1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



311 



that will please it. It was the fashion of the day to admire the Pan- 

 theon, and Wyatt forthwith bpcame all at once the fashionable archi- 

 tect par excellence. Business poured in upon him, and he treated it as 

 business; his business was to please his customers, and please them 

 he did, very much, in several instances, to the displeasure of pos- 

 terity, for he has since received some hearty maledictions from both 

 architects and antiquaries — from one more especially, who has branded 

 him as "James Wyatt of execrable memory." No doubt very great 

 allowance is to be made for him, when it is considered that the study 

 of Gothic architecture was then quite in its infancy, and even the 

 rudiments of that stvle scarcely at all understood. Besides, Wyatt 

 did something-, were it merely the helping to bring forward that style 

 into notice again, and so far he is justly entitled to a prominent sta- 

 tion in the history of the English architecture of the ISth century, 

 albeit, Mr. Gwilt has carefully suppressed his name, while he records 

 such men as Paine and Bonomi. Without any great loss to his fame, 

 much of Wyatt's Gothic has since perished; the castellated palace 

 at Kew — a whim of George III., the House of Lords, and his works 

 at Windsor Castle, have all been swept away, and Fonthill is now a 

 mere wreck; therefore Ashridge is now one of the chief mansions 

 remaining, which he did in that style. Less excuse than for his 

 Gothic can be offered for what he did in the Grecian or modern style, 

 and which is for the most part very mannered and tame. In fact, 

 much as lie was favoured by opportunities, Wyatt achieved no really 

 great work, or such as would entitle him to much distinction at the 

 present day, and probably did much less in one sense than he might 

 have accomplished, had his engagements been fewer. He was, too, 

 in one respect singularly unfortunate, for if his Pantheon at all merited 

 the exaggerated praises bestowed upon it, it did not remain long 

 enough to obtain the suffrages and the admiration of posterity, being 

 burnt down about twentv years after it was first erected, and as we 

 have already remarked, no satisfactory memorials of it remain. 



Fortunate would it be for the reputation of George Dance, were 

 the front he bestowed upon Guildhall, to disappear as completely as 

 so many of Wyatt's productions have done; for it is a sad blot in his 

 professional scutcheon — so utterly tasteless in itself, independently of 

 its absurdity as an imitation of Gothic, that it is difficult to believe 

 such a piece of architectural "balaam" could have been perpetrated 

 by the man who gave us an edifice so stamped with character and 

 artistic feeling as Newgate. In this last the centre or keeper's house is, 

 however, comparatively a failure: had there been only three instead of 

 five windows on a floor, the effect, not only of that part, but of the whole 

 exterior would have been decidedly better ; the original design has 

 besides been greviously impaired by the present miserable attic story 

 substituted for the pediment which crowned that part of the structure, 

 and both harmonized and contrasted so admirably with the rest. Nei- 

 ther Newgate, however, nor the Giltspur Street Compter (which is 

 also by Dance) obtained a place in the Fitruvius Britannicus, before 

 referred to; although we there find both the Clerkenwell Sessions 

 House, and the Trinity House — the latter by Samuel Wyatt the 

 brother of James, and a building possessing more of mere prettiness 

 than of either dignity or beauty; whose windows are strangely dis- 

 proportioned to the order, and the dressings of some of them ex- 

 ceedingly scanty — in fact, little better than a few meagre mouldings. 



Though the names of several architects are mentioned by him, the 

 writer of the sketch in the Pictorial England scarcely adds any in- 

 formation respecting them, and he is very sparing of dates. In one 

 instance, indeed, we learn from him what we were not aware of before, 

 namely, that the India House is not by the person to whom it has 

 hitherto been universally ascribed ; for we are here told — 



"Henry Holland was distinguished by the patronage of George 

 Prince of Wales, who prefigured the sort of encouragement the fu- 

 ture monarch was likely to bestow upon the arts, by employing him 

 upon that extensive structure of lath and tiles, the Pavilion at 

 Brighton. In 1784, he altered Carlton House, and to him was due the 

 facade, pleasing and harmonious in all its proportions and details, 

 with its beautilul portico, turned to a legitimate purpose by affording 

 shelter for carriages. Holland built Drury Lane Theatre, destroyed 

 by fire in 1809; and the facade and hall of Melbourne House at 

 Whitehall, which remains a memorial of his refined taste. He was 

 likewise the author of the India Home, usually attributed to Jupp, 

 who was surveyor to the company at the time it was built. It is a 

 common-place design, and the portico ill-assorted to the wings ; but 

 porticos were now coming into vogue, which made the impropriety 

 of their association a matter of no importance." 



This last observation is just enough, for we have since had porticos 

 stuck to almost every thing of any size — even to Bedlam, and that 

 not only with utter disregard of propriety as to purpose or character, 

 but so as to be completely at variance with all the rest. We are glad 

 to find honourable mention made of the fa9ade of Melbourne, now 



Dover House: it is, indeed, upon far too small a scale to tell at all to 

 advantage, where it is placed, for it there shows as a mere bit, and is 

 in fact so small, that the intercolumniation of the portico is of neces- 

 sity much wider than it ought to be : still it is marked by much ele- 

 gance of taste, classical feeling, and artistical quality. Nevertheless, 

 this piece of design is excluded from the New Vilruvius Britannicus, 

 and the same is also the case with Carlton House, while so many un- 

 interesting and exceedingly poor subjects are admitted into it. 



We shall probably return to the subject when it is resumed in the 

 Pictorial with reference to which we have been speaking; and we 

 suppose that the next chapter of the kind will be the final one, and 

 will continue the history of English architecture down to the end of 

 the first quarter of the present century. 



Marine Steam Engines in the Royal Navy, 



A letter has been addressed to the Lords of the Admiralty on this 

 subject, and printed, which is likely to excite a good deal of public 

 attention and much controversy among the members of the engineer- 

 ing profession. Mr. Alexander Gordon, the author of it, is, it is well 

 known, the agent of Napier of Glasgow, and consequently, as he sug- 

 gests, his testimony is open to the imputation of some bias, and he has 

 been induced to bring forward this pamphlet on the occasion of some 

 Parliamentary returns, which he has obtained through the medium 

 of the Hon. Captain Gore. We need scarcely say that the statistics 

 of marine steam-engines are of great importance, both to the nation 

 and the mercantile interests, and particularly at a period when one- 

 fourth of our coasting trade is carried on by the means of steam 

 vessels, and when there is such certain prospect of its still further 

 increase. The deficiency of steam statistics, is, however notorious; 

 and those obtained by Mr. Gordon and Captain Gore are not calcu- 

 lated to alleviate the evil. They are, as we shall subsequently show, 

 deficient in the most important details, and arranged so as to produce 

 particular inferences. If they were not intended to suit particular 

 objects, why is it that the return is limited to the vessels named in 

 the order, and not extended to all vessels contracted for within the 

 period of the last ten years? Had this been done, we should have 

 had the Medea, Hydra, Gorgon, Driver, and others, now all kept care- 

 fully out of sight, but most necessary for the purpose of instituting 

 anv fair comparison, or deducing sound conclusions. Why have 

 we not the dimensions of the engines, the tonnage and dimensions of 

 the vessels, and the consumption of coals? 



Again, we have a return of the cost of repairs without any state- 

 ment of the service on which the vessel has been placed, whether in 

 war service or merely steaming about the coast. Mr. Gordon has 

 himself said enough to show the many circumstances which interfere 

 to prevent a fair comparison being drawn, or fair play being given to 

 machinery ; but there are many others no less calculated to show 

 the danger of a comparison of the value of a vessel from the cost for 

 repairs, when the circumstance of the expediency of a vessel is cal- 

 culated to put it on more severe service, and thus rentier greater 

 repairs necessary, while an inefficient vessel is shelfed, and thus has 

 neither service nor repairs. 



Under all these circumstances we must protest against any in- 

 ference being drawn from these very suspicious returns — so incom- 

 plete that on their appearance they deterred us from making use of 

 them. That the government have unconsciously lent themselves 

 to this imperfect mode of inquiry we are convinced, and we trust 

 they will not leave it to individual members of the House in the 

 ensuing session to perpetuate this system, but that they will render 

 that protection to the marine engineers of the country by the publica- 

 tion of accurate and comprehensive returns, which are imperative as 

 an act of justice, after a statement so very injurious, from its incom- 

 pleteness, has been put forth to the world. We call for this as an 

 act of justice to the marine engine builders of the Thames, the 

 Mersey, and the Clyde, and as a communication of information ren- 

 dered indispensable by the growing wants of the commercial steam 

 marine, and by the necessity of enlightenment upon this subject to the 

 government itself. Within the last three years not less a sum than 

 2,000,000 have been expended by the government and the great steam 

 ship companies upon the construction of vessels of the largest class and 

 greatest power. A vast annual expenditure under this head has now 

 commenced, and, as a matter of national economy, it is expedient that 

 we should be able to profit by all the experience of the past. Let us 

 have the dimensions and weights of the engines, the number of 

 strokes they perform, the mean velocity of the vessel, the quantity of 

 fuel consumed, the length of engine room, the contract price, the ton- 

 nage and dimensions of the vessel, the peculiar service for which in- 

 tended (as the Niger expedition,) for instance, what service the vessel 



