136 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[May, 



designs, the case is altogether different; but surely they have no 

 right — none at least morally — to call publicly upon ii whole profession 

 for the aid of their talents and labours, without artbrding verv strong 

 guarantee for their own sincerity, and good faith. In Public Compe- 

 titions by public advertisement, publicity ought to be preserved 

 throughout the whole business, and no seckesy as to the proceed. 



IN'GS OUGHT ON ANY ACCOUNT TO UE ALLOWED. It is not to be ex- 

 pected that Committees themselves — of however "honourable" and 

 •'respectable" persons they may be composed, will of their own ac- 

 cord yield up the conveniently arbitrary and irresponsible authority 

 they now exercise; therefore it ought not to be left to their own 

 option, their discretion, or their generosity, whether thev will fulfil or 

 evade their impliedly pledged engagements with the competitors. Un- 

 less the rank abuses and evils complained of be greativ exaggerated, 

 it is high time that they should be put a stop to, and if no other ade- 

 quate remedy can be found, they ought to be brought under the cogni- 

 zance of parliament. Government thought fit to interfere in Art- 

 Unions, let it now turn its attention to Architectural Competitions, 

 for, as at present managed, the latter are no better than lotteries — per- 

 haps not even so fair and honest, — not so much matter of mere chance 

 as of intrigue, and chicanery. So if nothing else will do, if no other 

 remedial course can be devised, let the omnipotence of an Act of Par- 

 liament be resorted to as the ultima ratio of the profession with Com- 

 petition Comraittees, 



COMPETITION. 

 ' Sir — How much more, architects will patiently endure before they 

 attempt to bring to their senses those who advertise for Competition 

 drawings, I am quite unable to guess. Could the secret history of 

 Competition be fairly exposed, it would bring to light many cases of 

 thorougli-paced rascality, and double dealing ; but even letting alone 

 all the vile and ugly matters which are carefully kept out of sight be- 

 hind the curtain, there is frequently a prodigious deal of stolidity and 

 impudence also on tlie very surface of some Competitions. Conceive 

 the sum of Five Guineas — aye, actually i^^'re Guineas! being lately 

 offered for a set of drawings and specifications, including survey of 

 ground and drainage, that noble sum — which would be hardly five 

 shillings per day for his labour to the /or/HHa/e architect, being in- 

 tended as remuneration in full for the drawings, which are to become 

 the property of the Committee, and be handed over by them to any 

 one whom they may think fit to employ on the job! Perhaps nest 

 the odd Five Shillings will be considered — remuneration. 



Such ofli;rs are truly disgraceful to those who make them ; and not 

 only that, but they tend in some degree to throw discredit upon the 

 Profession itself, as being filled with needy drudges to whom they are 

 a temptation. 



If the matter be such a trifling and paltry job that more cannot be 

 afforded, then to make a Competition of it, and advertise it accordingly 

 is truly farcical, although no joke to those who find out on inquiry 

 what stirt of a chance they have the precious opportunity of striving 

 for. If often most insultingly niggardly towards Competitors, Com- 

 mittees are full as often or oftenei- most stupidly blind to their own 

 interest, otherwise they would not act so preposterouslv as to allow 

 the absurdly limited time they generally do for preparing designs, 

 since how can they expect to obtain any thing that is the result of 

 actual study on the particular subject, — any thing better than the first 

 hurried and random ideas that occur, — if no time for study or mature 

 consideration be granted ? Consequently they in a manner defeat their 

 own purpose — at least their pretended one — for where there is such 

 excessive hurry without the slightest occasion for it, it may shrewdly 

 be suspected that the Competition is mere moonshine and make-be- 

 lieve, the real business being all the while snugly settled beforehand 

 by the two or three in the secret, and that it matters little what sort 

 of hurried things the other designs are that are sent in. 



Where no pains are taken to avoid the most suspicious appearances, 

 the most sinister suspicions are both natural and justifiable. Yet 

 Committees do not seem at all disposed to act so as to put themselves 

 quite beyond the reach of suspicion. It may be that they are satisfied 

 with the proud consciousness of their own integrity, yet it would be 

 as well to make that integrity a little more evident, for then other 



people might be satisfied also. One thing, however, seems certain 



that whether all honest men or not, whether all intelligent persons or 

 noodles. Committees are invariably luianimous in their decisions, for 

 were not such the case they would no doubt have the honesty to de- 

 clare by what sort of majority the approved design was chosen. It 

 surely makes a material diffterence whether that majority be merely 

 the miminum of one— a single vote more,— or be lialf a score. 



Even Professional Umpires are not to be trusted to too implicitly ; 

 whenever one is called in, there ought to be sume check upon him : 

 accordingly in every such instance the designs ought tu be publicly 

 exhibited before he be allowed to pronounce his decision, and when 

 he does so, that decision ought to l)e fully stated in writing, duly 

 specifying the particular merits which induced him to award it his 

 preference. He who would shrink from giving such explanation is 

 unfit for the office, however well qualified he may be in other respects ; 

 for though the evasion may look like delicacy, it is surely the re- 

 finement of impudence to say — though not in words — " I am' infallible, 

 be content therefore with my wholesome opinion, but as to my reasons 

 for it, allow me to keep them to myself." 



I remain, &c. 



Aegus. 



HOPE'S ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL 

 DESCRIPTION. 

 Sir — Those who pretend to describe buildings are apt to be ex- 

 ceedingly vague and careless in their language, as if they took 

 it for granted that what is well understood by themselves must be 

 clearly intelligible to every one else, no matter how indistinctly and 

 confusedly their account may be worded. A most glaring instance of 

 verbal obscurity — such a one as in Vitruvius would have exercised 

 the ingenuity of a host of commentators — occurs in Hope's work on 

 Architecture. And I will quote the passage both as a literary curio- 

 sity, and also in the hope that some one ot your readers will be able 

 to interpret it for me. Speaking of the Church of St. Gereon at 

 Cologne, he says: "The body presents a vast octagon shell and cu- 

 pola, the pillars'of whose internal angles are prolonged in ribs, which 

 centering at the summit meet in one point, and lead by a high and 

 wide flight of steps, rising opposite to the entrauce, to an altar and 

 oblong choir behind it." 



How the ribs " which meet in one point" can " lead to a high and 

 wide flight of steps," quite passes my comprehension,— indeed the whole 

 passage seems to me no better than arrant nonsense. If there be an 

 error of the press here it is not corrected in the list of errata — rather 

 a formidable one, by the by, and showing some most extraordinary 

 blunders— such as could hardly have been typographical. I was 

 therefore anxious to ascertain if the passage above quoted had been 

 altered in the Second Edition of the book, but no, — there it stands the 

 same, in its original obscurity. Probably the Editor could make no- 

 thing of it, and so thought it as well to let it go without attempting to 

 make sense of it. Or perhaps, there was no editor at all employed, 

 great as was the occasion for one, if nut to enlarge the text, to supply- 

 in notes much wanted information relative to very many edifices which 

 Hope himself merely registered in a dry catalogue ot them. Should 

 there now ever be another edition of it, the work might be materially 

 improved not only by such additions in the form of notes, but by re- 

 ference to various graphic publications which illustrate many of the 

 edifices referred to liy Hope; for instance Villa Amil's "EspanaAr- 

 tistica," and Mr. Gaily Knight's two most interesting series of archi- 

 tectural illustrations of Sicily and Italy. — One thing which renders 

 Hope's book far less satisfactory than it might have been, is that there 

 is no scale to any of the buildings shown in the plates — a strange omis- 

 sion, and one that does not say much for the care bestowed in the 

 getting up of the work. In fact, the plates do not seem to have been 

 finished or finally prepared for publication, there being no figures or 

 letters of reference to any of the ground plans, one of which is besides 

 very strangely represented, what is an octagonal dome over the build- 

 ing, instead of being expressed by dotted lines, being shaded as dark 

 as the walls and pillars, so that it gives the idea of a separate octan- 

 gular structure built up from the floor, within the larger one. I my- 

 self took such to be the case, and wondered ti.at such a singularity 

 should be neither explained nor noticed in the text, till meeting with 

 another plan of the same building, 1 perceived at once what a very 

 strange mistake had been committed, and still remains in the second 

 edition, which probably had no revision bestowed upon it, nor received 

 other improvement than the addition of an Index. That there 

 was nothing of the kind to the first edition, was wholly unpardonable, 

 since an Index might have been made by any one, and because without 

 it the book was comparatively useless as a work of relerence. 

 1 remain, &c. 



Lector. 



I 



