26 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Jan. 20, 



THE JOINT RAILWAY TERMINUS, LONDON BRIDGE. 



Sir — Observing a paragraph in page 454 of the Journal for January, 

 professing to correct the statement in the Journal for December last, de- 

 scribing tlie works of the new joint railway station at London Bridge, the 

 object of which appears to be to produce the impression that the design for 

 the fa9ade building did not emanate from the writer, I rely on your high 

 sense of justice and impartiality for the insertion of the following particulars, 

 which will explain the circumstances under which the design was produced, 

 and remove any misconception wuich might arise from the ambiguous word- 

 ing of the paragraph I allude to. 



Soon after the commencement of the proceedings, Mr. Roberts became 

 seriously indisposed, and was laid up for several weeks, just at a time when 

 it was extremely important that the plan and elevation of the fa9ade build- 

 ing should be definitely settled, in order that the substructure works then 

 executing by the Greenwich company should not be delayed, and should be 

 adapted to receive that portion of the superstructure of the facade building, 

 hereafter to be raised upon it ; and on this account it was, as well as on ac- 

 count of the deficiency of accommodation in Mr. Robert's original plan, 

 that I was directed in the preparation of an entirely new plan, laid out on 

 the principle of providing distinct waiting rooms for first and second class 

 passengers, which of course involved the necessity for a new elevation for 

 the fafade, which I was also directed to prepare, in composing which, how- 

 ever, 1 was left entirely free as to the choice of style and mode of treatment, 

 being confined only as to the height of the building by an agreement previ- 

 ously existing with St. Thomas's Hospital. It was considered desirable that 

 the design should also comprise the new booking offices of the Greenwich 

 Kailway company, so as to form when completed one uniform elevation, and 

 on presenting it to Mr. George Smith, ^the architect to that company,) it 

 was readily adopted by him as to its distinctive features, and subsequently 

 with the addition of the campanile, designed by me, and a slight increase in 

 the height of the principal building, (which it was afterwards discovered 

 could be obtained,) the design was finally approved by the boards of the 

 joint station committee, and of the Greenwich Railway company; and it 

 was not until some time after this that Mr. Roberts was sufficiently recovered 

 to resume his official duties. 



With respect to the details, which it is stated in page 454 "were left more 

 immediately under the direction of Mr. Roberts," it is true that by his par- 

 ticular desire the fret in the lower frieze was introduced, square balusters 

 used instead of round, the centre console under the balconies, and the vases 

 upon them left out, and rustic quoin stones added to the south angle of the 

 parcels office ; with these exceptions every detail has been executed as origi- 

 nally designed by me. Under the circumstances it was to be expected that 

 opportunities for alteration woidd be sought for ; whether these alterations 

 are also improvements may perhaps admit of question, and I have mentioned 

 them that your readers may form a correct opinion as to their extent and 

 value ; but if the original conception of an architectural design, and of its 

 details as actually executed, can confer a propriety in it, I think there can 

 be but one opinion as to whom that propriety in the present instance rightfully 

 belongs. 



I am. Sir, 



Your very obedient servant, 



13, Judd Place East, New Road, Thomas Tvrner. 



January Uth, 1844. 



SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 



Sir — On the 26th of December, it was asserted by the Times, in a review 

 of Sir David Wilkie's life, " That Edmund Burke touched up, if he did not 

 write, the best of Sir Joshua's Academy discourses." I knew the folly of 

 this exploded suspicion, and I wrote a temperate letter to the Times stating 

 the origin of the injustice, and the reasons to conclude there was no founda- 

 tion for it. The Times announced " they saw no reason for publithmy Mr. 

 Haydon's letter." Now there was every reason for doing so, because it was 

 an unjust accusation, and it was the duty of the editor to pubUsh the reasons 

 against it. Ovting entirely to the ignorance of the nation as to the degree 

 of intellect required to be a great painter at the time this calumny was first 

 started, do I principally attribute that it was so innocently believed, for what 

 was the foundation of it .' The insinuation that Reynolds was imperfectly 

 educated and could not have written so well. 



It is well known there existed about 50 or 60 years ago, a writer, under 

 the anonymous name of Antony Pasquin, who used to obtain money by 

 threatening disclosures : he got hold of two or three letters of Reynolds', 

 which he asserted Sir Joshua wrote to a lady from Minor^.a, during his 

 Toyage to Italy, and that the spelling was bad : on this discovery the suspi- 

 cion is founded, not considering that if the letters were genuine, spelling 

 badly was no evidence of not being able to think originally, for many of the 

 greatest men of the last century were very bad spellers. Sir Joshua can- 

 didly alluded to the suspicion of being helped by his friends, but he denied 

 it positively, yet acknowledging he had benefitted by their conversation, for 

 says be in his papers published by Malone, " the observations they make on 

 poetry and philosophy I applied to our art, with what success I leave you to 

 conclude." 



Reynolds' love of truth was proverbial, and if this had not been the real 

 fact lie would have scorned the affirmation. Malone says he was asked " if 

 the discourses were not found in the hand-writing of other people after Sir 

 Joshua's death;" he replies, " none whatever," and four he found warm from 

 the brain in his own hand. Malone concludes, *' I am as fully persuaded the 

 discourses were wholly composed by Sir Joshua, as I am certain at this 

 moment 1 am employing my pen in vindication of his fame." Reynolds 

 affirms he wrote his own discourses. Pasquin insinuates he did not. The 

 evidence then rests on the relative credibility of two men, and which ought 

 the world to believe? Pasquin, who was hunted from society, as a literary 

 assassin, and died from a beating he got from an exasperated man of honour, 

 or Reynolds, whose whole life was devoted to integrity and a virtuous em. 

 ployment, whose word was his bond, who died regretted by society, and 

 was followed to the grave by the most distinguished men of the day ! The 

 question must not be asked, it is an insult. " Few eminent artists have 

 written well," says the critic ; this is not justly stated — few artists have 

 written at all : but those who have, have written well, viz., Apelles and 

 Euphranor, Michael Angelo and Leonardo, Rubens and Reynolds, were all 

 eminent, and have all written well. 



To conclude, it is not too much to say, Burke could not have written the 

 discourse, the style is so pure, nor could Johnson. The style is an emblem 

 of Reynolds' own nature, modest, calm, unafl'ected, and beautiful; they were 

 the deductions of his own mind, and written by his own hand, and it was 

 not just of the Times so to assault the illustrious dead and then refuse his 

 justification. 



B, R. Hatdon. 



London, Jan. Wth, 1844. 



SASH-SUSPENDER. 



For which the Silver Isis Medal of the Society of Arts, London, was 

 presented to Mr. Jabez Osborn, and reported in their Transactions. 



Mp^ 



The ordinary mode of 

 hanging window-sashes is by 

 nailing the suspension ropes 

 to the sides of the sash, which 

 practice is very inconvenient 

 when it becomes necessary to 

 remove the sash from its 

 frame, either for the purpose 

 of repairing or cleaning it; 

 both the woodwork of the 

 sash and the line itself are 

 destroyed by the nails, if the 

 sash is frequently removed 

 for either purpose. Mr. Os- 

 born's plan entirely obviates 

 these objections. 



Fig. 1 is a section of part 

 of a sash A A and frame B B, 

 in which it slides as usual. 

 Fig. 2 is a side view of the 

 sash. 



When the sash is in use, the 

 line D C is attached to it by 

 a knot in the end of the line 

 being inserted in a hole slop- 

 ing upwards, as at E, but 

 when it is required to move 



the sash from its frame, the line D C is let info a groove in the frame, 

 and the knob placed in an aperture F (fig. 1) similar to the aperture in 

 the sash. 



THE CONCILIATION HALL, DUBLIN. 



Sir — Having read the " Observations on Architects and Architecture," by 

 Dr. Fulton, in the Journal for the present month, I beg to correct an error 

 relative to the above fabric into which he has fallen. Although I am quite 

 ready to hear testimony to the justice of the strictures be has passed on the 

 " offspring of a Martin," still 1 wonder how a person of such good taste as 

 the Doctor, could commence without nausea to operate on so illegitimate a 

 subject for dissection : or waste his time analysing a mass of incongruities 

 such as every one was prepared for who had heard of the undertaker to 

 whom the tayijig out of the body, and the construction and decoration of the 

 shell were entrusted. 



There was not any competition invited, and consequently no "committee 

 of selection " appointed to decide on the merits of a design, or the fairness 

 of an estimate, (the contractor in this case being the architect,) the Mecic- 

 nases of the Corn Exchange deeming such things unimportant, when neg. 

 lected genius was to be mcouraged, and one of the fraternity advanced; such 



