1827.] Metropolitan Improvements. 127 



this was prevented either by the New Street Act, or from the want of 

 space ; and we would have transferred the honeysuckle ornament, which 

 now runs round the building, as a continuation of that on the caps of the 

 pilasters, to the freize, where it would have been more appropriate, and 

 have become a more consequential decoration to the building. But these 

 are faults which are lost or overlooked in the general beauty of the design, 

 and the justness and elegance of its proportions. The two other sides of 

 this great square are to be occupied by the National Gallery and the 

 Heralds' College, with a wide opening to admit a complete view of St. 

 Martin's Church. We have seen the plans of this improvement with 

 great pleasure, and heartily hope that the great projector of them, to whom 

 the metropolis is so much indebted, will regulate the elevations by the 

 chaste rules of his art, instead of permitting the introduction of arabesque 

 cupolas, which are useless and ugly. 



We have no objection to the exertion of the architect's imagination, or 

 to his travelling out of the established rules of his art, where improvement 

 attends his innovation ; but, till some design is made superior to the 

 models of antiquity from which we have so long copied, we think that 

 the ingenuity of the architect cannot be exerted more beneficially than in 

 their restoration. With these ideas, we wish that many of the architects 

 of the new churches had imitated the industry which Mr. Inwood has 

 exhibited in St. Pancras, rather than have put up such unworthy compo- 

 sitions as many of those which have passed the fiat of the Commissioners. 



Voltaire, has argued on the superiority of the moderns over the ancients. 

 He cites passages in Racine, Corneille/and Moliere. as being superior to 

 any in Euripides or Sophocles, in Aristophanes or Terence. In painting 

 he draws a favourable comparison of the pictures of Rubens with the 

 celebrated painting of Timantes, which is only known by tradition ; and 

 in architecture, he alludes to thn Pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Wall 

 of China, as proofs of the superiority of the moderns in the architectural 

 productions of the present day. But, had Voltaire written after the re- 

 searches of Stuart and Revett had laid before the public the beautiful 

 specimens of Greek architecture had he seen correct representations of 

 the Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Temples of the IHssus and Minerva 

 Polias, he would have said it was well for the moderns to imitate the 

 ancients, until they could do something better. 



From the period of Stuart's publication, it has therefore been the prin- 

 cipal aim of architects to apply the different models which the traveller's 

 researches have furnished from the stores of antiquity to modern buildings ; 

 and, though they may vary the application of them, yet there is nothing 

 new in their component parts. 



In this there may be no genius, but there is good taste ; and we trust, 

 that in the plans for the new improvements, there will be such a regulation 

 of the external architecture as to prevent a repetition of the anomalies 

 which offend our eyes, in a variety of specimens of design between Jer- 

 myn-street and Portland-place. 



In many of these specimens the builders seem to have worked with 

 models of excellence before their eyes, but they have so contrived to distort 

 the proportions of the various parts, that we no longer feel our accustomed 

 ndmiration for the simple Doric, the chaste Ionic, and the rich Corinthian. 

 The fact is, that these bunglers know only the rudiments of their art, 

 without having attained any knowledge of their application, and go to 

 work with their pencil, in design, as a man would, in composition, who had 



