1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



227 



bookseller at a great expence, lie on our shelves after the first excite- 

 ment, and are never referred to either for instruction or entertainment. 

 Every painter's life could be made as delightful as a novel. 



In spite of all these defects, this life contains a great many useful 

 things. Sir David Wilkie greatly overrated the value of going 

 abroad— did serious injury to himself, and injured two of his friends, 

 who got into a style, neither English or foreign, to the ruin of either 

 style ; he was apt to have serious hallucinations of mind, and whilst 

 they lasted he was perfectly sincere, but if he seduced inferior minds 

 to follow him for the time, it was likely, before the next season, he 

 would startle them by running down with equal enthusiasm what the 

 year before he had so earnestly worshipped ! But he was a kind 

 friend, a good brother, a dutiful son, and a high moral character. He 

 founded our domestic school ; and if ever man left this world fit to 

 appear instantly before his Maker, it was David Wiikie. 



B. R. Haydo.n. 



London, June 12, 1843. 



LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY. 



ROOF OVER THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE-HOUSE, AT BIRMINGHAM. 



( With ait engraving, Plate X, drawn to a scale of -^ of an inch to 

 the foot, and tlte enlarged parts \-inch to the foot.) 



This building was erected about five years ago ; it is a polygon of 

 16 sides, and was originally covered by a roof having an open area in 

 tie centre: but this being found not to afford sufficient protection, 

 from the inclemencies of the weather, to the men employed about the 

 engines, the roof was removed during the autumn of last year, and 

 replaced by another, the construction of which is shown in the ac- 

 companying engraving; it is simple, and at the same time an excel- 

 lent combination of timber and iron. 



The ring of columns and connecting girders, (shown in enlarged 

 part C,) used in supporting the old roof, was retained for a similar 

 purpose in the new one. On reference to the engraving, it will be 

 seen that the roof is supported upon this ring, and upon the exterior 

 walls of the building. The thrust upon the walls is neutralized by 

 the tie rods a, which connect the head of each column fig. C, with 

 the shoe of the opposite rafter tig. A. Upon the head of the column 

 is fixed the stanchion 6, which carries the curved brace c, these, to- 

 gether with the strut d, all of which are of cast iron, form the point 

 of support for the rafter e. 



The heads of the rafters meet in a cast iron curb/, shown in the 

 enlargements E, upon which the lanthorn F, is erected; this curb is 

 cast in eight portions, and firmly bolted together. The plan of soffit 

 of the lanthorn is shown at G, and the junction of tie bars at the foot 

 of the ring bolt at H. 



The cost of the roof is as follows : — 



£. s. d. 

 1795 cubic feet of Memel fir, edges chamferred, at is. . . 359 

 110| squares of 1-inch deal boarding, the edges shot, 



underside coloured in distemper, at 40s. .. .. 221 10 



1094 feet run' of hip roll, at id. IS 4 8 



040 feet super, gutters and bearers, at Is. . . . . 32 



1248 feet super. 2-inch bevel bar skylights, glazed with 



British sheet glass in large squares, at 3s. . . . . 187 4 8 



160 feet super. 2-inch wrought boards, at Is. . . 6 U 



1344 squares Duchess slating, copper nailed, at 30s. .. 201 15 



9 tons of lead, at £28 252 



25 tons of cast iron, fixed, at £10. 250 



4i tons of wrought iron, at £22. .. .. . 99 



1 103 super, yards painting four times in oil, at Is. .. 58 3 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS L. 



" I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. Our Note-Book is getting old— it has reached its Fiftieth Fasci- 

 culus; no matter — provided it has not actually fallen into its "sere 

 and yellow leaf," and does not begin to exhibit symptoms of dotage. 

 No doubt there is a good deal of repetition in it — much that is nearly, 

 the same in substance has been touched upon again and again ; yet 

 not, I conceive, needlessly so, because it is only bv their frequency 

 that similar " morsels of criticism," can be expected to make such 

 impression as to be of real avail. It may, perhaps, be said that the 

 criticism itself becomes in time a bore; and so, indeed, it would, were 

 every one else also to deal in it after the same fashion, and just in the 

 same strain. But people have no reason to complain as yet of being 

 overdosed with architectural criticism, except of a respectably tame 

 and stale kind. 



II. What a sad pity it is that Klenze did not come over to this 

 country and take a lesson from the Hanging Committee at our Royal 

 Academy, before he fixed his plan for the arrangement of the busts in 

 the Walhalla. They would have shown him how fealty he might 

 have packed together as many thousands of them as there can now be 

 hundreds, by having a row of them upon the floor, and piling up the 

 rest upon shelves to the very ceiling. No matter whether seen or 

 not, provided the things be but there. Our Academy seems to be of 

 opinion that the nearer the ceiling the further out of harm's way, and 

 out of the reach of criticism ; and it would be well were some of them 

 to exalt their own works so high aloft, that the most lynx-eyed critic 

 could never make them out. Turner, for one, would show great 

 judgment in doing so, because then we might fancy there was some 

 meaning in his daubs and blotches. By the bye, what does Turner do 

 with such things? he can hardly make use of them as waste paper 

 yet some of them look very much like it. 



III. Would that columns could be melted down as well as cannons, 

 because were that possible, something might yet be made of the gi* 

 gantic stone post, stuck up in Trafalgar Square, and which now seems 

 to be sticking quite fast. The Athenasum tells us "it is still intinu- 

 ated that it will one day be completed," — perhaps at the Greek ca- 

 lends, for that day does not seem likely to come in a hurry. In the 

 interim, therefore, the scaffolding might as well be taken down, in- 

 stead of letting it rot to pieces, as it undoubtedly will do, if kept up 

 until the work is completed, for by that time the column will probably 

 have become a venerable piece of antiquity. In its present state, it 

 is quite monument, enough — a sufficiently significant one, and stri- 

 kingly indicative of the sort of intelligence and taste which presided 

 over the whole affair. If a column was deemed the most preferable 

 form, upon the whole, for the monument, it should at least have been 

 one of original and imposing character — a fine conception, treated in 

 a noble style, whereas the thing now stuck up will inevitably have a 

 puny look, and will be both lanky and top-heavy, the mass of the 

 Corinthian capital being especially unsuitable for a detached column 

 which has nothing to support — and considered with reference to the 

 shaft and capital, the statue becomes tantamount to nothing, except 

 there be some latent and malicious meaning in it, intended to make 

 evident to us the littleness of the greatness that is stuck up above the 

 heads of the rest of the world. If we had had nothing of the sort 

 before, a column of the kind might have been welcome as a novelty— 

 and for that very reason, perhaps, would have been protested against, 

 as something remarkably fanciful and strange ; but we have already 

 so many examples of them stuck up all over the country, and all 

 pretty much on a par as to insipidity, that it would be more desirable 

 to get rid of some of them, than to add to their number. What all 

 those bits of architectural trumpery may have cost it would be fear- 

 ful to compute, but no doubt as much as would have sufficed to erect 

 one or two edifices that would really have been genuine monuments of 

 art — an honour to the nation and to the age. 



31 



