( [ VI L ARCHITECTUK 



,: -el 



Tin Liverpool exchange i, with regard to dimensMM 



d architecture, lupcrior to a . England. '!'!> 



;, . , ..'.,: :<-.! '.li.it purpi'K-, w.l. >M-I;I::I 



IB I7# from a drtign of Mr \Vo,u!. t hi- 

 lt it a Urge square build a rustic 

 , and up.ui that a magnificent Corinthian order, 

 ;. tiu.ii J around the whole edifice. A range 

 of tablet*, enriched with emblem* of commerce, f. 

 the apace between the Corinthian capital*; and the pe- 

 diment, on the centre part of the south front, is also fil- 

 led with emblematical iculpturr in high relief. The ge- 

 neral proportion* of the whole structure are good, and 

 the riecution of the sculpture is masterly. In 1796 the 

 interior wa destroyed by fire, but repaired for the town 

 ooawt*a*d offices, and an elegant cupola and dome con- 

 structed, which added to the general effect. The height 

 from the pavement to the centre of the dome is 1'20 feet. 

 It is remarkable, that this splendid building should never 

 have been used as an exchange, the merchants preferring 

 to meet in the adjacent street. This led to the project 

 of cooTertiog an extensive space un the north side of this 

 edifice into a quadrangle of commercial buildings, with 

 arcade*. The north facade extends 177 feet 8 inches, 

 and is from the pavement to the top of the attic 62 

 feet 4 inches high ; those on the east and west sides of 

 the quadrangle are each 131 feet in length, and 55 feet 

 a inches high. The style of the whole is judiciously 

 nude to correspond with that of the old exchange. The 

 facade on the north side has, like it, a break or projec- 

 tion in the middle, upon the rustic basement of which 

 rise* a noble portico, consisting of 8 coupled Corinthian 

 . .ilumns 25 i'itt high, each of the columns formed of one 

 ttooe. On the entablature are placed four emblematical 

 figures. Under this portico there is a vestibule or en- 

 trance* divided into three avenues by 3'2 Doric columns 

 \'2\ fee* high, with their proper entablatures, and sur- 

 mounted by elegant groined arches. The arcades round 

 in- three tides are 15 feet wide. The exchange news- 

 loom in the east wing is 94- feet 3 inches in length, 51 

 feet 9 inches in breadth, and in the middle 31 feet 4? 

 > high. The ceiling is supported by 16 Ionic co- 

 , and over this is a room of similar dimensions, ap- 

 propriated for underwriters, &c. This quadrangle will 

 be a lasting monument of the spirit and exertions of this 

 entcrprizing town, and an excellent specimen of the taste 

 <md talents of John Foster, Esq. architect to the corpo- 

 ration, from whose designs and directions it was erected. 

 It was begun in June 1803, and the masonry was com- 

 pleted in about three years. 



Bristol exchange consists of a small open square piazza, 

 encompassed by an elegant colonnade, which supports 

 a flat ceiling, thrown iuto compartments by beams, which 

 reach from the columns to the walls ; and these having 

 enriched soffits under this part of the edifice sufficiently 

 rnsaented, the whole piazza is surrounded by apart* 

 menu where business is transacted. The street front is 

 in a ay le somewhat similar to the Liverpool exchange. 



Or ARC-IIITECTCHC IN SCOTLAND. 



The state of architecture in North Britain having been 

 inferior to that in the more extensive and wealthy dis- 

 tricts of the southern parts of the island, we have, as 

 much M possible, avoided mixing it' with the account of 

 the progress of architecture in England ; but the Edin- 

 kurgh Lacifclojurrlia would be accused of an unpardon- 

 able remitsnes*, if this part of the subject was left wholly 

 nooticed : to avoid this imputation, we therefore insert 

 the following sketch. 



WKi!- the country wai inhabited by small, rude, and 



nearly independent tribes and clans, and was, at the same Ititor*. 

 exposed to incursions of the equally rude tribes V ?"V~ 1 ' 

 from the northern parts of the continent, it is natural ; 

 expect, that the chief attention would be bestowed upon ^ 



es of security, to which thuv could retire with ihi-ir 

 families. We accordingly fiud in Scotland the v, . 

 of two sorts of buildings apparently of the aforesaid i. 

 scription, whose era and mode of construction has never 

 :>een satisfactorily made out by either historians 

 or a.itiquarians. We here allude to the Urge circular 

 towers built of rubble stones, laid in a regular manner 

 without mortar, and to those singular structures known 

 by the name of vitrified K 



The vitrified forts are generally situated on high and Vitrified 

 partly insulated hi)U, where the space on the summit is fl ' r: *- 

 occupied by the fortress. They consist of walls or 

 mounds, composed of stones of various kinds and sizes, 

 of irregular forms, without any mortar, but cemented by 

 is of calcined pudding-stone. The interior space in- 

 closed, varies in the several forts from 14O yards in 

 Iengthand40inbreadth, to 25 yards by 15. In some, there 

 is only one inclosing wall or mound ; in ethers, as Craig 

 Phadrick, there are two, leaving a space of JO or 12 feet 

 between them. The thickness of the vitiified walls or 

 mounds varies from 7 or 8 feet to 40. These structures Probable 

 being situated to command a great extent of country, P ur l x ""'' 

 and so that there are two within sight of each other, 

 they appear, as well as places of protection, to have been 

 a chain of signals. Craig Phadrick, situated a mile west 

 of Inverness, at the north-eastern extremity of the great 

 Glen of Scotland, upon the point of a ridge projecting 

 considerably before the other parts of the hilly country, 

 and facing the middle of the great bay of the Murray 

 Firth, could readily receive notice of the landing of an 

 enemy upon any point of its extensive shores. This in- 

 telligence could be instantly conveyed to Dun Sgrebiu 

 on the north side of Loch Ness, aud from thene to Dun 

 Jardel on the south side, and from it to Duo Deam near 

 Fort Augu&tus, and thence to a vitrified fort in Glen 

 Avis near Fort William, and from the latter place down 

 the shores of the Linnhe Loch to the Western Isles, the 

 southern parts of Argyllshire, and the Firth of the 

 Clyde. If an enemy appeared on the western coasts, a 

 similar operation could convey intelligence to Craig Pha- 

 drick, from whence it could be forwarded northward to 

 the extensive vitrified fortress of Knock Farril in Ross- 

 shire, and that of the hill of Cruich in Sutherland ; and, 

 at the same time, by means of Don Evan and Castle Fin- 

 lay in Nairnshire, the alarm would be passed along the 

 toast of Murray, and from thence across the valleys of the 

 Don and Dee to the vitrified fort of Finaven in Strath- 

 more, and thus meet the intelligence from the west in the 

 southern parts of Scotland. It is most probable that these 

 signals were made by means of lighting fires of wood, 

 with which there is abundant evidence, that every hill 

 was anciently clothed ; and these intense fires, repeatedly 

 placed against these inclosures composed of fusible mate- 

 rials, are considered by Sir Geo. Mackenzie, Bart. ( see 

 the article VITIUFIED Four, which Sir George Mac- 

 kenzie ha* had the goodness to draw up for this work,) 

 as quite sufficient to have produced all the vitrification, 

 respecting which, various other theories have of late years 

 been offered. Mr John Wilb'ams, a mineral engineer, 

 who, by publishing a Treatise expressly on the subject i 

 1777, first brought these structures into public notice, is 

 of opinion, that they were constructed by raising two pa- 

 rallel dykes of earth or sod iu the direction of the intend- 

 ed wall, with a space between them sufficient for its 

 thickness, where the fuel was put in and set on fire, and 

 upon this tke fvsible pudding-stone (usually found ear 



