a town of Asiatic Turkey, capital of an eyalet on the east shore of the Lake of Van, 145 miles S.E. of Erzeroum. It is situated at the southern foot of an isolated rock on which the citadel stands, and is enclosed by a double line of mud and stone walls. The streets are narrow, dirty, and ill paved; but the houses are for the most part well built. The chief public buildings in the town are four Armenian churches, several mosques, small but Vanbrugh well supplied bazaars, caravanserais, baths, and the citadel, which, if in good repair and well defended, would from its position be almost impregnable. Cotton fabrics are manufactured here, and a considerable trade is carried on in them and the produce of the surrounding country. Pop. variously estimated from 12,000 to 40,000; probably about 20,000. The Lake of Van is of a very irregular shape, about 70 miles long by 28 broad. Its elevation above the sea is 5467 feet, and its depth in some places is very great. It receives the water of numerous rivers, but has no visible outlet. The water is salt, except near the mouths of the rivers, where, though brackish, it is fit for drinking. The only fishery here is that of sardines.
VANBRUGH, Sir John, one of the most celebrated dramatic authors, as well as one of the most eminent architects, of his day. The different biographers vary importantly as to the place and date of his birth, and to the origin of his family, some stating he was born at Chester, and others at London; and some attributing to him an English, and others a French or a Dutch extraction. The account, however, which he gives of his family in his petition for an exemplification of arms, and in his own pedigree attached thereto by himself, now in the Heralds' College, are no doubt to be relied on, especially as in the former a careful inquiry seems to have been made by the acting authorities, who at that time appear not to have had the most friendly feeling towards him. It says—
"Vanbrugh of Ghent, in Flanders, gent., fled from thence into Holland, upon account of the Duke of Alva's persecution, tps Ellis, where he continued till his death.
"Giles Vanbrugh, of London, merchant, born at Ghent, in Flanders, and first came over into England about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign; he died anno 1646, and was buried in the vault in St Stephen's Wallbrook (which he purchased of the parish), 21 June 1646.
"Sir Vanbrugh of ye city of Chester, Esq., 3d son, a justice of ye peace there, was born in St Stephen's Wallbrook, and there baptized 27th April 1631; he died at Chester circa annum 1689, and was there buried."
This was the father of the subject of our biography, who is said to have carried on the business of a sugar-baker at Chester. In Tong's Life of Matthew Henry (1716, p. 75), he is described "as one of those worthy gentlemen that had habitations there," and who, though of the Church of England, were in the habit of hearing Mr Henry's weekday lectures. That he was a man of some note may also be gathered from the fact that he is called esquire in Blome's Britannia; that old Fuller dedicated a portion of his Pisgah-sight to him, prefixing his arms thereto; and that he was of sufficient standing to aspire to the hand of the youngest daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton, whom he married, and who bore him eight sons (of whom John was the second) and six daughters. Various dates have been assigned to his birth as well as places. The register of his death in 1726, at the age of 60, however, fixes the former at 1666. The cities of London and of Chester dispute the latter. The Chester registers, however, have been Vanbrugh lately searched, and the baptisms of all the rest of the family, seven of the sons and the six daughters, are therein found, but not that of John. We have also searched the register of St Stephen's Wallbrook, which breaks off at the period of the fire of London, and is blank till the rebuilding. The biographical account prefixed to the collection of his plays, published in 1759, expressly says that "he was born in the parish of St Stephen's Wallbrook, in 1666." If so, it was probably shortly before the great fire, and though born there, he may have been baptized afterwards in the nearest place where his parents found shelter from its ravages.
There is no record of his education, but the known wealth of the family, and the internal evidence of his writings, would lead us to believe that it must have been liberal, and that he must have profited largely from it. The different biographies, like most of those of the period, contain mere statements without citing authorities. We however gather from them that he chose the military profession, and went into the army as an ensign at the age of nineteen; we find that he obtained the rank of captain, by which he was designated by many writers till as late as at least as the date of Rowe's imitation of Horace. It is said that, being a very agreeable man, and having great wit, he became acquainted with many important persons, among the rest with Sir Thomas Skipwith, who happened to be in the same winter-quarters, and who, it appears, possessed a large share in the theatrical patent at Drury Lane. Finding he had a number of loose sheets of parts of plays which exhibited great talent, he urged him to complete one, and used his interest to get it put upon the stage. This play was The Relapse, which Cibber tells us was written in three months, and ready for performance in April, but the season being far advanced, was not acted till the succeeding winter. It, however, had such extraordinary success, that it at once placed him high in the rank of dramatic writers.
This, however, was in the year 1697, and must have occurred after some other important events of his life. Unfortunately his early biographers have been wits who recorded either with zest or envy his dramatic history, and took no pains about his professional career. It is curious that we have no account of the studies or education of three of the greatest architects Britain has produced—Wren, Vanbrugh, and William of Wykeham, although of many lesser men we have full accounts of their courses of study and their preceptors. It is, however, recorded of Vanbrugh that he went into France early in life, and that at some subsequent period he was imprisoned in the Bastille, and that in 1695, two years before the production of The Relapse, he was made secretary to the commissioners for completing Greenwich Hospital on the nomination of the celebrated John Evelyn. On the first event all biographers are agreed; the second is certainly true, as he mentions it in
---
1 The principal biographies are by Cibber (Lives of the Poets); a short notice prefixed to his plays in 1759; Allan Cunningham (Lives of Painters, etc.); Leigh Hunt (prefixed to the works of Wycherly, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar, Ed. Moxon, London, 1840); and the English and French biographical dictionaries. These all seem to have been compiled without any references to original documents.
2 See also among the MSS. of Anstis, now in the British Museum. Addl. MSS. 9011, p. 346, et seq.
3 See infra.
4 Of Imber Court, Surrey, a very old family.
5 Cibber, vol. iv. p. 100.
6 Some of his biographers talk of his "heroic mania," and that he soon quitted the army; but it must be remembered that almost every young gentleman served some campaigns; in fact it was a sort of completion of a polite education in those days. There is no sort of reason to believe he quitted the army suddenly. He must have served some time to have attained the rank of captain under any circumstances.
7 Imitation of Horace and Lydia:
"I'm in with Captain Vanbrugh at the present, A most sweet-natured gentleman, and pleasant; He writes your comedies, draws schemes, and models, And builds dukes' houses upon very odd hills."
This must have been subsequent to the building Bleheim in 1705.
8 1695, May 21. In the Diary of this date Evelyn records the survey of Greenwich with Sir Robert Clayton, Sir Christopher Wren, and others; on the 24th that they reported, and on the 31st "met again. Mr Vanbrugh was made secretary to the commission by my nomination of him to the Lords, which was done that day." Vanbrugh's letters, and as he built a house for himself at Greenwich in imitation of that style of architecture, and called it Bastille House. At what period, however, this imprisonment took place, we are not informed.
The account given by Cibber, or rather his editor's, in the Lives of the Poets, is, that "curiosity induced him to visit France, where his taste for architecture excited him to take a survey of the fortifications in that kingdom. When he was one day surveying some fortifications with the strictest attention, he was taken notice of by a gentleman who brought him back as the criminal prisoner to the Bastille at Paris." The biographer goes on to say, that he was treated with "gentleness and humanity," and found his confinement so endurable, that he amused himself in drawing rude draughts of some comedies. This circumstance raising curiosity in Paris, several of the nobility visited him in the Bastille, when Sir John, who spoke their language with fluency and elegance, insinuated himself into their favour by the vivacity of his wit and the peculiarity of his humour," and thus by their intercession he was set at liberty.
Now a "visit" to France could not have taken place in war-time, nor can we suppose the event happened while he was on active service, as in that case he would have been shot as a spy, and not sent to the Bastille as a state prisoner. It must therefore have taken place either before the declaration of war by the allies in 1689, or after the peace of Ryswick in 1697. This was the year in which The Relapse first appeared, which he says in the prologue, "in too much haste was writ," and afterwards "'twas got, conceived, and born in six weeks' space." Our limits will not permit us to go at any great length into the inquiry; the probability however is, this captivity, which seems to have been the means of changing his fortunes, actually did take place in 1697, early in which year hostilities had ceased, although the treaty was not signed till September.
The third important circumstance to which allusion has been made, his appointment as secretary to the commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, speaks highly in his favour. It was an honourable position to be associated with such men as Tennison, Somers, and Wren, and perhaps still more so to have been introduced to them by John Evelyn. This great and good man was then in his seventy-fifth year. During his long and useful life, he had always been the patron of rising merit, and ever the opponent of the dissolute and dishonourable. Unlike many good men, however, his days had not been devoted to a cloister, but had been passed in active life. In his youth he had served as a soldier in Holland; he had travelled afterwards wherever knowledge could be gained, or taste could be refined and purified, and had frequented the court as well as the learned meetings of the Royal Society. It speaks very highly for the talent and character of the young Captain Vanbrugh that he should have been taken by the hand by such a man. If tradition be correct that he always had a turn for architectural studies, it is probable that his new position improved and confirmed him in them. But we must now pursue his history as a writer.
At the request of Halifax, he then wrote the Provoked Wife for the theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. This, if possible, had a greater run than the Relapse. The rich racy wit of the dialogue, and the originality and humour of the situations, drew forth the most clamorous applause; while, what we now all regret, the grossness of much of the language, and the immoral tendency of the plot, were in those Vanbrugh days anything but bars to success. The stage then was in a very bad state. Not only were the plots of the dramas extremely immoral in themselves, but the dialogue was grossly indecent; so much so, that no lady could be present without a mask either to hide her blushes, or disguise the want of them. It is true that Vanbrugh was not worse than many other writers, nor in fact so bad. There are plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Dryden, Wycherly, D'Urfey, Behn, and a host of others, much worse than the Provoked Wife. But the cup was becoming full; profanity and indecency had passed for wit long enough; and people began to weary of breathing so foul an atmosphere. The first blow came from an unexpected quarter, and with unexpected force. It was given by a non-juring divine named Jeremy Collier, who had previously made himself notorious by his conduct at the execution of Parkyns and Friend, for a conspiracy to murder the king. He published a little book, entitled A short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the Stage; and a very curious work it is, written with great point and spirit; in fact, with more wit than many of the plays he attacked; but it is a curious image of the writer's mind. As to the first point of objection, he certainly does not say too much—in fact he could not—but his views as to profanity are very much strained and far-fetched. He cannot endure the slightest allusion to a priest, or anything approaching a religious designation. He attacks Dryden because he puts a wicked friar on the stage as a character; because one of his scenes opens in a chapel; because one of his heroes, a Turk, speaks of the month Abib; because an admirer of Spartan virtue stigmatizes the gross superstition of the Egyptian priests and their "grass-eating god." He prefers Ben Jonson to Shakspeare in point of purity of writing, though there is ten times more indecency in Bartholomew Fair than in all that the latter ever wrote, nay, although he is incomparably the purest writer of the age; but then Ben Jonson had never put a clergyman on the stage, while Shakspeare had been so irreverent as to give the characters of Sir Hugh Evans and the curate in Love's Labour Lost; the former, by the way, a most amiable, and the latter, a most innocent character. He is furious with D'Urfey, because one of his dramatis personae comes in disguised as a peasant, singing the old harvest-song—"We've cheated the parson, we'll cheat him again," and becomes almost ludicrously pathetic when he estimates how many pounds' worth of tithes will be lost to the clergy by the singing this pestiferous stanza. He censures Congreve because one of his characters named Sampson alludes to the strength of his namesake, and is reminded by another that very strength was the cause of his death. In fact, such innocent jokes as Sydney Smith fired off every day in his life would have been to Collier the very depths of profanity. In spite of all this, there was too much truth in the book to be passed over; and Congreve and Vanbrugh, who had been made the objects of special attack, both published defences. That of the latter is a short and temperate reply; first of all showing that Collier had very much exaggerated all he had said; and next, that the poet must draw the world as he finds it, and means no harm in putting into the mouths of his characters such words as are used by them in every-day life.
---
1 Cibber, Lives, vol. iv. p. 106. Much misunderstanding has arisen as to these Lives. The authenticity of their authorship has been questioned; but it must be remembered it is specially stated on the title-page they are "by Mr Cibber, and several other hands." And in this very biography (p. 103) the author says,—“Mr Cibber observes,” and (p. 109) “Mr Cibber takes notice,” &c. The truth probably is, that Cibber commenced the Lives from fragments collected by Mr Cowper, and that the work was finished at his death by his son, assisted by some friends.
2 He gave them formal absolution on the scaffold, just before their execution.
3 The first prologue; a second was written after the third night.
4 The Spanish Friar.
5 Siege of Granada. Dryden probably remembered the Hebrew title of the month, and did not trouble himself to search for the Arabic name.
6 Clementines.
7 Collier certainly has the merit of being the first person who attempted to purify the stage; but it was a work of time, and carried out rather by public feeling than the labours of any one person. He also published the *Relapse*, with a preface, in which he says:
"I believe with a steady faith there is not one woman of a real reputation in town, but when she has read it impartially over in her closet, will find it so innocent, she'll think it no affront to her prayer-book to lay it upon the same shelf."
It seems difficult to believe him in earnest when we read the play; but Smollett seriously claimed the same character for *Rodrick Random* and *Peregrine Pickle*; and at the present day some of the French novelists, who are really worse than the old writers, do the same. We say really worse, because they do not delineate things as they are, as the old writers did. While this is truthfully done, whatever vice may be displayed, the ascendancy of honour, virtue, and honesty, in the long-run, must also be displayed; but the modern French writers are not truthful, though they may be graphic: they varnish and draw a coloured veil over vice; and as long as they use words of scrupulous decency, care not what may be the tendency of the things they relate.
As to Vanbrugh, the controversy may be best summed up in the words of his French biographer. "Unfortunately the greatest license reigned on the English stage at that time, and it was unreasonable to expect a young soldier to set up for a moral teacher." He however made the attempt, and in the same year wrote *Aesop*.
This was a play, the plot of which was borrowed from the French. A number of characters bearing the stamp of the different vices and follies of the day are brought before the fabulist, who converses with them, gives them good advice, and ends by relating a fable in verse, suited to the case of each. The play is full of spirit and wit, as well as instruction. The fables are really better than those of Gay, both in idea and in versification. Indeed, Pope complimented him afterwards, by telling him he had caught the true spirit of La Fontaine. But, alas! for the moralist. The town could not endure to be corrected or taught, and, after a few nights, *Aesop* was banished from the stage.
An adaptation of Fletcher's *Pilgrim*, produced two years after, seems to have had a better fate.
We must now take leave of him for a short time as a wit and a poet, and follow his career as an architect, wherein, spite of his detractors, he was equally successful. The first notice we have of him in this capacity is in 1702, when he furnished the design for Castle Howard for the Earl of Carlisle. Why he should have been selected for such an important work, we cannot divine. There was no lack of architects in those days. Wren, though seventy years of age, was in his full vigour. Talman had finished Chatsworth, Thorsley, and Dyraham. Wynn was engaged on Buckingham House; and Gunnersbury, Marlborough House, Roehampton, Cliefden, were all built within a few years of this period. Be this as it may, Vanbrugh here gave the first proof of his architectural genius. In endeavouring to avoid the rudeness of Gothic "magnificence," the "flutter of flying buttresses," "the uselessness of pinnacles," "the discord of oblique lines," our architects, with the exception of Wren, had fallen into a cold, tame, flat style, making square blocks of their buildings, without those decided masses which cast bold shadows and give so much breadth. They affected horizontality, and strove as much as they could to get all the various departments of the house into one solid block. Such, too, was the passion for uniformity, that all sorts of expedients were resorted to Vanbrugh, to make one half the building exactly like the other, and false windows and doors, screen-walls and parapets, and all sorts of shams, were used to "balance" the points of the design. We seem now to run into the opposite extreme, and to go out of our way to make things irregular. Windows are made of various heights, and oriels are stuck here and there without meaning or any use, except for the studied purpose of making the building irregular, or, to use a common phrase, lop-sided. Vanbrugh avoided both errors. At Castle Howard he separated the subordinate buildings, and arranged them round the principal structure in a series of regular but picturesque groups. Even the laundries and breweries were not concealed, and were surmounted by domes, which served at once for ornament and the purposes of ventilation. Instead of striving to hide his chimneys, he clusters them together, and makes them, as well as his roofs, the means of breaking and enriching the sky-line. The main building is entered by a lofty portico, from which we pass into a noble hall lighted by a cupola a hundred feet in height, and from which lengthened corridors extend, leading to numerous suites of fine apartments. Our limits will not permit a further description. Suffice it to say, that this picturesque but at the same time symmetrical building presents a frontage of 660 feet, or 130 feet more than the entire length of Westminster Abbey, and, with the exception of Blenheim, is the noblest palace in the kingdom.
The Earl of Carlisle was then the acting earl-marshal of England, during the minority of Thomas, duke of Norfolk, and as a token of his approbation of the talent of his architect, he appointed Vanbrugh to the high and lucrative situation of Clarenceux king-at-arms. As there is a rule at the college that every candidate must be a herald before he can become a king-at-arms, Vanbrugh was first created Carlisle herald, a title which had been obsolete some years. His patent for this, as appears by the heralds' books, is dated 21st June 1703; that as Clarenceux, the 9th February 1725. We learn from Anstis that the college petitioned against the appointment, but on what grounds does not appear. The chapter-books would probably show; but as they contain so many confidential matters relative not only to the college but to different families, they are very properly kept from the public eye. A good deal has been said as to this appointment, and Vanbrugh and his patron have both been accused of jobbing. It was no unusual thing at that time, in the college, to pass one man over the head of another, and also to elect to higher offices without passing through the lower. Camden was created Richmond herald one day, and Clarenceux the next: Borrough, in like manner, Mowbray herald, and then Norroy; and even St George would have been created king-at-arms per saltum, but his friends urged him to accept the offices of Berwick pursuivant and Windsor herald some little time before he assumed the crown of Norroy. For many years there had been a struggle in the college in favour of the slow promotion of seniority as against that of talent. As long back as the time of James I., Glover had written against the former course, and is said, when remonstrated with by the other party, to have answered, "that every great fat calf did not turn out a good cow." Anstis and Brook seem to insinuate Vanbrugh's ignorance of heraldry: the latter hints at it; the former Vanbrugh drops his pen in the middle of a sentence. How matters may have gone within the walls at Doctors' Commons, we cannot say. It appears, however, from their archives, he was a frequent attendant at the college, signing his name in the book like the others. A far more important circumstance is, that he was honoured by Queen Anne with the commission to convey the insignia of the order of the Garter to the King of Hanover, which he executed in 1706, three years after his first entrance into the college. It is difficult to believe that a man of such witty and pleasant spirit could be at enmity with his brethren for twenty long years, and still more so, that a young and talented man did not acquire some knowledge of the art he professed. Some say he laughed at heraldry; but this seems founded only on the fact, that in *Æsop* he is very severe on the forgers of pedigrees and genealogies. They have to this day a fine portrait of him by Richardson, which occupies the post of honour in one of the rooms of the college.
About this time he was actively engaged in his great work at Blenheim, which, in spite of all that has been said of it, is the finest palace of the style in the kingdom. It has all the excellencies of Castle Howard, with fewer exaggerations. Its site is on a rising ground in the beautiful park of Woodstock, the favourite resort of our monarchs for many ages. Before it is a magnificent lake, crossed by a triumphal bridge. The body of the house itself is about as long as the river-front of Somerset House. But the entire façade, including the chapel, orangeries, &c., is between 800 and 900 feet in extent, or about half the length of Pall Mall. The building must be seen to conceive its grandeur. The garden-fronts are all equally beautiful, but of a softer magnificence than the main elevation. Unlike many other edifices, it pleases equally from any point of view. Our space forbids a lengthened description; but we cannot omit to quote shortly the opinion of the celebrated Uvedale Price:—"It appears to me that, at Blenheim, Vanbrugh conceived and executed a very bold and difficult design, that of uniting in one building the beauty and magnificence of the Grecian architecture, the picturesqueness of the Gothic, and the massive grandeur of a castle, and that, in spite of faults, he has formed, in a style truly his own, and a well combined whole, a mansion worthy of a great prince and warrior."
So much and such varied success naturally attracted envy. The rival wits, however, dreaded to meet Vanbrugh at their own proper weapons. They had seen enough to know that "he was cunning in fence." His buildings, however, offered safer game. Alas! for the architect; nothing is so easy as to throw dirt at his works. As Falstaff says, "men of all sorts take a pride to gird at him." Everyone, however ignorant of art, can liken them to something ridiculous and incongruous, and so raise an empty laugh. With the graver critics they are always "too" something; too light, too heavy, too high, too low, and very often (and this was Vanbrugh's case) both opposites at once. With the former, a house is like a dog-kennel, a pie, a coal-scuttle, a flat candlestick, a piece of floorcloth, or something equally absurd. The foremost in attack among the wits was the famous Dean Swift. Jonathan hated, or fancied he hated, Vanbrugh, first, because he was a successful humorist; and, secondly, because he was "a puppy and a whip." His attacks were in two sets of verses, brilliant enough in their way, and he (knowing nothing of what he was writing about) thought himself safe by taking the "too little" line. Accordingly, the building is compared to a "goose-pie," a "snail," a "chaise," a "tilt in a boat," a "house of cards," and last, and nearly least, a "mouse-trap." The other critics took the "too large" line, "huge heaps," "cumbrous quarries." Every simile that could express ponderosity was raked up: at last came the well-known epitaph—
"Lie heavy on him, earth, for he Laid many a heavy load on thee."
It seems inconceivable that two such opposite sets of opinions could at the same time be popular; but such is envy; it matters not how absurd or self-contradictory a saying may be, it will meet with admirers, if it is only acidulated sufficiently by the spirit of detraction. It appears that Vanbrugh remonstrated with Swift on the subject, who made him afterwards ample amends in the preface to his Miscellanies.
A more serious trouble, however, arose out of the building Blenheim than the joint attacks of all the wits. The palace had been originally voted by parliament; but with a meanness and ingratitude that is scarcely credible, they would not provide the money to pay for what they had formerly voted. Whatever faults Marlborough might have had, he had saved his country, nay, Europe, from the ambition of the French monarch, by a series of the most brilliant victories. If he had not deserved the gift, it should not have been voted; but having by a formal act decreed it should be given, it was a mean mockery to withhold the money to pay for it. The queen, however, with a generous spirit, provided the funds from her own private purse during her life. At her death, the duke, though always protesting, occasionally continued to pay the workmen, believing ultimately that he should be reimbursed by the treasury. It was before the age of "cutting" contractors, and "run-up" work. The custom then was for the architect to employ such workmen as he thought fitted for the job, to pay them himself, and to call on his employer from time to time for money as it was wanted. It may be thought the parliament had been guilty of a consummate meanness in refusing supplies to carry out its own vote; but this meanness was outdone by the duke, or rather the duchess, who ruled him and every one else with a brazen sceptre. The worthy pair actually refused to pay the workmen, who, of course, were obliged to look to Vanbrugh, from whom they had received their orders. That both the duke and duchess were stained with avarice to the core, and that the latter was a fury in temper, and a savage in resentment, is well known, but that they should have the gross injustice to expect their architect to pay their debts, and make them a present not only of his services, but of the house they were to live in, is absolutely inconceivable. It seems that Vanbrugh had actually advanced £2000 (a large sum in those days, especially for an author to advance) on account of Blenheim, at the time they thought proper to quarrel with him. In
---
1 Essay on the Picturesque, vol. II. p. 211. 2 Entitled, Vanbrugh's House, and the History of Vanbrugh's House. 3 Journal to Stella, Nov. 7, 1710. "I dined to-day at Sir Richard Temple's with Congreve, Vanbrugh, Lieutenant-General Parington, &c. Vanbrugh, I believe I told you, had a long quarrel with me about these verses on his house; but we were very civil and cold. Lady Marlborough used to tease him with them, which made him angry, though he be a good-natured fellow." We find from the Journal he dined with him again the next day. 4 "In regard to two persons only, we wish our railing though ever so tender, or resentment though ever so just, had not been indulged. We speak of Sir John Vanbrugh, who was a man of wit and honour, and of Mr Addison, whose name deserves all respect from every lover of learning." 5 Vanbrugh says, in a letter to Tonson, "I have the misfortune of losing—for I now see little hopes of ever getting it—near £2000 due to me for many years' service, plague, and trouble at Blenheim, which that wicked woman of Marlborough is so far from paying me, that the duke being sued by some of the workmen for work done there, she has tried to turn the debts due to them upon me, for which I think she ought to be hanged." 6 See her character by Pope under the name of Atossa. Vanburgh, the mean time the duke died, leaving the duchess not only an immense fortune, but a special sum of L10,000 per annum to finish Blenheim. This the duchess did, being wise enough carefully to follow out Vanburgh's plans, though she not only excluded him from any direction of the works, but absolutely prohibited his being admitted to see the building, although accompanied by his fast friends the noble Howards. It is very satisfactory, however, to find he at last got his money, "in spite," as he says, "of the hussy's teeth."
About the time that Blenheim was begun, Vanburgh, in connection with the celebrated Congreve, formed the project of building what Gibber calls a stately theatre in the Haymarket. The money was raised by subscriptions of L100 each, and great expectations were formed as to its success. The first stone, in which was the quaint inscription, "Little Whig," was laid by the Countess of Sunderland, one of Marlborough's daughters, a lady, Gibber says, of extraordinary beauty, then the celebrated toast and pride of that party. The theatre was opened by an opera, which was withdrawn after the third night. This was followed by one of Vanburgh's best comedies, the Confederacy. The plot was taken from the French of Dancour, but in every other respect it is perfectly original. The wit and humour that ran through the whole piece are of the very first quality, and the dialogue as brilliant as anything of that day. The play has been a favourite, and kept the stage till within a short period. Unfortunately the new house was so large, and surmounted by so vast a dome, that the actors could not make themselves properly heard. The consequence was, that everything fell flatly on the ear. Congreve, after contributing a prologue or two, backed out of the concern, leaving the whole weight on Vanburgh. He fought against the difficulties as well as he could, and adapted three of Molière's best comedies to the English stage, but with no better success, owing to the same cause. Ultimately he made an arrangement with a regular theatrical manager named Owen Swinney, and let the theatre at a maximum rent of L700 per annum.
He was now in full practice as an architect, and built Eastbury in Dorsetshire, now pulled down; King's Weston near Bristol; Easton Neston in Northamptonshire; a large house for Mr Duncombe in Yorkshire; Oulton Hall in Cheshire; Seaton Delaval in Northumberland; besides a great many buildings of less importance. In 1714, he received the honour of knighthood, and, in 1716, was made surveyor of works at Greenwich Hospital, and comptroller-general of the royal works, and surveyor of the gardens and waters. About this time he married Henrietta Maria, daughter of Colonel Yarborough of Haslington near York, by whom he had three children, two of whom died in infancy. The other was an ensign in the guards, and died of wounds received in the battle of Fontenoy. He had strong hopes of becoming Garter king-at-arms, but finding
the younger Anstis had a reversionary grant of the appointment, he resigned his post of Clarenceux to Knox Ward, after having held it upwards of twenty years. He himself died of a quinsy, at his house in Whitehall, on the 26th of March 1726, leaving the celebrated comedy of The Provoked Husband in an unfinished state. It was very cleverly completed by Cibber, who says in the preface, he has not altered one word of the portion written by Vanburgh.
In appearance, we are told by Noble, he was "a fine, elegant, manly person." His character may be gathered from what has been said before. Spence says of him, "Garth, Vanburgh, and Congreve were the three most honest-hearted, real good men of the poetical members of the Kit-cat Club." Cibber says, "As he lived esteemed by all his acquaintance, so died without leaving one enemy to reproach his memory; a felicity which few men of public employments, or possessed of so distinguished a genius, ever enjoyed."
The pen seems to linger as we get nearer the close of the short delineation of the life and character of this talented, warm-hearted, and prosperous gentleman. Enough has been said of his wit and poetic talent. His characters are strictly drawn from nature, and his language is so easy and unaffected, that the actors agreed that no author gave so little trouble to study.
Of his genius as an architect, enough also, perhaps, has been said; except we conclude with the opinion of the great Sir Joshua Reynolds:—"He had originality of invention; he understood light and shadows, and had great skill in composition;" and he adds, "this is the tribute which a painter owes to an architect who composed like a painter. (A.A.)
VANCOUVER ISLAND, a British possession, lying off the W. coast of North America, between N. lat. 48. 20. and 51., W. long. 123. and 128. 20.; separated from the mainland by Queen Charlotte Sound, the Gulf of Georgia, and Juan de Fuca Strait. It is of an irregular oblong form, stretching from N.W. to S.E. Its length from Cape Scott to Point Gonzales is 270 miles; its greatest breadth 70 miles; its mean breadth from 40 to 50; and its area estimated at 16,000 square miles. The general appearance of the island is by no means attractive. The coasts consist for the most part of steep cliffs, against which the sea dashes impetuously, and breaks itself into foam and spray at their feet. Almost immediately behind rise a uniform series of rounded hills, densely covered with pine forests; while the back-ground of the scene is filled up with a serrated ridge of bare mountains, which run like a backbone through the middle of the island from end to end. The interior, so far as it has been explored, consists of a mass of rocks and mountains; and of the level ground, which lies for the most part along the coasts, by far the greater part is covered with wood, although the portions that are clear have generally a very fertile soil. There are many small bays, harbours, and inlets along the coasts; and in the interior are some small rivers and lakes, but none of any
---
1 In another letter to Tomson, Vanburgh says that the duke's property "exceeded the most extravagant guess. A round million has been moving about in loans on the land-tax, &c., exclusive of his land, his L5,000 a year upon the post-office, mortgages, South Sea stock, annuities—many in foreign banks—and yet," says Vanburgh, "this man could neither pay his workmen their bills nor his architect his salary."
2 He says the duchess got information that Lady Vanburgh was to be of the party, and "sent an express the night before we came there, with orders that if she came with the Castle Howard ladies, the servants should not suffer her to see either house or garden, or even enter the park; so she was forced to sit all day long, and keep me company at the inn." It seems difficult to comprehend such petty spite.
3 This, he says, was through the assistance of Sir Robert Walpole.
4 Cibber says, "However well executed these pieces were, yet they came to the ear in the same undistinguished utterance by which almost all plays had equally suffered; for, as few could plainly hear, it was not likely a great many would applaud."
5 It is not improbable, however, that the concern may have suffered from a want of business knowledge, which is only found in professed managers. It is very rare indeed that either actors or authors have been successful in such speculations.
6 The greater part of them are published in the well-known Variorum Britannicum.
7 Some say she was twenty years younger than himself; but Lady Mary Wortley Montague, in one of her lively letters, writes, "You know Van.'s taste was always odd; his inclination to ruins has given him a fancy for Mrs (Miss) Yarborough." He must have been about five and forty at the time.
8 Noble says he had a daughter who married Sir Wm. Baker.
9 The surrender is recited to be on the 9th February 1725, in the patent passed to Knox Ward, 28th June 1725. See Anstis.
10 The register book of St Stephen's Wallbrook runs thus:—"1725, March 31, was buried Sir John Vanborough in ye North Isle." considerable size. The prevailing geological formations are gneiss and mica schist; but towards the S.E. extremity strata of limestone and sandstone occur; and among the mountains of the interior there are many blocks of granite and dikes of trap. In the central part of the island the hills are steep, rugged, and in many cases bare; the valleys narrow and shallow; and the soil such as to be of very little use. The scenery is wild without being romantic, and has neither beauty nor sublimity to attract the traveller; but some of the fertile spots along the coast are of a very different and superior character. The climate is in general agreeable and healthy. There are two seasons, a dry and a rainy. The former lasts from April to September, during which time the heat is excessive, and no rain falls. In the rainy season, from October to March, there is generally a great deal of snow and rain, but the seasons are not very certain. The flora of the island is very poor, and includes no plants that are not to be found elsewhere. The principal plant is the camass, which has an esculent root like an onion, and is a favourite article of food with the natives. Besides this, they live principally on dried salmon and potatoes, the latter of which are probably not indigenous, but have been introduced by some of the early traders. Of wild beasts, bears, wolves, panthers, and deer, are the principal; and of birds, there are several species of grouse, woodpeckers, and a great variety of water-fowl. The most important mineral in Vancouver Island is coal, of which there are extensive and valuable seams at many places. These have already been worked to some extent. The extent of land in the island that has been appropriated was, in 1853, 19,807 acres; of which 10,172 were claimed by the Hudson Bay Company; 2374 by the Puget Sound Company; and the rest by private individuals; but of this land there are not more than 400 acres actually under culture. In these, excellent crops of wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, turnip, and potatoes, have been raised; and the land is especially favourable to the growth of green crops. The most of the arable land lies in the neighbourhood of Victoria, at the S.E. extremity of the island, and there the majority of the settlers live, the rest being at Fort Rupert and Nanaimo, on the N.E. coast, where the principal coal mines are. All along the ocean-coast of the island the fisheries are very valuable; salmon and herrings abound to an extent almost unknown elsewhere, and mackerel and cod are also found. The produce of these fisheries, along with the coal and timber, form the principal resources of the island, as it is not at all adapted for pastoral, and only partially for agricultural purposes. The exports in 1853 included 1492 tons of coal, 16,500 cubic feet of squared timber, 150,800 feet of piles and spars, 10,000 square feet of lumber, 1000 bushels of oysters, 3540 barrels of salmon, and 200 barrels of oil; and amounted in value to about L14,350; the value of the imports for the same year, consisting chiefly of specie, provisions, and various merchandise, being estimated at L12,920. The aboriginal inhabitants, who belong to several different tribes, are in a very savage condition. Their total numbers are estimated at 17,000; while that of the settlers in 1853 amounted to about 450; but it is probable that, since the discovery of gold on the adjacent mainland of British Columbia, a great many more settlers have been attracted to Vancouver Island. Until 1789 this island was believed to form part of the mainland, but then an American captain sailed round it; and in 1792 Captain Vancouver visited it, and gave it the name of Quadra and Vancouver Island, the former of which titles, given in honour of the Spanish commandant of Nootka Sound, is now generally dropped. Vancouver Island was granted in 1848 to the Hudson Bay Company, on condition of their colonizing it.
VANDERVELDE or VANDEVELDE, WILLIAM, usually called the Younger, to distinguish him from his father whose name he bore, and whose profession he followed, Van Dyck who achieved a much greater fame as a marine-painter, was born at Amsterdam in 1633. He was originally taught by the elder Vandervelde; but, on their both removing to England, he was placed under a ship-painter named Vlieger. He succeeded his father as painter of sea-fights to Charles II. Of the older masters, Vandervelde the Younger is regarded by connoisseurs as the foremost of all marine-painters. Walpole says of him, that he "was the greatest man that has appeared in this branch of painting; the palm is not less disputed by Raphaelle for history than with Vandervelde for sea-pieces." But he is far inferior to Turner in representing the grandeur of a storm, and in colour and in transparency he cannot vie with Stanfield. The National Gallery contains a few Vanderveldes, but the finest collection of his works is in Bridgewater House, the property of the Earl of Ellesmere. He lived with his father at Greenwich, where he died in 1707.