1839.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



205 



dam, and the coverings of gravel were Removed, the caissons were found 

 in a perfect state, the wood (lir) even retaining its resinous siYiell : 

 their construction agrees very nearly with the description given by Mr. 

 Labelye. The sill is formed of whole timbers extending longitudinally 

 under the pier, and framed at each end, so as to run parallel witl\ tlie 

 cutwaters. Upon this the grating is placed ; it is composed of timbers 

 lOin. X lUin. ; its outer frame is of the same shape as the sill, but seven 

 inches less in width all round, thus forming an oft'set or footing ; the 

 transverse timbers upon which tlie pier rests are one foot apart, and 

 firmly morticed and trenailed into tlie frame, and trenailed into the sill. 

 Round the pier a curb of planking Gin. thick and 2 feet 8 broad, was 

 fastened to the grating- — this has since been removed, to make way 

 for the stone-work. 



The accompanying plan and section to an enlarged scale will explain 

 the metiiod pursued in securing the foundations (the dotted line on tlie 

 section shows the fiiU of low water since tlie removal of old London 

 Bridge). The sheet piling which surrounds the caisson is, beecli l'2in. 

 thick and 15 feet long; the waling is Sin. thick by I-2in. ; every tliird 

 pile is bolted to the wale with a l^ incli screw-bolt, the head counter- 

 sunk into a cast-iron waslier ; the wale is bolted to the caisson 

 by 1| incli tiebolts, feet long, let into tlie timber ; the inner end 

 has a cast-iron carriage, bedded as shown in the section ; the an- 

 gles of the waling are secured with wrought-iron straps. The space 

 between the sheet-piling and the caisson, and also between the 

 timbers of the grating is filled in with brickwork, thus forminc a 

 solid bed for the pavement, which is of roche Portland stone, six 

 feet in depth of bed, and 18 inches height next the pier, bevelled otf 

 to 12 inches next the piles. 



We intend to continue our notice of tlie works as they proceed. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 



FASCICULUS V. 



" T must have liberf^- 



Withal, as lai-|:;e a charter as tlie wiiuls, 

 To blow on whom I please.*' 



I. It is perfectly inexplicable to me, that notwithstanding the exces- 

 sive admiration professed for Palladio, no views are ever taken of his 

 buildings — models, we are assured, of refined taste, and every kind of 

 architectural elegance and grace, and replete with, that captivating ho;? .so 

 the which defies both definition and description. I am not acquainted 

 with a single instance in which any building by him has been given in 

 such works as those of Clochar, Schuelt, Ruhl, which profess to select 

 what is most worthy of study in Italian architecture. We have of late 

 had a tolerably smart shower of Italian views of one sort or another, 

 both in Annuals and elsewliere, yet none of tliem liave cared to show 

 us the glories of Vicenza ; while the Piazzetta at Venice has been 

 represented over and over again, till it has become aljsolutely stale. Yet, 

 if poor Vicenza is very scurvily treated, Sienna does not fare much bet- 

 ter being qu'iteyshi/ed at by all our travelling and view-taking folks. 

 Even Woods bestows only a couple of pages upon it, in which he con- 

 fines himself almost entirely to the cathedral, bating what he says of 

 the pronunciation of the people, which we could very well spare for 

 something more akin to the information the title of his book promises. 

 Poor Woods! not only did he someliow or other "miss seeing" one 

 of the greatest lions of its kind at Genoa, the Saloon of the Serra 

 Palace, but, horresco referens ! neither did he see even the fa9ade of the 

 Piccolomini Palace at Sienna, a most majestic piece of architecture — 

 one incomparably finer than anything Palladio ever designed. This 

 fa<7ade and tlie picturesque cortile would alone suffice for the fame of 

 any architect ; yet the name of Francesco di Georgio, to whom it is at- 

 tributed, though Rumolir claims it for Bernardo Rossellini, is scarcely 

 ever heard of among us ; yet whether by Di Giorgio or Rossellini, the 

 design is one of first-rate excellence. 



II. Whatever study an architect may bestow upon the design of a 

 mansion, a very gnat deal is, after all, left to be done entirely <i. dis- 

 cretion, as the French say, that is, to the risk of the most flagrant 

 indiscretion. Beyond cornices round the ceilings, doors and chimney 

 pieces, and perhaps a few columns, an architect considers that he h.is 

 nothing further to do with the interior, after the building is once 

 erected. The chief thing to be said in excuse of this disregard of 

 character and effect on his part, is, that at least it is attended with no 

 danger of any kind of effect being put out, or character destroyed, for 

 the simple reason, that his uniformly plain four-sided rooms have 

 nothing whatever of the kind ; indeed, it is but reasonable that all 

 matters of mere taste should be left entirely to thosi' who have to pay 

 for it, and who, it may be presumed, know far better than any one else 

 their_ own particular likings and dislikings, and who can at all events 



■ buy fashion— a most delightful thing, although not exactly an article 

 that " will wear well for ever, and afterivards'be better than at first." 

 Wliercfore should a man, because you have employed him as your archi- 

 tect for the walls of your house, be allowed impertinently to dictate to 

 your taste, and tell you there must be this and there must not be that ; to 

 tell you that such or such a thing will quite cut up and kill some- 

 thing else? Officious jackanapes! — he deserves to be killed himself and 

 cut up afterwards, in terrorem, to the whole profession. It is some 

 consolation to know that in* this country the profession are generally 

 persons of far more discretion than to behave themselves after such 

 very unseemly manner. They leave you to have it all your own 

 way ; you may paint, paper, carpet, and do every thing else a discretion, 

 without giving themselves any concern about it. Perhaps they are rather 

 too pococuranti, hut ihcw thej' save themselves a vast deal of trouble, 

 and other persons an infinity of vexation and annoyance. In fact, it is 

 little short of a downright insult to tell people, even by implication, that 

 you consider your taste greatly better than theirs, or ratlier that they have 

 no taste at all ; almost would it be a lesser affront to tell them they 

 liave not common sense, nor common undeistanding. Ne sutor ultra 

 crepidam : let the architect stick to his concrete, his brick and mortar, 

 his columns and proportions, and all the cabalistic words of his voca- 

 bulary ; perfect ignorance of all such vulgar matters may he confessed 

 not only without shame but with perfect self-complacencj', and with a 

 glow of conscious superiorit}'. But to sutler yourself to be dictated to 

 or even guided in matters of taste, is a thing not to be thought of. 

 What, are you such an absolute Goth in your ideas, such a vulgar 

 plebeian in your notions, as not to know, without being told, what is 

 (juite comme ilfaut, and tasty or not ? 



III. It is very extraordinary — I mean it appears unaccountable, for the 

 thing itself is a matter of course — that notwithstanding the vast number 

 of designs for buildings, or of views of them, scarcely one in five hun- 

 dred shows any part of tiie interior of a building ; so that, did we not 

 know to the contrary, we might suppose that the mansions of our 

 nobility, and all our other edifices both public and (u-ivate, were merely , 

 outside show, whereas many a one which is as plain and uninteresting 

 as can possibly be externally, contains some apartment or other within 

 it worthy of being made known. I question whether there is any ugly 

 house of any size, or one that has acquired a vulgar sentimental noto- 

 riety as that in which some poetical luminarj' was first fed on pap, 

 that has not had its likeness taken, to edify and delight the fanciers of 

 such mawkish rubbish? Besides being a very preposterous superstition, 



I am afraid that it is one which leads to a very great deal of mystifica- 

 tion on the part of those who provide the public with such highly in- 

 teresting mementos, and who not being always so scrupulous as their 

 customers are curious, manufacture a view of the " House in 

 which the celebrated So-and-so was born," or "died," and pass it off" as 

 genuine. Perhaps the house that .Tack built, could any one but find 

 out where it stood, would be a greater curiosity of the kind than all 

 the others put together. 



IV. Whether it be the intention or not of tlie Gresham Committee 

 to act with perfect fairness in the competition for the new Royal 

 Exchange, certain it is that they hold out very little encouragement 

 for any one to engage in it. There is not the slightest manifestation of 

 any anxiety to obtain a design of si.perior merit — no pledge given that 

 the decision will be according to unbiassed judgment, that that judg- 

 ement will be not only impartial but most deliberate, and committed to, 

 at least assisted bj', those whose opinion will have weight with the 

 public, and who are willing to be responsible for the selection they 

 shall make. Further, instead of anything like readiness being sliown 

 in furnishing as explicit instructions as possible — notwithstanding that 

 a positive charge is made for a plan of the site, the information sup- 

 plied is so vague as to leave entirely out of view nearly all the most 

 important points that require to be clearly understood ; at the same 

 time, there is a most extraordinary precision indeed as to others, 

 although they must be entirely dependent on circumstances of plan, 

 lor some of the rooms are limited to the exact diineiisions of 13 feet by 

 1:3 and G inches ! Does not this look very much as if a plan had been 

 made by some one, and that the sizes of the rooms wliicli happen to be 

 in it, are expected to he adiiored to most punctually, no matter whether 

 any other design can be so adjusted as to bring lliom in without taking 

 away or adding a single inch? To be sure, tolerable latitude is allowed 

 the competitors in another respect, because the |uincipal area may be 

 about -JOiOOO sipiare feet, wliicli about seems to imply that one or two 

 thousand more or less will not be regarded. 



V. Sufficient distinction is not made between the aesthetic value of 

 a particular style, and the historical interest wliicli may be uttttched to 

 it ; and yet there may be much of the latter where there is very little of 

 any of the former. Such is the case with F.lizahetlican architecture ; 

 fur though the extant examples of it desetve notice, and are not 

 altogether witliout attraction in themselves, very seldom indeed do they 



