1840] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



33f> 



plicity of form and outline, than on the miilti|ilicity of detail, and 

 glittering profusion of ornament. At the same time let us not deny' 

 tliat splendid were the structures, and magnifii-ent the edifices which, 

 vinder the sway of the Cssars, adorned the Imperial city. 



" Xot Baliylon, 

 Nor great Alcaii-o, such magnificence 

 Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 

 Bolus or Serapis, their gods, or seat 

 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 

 In wealth and luxury." 



But, even with this ready acknowledgment of the distinctive excel- 

 lence attained by the Romans in this branch of art, a reflection presses 

 immediately upon our minds, which detracts from the glory of the 

 nation itself, and gives us humiliating thoughts of their condition, even 

 while we admire the splendour of their city. With the people of 

 Greece the period of greatest architectural triumph Wiis contempo- 

 raneously with their possession of the purest political freedom. The 

 enthusiasm in favour of art was not confined to a few, but pervaded 

 the minds of the whole people; Pericles was but the instrument of 

 the national will — merely acted in conformity with the national spirit; 

 but in Rome there was unquestionably magnificence, yet it was the 

 magnificence not of popular enthusiasm, not as the result of any love 

 for the beautiful pervading the mind of the nation, but rather of a few 

 accomplished, but withal tyrannic emperors. The liberty which had 

 distinguished the nation in the purer ages of the republic, which had 

 been at once the consolidation of their political system, and the secret 

 of their military success, was fast vanishing away. Under the domi- 

 nation first of 'dictators and then of emperors, tlie people lost, one 

 after another, the principles of pure and exalted liberty ; tyranny 

 usurped the place of freedom, and while there was thrown around 

 their declining dynasty all the splendour which characterizes an 

 Eastern empire, it was at the same time in near connection with that 

 slavish and degrading prostration of the nation's mind, which is its in- 

 separable concomitant. 



Architecture then, with all its multiform resources of grandeur and 

 beauty was resorted to, and diligently encouraged by the Roman em- 

 perors ; not, as was the ease wUh the rulers of Greece, with a view 

 of rousing the minds of the nation at large to an appreciation of the 

 varied forms of material beauty, as contributing thereby to the forma- 

 tion of an elevated and dignified character, but rather from the desire 

 to render the people unconscious of the value of those privileges they 

 were snatching from their grasp. The city was everywhere adorned 

 with emblems of their valour, and trophies of their military success — 

 temples, columns, triumphal arches and fora, were raised in honour of 

 individual emjjerors, and the mighty deeds for which they were said 

 to be con?|)icuous, just to cast a false glare around the real condition 

 of the nation, and to blind them to any sense of that thraldom, as de- 



frading, as it should have been felt to be galling, of which they were 

 iligently forging the chains. Instead of the severe manners and stern 

 morality whicli marked the times of a Brutus and a Scippio, there was 

 introduced that extreme luxury, which comports well with the estab- 

 lishment of an Eastern absolutism, and which invariably weakens, 

 enervates, and eventually destroys the people among whom it takes 

 root. 



Under the continual agency of such an influence, even architecture 

 itself gradually declined — all fc\ste was corrupted, and art consequently 

 soon felt into utter extinction. The empire itself fell by an act of 

 suicide, and dragged into the chasm, literature, science and art, and 

 for many ages the slumber of primitive barbarism enwrapped the face 

 of Europe. Unlike, however, other nations who, when once ruined, 

 have been ruined utterly, she " has conquered and been conquered — 

 and again has conquered her conquerors." After her ancient fall, she 

 was destined once more to rise again, — "when her carnal empire had 

 been stripped oif from her, she came forth as the queen of a spiritual 

 empire, and within her walls, the dead seem to stand side by side with 

 the living, in awful and most indisguisable communion." Her arts 

 again revived in the loth century, Italy vindicated to herself the pos- 

 session of that originality she had not evidenced in ancient time — she 

 came forth like a giant refreshed with sleep, and reared up men of 

 the profoundest genius, such as Michael Angelo, Rafi'aelle, Leonatdi, 

 Titian, and others, who have shed a halo of glory around the age they 

 adorned, and rendered it memorable and illustrious in the annals of 

 art. 



Here then it is time to close — we have traced the rise of the arts in 

 the two countries, and have seen that while with the one they were 

 original, with the other they were derivative : we have traced their 

 progressive advancement, and have seen the different characteristics of 

 the two nations, at the period when they were in their highest ex- 

 cellence ; we have shown that while in Greece they were conjoined 



with free political institutions, in Rome they, in far too great a degree 

 were the handmaids and attendants on tyranny. Finally, we have 

 glanced at tlieir downfall, and while we have perceived the dominion 

 of death over Greece to be total, as far as all real greatness is con- 

 cerned; we have marked the re-vivifying energy exhibited by Rome, 

 and the marvellous display of genius which she has produced in modern 

 times. We have endeavoured in all we have written to do full justice 

 to the claims whirh the arts of the two countries have, for preference 

 and superiority, and wliile firm in the opinion that Greece must un- 

 questionably bear the palm, have striven not to forget what was due 

 to Imperial Rome, as the once proud mistress of the world. 



108, Mount S/reef, Gro^ rcnor Square, 

 .August •2", IS 40. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN LONDON. 



./Z Crilical Revk.i: of the Public Buildings, Statues and Ornaments in 



and about London and Westminster — 1734. 



By R.iLPH. 



( Concludedfrom page 30t.J 



Gray's Inn is certainly too considerable a place to be passed over 

 unobserved : but t!ie notice we shall take of it, will be rather in com- 

 pliment to what it might have been made, not what it is at present; 

 it is no more than a confused heap of ugly buildings that have neither 

 order, regularity or connection, and yet the ground they stand on was 

 capable of all : they might have had a fine open front to the street, 

 and another to the gardens, and that too with as little expence : but 

 the taste of our ancestors did not seem to be altogether fixed on beauty, 

 and we ourselves make but very slow advances towards a reformation. 

 As to the gardens belonging to this Inn, they are certainly an advan- 

 tage to the students there, and a convenience to the town in general; 

 and if they have not many beauties to entertain you, they have few 

 absurdities to disgust you : it is true indeed they might be made much 

 better than they are, by keeping the vistas full of trees, the walks 

 smooth, and the borders even. The mount and summer-house upon 

 the top of it, might be made quite delightful, and if the two porticos 

 at the ends of the terrace, had been in taste, they would have given 

 an air of magnificence, w'iiich at present is much wanting, i could 

 wish too that the piece of ground between the two terraces and the 

 road, was made better use of by the society, than turning it into a 

 kitchen garden, as well as that next Gray's-inn-lane : these two spots 

 might have been covered with trees, in the most beautiful manner, and 

 supplied with fountains, which would make this place one of the most 

 delightful spots about town. 



It will be impossible to pass by the new church of St. George, 

 Bloomsbury, without giving it a very particular survey ; it is built all 

 of stone, is adorned with a pompous portico, can boast many other 

 decorations, has been stinted in no expense, and yet, upon the whole, 

 is ridiculous and absurd, even to a proverb. The reason is this ; the 

 builder mistook whim for genius, and oniament for taste : he has even 

 erred so much, that the very portico does not seem to be in the middle 

 of the church, and as to the steeple, it is stuck on like a wen to the 

 rest of the building; then the execrable conceit of setting up the 

 king on the top of it, excites nothing but laughter in the ignorant, and 

 contempt in the judge. In short, it is a lasting reflexion on the fame 

 of the architect, and the understanding of those who employed him. 



The new church of St. Giles's is one of the most simple and elegant 

 of the modern structures ; it is raised at very little expence, has very 

 few oniaments, and little beside the propriety of its parts, and the 

 harmony of the whole, to excite attention and challenge applause; 

 yet still it pleases, and justly too ; the east end is both plain and ma- 

 jestic, and there is nothing in the west to object to but the smallness 

 of the doors, and the poverty of ajipearance that must necessarily 

 follow. The steeple is light, airy, and genteel, argues a good deal of 

 genius in the architect, and looks very well both in comparison with 

 the body of the church, and when it is considered as a building by 

 itself, in a distant prospect. Yet, after all I have confessed in favour 

 of this edifice, I cannot help again arraigning the superstition of 

 situating churches due east and west ; for, in complaisance to this 

 folly, the building before us has lost a great advantage it might have 

 otherwise enjoyed ; I mean the making the east end the front, and 

 placing it in such a manner as to have ended the vista of what is 

 called Broad St. Giles's ; whereas, now, it is nowhere to be seen with 

 ease to the eye, or so as justly to comprehend the symmetry and con- 

 nexion of the whole. 



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