304 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[August ^ 



RALPH REDIVIVUS. 

 No. XVII. 



OUR HOUSE IN Lincoln's inn helds. 

 Acoovding to an article in the "Conversations Lexicon der Qegen- 

 %vart," wliii-li professes to uffonl some information as to the present 

 stale of areliitecture in England, " Sir ,lolm Soane's buildings generally 

 dis|)lay superior taste, but are not always well-disposed in plan" ! So 

 far from which being the ease, the very reverse to it is the truth, for 

 while his ])lans were generally excellent, and displayed considerable 

 invention, the taste manifested in his designs was apt to be very ini- 

 ecjiial, seldom good throughout, and occasionally most hitroqiie, mean 

 withal, and unmeaning. This front of his own, or we may now" call it, 

 of Our Own house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, although not his very -svorst 

 production, is one which none w ill envy him the re])utation of, since 

 it manifests far more of wbimsicality than of originality. Even sup- 

 posing for a moment that nothing can be alleged against the taste 

 shown in any of the sejiarate parts, it is decidedly faulty and defective 

 ns a whole, not Ijecansc it is in a style perfectly iiii gciitr/a, but be- 

 cause il is a <aiide jundile, amounting to no style at all. Tlie lionse 

 itself, wluch shows itself plainly enough, is one thing, while the fanciful 

 addition or excrescence by which it has been attem])ted to disguise it, 

 though only partially, is sometliing alldgether ditterent. The former 

 is as plain and homely as either of the bouses adjoining it: what 

 has lieen struck up against it is, on the contrary, not only exceedingly 

 fantastic, but not a little mean-looking into the bargain; wdiich mean- 

 ness of character, it should be observed, is altogether different from 

 homeliness, it being neither more nor less than that which almost inva- 

 riably attends paltry pretension and trumpery affectation. 



Besiiles being remarkably poor and insipid in itself, this odd ap- 

 jiendage to the front of ttie house is decidedly contrary to all just 

 architectural jninciple, inasuuich as though really of stone, it has the 

 appearance of being constructed merely of boards, the thickness of 

 the stone-work being only a few inches, a species of delusion as dis- 

 agreeable in itself, as it is at variance with that usually practised ; 

 for if most of our biuldings are, according to some very veracious 

 critics, mere "lath and plaster," they have, at all events, the merit! of 

 looking substantial, whereas in this case stone hvis been emploved to 

 form a llimsy-looking fabric, whose front is scarcely thicker than a 

 wall of stout idanks, which ajipearance is in some degree increased 

 rather than diiidnished, by the arches of wdiat was oiiginally an 0])en 

 viranda, haxing been filled in with windows, since this adscititious 

 structure has been thereby rendered the external front of the house, 

 and the window sashes hardly recede at all within its surface. The 

 njiper story of it, on the other hand, which remains as before, looks as 

 it always did, like a child's fabric of cards — thin slabs of stone set np 

 on edge, but how held together it is impossible to guess. That there 

 is any want of real security or suflicieut solidity is not to be supposed, 

 but there most certainly is a great want of the expression of the latter, 

 if not altogether of the former; at the same time that there is nothing 

 whatever of that lightness and slenderness combined with delicate 

 richness, which jirochice such a charm in some styles of architecture — 

 for instance, in many Gothic and Oriental exam])les, wliere tenuity in 

 Jjarts of the construction is made to ctmduce to beauty and to orna- 

 nieut. Here the architecture professes to the eye to aim at the usual 

 character of solidity, there being no indication of a dilferent princijile 

 having been adopted and suitably carried out. The unfortunate con- 

 seipiciiee is, that this capricious essay is not at all satisfactory aceordino- 

 to any one principal of art. 



Anotlier very fatal oversight appears to have been committed, vvliich 

 is, that the elevation ajijiears to have been considered merely vvith re- 

 spect to its appearance upon ]va]ier, detached from everything else, 

 without the slightest attention to the actual silivation, for owing to its 

 being rendered ^■ery conspicuous by being made to pi'oject beyond tlie 

 line of the other houses, this building looks little better than a narrow 

 upright slij), and far more insignificant than it would do if it did 

 not thrust itself more forward than its ueighl)ours. l^nless it could 

 have been made to endure exannnati(m better, it would have been 

 more prudent not to allow it to court observation after the manner it 

 <loes. .Since it has been (Miclosed l)y the apert'u'es being glazed, this 

 viranda, if so it may be called, gives the whole liouse the appearance 

 (if projecting very awkwardly beyond anv of the others, for tlie effect 

 produced by it is altogether diflerent from that attending any similar 

 advancing part of a larger architectural mass. 



No doubt as fiir as the house itself is concerned, this anomalous ex- 

 crescence in front of it is consiileiably in its favour, ina-sinuch as it 

 gives not only greater extent, but variety and iiovelt)- of character to 

 the rooms wiiicli are eiilargi.-d by the sjiace thus added to tliem. 13nt 

 then it is no more than reasonable to expect that this should be i|p- 

 coniplished with greater attention to external appearance, so as rather • 



to enhance it, than detract at all from it. It is conii),uati\ely easy to 

 obtain either internal convenience or external beauty sejiarately ; the 

 jnoblem is to combine them in such manner that what contributes to 

 the one shall also contribute to the other, and by way of referring to a 

 somewhat analogous instance, though only a single one, it will be sufli- 

 cieut to mention the Bay and Oriel in Gothic architecture, as beautiful 

 and characteristic features externally as they are within. 



Had it been the production of a mere botcher and bungler,r such a 

 front as this in Lincoln's bin Fields would have excited no pasticular 

 surprise, whatever other mental emotion it might have occaeioned. 

 \'ery ditlf"rent, lifiwever, does the case become when we considhr that 

 it was designed by the late Professor of Architecture, who, w ether 

 deservedly or not, has been complimented almost unsparingly for his 

 aliility and talents. Nor can it be alleged as a mitigating excuse for 

 his de)dorable failure in this instance, that he was at all thwarted or 

 checked in his ideas, and obliged to com])ly with the preposterous 

 whims of a stupid, obstinate employer, (piite contrary to his own 

 better judgment and taste. Here he was under no control, but was at 

 liberty to Libandon himself freely to the insjjiration of his own poetical 

 fancy, and to realise one of those visions of tirchitectural grace an i\ 

 beauty by which he was wont to imagine himself to be visited. Wha 

 has been the result? Nothing better than a poor flimsy meagre box- 

 looking erection, very litt'e, if at all superior in its puny taste, to 

 many of our London gin ])alaces. How far Sir John was safistied with 

 it himself, I cannot undertake to say, but if lie was satisfied with it at, 

 all, he must have been satisfied very easily indeed. 



Notwithstanding that he was checked by no scruples as to imio- 

 vatiiig \-ery freely, Soane after all accomiilished nothing approaching 

 to a style, or even laying the foundations of one. He acquired a 

 manner of bis own, and nothing more. Instead of gradually advancing 

 in the |)ath he ventured into, he seems to have quite bewildered him- 

 self, to have keiit groping about and fumbling at novelty, without 

 being able to seize hold of originalitv. What liis principles were, his 

 architectural principles I mean, it is impossible to decide. In fact, he 

 seems to have had no ])ositive ones, but to have shifted and veered 

 about just according to the whim of tlie moment. 



With respect to taste, the whole of his own house convicts him of 

 haxing been exceedingly unequal, and aildicted to the trivial and the 

 trifling. There are many exceeding clever and pleasing ideas thrown 

 out in many parts of tile interior, but hardly any one of them has been 

 properly worked up. There are many ingenious contrivances exem- 

 plified in it, which as lessons and hints are valuable enough, yet be- 

 yond that may almost be pronounced failures. The whole is little 

 better than a number of odds and ends of the kind jumbled together — 

 an architectural ctiito of rags and patches, of little shreds and bits to 

 serve as a sort of professional pattern card. So far, therefore, from 

 treating it at all unjustly by so styling it, it is only by considering it 

 merely as such that we reconcile ourselves to it, and overlook its in- 

 congruities as a w hole. In the little court between the house and the 

 miiseiun at the rear of it, just enough has been done to show what 

 might have been accomplished within that confined space, and hovy 

 pleasing a bit of scenic architecture might, have been produced, were 

 it at all more than a mere beginning. At present it produces nearly 

 the same impression as a )iicture would ilo that should be framed and 

 hung 11]), though many parts of its canvas should not have been touched 

 at all by the pencil. The museum itself is no better; it has no pre- 

 tensions wdiatever to architectural design or elfect, even in its plan, 

 being an irregular, crowded, buddled-u]), cut-up, mere make-shift 

 of a place, where the casts, X:c., are stowed away without half so much 

 aim at arrangement as may be seen in the "show-rooms" of many 

 trailesmen. The only room (excepting the small parlour next the 

 court; that is at all satisfictory, properly studied, and consistently 

 finished, is the jiicture cabinet, which js certainly a delightful little 

 architectural bijou, a model for a small room of the kiml, especially for 

 one similarly situated. 



Though it is no particular defect in the house itself that it is most 

 ill-adapted for a museum open to the public, since it was not built nor 

 afterwards altered for any such purpose, it is not on that account the 

 less absurd that it should have been so appro))riateil, unless it had been 

 freely devoted to jmblic use, and rendereil accessible every day and 

 all clay long, without other restriction than what would be indispensably 

 necessary to )irotect it from injury. In that case about a hundred-fold 

 llu- present number of person-i might have visited it in the course of a 

 jear, all of whom would doubtless have brought away with them 

 uolhiug but their admiration. As it is now managi'd, however, the 

 whole affair is a piece of veritable humbug — one that tells people 

 plainly enough what sort cjf meaning Sir Jplni attached to the word 

 " donation." 



