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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Ja.vuabv, 



column" — or rather the rejectinn ot the latter altogethe:*, notwith- 

 •tanding they are (luite distinct in meaiiinf; — is peculiar to Eii;;lish 

 writers, those of other countries properly oljservins the ilistiuction 

 Ijetween tlieiu. Just as well initfht we use " Columniation" in the 

 sense of •■C'olMinn," and speak of a portico as consisting of so 

 manv coluniuiations, as call " Intercolumns" '• Intercoluniniations" 

 — the latter term signifying, not the actual .v/wccy hetween the 

 colunms, but the )KOfl!t' <)/' .v/«;c»)j adopted for the columns. The 

 inaccuracy of language here con-ected may l)e tln)ught a fault of 

 no consequence; yet, as it is just as easy, it is surely just as well 

 to employ terms correctly as not ; and tlie correctness thus recom- 

 mended is surely also far less finical tlian that puerile affectation of 

 snticiuated orthography, which insists u])on a final Ic in the word 

 ••Gothic," now invariably written " Gothick" by those who pique 

 themselves upon their orthodoxy ; the A' serving as a badge of it — 

 pcrliaps, like otiier badges, as a substitute for it. 



V. If Bunning's design for the new Coal Exchange be not wick- 

 edly caricatured in a wood-cut of it that has been published, it 

 must be a mortally ([ueer one, still more queer than the Gothic 

 exhibited by him in tlie City of London School, the taste displayed 

 in which can be accounted for only by supposing that Guildhall 

 diffuses an architectural malaria throughout the whole of that 

 neighbourhood — ^a supposition rather confirmed than contradicted 

 by the specimen of Italian at the corner of King-street. — To keep 

 to the Coal Exchange, it seems the design of some architectural 

 coal-heaver. I say " seems," for though it is made to appear such, 

 it may prove the contrary ; and that is all the more likely because, 

 a.s has been shown, a good deal in it is utterly unintelligible. There 

 i.s room, therefore, for suspecting that it has been greatly misunder- 

 stood aud misrepresented. According to what, it is to be Imped, 

 is a very gross caricature, Mr. Bunning's design is absolutely archi- 

 tecture run mad — madder than any of Borromini's freaks. In 

 short, it is impossible to believe that such extravagant uncoiithness 

 and unmeaningness of forms as are there exhibited, will be actually 

 perpetrated; therefore judgment ought to be suspended until the 

 work shall have been executed. Still, it is difficult to conceive how 

 such a degree of misrepresentation could have occurred. Surely 

 the wood-cut in question must either have been taken from an e.x- 

 ceedingly rough aiul random sketch indeed, or have been the work 

 of some arrant bungler, 



VI. A story is told of a lecturer who was cut short in a long- 

 winded rambling preamble, consisting of truisms and commoii])liice 

 dressed up in liigh-tlown phraseology, by one of his auditory 

 getting not only impatient, but also getting up and saying : •• You 

 win excuse the interruption. Sir, but I must ])eseech you to bear in 

 mind that we have not come provided with nightcaps !" This sally 

 was succeeded by such a grand chorus of laughter, that before it 

 had subsided the unfortunate lecturer had thought proper to vanish. 

 Like many other so-called anecdotes, the above may be pure in- 

 vention, it being, perliaps, too good to he exactly true. Its mwal, 

 Iiowever, is a tolerably significant one, and deserves to be attended 

 to. If it be not an IIibernia:iism to call that strange which is so 

 generally practised, it might well be called strange that so much 

 mere school-boy stuff should be served over and over again in lec- 

 tures and written essays; sometimes to the exclusion of anything 

 besides such frothy matter, it being poured in so unsparingly, that 

 there is actually no room for what would be substantial and nutri- 

 tious. Now, peo]ile may be excused for not kjiowing more than 

 wliat is already familiju- to every one at all acquainted with the 

 sul)ject professedly treated of; but there is no occasion for tliem to 

 betray to others that such is really the case. It was not very long 

 ;igo that conversing with an acquaintance who had been to hear 

 ■some lecture upon architecture, he told me that little as he himself 

 knew of the subject, he knew enough to be able to engage to pro- 

 duce something infinitely more to the purjiose than what he had 

 heard, it being utterly stale, and barren of the least fresh inf(u-iua- 

 tion ; much of it consisting of mere meta])hysical moonshine, better 

 calculated to mystify than to enlighten the auditory- 



VII. It may fairly be questioned whether .sculpture for the Jiedi- 

 nient of the British Museum might not just as well be spared, in- 

 .asmuch as such partial decoration will only serve to render tlie 

 absence of ornanu'ut in the rest of the stru('ture all the more ])ain- 

 f'ully striking. E\en without such addition to the main building, 

 there is a most unartistic want ot keeping between that aud the 

 wings, — a defect which it is now so utterly beyond tlie ])o«er of 

 .any mere oruanjentation to remedy, that it is more likely to be in- 

 creased by attempting it. At jiresent it is not so apparent as it 

 will be when the old buildings, which serve in smne degree as a foil 

 to the new ones, shall ha\ e been completely cleiu'ed away, and the 

 <iiitire line of the latter become fully exposed to view. M/hat >n>^■^ 

 of a toot eusemblc may easily enough be guessed, since it may evgu 



now be plainly foreseen. If there be arty doubt at all in regard to 

 it, it is only because it atill remains to he seen how it is Intended 

 to inclose the court from the street. Should it be done bv any 

 such sort of palisading as that before the I'ost-office, the effect 

 will be mean and tasteless in the extreme. Whatever it is to be, 

 that and the sentry-boxes were probably not included in the model, 

 which, it might reasonably he fancied, did not even so much as ex- 

 liihit the wings, otherwise their incongruousness with the central 

 structure could hardly have failed to be noticed and objected to by 

 those to whom the model was submitted — at any rate, if they were 

 at all qualified for -exercising any judgment in the matter. One 

 question not wholly undeserving deliberate consideration there is 

 which does not seem to have occurred to any one, namely, whether 

 it would nut have been more advisable, instead of adiiering to the 

 arrangement of the original edifice, to advance the new fajade up 

 to the street or nearly so, thereby exteruling the plan, by taking 

 in the court-yard. That would have provided the accommodation 

 that will in a few years be required, should the collections continue 

 to iucrease as they hitherto have done Much available space has 

 also been thrown away elsewhere, since without entirely filling up 

 the inner court, it was obviously practicable enough to occuj)v a 

 portion of that quadrangle (3)7 and 238 feet) by one or more 

 ground floor galleries within it, lighted from above, and not so high 

 as to obstruct the windows towards the court, which are besides at 

 a considerable height from the ground. Or the apartments there 

 formed might have been on a somewhat lower level than the court 

 itself. It will, perhaps, he said that should it be found requisite, 

 this may still be done, but certainly not so well as it might have 

 been, had it been j)laiHied at first, since it would call for some alter- 

 ations in what is already built ; besides which, had it been thought 

 of at first, the cost of the inner facades of the quadrangle might 

 have been spared, since plain brick walls — quite shut out of view 

 as they would have been — would have been just as well in such a 

 situation as the present ones faced with stone. Even had the court 

 been partly built upon below, the upper part of it — that is, as much 

 of its sides as could be seen from within thi'ough the windows 

 might still have been finished as at present, with the omission how- 

 ever of the columns and antai, so tliat its general ajqiearance as so 

 viewed would have been quite as satisfactory as it is now ; nor need 

 buildings within the quadrangle have been at all visible from any 

 of the surrounding galleries or other apartments. 



VIII. The plan of the National Gallery was in a great measure 

 sacrificed to the unlucky and obstinately-persisted-in whim of letting 

 St. Martin's church be seen from I'ail-Mall East. Since it has 

 been thrown open by the removal of the Mews, that building, said 

 the wiseacres, must on no account he shut out of sight again as it 

 was before ; as if such would really have been the case were it not 

 visible from I'all-Mall East, when it would have shown itself as 

 well, or perhaps even better — more picturesquely than it does now 

 from Cockspur-street and Trafalgar-square. IJut for that stupid 

 whim, which prevented the architect from bringing his portico at 

 all forwarder than he did, and also comj>elled Inm to set back the 

 extremities of bis fafade very considerably, the building might 

 have been nearly twice as much in depth as it now is, aud in some 

 parts even more than that. It must be admitted that notwithstaud- 

 lug the disadvantages forced upon him, W'ilkins might have iir- 

 ranged it much better, there being at present a great deal of space 

 thrown away, that miglit by a little contrivance have been turned to 

 good account. As to the dome, I ha\e not a word to say in excuse 

 of it, it being so decidedly bad. Excuse for \\'ilkins, upon the 

 whole, there is much, for never, perhaps, was architect more worried 

 and thwarted than he was in that unfortunate building. 



IX. "Eminent" must be an ejiithet of exceedingly doubtful 

 meaning when we find it applied to an individual recently deceased 

 who, as an architect, was of no note whatever. However eminent 

 Mr. * * * may have been in the profes.sion, he was certainly not 

 at all eminent uut of it, his name being totally unknown to the 

 public. Rather was he eminently obscure, since so far from being 

 quoted in evidence of his talent, not a single building by him has 

 ever obtained notice at all. As a man, he may luive lieeu a very 

 worthy character; so he miglit, had he been an •'eminent chee.se- 

 monger," in which case eminence and obscurity might have been 

 allowed to go hand-in-haud togetlier. Truly grievous is it that 

 harmless nobodies should be so vilely daubed over as soon as they 

 are dead. It looks too much like ttiauking them for going out of 

 the world and lca\iiig their snug jilaces and aiqiointments for 

 others. The professional life of tfie eminent arciutect alluded to, 

 would, I fancy, form a more curious than interesting contiiuution 

 to the biograpliy of artists. 



