SKETCHES BY A PRACTISING ARCHITECT. 15 



rock below, and the basins to be stocked with gold 

 and silver fish. The water to regain the Thames by 

 a common subterraneous brick conduit. Four 

 marble statues by Chantry round each basin, making 

 in all forty sculptures which would present to view 

 the principal heroes and heroines of Homer, Virgil 

 and Ovid." 



Our architect, then refers to two plates in illus- 

 tration of his lofty ideas as to the palace itself; and 

 in candour it must be allowed that the designs evince 

 a noble and refined taste. I cannot resist making 

 the following quotation from his description of the 

 proposed interior : — '^ If you take four or five hundred 

 Venetian sequins, and hammer them into fine leaf 

 gold, setting off therewith cedar roofs, composed of 

 beams laid transversely, and exhibiting carved roses 

 richly gilt, in receding hexagons, you will have a 

 ceiling as noble perhaps as can reasonably be ima- 

 gined." 



Thus he proceeds and gives all necessary directions 

 for the several lodges, gates, ha ! ha ! ditches, &;c. 

 The book is published, and worthy of perusal, if only 

 as to the proof it affords, that there is, at least one 

 man of independent fortune and high classic attain- 

 ments, who has made architecture the channel of his 

 heart's enthusiasm, and has published not a few 

 critical observations which the most renowned among 

 the profession, may read with advantage. It is 

 therefore, not in ridicule, but rather in envy, that a 

 poor, hard-working, two-foot-rule architect speaks of 

 such a professor as the writer in question. Not that 

 the former would shrink from practical operation, it 

 being his duty to encounter it: but, that he were 

 content to be an architect without being also a victim. 

 " I am content," says Bartolo, '' to be a man of valor 

 — I do n't care to show it." 



