265 



SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 

 No. IV. 



"And so, ere answer knows what question would, 

 (Saving in dialogue of compliment; 

 And talking of the Alps and Appenines, 

 The Pyrenean, and the river Po,) 

 It draws toward supper in conclusion so." — K. John. 



After being harassed by certain of the " Full- 

 moneys/' " Paynaughts/' (fee, kc, as described in 

 the former Sketches, the young architect fancies he 

 has at length met with a patron of genuine stamp — 

 one who has travelled through each varied scene of 

 classic Italy ; talks in raptures of the Museo-Vatica- 

 no, the Palazzo Borghese, and the Campo Vaccina, 

 (for he is much too refined to vulgarize either by an 

 English appellation ;) shews you his beautiful Mo- 

 saics from Rome, his marble vases from Florence, 

 and lastly refers you, with pride, to a magnificent 

 copy of // nostra Palladia purchased at Vicenza, the 

 great architect's birth-place, and the stage of his chief 

 professional enactments. '* Ah," says he, with a sort 

 of melancholy — a most humorous melancholy, like 

 that of Jaques — and, turning over, at the same time, 

 his foho of Palladian design, ** Ah, sir, we can 't do 

 such things now-a-days : — There 's proportion ! 

 There 's harmony ! There 's decorative style !" 



Not less pleased with his classic zeal, than im- 

 pressed with due notions of your own rival genius, 

 you suffer him to expend his outpourings of exclusive 

 homage to the shrine of " il nostro Palladio," resol- 

 ved on availing yourself of the opportunity he is 

 about to afford you — determinate on proving, that 

 you can do, at least what by-gone others have done, 

 and, very possibly, something more. You know, 

 well enough, that even Palladio had the usual faults 

 of a primitive reformer or restorer — faults, which tell 

 not to his shame, though, in their repetition at this 

 advanced era of improvement, they unquestionably 

 would to yours. You will preserve the informing 

 spirit of the Venetian school of architecture, only to 



VOL. IV. — 1834. KK 



