HEUREUX QVI EN DIEV SEE CONFIE   portrait 
D. Balthazar' Gerberius, Eques Auratus▪ b. d. Ao. 1653    

A Brief DISCOURSE Concerning the Three chief Principles OF Magnificent Building.  
VIZ. 

Solidity,  
Conveniency, and  
Ornament.    
By Sr Balthasar Gerbier D'ouvilly Knight.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year 1662.   

TO THE KING'S MOST Excellent Majesty.  
May it please your 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 Seal of England,) is to introduce Foreign Princes or their public Representatives to your Sacred Presence. And in regard the Place of Surveyor General was also intended to me (after late Inigo Jones) I do make bold to introduce the three Capital Principles of good Building to your Sacred Majesty, who hath seen morestately Palaces and Buildings, than all your Ancestors, and may be a Pattern to all future Posterity, by Building of your own Palace worthy yourself, and placing 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 Saints James' Park, and the Gardens along the River.  
If the Book affords any thing worthy your Sacred Majesty's 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 Balthasar 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 Principles of good Building, and withal a Printed Paper concerning the Cleaning of the Streets, the Levelling the Valley at Fleet-Bridge, with Fleetstreet and Cheapside, add the making 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 Honour's Most humble and most obedient Servant B. Gerbier Douvilly Knight.   

A Brief Discourse, concerning the three chief Principles of Magnificent Building, viz. Solidity, Conveniency, and Ornament.  
WHereas Building is much minded in these times, I thought fit to publish some Principles thereon, which may stand the lovers of it instead. Yet without spending time and Paper to Note how a Point, Line, Angle, Demi-circle, Cube, Plint, Baze, Pedestal, Colombe, Head, Architrave, Freeze, Cornice, or Frontispiece must be made; and what Dimensions all those several parts (a Point excepted) must have, since all Master-Workmen ought to remember (as Scholars their Grammar, and Arithmaticians their Table) how every Particle must have its just proportion; and that the height of Windows and Doors must be double their breadth; and also to be careful to maintain the due esteem of their Art, since its Dimensions and Rules came directly from Heaven, when the great Architect and Surveyor of Heaven and Earth, prescribed the Rules and particular Orders for the Building of a floating-Pallace, (Noah's Ark) and the glorious matchless Temple of Solomon, the perfect House of Prayer.  
And therefore such Precedents may serve to convince those who say, That a wiseman never ought to put his finger into Mortar, since there is a necessity for Building, especially among Nations who do not, or cannot live in Caves and hollow Trees, or as the Wild Indians, who have no other Roofs but of Palmito-Leaves, nor Wainscot, but Bambouses, as they call the Poles to which they tie a Woollen Hammac to lie in.  
There are three Capital Points to be observed by men, who intent to Build well: VIZ, 

Solidity.  
Conveniency.  
Ornament.    
Those who have Marshalled the Orders of Colombs (to make good the first Point) have Ranged the Toscan to be the Supporter of a Building, but such an Atlas must stand on a firm Ground, not as ill Bvilder's place Colombs (either of Brick or Stone) like things Patched or glued against a Wall, and for the most part against the second Story of a Building, (contrary to the very Gothish Custom, who at least did begin their Buttrises from the Ground) as if their intent were, that the weight of the Colombs should draw down the Wall, on the heads of those that pass by.  
Such Builders confound the first and essential point of Building, (to wit, Solidity, with Ornament and Conveniency)  
They will make a show of some thing, but miss thereby (as ill Bowmen) the Mark: They may perchance have heard of rare Buildings, nay, seen the Books of the Italian Architects, have the Traditions of Vignola in their Pockets, and have heard Lectures on the Art of Architecture, which have laid before them the most necessary Rules, as also the Origine of the several Orders of Colombs, and Discourses made thereon; that the Toscan is as the Hercules, so of the Jonic and Corinthian; the first of the two to Resemble the Dressing of the Daughters of Jonio, who had Twists of Hair on both sides of their Cheeks. The Corinthian Heads to represent a Basket with Acante Leaves, and the Guttered Colombs, the Pleats of Daughter and women's clothes.  
That the Grecians (in remembrance of their Victories) did Range the Colombs in their Buildings, to represent the number of Slaves which they had taken; the Grains, Beads, Drops, Pendants, Garlands, Enterlaced-Knots, Fruitage, and an infinite number of Ornaments, which are put on the Freeze, to signify the Spoils which the Victors had brought away from their Enemies; and to preserve the Memory thereof, did place them on their Buildings, that they might also serve for a true History.  
But none of such Ornaments were ever impediments to the strength or convenience of a Building, for they were so handsomely and well contrived, as once the Duchess of Cheiveruse (a French Lady) said of the English Females, that they had a singular grace to set their Ornaments right and handsomely.  
The Barbarians and naked Tapoyers, Caripowis, Alibis, (and several Charibdiens) do place Pendants in their Nostrils, which are proper for the Ears; and these hinder not the use of the Lips, which ought to be observed by all Builders.  
And as for the inside of Fabrics, Builders should in the first place set the Doors, Chimneys, and Windows, as may be most convenient for use.  
Bvilder's ought to be not only experimented in House-keeping, but also good Naturalists, to know (before they spend time and Materials) the required Property to every part of a Building. A Door to be so set as it may not convey the Wind toward the Chimney or Bedstead, though opened never so little.  
The Windows to be so placed, as that the Fire made in the Chimney, may not attract the Air and Moisture, and so prove the unwholesomest part of the Room for those that are near the Fire; Which was the main reason why the great Isabel Infanta of Spain (King Philip the Seconds Daughter, who Governed the Provinces of Brabant, Flanders, Arthois, and Haynault, during her many years Residence at Brussels,) being prepossessed with a prejudice, never approached a Fire to warm herself; till at last being through wet (going a Procession in a great Rain, and by a Visit made by Mary of Medicis, Queen Mother to Lewis 13th, just as she returned to her Palace) had no time to Shift her, she was constrained to approach the Fire to dry herself, and few days after she fell sick and died upon it: which Relation being very true, and happening in the time that I resided for the King of blessed memory in that Court, I thought fit to mention, to persuade all Noble (and curious Builders, to place their Doors, Windows, and Chimneys in their proper places.  
And though it be not my design in this small Discourse to Treat of Dimensions (which are fit for a Primar to Apprentices,) Yet I cannot desist (by reason of the West- Indian Herican-like-windes which happened February last, to persuade all Builders to forbear the Buildlng any more those exorbitant Chimney-Shafts, which when they fall, break both Roofs and Sealing of Rooms, and kill good People in their Beds: since a Chimney some two Foot higher than the Ridges of the Roof of a Building, (which is not overtopped by a Church or Steeple, or some other eminency,) is as good a conveyance for the smoke, as any of a greater height. Neither are those high Shafts of Chimney's real Ornaments to a Building, much less to the Palace of a Sovereign: nor do the German Travellers of this Age any more fill (as formerly) their Table-Books with the number of them, as they were very careful to note the Names of their Hoatts, where the best Wine was, and when they tasted that called Lagrima-Christi, they moaned and asked why he did not weep in their Country. It's true, that the least addicted to Bibbing, did put in their Stam-books the Dimensions of the Phanteon and of the Amphitheatres; as also of Caprazola fiescati, and such Magnificent Structures above Ground in Italy, and under Ground La Pessina Admirabile, La Grota de la Sibila Cumana, Bagni de Cicerone, cente Camere, é le Sepulture de le nobili Antichi. But they are now taught by Tutors to observe the Inside of Men, and Buildings. And as the best Ornaments of a Face appears at first sight by the Eyes, Mouth, and Nose; so doth the best qualities of a perfect Building, by Windows, and Doors well placed, as also by a large, magnificent, commodious, and well-set Staircase.  
Noble, manificent, and commodious Staircases, must in the first place participate of a Nobleman's manner of Pace and Attendance.  
There is no man of sound Limbs (and that hath a gallant Gate) but lifts his Toes at least four Inches, when he goeth an ordinary easy Pace; so that if two steps (each four Inches high) be eighteen Inches broad, or deep, which makes six and thirty Inches the two (the just measure of a man's two steps,) they may be ascended from the first Floor, to the higher Story, as if a man walked on a level ground.  
2. Those Stairs ought to be so long, that the Attendants on each side the Noble Person, Prince or Sovereign, may not be straightened for room.  
Such were the Monarchlike Stairs of the Palace of Darius and Cyras the Great, at Chelminor in Persia near Saras, the Metropolitan between Ormus and Espahan. I do speak indeed of a Palace without comparison to any other, the Walls of Circumvallation of that Palace, being four and twenty foot thick, and the Stairs (as yet in esse) are forty foot long, in number an hundred and eight, of Circular Form, and of so easy an Access, as that Travellers do ascend them on Horseback.  
King James of blessed memory could not have been so much in danger of an Onset in a Pair of Stairs, large enough for a Noble Retinue to his Person, as he was in a narrow Pair, which History mentions.  
Neither had William Prince of Orange been so easily Shot at Delff in Holland, descending a narrow Pair of Stairs.  
3. A Noble Pair of Stairs should have a Cupelo, and no Windows on the sides, which for the most part serve but for Rude and Unadvised Men to break.  
In some Palaces and Nobleman's Houses, Too many Stairs and backdoors (as the old English Proverb) makes Thiefs and Whores. And the setting the Front of a Building towards the North-West, and a Palace, like Cardinal Wolseyes' ill-placed one (now called Whitehall) on a low ground by the River side) makes work for Physicians, Apothecaries, Surgeons, Coffin and Grave-makers.  
But as for a Seat on MoorishGrounds (except the Builders observe the practice of those of Venice (in Italy) and Amsterdam (in Holland) who bestow more Timber of Oak in the Foundation of one, than in the Building of six Houses, in effect 'tis to Build perpetually, leaving to their Posterity to prop and redress their ill grounded Buildings; and they may well be ranked with the Duke of Arscot, who built much in Brabant, and (in a merry humour) designed in his Will ten Thousand Gilders per annum, to support and alter what he had Built amiss.  
I must also advise Builders on high Grounds, to cause their Surveyors to search for Springs, and shun them; which serve better to fill up Glasses to allay the Vapours of Gascony Wines, than to make a Pond in a Cellar.  
Bvilder's ought also to be very curious and careful in the choice of the place to Build a Seat on, for good Prospect, well Garnished with Woods, and the Water at hand, not too near, nor too far from a City or Town.  
Item, I must wish all Princes and Noble Persons who are resolved to Build Palaces and Seats answerable to their quality, to imitate those who in the Heathen age were so careful in the ordering of the Structure of their Stone Images, especially of their Saturn, Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Neptune, (and all their Fry of wanton Goddesses) as to empannel a Jury of Philosophers, Naturalists, Physiognomists and Anatomists, who were to direct the Sculptors how to Represent those Images. And so I would wish Builders to proceed in the contriving the Models of their intended Fabric, to wit, to consult (as those of Amsterdam did in the making the Model of their Town-House, divers experimented Architects, though they pitched for the Front on the worst of all.  
Item, Before the Workmen, make use of Materials, and not to Build at Random, as the Custom of too many ill Builders is; And when once the Model is approved, never to alter, nor to pull down what hath been well begun, nor to hearken to the diversity of opinions, which have been, and are the causes of many Deformities and Extravagancies in Buildings; and especially those who seem to have had for Models Bird-Cages, to jump from one Room into the other by Steps and Trestles, to cause Men and Women to stumble.  
And the sides all of Glass (like Spectacles) the glass Windows of small Pains, with great store of Lead, to draw the more Wind and Moisture from the open Air within Doores. As also Windows with store of Iron Casements, which rust, and never shut close, notwithstanding all the various devices of Smiths, to catch Money out of the Bvilder's Purses, contrary to the good custom in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the Low-countrieses, which certainly for plurality of Voices should be believed, and followed.  
Those Nations cause their glass Windows to be fitted in wooden Casements triple riveted, to keep out Wind and Rain; they are lined with wooden Shutters, and have double boarded Shutters without, to resist all the violence of the Wether and Thiefs.  
Let no man mistake these Windows▪ for wooden Casements, for such are usually seen here in England in old wooden Houses, the Casements scarce above one Foot and a half high, tottering things; for these are substantially, strongly, and curiously made Casements; nor are the wooden Shutters such Pastboard-like things, as are generally put on the outside of the Windows on the London and Suburbs Houses, but double-Deal well-riveted Windows, with substantial Locks, Bolts, and Hinges, and a double Iron Bar, with a Bolt fixed in the middle of them both.  
Nor do good Builders affect partitions of Lime and Hair in their Houses, nor any of their Bricks to be daubed over with finishing Mortar.  
The Romans are very curious in the tempering their Mortar, and in the laying it as thin as possibly they can, to prevent the sinking and bending of their Walls, which the laying of the Mortar too thick doth cause; and experience showeth, that when some Walls are taken down in England, half of the substance is Sand and Dust.  
The Romans (as likewise the Grecians before them) did not make use of their Lime at the same time it was slakt, but for six Month's time suffered to putrify, and so putrified composed a Seiment, which joined with Stone (or Brick) made an inseparable union, and such strong work as I have seen Iron-Tools break on the old Mortar of the Amphitheatres at Verona and Rome.  
Their manner of preparing Lime is to lay it in Cisterns the one higher than the other, that the Water (after it hath been so stirred as that it is well mixed and throughly liquid) may drain from one Cistern to the other, and after six Month's time (the Lime having evacuated its putrefaction) remains purified, and then they mix two parts of Lime with one part of Sand, and makes that strong and pure Mortar, which if practised in England would make a wondrous strong Union, especially if the Clay-makers did beat the Clay as it ought to be, the English Clay being better than the Italian, nay the best in the world.  
They are very careful in the making large and deep Foundations, and to let the Walls raised on the Foundations rest and settle a good while before they proceed to the second Story.  
Some of our Carpenters have learned to lay Board's loose for a time, the Italians and other Nations are not sparing therein, they nail them as if for good and all, but rip or take them up again, to fit them for the second time.  
As I said before, no Building is begun before a mature Resolve on a complete finished Model of the entire design: the Builder having made choice of his Surveyor, and committed to him all the care and guidance of the work, never changeth on the various opinions of other men, for they are unlimited, because every man's conceits are answerable to their profession, and particular occasion.  
A Sovereign or any other Landlord, is then guided by natural Principles, as well as by his own Resolve, taken on a long considered Model, because they know (by experience) how sudden changes are able to cause monstrous effects.  
They know that a well-experienced Surveyor must not be disturbed in his task, and undertaking, but as the Silk Worm and the Soul of Man, the first in his Husk, the second in the Womb, wherein both the one and the other (by the powers of the great Architect and Director of all things) works out his own complete Fabric, if not interrupted; but if interrupted by any outward accident, it happens that those passions become the original causes of exorbitant Features and Forms▪ An Item for all Builders to suffer a good Architect quietly to pursue his task, if he understands it.  
It hath been observed among the French (a Nation as much addicted to changes is any) that when the charge of an undertaking hath been committed to many, it caused but confusion, and therefore it's a saying among them, Trop de Cuisineirs gattent le pottage, Too many Cooks spoils the Broth.  
I shall not spend time, and transgress on the Readers patience, concerning the making of Clay, and burning of Bricks, only say, that it imports much the Clay should be well wrought, before it be put in the Mould: experience hath also taught Brick-makers to have them of such a length, thickness and wideness, that four of them (together with the Mortar thereunto belonging) may raise a Foot.  
As for Freestone, Portland Stone works well, and makes a good union with Bricks, yet cannot be compared with Marble, nor to the Bluish Stone of the Quarries of Liege and Namur. But 'tis also certain, that this Climate makes Marble itself to Moulder very much; as for example, the Cain and Abel in York-House Garden, which did not Moulder when it stood in that of the Duke of Larma at Valedolid in Spain, the coldness (together with the moistness of this Clime) being of a contrary operation to the temper of the Air in Italy and Spain. And therefore when Builders see their Coping, Water-table, Cornishes, Rails, and Balisters to decay, they must have patience, since there is no Material but is subject thereunto, and that Rails and Balisters (either on the top of the Walls of a Frontispiece, or in Balconies) though never so well Painted in Oil, and of the best seasoned Timber,) but must be renewed at forty or fifty years' end.  
Bvilder's ought to calculate the Charges of their designed Building, and especially with what Sum of Money they are willing to part, and yet remember to imitate some Philosophical Humorist, who resolves to venture on a pretty thing called a Handsome Lady, without which their Fate seems to tell them they cannot live, and therefore makes an account beforehand that all things will not precisely answer his expectation. But on the contrary, the Lady instead of being a good Housewife, (and an assistant) proves expensive, and an impediment. And if it prove otherwise, he will be a great gainer by the bargain; for let Builders put their design to Master-Workmen by the Great, or have it Wrought by the Day, either the Workmen will overreach themselves, or the Builder will be overreached.  
Charity to the one, and respect to the other, moves me to keep the rest in my Pen, yet shall never be backward to inform either of them in the ear what may be the best for them to choose.  
But I must freely advise all Builders in general, never to begin to Build on a Ground before it be Purchased, as the late Duke of Buckingham did at York-House, where there hath been much daubing and breaking through old rotten decayed Walls; first to make a Lady's Closet on the corner of a Wall where a Butteryses stood, and which was taken away for the Closet, intended only at first for a Closet of ease, and to serve until the Archbishop of York could be persuaded to accept as good a Seat as that was, in lieu of the same, which could not be so soon compassed, as the Duke of Buckingham had occasion to make use of Rooms, to entertain (according to the Dignity of a prime Minister of State) foreign Princes and Ambassadors; so as on a sudden, all the Butterises that upheld that rotten Wall were thrown down, the Ceilings of Rooms supported with Iron-bolts, Balconies clapped up in the old Wall, daubed over with finishing Mortar, and all this (as a Toadestoole groweth in a night) to serve until a Model for a Solid Building (to stand even with the Street) were made, and to be Built of such Stone as the Portico or Water-Gate at the River side is; and this was done on a Moorish Ground, whereon no New Building could stand any time without Proppings, which was contrary to the main Principle of good Building.  
I must proceed and conclude with my humble respects concerning Palaces of Sovereign Princes, which must differ as much from other Buildings, as their quality and condition from that of their Subjects.  
And in the first place, as Solidity must be the first Principle in all good Building; so much more ought it to be observed in that of Sovereigns, unto whom the whole world hath access.  
And as there must be spacious Ground before their Palaces, their Inner-Court ample, the Offices for their Retinue large and commodious, and so placed as they may neither be an annoyance nor of ill aspect.  
The first Stories ought rather to be vaulted than boarded, to prevent such an accident as happened to Lewis 13th French King, (and his Queen at a Ball,) when the Floor of the Room (with all the Company) fell down; the King and Queen only remaining (by a special Providence) on the Hearth of the Chimney, setting under the Cloth of State.  
And as there is a necessary Magnificence to be expressed on the Front and inside of Princely Buildings, answerable to their greatness; so is it absolutely necessary, that the Architect be possessed with a Soul as great as the Player in the French Play, called the Virionaries, where he persuades himself to be Alexander, and governs his Motions accordingly. And the Lines and Strokes of the Architect must be Alexander-like: his Figures and Statues Colossuses, his Pyramidis like those of Egypt, and the Vaults like that Rock wherein Alexander and Darius wrestle for Mastery in a Valley in Persia, between Babylon and Espahan, at a place called Carimonshahan, where formerly was a great City six English Miles long; in which Groto, the Alexander-like mind of the Sculptor, hath Hewn within the Rock, (besides Alexander on Horseback, and a number of Huntsmen and Ladies) the aforesaid Alexander and Darius wrestling to break a Ring between them.  
Such a like mind Prince Thomas of Savoy, (Son to the Great Emanuel of Savoy) infused into his Architect, Sculptor, and Caster in Brass, who he employed in the Designing and Building a Stable in Turin, within all of Marble, the Racks, Manger, and the upright Posts all of Copper, Richly Wrought, Conveyances of Water Pipes. The Manger fourteen Inches wide at the bottom, to contain a Pale for Water on all occasions. The uppermost edge of the Manger three foot eight Inches high from the Ground, to accustom the Neapolitan great Saddle-Horse to raise their Neck. The Rack Poles three Inches asunder and upright, that as the Frenchman saith, (Lapetit vienten mangeant) the Horse may feed more cheerfully, the Hay and Dust may not fall on their Heads, as it doth out of a Rack which stands shelving: the under part of the Manger ought to be made up to keep in their Litters, and no Boxes made there for Dogs, as some not curious do, where no Harnesses, Saddles, Cover of Horses, or any other Implements or Tools, are not to be seen about the Postern, since those things do but impede the Access of a Cavalier to the Horses.  
The disposing a Stable into a double Range, hath been affected by some, who would see all their Horses at once.  
Others love only a single Range, with a broad Walk, and if they have a great number of Horses, return at the end into another Range, if the Ground can afford the same, so as a Wall makes the Partition between the Horses.  
The Paving of such a Stable is very neat, being of white or yellow (twice burnt) Flanders Bricks, in Dutch called Clinkart, far beyond Planking of Stables, for divers Reasons. The Paviors (after the Bricks are laid) throw sharp Sand over them, and twice a day they are Watered with a Gardeners Watering-Pot, and Swept with a Broom, which the Grooms are to continue sometimes, because the Sand gets between the Joints, and makes the Paving very close and firm. The Pavement at the Foot of the Manger, must be raised at the least six Inches higher, than at the Gutter where the Posts are placed, which ought to be five Foot and an half distant one from the other, which Ground so Paved is of double use; first, that the higher a House stands towards the Manger, the better sight it is, and especially when the Lights of the Stable strikes on the Horse their backs, which is the better Light.  
Secondly, That a Horse its usual standing place being so much shelving accustomes the Horse (reposing more on his hinder Feet than on the foremost) to be more light and nimble in his Gate and Pace.  
Thirdly, That his Stall doth not remain under him, and especially when its standing hath eight foot in length from the Manger to the Channel, which for neatness ought to be above Ground, the eight Foot in length, being at full the space which the Horse doth possess when in the night time he lieth stretched on his Litter.  
I must not omit by way of Queries, to Write somewhat concerning the Kitchen of a Princely Palace, viz. whether there should not be as much curiosity, if not more in the Kitchen than in the Stable; since the Meat prepared in a Kitchen, aught to be Dressed with all Neatness, and preferred before a fine Lace about the Master Cooks Towel: Neither are the Vessels of Silver but in reference to the Neatness which ought to be observed in all Cookery. The Frenchman's Glass is wrenched as often as he Drinks, and why should not Cooks be more Curious and Neat in their Kitchens, than Grooms in their Stables? And as a Stable can have conveyances for the Horse's Water, so may Kitchins for Slabbering, for Guts of Fowls and Deer, Coals, Ashes, and▪ whatsoever else can cause Dirt and Nastiness, and be freed from the annoyance of Smoke, which many ill-placed Doors cause; nor ought the Kitchen or other Offices and Cellarage, (as in some Palaces in France) to be so placed as they may prove prejudicial to the Court, and if they are underneath a Palace they ought to be vaulted.  
I must not forget that the Roof of a Palace should be covered either with Lead or blue Slates.  
The Pantheon at Rome was covered with Brass, which a Pope melted to cast Canons, no such as only eat, drink and sing.  
No curious eye can well endure those Barn-like Roofs of many Noble Persons Palaces, covered with red Tiles, which break and rot away, and then the Roof being mended and patched, seems to be a Beggar's mantle, which I would not have the Nobles and Courtiers to be. See the Roofs of Leicester, Newport, Southampton, and such like their Palaces, whether they do not look as Barns for Hay, and not Py-bald, by their patched Tiles?  
As for the main bulk of Palaces, its true some have a greatness in plainness, as that of Farners in Rome, whereof Michael Angelo made the Architrave, Freeze and Cornish.  
And as for Bigness and Solidity, that of St Jeronimo, and Escurial in Spain; for Ornament, Munikch in Bavaria; the Louver at Paris for Vastness, Situation and Ornament, by the embossed Imagery on the Frontispiece, variety of Orders of Colombs, with the delight of the annexed Tuilleries, wherein as especially in that of the Palace of the Duke of Orleans, but above all in the Cardinals their Vignas in Rome, is observed the form of a true Princely Garden, consisting not only in much Air, great plots of Grass, low Borders, large Gravell-Walks, but for close Walks, Fountains, Groves, and Statues, to make good the Italian saying, Per variar natura é bella. And as for the embossed carved Imagery on the Frontispiece of a Palace, their Dimensions must be according unto their distance from the Ground; which is a main point requisite to be observed also in Schemes, wherein divers undertakers commit very great faults, not only by the not reducing whatsoever is represented to the true Lines of Perspective, but also by omitting the giving such Proportions to things, as may satisfy the sight of all the Spectators at their several distances; for Excellency doth not consist in vastness, nor in the quantity of Objects, nor Shapes, nor Colours.  
The Sphere in an Angle of a great Chamber in St Pedro è Vaticano in Rome confirms this truth, and every judicious Eye will be satisfied therewith. Seas must not only be seen to have a natural motion, but heard to make a noise of breaking of their Waves on the shore, and against the Rocks. Clouds must not only drive, but be transparent. Winds, Thunder, Lightning, Rain, Snow, and Hail, must be so heard, seen, and felt, as that Spectators may think those sights to be natural operations. The Sun, Moon, and Stars, no Pasteboard devices, but so represented, as that they may dazzle the Eyes of Spectators, And all the Motions of Scenes and Mutations as insensible, and no more to be discovered, than that of the Hand of a Dial.  
Neither can all great Rooms of Princely Palaces serve for this use, except they be after the Moddell of such as the Italians have built, as there is a good one at Florence in Italy, with conveyances for Smoke, and capacities for Echoes, which Inigo Jones (the late Surveyor) experimentally found at Whitehall, and by his built Banqueting House, so as having found his own fault, he was constrained to Build a Wooden House overthwart the Court of Whitehall.  
The greatness of a Sovereign consists not in the quantity of Stone and Timber heaped together, The Quarries possess more Stone, and the Woods more Timber than a Banquet Room. Let any good eye judge, whether it be not true, that the extreme height of a Room takes not away the greatness of the company that is in the same, and that all Hangings of Tapistery make no show at all, unless they reach to a proportionable height of a Room.  
Since the greatness of a Nation consists not in a Husk, but in itself, and in its Sovereign, nothing should be suffered to diminish the appearance of that greatness within or without Doors. A Sovereign and his Retinue, in a too vast Room in height, width and length, doth appear like a company in a Valley near high Mountains. Whenas a body standing on the brow of a Hill, and seen from below, seems to be a kind of Colosse, which argueth that there must be a great discretion used in the making them fit and pleasing.  
All which I do not Write to undervalue any Modern Works, nor any of the Cavallier-like Operas, every good Talon being commendable. As I am confident there are some that live, who will not deny that they have heard the King of blessed Memory, graciously pleased to avouch he had seen in Anno 1628., (close to the Gate of York-House, in a Room not above 35. Foot square,) as much as could be represented (as to Scenes) in the great Banqueting Room of Whitehall; and that divers judicious persons will not deny, that the excellency of the several Triumphal Arches Erected in the City of London, consists not in their Bulk.  
The Grecians and Romans (who have shown their Mastership in them) did conform them to the respective places.  
Things can be too great, as well as too little, too massy, and too slender, too gaudy, and too plain; and Colours placed together, which agree not one with the other, as blue and green. God in his Rainbow having showed us the best way of ordering Colours. Nor is it the quantity of Timber or Stone, that speaks love in an Arch; but rather when it is composed of the hearts of Loyal Subjects, which surpasseth all that can be made.  
May therefore the oldest and most tottering House in the Land, breath forth of its Windows what may answer that true love, and in point of good Building, wherewith this Discourse is begun, (next to the giving such a new Form to the Streets of London and the Suburbs, as may in a manner equalise those in Holland in neatness, if the Inhabitants will but take the right and only course therein.) May his Sacred Majesty during his long prayed for and wished Reign, see St. Paul's Church in that magnificency, as the Metropolitan of the Houses of God, in the chief City of Albion justly requires. And his Royal Palace Built, so as to answer the matchless greatness of him, who all tongues of Loyal Subjects speaks to be Carolum, Magnum, Secundum Dei gratia, Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae & Hiberniae Regem, Ecclesiae, Legum, & Libertatis Populi Restauratorem; Which shall ever be the dutiful Wishes of  
Balthasar Gerbier Douvily Knight▪   

Printed by A. M. and are to be sold by Richard Lowns at the White Lion in St Paul's Churchyard, Thomos' Heath at the Globe within Ludgate, and Matthew Collins at the three Blackbirds in Canon-street at St Nicholas-lanes end Stationers. 1662.