Hawksmoor, Nicholas

, an architect of considerable note, was born in 1666, and at the age of seventeen became the scholar of sir Christopher Wren, but deviated a little from the lessons and practice of his master, at least he did not improve on them, though his knowledge in every science connected with his art, is much commended, and his character remains unblemished. He was deputysurveyor at the building of Chelsea college, clerk of the works at Greenwich, and was continued in the same posts by king William, queen Anne, and George I. at Kensington, Whitehall, and St. James’s; surveyor of all the new churches, and of Westminster-abbey, from the death of sir Christopher, and designed many that were erected in pursuance of the statute of queen Anne for building fifty new churches viz. St. Mary Wool no th, in Lombard-street; Christ church, in Spitaifields St. George, Middlesex St. Anne, Limehouse and St. George, Bloomsbury the steeple of which is a master-stroke of absurdity. It consists of an obelisk topped with the statue of George I. hugged by the royal supporters: a lion, an unicorn, and a king, on such an eminence, as Walpole observes, are very surprizing. He also rebuilt some part of All Souls’ college, Oxford, and gave the plan for a new front to the street, which may be seen in Williams’s “Oxonia,” but has never been executed. At Blenheim and Castle-Howard he was associated with Vanbrugh, and was employed in erecting a magnificent mausoleum there, when he died in March 1736, near seventy years of age. He built several mansions, particularly Easton Neston in Northamptonshire; restored a defect in Beverley minster by a machine that screwed up the fabric with extraordinary art repaired, in a judicious manner, the west end of Westminster-abbey and gave a design for the Radcliffe library at Oxford. ²

|