

CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



Extcnul 

 Iroon. 



Drttrip- 



1100. 



R. ma: It I. 



I.utna 

 Park. 



c LXXX. 



lit mm- 

 liou*. 



tome of thcte are painted device*, in the other parti are 

 stucco enrichments in the lightest grotesque style, and 

 the whole was relieved by painting the grounds of the 

 ptnnels and friezes ; so that in this room the new mode 

 was completely established. 



Externally, the north or entrance front, extending 90 

 feet, has 40 feet in the middle occupied by a portico of four 

 beautiful Ionic fluted columns, 28 feet 6 inches high, with 

 a pediment, and at each extremity of this front there is 

 a corresponding pilaster. This order standing immediate 

 ly upon the ground, and reaching to the roof, has a 

 proper character, that is utility. Within the portico, 

 which is partly projecting, and partly recessed, there are 

 only two rows of large windows, whereas on each side 

 there are three rows of smaller ones. This arose from 

 having an old building to work upon, but has the effect 

 of destroying that monotony so frequent in large houses. 



The south, or garden front, which, along with the 

 main building, also includes the library on one side, 

 and the green-house on the other, extends 24-0 feet. In 

 the main building, upon a rusticated basement, 17 feet 

 high, are placed ten pilasters, 21 feet high ; six of these 

 are in the middle, and two at each extremity of the main 

 building; they are pannellcd and ornamented with honey- 

 suckles; over them are a frieze and cornice, which taken 

 together, are little more than one diameter high ; the frieze 

 is ornamented with flutings and pateras ; the cornice 

 has every member, excepting the corona, enriched ; this 

 entablature appears too light for the order and edifice. 

 An ornamented belt crowns the basement, and another 

 divides the principal from the attic story, and there is, 

 besides broad pannelling over the principal windows, en- 

 riched with what Mr Adam terms the flowing rainceau. 

 If these last had been omitted, and the windows made 

 loftier, the effect would have been improved. Along 

 the library and grecn-house, which are only one story, 

 there is a beautiful Ionic order, without any breaks in 

 the entablature. In each of these buildings four columns 

 occupy the middle space, and two pilasters each extre- 

 mity, a mode worthy of attention. The order stands im- 

 mediately upon thcground line, though it would have been 

 preferable if there had been one course under it as a plinth. 

 The entablature is 1^ diameter high, it is enriched but not 

 crowded, the whole it well proportioned, and would have 

 been seldom equalled for simplicity of outline, if there had 

 not been arches over each window, which mixes the Roman 

 with the Greek architecture. The general effect of the 

 whole edifice is also injured by the arched Venetian windows 

 in the low part, which connects the main building and 

 wings; and the whole of this facade, though fine, savours 

 rather too much of the Dioclesian school. 



We have been more minute in the details of this work, 

 because, both externally and internally, it affords speci- 

 mens of the architect's taste when left at full liberty, 

 as, in this inntance, he acknowledges it to have been. 



In 1767, the Earl of Bute employed Mr Adam to 

 make designs for a splendid mansion at Luton Park, in 

 Bedfordshire ; the whole of this work is, of course, ori- 

 ginal, and it* principal or entrance front being singular 

 for a private dwelling, we have selected it for engraving, 

 as specimen of the architect's best manner. We shall 

 therefore refer to Plate CLXXX. and condense the de- 

 icript ion as much us possible. The entrance hall, which 

 is forty feet diameter, pierced by four openings with co- 

 lumns, into recesses behind them, is altogether singularly 

 fine ; the saloon 64 X 21, appears to be too long, it seems, 

 in this climate, to be space improperly lavished ; the pas- 

 sage tea feet wide along the middle, renders the access to 

 theapartments very commodious ; the small courts are very 

 convenient for affording light in a large building. The 



library, 143 feet long and 2,5 wide, besides recesses, is Praeiirr. 

 a magnificent suite of apartments ; the dining room '^"'Y"""'' 

 4:ix25; drawing rooms 1:1 x 25, and :57X24; with 

 the intervening anti or second drawing room 48 X 25 ; 

 complete another suite of equal splendour ; the stairs 

 being each only 19x16, appear inferior to the size of 

 the apartments, but there being one at each extremity of 

 the middle passage, is a great convcniency. The prin- 

 cipal floor is also well accommodated with water closets. 



The principal front having no windows, except in the Remark*, 

 bows at the extremities, admits of a fine colonnade reach- 

 ing between the bows, and this with the row of niches 

 and statues, and large medallions over them, compose a 

 facade seldom equalled even in public edifices. Here the 

 colonnade, reaching from the ground to the roof, and 

 having no break in the entablature, every member forms 

 an essential part of the composition which apparently 

 cannot be removed without involving the destruction of 

 the edifice. We cannot, however, bring ourselves to ad- 

 mire the paterae which this architect so frequently plants 

 upon his friezes ; the windows in the bows want more 

 height. The front to the park is very chaste, only the 

 portico is unnecessarily confined upon too small a circle ; 

 the frieze is too gaudy, and the windows are too small. 



Of the still more modern mansions, which exhibit the ('.mlc 

 prevailing modes in private dwellings, we shall select two Coolc. 

 examples of houses for noblemen, and two others on a 

 smaller scale for country gentlemen. The first is a de- 

 sign of Mr James Wyatt, for Cattle Coole, the seat of 

 Viscount Belmore, in the county of Fermagh in Ireland. 

 The main or central building is 115 feet in length, and 0imen- 

 80 in depth ; its middle part, in the entrance front, is *iom. 

 occupied by a quadrangular hall 41x31; an elliptical 

 saloon 36 X 30 extends to the opposite front ; between 

 them a passage, of eight feet in width, is divided from 

 the hall by two whole and two semi-columns ; on one 

 side of the hall is a breakfast room, and on the other a 

 library, each 36 X 24 ; on one side of the saloon is a 

 dining and on the other a drawing room, each 3(5 X 24 ; 

 between the drawing room and library is a very magni- 

 ficent staircase 36x18, having its first flight of steps 

 in the middle of the space ; between the dining and break- 

 fast room is a back stair 18x15, and a beaufittcr 20x 12 

 feet. On each side of the main building, the wings ex- 

 tend, nearly in a straight line witli it, for 82 feet each ; 

 and they are each 52 feet in depth ; on the entrance front 

 immediately adjacent to each side of the main building, 

 there is a green-house 52 X 15 ; behind these are passa- 

 ges seven feet six inches in width, and bed rooms and 

 dressing rooms, each 21x20; also two water closets ; 

 the extremity of one wing is occupied by a nursery of 

 three apartments, two 26x16, and one 18x12; the 

 other extremity has a billiard room 26 X 16 ; a bed-room 

 26x16, and a dressing room 18x12. These apart- 

 ments occupy the whole of the principal floor, (see Plate 

 CLXXX.) In this design, for a nobleman, the apart- PI.ATI 

 ments are upon a moderate scale, and are well disposed; CI.XXX. 

 the stairs are centrical ; the bed- rooms and nursery are Remark*, 

 sufficiently retired ; and the latter having a communica- 

 tion with the back stairs, relieves all the public apart- 

 ments ; the only matter not distinctly made out is the 

 mode of lighting the passages. Externally in the en- 

 trance front, there being only four columns in the cen- 

 tral portico, and these placed immediately against the 

 pilasters, do not appear to forma feature sufficiently bold 

 for the edifice. The colonnades of the green houses, and 

 those in the extreme divisions of the wings with their 

 accompanying niches, have a rich effect ; there being 

 four columns with two niches, and two square recesses 

 at each end of the wings, that part is rendered suflici- 



