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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[September, 



Pestiferous .' and devoutly is it to be hoped that he will receive an 

 X emplary good tlirashing from St. Bartholomew the Little. 



V. Upon one point, indeed, Bartholomew and Wightwick, though 

 in all other respects almost antipodal, agree tolerably well ; namely in 

 their estimate of the Elizabethan style, against which they both formally 

 litter their protest, — Wightwick briefly yet energetically, and Bartho- 

 lomew at considerable length, cataloguing its vices and deformities 

 one by one. So far, however, from attempting there to contradict 

 him, I am more inclined to say dil/o to his strictures; and if nothing 

 else, they certainly do show some boldness in venturing to run quite 

 counter to the taste of the day, for that barbarous fashion has been 

 taken all of a sudden most wonderfully into favour, and has in conse- 

 quence had several ably executed and expensive works, by Joseph 

 Nash, Richardson, &c., especially devoted to it; which productions 

 are not calculated to allay the feverish admiration of the public. 



VI. "Elizabethan carving," says my worthy friend Bartholomew, 

 "resembles the schoolboy's performance with a penknife upon sticks 

 of firewood, some degrees below the workmanship of Dutch toys"l! 

 This is tolerably strong — nay, shows that the tender and merciful B. 

 is quite as well entitled to the epithet Caiumis as myself, and no less 

 fond of cutting up, what he does not like, — which I take to be in 

 general the case with all of us — both saints and sinners. — Let us pro- 

 ceed : "some persons," he afterwards observes, "very highly praise 

 the Elizabethan buildings, solely on account of their general effect ; 

 but they never can defend any of their licentious and childish details, 

 which indeed may at once be said to contain all the fattlls and cor- 

 7uplwns of design and composition which, have ever been condemned in 

 every style of architecture, by every deacripiion of critics, of every age, 

 and (f every country in the nmrld" ! ! .' Now for one who dislikes 

 " barking," this is valiantly vituperative. 



Vn. Our amiable St. Bartholomew \'erifies the adage of Clodins 

 accnsat meechos, for though he professes to be quite scandalized at my 

 naughtiness, he, as has already been shown, leaves it to be inferred 

 plainly enough that the race of "real architects" is now altogether 

 extinct among the profession ; and even talks of " the sntahing, fraudu- 

 lent, pickpocket system which has led to extensive Faunlleroyism in mo- 

 dern architecture" .' ! ! 



— Bartholomew, my boy I we are now quits: you are ad — honest, 

 plain-speaking, though somewhat hard-mouthed fellow, — one who does 

 not mince matters at all. I would advise you, however, to have a 

 little more fellow feeling, and not serve me as the pot does the kettle ; 

 nor be quite so unmindful of your own dear self as to imagine me the 

 only canine candid creature in this naughty world who has a taste 

 "for abusing every body, and every thing," when you are pleased to 

 libel the whole profession at one fell swoop, and to represent modern 

 architecture as little better than a system of fraudulent knavery coupled 

 with the most disgraceful ignorance. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN LONDON. 



jl Critical Review of the Public Buildings, Statues and Ornaments in 



and about London and Westminster — 1734, 



By Ralph. 



( Continued from page 264. J 



I suppose my readers have already observed, that during the course 

 of my essays on this subject, I have not contented myself with bare 

 remarks en the ornaments I find finished to my hand ; but that I have 

 taken all opportunities, beside, of pointing out ways and means which 

 either may, or might have been made use of to refine upon some, to 

 adjoin others, and make the most of every situation for the beautifying 

 and adorning the whole. 



It is in this view I often mention things, which by the interfering of 

 property can never take place: and hold myself excused, in the pre- 

 sumption that a neglect in one particular, may be made a spur to the 

 improvement of another. 



The new churcli (St. John's), with the four towers, at West- 

 minster, is situated in such a manner, with respect to Old Palace Yard, 

 that it might have been seen from thence, at the end of a noble vista, 

 to the greatest advantage imaginable: the sight of the towers over the 

 tops of the houses, put every body in mind of this, and it is with much 

 legret that we lose such a beauty. 



As to the building itself, it is in a very particular taste, and has a 

 great mixture of beauty and caprice in it: there are many parts of it 

 which I approve, and many more which I condemn : it is "to be sure a 

 fatal mistake, to endeavour at an excellence, and than err so wide of 

 the mark as to stumb'e on deformity; all false ornaments become 



faults instantly, and only serve to make an absurdity more conspicuous. 

 If the architect of this pile had once thought of this rule, I am per- 

 suaded lie would have been abundantly more chaste in his composi- 

 tions, and cut his towers, like that of Babel, off in the middle. 



Henry the Seventh's rliapel has an undoubted right to be taken no- 

 tice of in a very particular manner, as being one of tlie most expensive 

 remains of the ancient English taste and magnificence : to be sure there 

 is no looking on it without admiration ; but then its beauty consists 

 much more eminently in the workmanship than the contrivance ; which 

 is just the reverse of what it ought to be. 



The proportion and harmony of a plan is the first grand secret in 

 building ; nicety, and point in execution the last: thus it happeasthat 

 the edifice before us has nothing in its form to surprise or charm ; and 

 all the expence of art, which is lavished away upon it, only excites 

 pity that the subject deserved it no better. 



I am very sensible I run no small risk of being censured for making 

 so free with so celebrated a pile as this : but as I profess myself clear 

 of all prejudice, and only in pursuit of truth, so 1 shall take all the 

 liberties which are of a piece with such a character, and resolve to be 

 governed by reason and judgment only. 



On these principles, therefore, I will boldly affirm, that nothing could 

 be more absurd than erecting this fabric at the end of the Abbey ; it now 

 serving only to spoil the symmetry of both, and make a botch instead 

 of adding a beauty : if there were any point of view where both these 

 pieces might be seen together, the truth of my assertion would be ap- 

 parent, and as it is, a little imagination will answer the same end. 



Let us farther add that, by this unnatural conjunction, the whole 

 magnificence of front, which might have been given to this costly 

 chapel, is entirely lost, and those who admire it most implicitly and 

 devoutly, cannot help enquiring for an entrance suitable to the rest of 

 the structure. 



Let us for once then suppose, that it liad been entirely detached 

 from the Abbey, and erected opposite to the House of Lords, with a 

 sumptuous front to the street ; let us suppose the new Parliament 

 House finished on the other side, and the before-mentioned vista laid 

 open to the new church, and the consequence would then be another 

 group of beauties in building and decoration, which few cities in Europe 

 could parallel. 



By the many things I have said of the advantage of space before a 

 building, in order to add magnificence to the view, no body will won- 

 der, I presume, that I am for levelling the Gate-house, demolishing a 

 large part of Dean-yard, and laying open the street at the west end of 

 the Abbey, at least, to an equal breadth with the building. I must 

 frankly own nothing appears so miserable to me, as such incumbrances 

 round a grand or elegant building: they abate the pleasure of the 

 prospect most exceedingly, and are real disadvantages to the builder's 

 fame. 



Westminster Abbey is a fabric of great antiquity, and challenges 

 some kind of veneration on that account": it is besides of prodigious 

 bulk, and fills the eye, at least, if it does not satisfy it: to glance at it 

 in the landscape, without examining its parts, it pleases tolerably well ; 

 to examine its parts, we are under a necessity of disliking the whole : 

 if the height surprizes, we are out of humour with its form ; and the 

 fronts in particular ought to have rose eminently above the rest, in 

 order to have varied the lines, and given that grace it so visibly wants. 

 We now rather think of a barn than a church ; I believe this image is 

 owing intirely to the extreme sharpness of the roof, and if that was 

 rectified, it would be greatly to the advantage of the building in gene- 

 ral. It must be owned indeed, that the west end was never finished, 

 and there is much reason to believe that the two towers, on each side 

 of it, were designed to give the elevation, it is now so apparently de- 

 fective in. 



There is indeed a rumour about the town, that the Dean and Chap- 

 ter still design to perfect this scheme, and raise the towers according 

 to their first projection : but I think it is rather too late to begin, for 

 unless they would new-case the church all over, the mixture of the 

 new and old would have a worse effect, than the defect we complain 

 of, and make a sort of patch-work in building, which is ever offensive 

 both to judgment and taste. 



As to the inside of the church, it is certainly more perfect and judi- 

 cious than the out : the perspective is strong and beautiful, and strikes 

 the spectator in a very forcible manner, as soon as he makes his en- 

 trance ; and yet it owes the greatest part of its eft'ect to a fault in 

 symmetry. It is the exceeding height of the grand isle which gives 

 the astonishment ; but if that was only in exact proportion to the res- 

 of the parts, it would not be distinguished so much, and yet would de- 

 serve much greater praise. 



Some of my readers would perhaps take it ill, if in this place, and 

 writing on the curiosities of the Abbey, I should not say something in 

 honour of tlie fine wax-work figures whicli are placed so curiously up 



