844 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



181 



OBSERVATIONS ON ARCHITECTS AND ARCHITECTURE. 



By Henry Fulton, M.D. 



No. 9. 



In Observations No. 3, Vol. VI., page 403, I luid the honour to call 

 attention to the circumstance of the British Institute of Architects 

 being engaged in forming a collection of the different editions of the 

 works of Vilruviusj and to express ii hope that as soon as the col- 

 lection was complete, it might, with the addition of Palladio and Sir 

 William Chambers' works, be committed to the flames. We could 

 mention other works published since " the end of the reign of 

 George III.," did we not fear that by so doing we might, as Mr. Gwilt 

 says, " come into contact with our contemporaries and their con- 

 nexions, and that our office if not dangerous and fearful, might be un- 

 pleasant." The Institute and our readers generally can be at no loss 

 in making a numerically respectable list of culprits for this literary 

 auto da fe. As to the propriety of the measure there can be no 

 doubt. Has not Professor Hosking unanswered, stated that geography 

 and history might be as well learned from Gulliver and the Seven 

 Champions of Christendom, as architecture from Vitruvius I But in 

 order to satisfy the most sceptical, we beg now seriously to propose 

 that a subscription be made for the purpose of giving a medal for the 

 best essay on the subject, and if the Institute will have the kindness 

 to receive the subscriptions and act as judges, we shall gladly con- 

 tribute our mite. Institutions as well as individuals often involve 

 themselves in dilemmas, and if the Institute should take in Vitruvius, 

 they must turn out Professor Hosking himself, which, " if not dan- 

 gerous and fearful, might be unpleasant," as there are those who 

 esteem Mr. Hosking's works, and yet are so purblind, as not to be able 

 to recognise any merit in those of Vitruvius or his admirers; besides, 

 the Professor has already engaged the services of Captain Gulliver 

 and the Seven Champions, who no doubt will prove themselves to be 

 valuable auxiliaries in the event of hostilities. 



Of course especial care must be had not to include in the index 

 exptirgalorius, those orthodox works which attempt to write down 

 " mere amateurs" and " literary idlers," if it must be, let them have 

 a milder sentence, on their covers let " flames be represented points 

 downwards" and the rather as it is desirable not to add too much fuel 

 to the flame, let them then be consigned to the trunk makers according 

 to the suggestion of Horace, not Horace Walpole, bu: the other one, 

 (Quintus H. Flaccus:) Walpole's pauegyricks on Lord Burlington's 

 architecture have already performed the grand tour in trunks. If 

 authors themselves do not find it convenient to go on their travels, by 

 these means they can send their works as proxies. There is one 

 author, however, to whom 1 would beg to recommend a trip to Germany, 

 either in person or by proxy, if only to see the edifices erected by 

 Schinkel and Klenze, some mention of which he may find in the article 

 at page 445 of the 6th vol. of this Journal. But if the Institute be 

 averse to discarding their collection of the works of Vitruvius, fortu- 

 nately they have still an alternative, namely, to collect the travels of 

 Gulliver and the exploits of the Champions, for the purpose of 

 brushing up their knowledge of geography and history. 



II. Mr. Frederick East, at page 354 of the third volume of this 

 Journal, on the authority of Strabo states that, the earliest record of 

 the existence of the arch relates to those supposed to have supported 

 the hanging gardens at Babylon, which were constructed about twelve 

 hundred years before our era. Mr. East is followed by another 

 writer in the fifth volume, page 251, under the signature of O. T., 

 who takes the same view. I have not found any writer who seems 

 to be aware of the discoveries of Mr. Hoskins in Ethiopia and 

 Egypt, which throw much light on this long disputed question. At 

 Meroe, the ancient capital of Ethiopia, and 

 the ruins of which he fairly supposes to be 

 of much greater antiquity than any of those 

 existing in Egypt, he found in one of the 

 pyramidal tombs, the stone arch, of which 

 we give a diagram, it is taken from the vault 

 or porch of the entrance, and this vault con- 

 sists of alternate courses of four and five 

 blocks; of course, where, as in the annexed 

 cut, there is only four, there is no keystone : 

 the arch at the spring measures five feet, 

 and the joints are truly given. 



No. 81.— Vol. VII.— May, 1844. 



The next are a circular 

 and a pointed arch, from 

 the interior of pyramids 

 at Gebel el Birkel ; the 

 date of which Mr. Hos- 

 kins does not suggest, al- 

 though he considers them 

 of great antiquity; they 

 are situate near the fourth 

 cataract. The pointed 

 arch consists of six stones slightly hollowed out to the shape of the 

 arch, and are supported by lateral pressure ; they are not joined by 

 cement, but above the roof are a quantity of small stones, which are 

 kept together by a soft cement. The scale of both these is an inch 

 and a quarter to twenty feet. 



We give, in the annexed cut from the same author, a viev»r of the 



brick arch from the tomb of Amunolph I. at Thebes, who reigned 

 1550 years before our era. There is a vacant space between this 

 elliptical arch and the rock, as may be seen in the cut. The span is 

 eight feet six inches; its height is four feet eight inches. 



As the Ethiopians taught architecture to the Egyptians, who in- 

 structed the Greeks, from whom the Romans derived their knowledge 

 of the art, by the discoveries of Mr. Hoskins, the question of the claims 

 of the Greeks and Romans is in a great measure set at rest. It re- 

 mained in abeyance almost with the Egyptians, and with the Greeks 

 also, except as a mere shadow in the corbelled roof of the tomb of 

 Agamemnon at Mycenae; still the Romans may be entitled to be called 

 inventors just as Europeans were the inventors of gunpowder, 

 printing, and the mariner's compass, although all these were previ- 

 ously long known to the Chinese. 



In the second series of Sir William Gell's Pompeiana, Vol. IT., 

 Plate LXV., House of the Dioscuri, a doorway is given in the back- 

 ground, which has a close resemblance to the lancet arch. I do not 

 recollect anything of the kind at Pompeii: perhaps some person 

 whose eye this may meet can throw s»me light on it, or may have 

 the means of making enquiry on the subject. 



A very general feeling exists against the introduction of arches and 

 columns in the same composition; certainly, as far as the columnar 

 arcades of the Palladian School go, nothing can be worse : but this 

 arises more from the wide, straggUiig, and unequal intercolumniations 

 than any thing else, and also from the practice of imposing arches 

 instead of architraves, and also placing them on other and lesser 

 columns; when these anomalies can be avoided the objection would 

 loose most if not all its force. Arches behind insulated columns 

 would have a better effect than either pilasters or square headed 

 windows. 



I agree with Mr. R. C. Long, of Baltimore, Maryland, (see fifth 

 volume. Journal, page 370,) in his very judicious remarks relative to 

 the capabilities of the Roman arch, which he considers has not yet 

 beeu fully developed as a beautiful feature in architectural composi- 

 tion. What in the architectural world can exceed in sublimity and 

 grandeur the long unbroken line of arches in the Roman wilderness? 

 But there must be no higgling, sniggling, paring, frosting, tinkering, 

 and the rest of the little tngs and things with which our modern arches 

 are ornamented, I verily believe that the man who spoils an arch with 



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