XII. 

 THE SOURCES OF ARCHITECTURAL TYPES 



"TTTHEN lately looking through the gallery of the Old 

 V V "Water-Colour Society, I was struck with the incon- 

 gruity produced by putting regular architecture into irregu- 

 lar scenery. In one case, where the artist had introduced a 

 perfectly symmetrical Grecian edifice into a mountainous 

 and somewhat wild landscape, the discordant effect was 

 particularly marked. " How very unpicturesque," said a 

 lady to her friend, as they passed ; showing that I was not 

 alone in my opinion. Her phrase, however, set me specu- 

 lating. Why unpicturesque ? Picturesque means, like a 

 picture — like what men choose for pictures. Why then 

 should this be not fit for a picture ? 



Thinking the matter over, it seemed to me that the 

 artist had sinned against that unity which is essential to a 

 good picture. When the other constituents of a landscape 

 have irregular forms, any artificial structure introduced 

 must have an irregular form, that it may seem part of the 

 landscape. The same general character must pervade it 

 and surrounding objects ; otherwise it, and the scene amid 

 which it stands, become not o?ie thing but two things ; and 

 we say it looks out of place. Or, speaking psychologically, 

 the associated ideas called up by a building with its wings, 

 windows, and all its parts symmetrically disposed, differ 

 widely from the idoas associated with an entirely irregular 



