Errors in Villa Residences. 407 



that in perspective they group in such a way as shall form a 

 whole. 



It would occup}^ too much space, to go into the faults of 

 architectural details ; prevailing ones in every description of 

 edifice are, the use of detached columns as ornaments, instead 

 of component parts ; the employment of half and three quarter 

 columns as component parts of walls ; and the placing of pedi- 

 ments where they cannot, by any possibility, be the ends of 

 roofs. Tried by these tests, how few buildings are there that 

 will not be found wanting ? But this must be the case till archi- 

 tects become not only mechanical contrivers but artists and 

 philosophers. To know what is perfection in any art, it must 

 be tried by metaphysical principles. 



With these ideas, it will not be wondered at, that we have 

 left nine tenths of the villas which we have seen, and from the 

 owners of which we have received the most polite attention, 

 praising or approving of what we could ; being silent as to 

 faults, unless asked to point them out; but secretly thanking 

 God that we knew something better, and could make very 

 superior things of them. The time will come, however, when 

 good taste in villas will be as common among their possessors 

 as good taste now is in eating and drinking, and in dress ; and 

 good architects and gardeners will be as common as good 

 cooks and tailors. All that is necessary, in addition to what 

 is going on in society, is their multiplication. 



A first-rate architect (Gandy, we believe) proposed, in one 

 of his early works, that a committee of architects should be 

 formed in London for the purpose of receiving the designs, 

 accompanied by a small fee, of country buildei*s, whether for 

 original erections or exterior alterations, correcting them, and 

 returning them to be executed. The idea we have always 

 thought a good one, because it would, at least, prevent glar- 

 ing absurdities. In viewing, day after day, since the 24th of 

 April last, the repetition of so many errors, both in laying out 

 grounds and in building houses, it has frequently occurred to 

 us, that, had we but seen the plans previously to execution, we 

 could easily have prevented them. It may be useful to state, 

 that if any subscriber to both our Magazines, who intends to 

 build or lay out grounds, thinks it worth while to send us his 

 plans, free of all expense, we will return them, with our opi- 

 nion on them, gratis ; and if any person, not a subscriber to 

 our Magazines, chooses to do the same, he shall have our opi- 

 nion for the fee of 51. We shall not, for this fee, make any 

 plans : that must be a matter of future agreement ; but we 

 shall point out the errors in such a way that their author may 

 correct them, if he thinks fit. 



D D 4 



