1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



34^ 



The parapet inside will be formed by a lining of corrugated iron ; 

 corrugated iron panels will also be formed between each pair of 

 standards, and the intermediate openings will be closed at will by 

 rolling corrugated iron shutters sliding behind the panels when open, 

 rails being provided on the top of the entablature cornice for the 

 rollers to run upon and guide rails attached to the underside of the 

 gutters. The gutters are formed in two pieces, the water table being 

 in one casting, and the moulded cornice attached to it by internal 

 brackets bolted to each, the wrought-iron principals of the roof are 

 secured to the water table of the gutter and trussed with wrought-iron, 

 the whole is to be covered with li in. boarding grooved and tongued, 

 and Welsh slaling over all. The panels of the lighthouse and of the 

 lodge turrets are formed of corrugated iron, the lodge roofs and tur- 

 rets are covered with lead, surmounted with copper balls, vanes and 

 spires. The whole length of the pier is 250 ft., breadth 30 ft., T head 

 90 ft. by Soft., projection into the river beyond high water mark is 

 200 ft. 



From the lighthouse, which has been approved of by the Trinity 

 Board, will be exhibited a powerful ;)te!>j light for the benefit of ship- 

 ping, probably a Bude light ; and copper octagonal gas lamps will be 

 suspended from the apex of the roof to light the pier. The whole of 

 the ironwork will be painted stone colour with anti-corrosive paint. 



From its locality, and the admirable approach to it from Harnier 

 Street, this pier will no doubt prove an attraction to this quarter of 

 the town, and form a conspicuous and handsome object from the river, 

 and when it is stated that between 300,000 and 400,000 per- 

 sons were landed and embarked at the two piers at Gravesend 

 during the month of June, nearly as large a number in August, and 

 almost 400,000 in July, of which enormous numbers there was a balance 

 in favour of the present temporary erection at the west end of the 

 Terrace Gardens, and which is only 10 feet in width, and from wear 

 and tear becoming rather disabled, the necessity for such a work will 

 be obvious. 



All steam boats plying from the Blackwall Railway embark and dis- 

 embark their passengers at the Terrace Pier, and the traffic will no 

 doubt be increased upon the completion of the line of railway now 

 nearly finished along the banks of the Medway Canal, connecting 

 Gravesend with Rochester and Chatham, the Gravesend terminus of 

 which is near the nevir pier. This would be more certainly effected if 

 a connecting link were formed, close up to the pier, as was some time 

 since proposed, and which is absolutely necessary if the steam boat 

 companies wish to compete, with any chance of success, with the rail- 

 way traffic which will one day ensue. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS LVIII. 



'■ I must have liberty 

 Witbal, as large a charier as the winds, 

 To blow on whom 1 please." 

 I. One very great objection against the uniting into a single design 

 a number of shops or dwellings, intended to be occupied by different 

 tenants, is that in the course of a few years it is apt to present a very 

 motley and piebald appearance — to look as if cut up into so many 

 slices, some of them spruced up and refreshened, others exhibiting 

 every shade of dinginess and dirt. This ought to be guarded against 

 by specific clauses in the leases ; or, instead of being left to individual 

 discretion and control, the white-washing and repainting the whole of 

 such fronts should be the concern of the owner or landlord — be per- 

 formed by him triennially, or according to some other stated term of 

 years, and defrayed by a rate levied annually upon the occupiers, just 

 as there is a general rate upon the inhabitants of a square for keeping 

 up the garden in the centre of it. In this last mentioned respect 

 matters are managed more comformably with common sense. Were 

 they left to the option of individuals some pig-headed gentleman — 

 for we have now no pig-tailed ones — might say, " I care nothing for 

 the garden— you are welcome to let that part of it facing iny windows 

 run wild, or even cut down the shrubs. Let those who take pleasure 

 in such things pay for them." Or perhaps people might insist upon 

 the right to erect, in that part of the enclosure corresponding with the 

 frontage of their own house, whatever tasty object they might fancy, 

 so that in course of time the whole circumference of the garden might 

 be dotted round with Chinese summer houses, Gothic alcoves, Greek 

 cippi and columns, and be rendered a sort of architectural menagerie. 

 Luckily no one has such right, and it v^ere well if no one had the right 

 of disfiguring an entire range of buildings by painting a single column 

 and the half of one on each side of it, so that "his own" front looks 

 like a miller standing in a row of chimney-sweepers. The Quadrant, 

 in Regent Street, is just now exhibiting this composite miller-and- 

 chimney»sweeper appearance: whili: some of the columns here and 



there look "as good as new," the rest are sadly the worse for wear 

 and weather — at least in the opinion of those who judge of buildings 

 by their complexion, and value them accordingly as they look "very 

 neat and nice." 



II. I wish that, instead of their complaining of the severity and il- 

 liberality of critics and amateurs, I could find architects setting an 

 example of liberality by exercising it tov?ards each other. Very 

 seldom indeed do they bestow their praise heartily on any of the works 

 of their living contemporaries; hardly ever, indeed, is it bestowed at 

 all, except actually extorted from them, and then generally given with 

 ungraciousness and grudingness. I do not say that they endeavour 

 actually to depreciate the merits of others in the profession — they do 

 not go quite so far as that, because it might be not exactly "safe" and 

 "becoming," consequontly would be indiscreet; but they generally 

 take most especial care never to point out, or in any way call atten- 

 tion to, talent deserving to be encouraged and recommended to the 

 public — which is of course not being illiberal but only ungenerous. 

 Undoubtedly there are a good many in the profession who have reason 

 to dislike criticism, being pretty certain that should it notice them 

 and their works at all it would hardly be in favour of them ; yet 

 wherefore others should be nearly equally jealous of it is not quite so 

 apparent. I have remarked that during the last ten years — in which 

 interval architectural topics have found their way into periodical 

 literature much more extensively than at any former period — several, 

 whose names were hardly known at all to the public at the time, have 

 been brought forward into notice, by remarks on their productions. 



III. It certainly says very little either for Walpole's discrimination 

 or taste, that with such examples as Eton College and Hampton Court 

 just by, to say nothing of numerous others of ancient domestic and 

 collegiate architecture which he must have been acquainted with, he 

 should have patched up his house at Strawberry Hill with the most 

 wretched "Carpenter's Gothic" — not only sheer absurdity as to style, 

 but so thoroughly barbarous and uncouth in itself as almost to proclaim 

 his ignorance, and convince us that he did not at all understand the 

 mere elements and rudiments of the style which he set himself up as 

 a judge of. It is true he endeavoured to avert criticism by affecting 

 to speak disparagingly of his building, and as a mere playthingfor his 

 own amusement; but then the same excuse might be pleaded by any 

 one, if not in justification of his taste, of his right to indulge it how- 

 ever bad. There would be nothing at all inconsistent at least in an 

 ignorant man's saying, " I know what pleases myself! and so that I do 

 but satisfy myself that is all I seek ; I do not ask other people to ap- 

 prove of my taste, for it is quite matter of indifference to me whether 

 they do so or not ;" but for an arbiter elegantiarum in architecture to 

 hold the same argument is strange indeed. His right to do as he did 

 was most unquestionable ; but the puzzling question is how, if he 

 really possessed the taste the world gave him credit for, he came to 

 do as he did in the first instance, and could aferwards endure to look 

 upon the monster of his Frankenstein creation — "To please himself" 

 is no answer, since there lies the puzzle. " To please himself" is 

 merely acknowledging that, as it was a reflection upon, so it was the 

 reflection of Walpole's own taste, when laying aside his superfine 

 critical airs, he gave himself up to it without any ceremony. Those 

 who are good judges of taste of a difterent kind generally take care to 

 please themselves by reserving some of the choicest portions and tit- 

 bits in the dish which they are helping their friends to. Again, it is 

 but a lame excuse for both Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill, to say 

 that his means for building were limited, and would not allow him to 

 do more ; as a structure it might have been equally flimsy or more 

 so, yet might have been made to exhibit correctness of design, and 

 characteristic detail ; at any rate to manifest some kind of feeling for 

 art, and some real gusto, although in contradiction to all previous 

 examples. Dallaway talks of a person's being able " to contemplate 

 all that is fascinating in Gothic architecture at Strawberry Hill" !! 

 This really outdoes George Robins himself in cool impudence and 

 assurance. Can it be an error of the press — a blunder of the printer, 

 who converted into "fascinating" what was intended for "farcical." 

 Let us hope for the credit of criticism that such is the case. 



IV. Mrs. Jameson seems to be ambitious of being anathematized by 

 the Camdenists as an out-and-out Pagan, so enthusiastically does she 

 descant on the Xanthian Marbles — those fresh accessions of heathenism 

 and paganism to the stores of the British Museum; — which it seems 

 shuts its portals against the antiquities and arts of our own country, as 

 things of no importance and unworthy of being imported into it. Not 

 the least puzzling part of the matter is that all this zeal in behalf of 

 Paganism is, if not directly encouraged, connived at by his Grace of 

 Canterbury, who is one of the trustees of the Museum. Therefore, if 

 the Camdenists are in earnest in their holy horror of Paganism, let 

 them now fly at the Archbishop, and take him soundly to task lor 

 countenancing such enormities. Were they to do that, they might at 



29* 



