THE Civil, ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



had the opportunity of doing great things, but of doing them well. His Aca- 

 demy of Painting, &c., is doubtless his masterpiece ; but for just proportion, 

 it should lose just one-fourth of its length. But the pride and glory of Mr. 

 Playfair's interior, is the Library-room in the Universily of Edinburgh. It is 

 at once lofty, broad, and commodious, and of a very singular construction in 

 the arrangement of the shelves for the books. There /s a point where you 

 may stand, and although the room be one hundred and ninety feet long in the 

 clear (longer than any library at Oxford), yet you shall not obtain the sight of 

 a single volume. The ceiling is lofty and gilded ; but why docs good Mr. 

 Playfair consider burnished gold to be a heresy ? In such a magnificent inte- 

 rior you can hardly be too brave and saucy in the upper ornaments. 



" Saucy" is a rather queer — certainly not very tasteful expression, 

 except as it may serve to denote that poignancy of flavour so greatly 

 studied by artists of a diflereiit class. 



Having got among the books in the library, the worthy Doctor 

 (lies ofl'in a tangent, without bestowing another syllabic upoir either 

 " good Mr. Playfair," or any other architect ; nor does he touch on 

 the subject of arcliitecture again until he readies Glasgow, when he 

 speaks of the Exchange as 



One of the noblest commercial rooms in Europe, whether we consider its 

 interior or exterior design, its facilities for carrying into effect all the objects 

 fur which it was built, or its spaciousness, iightsomcness, and beauty. I was 

 inlinitely struck and gratified with it. The architect is no less a personage 

 than David HA.Mir.Tox, Esq., who without scruple or flattery may be called 

 the Vitruvius of the North. 



.Scruple lie certainly has none, but we suspect that our Doctor docs 

 administer llattery in very large doses, weighed out, not by apotlie- 

 caries' scruples, but in pounds avoirdupoise weight. M'ith him, 

 ahiiosi every person he names is of superlative merit, Iherefore lie 

 makes his praise so dog-cheap, that those who really merit il lind it 

 hardly worth having. Of this we have proof in the very next page, 

 where he goes on to say — 



Here, as at Edinburgh, the late Uobert Adam has done a considerable 

 stroke of work, in the architectural department ; and some things, especially 

 in the .Vssembly Rooms, and the Andersoniau University, are executed with 

 more than his ordinary skill. Of churches there is no' proud or particular 

 display ; but one or two recent ones, from the designs of Mr. Hamilton, show 

 a great improvement in the department of ecclesiastical architecture. The 

 two principal squares of Glasgow, are those of St. Geoige and Blythswood. 

 The former is in the heart of the city, the latter at its western extremity. 

 \\ ithin the former are erected the bronce statues of Sir John .Moore and 

 Watt; and at this moment the foundation stone has just been laid for the 

 erection of a lofty triumphal pillar to the memory of Sir Walter Scott. To 

 me the taste of it is perfect. The typav/iius have here shot a-head of the 

 j\thenians. 



Judging from the plate given of it. which is said to be an " accu- 

 rate representation," wo must totally dissent from the praise bestowed 

 on this column; for it is nothing" more than a meagre llufed Doric 

 column, with a capital of most insignificant proportions and cha- 

 racter, anil with a base « hose tori arc enriched with guilloches and 

 other carving! What degree of iincniioii is shown, ma_\- be inferred 

 when we say that, like others of its kind, litis eoluimi also has square 

 abacus to its capital, as if intended to support an architrave. The 

 only recommendation such pillars have is, that any thing like a hu- 

 man figure will do on tile top of them; yet they always look top- 

 hea\y. ^\■e trust that we shall have no such puerile enormity perpe- 

 trated in th.c centre of Trafalgar-square. 



Of the cementing in the same city the Doctor says— 



The very entrance, over a bridge across a river bestud by one of the 

 most elegant arches of stone ever w itnessed, is full of classical feelings ; 

 adding in a note, " David Hamilton, Esq., is the architect. He cannot for the 

 soul of him commit a blunder. Mr. Hryce, an architect of Glasgow, has 

 erected a facade of the time of our .lames I., of which the opposite plate is a 

 faithful copy ; and it must be allowed that he has been singularly happy in all 

 its component parts." This last sentence is also accompanied by a very 

 curious note, viz — " I recommend Mr. John Hrvcc first to be the architect 

 of every park enti-ance in Scotland, and afterwards in England. But let it 

 not be supposed that he is confined to the period of 1600-1 (3.W. His 

 Tudorian elevations are fraught with the most felicitous features and efliccts." 



What ^Ir. John Bryce's " Tudorian elevations" may be we know 

 not, having never seen any specimens of them ; and with ns the 

 Doctor's jirescriptions^.e., his recommendations — obtain very little 

 credit. .\s a sample of «hat \u: can tolerate, if not very cnlogistically 

 extol, he presents tis with a view of the mansion at Abbotsford, to 

 which, if the original bears any resemblance, it must be perfectly 

 detestable — one of the most hideous specimens of architectural bal- 

 derdash and bathos ever perpetrated. Happy would it be for the me- 

 mory of Sir Walter's taste were il razed to the ground. 



Since this article was in type, we have received some information 

 relative to Mr. Gregory's splendid mansion at Harlaston, correcting 

 the Doctor's errors and misstatements respecting it. But we mus't 

 now defer communicating it till next month. 



Ilhtstrations of the Public BuihUiujs of Loiiduii. wit/i Histurical and 



Descriplive Accounts of each Edifice. By Pf gin and Bhitton. 



Second Edition, greatly enlarged, by W. H. Li:lds. In •-! vols. 



London. John Wcale, 1838. 



In our last number wc informed our readers of the object of this 

 work, and presented some extracts from the preface ; we now, there- 

 fore, avail ourselves of the oppiirtunity of taking a more general view 

 of the subject. We cannot, however, disirass the preface without 

 requesting the attention of the reader to the adniirable rctuaiks on 

 criticism given by the editor. They point out with force and truth the 

 advantages which the profession luust derive frotn cxtetidcd invebtigatiou, 

 and the necessity of freeing our.selves from the trammels of siiper- 

 anuated pedantry. In this age of stcaui, we have a right to distrust 

 whatever is old, and particiihnly when tlic ICIgin tiiarbles have produced 

 a new style of art, and the stuijy of the true antitptc given a diH'ereut 

 im|Htlse to atchitecture. 



To the general reader this work must afford many points of interest, 

 bitt to the aichitcct it presents a dotible attryction ; fiist, that he coii- 

 tctiiplatcs the glories of the metropolis of the empire, and next that 

 he himself maj' become a contributor to its splendour. — " lo ancltt. 

 son pittore" is a remark well to be expected from the proCcssional 

 spectator of St. Paul's or the new London Bridge. The metropolis has, 

 indeed, in this eentuiy attained a grandeur which our fellow citizens 

 may admiie, and of which our artists may be proud. It has, as it were, 

 been so created that the extent ot its limits are not yet ascertained ; wc 

 flutter still between the recollections of the past and the exislencies of 

 the present day. We are too apt to think of the old city, or to con- 

 template tlic vast mass in its political divisions, and thus lose the eon- 

 ce))tion of the immense rusemblc. 



\\'itli no superior in the .Vsiaticworlil, and none but infeiiois in this, 

 an ICnglishman luav look down itpun the modern queen of the world 

 and prize it as one of the phenomena of that empire, which is the greatest 

 that has been established. But it is not on immensity alone, or on 

 artistical riches that this stipremacy is based : the liistorical associations 

 which it recalls are so entwined with the annals of our race as to shed 

 a brighter lustre on its crown. It is w ellfbr those who can do no honour 

 to the present day to exaggerate the glories of the past; but to the 

 thinking mind the splendour of an illustrious name is not reckoned by 

 centuries of homage, but by the depth of genius and the strength of 

 thought. We can resuscitate the Attic theatre, or in imagination hear 

 Cicero's eloquence wake the ruined (brttm from the sleep of ages ; but 

 wo, who have such susceptibilities, and such a burst of sentiment, can 

 leave the tombs of native bards nnhonoured and unsought. If the arts 

 are to be inspired from sources so sublime as the poet's song and the 

 warrior's deeds, we want no -\theniaii to teach us what is great, nor a 

 Roman to precede us in the art of copying : but we have it here in the 

 streets trod by the busy crowds, in the halls devoted to the national 

 laws, and in tlie temples consecrated to the public worship. Here the 

 greatest of the modern bards have first seen light— here has been the 

 theatre of tiieir exploits ; and in AN estminster Abbey inoic honoured 

 names repose than in any shrine in Christendom. To repc:it all these 

 localities, to tell over the sacred ground, would be a task as inexhaust- 

 ible as the glory of its subject; but we cannot refrain from calling the 

 attention of the reader to some among the many great men who bad 

 here their birth-place. -Vinong the poets, artists, and musicians, are — 

 Chaucer, Spenser, Beii Jonson, Fletcher, Jlilton, Cowley, Pope, and 

 Gray ; De I'oe, the immortal author of Robinson Crusoe, Bolingbroke, 

 Gibboti.aiid Lillo _: Lord Bacon and Barron ; Hogarth, Bacon, Banks, 

 and Nollekeus ; Ante, Arnold, Boyce, Aldrich,aiid Greene ; Hampden, 

 Howard, and William Penu. 



These are names to wiiich lie who can attach no associations should 

 never add the disgrace of belonging to a kindied profession. Wo 

 think, however, they are sitch, of wliich, while no city can bo;ist the 

 equal, so any might feel justly proud. Tliey have left us their iiunior- 

 tality, and if we cannot c(pial them iti our works, at least wc can deco- 

 rate that metropolis on which they have confeired the lustre of their 

 names. Tiiis is a duty which, we feel happy to say, has been in no way 

 yet neglected, and wliich every day is meeting with a greater fiilfilment, 

 and we may justly feel proud in retlecting that we have not in onr days 

 been remiss in fullilling that service to posterity wliich our ancestors 

 bequeathed to us. Since the year eighteen hundred so inucli has been 

 done that it has almost effaced what [ireviously existed, and to such a 

 degree, that a person of the last century would justly feel astonishmeiit 

 at the new world, in which all his former recollections would be lost. 



The metropolis, on the east, has been extended into Essex and 

 Kent; on the south it has advanced to the tops of those hills from 

 which it is perhaps again to make farther encroachments ; on the west 

 it extends to Hammersmith, and has thrown numerous juburbs to the 

 opposite bank of the Thames ; while on the north, again, other vil- 

 lages have been drawn into the vortex, .Tud sacrificed th(;ir rural cha- 



