183f).] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



247 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS VI. 



1 must Invc liljiTfy 

 Viilial, <is large a charter as tlic winds, 

 To LilciH' un »liom 1 please. 



I. Had Lord Kiiigsborough written " I'd be a Initterfly," or some siult 

 piece of inawkislmess, he niiglit liave been as cikhratcd as Haynes 

 Bayley, or otlier eelebrify of tlie same calibre. But the author of flie 

 Mexican Aiiti(iiiities niis^'ht have put tlie whole of his public, that is, 

 all the public who know or care any thing about bis seven stupendous 

 folios, if not into a nutshell, into a moderate sized room. Truly the 

 F. S.A. author of a recent Architectural Dictionary has been much 

 wiser in his generation than was the noble Viscount; for at all events 

 he knows how f(j nianufactiu-e ware for the market, and to speculate 

 ujion the ignorance of the public. 



II. Who Madame Flora de Tristan maybe I know not, nor am I sure 

 that her "Letters a un Architecte Anglais" are bon;1 tide letters really 

 addressed to -any one, or merely criticisms and comments on the archi- 

 tecture of London, put into an epistolary form. In all probability the 

 latter is the real fact, because it is not very likely that the lady would 

 have undertaken to enlighten an English architect upon such a subject, 

 more particularlv as the general tendency of her remarks are by no 

 means flattering to our national vanity. .She is of opinion that since 

 St. Paul's we have produced nothing really noble in church architec. 

 ture. All our modern buildings of that class are censured by her as 

 being totally deficient in character, mere auditories or lecture roonis, 

 witliinit any thing whatever to impress the mind (n- excite devotional 

 feeling. Then again she taunts us with the egregious absurdity of the 

 'Achilles' as it is called, in Hyde Park, with the York column, and 

 the new palace, which lattershejitstly enough pronounces to be in every 

 respect maqiiin. " Toutes gigantesqiies," she says, " que soient vo's 

 entreprises de ponts, de chemins de fer, elles ne sont jamais que des 

 speculations faites sur une cchelle jjkis ou moins vasle jKiur satisfaire 

 ii des besoins materiels. Parmi los edifices construits depuis la puix 

 dans votre capitale, j'en cherche vainement un qui approche t'n splen- 

 dour de Greenwich, &c." To be sure we are not obliged tu pav any 

 regard to the opinions of an impertinent French woman, nevertheless 

 it is rather mortifying to find that such injurious notious siiread 

 abroad, and that we cannot compel foreigners to admire the build- 

 ings upon which we compliment ourselves. Madame Flora is 

 besides most horribly heterodox, for she pretends that all modern 

 architectui'e is nothing but copying, without the slightest attempt at 

 invention, as if all possible modes of beauty had been luno- ago ex- 

 havisted. Poor creature! poor woman! does she then imao-ine that 

 architecture is like millinery and bomiet-making? However, the com- 

 fort is we are not likely, for some time to come at least, to have archi- 

 tects in petticoats, or else,^ — but the idea is too awful. After all, to 

 give her her due, the woman has some noM, for in speaking of the 

 Koyal Exchange that was, she says that statues of celebrated dis- 

 coverers and inventors who have advanced our commerce, manufac- 

 tures, and our commercial relations, would be far more atiproiiriate in 

 such a building than those of kings and queens; and that the natural 

 products of our colonies ought, as far as they are capable of beino- so, to 

 be introduced as symbolical ornaments. Notwithstanding the quarter 

 it comes from, this is a very good hint, which there is now an oppor- 

 tunity for our architects availing themselves of, in their designs for 

 the new structure. 



III. What does Bartholomew mean by calling the new front of the 

 Surgeons' College "a barbarous heap of'ill-favoured sand," and sayiu" 

 that "it is a creaking mass of fracture ?" The original design was 

 barbarous enough, so much so that one might almos? have imao-ined 

 its taste alluded pimningly to the company of barber surgeons.^ But 

 as to any fractures the present front exhibits, I fancy Bartholomew 

 would find more cracks in his owm head. Pray heaven! he may not 

 be St. Bartholomew'd by being flayed alive by his brother architects 

 for the very scurvy remarks he has cast upon" the whole profession ; 

 nor lias he scrupled to atlirm that "urchitecture sinks in quality,' 

 science, curious finish and duration." 



IV. St. George's, Hanover-square, which, by the bye, is mentioned 

 in the newspapers very much oftener than by architectural critics, is 

 censured by Pennant for reason which no one, unless previously in- 

 formed, would be able ever to guess. According to him, it is "too 

 Brobdiguagian!" Well, we have many other buildings that may be 

 censured as too Lilliputian, so that between the tov stools we fairly 

 come to the ground. Lilliput and Brobdignag remind me that "a 

 French translation of Gulliver's Travels h;vs just appeared, decorated 

 with a profusion of wood engravings, which are just now all tiie rage; 



This, I suppose, will help to bring Swift's satire again into vogue, for 

 it may be questioned whether it has had a score of readers in this coun- 

 try during the present geuc-ration. Why does not somebody set about 

 illuslrating Holberg? Enough: if I go' on upon this crotchet I shall 

 need illustration myself. 



V. Schlegel has, somewhat fantastically, it must be confessed, com- 

 pared architecture to frozen music; and the analogy so far holds good, 

 inasmuch as it may be predicated of some of our biiildings, that, if not 

 very hannonknis \.\\PY are at any \-A.ie. frozen, having a most chilling and 

 even frost-bitten look. They are not merely "as cool as cucumbers," 

 but actually as cold as icicles, — naj', one or two that might be named, 

 are positively eye-tsukks — things that cut the eye confoundedly, and 

 which /should like to see cut down. 



VI. Rare news for architects! — Yes, let them prick up their ears 

 at it, for according to Victor Considerant, the disciple of Fourier, the 

 whole human race is to be not only comfortably but magnificently 

 lodged in palaces, each capable of affording accomiuodation to three 

 or four hundred families. "The palaces of Versailles, Mannheim, the 

 Louvre and Tuileries, are mere baby-houses in comparison w itli what 

 such colossal edifices will be." Again we are tolcl: "all those who 

 are now obliged to dwell in miserable hovels and garrets, and sleep ou 

 straw beds, will then occupy SOU.UUO palaces surpassing all those of 

 Rome and Paris!!!" Eight hundred thousand palaces! there is work, 

 for architects! plenty of scope for design! Even should there be some 

 Icelle mistake in the computation — a couple, or for the matter of that, 

 three or four cyphers too many, still there would be a good many very 

 capital jobs and of competitions likewise for a century to come. Pray 

 heaven! it may not be a mistake altogether, that Victor Considerant 

 is a more considerate person than to Tuunbug us with mere dreams, 

 with the fumes of his own imaginaticm. But then if there be truth in 

 the pro])becy of the disciple, may there not also be as much, or even 

 more in that of the master? And what did Fourier himself predict 

 on liis deathbed ? truly noithing more nor less strange than that " in the 

 course of two hundred' years men will have tails thirty-two feet long" ! ! 

 a pretty kind of entailed jiroperty that for a gentleman to have to 

 carry about with him, dragging it at his heels wherever he goes. 

 Perhaps it may be merely figurative, and the dying philosopher meant 

 nothing more than that in the time si)ecified by him, the whole human 

 race will have become Dan O'Connells. At all events, it is some 

 comf(3rt to reflect that none of us are likely to live till that tailed 

 generation shall arise ; therefore if none of the eight hundred thousand 

 palaces are to be begun until then, the architects of the present day 

 will not be greatly benefitted by the scheme. Besides which, it is 

 possible that there is either some very odd jumble in Victor Con- 

 siderant's ideas, or some juggling in his language, and his real mean- 

 ing may be that society will in course of time be lodged entirely in 

 prisons and union workhouses, which for the sake of euphony, he is 

 pleased to designate by the milder appellation of palaces. 



APPLICATION AND INTENT OF THE VARIOUS STY'LES 

 OF ARCHITECTURE. 



[We have made the following extracts from an article of consider- 

 able merit which appeared in the 27th volume of the Quarterly Re- 

 view. The remarks made by its author strike at principles and not 

 at details, and may perha]is be useful in calling the attention of our 

 readers to some important truths.] 



When employed by its authors and inventors, the architecture of 

 Attica and Ionia is faultless. The separate members of the building 

 ha\'e a definite relation to the whole. They are aggregated by affinity 

 and connected by apposition. Each one is in its destined place ; no 

 one is extraneous or superfluous ; all are characterized by fitness and 

 propriety. Grecian architecture is a composition of columns, which 

 are intended to assemble themselves only in the form of a Grecian 

 temple. They seek to enter into no other combination. Bpauty and 

 elegance result from their union. The long unvaried horizontal line 

 of the entablature rests in stable trLuiquility upon the even ranging 

 capitals below, and the conical shafts are repeated in unbroken symme- 

 try. The edifice is perfect in itself. Therefore it admits of no "change 

 in its plan, of no arldition to its elevation. It must stand in virgin 

 magnificence, unmated and alone. The Grecian temple may be com- 

 pared to a single crystal, and the laws by which it is constructed are 

 analogous to the process of crystallization. Disturb the arrangement 

 of the primitive molecules of the crystal, and they will se/ into a mis- 

 shapen fragment, bicrease the nun'iber of these" crystals, allow them 

 to fix themsehes uj)oii each other, and their individual regularity will 

 be lost in the amorphous mass. Thus, in the Grecian temple, the 

 cowponeht parts have settled themselves into a sliape of perfect liar- 



