without seeming to realize what was going on around him, hardly conscious of where his actions might lead. Although very much in the tumult, he was never of it. Kindly, sincere, of not more than average delicacy; in some ways stupid, in others extremely talented, 'honest Van' was carried forward on a tide of great good fortune (his own vigour aiding not a little) until the age to which he belonged by birth but not by temperament, passed gently beyond him. Thus while he subsided on sandy shores, others entered the ports he only just failed to make.

The attention of the clamorous, intriguing world was first drawn to him in a way which did not mark him out for future distinction. Early in February 1692 it was informed by a letter from France that "three English gentlemen, Mr. Vanbrook, Mr. Goddard and Mr. North were clapt up in the Bastile, suspected to be spies ", and since there seemed to be nothing else to do, some French merchants were sent to the Tower " to be used as Mr. North and Mr. Vanbroke are in the Bastile "." The polite world expressed some concern for Mr. North, a member of its circle, but nobody knew who Mr. Vanbrook might be.

Had they known, the gentlemen of King William's reign would not have been much interested. A prosperous sugar-baker of Chester,3 now dead, had had nineteen children by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton,

as

3 Giles, see Swain. The original Dutch name was Van Brugghe. We find it as Vanbrook, Vanbroke, Vanbrug, Vanbruggs, Vanbrugge, Van Brugg, and Brooke. Downes in Roscius Anglicanus, spells it Vantbrugg, and on one occasion is careless enough to write 'Mr. Vantbrugg playing Ventidius in All for Love at St. James's Palace in 1704. Surely he means Verbruggen the actor, as there is no other mention of our Vanbrugh ever acting. The name was probably pronounced Vanbroog.

and the prisoner, the eldest surviving son of the stout old merchant, had been born in 1664. A liberal' education at the Chester High School and two years. wandering in France to study house-building, had, in 1686, a little strangely led him to a commission in the Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot.1 But his military duties had not interfered with his travels, and he had once more gone to France, whence returning in 1690 he had been seized at Calais to be cast into prison. In the next year he was transferred to Vincennes, and now he was promoted to the Bastille among men of importance, an honour neither he nor anybody else was ever able to explain.2

The causes of his confinement are obscure, but not beyond conjecture, since for a commissioned officer to amble about France when England was at war with that country might very well lead to untoward incidents. The more so that Vanbrugh appears to have neglected to take out a passport, which the French authorities learned " upon the information of a lady in Paris ",3 or so it was rumoured. Perhaps he thought he might escape notice among the crowd of officers dangling loyally after James, of whom, indeed, his commission. would declare him to be the 'trusty and well-beloved ' servant. The more popular view, however, is that he was seized on the report of an engineer who had seen him gazing with too much attention at a piece of military architecture, and no doubt it was difficult to explain that his interest was entirely technical or aesthetic. The French, though they understand a devotion to art, are a realistic people.

Afterwards 13th Foot, and E. Somerset Regt.

2 D. N. B., Ward, Swain. The place of his education is doubtful.
3 D. N. B.
4 T. Cibber.

True or not, the latter tale is characteristic of Vanbrugh's life. His most innocent actions-and what is more natural than for an architect to look at any structure he happens upon ?-seemed always to involve him in the violent quarrels of others, and the only dissensions of which he had not the heartiest dislike were those domestic broils he invented to enliven his comedies. Quite unwittingly he was continually thrusting his hand into hornets' nests, and being badly stung. But he always extricated himself in the same manner, and on this occasion, tradition, if not faithful to fact, is still true to character. It is said that while in the Bastille he was constantly cheerful, and amused himself not only with reading French comedies, but by translating them, as well as by sketching out some scenes for an original piece : and that he made himself so agreeable to the gentlemen who visited him there, that it was through their pleading he was released at the end of November 1692. Personal charm! there, at the outset of his career we feel his distinguishing touch, the winning quality of one who liked his fellows, and was ready to take life as he found it. A happy directness of manner, an engaging appearance, and a knack of doing with zest anything which came to his hand to do, were graces ever ready to serve him. And to such as command these, Fate is apt to be generous.

On his release, however, she at first dealt her favours with a niggard hand, in the form of a mean auditorship of the Southern division of Lancaster,' probably through his cousin William, who was a treasury official. It was a small enough gift to a man of Vanbrugh's honesty, but the prospects of an architect being poor, doles were not to be scorned. There was, of course, the army, but at twenty-eight the position of an ensign is not very gratify

I Swain.

ing or encouraging, and the pay, as well as being small, was uncertain for not only was Parliament, through suspicion of William, dilatory in raising funds, but it was not unknown for superior officers to cheat their subalterns. Even the seniors themselves were not very sure of their pay, and on one occasion the secretary of the Treasury needed the stimulus of a bribe to jog his memory as regards arrears.1

2

The army, then, promised no advancement; but it is possible that as a makeshift Vanbrugh joined his brother Dudley, a captain in the Scots Regiment, and who at about the time John was leaving the Bastille, had, while in winter quarters at Ostend, an unfortunate experience. He killed his colonel, one Beveredge, in a duel, the colonel "having used abusive language to the Captain first, and shook him ".3 Dudley was tried by courtmartial, but acquitted, the irascible Beveredge having obviously been the aggressor, while his opponent was, like his brother, known to be "always of a peaceable, quiet temper ".4 But whether or no Dudley gave his brother temporary haven, and brought out the pleasanter aspects of the life, it is certain that when in 1696 an opportunity arose for John to take a captain's commission in Bulkeley's Marine Regiment, he found nothing better to do than to accept : 5 and inscribed in the records as John Brooke, he was thenceforth known as Captain Vanbrugh.

It was something to be a captain, and still more to be a marine, for at least the winter was passed at home and not in Holland. And life was not likely to be very arduous, especially as the regiment formed part of the sea force commanded by Carmarthen, who the year 2 There was a Brooke in his company.

I Burnet.

3 Luttrell, quoted by Ward.
4 Athenaeum, 18th August 1894.

5 D. N. B.

before had returned under full sail from the Scilly Islands, the distant view of a merchant fleet having made him regard Milford Haven as a more discreet riding. And in 1696 the fleet did no more than burn the buildings on a few islands when returning from the port of Cadiz.1 This inactivity gave Vanbrugh leisure to find another outlet for his overflowing vitality, and after this brief, inglorious campaign, his military career faded into the background.

So Burnet.