8 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



Le fabbriche e i Mommenti cospicui di Venezia di Leopoldo Cicog- 

 nara. A. Diedi e G. Selva. Venice : Folio (in Parts). 

 A work on the arts from songless Venice, and where but a few 

 yeai-s ago even painting was extinct, is an unexpected occurrence in 

 these days, and we hail with pleasure this promise of new life in the 

 countrj-raen of Canova. It is needless to say that the public build- 

 ings of Venice possess an interest which is not local, but one which 

 speaks to all European associations. 



Polj/technischen Journals. Edited by Andrew Romberg, of Ham- 

 burgh. {1st Quarterly Part.) Altona : Hammer. 

 This is a new weekly German periodical, devoted to the different 

 arts and sciences, and contains, besides accounts of improvements in 

 arts, machinen,-, and manufactures, articles on architecture, and par- 

 ticularlv on practical building. It is indeed a kind of extended Me- 

 chanics' Magazine, and shows an an.xious disposition on the part of 

 our German brethren to profit by our progress, it being the avowed 

 object of the public to take advantage of those opportunities of ob- 

 taining information from the manufacturing countries which are 

 afforded by the extent of steam navigation at Hamburgh. 



Nouvelles Experiences sitr V Adherence des Pkrreset de Brigues. Par 

 M. MoRiN. Paris. 4to. 

 This work gives an account of several experiments made by M. 

 Morin, at Mefz, in 1834, on the adhesive power of stones and bricks 

 placed in a bed of mortar or cement. These experiments were exe- 

 cuted bv means of windlasses or ropes affixed to the stones and 

 bricks ; "and the work further describes the tension which was exerted 

 on these motive powers. As M. Morin gives nothing beyond the 

 recent experiments at London, we have not thought it necessary to 

 go at greater extent into the work, although the minutia; are treated 

 Tery elaborately. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



We have examined tlje article on Railway chairs in Crelle's Berlin Archi- 

 tectural Journal, Bd. 11, p. 100, but we have not observed anything of 

 TOhich to avail ourselves. The improvements suggested are of doubtful 

 utility, and great labour has been bestowed in establishing a comparison witli 

 other modes of construction. We do not concur in this comparison, and 

 particularly as ivhile the ,\merican plan is founded for temporary purposes, 

 and the Belgian suited to a level and sandy country, they can afford no 

 criterion upon which to decide for other circumstances. 



The Churches of London, by George Godwin, jun., F. S.A., assisted by 

 John Britton, Esq., F.S. A., &c. Parts 21 to 24 — This work continues to 

 give the same interesting historical descriptions of the ecclesiastical edifices of the 

 Metropolis as the former numbers we have previously noticed. It would add 

 considerable interest to the work if a few more interior visws were given, and 

 likewise plans of the churches. The latter might be given in an appendix to 

 the present volume. 



A Course of M'dUarij Surveying;, incliiiHiifl Instructions fur Shctchimj in Hic 

 Field, Plan Draifinij, Levelling, MitiWry Reconnaissance, ffc, by Major Basil 

 Jackson. — A very useful elementary work, suitable for the student ; it con- 

 tains several valuable hints for military surveying, and description of various 

 instruments, tlie latter principally borrowed, as acknowledged by the author, 

 from Mr. Simms' work on the use of instruments. 



Treatise mi Jsometricul Drmeinr/ as applicable to Geological and Mining 

 Flans. Second Edition, with thirty-five Engravings. By T. SoPwrrH, F.G. S. 

 — We have no time to spare for noticing this work in the present number. We 

 will endeavour to devote our attention to it next month. It having arrived 

 to a second edition, shows that the work is justly appreciated by the profession. 



The Life of Telford shall be noticed in the next Journal. 



The Improved Builders' Prk'e-book, containing upwards of 6,000 Prices and 

 2,000 useful and important Memorandums and Tobies, by W. Laxton, Sur- 

 veyor and Civil Engineer. Twelfth Edition — This work has been revised 

 and corrected throughout, and published in a new form, a size adapted for the 

 pocket, which will be a great convenience. It contains a larger number 

 of prices than any other book of the like description. 



Mr. Foulston's work ou the public buildings in the west of England erected 

 from his designs, will be noticed in the next Journal. 



We have great pUasure iu announcing that Mr. Wyld has determined upon 

 enlai ging his highly useful work the Index to the Times. It is to be published 

 as bifore, monthly and at the same price of one shilling, and will give above 

 three thousand references to the live morning papers, the Times, Morning 

 Ckroniele, Morning Herald, Morning Post, and Morning Advertiser, showing 

 the day of the month, number of the paper, and of the page and column in 

 which the article is to be found, 



Among the new periodicals to be started with the new year is the Sybjl, a 

 monthly publication of literature, philosophy, and the fine arts. 



Mr. Tiunothy Claxton, who is well known by his exertions for the enlight- 

 enment of the working classes, has now in the prees a book, called Hints for 

 Mechanics on Self Education and Mutual Instruction. Appended to this is 

 some of the njost valuable matter relating to Mechanics' Institutions wliich 

 has yet been published. 



ORIOINAL PAPERS, COMMUNICATIONS, &c. 



RALPH REDIVIVUS.— No. 12. 



THE PANTHEON, OXFORD-STREET. 



Perhaps it is a most fortunate circumstance for the reputation of the 

 original structure, and for the credit of the tasteof its applauders,that 

 no record of it remains in engravings, save in a few, which are such ex- 

 cessively trumpery ones as to be palpably giaphic libels. Nevertheless, 

 making all allowance for most execrably bad drawing and execution, I 

 have never seen anything to warrant one tithe of the praise bestowed 

 on the building, or tliat could be taken as an indication of either 

 masterly invention or excellence of other kind. On the contrary, 

 supposing any of those representations to have been tolerablv correct 

 in regard to general design, I should say that while the whole mani- 

 fested a littleness, not to say paltriness of taste, there were also nu- 

 merous improprieties and faults for which much better taste in decora- 

 tion would hardly have atoned. Such is the impression made upon me 

 by the few views I have seen of the interior, and which I ought therefore 

 perhaps, to take for granted must have very grossly falsified it, it being 

 else next to impossible to account for the unqualified terms of admira- 

 tion in which it was eulogised. There is indeed one way of solving the 

 mystery, naiuelv.bv presuming that for the encomiums bestowed upon it, 

 it was indebted far more to the want of discernment on the part of the 

 public, wliicii blinded them to its defects, than to their discriminating 

 perception of the beauties so liberally ascribed to it. I am all the more 

 inclined to adopt this hypothesis, because I have never seen it critically 

 appreciated anywhere, but merely spoken of in general terms of 

 pompous rhetoric and panegyric. Nothing iseasiertbau to bandy about 

 a set of superlatives and fine-sounding epithets ; but in nine instances 

 out of ten it is exceedingly diflicult indeed to particularise any one 

 of the excellent qualities attributed to the thing itself by wholesale. In 

 matters of art, if in nothing else, the rox popiili is not at all to be 

 trusted. It is apt to make up in noise for deficiency in sense. In re- 

 gard to architecture more especially, this same vox was least of all to 

 be relied upon during the seventies o( the last century, at which period 

 the Pantheon had just risen, and was hailed as a marvel and eighth 

 wonder of the world, at any rate of the London world. It was quite a 

 novelty as a place of amusement, and completely verified the adage of 

 " Omne ignotum pro inagnifico." Higlilv fortunate was it, we repeat, 

 both for its own reputation and that of its admirers, that the first edi- 

 fice was burnt to the ground ; fur had not such event occurred, in all 

 likelihood the wonder it would now have excited would have been of a 

 very different kind from that it first produced. 



Should we, for want of satisfactory evidence as to what it really was, 

 have formed a too unfavourable and an unjust opinion of it, we can 

 only regret that James Wyatt himself should have behaved with such 

 indifference towards this his first production — certainly not his last 

 in point of celebrity — as not to publish a series of architectural draw- 

 ings of it on a liberal scale. Had he done so, we should now be at no 

 loss to understand what his Pantheon really was. In neglecting to do 

 so, he was either highly imprudent, or the reverse ; most likely the 

 latter, unless we are willing to believe, that the Pantheon greatly 

 eclipsed everything else he designed in the same style. Without going 

 quite so far as the author of the " Contrasts," who very summarily 

 terms him " James Wyatt, of execrable memory," I cannot help 

 thinking that the architect of the Pantheon was praised greatly be- 

 yond his deserts. Had he been less cried tip in his day. his name 

 would, in all probability, have stood very much higher than it now 

 does at the present moment. He who is certain of applause before- 

 hand, will seldom exert himself to deserve it ; while the flatteries of 

 his contemporaries persuade him that there cannot possibly be any 

 hisses in store for him from posterity — that is, supposing him to 

 bestow a single thought on posterity, which is scarcely ever done by 

 any of the ^petted minions of fashionable patronage. To be sure, 

 there are persons iu the world who profess a most pliilosophic contempt 

 for posthumous reputation. James Wyatt appears to be one of them ; 

 hi? merits seem to have been chiefly negative : he avoided the grosser 

 errors of his predecessors. His generally bald and frigid style of design, 

 which the public of tiiat day were good-natured enough to accept as 



