1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



97 



OBSERVATIONS ON ARCHITECTS AND ARCHITECTURE. 



By Henry Fulton, M.D. 



No. 7. 



Antrim House, Dublin. 



Madame Catalan!, according to report, had ceased to exist; this, 

 however, has happily turned out to be erroneous. The Royal Insti- 

 tute of the Architects of Ireland, was also reported to have expired : 

 this is also happily unfounded ; for although lately showing but little 

 sign of life, they have roused from a state of lethargy and have had 

 a meeting. AH we know of this meeting is, that "a very interesting 

 paper was read from the respected Vice-President:"— how we wish 

 we could get a peep at it. But although when the queen of song 

 shall be removed from us, she will leave us no memorial of her skill, 

 save the perishable recollection of her powers of melody ; not so the 

 Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, who have favoured us 

 with the more lasting memorial of their skill and taste in compo, of 

 which we endeavour to give an outline at the head of this article, and 

 if the reader do not admire it as much as we think he should, let the 

 fault rest with the sketch rather than the original. 



To do the Institute justice, and if in political matters justice be 

 not done to Ireland, there shall be no portion of it withheld on the 

 pre?ent occasion: in justice then, we must say, that one of the best 

 situations which the City of Dublin affords has been selected; an old 

 friend was to have a new face. Antrim House is situated at the angle 

 of the best and most fashionable if not the largest square in Dubim; 

 a noble street opens on the other side of the square, forming a vista, 

 at the end of which the edifice is situated, occupying the field of 

 vision; it was an old fashioned brick building, without any pretension 

 to architectural display, having seven windows on the first floor, and 

 presenting a frontage of 72 feet. 



On its coming into possession of the late noble President of the 

 Institute shortly after his election, it was no doubt thought a good op- 

 portunity to show his taste, and that of the Institute, and to rescue 

 the latter from the imputation that it had done little or nothing as a 

 body to further the art. Some persons go so far as to say that the 

 Institute had nothing to do with the in-compo-rahle alterations, and 

 that the design was given by a mere builder, but I think it must in all 

 fairness be presumed that the council of the Institute were consulted. 

 I do not assert positively that such was the case, but it is reasonable 

 to suppose it, for the noble President was what Mr. Gvvilt would call 

 a " mere amateur," and h»\v could he know anything about it, unless 

 indeed his taste was "formed, guided and directed," by Mr. Gwill's 

 Encyclopaedia. No, we must suppose that he left all to the Institute, 

 except the payment of the bills. And on the occasion of his lordship 

 being installed as President, the Institute called his attention to the 

 discreditable fact of "grossly ignorant pretenders being confounded 

 with the instructed professors of the art," and in reply his Lordship 



No. 79.— Vol. VII.— March, 1844. 



expressed "his desire to promote the interests and objects of the In- 

 stitute, by affording them his countenance and support." The Insti- 

 tute also informed his Lordship, that " it would ill become a body 

 whose profession has a peculiar connexion with the principles of good 

 taste to address the language of adulation to a nobleman whom they 

 deemed fitted, from his nice perception of those principles, to be their 

 patron and their guide." And again, "your good taste and your in- 

 formation are too well known and too generally admitted to allow 

 your judgment to be disregarded. Those who have hitherto looked 

 with coldness on our professional claims, will not willingly bear the 

 discredit of appearing indifferent to a society which your Lordshi]) 

 sanctions and adorns, by your connexion with it." By the way, that 

 is laying the compo on his Lordship in good style; but, at all events, 

 it proves my position, that it is impossible the design could be that 

 of a mere builder or "grossly ignorant pretender." Some might think 

 that his Lordship himself had designed the demi-facade, for such it 

 is ; but this cannot be, for I have understood that after it was finished 

 he did not approve of it, and men seldom disapprove of their own 

 works, or at least confess it if they do. 



Having thus disposed of the preliminaries, we proceed to speak of 

 the demi-facade itself, and although it is undoubtedly a pleasing task 

 to speak of an edifice where everything is to be admired, still we feel 

 overwhelmed with the responsiiiility and the fear that it may be be- 

 yond our ability to do justice to its merits. 



The first thing we have to admire is the head of this front, in 

 common parlance we shall call it a cornice, although not certain that 

 it is exactly one. It is certainly not a bold cornice, no, that would 

 have been unsuitable in Ireland, for there the word " bold " is synony- 

 mous with naughty, hence they say in that country " a bold boy," 

 meaning a naughty one; this is not, therefore, a naughty cornice, and 

 ;is it is a remarkable one, it must consequently have more than a ne- 

 gative quality, and be a remarkably good one ; that it is so, may be 

 proved, for it does not excite the least alarm in the mind of the most 

 timid as to its stability, or the power of the walls to support it, and 

 any old gentlewoman, either in pantaloons or petticoats, may pass 

 under it without apprehension; besides, it has the advantage of 

 casting no shadow, and surely it would have been bad taste to throw 

 any part of the demi-fa9ade into the shade : moreover, it would have 

 been unfair to have taken an undue advantage of a good situation to 

 have placed a bold cornice where it could only be seen to advantage: 

 no, no, equal justice forbids us to think such an expedient would have 

 been proper; let those who admire bold cornices reserve them for bad 

 situations and not throw them away on good ones. 



" To throw perfume on the violet 

 Is wasteful and ridiculous excess." 



The Greeks to be sure sought to obtain broad shadows and the play 

 of light and shade in their compositions; but they were quite wrong, 

 for the more enlightened Chinese consider shade in a picture as a de- 

 cided blemish, let us, therefore, hear no more senseless twaddle about 

 chiaro oscuro, for the noble President of the Institute was at the same 

 time President of the Board of Control, and in that capacity well ac- 

 quainted with the state of taste in the East, and it may be taken for 

 granted that the President's taste was more Chinese than the ex- 

 ploded " guslo Greco," so ably opposed by Sir William Chambers. 

 Indeed, according to that highly esteemed architect, the Greeks knew 

 little or nothing of the art, for we find him saying—" In the con- 

 structive part of architecture, the ancients do not seem to have been 

 great proficients; I am inclined to believe that many of the deformi- 

 ties observable in the Grecian buildings must be ascribed to their de- 

 ficiency in that particular." To be sure he never saw a Greek edifice; 

 but what of that, for if they presented nothing worthy of observation, 

 what would have been gained by seeing them ? He had, however, a 

 perfect conception of the deficiencies of the Parthenon, and was the 

 first almost to suggest that it would have been improved by the suit- 

 able addition of a steeple! 



We hear a great deal now-a-days of the advantage of obtaining a 

 play of light and shade by means of detached columns and bold cor- 

 nices; but I would ask what right have columns and cornices to play 

 with light and shade, let them mind their own business, and be pre- 

 vented from playing idle pranks like bold boys. 



Observe, again, in this edifice, the happy expedient with regard to 

 pediments: the Greeks and Romans placed them on the gable ends 

 of their edifices; but if so placed in the present instance, they would 

 have been hid by the adjoining houses, and we might as well have had 

 none at all; but by placing them above the windows, we are left 

 nothing to regret. Small minds, indeed, might object that they were 

 necessarily diminutive in such situ itions, but magnitude is relative, 

 and if any of the inhabitants of Lilliput will favour us with a visit 

 they must deem these pediments to be as large as those forming the 



