38 



HINTS TO YOUNG ARCHITECTS. 



many hours. When the commission arrives, im- 

 mediate work will be required — not preparatory 

 study : and if there be not a ready foresight to 

 pierce through all contingencies, the j)rogressive and 

 ultimate perplexity will be proportionally bewilder- 

 ing. To anticipate possible objections is greater 

 policy in an architect than to give immediate an- 

 swer to requirement. Of all professions, his is the 

 one most subjecting its professor to meddling inter- 

 ference, and a thoughtless disregard of trouble ta- 

 ken and obedience unrequited. 

 " Double, double. 

 Toil and trouble," 



is indeed the chant of the sister Fates who are hos- 

 tile to an architect's peace. The graces of the por- 

 tico, the beauties of decoration and proportion, the 

 triumph over a hundred contending desiderata, shall 

 be all fcrgotten in my lady's passion for — a house- 

 maid's closet ! It avuileth not as an excuse that you 

 can put it underthe back stairs. "It should have been 

 thought upon before. An architect ! and not think 

 of a housemaid's closet ! It ought not to be an extra." 

 ''Extra!" Fearful word ! The builder's aim, and 

 the architect's dread ! Let our young friend think 

 of it betimes; and let him bear in mind, that the 

 best guard against the overwhelming censure which 

 follows it, is to habituate the mind to a foresight, 

 which, during a study of the nearest and most im- 

 portant things, should penetrate into the most re- 

 mote and trifling. All the grand principles of de- 

 sign, convenience, and enduring strength, may have 

 been perfectly answered by the most artistical abi- 

 lity, by ingenious arrangement, and constructive 

 skill ; but, if chimneys smoke, gutters leak, or 

 drains choke ; if windows prove not in all trials 

 weather-tight ; if all the little conveniences of the 

 former house be not added to all the larger ones of 

 the present ; if a shelf, a cupboard, or a rail and 

 pins be omitted where custom might expect to find 

 them ; if the whims of old servants be not consider- 

 ed, or the carelessness of new ones anticipated ; if, 

 in short, the genius of a Michael Angelo be not fol- 

 lowed close up with the care of a cabinet-maker, 

 the architect will yet have a toil of vexation to en- 

 counter which may make him almost repent the 

 choice of his profession. 



We shall begin our practical Hints with some re- 

 marks in reference to plans, or internal arrange- 

 ment, as affecting elevations, roofs, and chimneys. 



The young architect too frequently concentrates 

 his attention on those portions of his plan which 

 concern one or more particular facades. Thus, he is 

 careful of his entrance front, and his lawn elevation, 

 as those alone which will be visible to a stranger 

 approaching from the lodge, or walking in front of 

 the sitting-room windows ; and no sooner is the 

 building roofed in, than he discovers that the " re- 

 turn fronts" are provokingly more generally visible 

 to the public eye from without the boundary of the 

 premises than the others which have had his too 

 exclusive care. One of his " architectural" eleva- 

 tions is seen in continuous connexion with a surface 

 of unstudied masonry, the respective parts of which 

 neither harmonize in position nor in decoration : or, 

 at the best, he exhibits a display of blank architec- 

 ture, the falseness of which is proved by certain 



prominent necessities which will not be either con- 

 cealed or modified. The offices and other inferior 

 appendages to the mansion cling to it, and proclaim 

 themselves with all the humiliating impertinence 

 (or rather 7)crtinence) of poor relations bent on the 

 declaration of their consanguinity. The idea of 

 " planting them out," which originally existed in 

 the mind of the designer, stil! exists in his mind 

 only. The trees he requires will take at least fifty 

 years to grow ; and, even then, winter will in its 

 turn disrobe them of tlieir foliage to leave display- 

 ed an obstinate range of architectural poverty. 

 Evergreens will never grow high enough. The 

 whole thing must remain as it is — a handsome 

 countenance with an ugly profUe — a beggar in a 

 velvet waistcoat, and no coat to cover his sides. 



This oversight is still more commonly committed 

 in town houses and street architecture. Nothing 

 is more frequent among builders and young archi- 

 tects than the exhibition of a mere mask, which 

 only deceives while the spectator is directly oppo- 

 site on the other side of the street, or so far as there 

 may be houses of equal height continuing on either 

 hand. Otherwise, directly the front is passed, the 

 blank masonry or naked gables of the returns show 

 themselves like the mere party-walls in the trans- 

 verse section of an unfinished range ; and these, be 

 it remembered, are often seen for a much greater 

 length of time than is given, in passing, to the main 

 front, since we may have them before us during the 

 whole of our progress along a street of half a mile 

 extent. Perhaps only a portion of the return ends 

 may be seen above the roofs of the lower houses 

 adjoining : but it is not the less necessary to con- 

 tinue along this portion the architectural character 

 of the front. In the many instances which occur of 

 houses rising successively one above the other on 

 the side of an ascending street, too much care can 

 not be taken to give a finished perspective eflTect. 

 The means will readily suggest themselves to any 

 one who is competent to take professional rank ; 

 and to such only do we now address ourselves. 

 Architecture, as we have before said in the first 

 section of our Hints, has a peculiar privilege among 

 the arts in commanding observation from the dis- 

 tance, and no town or range of buildings will ever 

 have an imposing, or even a tidy appearance, while 

 it shows itself to be composed of independent frag- 

 ments jostling one against another. The beggarly 

 habit of carrying a cornice or parapet, with dressed 

 doors, windows, pilasters, &c., along a twenty feet 

 front, leaving in barn-like nakedness a thirty or 

 forty-feet end, is an abomination which even the 

 most vulgar country builder should eschew. Infi- 

 nitely better that the whole should be consistent in 

 the absolute perfection of nudity. 



In the second place, a considerable por- 

 tion of the work is occupied with a model 

 specification. Every one who has indulged 

 in " the cares of building," well knows the 

 importance of " specifications." They are 

 at once the Dictio7iarij and the Revised 



