1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL 



139 



apparent as at Old Basing Church (Fig. 3), in Hampshire, in others 

 their usefulness as ties can hardly be questioned, as at Crosby Hall. 

 I mention this ambiguity, because the original application of oblique 

 or inclined ties has been attributed to Mr. Revett, an architect 

 of the last century, and known to the republic of letters as tlie editor 

 of the third volume of Stuart's " Athens." On the one hand it must 

 be confessed that in the older roofs we can hardly be said to meet 

 with timbers in a state of tension. On the other, if we reflect how 

 decidedly the attention of artists was in Mr. Revett's time averted 

 from our natural relics, we shall cease to be surprised if their just pro- 

 tension met with neglect, and, in some cases, misappropriation. 



OBSERVATIONS ON ARCHITECTS AND ARCHITECTURE. 



By Henry Fulton, M.D. 



No. 8. 



The Farnese or Italian astylar seems likely to gain the ascendant 

 in this country, and, perhaps, all things considered, it is well that it 

 should do so. In tlie mind of every man of taste the Greek style is 

 inseparably connected with a state of purity which rejects all adul- 

 teration, and (whether fortunately or not for the development of our 

 own powers) our climate iind customs require so many changes from 

 the original, that in the adaptation of the style, it too often loses all 

 its value, and becomes flnt, stale, and unprofitable. Exceptions there 

 are to this in favour of a few temples and isolated buildings, where 

 the style may still be exhibited to advantage; and unpardonable 

 indeed is the architect who does not seize on such opportunities when 

 within liis reach; as these must be relied on to maintain and hand 

 down to posterity the true principles of the art. 



But although the use of the Greek style, as defined by its orgina- 

 tors, must, for the reasons stated, be in a great measure abandoned, 

 yet unless the love of it and a full and entire perception of its beau- 

 ties pervade the whole soid of the architect, it would be better for us 

 mortals that liis proper calling was to build pigeon boxes or hen coops 

 rather than National Galleries, Museums, Royal Exchange interiors, 

 and club houses. If, in the chances of life, Canova had been cast 

 away on some barbarous island in the Pacific, would he not, if obliged 

 to cut jade into idols, have carried out, even with such materials and 

 for such purposes, those principles of his art which he had acquired 

 by studying the works of Fhidins? If our masters — aye, our masters, 

 for we must agree with Sir Joshua, who says, "From the remains of 

 the works of the ancients the modern arts were revived, and it is by 

 their means that they must be restored a second time. However it 

 may mortify our vanity, we must be forced to allow them our masters ; 

 and we may venture to prophecy that when they shall cease to be 

 studied, arts will no longer flourish, and we shall again relapse into 

 barbarism," if the architects of the time of Pericles were now per- 

 mitted to appear amongst us, would they not carry into the designs 

 for our modern buildings the same principles which guided them in 

 designing those structures which ought to be the admiration of the 

 vrorld ? 



Now it is precisely the lack of this feeling and perception, and not 

 the ditFerence of climate and wants which causes the failure of some 

 modern architects. Take the ancient models to pieces, select, ap- 

 propriate and combine ac/ /;6rtHm, but remember the principles, and 

 do not deviate one iota from them. Invent, if you please, and treat 

 your own inventions as you please, but do not take the same liberty 

 with the inventions of others. Do not take a Greek cornice for the 

 purpose of breaking it up into trifling parts, without reflecting that 

 the Greeks themselves obtained grandeur and simplicity by its integ- 

 rity, and that the same results may not follow a contrary practice. 

 As Sir Joshua Reynolds aptly says, "however contradictory it may be 

 in geometry, it is true in taste, that many little things will not make a 

 great one;" if this be true in painting, much more is it applicable to 

 architectural outline. Do not slick a Greek portico up against a 

 building, because it will then have the appearance of not being part 

 of the original design, but rather an after-thought, which may be 

 easily removed elsewhere, and all the compositions of the Greeks had 

 a monographical character, which gave their most elaborately finished 

 works all the charms of simplicity. If a portico be required on the 

 side of a building, or in any case where it cannot be made to extend 

 the entire front, why not recess it in antis, and thus preserve integ- 

 rity of outline? In truth we have both bill stickers and portico 

 stickers all engaged in the laudable occupation of disfiguring our 

 public and private edifices. 



Do not let your pediments have the appearance of having been 



sliced off from some smaller edifice; that is, let the entire extent of 

 the front be crowned with a pediment, or if that may not be, let there 

 be none at all, for if you place more than one in the same line, as in 

 the river front of Somerset House, for instance, then the composition 

 must have the appearance of being so many separate edifices, and not 

 as one design. 



Windows we must have, although, as far as the Greek style is con- 

 cerned, they are evils, still they are necessary evils, vet it is by no 

 means necessary to make the evil greater and more apparent by means 

 of incongruous ornament, if indeed we may use the word ornament 

 to express any thing when it ceases to be ornamental. Why then do 

 we find two little columns surmounted by a little pediment, which 

 only iippears to be made part of the building by an awkward process 

 of grafting? Little columns and little pediments are little things and 

 little in the acceptation of the term, when it implies mean or insigni- 

 ficant ; they must have magnitude or they cannot have importance. 

 The proportion generally given for windows is that the height shall 

 be twice the width : in the Traveller's Club the columns of the win- 

 dows are 10 ft. 3 in., and the interspace between the columns 5 ft.; 

 taking the columns to be ten diameters high, this would give us no 

 less than six diameters from centre to centre ; in fact, with a little 

 stretch of imagination, these windows look like the porticos of model 

 temples let into holes in the wall, the centre columns being removed 

 for the purpose of showing the muntons of the sash 'ights. In con- 

 sidering the subject of intercolumniation, I had recourse to my old 

 friend PalUidio, not for the purpose of seeing what he did, for I ex- 

 pected no ally in that quarter, but to see what he said, which may 

 have some weight with those who take his works as their standard. 

 He says, "The intercolumniation may be of one diameter and a half, 

 or of two, of two and a quarter, of three, and sometimes more, but 

 the ancients never exceeded three except in the Tuscan order. Great 

 care must be taken to keep a due proportion, because if small columns 

 are made with large intercolumniutions, it will very much diminish 

 the beauty of the former." It is moreover the invariable practice 

 to diminish columns even when engaged, which in the case of win- 

 dows must leave the opening wider above than at the bottom. 



The apex of a pediment should be the crowning stone of the com- 

 position, the highest point in the picture ; how is this character pre- 

 served in windows which have wall and cornice, and, it may be, other 

 windows and pediments above them? 



But perhaps it may be asked, "do you require merely a plain 

 opening in the wall ?" for mv part, I can contemplate a plain cleanly 

 finished, unornamented window, without feeling the same horror which 

 arises from one of the ornate description first alluded to, or the 

 shouldered and balustraded ones which are presented to us in great 

 variety; but there is no necessity for leaving these openings destitute 

 of all ornament, for moulded architraves may in almost every case be 

 supplied with advantage. The Roman arch gives a good form of 

 window, particularly for the ground floor; but it must be quite plain, 

 without even a dropping keystone, which, indeed, looks like the con- 

 sequence of a mistake on the part of the workmen, who may have 

 accidentally placed the piers or jams too far asunder, and hence the 

 dropping of the keystone. Mathematicians consider the circle as the. 

 most beautiful of all figures ; the dropping keystone destroys its arc. 



The Egyptians, by covering their walls with hieroglyphics, sought 

 to convey and perpetuate information and instruction to the people, 

 and their labours have survived the knowledge of the characters in 

 which they were written. Some architects now-a-days cover their 

 edifices not with graven precepts, but with scored lines, which have 

 neither wit nor worth, excellence nor meaning. The New Zealander 

 thus tatooes his face as the American Indian puts on his paint, that he 

 may bear the distinguishing marks of his tribe; but it will scarcely be 

 urged that tatooing is of the same use in distinguishing one class of 

 buildings from another. Mr. Leeds, in his criticism on the Traveller's 

 Club, says, "Rusticating of ditferent kinds contributes in no small 

 degree to variety and character in this style. Contrary to the idea 

 the term itself at first suggests, so far from producing rudeness, 

 coarseness or negligence, it is not incompatible either with richness or 

 delicacy of finish." For my part, I can distinguish no ditt'erence, 

 unless it be that in some examples there is more paring and frittering 

 away than in others. " There is no beauty in straight lines," such as 

 these which break up the surface without giving any breadth of sha- 

 dow. A few lines are easily drawn on paper, but much labour is 

 given to workmen, and consequently not a little expense entailed on 

 those who are to pay; and for what? to make open joints for the re- 

 ception of dust and moisture, without having a redeeming feature. 



Columns are the most ornamental part of classical architecture, and 

 yet they are quite unfitted for ornament, nor has the attempt to ap- 

 (iropriate them for that purpose ever succeeded ; the explanation of 

 this seeming paradox is that their beauty principally arises from tlie 



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