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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL 



!3I5 



with a sight of Mr. Salvin's design for the " Carlton," which is said to 

 have been in the Elizabethan style— so vague a designation that it 

 helps us to no idea whatever of its actual character— aud to have been 

 of singular richness and beauty ; therefore, we suspect, greatly refined 

 upon actual Elizabethan models and precedents. Without undergoing 

 considerable modification and recombination of elements, that style 

 certait.ly does not recommend itself particularly well either for modern 

 street architecture generally, or for such a structure as a club-house.a 

 requiring an expression of elegance as well as of dignity ; and elegance 

 is certainly not the prevailing characteristic of Elizabethan. We do 

 not, however, sav that the style is incapable of other expression than 

 the quaint and picturesque, because if we did we must either pass by 

 without notice, or else confess ourselves contradicted by (No. 12(;0), 

 Mansion erecting for W. Herrick, Esq., Beau Manor Park, Leicester- 

 shire, W. Kailto'n, a most attractive drawing and a charming design, 

 one whicii gives us some of the very best qualities of the style, and its 

 true sentiment without the slightest affectation. Though each of the 

 two fronts shown in the view is regular in its elevation, the 

 whole is eminently picturesque, at the same time quite sober. Yet 

 this mansion is rather upon a moderate scale than at all the contrary — 

 a proof that quantify and quality are very different things. On com- 

 paring this with (No. 1243), Design for an Elizabethan Mansion, C. 

 W. C. Edmonds, — and the comparison seems to be solicited, the two 

 drawings being alike in size, similar in subject, and placed as compa- 

 nion pieces on the wall, — the latter makes nearly as favourable an im- 

 pression as the other, at iirst sight, but we soon perceive that there is 

 a vast though undefinable dirt'erence between the two : there is an ex- 

 quisite flavour in one which the other lacks. Nor is our admiration 

 of Mr. Railton's design unmingle<l with astonishment, for we could not 

 imagine the author of so excessively dull and trivial an idea as the 

 Nelson Column to be capable of producing so fascinating a design. 



(No. llilt) Design for an Italian Mansion, garden front, W. Deane, 

 affords matter for remark, on account of the great architectural parade 

 it makes in some respects, and the utter disregard of architectural 

 etiquette in others. We behold terraces whose angles are flanked by 

 colossal pedestals — huge masses of stone work as big as those in 

 Trafalgar Square — surmounted by groups of bronze figures, embel- 

 lishment so pompous — letting alone its cost — as to be fitter for such 

 a palatial pile as Blenheim than for a private country residence. 

 Yet notwithstanding this studied architectural display in regard to 

 accessories, and the symmetrical arrangement of the terraces, &c., and 

 the buildings, one wing of the facade does not answer to the other, 

 it being only a single window in breadth while the other has three, 

 which is surely a gross and perverse violation of the most ordinary 

 rules of taste, and here evidently committed for the nonce, the sub- 

 ject being merely a fancy composition. If irregularity be preferred 

 to regularity of design — architectural blank verst\o architectural rhyme, 

 be it so; but to decide upon rhyme and afterwards hitch in here and 

 there a blank verse, — to plan and arrange everything wilh scrupulous 

 regard to perfect symmetry and then all at once to break away from 

 uniformity and destroy all balance between what show themselves 

 intended to be corresponding features, is a provoking barbarism, — and 

 if we could, we would attribute it in the present instance to a blunder 

 on the pait of the person who made the drawing. We have another 

 rather pompous aflTair in (No. ] 150), Garden front of the Mansion now 

 erecting by J. M. Blashfield, Esq., in Kensington Palace Gardens, from 

 the designs of J. Finden and J. H. Lewis. On first reading its title 

 we fancied there must be some strange mistake in the catalogue — not 

 that mistakes are altogether strangers there — for considering what it 

 purports to be, there is an air of improbability about it that quite 

 staggered us, it being a large and lofty unbroken mass in a heavy 

 Italian style, and much fitter tor street architecture than for the situa- 

 tion mentioned. Yet although mistake there is none, the information 

 contained in the catalogue is not quite correct, inasmuch as so far 

 from being " now erecting" this mansion is not even begun at all, nor, 

 as we have reason to believe, will it now ever be so. The practice of 

 describing buildings as being in progress before they actually are so 

 is a reprehensible one, because it renders us mistrustful even when 

 the truth is stated, and doubtful whether we ought to credit it or not. 

 Doubt, however, there is none as to (No. 1235), Garden front of Villa, 

 No. 3, erected on the estate of J. M. Blashfield, Esq., at the Queen's 

 Road, Kensington Palace Gardens, O. Jones. Were it not that atten- 

 tion is called to it by the catalogue, this subject would hardly obtain 

 notice, for though a large one, the drawing is placed so high that its 

 details are lost, and its mere mass and outline are by no means pre- 

 possessing. We recognize Owen Jones more advantageously in (No. 

 1273), Ornamental Cottage and Dairy, described as " designed," and 

 we hope to be also executed, for J. J. Morrison, M.P. 



Of (Nos. 1201 and 5) Fantasia and Capriccio, or Architectural In- 

 novation, the bare titles are suHicient to scarce all the sticklers for ar- 

 chitectural orthodoxy, legitimacy, and precedent, be they either ultra- 

 Greek or ultra-Goths. Nor are those two small drawings misnamed, 

 since innovation is introduced into them neither very sparingly nor 

 very timidly. They are, indeed, furiously heterodox and lieteroclite, 

 —certainly nondescript, for it would puzzle us to give any intelligible 

 description of them, and of the exceedingly wayward yet not ungrace- 

 ful fancies with which they are fraught. We leave others to reprove 

 their author for setting all ordinary rules at defiance, it being quite evi- 

 dent that he has done so wilfully and premeditatedly, consequently he 

 would laugh at us for plodding dullards were we to'take him formally 

 to task for the very enormities which he glories in, and to disseminate 

 his principles by publishing his transgressions. One comfort is, these 

 specimens of" innovation" are not likely to corrupt many, they being 

 hung where they are much more likely to be overlooked altogether. 

 There are many other things which we ourselves may have overlooked, 

 and still more in regard to whicli ovcrlwking is quite out of the ques- 

 tion, unless we were to take a bird's-eye look at the room through the 

 skylight. Should Mr. (qiicere President) Eastlake's letter to Sir U. Peel 

 have any effect, and we get a new National Gallery, the Academy will 

 then, we trust, be able to afford adequate accommodation in the pre- 

 sent building to architectural drawings and models. Of these last 

 there is this year but a very sorry show indeed, and even were they 

 worth looking at they are so huddled up one behind the other, 

 that it is impossible to see them pioperly. Some of them are so 

 small as to look more like "very pretty toys," than architectural 

 models, and others show only what would be quite as well or 

 even better understood upon paper; for instance, (No. 1322), South 

 west corner of Freeman's Place, Royal Exchange, E. J'Anson, and Sun, 

 which is only a compartment of a plane elevation, in relief, and de- 

 prived of the advantage of colour. It certainly does not convey the 

 most favourable idea of the effect and character of the building itself, 

 which is really a very im|)Osing piece of street architecture. There 

 was something equally indiscreet and superfluous in exhibiting (No. 

 131(3), A model of a Design for the H.irdy Testimonial proposed to 

 be erected by subscription in the Square fronting Greenwich Hospital ; 

 indiscreet, at the same time fortunate, because it is likely to scare 

 those who might else be disposed to subscribe; superfluous, because 

 the des!g7t consists of no more than a common-place Greek Doric 

 column. Such " testimonials" might as well be kept ready made. 

 Most assuredly they do not testify the ability of those who design 

 them. We would recommend that the portico of Covent Garden 

 Theatre should be taken down and sold for the benefit of the share- 

 holders in that concern, and there would then be four unexceptionable 

 Doric columns provided for as many different Testimonials. 



CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY. 



The following valuable translation of extracts from M. Didron's great 

 work Iconograjjhk Chrelienne have been kindly contributed by Profes- 

 sor Donaldson, together with some original notes. A paper read by 

 him on the subject before the Royal Institute of British Architects is 

 prefaced by the following remarks. 



" 1 have ever considered it my privilege and duty as your Foreign Secre- 

 tary to bring before you from time to tiaie, and make you acquainted with 

 what has been going on in Foreign Countries with regard to any matters 

 having reference to our pursuits, t have been happy to seize every oppor 

 tunity, which presents itself from my official correspondence with our Hono- 

 rary and Corresponding Members, or from my connexion with various Foreign 

 Academies and other learned bodies, of bringing before you the labours of 

 those whose object, like ours, is to contribute to spread a kaowlege of Art 

 and inspire a love for those splendid and interesting monuments of the skill 

 of past ages which excite oar wonder and admiration, and which should in- 

 spire with the zealous ambition to emulate their example. 



I have already had to notice to you that about 10 years ago the lovers of 

 the fine arts in France were anxious to release themselves from the tram- 

 mels of a conventional style, which, however great its claims upon our re- 

 spect from its purity and correctness in the abstract, had little hold upon the 

 feelings and affections. It possessed not the eloquence and sentiment that 

 pervades those national productions of former periods, which, originating 

 from peculiar institutions and to satisfy peculiar exigencies, bore the em- 

 phatic impress of characteristic individuaiity. Hence the desire to revive a 

 national style of art, taking as its basis the works of the Middle Ages. Such 

 a revolution had been effected in the Schools of Germany spreading froiu 

 Munich to Berlin. 



You possess in your library the first livraisons of a series of instructions 

 issued by the Historical Committe of Arts and Monume:its in Paris : an in- 



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