i 



1 JIE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL 



a ditfercnt ^ilitatiuti. Antl where uiio lias a right to ancient pitb by the side of 

 a rivulet, for the watering his meadows and cattle, and they arc choked with 

 mud, he may cleanse, but cannot enlarge them, or dig other pits. 



Wr have inaile several exfracls, to show the value of the book to 

 the architect and surveyor; il has our entire approbation, and 

 we are encouraged by Mr. Gibbon's existing contributions, in the 

 hope that he will again devote liis ability to the chieidation of some 

 other branch of architectural jurisprudence. 



Companion to the Almanac, for 18.'?!). Knight and Co. 



By this time, most probably, tlie greater part of our readers will 

 liave provided themselves with this little work, and could we be 

 assured that such were really the ease, we should not return to it. 

 Yet, as our conjecture is grounded chiefly upon the belief that they 

 woiikl procure it if rnvare of the highly interesting architectural 

 notices it contains, wc sliall make a few c.Ktraets from it. more 

 especially as there is nothing whatever either on the title or in the 

 advertisements of the publication to point out that it affords the 

 kind of information just alluded to. 



The '• Companion" may be truly characterised as an exceedingly 

 valuable annua! miiltum in parvo, for, besides many scientific articles 

 ;ind statistical reports, it gives abstracts of Parliamentary documents 

 and acts of Parliament, a chronicle of the session of Parliament, 

 a list of public petitions, and a chronicle of occurrences. Another 

 very useful feature, though .a minor one, is the necrological table of 

 literary men and artists, both foreign ,and English. After this men- 

 tion of the usual contents in general, we shall particularise those 

 uloue in the present volume which are akin to the character of our 

 own journal ; we, theretbre, point out the two articles on " Steam 

 Navigation" and the " Railways of Great Britain." 



The buildings most fully described are the Synagogue, Great St. 

 Helen's ; the interior of the Fitxwilliam Museum : the Eastern 

 Institution ; tlie Railway Terminus, Euston-square : the London and 

 Westminster Bank ; the Athen;eum, kc, at Derby ; .and the Victoria 

 Rooms, Bristol. I\Iany others, however, are spoken of or commented 

 upon, including those at the Highgate and Norwood Cemeteries. 

 Referring for these to the publication itself, wc shall extract only 

 what is said of High C'LirrE, Hants : — 



The splendid mansion of Lord Stuart de Rothesay, whioli, after having been 

 in progress for many years, has now so far advanced towards completion that 

 many of the ap.trtments are fitted up. The style adopted for the exterior is 

 not a little remarkable, IjcinR- formed upon continental models of domestic 

 Gothic, eontrmporaneous with onr English Tudor, and. independently of its 

 novelty in this country, highly striking' for tlic richness and variety of the 

 details, and tlie care and precision witli which they are wrought. The prin- 

 cipal fronts are entirely of stone, and that facing tlie sp.t lias, in addition to a 

 profusion of other decorations, a parapet «/«i()-, or of open work, forming 

 mottoes and inscriptions in Gothic characters. On this .side subordinate 

 ranges nf building br.ancb out from the body of tlie mansion, so as parli.illy 

 to form a kind of court, enclosed Ijy three sides of an octagon, whose eleva- 

 tions, altliougb somewhat difiercnt in design, all agree in being elaborately 

 enriched. Among other distinguishing features is a magnificent oriel, forming 

 an open tribune or b.alcony gallery on the level of the upper floor. The north, 

 or other principal front has a spacious arched carriage porch, flanked by lofly 

 octagonal turrets, which latter are crowned by ogive dome roofs andfinials; 

 and between them is the splendid window, and decorated gable, which form 

 that end of the entrance hall. Tliis hall, which is about sixty feet in length, 

 l;y nearly forty in height, has .ilso a range of windows in the upper part of 

 each of its sides, the wall bene.-itli them being wainscotted, and panelled with 

 reliefs in stone. The pavement is inlaid somewhat after the fasliion of mosaic, 

 in patterned compartments, variegated with numerous badges and devices ; 

 and the ceiling, or roof, is of oak timber, carved. At the north, or entrance 

 end, is a handsome stone screen, with a gallery above it, immediately under 

 the great window, which is entirely filled with compartments of painting 

 representing the genealogy of Jesse. At the opposite end is the staircase, 

 consisting of an ascent on each side, in a single flight, with a superb railing 

 of wrought melal highly gilt. Between these flights of stairs is the door 

 leading into the ante-saloon, a .spacious octagon fitted up in the I.ouis 

 Quatorze style, in carved oak and gold, and with cosily marble doorcases. 

 This room communicates with tlie principal apartments — viz., the state draw- 

 ing-ioom, library, dining-room, &c. 



Dibdin's Norlliern Tour — {continued). 



Wc now resume otn- notice of Dr. Dibdin's Tour, and proceed to 

 cull from it Ihe chief information it contains as to the modern build- 

 ings and architects of Scotland. Most of the latter, who are noticed, 

 bvhim at all— for we have not met with the name of Mr. Burn, 

 although we have heard him sjioken of as a mair of very high abilities 

 and attainments, and zealously devoted to his art — arc spoken of in 

 terms of unqualified praise: we hope justly so, for to say the truth 

 the Doctor deals $<? largely in puff that his'praise goes for' very little. 



(Ifthe wholesale pull' we have a clioicc specimen, when he calls 

 '• Auld Reekie," or Ihe " Modern Athens," as it has heretofore been 

 slyled, " a City of Palaces, the Genoa ok the North." Both 

 the italics and the capitals are his own, and are, no tloubt, intended 

 to give all possible emiihasis and enei'gy to the compliment. Yet 

 one more mal-a-propos could hardly have been stumbled upon ; since, 

 so for from looking like a city of palaces, Edinburgh has far more 

 the appearance of city of barracks ; nor can anything lie more dis- 

 smiilar than the style of its architecture and that of O'enoa, the one 

 lieing as naked and frigid as the other is exuberant and pompous. 

 ^\ hat could have caused the Doctor to utter such rhodomontade .•" 

 Was it tlie effect of one of those symposia which he chronicles with 

 so much gusto ? Very possibly it might ; since, otherwise, it is per- 

 fectly unaccountable. One thing is certain, that there is nothing 

 I whatever in the book to bear out this assertion ; whereas he might 

 very well have cut short some of his gossip, and employed himself in 

 pointing out and describing sotne of the archhectural features that 

 entitle Edinburgh to the epithet of the Genoa of the North. Or else, 

 instead of giving views of its most dismal and dowufally holes and 

 hovels, and such exceedingly iminteresting, as well as hackneyed 

 subjects, as the Regent MuiTay's house, he might have favoured our 

 eyes with some specimens of its magnificence. Without perplex- 

 ing ourselves any further by questions and remarks that must he 

 rather perplexing to the Doctor himself, we will begin quoting at once. 



With all its architectural attractions, the New Town of Edinburgh is de- 

 fective in two material points. It wants a tine church, and a noble square. 

 Tlie church of St. George, at the western extremity, is a dwarfish representa- 

 tion of Si. Paul's at a distance, if its dome only be considered. At hand it 

 shrinks into insignificance, and is flat and tame. There is no bold projecting 

 portico, and the qu.antity of dull suiface above Ihe entrance, to the springing of 

 the- dome, is a sad and striking failure. The church of St. Andrew, at nearly 

 the eastern extremity of George-street, is a inost inconceivable failure. 



Tills, it must be o^vned, carries something to the debit side of the 

 account, though by no means so much as ought to be, for a great 

 many more deficiencies, defects, and failures, might be pointetl out, 

 while there is scarcely a modern building that rises above mediocrity 

 of design, or of which more can be said than that it is endurable. In 

 venturing, however, to find fault, and that, too, in the most unquali- 

 fied manner, with St. Andrew's, the Doctor quite upsets Mr. Britton's 

 opinion : for if wc may rely upon the taste and critical acumen of the 

 latter antiquary, " it is distingui.^hed by its fine tapering spire, and a 

 bold Corinthian portico." For our part, wc greatly incline to 

 the Doctor's opinion, and even Britton's own plate of it quite con- 

 firms if, since at all events it there looks like " an almost incon- 

 ceivable failure." In likening St. George's church to St. Paul's, the 

 man of '■ Bokes'' seems to speak by the book, and after the fashion of 

 that which tells us St. Paul's at Liverpool is a miniature imitation of 

 St. Paul's at London. To be sure a dome is a dome all the world' 

 ovei' ; but the man, and much more the critic, who can perceive any 

 semblance between lliat at Edinburgh and the one in London, is in 

 great danger of mistaking his wife's bonnet for his own beaver. 



That the Doctor did not bestow the epithet he has chosen for 

 Edinburgh unadvisedly, is evident enough from the first sentence in 

 the following quotation, where he speaks of some of the living Scotch 

 architects. 



I have more than once called Edinburgh a Cilii of I'n/aces, Of course 

 architecture is the sole means of achieving this splendid result ; but if the 

 materials for building were not at once abundant and lasting, as well as pic- 

 turesque in tint, such an eft'ect woidd with difficulty be produced. Where 

 to begin y How to describe? Hie labor — hoc opus est." 



This, it must be confessed, is exquisitely naive : how to eulogise — 

 there seems to have been the jiuzzle. 



But it cannot be done successfully — at least to my own tasti?. Here is .Famos 

 Gillespie Graham, Esq., with a genius all over Gothic ; rich, original, 

 tasteful.* Would that he were employed to case the whole of the Castle in a 

 coat, cut according to the fashion of the early part of the fifteenth ecniury. 

 Then, again, I would have him put an ecclesiastical vestment over the whole 

 of .St. Giles's, or the mother-church, in the fashion of the fourteenth century. 

 He would do it co)i amore ; nor would he displease his own times or posterity 

 if he raised the tower a good fifty feet, and reconstructed the " imperial ciown" 

 thereupon, as it is called, upon more intelligible principles of Gothic art. 



In Grecian and Roman architecture a love of taste, and yet more of truth, 

 induces mc to place Mr. Playfait at the head ; simply because lie has not only 



■•■ We cannot withhold the Doctor's own note here introduced. " My friend, Mr. 

 Mackenzie, took mo one day to call upon Mr. Graham, more especially to v'ww his de- 

 sif^n for the new^ House of Commons on the Gothic plan. It is very raagiiilicent ; but 

 perhaps in too detached buildings; while Mr. Barry's, on the contrary, from its con- 

 tinuity, has too much the air of a large manufactory, which, however, may be broke 

 fhroktm) by a boldness and variety of relief in the external ornaments. .Mr! Graham's 

 ialents are likely to he successfully employed in the restoration of Glasfrow Cathedral." 

 We should likc'very much to know what are Ihe manufactories of wiiich Mr. Barr>'*s 

 desifc'R hM pt all tl>e air of. 



