"Sir Francis Kynaston, the poet, was living in Covent Garden in 1636,
on the east side of the street towards Berrie" (Bedfordbury).
And again, in his notice of Bedford Street (p. 44.), he says, Sir Francis
resided "on the west side in 1637." Both these entries refer to the same
residence--a noble mansion, built in the year 1594, which, after being
inhabited by several important families, finally passed into the possession
of Sir Francis Kynaston, who altered and adapted it (rebuilding some
portions) as the college of the "Museum Minervae." The ground plan, which is
now before me, exhibits a well-arranged and commodious building with two
fronts, one in what is now Bedfordbury, and the other (probably added by
Sir Francis) in the street now called Bedford Street. The building, when
Sir Francis Kynaston purchased it in 1634, stood in the centre of a large
garden. The surrounding streets,--King Street, New Street, Bedford Street,
Chandos Street, Henrietta Street, and Bedfordbury, were not commenced
building until the year 1637.
The "Museum Minervae" is not named in Mr. Cunningham's excellent _Handbook_;
but when we take into consideration the enormous amount of information
required for a work of the kind, we ought not to blame the author for a few
trifling omissions.
Sir Balthazar Gerbier, an enterprising projector of the same century, by
profession a painter and an architect, but now scarcely remembered as
either, seems to have imitated the "Museum Minervae" in an academy opened at
Bethnal Green in 1649. Here, in addition to the more common branches of
education, he professed to teach astronomy, navigation, architecture,
perspective, drawing, limning, engraving, fortification, fireworks,
military discipline, the art of well speaking and civil conversation,
history, constitutions and maxims of state, and particular dispositions of
nations, "riding the great horse," &c. Once in each week, at three o'clock
in the afternoon, Sir Balthazar gave a public lecture gratis on the various
sciences. The lectures were {318} generally advertised in the _Perfect
Diurnal_, and a few curious specimens of these advertisements may be seen
in Lysons' _Environs of London_, ed. 1795, vol. ii. p. 30.
Balthazar Gerbier was born at Antwerp about 1591, came young into England,
and was a retainer of the Duke of Buckingham as early as 1613. Upon the
accession of Charles the First, he was employed in Flanders to negociate
privately a treaty with Spain. In 1628 he was knighted at Hampton Court;
and, as he says himself in one of his books, was promised by the king the
office of surveyor-general of the works, after the death of Inigo Jones. In
1637 he was employed in some private transactions of state; and on the 13th
of July, 1641, he took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, having a bill
of naturalisation. In 1648 he appears to have projected the above-named
academy, the failure of which very soon happened. Sir Balthazar then went
to America, where he seems to have been very ill treated by the Dutch, and
narrowly escaped with his life. He afterwards returned to England, and
designed the triumphal arch for the reception of Charles the Second. He
died at Hempsted-marshal, in 1667, whilst engaged in superintending the
mansion of Lord Craven, and was buried in the chancel of that church.
In conclusion, it may be as well to mention, that, prior to the
establishment of the "Museum Minervae," a committee had been appointed in
the House of Lords, consisting of the Duke of Buckingham and others, for
taking into consideration the state of the public schools, and method of
education. What progress was made in this inquiry is not known, but in all
probability the academies of Sir Francis Kynaston and Sir Balthazar Gerbier
owed their origin to the meetings of this committee.