Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/272

 264

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. II. OCT. 1, '98.

et un Saint George, qui vient du feu roi son pere et qui est enrichi de diamants, il vaut bien dix mille

ecus II faut pourtant que le roi d'Angleterre

croie lui etre oblige, puisqu'il le traite si bien."

My next knowledge of the George is con- tained in a letter from Rome of December, 1785, in which Prince Charlie, broken down and not always fit to take care of himself or the George, is described as continually wear- ing it. The writer proceeds :

"It is interesting from being the one King Charles had on when he was beheaded, and that he desired to be sent to his son."

After Prince Charlie's death, which hap- pened in 1788, I find traces of a private negotiation to procure the George for the Prince of Wales from the Duchess of Albany, into whose hands, and not those of the Cardinal York, it seems to have fallen ; but I see no proof of the negotiations being con- cluded. Mr. William Gibb, however, in the 'Royal House of Stuart Illustrated,' 1890, describes and illustrates a gold George studded with diamonds bequeathed by Cardinal York to King George III., and deposited in the Crown Room in Edinburgh Castle on 18 December, 1830. He adds that there can be little doubt that this and other ensigns were worn by James II. of England and VII. of Scotland, and carried away with him on his abdication and flight in 1688 :

"They would thus pass in natural succession from father to son, and from son to grandson, until from his brother, Charles Edward Stuart, Cardinal York received them."

How did the George get back from M. de Lauzun to the Stuarts 1 By which of them was it transferred to the present royal family of Great Britain and Ireland ? What had Lord Wellesley to do with it ?

To the Stuart Exhibition at the New Gallery in 1889 the Queen lent an "Onyx George of Charles I." The catalogue says nothing more about it, but the Times of 5 January, 1889, says :

"The very ornament which he wears in Vandyck's great picture, though unfortunately it seems that the jewels have all been removed."

This cannot be the George the magnificent jewelling of which attracted the attention of Madame de Sevigne in 1689. and of visitors to Rome in 1785, as Mr. Gibb describes it in 1890 as studded with diamonds, although, as might be expected from the vicissitudes of two centuries and a half, several of them are missing. KILLIGREW.

SIE BALTHAZAR GERBIER, ARCHITECT. Are here sufficient grounds for reckoning Gerbier o ha ve been an architect ? I am inclined to hin k there are not. It is true that his name

is found in the 'Dictionary of Architecture,' and Mr. Wheatley goes so far as to suggest that he may have designed the Water-Gate at York House ; but I do not think there is any evi- dence that he was an architect, beyond his. own assertion and the fact that he designed the triumphal arches for Charles II.'s entry into London at the Restoration, and built a room thirty-five feet square at York Build- ings (which, according to his own account, Charles I. thought equal to Whitehall), and a house at Hempstead Marshal for Lord Craven.

Dallaway, in a note to Walpole's painters, in the reign of Charles I. (' Anec. of Painters,' p. 274), says :

"Many readers may be of opinion that more pages of this work have been allotted to Gerbier than he had deserved, considered merely as an artist. His talents were rather those of a courtier, and having in early life made himself necessary to the Duke of Buckingham, he found a ready ad^ mission to Court, and recommended himself to the end of the king's reign by various projects of high pretension, connected with the arts and belles-lettres. His intimacy with Vandyck proved of mutual ad- vantage to both. Sanderson (an authority to be suspected) speaks of him with contempt as an artist. He was knighted, sent as the king's agent to Brussels, ana at his return made Master of the Ceremo_nies. For his political negotiations, see Hardwicke's ' State Papers,' ii. 54."

Sanderson says of him, " He had little of Art," and calls him " a common penman, who pensilled the dialogue [probably the De- calogue] in the Dutch Church, London, his first rise of preferment" (Sir W. Sanderson, ' Graphice,' p. 15). This refers to the altar- piece at the east end of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, which consisted of two wooden tables on which were painted the Ten Com- mandments in florid gold letters on a black ground, which were removed when the church was restored, after having been almost en- tirely destroyed by fire, about forty years ago.

Gerbier describes himself as knowing " several languages, good hand in writing [which appears to justify Sanderson's depreciatory notice]* and skill in sciences as mathematics, architecture, drawing, painting, contriving of scenes, masques, and entertainments for great princes ; besides many secrets gained from divers rare persons ; as likewise for making engines useful in war.''

He seems to have been, in fact, a jack-of-all- trades, ready to turn his hand to anything ; but there appears to be but little ground for supposing he was an architect.

Dallaway, in a further note in Walpole, says :

"In 'Britannia Illustrated,' imp. fol., 1714, is a view of the west front of Hempstead Marshal. It has five projecting bay windows with a portal which are low ; above them a range of square windows