l.->r, 



THE CiVTL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Mj 



self architect, could m-ake up his mind to pass off upon his employers 

 the biirlr.ironslv crude ideas we so frequently behold. Happy is it for 

 jiuch j)Pople that their employers are not only ignoramusses, hut most 

 tasteless igunraninsses into the harg-.iin. — And that tribe among pro- 

 fessioualists are therefore (]uite ri^lit Iti exclaiming against amateurs 

 and amateurship, since tlio more (he public become enlightened, the 

 worse nmst it fare witli'them. They ought to pray for blockheadly 

 o-uUibie patrons — persons who look upon architecture as an unfathom- 

 able mysterv, which the initiated alone have any right to understand. 



III. Where ignorance is bliss — but I need not repeat the rest of that 

 very hackneyed quotation, — therefore observe thai I have sometimes 

 almost envied the blessedness of ignorance, as 1 lately did while walk- 

 ing with a friend from the country, in the Regent's Park, whos(^ rows 

 of paltry mock palaces called forth expressions of admiration from 

 him, that, I presume, were perfectly sincere. To the shade of that 

 miserable architectural sinner John Nash, they must have been a re- 

 quiem, but to me, to have to listen to the praises of that con- 

 summation of paltriness, was hardly endurable. And yet my companion 

 was a person of toler djly good taste in other respects, and what is 

 generally understood by '"a well educated person," though imposed 

 "upon by such arrant a'rchitectiu-al balderdash as those same terraces 

 are. It seems to me that most persons have not the slightest shame 

 whatever in displaying the grossest stupidity relative to every thing 

 connected with architecture ; and why is it so, except because the no- 

 tion has been instilled into them — would that it were flogged out of 

 tViem ! — that it is for architects, and them alone, to pretend to under- 

 stand its principles, these latter being, by some curious jumble ot ideas, 

 supposed to be entirely mcchanicdl, notwithstanding that architecture 

 iliself has got the name of one of the fine arts. 1 once fell in with a 

 o-entlenran. who was hardly less than a. Solomon in his own conceit and 

 pretensions, and who nevertheless staggered me by the candour with 

 which he confessed he never could comprehend the ground jjlan or 

 section of a building, or understand what they meant ! Notwithstand- 

 ing wdnch degree of gentlemanly or gcutecl and blissful ignorance of 

 low mechanical matters, my Solomon conid, 1 found, speak glibly and 

 boldly enough 'by look,' passing his ojiinion upon buildings, of which 

 it was very evident, although he did not care to make such confession, 

 that he understood no more than he did of sections and ground plans. 

 There are, 1 am afraid, too many Solomons of his kind among our en- 

 lightened public." 



' IV. In an article entitled " The British School of Architecture," 

 Blackwood's Magazine, August ls3G, it said that the fourteen columns 

 of the intended Uoric strucUne on the Calton Hill, are " even now the 

 most imposing objects of the kind in Dritain: they impress strangers 

 more than any modern edifice in the island, and if tlie structure be com- 

 pleted by the munificence of donations or bequests, on the same scale 

 of primirval magnificence, it will give to the Scottish metropolis a 

 distinction beyond what any capital in Eurojie can boast." The scheme 

 for that national monument is also waruily advocated in the New Edin- 

 burgh Review, April, !^'23. It seems, however, that the Scotch are 

 too poor to prosecute the undertaking any further, else no doubt their 

 prudence would urge them to complete as speedily as possible a 

 building that covdd hardly fail to attract a great many visitors to their 

 capital. Nevertheless some of them have so much money that they 

 make the most desperate efforts in order to get rid of it, for instance, 

 that remarkably silly Lord, Lord Eglintonn, who had he given towards 

 this work the thousands he expcnde<l upon his tomfoolery of a tourna- 

 ment, would have secured to himself a very dill'erent reputation from 

 what he has now got. Nay even the good people of Kdinburgh them- 

 selves would act more wisely were they to complete the huihiing on 

 the Calton Hill, before they think of such matters as the Momiment to 

 Sir Walter Scott, unless indeed they are of opinion that, notwithstand- 

 ing his hundred volumes, he is likely to be forgotten by the next gene- 

 ration. — Not the least singular circumstance of all is that beyond its 

 name being mentioned, there is no notice of the ' National Monument,' 

 on the Calton Hill, in John Ihitton's ' Modern Athens,'— a very re- 

 markable work by the by, if only on account of its exceedingly funny 

 dedication to " My Dear Sir Walter." 



V. 'What is your opinion,' said a friend to me, 'of Italian Archi- 

 tecture!' — When I know what you mean, was my reply, I can perhaps 

 answer you, but you might just as well ask me what is my opinion of 

 English' literature, without particularizing any further, and I should 

 tell you, perhaps that at the present day a "real deal of it is most 

 arrant slipslop, and another great deal confoundedly villainous — to wit 

 the Newgate school of it. So too, in Italian architecture there is a 

 vast deal of most horrible rubbish, and also uuich that is admirable 

 and delightful. Between such men as Francesco di (iiorgio, San- 

 micheli, Balvassore, I'eruzi, and Borromini, with a long et caetcri, the 

 difference is incalculable, — as great as between Charles Barry and 



MUer iSash.— As fy»' FwllwdiQ i freely absndon him to lus adniJrersi 



VI. Never need the country be put to expense for a monument to 

 George IV., because, as long as it stands, Buckingham will jirove a 

 monument of his — dotage. And surely h's taste — if he ever had any 

 must hav(' been quite in its ilotage when he approved of Nash's designs 

 for that unfortunate building. 'Tis a thousand pities that two old gen- 

 tlemen should have laid their heads together to palm such a piece of 

 architecture on the country, (n one particular, indeed, it may be said 

 to resemble Perraidt's f i^'ade of the Louvre, inasmuch as it has coupled 

 columns — hoc C'iccrtmis liabil : but then even in that respect, it is egre- 

 giously more faulty, columns in pairs being introduced into a prostyle 

 l)ortico, whereas in the other edilice they form lengthened colonnades. 

 On the other hand, although the mode of coUunniation adopted for the 

 centre portico is rendered more glaringly oHeusive, by there being only 

 single columns in those at the ends ofihc wings. After all, defects of ' 

 this kind shrink to nothing when ccjuipared with the insignificance, 

 and the pettiness of manner which characterise the whole building. 



VII. 'i'he York Column is a prodigiously blank afi'air altogether, — 

 one excuse for which may be that it would have been a puzzling, and 

 somewhat ticklish atfair to introduce any kind of sculpture, because 

 the most appropriate and characteristic symbols would have been a 

 gaming-table and dice-boxes, in allusion to the exploits, the heroism, 

 and the martyrdom of the Royal Duke. Yet if as a piece of archi- 

 tecture that pillar is any thing but admirable, it may be turned to ad- 

 mirable accoimt as a warning, and it is devoutly to be hoped that 

 nothing similar will now be perpetrated in Trafalgar Square ; especially 

 as there is no occasion whatever to make the buildings around it ap- 

 pear at all lower, or more insignificant than they now do ; which would 

 infdiibly be the case should a "huge bully" of a colunm be creeled in 

 the centre of them. — According tu the newspapers, however, it would 

 now seem that the Nelson Column is to be begun fortlnvith, on the strength 

 of subscriptions coming in, which m^y pcr/mjjs provide a statue for the 

 top of it; if not, laiit iiikii.r, (or then it nuist at all events prove a 

 capita/ aft'air. — Or commemorating Nelson so flagrantly would it not 

 be just as well to commemorate h\m /nigranlly dher the manner in 

 which Delcroix has just commcitiorakd a recent event by his ' Bouquet 

 de Nvces Royales,' — which it should be observed does not exactly 

 mean Royal Noses, although intended to tickle the noses of gentility. 

 — I am afraid that Delcroix is a sad wag. 



VUI. According to a recent (.icrman writer who professes to en- 

 lighten his countrymen as to our national character, English peo|)le, 

 especially those of ton, are exceedingly shy of Munich, whose noble 

 buildings and treasures of art possess far less attraction for them 

 than do the coteries and gaming-tables of such places as Baden-Dadin. 

 There is, it is to he feared a great deal of truth in this ; yet hardly is it 

 to be wondered at, if the same satiric.il \\ riter be correct in the classified 

 catalogue he gives of the kind of English who visit the Continent, for 

 he states that out of every thousand, 333 are half-pay ollicers, 100 

 ruined gamblers, 20 cas*. off kept mistresses, (who affect to pass for 

 patterns of virtue,) 48 'Greeks' on the look out for 'Pigeons,' ,>0 

 economists — ])olitical ones of course, — who adopt the prudent economy 

 of getting beyond the reach of their creditors, 10 people of wealth 

 and rank, who, by way of change, ciiiiiii themselves abroad pretty muili 

 after the same fashion they do at liiune ; — to cut this formidable list 

 short, — just one Englishman in a tlious and, who visits the continent in 

 order to gain information and improve his taste. Assuredly the pic- 

 ture is not a very flattering one, — doubtless much exaggerated, but 

 ciuTCct or not says a very great deal, because it shows in what light 

 we are looked upon by foreigners. The same writer sets us down as 

 absolute barbarians in music, which he says, we only hypocritically 

 affect to admire without the slightest feeling whatever for it; and if 

 he does not cens\n-e our taste in architecture, it is in all |)robability 

 because he does not touch upon that subject at all ; else, 1 conceive, 

 many of our moderns would have excited his bile, not a little. How- 

 ever, be our taste in architecture what it may, we cannot be accused 

 of much hypocrisy or affectation there ; for the public generally do not 

 care even to pretend to know any thing whatever about architecture, 

 — Where our buildings have been spoken of by Germans, it has seldom 

 been in terms of commendation; and it would not perhaps be amiss, if 

 some of our architects were to read a few of their connnents, and make 

 themselves acquainted with their opinions, for though ihej- could hardly 

 tail of being an exceedingly unpalatcable, they might also prove a 

 very salutary dose to them. 



l.\. It is astonishing what downright silliness and nonsense is fre- 

 quently made to pass for argument. A notable instance of the kind 

 occurs'in the article Architecture in the celebrated Encyclopedic Me- 

 tliodique, where it is said "La colonne doit ctre roude, parceque la 

 Nature ne fait rien de cpiarr.'." The same mode of reasoning might 

 be employed to convince us that the surface of w»lls ought to he rugged, 

 and floors uneven, Ucaunt nature does not make the face of rocks per- 

 fcctly smooth, nvr the ground jieifectly solid and level ;— ov aga'n 



