1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



2''? 



and no taste, brought to it, a remark which I have already made more 

 than once before, but one which cannot he repeated too often. Of 

 the Italian style and of the very same species of it, we meet with very 

 striking contrasts in Barry's two club-houses in Pall Mall, and the 

 Club-house Chambers in Regent Street. The difference as to quality 

 and taste between the latter and the two former is hardly to be ex- 

 pressed, for it does not amount to much when stated in words, nor 

 can it be indicated further than by vague, qualifying epithets. In the 

 two Pall Mall examples we perceive a refined elegance, and a most 

 captivating simplicity produced by what most people seem to imagine 

 opposed to simplicity, namely the most patient study and careful 

 elaboration of every part, even to the minutest details. There is no 

 one part that is overdone in proportion to another ; no one that is un- 

 derdone. Every thing is in its proper place, and contributes to the 

 beauty of the ensemble. There is nothing you would wish either to 

 add or take away. Eminently beautiful in themselves, the individual 

 features acquire redoubled charm, from the felicity with which they 

 are combined. The Regent Street example, on the other hand, is al- 

 most the direct reverse : while it is very far from being free even 

 from decided blemishes that might be easily pointed out, its general 

 inferiority lies in numerous particulars and circumstances, which 

 hardly admit of being described or pointed out, except viva voce with 

 the building before one. One great defect is, that the whole looks 

 too much squeezed together, and is consequently deficient in repose ; 

 nor is it less so in regard to richness, notwithstanding that this last 

 seems to have been aimed at by the variety of parts— which, how- 

 ever, are all poor in themselves. I have heard it pretended, that the 

 predominating characteristic of Barry's Italian style, is the corni- 

 cione : let those who fancy so, try it, and they will soon find out their 

 mistake. There is no deficiency of cornice in the facade of the 

 Clubhouse Chambers; but a most terrible deficiency of other merit. 

 It is to Barry's two designs, what a very ordinary pippin is to a pine- 

 apple. 



VI. One great merit of Barry, as strikingly exemplified in the two 

 buildings above-mentioned, is that his detail is his own. Every part 

 of it appears to have been expressly studied and devised for the ac- 

 tual occasion; whereas in general, even where belter than usual in 

 itself, detail seems to be taken from books or other authorities, and 

 applied without the slightest modification, and in such manner, per- 

 haps, as to be rather injurious upon the whole, by causing all the rest 

 to appear in very inferior taste. Some will then, probably, ask, what 

 is the service of purchasing expensive architectural publications, if 

 we are not to be allowed to borrow any thing from them ? — the bor- 

 rowing, by the bye, meaning nothing else than stealing — which by 

 some is practised in so barefaced a manner, that they do not even 

 pretend to design their own details at all, but set their clerks to copy 

 it from prints and books. The use of such examples is to study 

 them, to form one's taste upon them, to learn to discriminate between 

 what is excellent and what defective in them, and so to profit 

 doubly by imbibing the true spirit of the former, and avoiding the 

 latter. The use of such lessons, is to derive ideas from them, there- 

 fore they are not likely greatly to benefit those who stand most of al] 

 in need of such aid ; it being a well known fact, that those who have 

 fewest ideas of their own in their heads, can find least room there for 

 those to be got from other people. 



VII. It is to very little purpose for any one to attempt making a 

 stir about the British Museum. The case is altogether a desperate 

 one; and nothing remains for us, but to submit with graceful resigna- 

 tion to what must be, and to what fate — in the person of Sir Robert 

 Smirke, irrevocably decreed long ago, shall be. It is true, circum- 

 stances have greatly altered since bis Post Office was hailed by the 

 newspapers as a most classical piece of architecture, at which time 

 there was scarcely any other channel for architectural criticism, or 

 the expression of opinion in regard to it, than the columns of a news- 

 paper, which were likely enough to entertain sympathetic admiration 

 for the columns of the great architect in question. Yet, if there has 

 been some change in that respect, there has been none in Sir Robert; 

 as for the matter of that, why should there be any, since he long ago 



attained such perfection, that to look for further improvement would 

 be most unreasonable ? To say the truth, he has given so many ex- 

 amples of the same sort of excellence over and over again, that half 

 a score of them might be exported to some of our colonies, and we 

 at home be nothing the poorer. 



VIII. Notwithstanding that so very much has been said upon the 

 orders, both in books and in lectures, no one — as far at least as I am 

 aware — has yet entered into satisfactory comparison of ancient exam- 

 ples and modern applications of them, showing how far their character 

 and effect has been preserved, or else neutralized, if not quite destroyed. 

 So far from saying anything on that head, or giving any cautions 

 at all, although they are evidently enough needed, they leave it to be 

 inferred, that provided an order or a few columns be tolerably correct 

 in themselves, all the rest must, as a matter of course, be equally sa- 

 tisfactory — even admirable. That such vast importance should have 

 been attached two or three centuries ago to the mere mechanical 

 study of the orders, is not very surprising, even natural and excusable. 

 Surprising, however, it is, in no small degree, that such should con- 

 tinue to be the case, almost as much as ever. Hardly less astonishing 

 is it, that out of the countless number of publications professing to 

 supply general instruction relative to architecture and matters of ar- 

 chitectural taste, there is scarcely one which enters into the principles 

 and rationale of composition — I mean into the general principles, 

 the application of which must be left to individual judgment, and to 

 the circumstances of the particular case ; for what may be very ap- 

 propriate at one time, may be quite the reverse at another. It is 

 true, instruction of this kind must be but very limited after all, and 

 in a manner needless, because those who are most capable of profiting 

 by it, are also capable of working it out for themselves, which is after 

 all, the very best and most efficient mode of study. In fact, it is this 

 sort of study and the capacity for it, which chiefly constitute talent, 

 or in a higher degree, genius. For want of continued study of this 

 kind, even those who set out at first with a certain stock of talent, 

 sooner or later, quite exhaust it; which, however, may be quite im- 

 material in one respect, because, his reputation once established, a 

 man's ability is taken upon trust. People — some people at least — 

 may feel that they are very dissatisfied within themselves with what 

 has the recommendation of a name ; but then they feel that they 

 ought to doubt their own judgment, or at all events do not care to 

 seem to swim against the stream, and accordingly with the discretion 

 of timidity, leave the world to find out the humbug in its own good 

 time, which it generally does, as witness "the great Mr. Wyatt," 

 now transformed into " James Wyatt, of execrable memory." 



IX. Poor Sir John Soane! — now to be made after all an object of 

 Dosthumous abuse, by the very man who was constantly toadying him 

 in the most servile manner while he was alive! Yet so it is. The 

 censure may be merited ; the suppressed work of his alluded to, may 

 be such that no one can "conscientiously compliment the author or 

 the man;" but supposing that character of it to be perfectly just, it is 

 any thing but creditable — absolutely disgraceful to the other party, 

 that entertaining such opinion of Soane, he should all the while have 

 professed the greatest admiration and respect for him, and have ea- 

 gerly seized hold of every opportunity, and even the slightest pretext 

 at all for doing so. Instead of vindicating his "much esteemed 

 friend's" professional character from any of the numerous aspersions 

 that have been thrown out against it, he makes himself an oppor- 

 tunity for aspersing his moral character, raising suspicions all the 

 more prejudicial, because, the work itself being suppressed, and no 

 copy of it even in the British Museum, it cannot be ascertained how- 

 far it really deserves the reprobation so very pointedly implied. That 

 the quondam most obsequious admirer of Sir John Soane should now 

 become his traducer, is indeed startling; but of the two, Soane 

 showed the greater discretion, for he suppressed his obnoxious work, 

 whereas the other has been so absurdly indiscreet, as to let it now be 

 seen what was his real opinion of a man whom he may be said to have 

 worshipped in public. 



