THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



desire for novlfy, was the invention of the CoriiiUii.m order by C.ilii- 

 maclius. It is, liowever, a remarkable circumstance, considering the 

 beauty of this invention, that the ancient Greelis do not appear to 

 have employed it as the principal order of any of their temples until 

 the peiiod of the Roman rule in Greece. The only perfect example 

 which we have is that of the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, in 

 which a playful fancy, as was natural in such a monument, had more scope 

 than would have been allowable in a monument of a severer character. 

 Scopas introduced it in the interior of the Temple of Minerva in 

 Tegea ; but no Corinthian edifice of a large scale remains at this time 

 of the purer epochs of Greek ait. The same may be said of the 

 Ionic. The little Temple of the Ilissus, the moderately sized triple 

 Temple of the Acropolis, the casual introduction of the luuic columns 

 in the propylea of Athens and at Eleusis, do not announce a grand ap- 

 plication, a hearty adoption of the Ionic order by the Greeks of 

 Europe, whereas it was the prevailing order in the colonies of Asia 

 Minor. 



NEW ORDER OF ARCHITECTURE. 

 Sir, — To suggest a New Order of Architecture has long been a 

 desideratum, particularly with those who seek after novelty. It is 

 possible, but not probable, that an invention shall be realised which 

 can compete with any of the three bcantiful orders which we have 

 already ; perhaps, however, the accompanying sketch may be received 

 as a variety not unsuitable on some occasions. It is not presented as 

 altogether new, for the hint of the lotus-leaved capital is taken from 

 the ornamental base of a column from the ruins of Persepolis, and it 

 may also, in some measure, be considered as an attempt to Grecianise 

 one of the Egyptian capitals. 



The example will admit of the abacus and zocco being made either 

 circular or square — thus differing in respect to the former from the 

 Corinthian and the Ionic, and perhaps also the Doric order. With 

 regard to massiveness, it is intended to occupy a place betvfeeu the 

 light Corinthian and Ionic and the more ponderous Doric ; in short, as 

 a substitute for the degenerated and emasculated Doric of Messrs. 

 Vitruvius, Palladio and Company. 



As it has been held that "the art is taught by Vitruvius and adorned 

 by Palladio," we may trace to the reception of this doctrine all the 

 enormities and bad taste exhibited in the productions of those who 

 follow the anilities of these great masters. Both of them indeed pro- 

 fessed to follow the principles which guided those who brougt the 



art to perfection; but the one appears to hate attempted to describe 

 what he never saw — and the other to have profitted nothing by what 

 he did see: rejecting all that was good in the imperfect examples 

 which were presented to him, he retained in his own productions all 

 the faults by which those examples were distinguished from their 

 types, adding not a few of his own beside. Blind leaders of the blind 

 then, can it be wondered that they should lead those who blindly sub- 

 mit to be guided by them — into the ditch ? or that architecture can 

 never flourish until we shall throw off their trammels? 



Two examples are given of the New Order, perhaps the one with 

 the single torr.s might suit a column on a gradated pedestal (as in the 

 Doric) and without any other base : and the double torus might have 

 one with the base of the voluted orders; but in either case the shaft 

 must be fluted, nor is this necessity to be regretted, for unfluted columns 

 are under any circumstances in ornamental architecture to be con- 

 demned as deficient in that alone which gives them beauty — the varia- 

 tion of light and shade. 



With respect to architrave, frieze and cornice, nothing new seems 

 to be required ; any of the many Greek, or some of the early Roman 

 examples may be taken, giving the preference to those used with the 

 voluted capitals ; but if triglyphs be exhibited on the frieze, I must be 

 allowed to protest against the introduction of more than two metopes 

 between centre and centre ; a departure from which rule has rendered 

 modern Doric a vile parody which ought to be scouted at and rejected 

 by every person of good taste. With the Greeks (as I have often be- 

 fore remarked) triglyphs were the index of proportion with us, (too 

 often) a mark of the want of it, and of the bad taste of the projector, 

 who not being satisfied with making his intercolumniations too wide, 

 must needlessly indicate that he has done so. There are two things 

 necessary to be attended to in a Doric composition — great size and 

 due proportion, without the latter it may be a mass of deformity, and 

 without the former mean and insignificant, but in neither case can it 

 gratify the eye, or excite the admiration which results from an in- 

 spection of the ancient examples. Modern architects feeling this, 

 have recourse to the pseudo Doric of Palladio, in cases where the 

 Doric is too heavy, and the voluted orders are too light for their pur- 

 pose — for such cases it is hoped that the examples now given may be 

 found to answer better. 



This new order might be called Victorine, in compliment to Her 

 Majesty. As I am not a practical architect, I shall leave the sugges- 

 tion in the hands of the profession, in the hope that it may be im- 

 proved and completed, and thus rendered more worthy of the name I 

 wish it should bear. 



Henry Fultox. 



Clonmore, February, 1815. 



ROYAL EXCHANGE— WINDOWS OF THE MERCHANTS' 

 AREA. 

 C Witli an Engraving, Plate F.) 

 It is with no small satisfaction that, fulfilling a conditional promise 

 on our part, we now give the design of the windows (they being all 

 alike), in the upper order within the open cortile, or Merchants' Area, 

 of the Exchange, for they are not only of very unusual character, but 

 afford verymuchroom for study. The other windows' were notshown 

 to so much advantage as theydeservedtobe, because in order to exhibit 

 several of them on the same plate, no more of them was drawn out 

 than sufficed to explain the respective designs. In the present en- 

 graving, on the contrary, not only is the whole of the window-dressing 

 but the entire composition, including the order itself, is fully exhibited, 

 the drawing comprising one intercolumn of the upper part of the 

 elevation. What has here been done is so far from being arbitrary 

 that it is strongly motived : the problem was to assimilate the general 

 composition of the upper order with that of the lower one, conse- 

 quently the open arcades in the latter dictated something analogous 

 for the other, that is to fill up the infercolumns with arches, for had 

 not that been done they would have looked blank and heavy also. 

 Had larger and loftier openings for the windows been required, they 

 would, almost as a matter of course, have been treated as a scries of 

 arched Venetian ones, set within the arcades, which — notwithstanding 

 Mr. Gwilt's furious protest against a number of such windows in the 

 same design — would have had a pleasing effect, as may be seen in the 

 south-west cortile of the Bank of England, by Sir R. Taylor. Here, 

 however, windows of only 4 feet '2 inches in breindth by 9 feet 4 inches 



1 As the figures of reference in the former plate were Dot eiplaiued at the time, we 

 take tllis opportunity of supplying that omission. Fig. I sliovvs one of tile three central 

 windows 0' .he south front; figs. 2 and 3 one of the tliree ditto of north front; and fig. 4 

 out of the tcu side wiadons of the south front. 



