248 GIBBS'S DRAWINGS IN RADCLIFFE LIBRARY 



one would have been enough for practical purposes. It also 

 resulted in the stairs crossing windows, the outside harmony 

 of which was held to be sacred ; and a further consequence 

 was the introduction of many sham windows for the sake of 

 uniformity. 



In spite of such drawbacks, which sprang from the formality 

 of the treatment, Gibbs's plans are ingenious and well devised. 

 He attaches great importance to privacy, and frequently intro- 

 duces a number of " apartments," as he calls them, each 

 apartment comprising a bedroom and dressing-room, with 

 occasionally a third or ante-room. The demands of those times 

 were, of course, far simpler than our own, and Gibbs was as 

 skilful as any of his contemporaries in satisfying them. He 

 was able to do this within walls which were treated in a strictly 

 classic manner, founded on instructions of the Italian masters. 

 Whether he could have met the complex wants of the present 

 day in so simple a fashion is open to question. 



Many of Gibbs's original drawings are preserved in the 

 Radcliffe Library at Oxford, some of these being included in 

 his " Book of Architecture." Two of them are reproduced here, 

 one (Fig. 164) is plate 57 of his book, the other (Fig. 165) has 

 not been published. The first is an example of a house with 

 a forecourt and wings connected by open corridors to the 

 central block ; in the left-hand wing are the kitchens, in the 

 right the stables. The house is entered through a large hall 

 beyond which is a gallery, with small rooms at each end. To 

 the left of the hall is presumably the dining-room, as it lies 

 nearest to the kitchens, to the right is a room of the same size. 

 There are two large staircases resembling each other in all 

 respects, that on the left being probably the back stairs. Grouped 

 on each side of the staircases are small rooms over which might 



o 



have been the " intersoles," although Gibbs does not expressly 

 mention them. In this instance the hall was but one story 

 in height with a room over it, and there were three rooms over 

 the gallery. The same disposition obtained on the top floor, 

 which may have been devoted to guest chambers, as it would 

 appear that the servants were lodged in the kitchen wing, 

 judging by the size of the staircase. 



The other and unpublished design (Fig. 165) is of a somewhat 

 different type. The centre of the house is occupied by a vast 

 and lofty staircase mainly lighted from a cupola. Round this 



