1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



255 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON PROPRIETY OF STYLE, 

 PARTICULARLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE MODERN 



ADAPTATION OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 

 By Edward Hall, Architect. 

 (Read al the Royal Institute of British Architects, June 26th, 1843. J 

 " dead men 



" Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around." 



" Yet to the remnants of thy splendour past, 



" Shall pilgrims pensive, but unwearied, throng." 

 Very few years have elapsed since the style of architecture, called 

 Gothic, was ill-appreciated, or little understood in England. Teeming 

 as our island is in its highways, and its sequested nooks, with memen- 

 toes of the piety of past generations — discoursing "sermons in stones " 



an( j breathing, through the interval of centuries, on the chords 



of present time — the lyre lay long untuned, and gave none but dis- 

 cordant notes. The labours of the honoured few, who alone cherished 

 a love for the architecture of the country, were treated with ridicule 

 and contempt; whilst the student and the man of letters, slighting, or 

 ignorant of what his country contained, sought in Italy, and in Greece, 

 vestiges of the arts and mythology of nations, whose religion was 

 idolatrous, and whose architecture ill consorted with the requirements 

 of a Christian faith. Our cathedrals were repaired with a degree of 

 carelessness, pardonable at no time ; and were crowded with screens, 

 and altar-pieces, and with costly monuments, discordant in style as 

 they were tasteless in design and execution. But, happily for the 

 honour of the age, love of antiquarian topics, and of works of art 

 for their intrinsic excellence, have caused a re-birth in architectural 

 history. The wonderful skill in construction, and the taste of our 

 ancestors are appreciated ; the remote village church is examined for 

 the beauties which characterize it, not less than do fine proportion 

 and elaborate enrichment the cathedral and the college; — religious 

 feeling assists in the movement, and it is scarcely too much to say, that 

 the time is close at hand, when, for ecclesiastical structures, * Gothic 

 architecture will become as much the architecture of the country as 

 during the splendour of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 



However, as architects, we may regret the tendency at our univer- 

 sities towards imitation rather than design, it must be allowed, that 

 the attention, paid to Gothic architecture there, has met with good re- 

 sults, in a greater care in the restorations of existing fabrics. The 

 importance, as historical records, which attaches to all architectural 

 remains, renders it a sacred duty in the architect to well inform him- 

 self on all features in different styles, so as to transmit to posterity 

 the structures he is called upon to re-instate, with every line and trace 

 of their founders' character and skill. The architecture of Egypt in 

 its paintings and hieroglyphics, iu its long and gloomy vistas, and its 

 avenues of sphinxes, is a lasting petrifaction of the manners and cus- 

 toms of the people, and of the dominion of that mysterious hierarchy, 

 who sat in judgment over the dead, and who curbed the flights of 

 imagination in architecture and in sculpture by inviolable regulations. 

 The porticos and sculptures of Greece are living evidences of the 

 refinement of a nation, who responded to the works of its artists, as 

 to the creations of the dramatist, and the reasoning of the philoso- 

 pher; while the sumptuous edifices of the Romans speak of the pomp 

 of imperial sway and the slavery of subject states. The architecture 

 of every country, and of every age, is vocal with the inmost workings 

 of its creating mind: and it occupies the place of written history in 

 points which, though of the highest interest, historians have for the 

 most part failed to touch. The architecture of the middle ages is 

 not less valuable to the observing student of history, than the archi- 

 tecture of Egypt, of Greece, or of Rome. To the eyes of the gene- 

 ral historian and the artist, the majesty and richness of the cathedral 

 tell of the self-sacrificing spirit of our forefathers, who devoted their 

 wealth and their lives to the service of religion. Every village church 

 is a key to the history of the surrounding district; — from its effigies, 



1 It will be observed, that the subject of propriety of style in domestic 

 architecture is not now entered into. 



No. 70.— Vol. VI.— July, 1843. 



its sepulchral brasses, and its heraldic enrichments, the topographer 

 and the genealogist may derive important data, for the prosecution 

 of researches into the history of a county, and of its principal inhabi- 

 tants. The "very age and body of the time " are manifest in each 

 feature, and in the minute details are related even the passions, and 

 the animosities of the different orders of the priesthood. Though 

 sad instances of destruction still occur, though churches still receive 

 their periodical coat of whitewash — until the richest foliage is ob- 

 scured by the useless repetition * — the course of demolition has been 

 reduced ; while the restorations in progress, or about to commence, 

 afford matter for the highest gratulation. Thus the architect must 

 combine the pursuits of the antiquary with the study of the practical 

 and the recent ; his researches must extend into the curious and the 

 obsolete, to enable him to understand the style and details of any edi- 

 fice under his care. 



It is a matter of surprise to all who study and love the archi- 

 tecture of the country, that its revival for ecclesiastical structures 

 should have met with opposition. This opposition — urged by 

 the highest love of art — has been publicly expressed and published, 

 so that it seemed incumbent on those who desired to walk in the 

 steps of our forefathers, to show that another view of the question 

 was not unsupported by argument. But the matter not having re- 

 ceived the notice that might have been expected, I have ventured be- 

 fore you this evening, and if the question suffer in my hands, I beg it 

 may be understood, that arguments are not wanting which could have 

 been adduced by those, who might have anticipated me in mv present 

 subject. 



The opinions referred to may be thus stated. That the " taste 

 of the day inclines to the Roman Catholic plan, suited to a 

 demonstrative form of worship, rather than to the auditorium required 

 by the Protestant ritual," and that " the churches of Sir Christopher 

 Wren are better adapted for models." That proportions in Gothic 

 architecture were "wholly capricious," and "subject to no order or 

 regularity," nor that " any have been ever attributed" to the style by 

 its greatest admirers, so that "columns or supports might be from five 

 to fifty diameters in height, and were only bounded by possibility," 

 that the delight, confessedly inspired by the works of the middle ages, 

 is to be referred to a "love of the marvellous," which "love of the 

 marvellous is dangerous, exaggeration being the first sigu of a mind 

 indifferent to the value and beauty and sufficiency of truth, and the 

 surest sign of depravation of judgment." " The Egyptian, the 

 Roman, and sometimes the Greek indulged in the gigantic, with a 

 view to the expression of a prodigious energy ; but the middle ages 

 were prone to the marvellous, surprise was the great scope of the 

 Gothic architect." That "the middle age church was wholly founded 

 on superstitious associations." " The plan described the cross, the 

 universal symbol m hoc signo vince." That " the nave represents the 

 body of the saviour; and the side, which 'one of the soldiers pierced,' 

 considered to be the south as the region of the heart, is occupied at 

 Wells by a chantry, at Winchester with the chapel of William of 

 Wyckham, and is constantly the pulpit from which the faithful were 

 reminded ' to look on him whom they have pierced.' " " The choir 

 was inclined to the south, to signify, that ' he bowed his head and gave 

 up the ghost,' " and " there are few cathedrals in which this de- 

 flection is not remarkable." "At the head of the cross was the 

 chapel of the Virgin — Jesus resting in the lap of Mary. At the foot, 

 the west-end, was the ' Parvis,' supposed by some to be a corruption 

 of 'Paradis,' that happy station from which the devout might con- 

 template the glory of the fabric, which was chiefly illustrated in this 

 front, and from whence they might scan the great sculptured picture, 

 the calender for unlearned men, as illustrative of Christian doctrine 

 and the temporal history of the church, under its princes and its pre- 



- The whitewashing, colouring and painting of stone are species of mono- 

 mania frightfully prevalent. The base of the interna] order of St. Paul's 

 Cathedral seems to have been painted not long since, and, being of a bright 

 yellow, contrasts with the older whitewash above. It may be assumed that 

 this is not in accordance with the wish of the present talented architect. 

 Colouring for the purposes of decoration, which requires no renewal, is mostly 

 on flat surfaces, and can spoil no ornaments or mouldings; is unobjectionable, 

 and a valuable means of enrichment. 



35 



