424 



Till'] CIML ENGINIilEll AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[November, 



luwi'r (he |l^e^sslll■o of llic sliMiii used, Uk Efiealer will be the propur- 

 tioiwte loss; Iherelure we shall t;ike an exlreine case if we assiitne 

 V = UOO and;; = 11-71, when V will be 1700, and 



hig. V+1-7G05511 = 5. 

 Substituting these values in the equation (IX), wc obtain 

 L _ l,S(.)0,l,ioo 



•000044. 



40,s(;u,4O0,O00 



Thus we see that, although (he pressure exerteil by (lie steaui 

 against the piston, and lonsccpiently the resistanv-e whicli it can over- 

 eouie, is not alricflij e<pial to its whole elastic force, we are perfectly 

 justilied in assuming it to be prac/ifa/li/ so, and disregard the ditliv 

 rcnce, which is in reality nuich too small to be ai)pretiable. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS X. 



1 must liave liberty 

 M itlia). as lar,Lic a charter as the U' nt's, 

 To blow uu \i liuni 1 I'lcasc. 



I. The attractive title of "Church Architecture of the Middle Ages," 

 induced me to turn to the last number of the Dublin Review, for the 

 topic itself has been so hackneyed of late years, that 1 fancied no 

 editor woidd now receive any paper ujion it, unless some freshness or 

 peculiar interest were im]iarteil to it. Hut, alack.' the said arlide 

 turned out to be only three pages of the most wisby-wasliy stuli'iiua- 

 ginable. The whole )Hn-p(Mt and sum of it are nun'ely to assure us 

 that it is cpiite impossible for any but a Catholic architect to enter at 

 all into the true feeling of our ancient religions edifices. It may be 

 so, but then if what the writer says proves any thing it jiroves rather 

 too much; the ergo resulting from it being that Gothic architecture 

 and Protestantism are things utterly o])posed to, and irreconcileable 

 with each other, consequently the only course left us, is to say Good- 

 bye to Gothic architecture, for ever. 



II. The newspapers mention Sir II. Smirke as the architect to be 

 employed in rebuilding Bridgewater House ; but tliis, it is to be hoped, 

 will turn out a mere newspaper vii-dil ; for Sir Robert has by this 

 time done (piite (^nough to convince every one how little it is that he 

 can do, and that what style In- lias, consists only in the absence of all 

 that constitutes style, and the most frigid mannerism in the ap])lica- 

 tion of a few forms derived from Grecian architecture; without one 

 spark of geuiality or even invention. Beyond what is borrowed — 

 literally transcribed from auti(|ue examples, there is nothing whatever 

 in any one of his designs |irofessing to be classical, except indeed it 

 lie much that detracts very nuiterially from the prototvpes attectedlv 

 ;ulhered to in other respects. 



III. Who is Mr. William Collier? — undoubtedlv a gentleman who 

 thinks he has no reason to be at ;dl ashamed of his name, having 

 allixed it at full length to a paper on "Ancient Architecture," in the 

 Polytechnic Journal. And if he has not thrown any new light on that 

 hackneyed subject, he has at at least treated it most originally, having 

 condensed it into the compass of less (ban four very moderate pagesi! 

 — after which fact no one will question that, as lias been asserted by 

 some philaso|diers, the matter of the whole universe is capable of 

 being compressed into the space of a walnut. At first I ap])reheud(Hl 

 that William Collier was alxmt to be dreadfully ])rolix, and (hat his 

 paper would be c<ai(luued (hrougli a( least five liuudred numbers of the 

 Polytechnic, — that is, to about (lie year IbbO, for he sets out by telling 

 us that "The first foundations of history may be looked upon, &c.," 

 and "We think there can be no doubt, that .AiiCliiTECTURK, when in its 

 infantine state, must have been not only rude or [ilain, but what may 

 be termed irregular." This is certainly beginning at the beginning, 

 and seems to threaten a |iro(ligiously long journey ; how ever, Mr. 

 William travels at more (ban railroad speed, for in the course of (wo 

 or three lines he gets from Noah to the Tower of Babel, and traversing 

 through (ireece and Rome sets us down — before he has finished his 

 third page, at the National (iallery in Trafalgar Square!!! After 

 which be shoots off again, and in less (lian eight lines runs (lirough 

 eight centuries, " during which scarcely anything was erected but in 

 the RuDK Gothic Style"!!!! Droll 'WiUiaiu Collier ! It must not 

 be supposed, however, that his flying velocity leaves him no time for 

 criticizing; for he stops at the National Gallery to call it "a mass of 

 rubbish which stands in all its uieanness on the spot once occupied by 

 the Royal Mews; and which it appropriated (o its proper use might 

 well be turned into a Royal Rabbit Hutch." Perluips he means for 



such nibhi/ ur rubid geulry as himself. Most uuquestionablv the Na- 

 tional Gallery is — thanks perhaps to our penny-wise goverument — • 

 greatly inferior to what it ought to have been, and to w hat the archi- 

 tect would have reiidere(l it, but to term it a "Mass of Rubbish," is, in 

 my o]iinion, nothing but the merest rubbish of words, most assuredly 

 not criticism. In (he name of common sense what are we to luider- 

 s(and by it? I believe it would puzzle Mr. William Collier, himself, 

 quite as much as any body else to explain. Grant that it is in every 

 respect decidedly inferior as a |iiece of architecture to what might 

 have been anlicipated, that as a building it is unworthy of its destina- 

 tion, still with all its sins, it is certainly by no means the poorest of 

 our [lublic edifices, (herafore if it at all answers to William Collier's 

 character of it, we may ransack our language in vain for terms appli- 

 cable to many things greatly inferior — for instance, to the Ti'rraces in 

 the Regent's Park, wiiich Bartholomew calls " niortar-skimmings by 

 the mile." If the National Gallery be a mere " Rabliit.liutcli," per- 

 luqis neither St. Paul's nor Westminster Abbey, can rank very much 

 higher than a good-sized dog-keimel. What our Sweet-William's 

 notions of magnificence may be, I can hardly guess, farther than that 

 they arc undoubtedly enormous. Yet stay! — he has given us some 

 clue, for just before pouncing upon the unfortunate mass of rubbish in 

 Tr.ifalgar S()uare, lie says : "The triumphal arches of Rome give us a 

 vast idea of the perfection to which architecture had been brought 

 during the flourishing times of her consuls and emperors" ! Thus 

 (hen alter all, the trium|)lial arches of Rome, in some respects, speci- 

 mens of the most corrupt taste in arcliitecture, are extolled as models 

 of perfection by a gentleman so exquisitely fastidious as to behold 

 nothing better than "a mass of rubbish," in the National (iallery! 



IV. 1 should very much like to see Madame Vestris perform the 

 part of Jane Shore, not exactly on the stage, but by being made to 

 |)erforiu |ienance, and stand in a white sheet on the vile excrescence 

 she has built — that is, caused or allowed to be built, by the side of the 

 pordco of Coven( Garden Theatre; and which looks as if il had been 

 slolen from the entrance of a suburban tea-garden. If that is a sample 

 of her management, and of the kind of reform she intends to introduce 

 in(o the inside of her house, it is a very ominous sign indeed, and not 

 a particularly inviting one. It is time there was some punishment or 

 fine for so disfiguring a public building in so horrible a manner. 



V. As my Lord Eglintoun seems to be suffering from such a plethora 

 of cash that he is puzzled to contrive how to s|iend it, some friend 

 should ad> ise him to give a new coat to his castle. At present it 

 looks like any thing but what its name would lead us to expect; it 

 being only a spruce and dapper sash-windowed house, with a few 

 lialtlements, which so far from 'frowning' are jiarticularly sheepish- 

 looking. Its character altogether is very far more olf'ensive than de- 

 fensive, for it wonkl not stand out lialf an hour's seige, before it could 

 be stormed by half a dozen old women. 



VL There was no occasion for the new Custom House at Liverpoo', 

 to convince us that an enormous expense may be incurred for a number 

 of large cohuuus without its producing any adequate elfect or exhibit- 

 ing any thing (hat can fairly be called design. The building in ques- 

 tion has three octastyle porticos agidust as many of its sides; but 

 with the exception of those rows of columns nothing to su])port the 

 pretensions it so makes. When one beliolds such a huge mass of 

 mawkish insipidity, he is templed to regret, with Charles Purser, that 

 Grecian arcliilcc(ure has not been utterly annihilated, or that we have 

 not been kept in utter ignorance of it. 



ARCHITECTURE AT MUNICH. 



P^\TniOTis.M is no doubt a very excellent virtue in its way, but it is 

 one (hat reipiires to be reined in a little, for it is sometimes rather an 

 unruly beas(, and a|)t to serve us as his steed did John Gilpin, and to 

 make us cut an equally ridiculous figure in the eyes of all the rest of 

 (he world. Thus the title of "Modern Athens!" as applied to Edin- 

 burgh and its buildings, is absolutely burlesque, of which the very 

 luiuter seems to have been conscious, for why else did he stick the 

 mark of admiration after it on the title of the volume for which John 

 Britton, with his usual good tas(e, thought fit to select such a clap-trap 

 designation as a delicate and delicious ioin|ilimeiit (o " Auld Reekie." 

 After this we are almost ashamed to say that the epithet of the German 

 Athens, has been bestowed upon Munich. Its .Mi »/((«/«;//, however, 

 is of a totally ditiereiit sort from that north of Tweed ; for in regard to 

 ar(, the Scotch and (he German A(hens stand in (he same relationship 

 to each other, that the icebergs of the Frozen .Sea do to the luxuriant 

 vegetation of (he trojiical regions. But why, it will be said, should 

 we make such very disagreeable comparisons ? to which question we 



