290 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



I October, 



3 feet, they do not tlie slightest damage to the pile-head: so niurh 

 is this the case, that the pile-heads have actually a neater appear- 

 ance after beiii^f driven than before. 



In respect to the means employed for giving to the blow of the 

 monkey a greater degree of energy than such as would lie due to 

 its fall through 3 feet, this object is accomplished by having the 

 top of the cylinder II made air-tight, and by having a set of 

 openings at h. The instant the piston passes these openings in 

 its upward action, all further motion in that direction is termi- 

 nated by the compression of the air then confined in the space 

 between the top of the piston and under-side of the cylinder 

 cover ; which compressed air, on recoiling, adds to the force of 

 the blow all the energy it would have ac(iuired by falling from the 

 height to which the monkey would have been carried by the mo- 

 mentum given to it in the upward direction by the lifting action 

 of the steam acting on the under-side of the piston. 



We have much pleasure in appending to our description a copy 

 of a certificate by Mr. Stephenson. 



"Nasmyth's Steam Pile-Driving Machine has for some time past 

 been employed in piling the foundations of the High Level Bridge 

 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and at the Viaduct over the river Tweed, 

 near Berwick. Its operation has been triumphantly successful. 

 Piles have been driven with great economy and remarkable dis- 

 patch, where the ordinary methods would have entirely failed. 



" I consider this machine to be one of the most valuable and im- 

 portant auxiliaries which have recently been invented for the con- 

 struction of engineering works. 



Robert Stephenson. 



24, Great George-street, Westminster, 

 May% 1848." 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK, 

 FASCICULUS LXXXVI. 



" I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. The lately-opened Catholic Cathedral of St. George's does 

 not say very much for Mr. Pugin's artistic talent and taste. Sa- 

 tisfactory as are many of the separate parts and ornaments when 

 considered merely by themselves, just as articles of furniture are 

 looked at and examined in a show-room where they are exposed 

 for sale, — they are there brought together without any regard to 

 artistic keeping and effect. The consequence of which is, they do 

 not serve to set each other off' to advantage ; but, on the contrary, 

 there is much that is quite at variance with all the rest. We see 

 a collection of studies of various ornamental details, and other 

 mere matirial of design, but we miss a well-studied and consistent 

 whole. The most o])posite and conflicting sorts of architectural 

 character are brought into contact with each other. Barn and 

 ball-room are strangely mixed-up together. In the chancel, and 

 the two chapels at that end of the church, decoration is not only 

 carried to such extent as to cause all the rest to look unusually 

 cold and bare, but fails to produce the amount of richness aimed 

 at. When added u]i, the total does not answer to the value of 

 the several items as taken by themselves. 



II. In architecture, incapacity for producing new ideas shelters 

 itself under the plausible pretence of a reverential regard for old 

 ones. Because excellent ideas have been produced before our 

 time, we are told that we have no occasion for any of our own. Aught 

 that partakes of innovation is set down as both unorthodox and 

 dangerous ; which is assuredly most comfortable doctrine — highly 

 convenient, and therefore comfortable, because merely to copy is 

 easy and safe ; whereas, to attempt to emulate is a difficult as well 

 as a doubtful matter. We do well, therefore, to protest against inno- 

 vation — that is, f(u- ourselves, since those whom weprofess to look up 

 to and admire, were in their day very gross inno\ators : by gross, I 

 mean wholesale innovators. The history of the art shows a series 

 of innovations from first to last; that "last" — finale and conclu- 

 sion of it as a creati\e art, seems to have been already reached ; and 

 all that is now left for us is merely to repeat, perchance to mimic, 

 what has been d<uie before. Whatever may be the case with the 

 twentieth, the nineteenth century will not shine in the history of 

 architecture ; or if it is to do so, it must now set about it in earnest, 

 for half its time is already gone. Bad or good, the Elizabethan 

 period had a distinct architectural character of its own ; whereas. 



the present Victorian one has none, but is " everything by turns," 

 of most chamelion quality, but without any distinct, self-acquired, 

 character. The present age is content with merely making use 

 of those hoards of art which its more industrious predecessors 

 wrought out and accumulated. Satisfied w ith being able to live 

 upon the interest, we do not seek to improve the capital. In fact, 

 to such a pass has architecture been brought, that further progress 

 for it in any direction is impossible, so long as we persist in our 

 present perverse views of it — of its nature and powers as a fine 

 art. No matter what style we take up, we treat and are expected 

 to treat it literally — to adhere to it servilely, instead of being 

 allowed to infuse any fresh ideas into it, or even, by varying 

 its toiininre, to adapt it to greatly-altered purposes and occasions. 

 Provided the separate features and details be but correctly copied 

 from those in former buildings, we are quite satisfied, though the 

 structure so compounded be full of incongruities as a whole, — 

 prosaic and unartistic. 



III. One consequence of the present rage for the merest copyism 

 is, that we ourselves produce no structures that will deserve to be 

 studied hereafter as original models and architectural records of the 

 age in which they were erected. Even our most monumental edifices 

 will not be monuments of our own time, — of our own ideas moulding 

 and organising the fabrics we rear. Future antiquaries will be 

 greatly puzzled some centuries hence, to determine dates from the 

 styles which buildings exhiliit. At any rate, they will set down this 

 nineteenth century as that in which architectural talent displayed 

 itself chiefly in mimicry and masquerade. This is what is not 

 ]iarticularly pleasant to contemplate, though it is what we have to 

 thank the jiresent race of antiquaries for, and others whose 

 opinions and influence as employers control the free-agency of 

 architects, who, whatever they might have done by timely resistance 

 to such domineering dictation, can hardly help themselves now. 

 They have suffered their necks to be put into the yoke; so, however 

 hard it may be to bear, they must now endure it with what 

 patience they can. All that we can look forward to, is to its being 

 shaken off by some bold and independent spirit, gifted not with 

 genius only, but with the opportunity of manifesting it decidedly, 

 however it may run counter to the minikin theory and doctrine 

 of established rules. But as miracles are not to be looked for and 

 calculated upon like the return of comets, we cannot with any 

 sort of reason look forward to such event. N.iy, instead of being 

 looked forward to with anxious hope, even the possibility of its 

 occurring is contemplated with real apprehension by many, who 

 accordingly deprecate most earnestly what they are pleased to 

 call "tampering" with existing styles. Incapable of forming a 

 valid judgment, they take refuge in prejudice. By their croaking 

 cry of "rash" — "absurd" — "extravagant" — "chimerical!" they 

 endeavour to intimidate ; and by denouncing before-hand all aim 

 at originalit)', and every deviation from ordinary custom and rule, 

 seek to insure the accomplishment of their ill-omened predictions. 

 The merely aiming at it does not insure success in achieving origi- 

 nality ; but if, instead of being aimed at, it is sedulously shunned, 

 it will never be achieved by any one ; and were there no possibility 

 of failing, there would be no particular honour gained by succeed- 

 ing. Many act most discreetly in not attempting to signalise 

 themselves and their works at all by any unborrowed ideas — by 

 which are to be understood not mere fancies for which they can 

 assign no sufficient reason even to themselves, much less to any one 

 else, but ideas that have germinated, have been meditated upon and 

 matured, in their own minds. In not attempting or affecting to do 

 what they are conscious lies far beyond their power of reach, such 

 persons manifest their prudence ; it is, on the contrary, only dog- 

 matical presumption, when measuring the powers and abilities of 

 others by their own, they pronounce that which is to themselves 

 impossible to be equally impossible to every one and all. Rather 

 ought they, if at all sincere in the regard they profess for the 

 interests of architecture and its advancement, to welcome the 

 doctrine of its being possible to enlarge the present boundaries 

 of the art almost indefinitely. How far he as an individual can 

 contribute to such ])rogress and amplification, must be left to each 

 individual to decide for himself. 'I'hose who feel no impulse from 

 M'ithin, may be left to jog on as they can secunilum nrtrm — that is, 

 ploddingly and mechanically : but they have no right to prescribe 

 the same limits to others. As matters are managed at present, a 

 prohibition is actually laid upon original genius, it being demanded 

 of it that it should forego its very nature, and exercise itself only 

 in the same track of ideas as has been previously trodden : in 

 other words, it must conform to routine. A good deal has been 

 argued about the Emancipation of Woman ; I wish somebody be- 

 sides myself, and of far greater authority and influence, would 

 stand up boldly for the Emancipation of the Architect, who is at 



