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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[June, 



editor of the Arl-Jniirna/ that arohiterts have no Imsiness in the 

 Academy, althouirh for a somewliat different reason from his — 

 namely, because, with one exception, tliey s)^^ themselves to be 

 drones in it, and do not make it tlieir business to do anything in 

 lielialf of architecture, or to defend its interests. AV'ere tliey to 

 do so, we should soon see a very yreat chanfre for tlie better in the 

 Architectural Room, and in the general <|uality of the things there 

 admitted. 



As to tlio Professor of Architecture, it is no great wonder that 

 lie suffers things to take their own course, for he is asleep and 

 dreaming. Nor is "The Professor's Dream" (No. 1102) of the 

 most lively and imaginative kind, it being marked by none of 

 those bidd flights and exuberam-es of fancy which dreams, at least 

 ••remarkal]le dreams," usually consist of. On the contrary, he 

 seems merely to have fallen asleep over Durand's "Parallele," and 

 dreamt that he was employed to make a collecti(ni of "elegant e.v- 

 to tracts" out of it. Really the Professor seems exceedingly loth 

 let us behold anything or any ideas of his own, for when he does 

 exhibit, which is hut very rarely, it is only nominally, and in the 

 capacity of draughtsman rather than of architect or designer. First 

 of all, he gave us a mere hotch-potch of AV'ren's buildings; next, 

 merely a composition of sculjiture for filling up a pediment; and 

 now this "synopsis," whidi after all is no more than "a develoji- 

 ment of tliat first ])ub!islied in the Useful Knowledge Society's 

 Life of Sir Christo]iiier W^ren." A\'hen Professor Cockerell wakes 

 up, he will perliaps show us something less borrowed and stale, — 

 something in which he is more immediately concerned; for in- 

 stance, some of the best ])arts of the interior of the Taylor Insti- 

 tute at Oxford, and of the Fitzwilliam Museum at (Cambridge. 

 As he now manages, he finds that though he takes care to ward 

 off criticism, he cannot exactly shield himself from animadversion 

 and very disagreealile remarks. 



Mr. Barry, as usual, exhibits nothing, hut is content to he him- 

 self exhibited this season, lioth in a portrait and a bust, — the former 

 of whicli is so far from being at all satisfactory as a likeness, that 

 we at first thought we nnist have mistaken the number in the cata- 

 logue. Of Professor Donaldson, too, all that we see here is a bust 

 of him. On the other hand, we do belndd Professor Pugin, — not 

 in effigy of his person, but in several full-length designs, which 

 are more remarkable i'm- the oddity of the mode of representa- 

 tion and execution adopted, than for anything particularly praise- 

 worthy in them as designs. It has been said of Mr. Pugin that he 

 patronises bad drawing, and we now perceive that he patronises 

 \ery queer perspective, and very bad colouring also; for nothing 

 can be more flat and crude than the latter. As if determined to 

 run (|uite counter to everybody else, while others are solicitous to 

 set off their designs by every artifice of colouring, and to make 

 them as much like pictures as possible, he goes to the opposite ex- 

 treme, and is studiously unpictorial in every respect. Yet, we 

 will not be certain that even in this apparent rejection of all arti- 

 fice, there is not a good deal of artifice at the bottom — affectation 

 there certainly is. The nion.ilrurt dii/ilo has such charms for some 

 peoi>le, that they will not stick at sheer absurdity in order to gratify 

 tlieir passion for it, as has been shown of late years by Turner in 

 his pictures, and now by \Velby Pugin in his drawings. Could we 

 fancy that the mode of representation adopted by the latter were 

 so with the intention of scarecrowing people away from those 

 drawings, there might he some policy in it; for assuredly neither 

 No. 10H,5, which shows us Mr. Piigin's own residence at Ramsgate, 

 with a church tacked to it, nor No. 1117, "Bilton Grange, Rugby, 

 the seat of Washington Hibbeit," is not, on being looked into 

 and considered as a design, found to display any of that superior 

 forif he has obtained credit for. He is by far too blind a venera- 

 tor of median-alism in all its rustiness, to be at all to our taste; 

 for the way in w liich lie employs Gothic, makes evident how unfit it 

 is fin- domestic architecture at the present day. In one respect, 

 indeed, Nos. 10H5, and 1117, are more than usually satisfactory, 

 since the small interior views and plans placed upon their borders 

 serve to convey a tiderably complete idea of the respective hiiild- 

 inRS. We have also in No". 1013, "The new Dining Hall at Alton 

 Towers," another work of Mr. Pugin's, although the drawing itself 

 is evidently by a difl'oreiit hand, and both on account of its subject 

 and execution is one that deserved to be placed exactly on the 

 line; as did also No. 1071., "Interior of part of the new buildings 

 at East Sutton Place," C. J. Richardson. Were the line entirely 

 occupied by the best subjects and drawings, some of the best must 

 nerhaps he hung less advantageously; but it appears to us nothing 

 less than stultification to |ilace on the line several things that 

 ought not to have been admitted at all, while others that both 

 reipiire to be and are deserving of being looked at attentively, 

 are put more or less out of sight. Surely the architectural draw- 



ings must in the first instance be chosen by drawing lots to decide 

 which are to be admitted; after which, those who are appointed to 

 hang them are hlindfidded. In this room the hanging is so 

 wretchedly — or else, maliciously managed, that besides injustice 

 towards good things, uncalled-for cruelty is shown towards some 

 of the worst. Although it may look like unaccountable fa- 

 vouritism, it was surely nothing less than the refinement of 

 cruelty to put, with mnlice pfe/ioise, just where they are, the two 

 interiors of Ormotid Quay Cluirch (in the Pecksniff-Gothic style), 

 as if on purpose to disgust us by letting us plainly see that they 

 are the "perfect abominations" they have been called. Nor are 

 they the only things which would have been favoured by being 

 either turned away or thrust into the ranks of the Indistinguish- 

 ahles. It will be thought that we keep harjiing very wearisomely, 

 again and again, on the mere matter of bad hanging. True, we 

 do so, and it is in order that our obstinate importunity may force 

 attention to it, to some purpose. Were there no Professor of Ar- 

 chitecture, nor a single architect, we could only be surprised that 

 any body of artists with the title of a Royal Academy should 

 take in so many things not fit to be seen, so many more than can 

 be properly seen, and as the climax of absurdity, to hang up some of 

 the very worst and poorest of all in the very best situations. As 

 painters, the general body of the Academy may know no more of, 

 and care as little about architecture as their own porters. Not 

 only may they be incapable of judging between good and bad de- 

 signs, but not even so much as know what are designs, and what 

 are mere views. They may have no suspicion that the front of 

 ^Vells Cathedral (1015) was not designed by Mr. Dolby, nor that 

 of York Minster (1109) by Mr. Bedford; but then, why do they 

 not leave architecture to the architects.'' To suppose that the 

 latter are now even so much as consulted, would be to suppose that 

 they are what we do not care to say; but it is certain that they 

 show themselves to be very remiss in not properly remonstrating 

 in behalf of their own art. — May there never be occasion for our 

 making any such unpleasant remarks again! 



There ai-e very few designs this season which show us any build- 

 ings either lately executed or now in progress, that are in any 

 other style than Gothic or Elizabethan. The only subject which 

 shows us an edifice of any importance in a different style is No. 

 1090, "The South Facade of the New Assize Courts, Liverpool," 

 W. H. Campbell; in which rather large drawing Mr. C's own 

 share is merely that of draughtsman, and even in such character he 

 is by no means an extraordinary one. What is extraordinary, how- 

 ever, is that any one should be at the pains of merely letting us 

 see another person's ideas, if he could not at the same time show 

 some talent himself. Had the design been his own, we might have 

 praised his abstinence from any of the usual allurements employed 

 upon paper, and his trusting entirely to its intrinsic merits as an 

 architectural composition. As such is not the case, the absence of 

 all aim at pictorial quality and effect is rather unaccountable, it 

 being so contrary to c.rh'ibitiini practice; for while many things 

 wliich we here see have an adventitious interest imparted to them 

 by dexterity of colouring, and by background and figures, which 

 does not at all beUuig to them as designs, Mr. Campbell has not 

 rendered Mr. Elmes's building by any means his debtor by his 

 mode of showing it. Not only is the colouring flat, but light and 

 shiide are so feebly expressed — in fact, merely indicated instead of 

 expressed, that the drawing looks more like a vision than the 

 view of a real building. Besides which, the perspective is some- 

 what faulty, and the point of view injudiciously chosen; for had it 

 been taken a little more obliquely, while the south portico itself 

 would have been in a more pictures(iue attitude, we should have 

 distinctly seen the square pillars and low screen walls between 

 them in the other faf ade, which are by far the most original ideas 

 in the design, and which would have contrasted admirably with 

 the round columns and open intercolumns of the south portico; 

 which latter, although certainly a noble and classical piece of ar- 

 chitecture, gives us little more than a correct copy or restoration 

 of the front of a Corinthian temple. The only touch of originality 

 there, is the lofty stylobate on which the portico is raised, and the 

 steps leading up to it, both which together, add the picturesque to 

 the classical, — or would have done so, but for the three windows 

 in the stylobate, which mar the whole facade so shockingly that it 

 ought even now to be seriously considered whether they cannot by 

 some contrivance or other be got rid of; and got rid of they 

 certainly ought to be, were it even by some sacrifice of internal 

 convenience. — Here we will take the liberty of adjourning till our 

 next Number. 



