1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



341 



wings form semi-pediments, resting against the flanks and centre, looking 

 like contreforts or buttresses to the main building. The eastern and west- 

 ern fronts — for there are no flauk walls — have similar bows to the ground 

 •tory, only the upper parts of which form balconies to the superior story. 



Looking at this villa from the opposite side of the river, or from the river 

 itself, the pyramidal form of the composition, aided by the beautiful trees 

 and scenery which surround it, give it an indescribable grace of picturesque 

 beauty, that must find value in a painter's eye. Had the architect separated 

 the villa from the road by a parapet-wall or balustrade, half its picturesque 

 beauty would have been lost. Instead of which, he has enclosed its lawn 

 by a mere protective row of iron rails, which makes the river appear to be 

 part and parcel of the design. Nor is its appearance from the east or the 

 west, on the Richmond side of the river, less perfect or beautiful, showing 

 that the architect must have designed it «i masse and in perspective, like a 

 painter; and not on the drawing-board, with a T-square and compasses, like 

 a carpenter. 



Surely Sir Robert Taylor must take his place among the greatest of Eng- 

 iisb architects. 



CTo le continued.J 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS LXXV. 



" I must have liberly 

 Withal, 83 large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. Now that Punch has pounced upon the palace, people will, perhaps, 

 begin to open their eyes to that architectural enormity, and also to open 

 their mouths pretty freely on the subject. At least so it is to be hoped, 

 since it is only by clamouring, and clamouring very loudly indeed, that we 

 can hope to put a stop to similar delinquencies against taste, and similar 

 mismanagement for the future. One would hare thought that just after the 

 outcry about the " Arch and Statue," all those who were in any way con- 

 cerned with the projected alteration of the Palace, would have exercised a 

 little discretion, and paid some little show of deference to public feeling. 

 Instead of which, the only caution taken was the most unhappy one, as it 

 now proves, of precipitating the business in the most hurried manner, — not 

 altogether without reason, though a very bad one, for never would the public 

 voice have sanctioned such a design for the occasion as that which received 

 the imprimatur oi parliament. It may be questioned if any one individual — 

 even any one of those who affixed their signatures to the designs presented 

 "to both Houses" — bestowed any sort of examination upon them. If they 

 really did do so, what is to be thought of their judgment ? Or was it taken 

 for granted that the designs had been duly examined and fully considered by 

 some responsible authority ? Where responsibility for the choice actually 

 lies, it is easier to guess than it may be exactly decorous to say. Assuredly 

 not with the architect himself, for his incapacity would have been harmless, 

 bad it not been for the incapacity of judgment or careless indiscretion which 

 suffered him to be employed. The lady who can dismiss a minister from her 

 council board, can surely dismiss an architect from her service. At any 

 rate there was no necessity for her employing that particular architect on an 

 occasion that did not fall within the course of his usual official duties. 



II. Buckingham Palace looks if not exactly more insignificant in style, of 

 far more plebeian quality than before, and is, besides, greatly worse than 

 ever as an architectural composition, the addition to it forming a lumpish 

 mass, which, owing to its jutting out abruptly from the two low wings which 

 are left standing, seems to encroach upon and disfigure the Park. Previous 

 to the alteration, the principal mass of building had at any rate an architec- 

 tural framing to it, whereas the present " fafade" has none. Not only do 

 the above-mentioned portions not belong to it, but they cause it to appear 

 more lumpish — more of an excrescence than it otherwise might do. — Were 

 royal palaces erected every day, we could tolerate a few blunders now and 

 then, in the hope of obtaining something very much better the next time; 

 but such not being the case, the utmost ought to be made of the opportunity 

 which actually occurs ; every possible precaution ought to be taken to insure 

 Bol a merely good, but a very superior design ; and Mr. Blore's most assuredly 

 does kot answer to such character, siuce apart from all its other uumerous 



deficiencies, it does not exhibit a single touch of imagination, or fancy, or 

 artistic feeling. In sad and sober truth, the design is nothing more or less 

 than the production of a Pecksniffian drawing-board. Altogether of the 

 most ordinary quality, it manifests impotence of conception, and total want 

 of imagination and fancy, whether as regards the whole or the separate parts. 

 Yet, as the building stood before it was begun to be doctored, there was 

 much in it to prompt contrivance, since it held out many tolerably obvious 

 bints for improvement, all which have now been overlooked. As far as the 

 public are concerned with it, the Palace is worse than ever— a more de- 

 cidedly offensive architectural object than before, and the very reverse of any 

 improvement to the Park. And what renders the matter all the more pro- 

 vokingly vexatious is that not the slightest pains were taken to endeavour to 

 satisfy the public. Vast indeed must have been the opinion of, and the con- 

 fidence in, Mr. Blore's talent, to abide by such a " Hohson's choice," with- 

 out letting there be even so much as a chance for anything more worthy the 

 occasion being produced. One thing at least ought to have been seriously 

 considered, namely, that little less than assured certainty of success war- 

 ranted the risking such a decisive step as the one taken, — one that only the 

 most complete success could justify. Had we been taken by an agreeable 

 surprise, — had— after all the misgivings and apprehensions excited by very 

 suspicious mysteriousness — the new facade burst upon us arrayed in beauty 

 and magnificence, there could then have been no question as to the propriety 

 of a mode uf procedure that might up to that time have appeared both arbi- 

 trary and injudicious, both of which, we conceive, it will be considered now. 

 As the patron of the Institute of British Architects, her Majesty might surely 

 have afforded those whom she so royally and graciously countenances, the 

 opportunity of exerting their talents on an occasion that ought to have in- 

 spirited and inspired them. There are persons in the world who are sa 

 exceedingly clever and Machiavellian that they over-reach and cheat them- 

 selves ; who has done so in this particular instance, we will not say ; nor 

 should we so much care, were it not that John Bull pays for all in more 

 ways than one, — not in pocket merely, but in reputation also. Foreigners 

 will now have fresh cause to sneer at bis taste, or the taste foisted upon 

 bim. They — happy dogs ! may grin, while we can only groan. As to Mr. 

 Blore, he may console himself one way, since he may now truly remark with 

 Byron, that he got up one morning and found himself famous — his name in 

 everybody's mouth, from north to south,— his fame (not quite the best) 

 spreading wide from east to west, or what's the same, spreading at least 

 from west to east. Still no one cries encore ! to the achievements of the 

 far-famed Blore. 



III. Should the Architectural Association act up to its professions and 

 intentions, much benefit may be anticipated from it. It promises to call 

 the attention of the student to what is so greatly neglected, or rather 

 altogether overlooked, in his ordinary professional education — namely, 

 artistic apprehension of architecture, as distinct from mere building, in its 

 quality of fine art. The Association consists chiefly of juniors, — and it is 

 to the juniors and the rising generation in the profession, that we must look 

 forward for more liberal, enlarged, and worthy notions than those which 

 have hitherto prevailed in these latter times, when the art has degenerated 

 info what is little more than empirical routine on the one hand, and 

 twaddling pedantry on the other. Since they seem so disposed, let the 

 seniors in the profession go comfortably to sleep, provided the juniors are 

 awake, and awake a better state of things. Let them boldly break the 

 trammels in which their art has so long been confined, — fetters of unbend- 

 ing iron to the timid and the weak, but feeble as cobwebs to the firm and 

 the resolute, — the mere flimsy spider-spinnings of pedantic brains. 



IV. The nation is, it seems — at least, according to some people's fan- 

 cies — very much richer than it was a short time ago, in consequence of 

 the prodigiously valuable acquisition of Shakspeare's House — the only 

 bouse, by the by, that can be called his, he being now ejected and kicked 

 out from his legitimate dramatic domicile — the theatre. Shakspeare's 

 House ! what an immense quantity of drivelling sentiment was poured 

 out just before the time of the sale of that rubbishly old tenement ! Yet 

 we laugh and sneer at, and ridicule the reverence of Roman Catholics for 

 relics as besotted superstition, — our own Protestant superstitions being at 

 the same lime not a whit less absurd and crazy. However others may be 

 atTected at the sight of them, I know not ; but such vulgar objects as 

 Wilkie's palette, in the pedestal of his statue at the National Gallery, and 

 Nelson's coat, in the Painted-hall at Greenwich, only excite my ihoroagk 

 contempt, as the veriest buffoonery aping reverential admiration and afl'ec- 

 tion. This species of superstition becomes little less than dowurigkit 

 imbecillity, when the objects uf it are absolutely iDsiguificaut and yDiBttr- 



