THE ARCHITECTURE OF TOWN-HOUSES. 385 



We do not want pseudo-Italian palaces, or bad copies of French 

 street architecture, with forced arrangement of fenestration and cut- 

 ting up of wall-space, utterly at variance with home requirements ; 

 nor do we want so-called mediaeval structures, in which light, ventila- 

 tion, and air are sacrificed to narrow Gothic or pointed-headed win- 

 dows and doorways. 



So far as I can judge, it seems to me that the so-called Elizabethan, 

 or later Renaissance, of this country is infinitely more charming and 

 more suitable to every-day wants and requirements than any other 

 style, Greek, Roman, or Gothic ; anyway, we want to express in our 

 external work a sense of comfort and utility, and to provide ample 

 light and air-space for the rooms, of which the front wall is only the 

 external casing ; and any style which combines these desiderata will 

 commend itself to common-sense people. 



Good architectural effect may be perfectly well obtainable with a 

 good common-sense plan, and there is no possible excuse for a design, 

 whether classic, Gothic, or Queen Anne, which does not first of all 

 recognize the internal necessities and conveniences, and which is not 

 subordinate to a great extent to every-day internal requirements of a 

 well-arranged and comfortable house. While I advocate first of all 

 that the elevation or design should be made subservient to the plan, I 

 do not see the necessity of following the types of various schools of 

 French, Italian, or thirteenth, fourteenth, or fifteenth century Gothic 

 buildings ; and, when I see the pretentiousness of imitation of either 

 of these schools, I am bound to confess that it suggests nothing but 

 an ignorant conceit, which would not for a moment have been carried 

 out by the great architects, whose works we admire, had they had all 

 the modern improvements which increased knowledge and higher 

 skill in invention have brought about. 



In our monumental buildings, and even in our ordinary street 

 fronts, architecture should be much more intimately allied with the 

 sister arts of sculpture and painting. Even a porch in which the or- 

 nament is modeled with care by an artist, or the corbel of a projecting 

 bay, will redeem an otherwise bad design from commonplaceness ; a 

 proper regard for proportion and arrangement of outline in the most 

 simple building shows the work of a true artist, much more than the 

 overlaying of his work with useless ornament or carving, or the over- 

 crowding of parts with feeble enrichment stuck on balustrading and 

 pediments. In house-design, it seems to me that, first of all, the de 

 sign should convey some expression of the comfort and general plan- 

 ning of the building, and that its fenestration should show, above all, 

 proper regard to the lighting and ventilation of the rooms, and gener- 

 ally bear the characteristics of the material with which it is carried out. 



If importance is wanted in an elevation, let it be got by good sculpt- 

 ure in such portions of the building as are nearest the eye-line ; a 

 porch properly treated with good modeled decoration, either in; figure 



TOL. XXTI. — 25 



