1843.] 



THE CIVIL ENGlNEftll AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



33 



name being mentioned, is not surprizing ; but it is somewhat singular 

 that the architect of the Fitzwilliam Museum should have consented — 

 not to lend his name to the Professor, but to allow it to be formally 

 made known that he acts in such subordinate capacity on so trifling 

 an occasion. It certainly amounts to a formal acknowledgment on 

 his part that there would be nothing objectionable in occasionally 

 deviating from the present system, and applying to amateur archi- 

 tects for designs, and trusting to them for all matters of imagination 

 and faste, a professional man being employed merely to execute the 

 ideas of the other. That such course would be wholly preposterous 

 and unwise, we do not say; on the contrary, we are of opinion that 

 had there been some "Professor Willis" to many of our public build- 

 ings, they would have been far more satisfactory, in point of design, 

 than they now are — perhaps the British Museum among others. It 

 might, therefore, be not altogether amiss, were professional men occa- 

 sionally to consult non-professional opinion and taste. 



In the case of the Wisbeach Chapel, these are considerations which 

 give it more importance than it might have else had in itself, because 

 the course which has been adopted seems to emanate from the Camden 

 Society, and the authority they assume and would fain establish for 

 themselves in all matters of Ecclesiology — even to the extent of pe- 

 danlical, busybody interference, and dictation. We may be mistaken, 

 but it does look in some degree as if Mr. Basevi has lent himself, 

 perhaps unsuspectingly, to the views of the Camdenists, in the hope 

 of securing their patronage ; and what he has done may now be set 

 up as a precedent by which others are to be noosed. If the pro- 

 fession once allow that Society to get upon their shoulders, they 

 will find them quite as difficult to shake oft' again, as Sindbad did the 

 accursed old man wdio fastened himself upon his. In regard to en- 

 couraging greater attention to the proprieties of church architecture! 

 the Camdenists may do some good, but they are by far too bigotted 

 and intolerant — rigid precisians, denouncing without mercy whatever 

 does not exactly square with their fanciful, yet starched and straight- 

 laced code of ecclesiological statutes. They appear sadly averse to 

 recognizing as lawful any other style or mode of treating it, than such 

 as are by them privileged: everything else they repudiate as par- 

 taking not only of architectural, but almost of religious heresy. 



As to Professor Willis, he has distinguished himself as an able and 

 intelligent architectural antiquary, notwithstanding that Mr. Gwilt has 

 not thought his " Remarks on the architecture of the Middle Ages," 

 worthy of being enumerated along with other publications of that 

 class; but of the Professor's skill or taste in design we are unable to 

 form an opinion, for the wood-cut of the Wisbeach Chapel, given in 

 the Cambridge Jldnrliser, is so miserably drawn, that no reliance 

 can be placed upon it. Making the utmost allowance, however, for 

 that, the design itself looks very queer, and as if it greatly needed 

 touching up by Mr. Basevi, unless together with bad drawing positive 

 mistakes have been committed. 



OBSERVATIONS ON ARCHITECTS AND ARCHITECTURE. 



By Henry Fulton, M.D. 



No. 1. 



In the present era of improvement and invention, the science of 

 architecture is least improved and least understood. I have conversed 

 with many persons well conversant with all the other branches of art, 

 who on the introduction of the subject, have met it with "Oh, I 

 know nothing of architecture." I have met architects, who acknow- 

 ledged they had no professional library; and I believe they felt this 

 as no loss, for they seemed to consider any drawing tastefully got up, 

 and calculated to catch the eye of their employers, quite good enough: 

 in short, want ol knowledge in the employer, begets carelessness in 

 the employed. Peeling this strongly, I ventured in 1842 to deliver a 

 public lecture ' on the subject, to which the architects of Dublin were 



1 See lecture in Journal, Vol. V., p. 78 . 



invited; but they met m conclave, and decided net to countenance the 



attempt of a mere amateur, or even to permit their pupils to attend, 

 alleging that it was quite improper for a physician to attempt giving 

 a lecture on architecture. The intention of delivering a course of 

 lectures was announced. Why has it been given up ( It was de- 

 clared publicly that " the highest in rank in Italy were not ashamed 

 of being professors of an art which Vilruvius taught and 1', ill, olio 

 adorned." Are the architects of Dublin now ashamed of Vilruvius 

 and Palladio ? 



Unless we look for something better than the works of either Pal- 

 ladio or Vitruvius, the science of architecture will profit but little ; 

 and as contrasted with the taste displayed in the Parthenon, the Pan- 

 theon of Agrippa, or the Minster at York, should only be considered 

 as a mere trade in building, and not as one of the tine arts : and its 

 professors, instead of ranking with painters and sculptors, should be 

 classed with decorators and wax-work wig-block makers. 



It is to be regretted that traces of this Palladio mania are to be 

 found in too many of our edifices in London. If Palladio had not 

 adorned his buildings with coupled columns, would we have had them 

 in the exterior of St. Paul's ? If Palladio had not placed portico over 

 portico, would Sir C. Wren have left us — not us, but feathered bipeds 

 — an aerial entrance facing Ludgate Hill? If Palladio had not 

 misplaced pediments, calculated only for the terminus of a gable end, 

 over his windows, would we have them, both acute and obtuse, stuck 

 in every possible variety, over those of the banquetting hall, and live 

 hundred other halls and houses in London ? If Palladio had not re- 

 velled in rustic quoins and rustic fronts, would we have had these re- 

 ceptacles of dirt and dust meet our eye so often in our streets 3 If 

 Palladio had not crowned his cornices with balustrades, would we 

 have had these caricatures of columns entering into composition called 

 Grecian? If Palladio had not broken up all his buildings and all his 

 cornices, destroying all repose, all dignity, all simplicity, would our 

 own buildings of the present day have presented us with so many 

 examples of the want of dignity, unity, and simplicity ? But we shall 

 not swell this catalogue of Palladian beauties, but proceed to state 

 the grounds of objection to them. 



Corporal Trim's illustration of the disadvantage of placing too 

 many sentinels on one post, may serve us as to the first, as no architect 

 that loved his columns would crowd too many of them together; and 

 further, no employer who loved his purse, would consent to it. One 

 column, well proportioned to the superincumbent weight, is better 

 than two slight ones, and two well proportioned columns are in excess, 

 where one would suffice. It is true the ancients slightly contracted 

 the distance between the columns at the angles of the buildings, but 

 the coupled columns are a caricature of this, when the eye should 

 have uniformity instead of variety. 



Secondly, a portico should be an entrance to a building; and if so, 

 how can the one pair portico of St. Paul's be so considered, unless for 

 a set down from an aerial machine? but it will be time enough to 

 provide for such contingencies when the plans for the machine itself 

 shall be matured, and in the meantime, let us recollect the point of 

 view in which columns should appear, and not violate good taste by 

 placing them too high, either on stilts, or by making one row of co- 

 lumns and its architrave support another set and accessories. 



Thirdly, a pediment is a true and legitimate termination, crowning 

 the gable of a building in its entire extent; and according to the laws 

 of fashion, a hat is a proper crown for a man's head : but it by no 

 means follows that a hat is a suitable ornament (however diminished) 

 for his shoulder, his eye-brow, or his upper lip: neither should the 

 hat be of such dimensions as only to cover the centre third of the 

 caput. But that great authority, Palladio, turned these window pedi- 

 ments to more account than his followers now do, for he placed a 

 colossal figure in a half-sliding, half-reclining, though perilous posture, 

 on each side, like two sentinels on one post. Improve on this, I be- 

 seech you, ye Palladians, and place one figure, astride your door and 

 window pediments, and turn them forthwith into hobby horses. If 

 Mr. Barry had left out of the design for the Reform Club House those 

 miserable window pediments ami the rustic quoins, that building 



