ARCHITECTURE. 



ed, as may be seen in many of the street 

 houses of London, in order to give room 

 for a fan light, and to lessen the expenses 

 of the frontispiece, by introducing short- 

 er columns and a less massy entablature : 

 for since the horizontal cornice represents 

 the tie-beam, and the inclined ones the 

 rafters, the columns will appear to have a 

 tottering effect, by spreading them out at 

 the top beyond the extremities of their 

 bases. 



Vitruvius observes, that the Greeks 

 never used mutules, modillions, or den- 

 tils, in the front, in which the end of the 

 roof, or fastigium, appears, because that 

 the ends of the rafters and the ends of 

 the laths which support the tiles only ap- 

 pear at the eaves of the building. Now, 

 as mutules and dentils originated from the 

 projecting ends of the rafters and laths, 

 following the course of nature, it would 

 have been absurd to introduce them into 

 the pediment. 



However just this reasoning appears, 

 we find, from the remains of Grecian an- 

 tiquity, this assertion only verified in the 

 inclined cornices of the pediment : for 

 mutules are constantly employed in the 

 horizontal cornice ; but neither mutules, 

 modillions, nor dentils, on the sloping 

 sides : at least, when any of the edifices in 

 Greece appear with those innovations, 

 they are introduced during the time it 

 was a province of the Roman empire. Of 

 this practice at Rome, the Pantheon and 

 the frontispiece of Nero are examples of 

 modillions ; and the temple of Fortune 

 one where dentils are used. In the in- 

 clined cornices of pediments the sides of 

 the modillions and dentils are planes, per- 

 pendicular to the horizon and to the front 

 of the edifice ; and in the same vertical 

 planes with those of the modillions or 

 dentils of the horizontal cornice. 



Balustrades. A balustrade is a range 

 of small columns, called balusters, sup- 

 porting a cornice, used as a parapet, 

 or as a screen to conceal the whole 

 or a part of the roof: it is also some- 

 times used as a decoration for termi- 

 nating the building. Balustrades are em- 

 ployed in parapets on the margins of 

 stairs, or before windows, or to inclose 

 terraces or other elevated places of resort, 

 or on the sides of the passage way of 

 bridges. It is remarkable, that there are 

 no remains of balusters to be seen in any 

 ancient building. In the theatres and am- 

 phitheatres of the Romans, the pedestals 

 of the upper orders were always continu- 

 ed through the arcades, to serve as a pa- 

 rapet for the spectators to lean over. The 



lowermost seats next to the arena in the 

 ampitheatres, and those next to the or- 

 chestra in the theatres were guarded by 

 a parapet, or podium The walls of an- 

 cient buildings generally terminated \vith 

 the cornice its-.-lf, or with a block, ng 

 course, or with an Attic. In the monu- 

 ment of Lysicrates at Athens, which is a 

 small beautiful building, the top is finish, 

 ed with fynials, composed of honeysuc- 

 kles, solid behind, and open between each 

 pair of fynials : each plant or fynial is 

 bordered with a curved head, and the Bot- 

 tom of each interval with an inverted 

 curve. Perhaps terminations of this na- 

 ture might have been employed in many 

 other Grecian buildings, as some coins 

 seem to indicate ; but this is the only ex- 

 isting example of the kind The temples 

 in Greece are mostly finished with the 

 cornice itself. This was also the case 

 with many of the Roman temples ; but as 

 there are no remains of balustrades in 

 ancient buildings, their antiquity may be 

 doubted : they are, however, represented 

 in the works of the earliest Italian wri- 

 ters, who perhaps may have seen them in 

 the ruins of Roman edifices. When a 

 balustrade finishes a building, and crowns 

 an order, its height should be proportion- 

 ed to the architecture it accompanies, 

 making it never more than four-fifths, nor 

 less than two-thirds, of the height of the 

 order, without reckoning the zocholo, or 

 plinth, on which it is raised, as the balus- 

 trade itself should be completely seen at 

 a proper point of view. Balustrades that 

 are designed for use should always be of 

 the height of parapet walls, as they an- 

 swer the same purpose, being nothing 

 else than an ornamental parapet This 

 height should not exceed three feet and 

 a half, nor be less than three feet. In the 

 balusters, the plinth of the base, the most 

 prominent part of the swell, and the aba- 

 cus of their capital, are generally in the 

 same straight line ; their distance should 

 not exceed half the breadth of the abacus 

 or plinths, nor be less than one-third of 

 this measure. On stairs or inclined planes 

 the same proportions are to be observed 

 as on horizontal ones. It was formerly 

 customary to make the mouldings ofAhu 

 balustcrs follow the inclination of the 

 plane ; but this is difficult to execute, and, 

 when done, not very pleasant to the eye : 

 though in ornamental iron-work, where it 

 is confined to a general surface, passing 

 perpendicularly by the ends of the steps, 

 it has a very handsome appearance. The 

 breadth of pedestals, when placed over 

 an order, is regulated by the top of the 



