214 LORD BURLINGTON 



then more or less suitably designed. When the elevation was 

 perfected according to the rules of art, the plan was made to 

 fit it, and if the plan did not answer all the purposes for which 

 it was intended, those concerned had to put up with the 

 deficiency. The oft-quoted saying of Lord Chesterfield illus- 

 trates this, for when Lord Burlington had designed a beautiful 

 but inconvenient house for General Wade, Lord Chesterfield 

 advised the latter if he could not live in it to his comfort, to take 

 a house opposite and look at it. It should not have been 

 difficult for Lord Burlington to design this particular house, 

 for he had all Webb's drawings to help him, and among them 

 many examples of this type. So with the Assembly Rooms at 

 York ; the large hall is a crib from Palladio's illustration of a 

 hall after the Egyptian manner, but influenced by a rendering 

 of the same subject by Webb. Webb's version consists of an 

 oblong room, having a row of columns set some eight feet from 

 the walls, thus forming an aisle all round the room (Fig. 145). 

 The columns carry a wall which is pierced with windows, and 

 which in its turn carries the roof. The outside walls of the 

 ground floor stop short below the windows, and are crowned 

 with a balustraded parapet masking the flat roof over the aisle. 

 Lord Burlington adopted this idea wholesale (Fig. 147), but he 

 made his room much narrower than Webb's, although of about 

 the same length, and he kept to the general proportions of 

 Palladio. When, however, the treatment of the end of the hall 

 (which was the source of inspiration) was lengthened nearly 

 fourfold to do duty for the sides, the effect became monotonous 

 and poverty-stricken ; this is apparent on Burlington's section 

 (Fig. 146). To the main room he added others of less account, 

 but they are nearly all too long and too narrosv, whether for 

 appearance or for use. 



Another well-known work of his is his villa at Chiswick (Fig. 

 148), which was copied from a design of Palladio's for a villa 

 near Vicenza, but spoilt in the process. Here again there is no 

 originality, and the practical drawbacks are so great as to arouse 

 even Walpole's criticism, to which, however, he adds the illumin- 

 ating observation that its faults were condoned by the fact that 

 here, without any trouble, might be obtained picturesque views 

 better worth seeing than many of those fragments of ancient 

 grandeur which travellers sought with infinite labour an in- 

 teresting testimonial to scenic architecture. 



