IS 10.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



15.3 



RAMPLES BY rHIl.O.MUSiEUS.— Nu. 6. 



THE SOANF.AX Ml'SEUM. 



Thk Somiean Museum is again open for tlic fow inonllis and ilaj-s 

 wliicli its managers tliink necessary to afTord tlic puli'.ie. Three 

 iiiontlis in tlie year, and two days per week, are in Ihese days tliouglit 

 enongli — wo wonder tlie trustees do not think of charging a shilling, 

 it would be carrying out the ivcoco style completely. Why not take 

 immediate steps for thnjwing it open ? Take up the carpets, apply 

 to the legislature for funds to enlarge the establishment, make the 

 museum worthv of the nation, and the trustees will do liouour to them- 

 ■ selves and to the memoiv of the founder. They have, in Mr. Bailey, 

 a talented and well-intentioned curator, with one only fault, that he is 

 disposed to regard an establishment worthy of the public, us only to 

 be conducted for tlie use of artists, 



"Who, boin for tlie universe, narrowed his mind, 

 And to party gave up wliat was meant for mankind." 



Let Mr. Bailey, if he places any value upon the promotion of pub- 

 lic instruction, urge the trustees to do their duly. 



This year a catalogue has been produced, which, as a first attempt, 

 is of course rather scanty in size, but we are bound to say that the 

 matter which is given is highly creditable to the exertions of the 

 curator. It beats the National (iallery affair hollow, and is superior 

 to the antiquarian portion of the British Museum catalogue. Why is 

 there not a catalogue at the East India Museum ? We have only one 

 objection, and that is to the price; we think that three pence would 

 have been rather nearer the v.due than a shilling; it does much honour 

 to Mr. Bailey ; however, there are copies left on the tables for the 

 jiublic to consult, besides the more extensive catalogue rainonni' of 

 Sir John Soane, so that the oflicers are acquitted of the slightest in- 

 tention of jobbing or keeping back information, although they may 

 have erred in a matter of judgment. Indeed, the wish to give infor- 

 mation, and the courtesy with which it is imparted, seem, from the 

 example of the superiors, to inspire the lowest ofticers of the museum, 

 and it were to be wished that, in other establishments, the same spirit 

 prevailed among the attendants. 



The list of trustees given in the catalogue is far from inspiring 

 confidence in any one who knows anything of them ; there is only one 

 man, indeed, who can be regarded as an active friend to public im- 

 provement, for as to the others, they are many of them notorious 

 sticklers for acknowledged abuses. The sooner the museum is put 

 under more active and responsible management the better. While 

 the present parties doze over their duties, the place will continue to 

 be a knicknackery instead of a national institution, and Sir John 

 Soahe's weeds will be allowed to usurp the place of his laurels. What 

 we require is a proper classification, suHicieut space, and facility of 

 access for students and the public. 



Sir John Soane has left the place, like his own head, with all kinds 

 of queer corners in it ; but irres[)ective of his arrangements, we shall 

 proceed to notice, under their several heads, some of the principal 

 objects. 



The picture gallery, by means of inovtahle planer, has, crammed 

 into the small space of 13 ft. S in. in length, 12 ft. 4 in. in breadth, 

 and 19 ft. in. in heigtli, as many works, according to the book, as 

 would cover a gallery of the same height, 45 ft. long and iO feet 

 broad. Besides the works in these rooms, are others dispersed 

 through the Museum, so th.it in all there are about fiftv paintiiu's and 

 f(uty drawings, besides statues and has reliefs in numbers, i'liese 

 works ought to be removed from the museum or sutiicicnt accommo- 

 dation |)rovided for them, as they are much too valuable to be sacri- 

 ficed in the present holes and corners. The collection of the English 

 school is very fine, containing 37 paintings and 25 drawings by our 

 first artists. Among these are 12 Hog.utlis, which cost nearly 2,5llU/. 

 the Rake's Progress and the Election; the Snake in the tirass by Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds ; a Jackson, 1 Howards besides the Ceilings, a Danhy, 

 a Bourgeois, a Fucssli, a Bird, a Ward, a Durno, an Eastlake, 3 of 

 Jones, a Hilton, a Flaxman, 3 Slothards, 3 Corboulds, 2 Calcotts, 2 

 Daniels, 2 Turners. t)f foreign masters there are specimens by Raft'aelle, 

 4 by Canaletti fand the tliif u'o:iirrc from Fontliill), by Rubens, Paul 

 Veronese, Watteau, Ruysdael (3), Ostade and Znccherelli. 



The collection of scul|iture, marbles, casts and models both ancient 

 and modern, is fine. The specimens of Flaxman's works are above 

 Id in number, ami ought to be brought forward so as to form a collec- 

 tion of the works of tins great artist, who lias done so much fcu' our 

 progress at home, and our architectural reputation abroad. Among 

 them are figures and bas-reliefs of Piety, Charity, Truth, Winged 

 Victory, Tenderness, Resignation, Hope, The Adoration, Joseph's 



Dream, Adam and Eve, Michael and Satan, aGicci.ui Feast, the Shield 

 of Achilles, Mercury and Pandora, the Golden and Silver Ages, Cupid, 

 Psyche, Britannia, Maiquis of Hastings, Warren Hastings, Lord Mans- 

 field, Pitt, Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, Reynolds, Kemble, &c. The 

 works of Banks are about ten; they include the sleeping girl, St. 

 Peter in Prison, the Dying Patriot, Achilles, and Caractacus. There 

 are also specimens by Michael Angelo, John de Bologna, Donalello 

 Rysbrack, Westmacott, Chantrey, Gibson, Baily, Rossi, &c. 



The architectural department' includes ilrawings, models of builil- 

 ings, and of details, and wants only arrangement to form a collection 

 in the highest degree valuable. Among the drawings are all those of 

 Sir John Soane's works, ami others by Piranesi, Zucchi, Bibiena, Cam- 

 pauella, Clerissean, Pannini, Labello', As|u-ucci, Sir James Thoruhill, 

 Sir W. Chambers, Kent, Sir Robert Smirke, &:c. There are busts of 

 the following architects : Palladio, Inigo Jones, Sir C. Wren, Sir W. 

 Chambers, Dance, and Sir J. Soane. 



The antiquities and curiosities might be made to form a museum 

 as useful to artists as the new rooms in the Louvre at Paris, to which 

 the artist and the pattern-drawer might resort with the greatest ad- 

 vantage. The purchase of the Belzoni vase was a terrible satire on 

 the mode in w liicli our museums are conducted, and a worthy pendant 

 of the Jigina marbles aflair; Sir John Soane said that he was but toe- 

 glad to give the two thousand pounds the British Jhiseum refused. 

 Among the miscellaneous objects may be mentioned, Sir Robert Wal- 

 pole's tables, Napoleon's sword and portrait, the Napoleon medals, 

 Peter the Great's pistol, T ippoo Saib's chairs, t^ueeu Mary's table, 

 &c. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XV. 



'* I must have liber; v 

 M'itluil, as larii'e a charier as the u.nds. 

 To blow on \vhom 1 please.*' 



I. The clever and pleasant writer, " Nimrod in France," (Colburn's 

 New Monthly), says in regard to French Houses, "There is one essen- 

 tial in the construction of them, of wdiicli I cannot speak too highly, 

 and that is their inorfar. It appears almost to equal in hardness the 

 similar preparation of lime and sand mixed with water, for which the 

 Romans were so celebrated, and which for its ]iowers of cement and 

 its durability, we have not been able to e(|ual by our system of admix- 

 ture. Certainly the French mortar may justly be called cf»;e«/ ,■ and 

 it is well that it can boast of this superiority, inasmuch as French 

 bricks are most inferior to ours, from want of skill and care in the 

 burning of them. French luuises, however, generally speaking, are 

 miserably defective in their plans, both for convenience and comfort, 

 nor does there appear to be a desire to improve their structure. A 

 heavy tax on windows and doors would be a blessing on the country — 

 at all events as fir as it would relate to lumbago, rlieumatism, catarrh, 

 coughs, and sundry other pains and penalties which lininan fiesh is 

 heir to." 



Perhaps, too, a heavy tax upon supernumerary windows would be a 

 benefit in this country, — at any rate it would be so architecturally, 

 since scarcely anything is more inimical to nobleness of aspect, to 

 solidity of appearance, and to repose, or more productive of insignifi- 

 cance than windows crowded together in such a manner that the piers 

 between them are not so wide as the apertures themselves. This is 

 an exceedingly common fault, the ordinary practice in Loudon house- 

 building being to |iut three windows wdiere two would be suHicient. 

 The consequence is that one side of a room is nearly all window, with 

 no space for other furniture than chairs or mere knick-knack tables ; 

 so exposed to the sun in summer time, that it is necessary to exclude 

 it by blinds, and occasioning a cheerless uncomfortable look in cold 

 and bad weather. While as additional agreuiens, may be mentioned, 

 that unless the street be a very wide one, your front rooms are thus 

 fully exposed to the full fire of your neighbour's eyes, of "the amiable 

 people over the way" who most disinterestedly interest themselves in 

 reconnoitring your iimiagt as far as they can penetrate into it ; and 

 who, of course, busy themselves in imagining w hat they do not see. 



II. ' Marry in haste and repent at leisure,' is a proverb that mutatis 

 mutandis applies to architecture, — both to architects themselves, and 

 their employers, many designs being adopted without due examination, 

 the consequence of which is that their faults and delects escape notice, 

 until it is either too late or too expensive to correct them. Nay in 

 some cases the faults are so exceedingly glaring that it is wonderful 

 how the designs could pass muster at all, — or how any one, calling him-< 



