1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL 



321 



POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION. 



U'i:h an Engraving, Plate XV. 



This institution was founded in 1S3S, and shortly after its opening 

 we gave a brief description of it at page 318 of our first volume ; we 

 now present our readers with some farther details. The amiexed 

 engraving gives the elevation, transverse section, and ground plan of 

 the building, and to these we refer our re^iders as a substitute for a 

 lengthened description. What we anticipated at a former ptriod has 

 since been fully carried out, and this institution has become in its 

 neighbourhood, like the Adelaide Gallery, of great utility in promot- 

 ing the practical arts. If we have not like at Paris, an Exponition 

 des Jlrta el Metiers, or Mechanics Exhibitions like our provincial 

 towns or American cities, we have at any rate the advantage of them 

 as regards permanent museums, by means of these institutions. The 

 mechanical collections of Paris are now far from equalling those of 

 London, and it wants but very little exertion to give us a decided 

 superiority. We may observe, by the bye, on this subject, that it is 

 much to be regretted that the museum of the Society of Arts is not 

 made more available. We may remind our readers that these exhibi- 

 tions emanated from the attempt to form a national exhibition of arts 

 and manufactures in the King's Mews. 



The design of the building does credit to Mr. Thomson, the archi- 

 tect, for having so skilfully adapted it to the purpose to which it is 

 devoted, the lighting of the great hall is provided for in the coved 

 ceiling or roof, a gallery passes all round the great hall, supported on 

 each side by cantilevers, as shown in the section ; on the ground line 

 there is a canal formed for the exhibition of hydraulic works, steam 

 boats, water wheels, &c., and at the end is a circular reservoir for ex- 

 hibiting the diving bell, and working imder water in the diving dress ; 

 at the east end is the entrance hall from Regent-street, above is a 

 theatre for lectures, &c., and below a laboratory and other rooms for 

 experiments. The west end of the great hall or saloon communicates 

 with premises in Cavendish-square. The total depth of the premises 

 is 320 feet, and 44 feet wide, and the great gallery 120 feet long, 40 

 feet wide, and 38 feet high in the centre. 



HARBOURS OF REFUGE ON THE SOUTH EASTERN COAST. 



In our last month's Journal we gave a few extracts from the Com- 

 missioners Report, pointing out some discrepancies, upon which we 

 intended to have made remarks, but upon mature consideration we 

 think it better, instead of contending with details, or occupying our- 

 selves with the misconception of the Commissioners, to look at the 

 question in a broader kind of view and on national grounds, that we 

 may see how far the Government will be justified in recommending 

 Parliament to grant so large a sum of money as is required for carry- 

 ing out the harbours proposed. In the first place, it is generally ad- 

 mitted that England has not on her south easteni shores any harbours 

 of sufficient magnitude or depth of water to receive a fleet of men-of- 

 war, or even for our largest class steamers, and the absolute necessity 

 of having such harbours is also admitted. It therefore only remains 

 to examine whether the localities selected are the best, and whether 

 there is any necessity for erecting them on the magnificent scale pro- 

 posed in the report before us. With regard to the latter question, we 

 have only to look at the artificial harbours which have been executed, 

 and we shall generally find that they have been constructed on too 

 small a scale, to render them of any service for shipping, such as men-of- 

 war of the largest class, and in consequence of their contracted scale 

 they soon silt np and bars are formed at their entrances, rendering 

 them almost useless except to mercliantmen of small tonnage. With 

 regard to the necessity for harbours of refuge in time of war, there 

 cannot be a doubt ; it is therefore highly expedient that harbours should 

 ba. constructed of sufficient capacity for a fleet of men-of-war, either 

 to sail or be towed in or out at all times of the tide, an' hour lost may 

 be the cause of irreparable damage to our coast, a descent on our 

 shores, or the escape of the enemies fleet, and on this account we 

 should be prepared to recommend the construction of harbours on the 

 boldest scale that our finances will allow, for we would rather have one 

 on an extensive scale than we would have half a dozen ot the small 

 fry, of these descriptions of harbours we have had enough, and if they 

 are wanted, the local authorities ought to be able to raise funds suffi- 

 cient without Government aid. We have always been averse to the 

 interference of Government for what may be justly considered private 

 purposes. 



We shall now look to the situations selected by the Commissioners, 

 and the first to which our especial attention is required is the harbour 



of Dover. Here all parties must admit it is a situation that requires 

 to be well provided and well watched ; and moreover the passage of 

 the Straits must be made our own, it must be kept at all hazards and 

 at all costs. To allow an enemy's fleet to remain there for a day would 

 be madness, and the only way to avoid it, is to have a good harbour, 

 where in case of need, the largest cUxss steamers may be able to take 

 shelter, for which no situation is so well adapted as Dover. 



The next site selected is Beacby Head, where it will be found that 

 there is already a good anchorage, with a situation well adapted for a 

 breakwater similar to that of Plymouth. This would afford shelter for 

 large class vessels between Dover or the Downs and Portsmoutli, at 

 present a long line of coast without the slightest refuge for a man-of- 

 war, and consequently without protection for the small merchantmen. 

 The next and last situation is that of Forness, near Margate, which 

 affords protection to the mouth of the Thames, this requires a harbour 

 of spacious dimensions, in which vessels riding in the Downs may 

 take shelter if required. If we view the coast from Margate to Ports- 

 mouth, there cannot, on the whole, be found more eligible sites for 

 harbours than those selected, keeping in mind the grand object, that 

 they must be harbours of refuge, not for merchantmen alone, but for 

 the Queen's service also, where vessels carrying lOU or 120 guns may 

 take shelter at all times of the tide, and the steam frigate like the 

 Gorgon and the Cyclops may run in and out w ith facility, and be ready 

 for action at a moment's notice. 



We are therefore under all the circumstances disposed to support, 

 most strongly, the recommendation of the Commissioners, and trust 

 that Parliament when called upon for a grant, will look at the question 

 boldly, and judge whether it be not better to grant four or five millions 

 in the time of peace, rather than wait until war takes place, when 

 shipping to more than that amount may be destroyed in one year. 



REMARKS ON MR. TOMSON'S PAPER ON THE WORKS 

 OF SIR JOHN VANBURGH. 



discussion at the Institute on Mon- 

 a very pleasing way, that the little 



The animated and lively 

 day evening, manifested in 



citadel of taste is becoming more and more the object of zealous and 

 vigilant scrutiny. The beautiful pourtrayal by Mr. Thomson of Sir 

 John Vanburgh's style, (the subject of Monday evening's attention) 

 though it requires no record of approval from a person like myself, to 

 give it one feature of additional interest, prevents the silence of one 

 insensibly attracted by any commentary upon by-gone talent, or the 

 merits of originality. Sir John Vanburgh, recognised as a pupil of 

 Wren, and included in the school of Palladio, seems to display, I 

 humbly imagine, too little of oniamental sweep and the flowings of 

 elegance, too exact a distribution of the several parts, too cool a dis- 

 play cf effect, to rank as a disciple of Palladio, or a pupil of Wren; 

 and yet, at the same time, too much of extended variety in bodily 

 proportion, to present a true idea of Grecian sentiment. 



Exuberance with him is never beheld in the drooping festoon or the 

 careless sweep of foliated bands. The curves and benaings of elegant 

 contour, deck not the facade, but the care of distribution figures in a 

 thousand lines, in a prim exactness, in a minute attention to the rules 

 of his art. For this he seems to stand isolated from his school, and 

 like Soane, betrays the fretwork of a self-constituted style, connecting 

 and harmonizing the fashion of two rival styles, the Greek and the 

 Roman. More extended — more daring in his ideas than Soane, he 

 seems, like him, to have studied general minuteness. But it is the 

 proportion, the loftiness, and the general effect of magnitude, which 

 infuses in the mind, grand impressions, whilst contemplating Blenheim. 

 It is to this ability in outline, this arrangement of a mass, which 

 creates the desired effect; though the rules of his style appear as 

 licences to an admirer of the Greek or the Roman. With all the 

 blemish of incorrect detail, (if, as to general effect, it be a blemish), 

 Vanburgh had the feelmgs of an artist, and felt that poetry of senti- 

 ment, which shines in his works ; though unimbued with the delicate 

 fijiish of Chambers and a later day. 



To comment further ujjon (in some respects) this Soane of the last 

 century, would be inconsiderate ; yet it is a gratification to see the 

 merits of past days recalled — and to pluck from the thousand beds of 

 taste some of those beauties, identified with faded talent and forgotten 

 genius ; to see a mind original and rare regaining its buried influence, 

 and asserting it with a liberal and enlightened community of archi- 

 tects. 



The deduction in favour of the subject, the nataral effect of Van- 

 burgh's style, is this, that the head of the student, and the heart of the 

 poet — the enquiring mind, and the soul to admire its own researches, 

 must unite in the same man, if that man is to be an architect. A 



2 X 



