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
of Archimedes and the High German Lord George Agricola who hath left number of designes most compleatly Engraven that demonstrates how the great Element of water can be easily drawn an excessive and almost incredible height above its Centre so that Collonel Rushner and his assotiates in Holland their proposals concerning Waterworks were not to be questioned all which to you my Lord is so familiar as that whatsoever Art can be treated of cannot be amiss to your Test. It s therefore that this is offered to your hands it being as a little fragment of former exercises intended some years past in a royal Academy and might have succeeded had it not been attempted in a most destructive time when at one of the publick lectures which as all the other were gratis a world of People repaired to Bednal-Green to destroy to the very foundation of it partly on pretence that it was a receptacle of Royalists and partly that the string of an Apollonian-like Harp did not sound pleasing to their ears down with all Arts and Sciences and let but Paris in France Salamanca in Spain and Padua in Italy have such a prerogative In fine in case of like strugling against wind and stream a good swimmer though a second fabulous Leander who sinks for Love must give over thus an infinite number of eminent Verticosi have found to be true and no doubt your Lordship is of the number that judgeth by experience yet cannot be discouraged for Art and knowledge finds contentment in its self it being a constant good to all those who do profess it my profession my Lord shall be as long as breath in me to honour all those that follow what good is and consequently that with offer of this little present I am Your Lordships Zealous and most humble Servant B. Gerbier To the Right Honourable HENRY Lord Marquess OF DORCESTER One of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. HEre is Presented to Your Lordships View a Summary discourse wherein Men affecting Building are concerned it cannot be improper to his view who sheweth the effects of his liberal Heart as a second Gelia when he not onely did erect buildings for publick use gave privately and openly but kept Officers at the gates of the City to invite all in-commers to take refreshment in his Palace which did answer the truth of the saying That as knowledge in the hands of the Common is silver in those of a noble person it is gold And that he doth really possessits true and no imaginary powder of production That of Hermes Trisme gistos that Aurum Potabile which will serve to open Heavens gate And who can tell My Lord but that Ovid had more then human thoughts by a golden Shoare whereby a Divine bliss might make way to a pure soul To such a one My Lord who by a permitted comparison may be said to have healing under his wings is offered the production of a person that means well when a Mecenas to all vertues and so high born as directly descended from that Noble Stem of Shrewsbury will favourably cast his eyes on an humble sensitive Your Lordships Zealous and most humble Servant Falthazar Gerbier TO The Right Honourable The Earle of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold c. COnsidering that the Lord Chamberlain by daily experience findes what is most needfull in the Palace of a Soveraign that a Person so indued as your Lordship can best judge thereof that all men of parts endeavour the performing of their task the better under a good Commander who also is of Noble extraction whose Mildenesse accompanieth his Prudence which doth patiently passe by some Errors that may be committed by men who cannot challendge infallibility in this world I thought fit to pay this duty to your Lordship by presenting the Counsel and Advise to all Builders to your hands With the Zealous professions of an old known Royal Sworn Servant by two of your Lordships Predecessors and Your Lordships most Humble Zealous Servant B. Gerbier TO The Right Honourable The Earle of Northumberland One of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel c. DUring your Lordships being Admiral of the King of Blessed memory his Royal Fleet at Sea I did not fail from my publick Residency at Bruxels to present weekly to your Lordships view as to all others of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council what in duty bound in reference to the Royal Service and Respects to so great a Commander on the Ocean wherein the Brittain Kings their Jurisdiction extends as far as the deviding of the Seas neer Rochel From this deep Ocean my Vessel being withdrawn I do with a fraught of words concerning Materials steer to Petworth And if my little Treatise though like a Mouse gets no admittance up stairs it may to that famous Stable built as I hear as a magnificent one ought to be No Horse in a double row neither the passage too broad nor the Seeling too high since otherwayes that which is the main pleasing object the Horse is as to seek Your Lordship will finde in this Treatise what kinde of Stable Prince Thomas of Savoy did Build It s true where Marble is to be had at easy rate but where Coper is very dear That I may not abuse that which is due to a person of his Birth and condition I shall onely to the offer of this little Advice to Builders joyn the humble respects of Your Lordships Most humble Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier To the Right Honourable The Earle of BEDFORD HEre is an offering not improper to the most noble successor of the Author of the Piazza whereby this great Metropolitan of Albion is beautified as the firmament is by the Sun among the other Starrs Nor is your Lordships Alexander-like receptacle for all the generation of Bucefalls a less Ornament though inferiour to that of Prince Thomas of Savoy which was built of White Marble within the Pillars Copper Figures the Manger and Rack of the same Mettal to perpetuate his Name somewhat longer among Rationals then Brick could have done yet Arthemisia had more reason to prefer before a glorious Mosole her self for a receptacle of sacred Ashes which might remain longer in the memory of men and of that Sex which talkes most I shall My Lord endeavour to speak not onely in all the Languages which a true Master of Ceremonies ought to have but of that of the Heart your Lordships praise and that I am Your Lordships most humble Zealous Servant B. Gerbier TO The Right Honourable the Earle of LEICESTER c. It May be that at the first sight of an Epistle with Your Lordships name will be expected a Treatise concerning the most Sublime parts of the Methaphisicks in reference to your High Genius or a Treatise of State-Policy Embassages and Negotiations in the Courts of Foreign Princes wherein your Lordships carriage hath justly deserved the respects of those who in that time were particularly acquainted therewith
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 First and Second PART OF COUNSEL and ADVICE TO ALL BUILDERS FOR The choice of their SURVEYORS Clerks of their Works Bricklayers Masons Carpenters and other Workmen therein concerned AS ALSO In respect of their Works Materials and Rates thereof Written by Sr. Balthazar Gerbier Knight LONDON Printed by Tho. Mabb for Tho. Heath at the Globe within Ludgate 1664. A Brief DISCOURSE Concerning the Three chief Principles OF Magnificent Building Viz. Solidity Conveniency and Ornament By Sr. Balthazar Gerbier Knight LONDON Printed by Tho. Mabb for Tho. Heath at the Globe within Ludgate 1664. TO THE KINGS MOST Excellent Majesty May it please yuor Sacred Majesty MY place of Master of the Ceremonies which the King your Royal Father of blessed memory confirmed unto me during my life by the Great Seale of England is to introduce Forreign Princes or their publick Representatives to your Sacred Presence And in regard the Place of Surveyor Generall was also intended to me after late Inigo Jones I doe make bold to introduce the three Capitall Principles of good Building to your Sacred Majesty who hath seen more stately Palaces and Buildings than all your Ancestors and may be a Pattern to all future Posterity by Building of your own Palace worthy your Self and placeing it as the Italians for their health delight and conviency as well as Solidity and Ornament La Matina alli Monti la Sera alli Fonti according to which the main body of your Royal Palace may be set on the side of Saint James's Park and the Gardens along the River If the Book affoards any thing worthy your Sacred Majesties further satisfaction I have obtained my end and done the Duty intended by Your Sacred Majesties Most humble most obedient most Loyal Subject and most zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier D'ouvilly Knight TO THE LORDS AND COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT May it please your Honours IT being lately reported that your Honours have deliberated to have the Streets made clean to enlarge some of them and to Build a Sumptuous Gate at Temple-Barr I thought it my Duty to Present this small Discourse of the three Principals of good Building and withall a Printed Paper concerning the Cleaning of the Streets the Levelling the Valley at Fleet-Bridge with Fleet-Street and Cheapside and the makeing of a Sumptuous Gate at Temple-Barr whereof a Draught hath been presented to his Sacred Majesty and is ready also to be produced to your Honours upon Command with all the Devotion of Your Honours most humble and most obedient Servant B. Gerbier Douvilly Knight TO HIS Royal Highnesse the Duke of Yorke THe fore-runner of this Discourse was printed and dedicated to the King to the Parliament the Chief Builders of a State And though your Royal Highness hath not as yet thought good to Build it may be that when your Surintendents of Buildings shal though they should not need any of those Annotations nor the rates of Materials they will approve that Workmen may have this little Book in their Pockets that they may not be ignorant that their pay-masters will look to have works performed according to a good Method which besides the paying all duty and respects due to such an Eminent Royal Prince is the scope of Your Royal Highnesse Most humble most Obedient most Faithful and most Zealous Servant Balthazar Gerbier To his Highnesse Prince RUPERT Prince Palatine of the Rhine Duke of Bavaria and Duke of Cumberland c. YOur Highnesse like great Emperours of Germany and other Princes doth not onely affect all Arts and Science but is so eminent therein as to trace them throughly with his Princely hands and therefore needs no formal Crown thereon since they prove to be the Crown to all others which argueth the matchlesse capacity of your Highness who will not be displeased in the offer of this little Discourse on a grosse matter which notwithstanding if well made use of may serve to compose a Palace so charming as to hinder furious Mars himself to lay his destructive hands thereon since those that bear the name of Gotz were not permitted by great Gustavus Adolphus to touch Muniken though it was the habitation of the Duke of Bavaria no friend to le-bon party as it was then called But that I may not by too many lines entrench neither on your Highnesse precious time nor patience I shall end this duty with my zealous wishes for your Highnesses long Life and Prosperity being Your Highnesse Most humble and most Dutifull Servants B. Gerbier To the most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Arch Bishop of CANTERBURY his Grace Primate and Metropolitan over all England HAving observed that your Grace doth Rebuild what distracted times hath demolisht I thought it fit to present this little Treatise to your Graces view it doth proceed on the indisputable prescription according unto which Solomons Temple was Built and certainly My Lord it ought to pass for the best nor have the Heathens Grecians and Romans omitted the same in their compleatest Structures both for length width and height ordering each part thereof proper to its particular use shunning all improperties furthermore it is certain that many of them have affected to observe in the Dimentions of their Edifices the 60. Cubits in length 20. in breadth and 30. in height of Solomons Temple their windows accordingly allowing a convenient height unto them but most of their Magnificent Stair-cases with lights from above May the blessings thence continually attend your Grace that after his Building up of Terester Seats and the propagating of Temples in bodies of flesh Your Grace may appear as one of the Polilished corners of that Temple whereof that of Solomons Building Was a Tipe The wishes of Your Graces Zealous and most humble Servant Balthazar Gerbier To the Right Honourable EDWARD Earl of CLARENDEN Lord High Chancellour of England c. I Have thought it my duty to offer to your Lordship as I do to others a Counsel and Advice how your builders may produce according unto the nature of men and quality of materials to be had on the place without seeking in other parts at needlesse expence what with ease and satisfaction may be had at home if men can affect what is most proper and be minded to take the best out of that which Antient and Modern men skilful in building have practised according unto most infallible Rules mine shall ever be to observe the Worthies of the Age and consequently to make good that I am Your Lordships Zealous and most humble Servant B. Gerbier TO The Right Honourable the Earle of Southampton Lord High Treasurer of England c. SHould not an advice to all Builders be laid at your Lordships Threshold It were a matter to impose as a charge upon the Author of such a Treatise though he were blinde if he had but heard that your Lordship as Trajan the Emperor leads the way not onely to particular but to Publique Builders May your Lordship have therein as much
satisfaction and divertisement as any of the great successeful Builders ever had and may your Trustees therefore proceed according to the best Method since the well performing of a work contributes to the true content of the Builders and makes him the sooner forget both his Charge and Cares May likewise your Lordship in all your other Affairs both Publick and Domestick have entire satisfaction which are the zealous wishes of Your Lordships Zealous and most humble Servant Balthazar Gerbier TO The Right Honourable JOHN Lord ROBERTS Baron of Truro Lord Privy Seal THe Author of this Counsellor shall not be a second Anacharte for it meddles not with matter of State and though it were his approved profession thanks be to God he lives in an Age as the Knights de la Banda made by King Alphonso who were not only permitted but obliged to speak truth Nor doth it presume to offer to a Person so eminent and as learned in the Law as Iycurgus among the Lacedemonians a wax Light to the Sun it neither speaks in those learned Tongues which your Lordship hath in great Perfection Its Language being onely the Phrase of Mechanicks though some of them often presume to quote the words in Ecclesiasticus chap. 38. vers 32. 34. Without these cannot a City be inhabited c. But they will maintain the State of the World and all their desire is the work of their craft I will ever study the true meaning of a French saying viz la plus grande finesse est de w'en avoir point As in this offering I have no particular one since its duty to consider your Lordship as one of the Worthies who doth reflect on things as necessary to the Publick and to a Family as neat and convenient cloaths to a particular body and that I am confident your Lordship takes me to be a somebody and Your Lordships Zealous and most Humble Servant B. Gerbier To the Duke of BUCKINGHAM His Grace THE saying Vivat memoria Buckingamii could not be made good by me if this little Counsel and Advice did not pay its respects to your Grace whose matchless Aspect is that Glass which a French Author called Le miroir qui ne flatte point for what credence would Quintus Cursius his representing Alexander have had if he had mist his marke and what would have been believed of Ulysses without a true Homer of Alcibiades without Xenophon of Cirus without Chilo of Pyrrhus King of the Fpirotes without the Cronicles of Hermicles of the great Scipio Affricanus without the decades of Titus Livius of Trajanus without Plutarch of Nerva and Antoninus Pius without Phocion the Greek of the great courage of Julius Caesar and the Magnanimite of Pompey without Lucan and of the twelve Caesars without Suetonius Your Aspect My Lord speaks indeed that which no memory can fall short of And your Heroick minde affecting that which is the Purest speaks Buckingham in perfection your Grace can by a sublime quality separate Spiritual from Terrestrial and without venturing a stock to fetch Aurum Horisontalis from the East Indies or with me to the West the most concocted and most pure from el Dorado which if it had a speaking quality your Grace would hear its Hessian Alembick sing the Gold its joy for having approved it self the more pure by its often passing through a Furnace O that all well meaning creatures and branded by black Calumniators had like fortune and were put to the examen of men as Remon-Lue to el Dorado I would go without being inrolled among Heresiastick Seekers only in that Number who seek the Worthies to manifest unto them how much I am theirs and consequently Your Graces Zealous and most humble Servant B. Gerbier To the Duke of ALBEMARLE his Grace General of his Majestie Forces and Master of the Horse c. IT s true My Lord that to a person as Numa Pompilius who honoured the Church a Treatise concerning Divine matters were most proper To one as Marcellus who pitied those that were vanquisht of compassion To one as Caesar who forgave his Enemies of Clemency To one as Octavian beloved of the People of true Love To one as Alexander who gave to all of Liberality To one as Hector Valiant in War of Heroick feats And what more proper to one as Hercules of Thebes Ulysses of Greece Phyrrhus King of Epirots excellent in the invention of Warlike Works Catulus Titus Marcus Aurelius Croesus King of Lydia a just man true magnanimous tender couragious a Mecenas to wise men and the great enemy of those that were Ignorant But that malicious persons who cannot endure any but themselves should passe for persons endued with some usefull quality I do make therefore bold to present though a Treatise concerning Mechanicks to your Graces view with the Humble Tender of the respects due to a second Perseus who next to the Almighties arm hath delivered this Albion Andromeda from a Monster which deprived me also from a publick imployment during the space of seaventeen years Your Graces Zealous and most Humble Servant Balthazar Gerbier To the Right Honourable the Lord Marquess of Winchester YOur Henfield well seated Palace with a Wood at its back like a Mantle about a coat of Armes which doth defend it from the North west windes argueth that it is good to be there as it proves a daily ease to Travellers who by four miles at once shorten the tediousness of a too long journey for I doe perswade my self to heare many of them say good cheer it s but four miles to Henfield Seat and thence but so much more to a good Town to refresh and rest The present satisfaction of that seat no doubt My Lord diminisheth the grief of the losse of Basing and that Dolbier is no more not a Prince of the Air save the carcass of his head on a Pole drawing lines of circumvallation above your Seats but that there is now in stead of destroying powers a blessed Prince to whom may be justly applied Post Nubila Phaebus whose quickning rayes do now promise Peace and Plenty May there never more such dark clouds appear as might be able to cause stormes to fall and lay to the ground such an ornament to a Land as Basing was Yet if in any of your Lordships Seats works may be necessary this little forerunner of a more great one may be as acceptable as it is most respectfully tendred by me Your Lordships Zealous and most humble Servant Balthazar Gerbier To the Right Honourable the Lord Marquess of Worcester c. YOur known most Excellent parts in many wonderous opperations which a publick Genius can be capable of and which renders this Age more notorious than that wherein Pyrocles who Invented the Art of the fire-lock that of Prothee of compleat Armor that of Phaenice of the Helmet the Lacedemonians the Lance and sword the Combats at Sea and Land by the Africans and Thessalonians and what can be said
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