181.9.1 



THE CIVIL EXGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



My 



"costive-brained" professionals. He admits them to be "useful 

 pioneers in diffusing a taste for the art among tlie pulilic;" nor will 

 we quarrel with him for speaking of "their actual ignorance in 

 general of the rudiments of the art." The ignorance of such 

 persons is, undoubtedly, to be regretted, but is no more the neces- 

 sary effect of their being amateurs, than it is the cause of their 

 becoming such. But in ignorance both they and the rest of the 

 public are likely to remain a long time, before the professionalists 

 endeavour to enlighten them by supplying them with the sort of 

 elementary instruction needed for properly pursuing the study of 

 architecture in its character of a Fine Art. Confessed it must 

 be, tliat those who at present pass for amateurs — because they 

 happen to be the one-eyed among the blind— are, for the greater 

 part, mere dabblers,— persons without any real artistic knowledge or 

 feeling; apt, as is here said, to be "unwearied talkers," but talkers 

 of mere nothings, retailers of dates and such matters, very much 

 in the style of "In the name of the Prophet! Figs." Astotalking, 

 however, they seem to have ri%als in those whom Mv. Bernan 

 styles "Palavering Architects"! Even so; for he has actually 

 ventured to introduce, or rather thrust into his Dictionary, a term 

 which we suspect he has invented for tlie nonce,— viz. "Architect 

 ■ Verbori-m. a ])alavering architect; one who is loquacious ever- 

 more, and produces trifles; one who supplies the lack of artistic 

 invention by verbal knackery, &c. &c." Really our friend Candi- 

 dus is meek as a sucking dove in comparison with Bernan. 



Materials for a N'ew Style of Ornamentation, consisting of Bo- 

 tanical Subjects and Cotnpositioyis drawn from Nature. By H. 

 Whitakeb. London: Weale, 18t9. 



A work of this kind is a proof of the healthy growth of public 

 opinion in matters of art. The author has been impressed with 

 the want of originality in the ornamental details of our architec- 

 tural works, the servile copying of classic models, and the demand 

 that now exists for a better application of our artistic resources. 

 It is not that the classic models are bad,^ for many are most 

 beautiful; it is not so much that they are hackneyed — because 

 beauty can never pall,— but that the monopolitan adherence to 

 former types involves the neglect of all else that is beautiful in 

 nature. 



We have all those plants which the Greeks so justly admired 

 and studied; but we have access, as they had, to many others, — 

 and still more, we have access to the vast field of nature which 

 was beyond their reach, and which daily yields to us new forms, 

 from tlie same Mighty Hand, and endowed with the same admira- 

 ble attributes. It is this neglect, this abnegation of the great 

 domain of the beautiful in nature, which has constituted one of 

 the greatest reproaches on our modern school of art. AV'ith ma- 

 terial resources greater than the Greeks, we remain their copying 

 slaves, — as much entliralled as if we could be sold by an Atticus, a 

 Cassius, or a Seneca, who bought and sold learned and artistic 

 slaves. 



Mr. Whitaker has, without any presumption, undertaken to 

 apply some of the materials within his reach, and has, from plants 

 unknown to the ancients, elaborated fidiage well worthy to be 

 compared with any designs of the best schools of old. He has not 

 attempted to lay down the law as a teacher: he only shows the way 

 in which others can direct their studies; and he gives most useful 

 examples. This manual will be the more valuable, not for the 

 designs it contains, for they are necessarily limited in number and 

 scope, — but for the practical directions and exemplifications it 

 affords for the guidance of the architect and student. 



With the progress of public taste the architect has assumed 

 more extended functions; and instead of copying a plate from the 

 authorities, and leaving the details to the stucco merchant, he is 

 called upon to exercise his inventive faculties on the architectural 

 decorations, external and internal, the furniture, fittings, paper, 

 and carpets; and where he does not design, he has to check the 

 designs of the inferior artists, men now well trained in the Schools of 

 Design. He has likewise to obey the requisitions of patrons more 

 fastidious, because possessing a better knowledge of art; and the 

 architect has therefore only one means of making his way, and 

 that is by working hard. The day of copying is doomed, and 

 those who will not give in to the new movement, will be themselves 

 given up. Already we perceive in our public works a happier dis- 

 position, and strong indications of the professional ardour, though 

 rather in the way of promise than of performance. 



HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING. 



1. Remarks on the Improvement of Tidal Rivers, illustrated by Refer- 

 ence to works executed on the Tap, Rihhle, Forth, Lune, and other 

 rivers. By David Stevenson, C.E. Second Edition. London: 

 Weale, 1849. 



2. Report of the Committee appointed by the River Dee Commission- 

 ers. Chester, 1848. 



There is no branch of engineering so obscure as that which 

 relates to the improvement of rivers and harbours, and perhaps it 

 is so from the want of good collections of observations and facts. 

 If anything is published, it is commonly a report suggestive of 

 works, or a treatise in behalf of some particular theory, supported 

 by local experience. As the difficulties of forming any general 

 theory are the greater from the diversity of geographical features, 

 so it is not to be expected that any work can ever provide a spe- 

 cific mode of construction in individual cases ; but herein consists 

 the special claim to distinction of hydraulic engineering, as one of 

 the highest branches of the profession. A railway or canal can, 

 with very few modifications, be laid down from one general model 

 in any particular district; but no attempt can be more unpropitious 

 than to apply a successful harbour plan to another locality. Each 

 plan must have a special and severe study, in which the engineer 

 must set his brains to work, and not rely upon being able to copy 

 the laboui-s of any one else, — although he should be fully able to 

 avail himself of the experience of others. 



Unhappily, hydraulic engineering is commonly looked upon as 

 a mere question of construction; and our great engineers think 

 they have nothing to do but to run out a pier, or build a sea-wall, 

 of the best masonry, and that the work is done. That the strong 

 walls should be thrown down, or the enclosed harbour be choked 

 up, they do not dream of; and the more particularly, if they have 

 what they call a scouring power. 



A caniil or railway cutting, or embankment, has only to deal 

 with the present; but a pier or sea-wall, %vhen once put up, pro- 

 duces a change in the local operations ; so that it is necessary not 

 to provide for the present, but to calculate what will be the future 

 result of the works. This, again, is a proof of the powers of mind 

 needful for the proper exercise of this branch of engineering. 



It has likewise this peculiarity— that it has baffled many of the 

 greatest engineers; and what have been received as established 

 modes of practice have, in the progress of time, been proved to be 

 gross absurdities. Thus, for instance, in 1755, Smeaton proposed 

 on the Clyde the erection of a dam with locks at Marlingford, 

 below Gla'sgow. Had this been done, the fate of Glasgow as a 

 harbour would have been sealed, and the lower part of the river 

 ruined. Golburne projected to narrow the stream by a succession 

 of jetties and groynes, which result in making a river a course of 

 ponds or pools and bars, as in the cases of the Clyde, Tay, Dee, 

 and Ribble; from all of which, except the Dee, the groynes have 

 been removed. 



It does no credit to English engineers that there is no good book 

 on hydraidic engineering, — not even a compilation of the many 

 scattered publications; and the result is, there are more blunders 

 committed in hydraulic works than in the whole range of civil 

 engineering, and for this sufficient reason — that the blunders of 

 the past are constantly repeated. This state of affairs is the more 

 to be regretted, for our rivers and harbours are of tlie very great- 

 est importance to us in a commercial point of view, and in our 

 unreclaimed shores we have a source of agricultural wealth which 

 no wise nation should neglect. Sir John Rennie is now engaged in 

 recovering a surface on the coast of Lincolnshire worth eighty 

 pounds an acre, and worth nearly three hundred thousand pounds 

 in the whole. We are quite within compass in saying that lands 

 worth ten millions can easily be recovered on the shores of these 

 islands, and which would yield food for above half a million of 

 people. 



Mr. David Stevenson, who is the author of the work "On the 

 Civil Engineering of North America," and engineer to the Con- 

 vention of Royal Burghs of Scotland, has been employed on four 

 considerable tidal rivers, in the improvement of which he has been 

 very successful, and he has done the further good service of pub- 

 lishing his observations. The first edition of these has been 

 already noticed, but they acquire so much more importance from 

 the additional observations, and the subject itself is of so much 

 interest, that we feel it calls for some attention at our hands. 



Mr. Stevenson establishes the classification of three sections or 

 compartments of river engineering, which are useful to be borne 

 in mind, as tending to avoid confusion of ideas. These three sec- 

 tions are — first, the non-tidal part of the river; second, the tidal 

 portion of the river; and third, the sea portion, or "sea proper." 



