1S46.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEEERAND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL 



107 



other respects ; and one of the latest of those erected in the metropolis, 

 which sliows very well from one point of view, looks almost ludicrously 

 mean, owing to the body of the church being fully exposed to view on the 

 north side, it being a mere pigmy in comparison with the tower and spire, 

 at the foot of wliich it seems to have squatted down. 



After all, 'show front,' perhaps, might pass, were it not for something 

 much worse, the unpardonable prc/ii' T/ior/s/ of Mr. Wightwick's church 

 being that it is lighted on the sides only by clerestory windows, there being 

 Done in the aisles. This is found fault with as un*Imrch-like, — and if by 

 ' unchurch-like' were meant nothing more than that it dill'ers from what ne 

 are accustomed to see in churches, the epithet would be suitable enough ; 

 but it implies a very great deal more— nothing less than something unbe- 

 coming to, and what ought on no account to be adopted for cliuiches. Vet 

 vrliy not? — more especially if situation requires it, when such mode of ob- 

 taining sufficiency of light in spite of the external obstructions oc(-asioned 

 by surrounding buildings, ought to be prizad as a great advantage in itself 

 atid one immediately derived from the Gothic style, and in efl'ect character- 

 istic of ecclesiastical examples of it. Were it found that an interior 

 tivving no other side windows than clerestory ones, can be but imperfectly 

 lighted, the objection might be considered tolerably valid ; but such cer- 

 tainly does not appear to be the case in regard to Christ Church, because 

 ID the extract given from the Plymouth Journal it is spoken of as being 

 " cheerful as the day," though that may be only a flourish of newspaper 

 rhetoric. Be that as it may, we need not travel to Plymouth to ascertain 

 whether it be possible for a church so circumstanced in regard to windows 

 to be adequately lighted, because there happens to be one now erecting, 

 and fast advancing to completion, near Fitzroy-sqnare, which instances 

 erery one of the points that are deemed architectural heresies aud devia- 

 tions from orthodox ecclesiology in Mr. Wightwick's structure, it being 

 built in between houses, consequently having only a show-front, and being 

 lighted on its sides by clerestory windows only. In regard to tiie Plj mouih 

 structure, it has been assumed somewhat confidently that it must be either 

 insufficiently lighted, or the clerestory windows so enlarged as to become 

 " very prominent features" — of course disadvantageously so. Excess uf 

 size in its clerestory windows is certainly not the fault of the other church 

 just alluded to, for there they consist of very small apenures put in pairs 

 over each arch of the aisles; yet so far from there being any deficiency of 

 light, there seems to be rather too much, and that it requires to be mode- 

 rated by diapered glass, notwithstanding that at present one of the end 

 windows is covered up by temporary boarding before it. Little, indeed, 

 can be said in favour of the interior itself, since it is bare and poor, but iis 

 unsatisfactoriness is certainly not occasioned by there being no windows in 

 the aisles, since were there any, the efl'ect would be rather for the worse 

 than the contrary. 



" We never should expect," it is urged in argument against Mr. Wight- 

 wick's building," to meet with an ordinary skylight in an ancient church," 

 which remark, as far as it has any drift at all, seems to imply that such is, 

 neverlheless, the case in his modern one, although to answer to the name of 

 skjlight at all, his clerestory must be a very exiraordiiianj skylight in. 

 deed. That the exclusive employment of oli-reslory windows, or in other 

 words, of windows placed aloft, so that light streams down into the build, 

 ing, is contrary to the spirit of pointed architecture, is more easily asserted 

 than to be borne out by proof. The efl'ect so produced is certainly a pe. 

 culiar and unusual one, but it has generally been prized accordingly as of 

 rare merit. This it is which if it does not constitute, contributes so greaily 

 to the peculiarand charming efl'ect of the octagon in Ely Cathedral. To say 

 that and similar instances do not answer to the title of ■' clerestory would 

 be only cavilling about words, because the point for actual consideration 

 is, not whether such term can be correctly applied to instances of the kind' 

 but whether such mode of lighting a Gothic interior principally, if not en- 

 tirely, from the upper part of its sides, be contrary to the spirit of the style 

 itself or not ; or if not exactly that, be " un-church-like." That it must 

 inevitably be the latter, and that the character of an interior so lighted 

 must partake of that of an exhibition-room or picture-gallery has been do. 

 cisively taken for granted, else why should the National Gallery be 

 referred to as proving most convincingly that the elfect attending 

 light admitted from above must be " essentially secular.'' Why ! except 

 that single circumstance, there is not a single particular of resemblance, 

 and even in regard to that there is a difl'erence, the rooms alluded lo being 

 lighted by sky-lights or lanterns in the ceilings. Undoubtedly the light is 

 there generally difl'used, because it was intended to be so, neither is "there 

 •ny decided architectural expression or any play of light and shade, there 



being nothing whatever to produce either the one or the other. Does it 

 follow that every other interior into which the light is admitted at all after 

 the same manner as in a picture-gallery or museum, must on that account 

 resemble an apartment of the kind ? Can no diflerences as to style, as to 

 design, as to arrangemeDt, as to fitting up, as to quantity of light, Sec, 

 overcome such fatal resemblance to a secular buildin"' ? 



Had it been intended to judge fairly what striking architectural ex- 

 pression and efl'ect may be achieved almost entirely by admitting light 

 from above, a very secular builduig indeed— namely the Bank of England, 

 might have been referred to as exhibiting a variety of modes and ideas of 

 the kind, all of them attended with diflerences of efl'ect. There might even 

 have been policy in especially pointing to the halls and offices in the Bank, 

 as that would have furnished a very plausible protest against the unseemli- 

 ness, ifnot actual profaneness, of adopting for religious buildings au 

 arrangement in regard to lighting, that could by any possibility be likened 

 lo one desecrated by having been made use of in a temple of mammon. 



It is amusing to observe how readily people allow themselves to be 

 scared by bugbear words aud mere names, 'secularity' is one of them, as if 

 everything in and about a church ought to be totally distinct from, and 

 bear no sort of resemblance whatever to anything else of the same kind 

 employed m buildings of a dilfereut character. If such ought to be the 

 case, we ought to be informed hoiv it is to be accomplished. Some of the 

 leaven of secularity is freely enough tolerated iu churches without 

 scandalizing even the most scrupulous, — coats of arms, for instance 

 monuments with fulsome epitaphs, and other mundane varieties. Rooms 

 with either laulern lights, or with windows only overhead in the upper 

 part of their walls, are not so exceedingly common that such mode of 

 lighting can be regarded as secular and uuchurchlike on that account. 

 And if there be anything at all in symbolism, light from above, proceeding 

 immediately as it were from heaven, while all external objects reminding 

 us of this every-day world are excluded from view, might surely be 

 thought equally appropriate and significaut in a church. It is not denied 

 that side windows in the aisles are characteristic of our ancient churches, 

 and if in modern ones they are made worthy features in themselves, and the 

 character established by precedent can be fully kept up in all other 

 respects, well and good ; but where aisles serve only as recesses for seats 

 and galleries, windows in them chiefly render the deviation from ancient 

 precedent all the more olleni-ive- in fact, a positive^ solecism, exactness 

 being profusedly aimed at under circumstances which render it unattain- 

 able. If we can imitate with perfect consistency, with such thorough 

 observance of former architectural costume, aud with such deceptive fidelity 

 that a modern structure can perfectly counterfeit au ancient one, correct- 

 ness, though after all it amounts to no more than copying, may pass for a 

 merit ; but when altered circumstances require a dilferent mode of treat- 

 ment, it is for the architect to comply with the exigencies of circumstances 

 without forfeiting any of the spirit of the style he adopts, but on the contrary 

 to engraft upon it fresh ideas that may serve as precedent hereafter. Truly 

 it is not every one or any one that can do this ; otherwise architecture 

 would nut deserve the name of Akt. All the more honour therefore be 

 to those who can. 



Ca.n'didus. 



PAESEV'S AIR ENGINE. 



The facility with which unprofessional observers are deceived respect- 

 ing the value of mechanical inventions is really lamentable. The locomo- 

 tive air engine is a case in point. This contrivance was described with an 

 engraving in our last volume, p. 298, and we should have contented our- 

 selves with the notice then given, without again alluding to the subject, 

 but that we find this inveution lauded in newspaper paragraphs as 

 calculated to produce a revolution in the system of locomotion. To the 

 scientific man the language of the paragraphs alluded to will suffice to 

 prove that they are written by incompetent persons, but the general reader 

 has not the same means of ascerlaininj; the value of these encomiums 

 We wish to call attention to a notice which has been forwarded to us by 

 a Dublin Correspondent. The object is briefly to show thht for ajour- 

 ney of thirty miles there would be required 37,200 cylinders full of 

 air, or as many c'u/)(i- /"<■«<, if each cylinder full be a cubic foot, (a very 

 low estimate); and that supposing this air ten limes as niiich compressed 

 in the reservoir as in the ( ylinder the capacity of the reservoir must be 

 equal to one-tenth of the 37,2U0cubic feet; that is, the magazine if eight 



14* 



