1828.] ] St. Omer. 241 



arising from the numerous windows still retaining their old-fashioned 

 frames and diminutive panes of glass. During the king's late visit to 

 St. Omer, he occupied this house, which was newly furnished for his 

 reception. 



The rue Royale widens, at its upper end, into an irregular-shaped- 

 open space, which takes the name of the Petite Place, and communicates 

 with the Place Royale by two narrow streets, and also with the other 

 principal street of the town the rue St. Bertin. This latter runs parallel 

 with the two large streets just described, and is of nearly the same width. 

 It consists chiefly of private houses, occupied by some of the most respec- 

 table inhabitants of the town. It also includes the Sous Prefecture, and 

 the military hospital the latter a vast and most lugubrious-looking old 

 building, composed of brickwork, cut into architectural ornaments, so as 

 to produce, at a distance, the general effect of masonry. This building, 

 and the royal college which is near it, may serve to demonstrate the 

 impossibility of brick buildings ever taking a fine or impressive character 

 when reduced to a ruinous and dilapidated state which extensive stone 

 buildings almost always do. Some of the great towers in Flanders and 

 elsewhere, shew that brickwork may be made to produce a very fine 

 effect and the older the finer provided it be kept in a perfect state of 

 repair, and the repairs be made to conform to the previous general tone 

 of the building. The great tower at Dunkerque, as described in my 

 last, is an instance of this. But the moment a brick building takes the 

 character of a ruin, or even begins to fall into decay, it loses all power 

 of affecting the imagination to any valuable or permanent end. It might 

 be worth while (if I had time, and you patience) to attempt to develop 

 the causes of this fact. As it is, I shall only say that it arises chiefly 

 from the literal character (so to speak) of the details of buildings in 

 brickwork. By a slight effort of the imagination, you may see literally 

 the hand of the workman placing every separate brick ; and, by a similar 

 effort, you may see the same hand displacing them, or capable of doing 

 so : and a work that a single human hand may be supposed capable of 

 doing and undoing, can never be made to produce any powerful effect 

 on the imagination, except by its being assimilated to some other class 

 of work that cannot be so performed. With a stone building it is dif- 

 ferent. Huge efforts, aided by all the known powers of mechanism, are 

 required to get together and place its great masses ; and similar and 

 almost equal efforts and powers seem required to displace and destroy 

 them to say nothing of the directing mind that the former case neces- 

 sarily supposes. In fact, in regard to the fine arts, petty details, inva- 

 riably and universally, produce a poor and petty effect, where they can 

 be severally distinguished and considered. If the finest cartoon of Raf- 

 faelle were to be copied in enamel by Mr. Bone, its effect would be worse 

 than lost, and it would be something similar to that of copying the Par- 

 thenon in brickwork. 



It is not necessary to describe very particularly any of the other streets 

 of St. Omer. There are two running parallel with those above named 

 (the rue des Ursulines, and the Little Rue), each containing many good 

 houses. All the rest are of an inferior character, and have nothing 

 remarkable to distinguish them one from another. Those leading to the 

 different gates of the town are the most lively and frequented; and the 

 best of these is the rue d' Arras, leading to the gate of that name. That 

 leading to the gate of Calais has the most original, and consequently cha- 



M.M. New Series. -VoL.V. No. 27. 2 I 



