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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[January, 



being upon the same footing as the other fine arts, architecture has 

 scarcely any public sympathy — there being few, except those who prac- 

 tise it — and not every one among them, who can truly appreciate the 

 powers of architecture, and its poetical value, apart from its prose one of 

 actual utility. Even when the importance of the former happens to 

 be urged on the public on some particular occasion, it is more with 

 reference to disp'av of public spirit, and regard to our dignity as a 

 people, and our national credit, than for the sake of any particular 

 enjoyment proposed to be derived to ourselves from the contemplation 

 of a noble work of art. No one, however, seems to be aware that if 

 architecture is to flourish among us as a fine art, it must be recognised 

 as such, not in words alone, but in a real feeling for it, and that feeling 

 cultivated bv studv. It is rather unreasonable to expect that the 

 public should warmly patronize what they have no real relish for, and 

 what, indeed, their present ignorance renders them incapable of pa- 

 tronizing properly, were they even disposed to do so. They have 

 hitherto been taught to regard the merest plodding mediocrity as 

 talent — the servile mechanical copying of individual features and 

 parts, as praiseworthy correctness, though even nothing of the 

 spirit or character of the originals should be preserved, or if so far 

 at all kept up, be entirely lost sight of in whatever is not immedi- 

 ately borrowed. ' Hence the minimum of talent has frequently suf- 

 ficed for distinguished professional reputation, provided its possessor 

 has been able to get into full employment, and establish himself with 

 the public as the " fashionable architect " of the day. It is not the 

 quality, but the quantity of his works, and their importance as large 

 buildings, which recommend him, and impose upon general opinion. 

 Of those who have been thus "successful," if mere prosperity in 

 their profession can here be termed success, most have shown them- 

 selves to be little more than men of business, and as such clever 

 enough, but as artists, more or less deficient in nearly all that goes to 

 constitute one; for their productions too plainly show no earnest con 

 amore labour — no thorough artistlike study of the subject has been 

 bestowed upon them, no spirit infused into them, and that what merits 

 they may chance to possess are merely those of mechanical routine. 

 Tolerably secure of satisfying their employers, few architect* have 

 laboured to satisfy themselves, or to aim at higher and more durable 

 fame than that which they find comes to them upon cheaper terms. 



Although they might be, seldom is it that moderate opportunities 

 are so turned to account, as to be thereby rendered important ones, 

 so as to give us highlv-finished gems of art — such, for instance, as is 

 the monument of Lysicrates — where the effect attending grandeur of 

 dimensions is out of the question. Even in Gothic architecture, 

 where magnitude and extent are generally held to be indispensable in 

 order to produce due character, many of the choicest and most elabo- 

 rate specimens are to be met with either in moderate sized buildings, 

 or the subordinate parts of larger ones— such as porches, chapels, chan- 

 tries, oriels, and the like, anyone of which shows more study of design, 

 more regard to artistical feeling and principle, than is generally con- 

 sidered requisite for an eutire fabric, let it be as extensive as it may. 

 Whatever an architect has in hand, he should consider it of impor- 

 tance, and endeavour to render it so, by the attention bestowed upon 

 it, as he will always retain a sort of mental property and authorship 

 in it, even should he never afterwards behold his own work. If, con- 

 trolled by circumstances, he cannot do all he could wish, let him at 

 least show that he is capable of producing things far superior; if he 

 cannot indulge, his imagination, or fully carry out his ideas, he may 

 convince us that he has some ideas of his own, and may put in those 

 artist-like touches which — supposing him to be worthy of the name 

 of artist — would cost him very little — nothing, it might be presumed, 

 in comparisou with his self-forbearance in abstaining from them. 



At any rate we ought not greatly to wonder at finding that, as it is 

 not usually employed upon ordinary occasions, architectural talent is 

 frequently found very rusty and out of order when suddenly called 

 for by some extraordinary one. We then obtain little, more than some 

 common-place and hackneyed ideas as usual, only on a larger scale, 

 and spread over a greater surface. Harsh as this opinion may seem, 

 it is but too strongly borne out by the three architectural competitions 

 for the Houses of Parliament, the Nelson Monument, and the Royal 

 Exchange. On each of those occasions, all the designs sent in were 

 exhibited, and the greater majority of them too plainly told that their 



1 As a notable instance of ibis. ue may refer to that extravagantly 

 praised building, St. Martin's Church. The portico and the body of the 

 structure (including the inner wall of the portico, seen through the columns) 

 are most offensively at variance with each other in point of style and taste ; 

 so much so that it may fairly be questioned if the architect really understood 

 or felt the character of what he professed so far to follow. Besides its in- 

 congruity with the portico, all the rest of the exterior is most tasteless in 

 itself— heavy without grandeur, and not only heavy but barbarously un- 

 couth. 



authors had no pretensions whatever to come forward, unless, indeed, 

 they calculated more upon the imbecility of others, than on their own 

 strength. Some of the designs for the Houses — and those not exactly 

 the worst of all, were little better than wdiolesale plagiarisms, un- 

 skilfully put together. It is not to be denied that the subject was a 

 most difficult one — one requiring no ordinary grasp of mind, and fer- 

 tility of ideas ; neither was the Exchange by any means an easy one, 

 considering the very awkward form of the site, and other restrictions. 

 Not so, however, with regard to the Nelson Monument : that was a 

 perfectly ad libitum affair, and altogether free from any conditions, 

 nothing more being required than a noble and appropriate archi- 

 tectural object, full scope was allowed to invention and taste — and to 

 a species of talent that rarely has opportunity of displaying itself at 

 all. Whether the requisite talent kept itself hoarded up, we pretend 

 not to say, but certainly little — if not the minimum of it, showed 

 itself upon that occasion. Of invention there was hardly anything 

 but of tasteless and preposterous ideas, not a few ; some, indeed, that 

 if they did not partake of downright insanity, betrayed hopeless 

 idiocy. What renders that competition the more remarkable is, that 

 a second trial was afforded the artists, after the first one, but with no 

 greater success — at any rate with precisely the same result as before, 

 merely a fluted Corinthian column upon a pedestal — very poor and 

 now somewhat stale conceit in itself, and in this case without any re- 

 deeming qualities in the design to reconcile us to it. 



11 we learn nothing else from competitions, we learn from them 

 that whenever they take place, the profession becomes sensible of one 

 very great disadvantage which their art has to struggle against 

 namely, the all hut entire iguorauce of the public in regard to it, and 

 their inability to form any judgment, although every one is, of course, 

 at liberty to express his own opinion — even those who can scarcely 

 read a plan or elevation. To say nothing of the unfairness so fre- 

 quently imputed to committees and those appointed to decide on such 

 occasions, of their incompetence generally there can he little doubt ; 

 indeed, it would rather be strange were it otherwise — if men, who 

 perhaps have never taken up the studv at all, were able duly to examine 

 all the several designs, and maturely deliberate upon their respective 

 faults and merits. 



This picture of tilings is neither a very flattering, nor particularly 

 encouraging one, but we will venture to assert, neither is it an exag- 

 gerated one. We have pointed out where the main root of the evil 

 lies, and though we cannot look for its being very speedily corrected, 

 there is some prospect of its being overcome. Already are there 

 favourable symptoms and manifestations abroad; and although it yet 

 forms no part of the usual course of education, architectural study is 

 beginning to make its way among the educated classes; as is proved 

 by the various elementary publications, intended for the use of ama- 

 teur students. Hut it also behoves the profession itself to encourage, 

 or to show that they are disposed to encourage, this growing but not yet 

 sufficiently confirmed taste ; and to endeavour to render the study of 

 their art more popular and attractive. It would seem, however, that 

 professional men either are incapable of writing upon matters con- 

 nected with their art in an intelligent and engaging manner, and put- 

 ting oil' the solemn ex-cathedra tone they usually fall into whenever 

 they appear in print; or else consider it beneath them to accommo- 

 date themselves to general or non-professional readers. Those who 

 1 ave published at all, have rarely had in view more than an exceed- 

 ingly limited class of purchasers — wealthy amateurs, who can afford 

 to purchase works which are not only so costly, but so inconveniently 

 large, that their form as well as their price operates almost as a 

 prohibition upon them to all others. This may have arisen from 

 the idea that no class of the public could take interest in or have oc- 

 casion for works of the kind, except those who were likely to have oc- 

 casion to build for themselves in a superior style, and who have ac- 

 cordingly been looked up to as patrons: which appears to us to be a 

 mistaken notion, and withal, rather short-sighted policy. It may 

 fairly be questioned whether the study of Gothic architecture would 

 be a tenth part so popular as it has now become, had most of the 

 publications relating to it been upon the same scale as the Cathedrals, 

 edited by the Antiquarian Society : unimportant as the circumstance 

 may seem in itself, there is little doubt but that the adoption of the 

 ordinary quarto size — which is large enough for almost any purpose, 

 provided there be plates of details, as well as general elevations and 

 sections — has greatly diffused a taste for it, by bringing the study 

 within the reach of those who would else have been debarred from it, 

 or might never have become acquainted with it. 



The time is gone by for that species of literary exclusiveness and 

 ostentation, which was affected in the days of colombier and elephant 

 folios. Like many other branches of literature, architecture must now 

 condescend to consult the convenience and the pockets — not exactly 

 of the " million," but of the " many," unless it not only disclaims 



