THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



37 



Honour be to James Gandon, an architect to whom Dnhlin, I should 

 observe, is indebted for its finest structures, and tlie antliur of what is 

 undoubtedly by far the finest specimen of simple unailorncd grandeur 

 in our own metropolis. 



CANDIDUS' NOTE-BOOK. 



(Second Series.) 



[The First Scries of these papers appeared in the " ArcliitecUiral 

 Mai-azinc," which work being now terminated, the writer lias con- 

 sented to continue them in this journal, under the same title, as 

 that will ideiilify him at once — perhaps reconnnend him bcttci- 

 than a fresh one, to those of his present readers who here mecl 

 witli an old acquaintance.] 



FASCICULUS I. 



I. Within about the same time that was employed on the single 

 church of St. Peter's at Rome, the norlhem metropolis, named after 

 the same saint, has arisen from its foundalioii to its present magni- 

 tude and grande\ir. Yes, not quite a century and half have elapsed since 

 the site of St. Petersburg was a dreary morass, and ere tlial century 

 and half will have been completed, will (he St. Isaac's cliurcli, one 

 of the most stupendous achievements of modern architecture, be 

 finished. The works are now proceeding with great rapidity, and it 

 is confidently anticipated that the whole will be complcled by the 

 year 1842 ; and w henever it is, it may perhaps challenge the Horld 

 to produce its equal for external grandeur and for sumptuousness of 

 material. The whole of the exterior will be of marble, granite, and 

 bronze, and the dome « ill be gilt whh ducat gold. The height of 

 this dome is 340 Russian feet, or very nearly 400 English ones, con- 

 sequently greatly exceeds that of St. Paul's, which dillerence, though 

 inconsiderable in proportion to their actual size, gives prodigious in- 

 crease of magnitude, just as every additional inch above six feet does 

 to the stature of a man. The number of columns, each consisting of a 

 sinn-le piece of highly-polished granite, is 104. of which tho^e rormiug 

 the porticos are nearly sixty feet higli. and the reinaiuing thirty-two, 

 around the tower or tambour of the cupola, of somewhat less dimen- 

 sions. Neither is it in the magnitude alone of some of these struc- 

 tures that the Russians surpass us, but also in the celerity witli which 

 they execute them. The 'Winter Palace at St. Petersburg was burnt 

 down about the same time as our Royal Exchange ; but while the 

 ruins of the latter arc but just cleared away, the former is by this 

 time rebuilt !— at least, in the middle of last; August the works had 

 advanced so far that it was expected the Emperor would be able to 

 hold his new-year's levee there, for no few'er than five thousand men 

 (a Treat number of them soldiers) were employed on the edifice. 

 Very possibly this energy may in some respects be censurable, inas- 

 much as liardly any time can have been allowed for duly maUiriug 

 the plans; but it certainly offers a very striking contrast to (he 

 drowsy motle in which we proceed here at home. The British Mu- 

 seum creeps on at a most tedious snail-like pace ; indeed, if it does 

 not soon begin to mend its pace, it is hardly likely to be finished 

 before they end of the present century. 



II. To me it appears almost inexplicable, tliat among the swj'.rras 

 of tourists and travellers who rctiim every season from abroad with 

 the materials for a volume or couple of volumes in their note-books, 

 there should never be an architectural one. Most assuredly it cannot 

 be because an architect can now meet with nothing that has not been 

 described again and again, since to go no farther than Paris and 

 Versailles, they alone would furni.sh matter both of description and 

 criticism hitherto quite untouched. Even the hackneyed route to 

 Rome allbrds many ungleaned patches, there being scarcely an Ita- 

 lian building of the present century which has obtained any notice from 

 travellers. It is true, Italy has produced comparatively little in the 

 way of architecture of late years ; nevertheless, much has been accom- 

 plished that is exceedingly well worthy of note. There is, for in- 

 stance, Canova's Temple di Passagno, or Church at Passagno ; to say 

 nothing of several beautiful edifices at Milan and elsewhere, by 

 Cagnola, and others by Dordoni, Bianchi, Durelli, Di Secco, 

 Peverelli, &e. But if Italy holds out little that is new, there 

 are Muniidi, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and various other capitals, whicli 

 are as yet quite untrodden ground to English architects — places 

 W'here tliey might at any rate pick up some fresh ideas. Non-archi- 

 tectural writers and tourists, on the contrary, arc apt to make ex- 

 ceedingly bad work of it, whenever they attempt to describe buildings 

 or discuss their merits. It is, therefore, quite a god-send when we 

 meet with such clever descriptive sketches as (lie ■' Critical View of 

 the Architecture of New York," and the " Fragments of a Provincial 

 Tour," in the concluding number of the " Architectural Magazine." 

 The only fault in them is, that, although not short articles in them- 



selves, they create a longing tor very much more from the same pens. 

 Mr. Humphries ought (o extend his' tour much further; and, as he is 

 quite ail fait with his pencil as well as with his pen, should give it to 

 the public in an illustrated octavo volume. His intelligent descrip- 

 tions and remarks would be most acceptable, particularly were the 

 former to be somewhat more expanded. 



III. Among much other informatimi to be obtained fi-om Mr. 

 Humphries' " Provincial Tour," the following is not the least worth 

 notice : — " Beyond the church (at Manchester) I found the old col- 

 lege, an interesting building, unrestored and unadulterated by 

 modernization of any sort. It was founded by one Cheatam, a high- 

 minded merchant like Gre.-,ham, who has thus conferred a lasting 

 bene lit upon his native town. It contains a good library, which is 

 public in the (rue sense of the word ; that is, any person may go at 

 any time, and call for any book he re(iuires, imanuoyed liy any irk- 

 some rostriotiou wliatevcr." Prodigious ! What a simple, plain- 

 dealing creature must that same Clieatam have been to have given a 

 libr.iry to the public upon such easy terms, without so much as im- 

 posing am/ iHsome restriction whttever ! What grovelling, childish 

 notions of munificence and public spirit the man must have had! — 

 certainly widely dilTerent from those entertained by old Soane, who 

 would far more worthily than the other have become the name of 

 Client' em. 



IV. The two great stumbling-blocks of art, or the Scylla and 

 Charybdis on which it is generally wrecked, are pedantical, spiritles.s 

 precision and exactness on the one hand, dull licentiousness and di.5- 

 reganl not only of all authorities, but of all conditions of art, on the 

 other. The great point is to know, how to emancipate ourselves from 

 the trammels of slavish imitation, without— I will not say running 

 into wild, chimerical extravagances, but without destroying those 

 qualities of (he s(yle aimed at, which confer upon it its chief charm 

 and value. 



V. It does not often happen that the " Gentleman's ivlagazme 

 ventures upon anvthiiig like hone.st critical remark in regard to any 

 of the buildings it notices. The following strictures, therefore, in the 

 volume for 182(i, deserve to be here brought forward again, and to 

 many will l)e entirely new. '• Expensive andnumerous," says E. J. C, 

 '• as are the public buildings in progress, though the names of Soane 

 and Smirke may be quoted as the architects, and the thousands ex- 

 pended in their construction be adduced in their favour, are, I would 

 ask, anv one of them yraml? On the con.traiy, do not the new 

 buildings present one uiiiform air of meanness 1' The spacious wing 

 added to the British Museum, with its unbroken brick wall, seems to 

 have been built to compete in beauty with the King's Bench, or the 

 Fleet. The new Post-ollicc, like the new Mint, and the generality of 

 Mr. Sinirke's buildings, is as tame and spiritless as plain stone walls 

 with dwelling-house windows, and a few columns stuck about them 

 as apologies for porticos, can be. If the ephemeral praise of peri- 

 odicals w^as sufficient to exalt the character of a building, it is but a 

 few years since that all the uewsp-'ipers and periodicals, trom one end 

 of (he kingdom to the other, were filled with applauses on that huge 

 and senseless pile the Custom-house.'' As to the new Mint, that has 

 certainly not conduced at all to Sinirke's fame. Indeed, it lies m a 

 terrilory criticism never travels into ; which, however, may be a 

 rather fortunate circumstance for it than not, because the less it is 

 known and spoken of, the less likely is it to be condemned. 



CONSTRUCTION OF LIGHTHOUSES ON SANDS. 



We now lay before our readers one of the most important experi- 

 ments of the ju-esent dav, which iiromises to give to the engineer a 

 foundation as secure in" the sea as he has hitherto enjoyed on the 

 surface of the earth. The success of this attempt will give us 

 resources to battle with an antagonist, Viefore which all our mechani- 

 cal strength ha.s too often proved defective, while, to the maritime 

 interests of the country it will aftbrd new and further protection. 

 We can appreciate the difticulty w liich Smeaton encountered in plant- 

 ing the Edvslone on the firm rock; but we have now the means 

 otfered to us of security even upon the shifting sand. 



At page 22 of our last volume, we were, through the kindness of 

 Air. Elmes, enabled to give a description of " Mitchell's Patent 

 Screw Moorings," but we did not then anticipate the application 

 which they have .since received. It having been brought under the 

 notice of the Corporation of the Trinity House that this insd-ument 

 might be advantageously applied in establishing lighthouses on 

 sands, their attention was immediately given to (he subject, and 

 accordingly directed an exjierimcnt to "be made to .-iscertain i(s prac- 

 ticability, under the supermtendance of their engineer, Mr. James 

 Walker. 

 The spot selected is on the \ergc of the ^laplin sand, lying at the 



