936 
insfinces, were confined formal, and dull, 
by lofty walls and clipped hedges. 
“Jn determining the situation for a new 
honse, it may ofier be advisable to place it at 
a distance from other habitations, that the 
modern taste for freedom and extent may be 
gratified ; but in accommodating plans of im- 
provement to houses already buult, it requires 
fe consideration how fur such taste should 
‘indulged, otherwise we may be inyolyed 
in difficulties and absurdities ; for it is not 
uncommon to begin, by removing walls 
which conceal objects far more offensive than 
themselves. — 
«© When additions or_alterations are made 
to an old house, internal conyenience and 
improvement should certainly be the first ob- 
jects of covsideration; yet the external ap- 
pearan¢e and character must not he neglected, 
his is a circumstance which our ancestors 
sec to have little regarded, for we frequently 
distinguish the dates of additions to buildings 
by the different styles of architecture; and 
hence it often happens, that a Jarge old house 
consists of discordant parts mixed together, 
without any attempt at unity either in’ date 
or character of building. This was of less 
consequence, when ‘each front, surrounded 
by its court or pacterre, becarne a separate and 
entire object; but since modern gardening, 
by removing those, separations, has enabled 
usto View a house at the angle, gnd at once 
to see tivo fronts in perspective, we become 
disgusted by any wantot unity in the design, 
“© The squth front of Corsham is of the 
style called Queen Elizabeth's gothic, al- 
though rather of the date-of King James, 
Theenorth front is of Grecian architecture. 
‘« The east front is m a correct, but heary 
Style of architecture; and to alter the old 
south front in conformity to it, would not 
only require the whole to be entirely rebuilt, 
but make an alteration of every room in that 
part of the house unavoidable. This not ac- 
cording with the intention of the proprietor 
of Corsham-house, the original south front 
becomes the most proper object for imitation. 
‘#6 A house of Grecian atchitecture, built 
in a town, and separated from it only by a 
court-yard, always implies the want of landed 
property ; because, being evidently of recent 
erection, the ‘taste of the present davewould 
hive placed the house in the midst'of a lawn 
or park, if there had been sufficient Jand ad- 
joining; while the mansions built in the 
Gothic characters of Heary VIII, Elizabeth, 
ad James, being generally annexed to towns 
or villages, far from impressing the mind 
with the want of territory, theit size and 
grandeur, ye age with other houses in the 
town, jmply that the owner is yot only the 
lord df the suryounding country,’ byt of the 
fownalso, “ ” geet 
« The taluable and celebrated collection of. 
pictures: at Corshkm-house, in ‘a modern 
Grecian ellifice, might appear recent, and 
nof the’ old imbabitants of an ancient man- 
sion, belonging tv a still more ancient family? 
% 
ARCHITECTURE AND THE FINE ARTS, 
and althaugh Grecian architecture may be 
more regular, there is a stateliness. and gran- 
deur in the lofty towers, the rich ang splendid 
assemblage of turrets, battlements, and pin- 
nacles, the bold depth of shadow produced by 
projecting buttresses, and the irregutarity of 
outline in a large Gothic building, unknown 
ta the most pericct Grecian edifice. 
«* Gothic structures may be classed undey 
three heads, viz. the Cagtle Gothie, the 
Church Gothic, or the [louse Gothic: let 
us consider which is the best adapted to the 
purposes of a dwelling. 
«* The Castle Gothic, with few small aper- 
tures and jarge masses of wall, might be well 
calculated for defence, hut the apartments. 
are rendered so gloomy, that. it can only be 
made habitable by pS hate and increasing 
these apertures, and in some degree sacrificing 
the original character to modern comfort. 
«<The more elegant Church Gothic gon- 
sists in very large apertures with small masseg 
or piers: here the too great quantity of light 
requires to be subdued by painted glass ; and 
however beautiful this may he im churches, 
or the chapels and halls of calleges, it is sel. 
dom applicable to a house, without such 
violence and mutilation, as to destroy its ge- 
neral character ;-therefore, a Gothic house of 
this style would have too mach the appear- 
ance of a church; for, I believe, there arg- 
no large houses extant of earlier date than 
Henry VIII, or Elizabeth, all others being 
either the remaing of baronial castles or con- 
yentual edifices. 
«« At the dissolution of the monasteries by 
Henry VIII, a new species of architgeture 
was adopted, and most of the old mansions 
now remaining in England were either built 
or repaired, about the end of that reign, or 
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth: hence it 
has acquired in our days the name of Eliza- 
beth’s Gothic; and although in the latter 
part of that reign, and in the unsettled times 
which followed, bad taste had corrupted the 
original purity of its character, by introducing 
fragments of Grecian architecture in its orna- 
ments, yet the general character and effect 
of those houses is perfectly Gothie; and the 
bold projections, the broad masses, the rich- 
ness of their windows, and the irregular out- 
line of their roofs, turrets, and tall chimnies, 
produce a play of light and shadow wonder- 
fully picturesque, and, in a painter's eye, 
amply compensating for those occasional in- 
accuracies urged against them as specimens 
of recular architecture. es 
«© Although the old south front should be 
the standard of character for the new eleva- 
tions of Corsham-house, yet I hold it not 
only justifiable,’ but judicious, in the imita- 
tion of any building,’ to omit whatever is 
$purious and foreign to its character, and 
supply the places of such incongruities from 
the purest example of the same age. For this 
reason, in thé plans deliyered, the Grecian 
mouldings gre omitted, which the corrupt 
taste of King James's jime had introduced, 
