280 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT S JOURNAL. 



[August, 



THE NELSON MONUMENT. 



That the choice of Mr. Railton's design for execution has occasioned 

 much discontent can be neither denied nor concealed, after it has been 

 so generally expressed in different public journals ; nur has such dis- 

 satisfaction been at all lessened by the circumstance that the committee 

 appeared willing to retract tlieir first judgment, tlieir consenting to a 

 second competition being, in fact, equivalent to an engagement on 

 their part to pay greater deference to public opinion. As far as the 

 committee are concerned, we think that tliey acted unguardedly in nut 

 distinctly stating, on the second occasion, that they wished for a column 

 or something of that kind. This, it will perhaps be said, might easily 

 have been inferred ; still it would have been better had it been de- 

 cidedly expressed, particularly as the adjudication of the two other 

 premiums rendered it a matter of some doubt. At all events when 

 they found themselves in precisely the same situation as at first — or 

 rather in a dill'erent and more awkward one, being under the necessity 

 of retracing their steps, and repeating the very choice which they ap- 

 peared to have cancelled ; they ought — if only on Mr. Railton's ac- 

 count, to have vindicated that choice by alleging, in the most explicit 

 maraier, their reasons for it. If they have not so, nor said anything to 

 convince the j)ublic that the design finally determined upon was really 

 more eligible than any other, the fault is theirs, and not Mr. Railton's. 



With respect to ourselves, we do not feel that we are called upon 

 here to say any thing in the way of criticism ; and shall therefore 

 confine ourselves to description. As far as precedents go, there are 

 certainly more of them in favour of an insolated column as a monu- 

 mental or triumphal record. The Parisians are now actually erecting 

 a second monument of the kind, the Coloime de JuiUet on the Place de 

 Bastihe. In our own metropolis we have already two, but the one 

 now proposed to be erected will be of far richer character in itself, 

 and will difti?r from them materially in the lower portion of the design; 

 for in addition to the widely spreading basement or platform upon 

 which the whole will be seated, the pedestal will be raised upon a 

 graduated scale that will give it the appearance of greater security. 

 Each side of the pedestal will be decorated with an lustorical bas-re- 

 lief (probably to be executed in bronze), representing one of the four 

 naval victories of .St. Vincent, Copenhagen, Nile, and Trafalgar. The 

 capital, which is after that of Mars Ultor at Rome, will be farther de- 

 corated by a figure of Victory on each face of it. According to this 

 second design, there will be neither abacus nor railing above the capi- 

 tal (in which respect as well as others it will differ from those of the 

 Monument and York column), and we therefore suppose it is intended 

 the upper mouldings should be hollowed behind so as to form a 

 parapet to a gallery on its summit, as the shaft will contain a staircase 

 leading to it. This second design is loftier than the first one by about 

 six feet; and its principal dimensions are as follows : — 



Height. Diameter. 



Base 10 



Pedestal 39 20 6 



iJase of column 9 



Shaft 90 12 



Capital 11 



Ci])iius or pedestal of statue 14 



Statue 17 



193 



To this we annex a comparative list of some of the principal monu- 

 ments of the kind, ancient and modern. 



Entire height. 



Ponipey's Pillar 90 



Trajan's Pillar 115 



Antouine Column 123 



Mouument 202 



York Column 137 9 



Napoleon Ditto (Paris) 132 



July Ditto (Paris) 156 10 



Alexaudcr Ditto (St. Petersburg) 175 6 



Melville Ditto (Edinburgh) 152 7 



Nelson Ditto (Dublin) 134 3 



Ditto (Yarmouth) 140 



Among the above there is only one instance of a Corinthian or 

 foliaged capital, namely Pompey's Pillar, the shaft of which is a 

 monolith or single stone. The shaft of the Alexander column is also a 

 monolith of considerably greater dimensions, its diameter being Hi 

 feet English, and its height S4. Tins enormous mass of granite was 

 transported from Filmland, where it had been worked out rough in 

 the quarry. 



For a description of the other designs as furnished bv the authors 

 themselves, see page 290. 



THE NELSON MEMORIAL. 



.Sir — ^Whether the resvdt itself be satisfactory or not, as far as Mr. 

 Railton's design is concerned, I conceive that the proceedings of the 

 Committee were unsatisfactory in the highest degree ; if merely on 

 account of the very great, and I may say, indecent precipitation with 

 which they at length settled the business, hurrying over in about a 

 couple of hours a question that circumstances had rendered it incum- 

 bent on them to deliberate upon carefully, and to canvass in all its 

 bearings. Instead of which, both deliberation and discussion were 

 completely set aside, and the afiair was determined by Ballot! By 

 Ballot! it' is so perfectly MONSTROUS, as to be scarcely credible. 

 Not even a single expression of opinion either one way or the other 

 appears to have been produced ; but as if anxious to extricate them- 

 selves as speedily as possible from a very awkward situation in which 

 they were not at all likely to cut the very best figure in the eyes of 

 the public, the Committee had recourse to a mode well calculated to 

 screen themselves individually from reproach, and also to prevent 

 futile and absurd arguments, by stifling argument altogether. It has 

 also relieved them from the necessity of explaining to the public on 

 what grounds they have after all awarded the preference to that very 

 design wdiich, greatly to the astonishment and dissatisfaction of almost 

 every one else, had previously obtained the first premium ; for they 

 have so managed it that the only reply they or any others can now 

 give is, that such was the result of the ballot. After what had pre- 

 viously taken place, such a course argued excessive timidity and a 

 consciousness of not being able to justity their selection to the world : 

 if it does not actually convict them of shuffling and duplicity. But 

 as matters have turned out, there certainly is some ground for suspect- 

 ing that the second competition was little better than a mere feint or 

 ruse — a show of liberality and compliance with popular feeling, wdiile 

 they were predetermined to carry their point by resorting to the sin- 

 gular but highly convenient mode ultimately adopted. Such may 

 have been the case, without supposing that every individual in the 

 Committee either lent himself to, or was privy to such scheme. Pos- 

 sibly the suspicion may be altogether vmjust, and totally groundless, 

 except as far as actual circumstances give it tbe colouring of strong 

 probability. Undoubtedly such scheme would have been a verv strange 

 one — to call it by no harslier epithet, liut then perhaps, it is still more 

 strange that matters should have turned out as they have done, and 

 that no pains whatever should have been taken to guard against such 

 very awkward construction or misconstruction as that here put upon 

 the proceedings. Why should there be any room whatever for any 

 such suspicion? Why, after such ajjparent concession and defer- 

 ence to public opinion as to rescind the first decision, allow a second 

 competition to take place, and the whole to commence de nnro, was 

 the very choice that had before occasioned so much discontent, con- 

 firmed and ratified, without the slightest attempt being made to show 

 that Mr. Railton's column was — if not positively in itself, at least, all 

 circumstances taken into account, more eligible than any other design. 

 Can it be affirmed that the second exhibition at all tended to recon- 

 cile the public to the drawing which had been before generally scouted 

 as being of the most common place character, and without the slightest 

 aim at invention of any kind ? Hardly ! If it was for the very quality 

 just alluded to, for its being neither more nor less than a mere copy, 

 without fanciful addition of any kind, that that design was approved, it 

 might have been so stated, as artists would, perhaps, have been guided 

 accordingly in the second competition. Or if, after the first one, and 

 the designs it produced, the Committee were of opinion that some 

 kind of column would be preferable to any other sort of monument, 

 such opinion might as well have been made known, and then a great 

 many who came forward on the second occasion, would either not have 

 done so at aU, or else would have adopted the idea of a column; had 

 which been done, something more satisfactory and appropriate than 

 any of the actual designs of that class might have been produced. 



I am of opinion, however, for one, that there were several designs 

 for columns superior to that by Mr. Railton; or admitting that they 

 were not so decidedly superior as to leave no room for doubt, they 

 ceitainly possessed such degree of merit as to render Mr. Railton's 

 superioiity doubtful in the extreme. Such being the case the most 

 sensible and fairest mode of proceeding would have been, to have made 

 in the first instance a selection of about half a dozen of the best class, 

 and (dismissing all the rest) to have compared them together closely, 

 scrutinized them and canvassed their respective merits at separate 

 meetings, held at intervals for that purpose, and at which it would 

 not liave been amiss, had the Committee taken in evidence the ojjimons 

 of one or two artists and competent judges, who, having no personal 

 interest in the afiair, nor any private bias in favour of any of the can- 

 didates, would have exju'essed their impartial judgment as to the 

 respective merits of the designs. Had some such course been adopted, 

 the pretensions of those designs would have been duly canvassed and 



