1840] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



3\)<J 



DESIDERATA FOR THE MORE ADVANTAGEOUS STUDY 

 OF MEDLEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 



SIr. Editor — In your August numher I read Ihe article on the " Future 

 Development of Mediajval Architecture," wilb much ialerest and gratili- 

 cation, and no doubt very raany of your other subscribers did the same, 

 the good taste, the soundness of judgment, the freedom from all dogma- 

 tising or flippant treatment of opposite opinions, quite led me to anticipate 

 from the paper a thorough knowledge of his subject iu the author, and 

 this the wbole article fully sustained. 



Milh a view to follow up the subject in a practical way, I will venture 

 to put down a few thoughts that have for some time occurred to me, and 

 which jou may perhaps consider worthy of insertion in your valuable 

 Journal. They relate to Ihe necessity there still exists of some well 

 digested compilation, to set forth Ihe choicest examples of really good 

 Mediaeval architecture, both in the mass and combination, and also in the 

 details. This may at first appear a startling assertion, when the number 

 and vast variety of works already published and constantly issuing from 

 the Press are considered, intended to bear upon that professed object. 



So far as I am able to judge of any work I have yet seen, I tliink we 

 have no grammar of the art, as it were, such as we have in all other stu- 

 dies, whereby the student may really begin at the right end as to what he 

 lias to learn, and arrive at the procurement of that elementary knowledge 

 in the shortest possible time. I consider this latter, in their railway era, 

 of real importance. 



From the architectural student of the present day so much will be 

 required, that whatever facilitates his path by enabling him promptly to 

 acquire the mechanical, and helping him quickly to discover or to feel 

 the beautiful, and as readily to repudiate the elaborated though expensive 

 trifle, however ancient, will do much to help forward the future practitioner 

 to a fuller attainment of the style in its highest excellence. 



That much has been done within the last few years, to set up and induce 

 the adoption of the style on a right foundation, must be admitted; and 

 perhaps a condensation of, or a compilation from, existing publications 

 might go far to accomplish what is wanted. Of books we have, I con- 

 sider, far too many — that is, as to the good a student can derive from them ; 

 of those that profess to be initiatory, how much is there iu the best of them 

 of little or no arail for his purpose. We find a beauty of engraving — a 

 costliness of drawing most engaging, — but there is in them all far too much 

 beyond the energy or the attainments of a mere architectural student to ex- 

 pect him to work out ; and, except Ihe treat of frequently reviewing the 

 plates and, perhaps, some general suggestions, he does not derive Ihe help 

 from the work which is most needed by him. 



After much study of the architecture of the Middle Ages, I am satisfied 

 the real practicable and imitative beauties for our adoption are confined to 

 a much briefer epoch thau many of its professors have been disposed 

 to admit: and of Ihese beauties— like all other truths or principles — the 

 simplest, Ihe most obvious, and least intricate of them, are those identical 

 ones most capable of combination and espansiveness. Of the works 

 issued by the several provincial societies, there are none that I have yet 

 seen that will survive as conferring any abiding solid benefit on Pointed 

 architecture ; they all start from the same point, and none advance beyond 

 a parallel degree or stage ; indeed, it appears as though the pleasing illus- 

 tration of the architecture of a district or archdeaconry was their only in- 

 tention. Now this, from the nature of such associations may perhaps be 

 essential to keep up an interest amongst subscribers ; but I have long since 

 thought that a portion of the funds at the command of these societies might 

 be devoted to higher and more permanent advantages. Most of the element- 

 ary or instructive treatises that I am aware of have been undertaken as a 

 trading matter, and as such they must necessarily combine as much for the 

 money as possible, and they must further be made to suit the tastes of the 

 greater number, and here appears to me to result their inadequacy. With- 

 out intending to disparage any work, it strikes me there needs in all of them 

 a much sounder discrimination, to separate the precious from the vile ; and, 

 therefore, a society rot publishing for profit could do what an individual 

 publisher could not. In looking through eien those works most recently 

 issued, or iu course of being so, I am surprised to find the omission of 

 many choice examples infinitely more worth the drawing and engraving 

 than some of the subjects given, and such examples, too, not at all in- 

 accessible. Now, the collective knowledge of a society is likely to be 

 able to gather a much more select assortment of specimens than an indivi- 

 <lual can be supposed to be aware of. I will repeat — what we want i? 

 far fewer, and far more select, subjects. The publishing of whole build- 



ings cannot procure these, for in almost every structure there are many 

 points which the student should be cautioned to avoid, as well as others 

 he should be called upon to admire ; — and therefore why publish faulty 

 lessons instead of unexceptionable ones? Were the several societies 

 moderately to contribute part of their funds to a delegated number of their 

 respective bodies, some half dozen well qualified individuals might unite 

 for the purpose of selecting examples wherever they were to be met with ; 

 to procure their accurate and detailed delineation, suitably figured ; merely 

 giving the place and where attainable, the date, and architect's or church 

 builder's name, without encumbering the work with any topographical 

 particulars, but giving, instead, the reasons for Ihe excellency of the sub- 

 ject, the causes of beauty in Ihe composition, or the feature. The exam- 

 ples need not be expensively engraved, but they should be drawn to a suf- 

 ficiently large scale to be at once obvious and serviceable, as conveying 

 their true portraiture, and to have a form and a substance imparted to 

 them even more speakingly than is sometimes done in many of the exqui- 

 site examples of engraving frequently adopted in the present day. 



The germ of the plan or method of selection is suggested by Pugin's 

 lectures and Palej's moldings; hut it ought not to be a sufficient recom- 

 mendation that the examples be copied from an esteemed structure, or be 

 of unquestionable antiquity ; -its only recommendation should be its es- 

 sential fitness and beauty ; multiplicity of examples, except of the best 

 character, should be most cautiously avoided. 



After treating of details in their order, the work might proceed to give 

 examples of combinations, still excluding or carefully repudiating every 

 part not worth imitating, — and then at the conclusion, some examples of 

 the massing of wbole structures, which many of the Pointed buildings 

 beautifully illustrate, and which Mr. Petit, in his work on Architectural 

 Expression, has so happily developed from the very plainest structures. 

 These might be accompanied with a few simple structures, showing why 

 the effect of a certain mass is rich, and the elfect of another ;joor. 



The labour of the rising school of architects will have to be given to so 

 many objects, that it will not do to direct the student to a choice example 

 merely ; but it must be to the very choicest of any two choice ones, that he 

 may sieze the best first, and leave the second best, and go to something 

 further, — that he may know more, day after day, how to weed bis port- 

 folio of questionable treasures in exchange for cardinal verities, and to 

 give him time to digest these verities and get them thoroughly into him ; — 

 so that after a while he may trust to books less, and himself and his own 

 correct principles more. The multiplication of books, as an architectural 

 publisher admitted to me the other day, was the bane of Ihe age, so far as 

 the student was concerned. 



On the basis of some such principles as Ihese, Mr. Editor, do I consider 

 Mediaeval architecture should be studied ; — to copy merely because the 

 example is ancient, or because the original is associated with circum- 

 stances which can never be imparted to the imitation, is not to advance in 

 architecture — but to retrogacle. 



If these remarks should lead to any practical good, I shall be glad; or 

 should they suggest any hints to au inquiring and industrious architectural 

 student, so as to show him what lies before him, I shall consider my lime 

 not mis-spent. 1 am, Mr. Editor, 



One of jour early Subscribers, 



NoNNUl-LL'S. 



THE GAUGE COMMISSION, 



Analysis of Evidence given before the Royal Commissioners appointed to investigate 

 the sul)ject of the diversity of Itailivay Gauges. 



{Continued from piige 214.) 



George Parker Bidder, Esq.* : Is in the immediate management of 

 the lines in Norfolk, and the Peterborough line. From his connexion 

 with IMr. Stephenson, has more or less information of Ihe lines with winch 

 he is connected. With respect to the great increase of cost which Mr. 

 Gooch says exists upon the narrow gauge lines for the locomotive power of 

 the goods trains, the cost upon the Lindon and Birmingham and the Grand 

 Junction being double what it is upon the Great Western, is prepared lo 

 dispute that fact entirely ; but there are circumstances wliich might ati'ect 

 that comparison as to the particular character of the goods trade. On one 

 hue it niay be necessary lo have trains which may liave to pick up goods 

 at difl'erent stations, so as not lo carry the same load from Ihe terminus, 



* The Editor has felt it his duty to append to this evidence some conNnents, which will 

 be found in thtir proper places, inserted in brackets. 



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