CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



649 



General 

 ob*crva- 



Robert 

 d^m. 

 (; l 



Practice, apartments are thoroughfares, particularly the library, 

 -V ^ which cannot be reached without passing through seve- 

 ral rooms. 



Hitherto we have seen spacious porticos placed at an 

 inconvenient distance from the ground ; halls and sa- 

 loons occupying a great proportion of the middle of the 

 main building ; most of the apartments rendered tho- 

 roughfares ; ceilings thrown into deep compartments ; 

 walfi covered with heavy tabernacle frames j and both 

 these, and doors, windows, and chimnies, loaded with 

 clumsy stucco ornaments: all this proves, that magnifi- 

 cence more than comfort or convtniency has been consult- 

 ed. The imitation of the Italian arrangement and deco- 

 ration seems also to have exclusively occupied the atten- 

 tion of the architect ; but, having acquired a facility in 

 the exercise of the art of imitation, the next step was to 

 accommodate his works to the climate in which they 

 were to be placed, and render them suitable to the wants 

 and habits of the occupiers. This opened a new and ex- 

 tensive field for genius and taste, and the changeable dis- 

 position of a wealthy society afforded sufficient opportu- 

 nities for introducing variety. We shall now give a short 

 description of several mansions constructed in this im- 

 proved style, and also adduce some engraved specimens. 

 Amongst the earliest and most successful practitioners 

 of this new mode, was Robert Adam : he discovered the 

 impropriety of introducing into private dwellings the 

 gigantic proportions and deco.ations of Roman temples; 

 he noticed also the too rigid adherence to the Greek or- 

 ders in all situations, however ill adapted ; he endeavour- 

 ed to correct these defects by introducing variety in his 

 external facades, modelling pilasters, entablatures, sculp- 

 tures, and other decorations to suit each particular work 

 and situation. For the interior he introduced a greater 

 variety of forms into his apartments, likewise light and 

 gay finishings, as painted ceilings, slender mouldings, pi- 

 lasters and friezes with light grotesque stucco and paint- 

 ed ornaments, and fanciful and delicate foliage. It can- 

 not be denied, that he, in various instances, transgressed 

 the limits of propriety ; but is it surprising, that, im- 

 mediately after having broken the trammels, he should 

 not always confine himself within the strict boun- 

 dary of correct taste ? and it will be admitted that he is 

 delicate and gay, even amidst a profusion of ornaments, 

 many of which might have been spared ; as at the en- 

 trance into the Adelphi, and the gate to Sion House. 



SIGN Hot'SK, which Mr Adam, in 1762 began to fit 

 up for the Duke of Northumberland, consists of a square 

 cJ old buildings new modelled, within which he intro- 

 duced a magnificent circular saloon. The external dimen- 

 sions of the square, exclusive of the towers at the angles, 

 are 163x140; the breadth over the walls of the en- 

 trance side is 38 feet ; on the right hand side 28, on the 

 left hand side 24, and the side opposite to the entrance 

 40 feet. The hall is 49.3 X 30, exclusive of a circular re- 

 cess at one end, and a square one at the other ; on the 

 right hand of the hall is a square anti room 39.1x26, 

 with a peristyle of insulated columns ; on the left hand 

 ii an anti-room of an elliptical shape, with J columns 

 attached to the walls. The buildings on the right hand 

 side of the square are occupied by the great dining-room 

 02x22, including a semicircular recess at each end, di- 

 vided off by columns, and a drawing-room 4-4.tj X 22. 

 On the left hand side of the square there is a private 

 eating room 32.6 X 28 ; a great staircase 29 X 20 ; a bed- 

 room, anti-room, and dressing-room. One half of the 

 breadth of the fourth side is occupied by a fine staircase, 

 with private rooms for the Duke on each side of it; the 

 other half is wholly occupied by a gallery 130x 14.6, 

 vol.. vi. PART u. 



.,, 



besides the towers at the angles, and a break in the middle, Practice. 

 This last feature is purely in the stile of Spalatro. The sa- "'". """" 

 loon, which occupies the interior square, consists of two 

 circles, the inner 50 feet, the outer one 70 in diameter; the 

 inner is pierced by eight openings, each fitted with co- 

 lumns, and the piers with niches ; the outer has four 

 openings with columns, and the spaces between them are 

 filled with niches and square recesses placed alternately, 

 as in the Pantheon at Rome. The exterior of this cir- Ob sfrva ~ 

 cular saloon being inscribed in a square, leaves four tri- '" 

 angular courts, which are very convenient for affording 

 light to the interior apartments of a great mass of build- 

 ing. The passage from the hall into this saloon, and 

 from thence through well contrived entrances and a fine 

 staircase into this extensive gallery, is certainly, for mag- 

 nificence, as proper an arrangement as can be well imagi- 

 ned ; and this is, in some measure, heightened by the irre- 

 gularity of the floors which the architect found in the old 

 buildings ; but it is at the same time obvious, that for 

 want of passages, the apartments are still too much tho- 

 roughfares ; and judging from the plan in Mr Adam's 

 book, there is some difficulty in conceiving by what 

 means there is any communication between the great 

 dining-room and the kitchen. Water closets are pla- 

 ced in different parts of this extensive plan ; a conve- 

 niency unknown to the architects of former times. The 

 delicacy of the interior finishings and furniture is equally 

 novel in a British dwelling. 



In 17C7, Mr Adam was employed by the Earl of 

 Mansfield, then chief justice of the King's Bench, to new 

 model, and make additions to, his mansion at KENWOOD. Keiiwood. 

 In this work the principle of thoroughfare apartments jj; men . 

 is abandoned, the hall is 31 x2l ; great stair 27 X 14 ; ,ions. 

 the total length of the library is 61 feet, the square part 

 part is 36 X 22 : this last, which was wholly new, is a noble 

 apartment ; each end is formed into a semicircle, and filled 

 with book cases; these ends being divided off by columns, 

 leaves the middle in a square form. The entrance is Dcscrip- 

 through one of the circular ends : along one side of the tio.i ot the 

 square part, are three large windows ; on the other side library, 

 is the chimney, with an arched recess on each side of it : 

 the ceiling is a plain trunk arch considerably below a 

 semicircle. In the inside finishing of this room Mr Adam 

 produced a specimen of what he wished to introduce 

 into British mansions. The chimney, besides a delicate- 

 ly fluted architrave, has, on each side, a slender pilaster, 

 richly ornamented in the panncls ; an enriched tablet 

 occupies the centre of the frieze; and on each side are a 

 couple of sphinxes, with an altar between them : over the 

 chimney is a large pannel, surrounded by an architrave 

 similar to that of the chimney, and in it a portrait of 

 Lord Mansfield, in his robes : the arched recesses have 

 delicate ornaments very light and airy ; a sofa stands in 

 each. The book-cases are divided by enriched' pilasters 

 like those at the recesses, and over them, there are 

 at each end panncls with suitable classical devices, re- 

 presented by elegant figures in the Greek taste. The 

 columns which divide off these book-cases, are fluted Co- 

 rinthian, standing upon the floor, and with their enta- 

 blature reaching to the springing of the arched ceiling. 

 This entablature altogether does not exceed If diameter, 

 the architrave occupies the f only, and the frieze and 

 cornice being diameter each ; the frieze is enriched 

 with lions and the heads of deer, in allusion to the 

 family arms ; the cornice has all the members except 

 the corona enriched. The ceiling has first a bordering 

 of honey suckles and similar flowers ; the rest is distri- 

 buted into delicate pannelling, diversified by square, 

 oblong, circular and elliptical forms : in the middle of 



