264 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[August, 



err in calculating the result of what he is about to do from what he 

 has done — and that not very much in his favour. Should we here 

 have erred altogether — why so much the better; and most happy 

 shall we be to find that Sir Robert will have greatly surpassed not 

 himself alone, but most others in the profession ; and that the facade 

 of the British Museum will show what may be done by us in the 

 Grecian style, no less satisfactorily than the new Palace at Westmin- 

 ster already shows what can be accomplished by us in the Gothic. 

 May the one prove a worthy rival to the other, and may there be 

 cause for applying to them the remark — Pares magis quant similes! 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS LI. 



" I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charier as the winds, 

 To blow on u horn I please." 



I. There is just now quite a cartoon fever or epidemic raging 

 among us. We have "Hand-books" — should they not rather be 

 called " Eye-books ?" — which profess to teach us how to look at car- 

 toons ; and an advertisement has lately appeared with " The Car- 

 toons " prefixed to it, which begins by informing us that the " present 

 character of art is contrary to the eye, and the evidence of common 

 sense," and concludes by assuring us that there is no hope for success 

 in cartoon drawing and fresco painting in this country, " till the laws 

 of the eye be made the standard of accuracy, as laid down in Parsey's 

 « Science of Vision' " ! This is, perhaps, one of the most ingeniously 

 plotted things of its kind ever produced — quite a master-piece in the 

 art of advertizing and its manoeuvring ; yet although admirably well- 

 timed as far as the public are concerned, quite the reverse for the 

 poor artists, who now discover that they should have bought the book 

 before they set about their cartoons, and not after their works have been 

 hung up in Westminster Hall. By the bye, how did the great Frescantioi 

 Italy — or, for the matter of that, how have artists generally — been able 

 to do so well as they have done, in the present benighted state of art, 

 contrary as it has been all along to the " evidence of common sense "? 

 Have the whole world, artists and critics alike — been hitherto labour- 

 ing under a fatuous delusion, fancying things to be very fine which are 

 now proved (?) to be contrary to common sense ? Truly deplorable in 

 itself, such delusion seems also to be hopelessly incurable, since no 

 cures have been wrought by the Parseyian system. That not a soul 

 can be induced to adopt it, is evident, since had it been applied at all 

 in practice, the effect would have been too striking to escape notice. 

 Only one experiment (the first and last) has been made with it, and that 

 was by Parsey himself in a drawing exhibited at the Royal Academy, 

 which, if not at all satisfactory in any other respect, completely satis- 

 fied the public as to the exact value of the " Science of Vision." Why 

 it should now be recommended more particularly for cartoons, it is 

 difficult to guess, for it is little more applicable to them than to flower 

 painting. On the contrary, such a subject as Barry's Victoria Tower 

 would be a capital one for showing the wonderful and curious effects 

 produced by Parseyian perspective ! 



II. In making choice of a style for a building, it is necessary to con- 

 sider not only if the style be suitable for the occasion, but also if the 

 occasion be suitable for the style, and one where it can be shown to 

 advantage. Should the building be of a kind to require a number of 

 windows, Grecian architecture is not to be thought of, for thouo-h 

 you may put Grecian columns, the genuine classical physiognomy of 

 the style will be. lost. Neither can the Italian palazzo style be em- 

 ployed to advantage, except where space can be allowed for it, so as 

 to preserve its character in regard to its proportions— that is, the pro- 

 portions between solid and voids. In this style narrowness of piers 

 between the windows, and want of breadth between the windows on 

 one story and those on another, is no less injurious to character and 

 effect, than is wide intercolumniation in what professes to be Grecian 



architecture. The fault in either case is nearly the same ; the diffe- 

 rence being, that in the latter the defect is that of meagreness and 

 "sprawlingness," in the other, that of littleness and "squeeziness." 

 Much, therefore, as that particular species of the Italian style has to 

 recommend it for street architecture, hardly is it applicable here, 

 owing to the narrowness of the fronts of our houses. Mere continuity 

 of design may be obtained by uniting several houses into one general 

 facade, yet that alone is not sufficient, because it does not increase the 

 space between the windows and the several floors, does not at all alter 

 the proportions, but only increases the number of windows by repe- 

 tition, and no more alters the character in regard to design, than the 

 number of yards of it measured out alters the qualitv of a silk or 

 other stuff. 



III. The sticklers for precedent, and those who would fain discou- 

 rage, or if they could, even prohibit all invention, and reduce archi- 

 tectural design to a system of mere copying, give us no very high 

 opinion of their own powers. They dislike invention and origiualitv, 

 for pretty nearly the same reason that the fox objected to the grapes 

 as being sour, because he could not get at them. Again, thev dislike 

 novelty because it "puts them out." Puzzled at what they are unac- 

 customed to, and having no positive principles of taste to guide them, 

 they decide at once that that for which no established authority can 

 be adduced, must there/ore be illegitimate and licentious, and because 

 it deviates from standards and rules, it must likewise run counter to 

 correct principles of art. Mere novelty, indeed, is not originality, 

 in the better sense of the term, and it certainly would be absurd to 

 admire as originality and iuventive imagination, the merely doing that 

 which had never been done before. But then it is in the same man- 

 ner, mere prejudice and bigotry to condemn a thing, however it may 

 be done in itself, for no better reason than because it is now done for 

 the first time. If an idea be a happy one in itself, what matters 

 though it be. not exactly legitimate, and though we cannot trace its 

 pedigree back any further ? — rather ought it, on that very account, to 

 be all the more prized, as a valuable addition and real acquisition to 

 our architectural stock. There is a vast difference indeed between 

 crude, capricious whims and original ideas. To be original, requires 

 not invention alone, but patient study also. It would be too much to 

 expect that even the happiest idea should present itself to the mind 

 all at once, fully matured, and in all the perfection it is susceptible of. 

 Originality, too, consists not only in the putting forth entirely new 

 ideas, but in the power of imparting freshness to what has become 

 common-place, and of bringing out beauties that seem not so much to 

 be now first discovered, as to have been before overlooked where they 

 were lying for the first comer. By our attempting to keep art sta- 

 tionary, and allowing no fresh current of ideas to flow into it, it is at 

 length rendered stagnant also, becomes dull and sluggish, and degene- 

 rates into a system of plodding routine and copying, without either 

 feeling or intelligence. 



IV. There are some serviceable hints to be derived from West- 

 minster Hall, as now fitted up for the exhibition of the cartoons. It 

 enables us to judge what would be the effect of a public picture gallery 

 similarly planned, and formed out of a single large apartment, divided 

 into avenues of convenient breadth, by means of screens carried up 

 only a moderate height, so as to leave a lofty open space over head, 

 showing the whole of the general roof or ceiliDg. In regard to this 

 last mentioned circumstance, the appearance of the Hall is very strik- 

 ing, and the fine timber roof seems in some degree of greater expanse 

 than before, owiug to the space below being contracted. In fact, the 

 Hall and cartoons together form quite a picture, especially when the 

 sun breaks in towards the latter part of the afternoon, at which times, 

 in addition to the sparkling brilliancy and catching lights where its 

 rays directly fall, a glow is diffused over the whole. Even when the 

 sun does not shine at all, there is a sufficient degree of light — subdued 

 and quiet, but still sufficient, though it proceeds chiefly from the single 

 large window at each end ; for if those in the roof have been enlarged, 

 the others beneath them have been stopped up. There are, therefore, 

 no side windows except such as are very high up ; yet though, as we 

 may convince ourselves, it answers here, were the same mode to be 



