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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrS JOURNAL. 



[Nov. 



Feller, the sick man's chamber, and the court of Death, exhibit his archi- 

 teciural knowledge ; whilst tlie decorated gardens in which are the poet 

 and the rose (said to be a portrait of (Jay), and the gardener and the hog, 

 show him as a designer of gardens. 



Wyatt, as before remarked, was an architect; so was originally Kobert 

 Adam ; but the firm of " Adam brothers" were speculative builders. The 

 district called by them the Adelphi, is the greatest of their works in this 

 deparlnient ; and their overgrown speculations in Edinburgh left the modern 

 Athens for many years almost as much a heap of architectural ruins as 

 was its ancient namesake. 



The style of architecture aimed at by the brothers in their Adelphi build- 

 ings was the pseudo Grecian used in the decline of art by the emperor 

 Dioclesian and his artists. The great difference of level between the high 

 street of the Strand and the left bank of the Thames, upon which they 

 erected these buildings, was filled up by a range of warehouses and wharfs 

 covered by arches, which formed the basement of the terrace and dwelling 

 houses above. The range of houses built upon the terrace facing the 

 Thames is planned with great skill for domestic use and comfort.* 

 So are the two streets at the eastern and western extremities, which 

 form detached wings and connect the series of dwellings into a whole 

 as a composition. The street which runs from east to west on the 

 northern side of the main building, and carried on by a range of similar 

 desig^o into the Strand, contains the mansion, museum, and great room 

 belonging to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, 

 and Commerce, and some houses of a larger size than those which face 

 the river, used as private hotels, offices, and chambers for professional 

 men. The leading decorations are a series of very narrow pilasters be- 

 tween the windows, supporting cornices of no precise order, but all pro- 

 fusely enriched with foliage and arabesques in low relief, of the Dioclesian 

 style. The most striking defect of this design, considered as an architec- 

 tural composition, is a lack of boldness in projection and recession, which 

 causes an uninteresting flatness, for want of a due proportiou of light aud 

 shade, that mars the whole design. The projections of the pilasters are 

 too small, and the reveals of the windows too shallow, to produce that artist- 

 like effect which could alone give its author the name of architect. The 

 whole mass bears more the appearance of a building speculation than the 

 work of an architect who sought for an enduring name. These defects are 

 the more to be lamented, as they occupy the finest situation on the north 

 bank of the metropolitan part of the Thames. The buildings not only ap- 

 pear fragile, but are actually so, and exhibit many symptoms not only of 

 decay, but of unscientific construction and ill-selected materials. The 

 plain and ornamental stucco work that embellished the exterior of these 

 houses, formed of lime mixed with oil (the origiual of Hamelio's mastic), 

 dignified by royal letters patent and the sounding name of Adam's cement, 

 has failed in many places, and been replaced by plain pilasters, unor- 

 namented capitals, and Oat surfaces of Roman cement. The endeavour to 

 give an architectural character to the shop fronts, by substituting termini, 

 busts, and semi-caryatides, instead of the common stall-board and story- 

 posts of their London predecessors, not only deserves praise, but followers. 



The south front of the edifice belonging to the Society for the Encourane- 

 ment of Arts, ike, is in a more manly and architectural style than any other 

 on the Adelphi estate. The principal or one-pair story consists of a tetra- 

 style attached porticoof three-quarter columns, supported by an appropriate 

 ground story. The columns are of the Ionic order, rather too slender in 

 proportiou for the iutermediate character of the order, which should bear a 

 Just medium between the robust Doric and the delicate Corinthian. They 

 support an entablature and pediment, which being carried into the two flat 

 wings of the adjoining portions of the building, possess no artistical mean- 

 ing, and are a mere oruamental appendage stuck on to the plain front of a 

 large house consisting of windows and piers only. 



Brother Kobert designed and executed many buildings of a similar 

 character in Scotland, aud published a volume illustrative of Iheir details 

 in 1764 ; aud also a folio volume, marked with industry, pains-taking re- 

 search, and graphic correctness, of the ruins of Uioclesiau's palace at Spala- 

 Iro. He was patronised by the Earl of Bute, through whose influence he 

 was appointed architect to the king for Scotland ; and was for some time 

 superintendent of the works at the Royal-hospital, Greenwich, and erected 

 a pavilion in the Dioclesian style at each end of the terrace, one inscribed 

 with the name of George III., and the other Queen Charlotte. 



The brothers Robert and James published their joint architectural works 



* This terrace IB celebrated as being selected by Garrick as a residence wherein to pass 

 the evening uf his dHys. On an accasionai visit, Foote aslied him whether he had a yard 

 Whiiid his house, the tragedian replied, " I do not know, but 1 will measure," and on 

 liis reluru said, " 1 havft uut, tor it is only two fee( eleven iacben." 



in three volumes folio, of which the first two were published io 1704, and 

 the third in 1822. Of brother John we have no literary records but that 

 of his name at the corner of one of his streets in the Adelphi. 



Among the best works of the Adams in the metropolis are a mansion in 

 the norlh-west corner of St. James's-square, much resembling the stuck-oa 

 pseudo portico of the Society of Arts ; Lansdowne house, on the south side 

 of Herkeley-square, a large and commodious mansion with a body and two 

 wings, the former decorated with the same lank and meagre attached 

 columns of the Ionic order that disfigure all the works of the Adams. The 

 spacious court-yard in frout left ample room for a real portico, but they 

 did not avail themselves of the opporlunity. This mansion was celebrated 

 in the lifetime of the late marquis, by whom it was built, for that collection 

 of ancient statues, busts, and reliefs, known by the name of Lansdowne 

 marbles. The Royal Academy, about fifty years ago, thought the principal 

 elevation of this structure to be of suflicient importance to form a study for 

 its architectural students, and gave a silver medal for the best geometrical 

 elevation, tinted and shaded, with a duplicate in outline, correctly finished 

 from actual measurement. The Adams also erected the street front of 

 Drapers'-hall, in Throgmorton-s^.-^t ; some well-built bouses opposite, 

 whose interiors bear marks of a better architectural character than most 

 others of their period; and the street-front of Skinners'-hall, on Dongate- 

 hill, in the City, marked by a similar tameness of character as the before- 

 mentioned works in the Adelphi. 



If the Adams left no followers of their vitiated Spalatro style of decora- 

 tion, they have been followed in their pseudo-Greek, which, like the lady 

 Anglo-Gallic of the circulating libraries, has invaded our national cock- 

 neyisms. Some learned Thebans at Walerford, who built a large ware- 

 house-like row of houses on the right bank of the beautiful river Suir, have 

 named it, after the mode of the Adams, the Adelphi-terraice; so also did two 

 comedians, who agreed like anything but brothers, alter the name of the 

 .Sanspareil to that of the Adelphi theatre ; and a widow, not to be outdone 

 in Greek by her neighbours, named her stall the Adtlj/lii oyster-rooms ; 

 and a classical gin-shop on the other side has assumed the name uf the 

 Adelphi wine-vaulls, by an only brother. 



James Stuart, who received the honourable addition of "Athenian" pre- 

 fixed to his name, returned to England about the time that the Adams 

 were flourishing in Dioclesian glory. This eminent man was more of an 

 artist than a practical architect, although he delineated the geometrical 

 details of the art with mathematical precision, and drew the human figure 

 and sculptural embellishments with correctness and taste. 



The first accurate knowledge which the people of Europe received of the 

 Athenian antiquities was given by the publication of Dr. Spon and Sir 

 George Wheler, who both fortunately travelled before the Venetian siege. 

 Travels and descriptions of that part of Greece afterwards became more 

 numerous and more sought for. In 1751 Stuart, assisted by Pars, a painter, 

 and Revett, an excellent geometrician, employed three years in measuring 

 and delineating the principal antiquities in Alhens and its vicinity. In 

 1704 the London Dilettanti Society commissioned Dr. Chandler, a learned 

 and investigating man, to examine and report upon these unedited antiqui- 

 ties. Le Roi, a French artist of some ability, visited Athens abont the 

 same time as Stuart, and foisted erroneous accounts and delineations of 

 them upon the public. 



The drawings and delineations of Stuart and his companions soon became 

 known among the higher and learned classes of England, who duly appre- 

 ciated the high taste of refinement and purity exhibited in this grand style 

 of art, now known to them for the first time. Preparations were made for 

 their publication with such rapidity, the progress of which was much assisted 

 by the perfect state in which these artists brought over the drawings, that in 

 1708 they were presented to the public under the title of "The Antiquities 

 of Athens, measured and delineated, by James Stuart, F.R.S., F.S.A, 

 and Nicholas Revett, painters and architects," 4 vols. fol. 1708. 



On the occurrence of a vacancy he was appointed by George III. to the 

 office of architect and surveyor of buildings to Greenwich-hospital, which 

 afforded a comfortable leisure to the industrious Athenian traveller. Dur- 

 ing the time of his holding this office, the chapel and a great part of its 

 bell-tower were consumed by fire, and Stuart designed and superintended 

 their restoration. The whole of its exterior he rebuilt, with due regard to 

 the honoured name of Wren, precisely in the manner in which that great 

 architect left them ; but the interior he remodelled after the Athenian style, 

 which is scarcely so suitable for such an interior as was the bolder and 

 more decided style of Wren. It is, however, to be admired as the first 

 actual execution of Attic detail in England, as well as fur the chastened 

 purity which pervades the whole design. Benjamin West, then a jouo; 



