroad the fairest Palaces and most compleat habitations the best contrived Ground-plats and also most Paradiselike Gardens according unto the various fancies of their proprietors the one affecting Houses all of Glasse to have all men see them Others their Gardens most like an open field or like Adam and Eve when in their State of Innocency Others with Parters and Imbroderiers for exercise to Gardiners pair of sheers other covered Walks Labirinths open basins for Fountains others with grots as at Ruell and Liancour in France with such shades as that Nymphs may not be bereaved of a natural liberty nor Acteon seen with his curled brow Infine that Petrarca his saying per tanto variar Natura é bella might not become out of date nor may be extinguisht your memory Your Lordships most Humble Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier TO The Right Honourable VISCOUNT STAFFORD c.
THe Advice-giver to Builders must less pass by the precinct of Tart-hall then of all those famous great Seats which the ever to be honoured Lord High Marshal of England the Earle of Arundel and Surrey your Lordships Father did possesse but of all such as the very aspects of number of Brick-buildings since the reformation of a Gotis relick building hath manifested to have been the maine cause that some of them Bearlike-whelps by licking and smoothing have gotten some fashionable like shape and times may work an increase of comliness on them which that all help may contribute thereunto this zealous advice doth start forth as a little Postillion to lead those that may in time make up an excelling number that shall be of more consideration then such as seem to take delight to loiter as on the old road about ill shaped things I shall in the interim endeavor to pay those respects unto your Lordship as due and long since profest by Your Lordships most humble Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier To the Right HONOURABLE Lord Brunckhord Viscount Iyons in Ireland President of the Royal Society of Phylosophers Meeting at Gresham Colledg and the rest of that Honourable Society POssibly there are not wanting such who accustomed themselves to carp at all things not directly of their humour that will upon sight of the Title of this ensuing discourse think it strange that I should in an Epistle to you treat on the case of the perishing Buildings of mortals though you already have been entertained with observations made on the bills of mortality as also the Vegitation of Plants when as indeed your Apollo's Oracle-like Arcenal may challenge the most sublime proffers of men of parts And that if I would follow the practise of men who tell strange things having been in parts remote from this Region I should not begin with Clay Sand and Chalk whereof Bricks and Lime are made and is daily digged bere at home I should rather have set forth some accompt of Marriners which during a year and upwards were my sole Companions on the Ocean or the cause of the Trade Wind which serves us to America without shifting Sails as also whether the starry apparition which discovers it self when North-Pole is obscured be that which Constantine the Emperour see whereby he made his Victorious conclusion 2ly How my tear-man found the Ebb Flood all along the Coast of America contrary to the several observations and relations of a number of Sea-men who have maintained that it was impossible for a ship that was fallen on that Coast below the Port whereto it was bound to get up again except it tackt about one hundred of Leagues to recover a Trade wind for the reaching a higher Course having found as I say the contrary after my Stearsman had lost time to sail five hundred Leagues beyond the River of Amazons not to fail to cast Anchor before that of Wiapoca Aperwack Cawo Wia and finally in the Bay of Cajana when as my Stears-man found that notwithstanding the violent stream from that River of Amazon he was not hindred to get up again by reason of a constant ebb and flood Criticks knowing also that among such Eminent Phylosophers who like stars in the Firmament do with the approbation of the great Apollo of this Monarchy and his sacred influence dive in matters most sublime would fit more seasonably from me an account of a day of rejoycing made by wild people who know no more of God then that they are told of him to be a good man who drinks Tobacco and that if they do well they shall go to him with their wives to drink with him to the confusion of those who pay not their vows in obedience as is most due to Soveraigns which was manifested when one of their Chiefs told me that his sacred Ma esty was returning to His Throne when no living creature was come from Europe into that part of America to signifie that Newes which was as they said revealed unto them by their Mackbouy it was when His Majesty was yet at Breda whether then this truth doth not confirm that Spirits not clogg'd with material bodies know things most secret But leaving Criticks to their unnecessary scruples I have for the present pitcht on this discourse concerning Building and thought fit not to forget to Dedicate an Epistle to a Person of so great Honour so great Knowledge and particularly in that without which a great Phylosopher of the first learned Ages would not admit any into his Accademy to wit Geometry a Person that understands all the Appurteinances to the Mechanicks who hath a matchless knowledg of the building of that whereof the Original was made by the direction of the Supream Architect to wit the Arke And this being my dis-interessed scope I shall remain confident that this Advise to all Builders may be usefull either to your Lordship or to some of the Royal Society or to any of those to whom they are bound to wish well that they may be perswaded to beware of ill Builders who may well deserve to be comprehended in the Bill of Mortality since by their Exorbitances happen many irreparable accidents viz. Chimnies which falling through the roofs of Houses kill good people in their beds who contrive Rooms Windows and Doors which draws upon Inhabitants ill and infectious Air from which I shall continue to wish all men may be preserved and profess to be Your Lordships and the rest of the Honourable Society Zealous and most Humble Servant Balthazar Gerbier To The Right Honourable THE LORD WILLOUBY OF PARAM SOme may think it strange that this Counsel and Advise concerning Building should also be presented to your Lordship who mindes at this present the Populating of such a part on the American Coast where Houses are builded in two hours time because they have no second story lesse third or fourth the Inhabitants whereof affecting no other livery then that of the first naked and who conceive that leaves of Trees do thatch their Domiciliums with lesse danger to their naked parts then if covered with Dutch Pan or English-hard-burnt Tiles But My Lord I confesse though I am seventy two years of Age that if the Charibden could give me an Advise of life certain as the Newes they told me four and a half degrees by North the Equinoctial of the Kings return when at that time yet at Breda and that I should live as many years as quarters of the Charibden his Tooes and Fingers which is all he can account by I should think my little Counsel and Advise concerning Building might yet be put in practise in those parts where there is most rare Marble and precious Stones where Magazins and Store-Houses might be built to better use then Casickes made of American Bambouses whereof I cannot forbear to speak to a person of so much Honour Knowledge and Experience as your Lordship is who hath heard much of El Dorado and if Men had
minds as pleasing to God as that they by his blessing were led to that place which is effectively in rerum natura the Great Cathedralls of St. Paul and St. Peter in this Metropolitan City might be lined as Richly as the Temple of Solomon was And My Lord because things which Men do believe to be true makes them more confident to speak them I think that the Discourse is neither unseasonable nor the Counsel and Advise concerning the best manner of Building unpleasing unto your Lordship It being Written by him who professeth to be Your Lordships most Humble Zealous Servant B. Gerbier TO The Right Honourable VVILLIAM Lord CRAVEN Baron of Hamsted Marshal I Shall not in this Epistle commit the faults of those Authors who crave great Persons to Patronize their books as if Quality Credit and Affection could free a work from censure in the various Opinions of Men are more then the expressing the Name of Pelican or Phaenix in a sign when the Painter hath not represented them to the life Cooks cannot please all Pallats alike nor Orators the eares of all Men. My scope in this Epistle is to pay to your Lordship a small acknowledgement of the debt due to a Noble Person who affects Building and that all those whom your Lordship may think fit to imploy therein may know what good Builders have observed and that if they follow those Rules they will do their duty The study of mine and wishes for Your Lordships satisfaction in all things shall be as constant as I am Your Lordships most humble Zealous and Obliged Servant B. Gerbier TO The Right Honourable CHRISTOPHER Lord HATTON One of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. THis Epistle shall say somewhat more particular concerning Building in referrence to a Publick good then all the other which are put to this Treatise Viz. That if your Lordship were pleased to reflect on the Proverb Foeneratur Domino qui miseretur Pauperis Cap. 19. v. 4. Your Lordships Building might be very fit to serve for a Bank of Loane in that part of the Suburbs of this Great City and your Lordship would do no more then other Christian Eminent Persons in other Parts who have bestowed both Houses Lands and a stock of Money for such a Publick use whereby all necessitous persons are rescued from a perishing condition Trade Strengthned Encreased and many Bankrouts prevented In fine your Lordship will not take this Relation unkindly from a person who means well and who being past his Seventy two years of Age is ere long according unto the frailty of Nature to turn his back upon the World and is obliged ere that last moment to leave all what possible may be to its Publick good as I shall at all times attend your commands in what may concern the approving me to be Your Lordships most humble Zealous Servant B. Gerbier TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE DENZIL Lord HOLLIS One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council IF during your Lordships absence any of your Habitations require their over-seers and Officers to be well and friendly advised this little Discourse concerning that matter may be as useful to them as it is zealously sent to your Lordship who hath seen several good Ones and whose Judgement as good as your Nature makes a true distinction between those that are so and are not which admirable quality in your Lordship will favourably dain the acceptance of this Epistle though it s but on the Subject of the well ordering of materialls for the Building of Habitations when your Lordships great and blessed Genius conjoyntly with the other true Zealous in the Council of a Sacred Soveraign doth cooperate to the rebuilding of a peaceable flourishing Government wherein your Lordship as all those of the same quality may have successe answerable to the Zealous wishes of Your Lordships Zealous and most humble Servant B. Gerbier TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Anthony Lord Ashley Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council THe Nation in reference to a lively Image of the Supream sacred by an assembly of Representatives takes notice of your Lordships great Genius in representing Solomons Temple-like Foundations of a State to free it from the fate of the Hebrews Assyrians Persians Lacedemonians Medes Greeks Affricans Romans and even the Gots who were sent packing by the Mores whereof but too many as black in mind are left and therefore though a poor small thing which treats but of Surveyors Clarks of Works Master Workmen Materials and their Prizes be not of a sublime nor of State matter yet since from the least that lives to the greatest Building is a main necessary either for one conveniency or other My Lord this apparent Demonstration of Zeal and Respect is humbly offered by Your Lordships most humble Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Sr. John Robinson Kt. LORD MAYOR of the most Famous City of LONDON AS what 's alleadged in the Epistle to the Reader of the Counsel and Advise to Builders doth infer that the water of Thames or of any Spring in the Country may serve to temper Morter in England so the observation of true Rules waving all quickchaws-like-devices to Build as well as other Nations It will not be necessary to say thereon any more to the Chief of the Senate of this Great and Famous City nor will the Presentation of these printed leaves require any more Circumstances but my Zealous wishes that next to the well Building of Publick Houses of Prayer whereof all Nations have been carefull those of its Inhabitants may be so well ordered that other Nations may have just cause to send their Surveyours and Workmen to take patterns and passe their Apprentiship in London or Westminster where St. Paul may be rendred as Famous as St. Peter at Rome As King Henry the Seventh's Chappel in St. Peter at Westminster who quarrels not on the point of Precedency is Famous over all Europe and Esteemed by all good Builders and that all may answer the same is the Zealous wishes of Honourable Lord Mayor Your most Humble Servant B. Gerbier TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Henry Howard Esq YOu that know what good Building is both by a Genius which through a Golden Channel sprung from the great Duke of Norfolke was infused into your Spirit like by your particular applications to all things answerable thereunto would condemn this Messenger if he should not deliver his Erant at your Palace where he calls neither on Porter nor Butler to draw him in as an Erasmus was at the Lord Chancellour Moores to drink in Hell as he said out of a Leather Jack He desires only to hear the words Ben Venuto and its Author to pass for Honourable Sir Your most humble Servant B. Gerbier TO Mr. HARBERT ESQUIRE Heir Apparent to the RIGHT HONOURABLE the Lord POWIS Honourable Sir THe Ensuing Discourse is not presented to your view as a shape seen on the brow of
Doores As also Windowes with store of Iron Casements which rust and never shut close Notwithstanding all the various devices of Smiths to catch Money out of the Builders Purses contrary to the good custome in Italy Spain France Germany and the Low-Countreys which certainly for plurality of Voices should be believed and followed Those Nations cause their glasse Windows to be fitted in woodden Casements treble riveted to keep out Wind and Rain they are lined with woodden Shutters and have double boarded Shutters without to resist all the violence of the Weather and Thieves Let no man mistake these Windows for woodden Casements for such are usually seen here in England in old woodden Houses the Casements scarce above one Foot and a half high tottering things for these are substantially strongly and curiosly made Casements nor are the woodden Shutters such Pastboard-like things as are generally put on the outside of the Windows on the London and Suburbs Houses but duble-Deal well-riveted Windows with substantiall Locks Bolts and Hinges and a double Iron Bar with a Bolt fixt in the middle of them both Nor do good builders affect partitions of Lime and Hair in their Houses nor any of their Bricks to be daubed over with finishing-Morter The Romanes are very curious in the tempering their Morter and in the laying it as thin as possibly they can to prevent the sinking and bending of their Walls which the laying of their Morter too thick doth cause and experience sheweth that when some Walls are taken down in England half of the substance is Sand and Dust. The Romanes as likewise the Grecians before them did not make use of their Lime at the same time it was slakt but for six Moneths time suffered to putrifie and so putrified composed a Seiment which joyned with Stone or Brick made an inseparable union and such strong work as I have seen Iron-Tools break on the old Morter of the Amphitheaters at Verona and Rome Their manner of preparing Lime is to lay it in Cesternes the one higher than the other that the Water after it hath been so stirred as that it is well mixt and throughly liquid may drayn from one Cistern to the other and after six Moneths time the Lime having evacuated its putrefaction remains purified and then they mix two parts of Lime with one part of Sand and makes that strong and pure Morter which if practised in England would make a wondrous strong Union especially if the Clay-makers did beat the Clay as it ought to be the English Clay being better than the Italian nay the best in the world They are very carefull in the making large and deep Foundations and to let the Walls raised on the Foundations rest and settle a good while before they proceed to the second Story Some of our Carpenters have learned to lay Boards loose for a time the Italians and other Nations are not sparing therein they nayl them as if for good and all but rip or take them up again to fit them for the second time As I said before no Building is begun before a mature Resolve on a compleat finisht Modell of the entire design the Builder having made choice of his Surveyor and committed to him all the care and guidance of the work never changeth on the various opinions of other men for they are unlimited because every mans conceits are answerable to their profession and particular occasion A Soveraign or any other Landlord is then guided by naturall Principles as well as by his own Resolve taken on a long considered Modell because they know by experience how suddain changes are able to cause monstrous effects They know that a well experienced Surveyor must not be disturbed in his task and undertaking but as the Silk Worm and the Soul of Man the first in his Husk the second in the Womb wherein both the one and the other by the powers of the great Architect and Director of all things works out his own compleat Fabrick if not interrupted but if interrupted by any outward accident it happens that those passions become the originall causes of exorbitant Features and Forms An Item for all Builders to suffer a good Architect quietly to pursue his task if he understands it It hath been observed among the French a Nation as much addicted to changes as any that when the charge of an undertaking hath been committed to many it caused but confusion and therefore it s a saying among them Trop de Cuisineirs gattent le pottage Too many Cooks spoils the Broth. I shall not spend time and transgresse on the Readers patience concerning the making of Clay and burning of Bricks only say that it imports much the Clay should be well wrought before it be put in the Mould experience hath also taught Brick-makers to have them of such a length thicknesse and widenesse that four of them together with the Morter thereunto belonging may raise a Foot As for Free-stone Portland Stone works well and makes a good union with Bricks yet cannot be compared with Marble nor to the Blewish Stone of the Quarries of Leige and Namur But 't is also certain that this Climate makes Marble it self to Moulder very much as for example the Cain and Abel in York-House Garden which did not Moulder when it stood in that of the Duke of Larma at Valedolid in Spain the coldnesse together with the moistnesse of this Clime being of a contrary operation to the temper of the Aire in Italy and Spain And therefore when Builders see their Copings Water-table Cornishes Railes and Balisters to decay they must have patience since there is no Meterial but is subject thereunto and that Rails and Balisters either on the top of the Walls of a Frontispiece or in Belconies though never so well Painted in Oyle and of the best seasoned Timber but must be renewed at fourty or fifty years end Builders ought to calculate the Charges of their designed Building and especially with what Summe of Money they are willing to part and yet remember to imitate some Philosophical Humorist who resolves to venture on a pretty thing called a Handsome Lady without which their Fate seems to tell them they cannot live and therefore makes an account before-hand that all things will not precisely answer his expectation But on the contrary the Lady instead of being a good Houswise and an assistant proves expensive and an impediment And if it prove otherwise he will be a great gayner by the bargain for let Builders put their design to Master-Workmen by the Great or have it Wrought by the Day either the Workmen will over-reach themselves or the Builder will be over-reached Charity to the one and respect to the other moves me to keep the rest in my Pen yet shall never be backward to inform either of them in the ear what may be the best for them to choose But I must freely advise all Builders in general never to begin to Build on a Ground before it
Ram'd though it seeme never so firm No great and small stuff hudled together in the Foundation but laid as even as possibly can be to ram it the better and the more equall and must be of solid hard stuff with no concavities daubed over with store of Morter which sinks unequally and is the cause of the unequall setling of the Work Likewise to watch the Brick-layers hands to use often their line and plum-rule make small scaffling-holes and never if possible be suffer them to begin their Scafflings in the morning but before their leaving off their work for if in the morning most of them will make it a day of gathering of Nuts and Fruit if they are in the Countrey and therein spend the best part of their day and one must not permit them to take the best boards and other stuff for their Scafflings Item See the Morter well tempered since if unequall in thicknesse that which is thin will cause the work to settle more in one place then in the other and the joynts to spue out the Morter especially of work made at the latter end of the year when no brick-work without doores ought to be laid for that it hath not had sufficient time to dry thorowly and will therefore by the setting of the work in the after-season be so much the more retarded and be the worse to the Building Hangings or Wainscot set up against it Moreover to see the Brick-layers take good solid Bricks to hue since if any thing sammel the work will molder away and every night to lay bords on their work to keep it from raine It is to be noted that the Mason must work no Stone with Sandy veines or that which having been new taken out of the Quarry hath been exposed to Rain Snow or Frost As for the workmen that must observe exactly their Surveyours Molds and work close and neat joynts use but little Morter between them not only because much Morter will be washed away but that Cornishes will also appear as a ranck of open teeth and they must not forget to shoare the middle part of the head of the Windowes as well as the sides to prevent an unequall setling of the work and consequently cracks both in the Heads James and Sils As for the Dimentions which the Masons are to observe in their work in reference to the orders They must divide the Tuscan Column or Rustick Base and Capital which is as much to say as feet and head seven times its thicknesse the Architrave Freeze and Cornish one fourth part of the Column with Base and Capital If they make the said order without a Pedestall they must divide its whole height into 17. parts and a half which in their vocation phrase are called Models and are divided into 12. equall parts If they are directed by their Surveyour to make them with a Pedestal then are they to divide the whole height into 22. and one sixth part for that the perfect shape of the said Order requires a Pedestal which must have a third part of the Column with Base and Capital It seldom happens that a Pedestal is put to the Tuscan Order because as it represents an Atlas and that no man will take a Dwarff to reach to the first Story of a Building the said order requires not to be set as a Candlestick on a Cubbert it s as a Substantive that can stand without an Adjective Some Venetian Ladies must have their Shoppins to stand on and were they as strong as the Tuscan they would not need some of their Masaras to lean upon But as for Pedestalls to the other following orders a Builder shall do well to see the Masons observe this general Rule That the Pedestalls with their Ornaments must be one third part of the Column with its Basis and Capitall feet and head as aforesaid even as in the Ornaments above the Architrave Freese and Cornish must make one fourth part of the same This must then be understood as followeth viz. The Mason must in the making any of the Freese orders divide the height of the Column with its Ornament into nineteen parts then take the height of the Column with its Basis and Capital and make the divisions of the Models according to its order Now the names of the several formes on the body of the Collumn are viz. theinging over of the Capital under the neck Then followeth the Freese the List the Ovolo the Cimatium the list of the Cimatium the Architrave the list of the Architrave the Freese Gul or Throat the lists the Crown the lists or Rule the Round and finally the Ovolo And the Clarke of the Works speaking in these termes will be as well understood by the Masons as one at Sea among Mariners saying Steere or Larboard Item If the front of the Building is adorned with the other orders as the Dorick is to follow the Tuscan this proportion must be observed viz. The height of the whole Column with its Base and Capital must consist in 20. Models that is to say a Dorick Column without a Pedestall the Modell must be divided in twelve parts the foot with the nethermost band must be one Modell the Column between the Foot and Head 14. Modells the head one The Architrave Freese and Cornish is to be one fourth part with the Head and Foot so as this makes up the aforesaid Number and such a compleat Form as is neither to be controuled nor mended is that which the Grecians and Romans have found to be a Dimension sunk down from above as all those who have made it their respectfull observations of the Dimensions the Creatour hath been pleased to give to the Microcosme Man they have found that there is a perfect concordance amongst them a Body consisting of so many Modells of so many height of Heads A Head of so many distances between the one Eye and the other nay even in the gaping of a well-proportioned Mouth except forced by a kinde of Screw or Gagg which may break the Jaw-bones asunder If the undermost part of a Front as many Palaces in Padua and other Cities in Italy is left open as the Gallery in the Bedfort-Piatza The Indisputable best and truest proportion to be observed therein is if according to a Dorick Order the Height must be divided into twenty parts one of those must be the Model the distance between the two Pilasters are three Models the widenesse of the Arch half the length of the Column which is set out in the midst of the Pilaster one third part of a Model more then its half which is to be generally observed in all the other orders This is for Galleries with Columns without Pedestals but Galleries with these the Column must be divided into twenty five and one third part which makes a Model the breadth of the Pilaster must be five Models and the distance between the Pilasters ten