48 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



LFebruaby, 



soon be reduced, from mere barrenness, to the necessity of cnpyiiiif 

 Iiimself." — Unviiriod iiiiifurniity of ideas is not so much a sijifn of 

 consistency as of limiteil pnwer of conce|ition and exi)i"i>ssioii, and, 

 moreover, occasions not only wearisume reju'titiioihiit iru-i>nsisteiicy 

 likewise, the same mode of treatment lieiajr rcsorU'd to upon occa- 

 sions and for su1)jects totally dissimilar fmm each ntlier. 



II. "How many of us country architects," says Mr. Sharp, "are 

 forced to talce the coun>cI of (uir excellent friend, I'ercier, and in 

 despair of e.xecutint;- larffe works, to hestow greater care upon le.-.ser 

 ones.''" Well was it that the remark was put interrogatively in- 

 stead of affirmatively, for in the latter case it ouifhtto have been, not 

 " How many." hut '' How few." Were Percier's escellent adiice to 

 he followed by country architects — and for the m;itter of that, by 

 town ones also, — did they invariably strive to make the utmost of 

 the occasion offered them, however inconsideralile it may be in it- 

 self, there would he far less of slovenly or else downright trumpery 

 design than there unfortunately now is. Tlie "makings the most" 

 of the occasion nuist not he misinterj)reted : it is not to lie under- 

 stood as recommending- or consisting in amhitiiuis aim and |ireien- 

 tiousness of design, and in niimickinglarger tilings, as is frequently 

 very absurdly done now, but on the contrary, iu attem|)ting no 

 more than can l)e thoroughly accomplished, aiul sn well accom- 

 plished that for intrinsic merit of design and ca])tivating effect the 

 work mav not only vie with. l)ut surpass many others of greater note in 

 ordinary estimation — chiefly, perhaps, because their size alone ren- 

 ders them conspicuous and imposing olijects. Were this to be duly 

 considered and acted upon, we should have less of vulgar architec- 

 tural swaggering, and far more of real study of design, tlian we 

 find now. It is precisely because there is so little of the latter, 

 and because architects do not know how to impart to small or com- 

 paratively small buildings such character as shall be both striking 

 and appropriate, that we have so much random copying, and inju- 

 dicious imitation, which serves only to remind us of merits lielong- 

 ing to the original that are altogether missing in the copy. — There 

 is much more room for fearing and also for saying that, taken in 

 general, our smaller provincial buildings show, if not ignorance of 

 design, very great negligence of it — sometimes to a degree almost 

 incredible, if we may believe what profess to be ])ortraits of them. 

 Tlie Masonic Hall at Cowes, and the new Ipswich JMuseum, are so 

 far from bearing out what Mr. Sharp says, as ratlier to prove that 

 architectural taste must be at the very lowest ebb in those places, 

 if not in any other parts of the country. Such doings in the provinces 

 are, it must be confessed, kept in countenance by similar Peck- 

 sniffian achievements here in town, one of the most egregious 

 of them being the College of Agricultural Chemistry in Oxford- 

 street, which, small as it is, is any thing but an architectural minia- 

 ture, for it has neither the delicacy nor refinement of one, but is 

 no better than a vulgar and coarse architectural daub. Exceptions 

 there are ; and for one of them, we may ])oint to the elegant screen 

 fa ade of Dover House; or, to take a quite recent one, there is 

 jMr. Hodgkinson's newly-erected house in Park-lane, whicli affords 

 striking evidence of what may be done within a very limited space 

 — -how much beauty of composition and elegance of detail may be 

 displayed in a narrow frontage. 



III. Music has, j)erhaps, been far more fortunate than Architec- 

 ture, having escaped from the surveillance ami trammels of archaeo- 

 logical pedantry, in consequence of no musical compositions of 

 the ancients remaining. No doul)t they were altogether different 

 in style from anything in modern European music; therefore, had 

 they been ])reserved and foUoH'ed as wholesome precedents, would 

 have checked rather than at all advanced the progress of the art 

 in later times. To say tliat \v\d the architecture of the Greeks 

 aiul Homans perished as well as their music, it would have been all 

 the better now for the former art, would incur for me the epithet 

 of ultra-reprobate, and would, besides, be doing violence to my 

 own feelings. Yet it is sincerely to be wished that its examples were 

 studied more, and aped less, — studied rationally and asthetically ; 

 and then it would l)e perceiveil that admirable as they are in them- 

 selves, and with reference to the purposes for which they were 

 ei'ected, they are either ill-adapted to, or furnish but very little 

 towards, such an enlarged and complex architectural system as we 

 now require. For actual practice, they afford us little umre than 

 a few varieties of column and entablature, arches, pediments, and 

 such features, in regard to which we pique ourselves upon scrupu- 

 lously adhering to the authority of some one particular antique 

 example, although the structure to which they are apjilieil is in its 

 composition and physiognomy the very reverse of antiipie. As I 

 have said, I believe, more than once before, modern architects 

 liave converted the orders into mere patterns, from which they have 

 only to choose, without being put to the trouble of shaping out a 

 fcingle idea of their own. So that as far as the orders are concerned, 



they neither are nor are called u[ion to act as artists at all ; and 

 as to the nuu-it of truthful eojiying, that belongs rather to the 

 ojierative stonemason tlian to themselves. There are many ancient 

 examples that miglit be modified to greater or lesser extent, and in 

 a variety of ways, witluxit losing sight of the character of the tj'pe 

 so fidlowed. Nay, some might lie cousideralily improved upon, and 

 more consistently finished up than thev appear to have been, unless 

 they have been greatly mutilated. Take, for instance, the Ionic 

 orrler of the Erechtlieum, — surely such an exceedingly simple and 

 severe cornice accords very ill indeed with such luxuriantly rich 

 cajiitals, which seem to demand a corresponding florid character in 

 what is the corresnonding division of the entablature, and the 

 crowning to the entire order. Together ivith want of keeping as 

 to character, there is a falling off of effect where it ought, if any 

 thing, to he increased rather than at all diminished. Obvious as 

 this appears to mys^'lf, not one of those who have taken that ex- 

 am|ile have ventured to depart from the exact letter of it, by sup- 

 plying such a cornice as would complete and perfect it. Of the 

 two, even an exaggeriited cornice is a more pardonable fault than 

 a starveling one. The reproach of heaviness is preferable to that 

 of poverty and meanness. 



AIR-TIGHT GRANARIES. 



Three conditions are essential to the process of putrefaction of 

 grain, viz. : heat, moisture, and still air. With wind, moisture is 

 carried off; with cold, the decomposing process is checked, as may 

 be seen by the carcases of animals that lie through the winter in 

 snowy mountains, and dry up to glue. Without air, everything is 

 locked up and remains in statu quo; as reptiles have been buried 

 for ages in blocks of stone or ancient trees, and then resumed their 

 vital functions, unchanged by time. In direct opposition to these 

 principles are the granaries of Great Britain and other countries 

 constructed. Their site is generally the bank of a river, or the 

 sea side. They are built of many floors, at a vast expense. Men 

 are continually employed to turn the grain over, to ventilate it, 

 and clear out the vermin ; and the weevil is naturalised in every 

 crevice, as surely as bugs in neglected London beds, or cockroaches 

 in West Indian sugar ships. It is the admission of air that per- 

 mits this evil, that [iromotes germination, that permits the exist- 

 ence ot rats and mice. In the exclusion of air is to be found the 

 remedy. Granaries might be constructed under ground as well as 

 above ground ; in many cases, better. They might be constructed 

 of cast-iron, like gasometer tanks ; or of brick and cement ; or of 

 brick and asphalte, like underground water-tanks. It is only re- 

 quired that they should be air-tight, and consequently water-tight. 

 A single man-hole at the top is all the opening required,, with an 

 air-tight cover. Now, if we suppose a large cast-iron or brick 

 cylinder sunk in the earth, the bottom being conical, and the top 

 domed over; an air-pump adjusted for exhausting the air, and 

 an Archimedean screw pumj) to discharge the grain, we have 

 the whole apparatus complete. If we provide for wet grain, a 

 water-pump may be added, as to a leaky ship. Suppose, now, a 

 cargo of grain, partly germinating, and containing rats, mice, and 

 weevils, to be shot into this reservoir, the cover put on and luted, 

 and the air-pump at work, the germination would instantly cease, 

 and the animal functions would be suspended. If it be contended 

 that the reservoir may be leaky, we answer, so may a ship ; and if 

 so, the air-pump must be set to work just as is the case with a 

 water-pump in a leaky ship. One obvious cheapness of this im- 

 proved granary over those existing is, that the wliole cubic con- 

 tents may be filled, whereas, in the existing mode, not above one- 

 fourth of the cubic contents can be rendered available. But many 

 existing structures might be rendered eligible. For example : the 

 railway arches of the Eastern Counties, the 15 lack wall, and the 

 Greenwich. Reservoirs might be erected in farm yards, or in- 

 asmuch as it is a certain thing that all farms must ultimately 

 communicate with railways, by means of cheap horse-trains, or 

 steam sidings, in tirder to work to profit, it would be desirable that 

 the granary should be erected at some central railway station, 

 where a steam mill would do the work of e.\hausting the air, dis- 

 charging the grain by Archimedean screw when required, and 

 grinding it into meal. No better purpose could be found to which 

 to apply the atmospheric engines and stations of the Croydon 

 Railway, with their existing air-pumps. Communicating with all 

 the southern wheat-growing counties of England, and also with 

 the Thames, no spot could he more eligible as a central depot. — 

 Westminster Review. 



