40 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[February, 



ON THE STYLE OF BURLINGTON AS COMPARED WITH 

 THAT OF PALLADIO. 



Architecture and its relics betray the character of a people; an 

 evidence in themselves of national credit or misrule, they shed a 

 pleasing truth upon the record of history ; for there is a link between 

 the feudal castle and vassallage, between the stalely palace and in- 

 creasing revenue or commerce, between the more modest villa and 

 a privileged community. Carrying our minds, then, with this pleasing 

 idea, from the castle and the monastery, down to the 17th century, 

 when Gothic began to yield to the influences of Italian art, we observe 

 one architect whose talents, united to rank, justly merit our notice. 

 Comparing him with his great master, we may, perhaps, lessen his 

 claim to originality ; but as a disciple of I'alladio, he will ever appear, 

 for the age in which he lived, an architect of refined taste and of ele- 

 gant mind. 



Burlington, aiming after Palladio and yet captivated by Jones, stands 

 distinguished from both, mingling, as he does, a little from the rich- 

 ness of the latter, with the more grave simplicity of the former. 

 Tamer in his conceptions, the elevation displays nothing of that in- 

 tricacy of parts, or of changing features, resolved and blended into one 

 harmonious whole as in Jones: — his unity is the whole, whilst his 

 parts are fewer. No studied appropriation of ornament compels the 

 eye to any particular part, no lofty feature rises to dignify. The 

 feeling of the artist is never led astray into any redundancy — all is 

 depressed, though carefully disposed. It cannot be said that he is 

 grand, for that excellence is destroyed by uniformity; nor can it be 

 said that I'.e is wean, for his variety, though scanty, is made up of 

 parts as much as of detail. He has his partialities, however, and 

 loves the colonnade, through the openings of which he permits you to 

 see his statues. Of statues, however, as of columns, he is very 

 sparing, and seldom exhibits the former prominently except on the 

 second story. Sufficiently alive to the sentiment of Palladio, he never 

 wearies but always carries you pleased to the wings of the faeade : — 

 but, with here and there the introduction of a balustrade, the relief of 

 a figure, or a special window at the wings, be is content. As an archi- 

 tect we must admire him more for his care than for his ingenuity, 

 more for his adherence to the existing rules of harmony, than for that 

 poetic sentiment, that brilliancy of idea, ever indulging though ever 

 beautiful, displaying features ever new and yet ever subordinate. 



Turning now to the Italian, let us mark his excellencies, which 

 {being imitated by Burlington), when seen, will show how far he iden- 

 tified himself with the' genius of his master. To say nothing of the 

 talent which could change the features of his country's art, by investing 

 it with charms Loth new and various, we might regard him merely as 

 the vigorous restorer of ancient beauty. But, uniting the most sus- 

 picious care with the deepest enthusiasm, this master of combinations, 

 this genius of distribution, swelled tlie proportions and increased the 

 grandeur of design by a system original and true. Friendly to the 

 pedant whilst studying at Rome, but superior to the pedant in his con- 

 ceits and imaginings, Palladio allowed the same principles of rigid 

 adjustment that guided the ancient in his proportions to assist him in 

 his. But the contrast appears in the increased and enlarged concep- 

 tions of the latter as compared with the condensed beauties of the 

 former, different to Burlington who seldom starts into any thing grand, 

 or deals in gradations of feature. If the ancient has unity, expression 

 or variety, so has Palladio. If the one has a subordination of parts so 

 has the other: — the ditlerence is in the extent. That correct senti- 

 ment which assisted the depressed model of antiquity, aided the giant 

 structure of the middle ages, whilst a harmony of relation belongs to 

 the mansions of Palladio, no less than to the temples of Rome. Bur- 

 lington appears, but faintly to realize these ideas of relative beauty, 

 there is no grand feature to which others are subsidiary. In Palla- 

 dio's front the giant superficies displays degrees of importance amidst 

 its many subservient members; and it is not until the more consider- 

 able images have been scanned, that the lesser contrivances are seen. 

 The resemblance in style between Burlington and Palladio is in the 

 smaller auxiliaries only, where the variety is uniform, like rhymes in 

 poetrv, alternately, and where variety has its variety, "like the 

 stanza." 



It must be remembered, in conclusion, that Burlington had to follow 

 the Italiau at a great distance, and to digest a new style at a time when 

 refinement and conceptions of the beautiful faintly existed. Remem- 

 bering this, whilst looking at the monuments of taste he has left us, 

 we see his ready talent, and that pleasing display of native genius, 

 wanting onlv a closer study from the same models, and the same at- 

 tention to the true elements of grandeur to have rivalled, if not to 

 have surpassed him. 



Fkederick East. 

 January, 1841. 



REPLY TO EDER'S REMARKS ON THE ARCHITECTURE 

 OF LIVERPOOL. 



.Sir — Seeing that the remarks of " Eder," on the Architecture of 

 Liverpool have obtained a place in your Journal, and consequently an 

 importance which they had not when they first appeared in a paper of 

 this town, I will, with your permission, examine them a little. 



I w ill agree with " Eder" that the Railway Station is a great failure, 

 but I should much like to learn from him how a front should be de- 

 signed, " which by its outward appearance should tell of the great 

 things going on behind it." 



It is amusing to observe writers like "Eder" laying down dogmas 

 such as "Every edifice should express its object. A church should 

 display gravity and dignity, a theatre lightness and gaiety, a prison 

 rude majesty and sturdy strength, in short every edifice should like 

 the countenance express spirit." "In short," comes inhere very well, 

 for the writer could not furnish another illustration. What should a 

 Bank display ? a Custom House ? a Market? But '• Eder" has solved 

 the latter query by telling us that the Fish Hall " presents a very quiet 

 jilain portico expressive of its object ;" so then on seeing " a very 

 quiet plahi portico," we may rest assured of its being the entrance of a 

 fish market! A few axioms of this kind would render guides and 

 guide-posts unnecessary. Unfortunately, however, the proprietors do 

 not seem to consider the portico "expressive of its object," for they 

 have caused the words "Fish Hall" to be painted in large letters on 

 the architrave. So great is my dullness that I never yet saw a portico 

 which expressed its object, unless that was to keep off the rain and 

 sun. 



Eder calls the " North and South Wales Bank one of the hand- 

 somest in town," it is true that the ground is "irregular in shape," 

 the front being a little more than a right angle, so little however as 

 not to be worth mentioning ; it is also true that the architect has been 

 " compelled to obtain in height what he wanted in superficies, and yet 

 here are (normoiis difficulties overcome, and a handsome building in 

 conclusion remains." The "enormous dijfficully" consisted in building 

 a bank three stories in height. Now for its beauty. The front con- 

 sists of a Corinthian portico »i aiUis, being about three times its width 

 in height, the columns and pilasters are crowded together, between 

 the columns there are a door, and two tiers of windows scarcely large 

 enough for a third rate house ; the front is made about one foot nar- 

 rower than was necessary to obtain less projection in the cornice of 

 one flank, so that by this happy idea you have this foot in width stick- 

 ing on what ought to have been the return of the pilaster, and de- 

 corated with the rustic work, belts, &c. of the flank, which have no 

 connection with the front. This I confess is a " handsome" way of 

 getting over the " enormo\is" difficulty of reducing the ])rojection of 

 the cornice. The flank which is exposed to view is a strange jumble 

 of pilasters, paltry doors and windows of all sorts and sizes, some 

 Greek, some circular headed, some with swelled friezes — scarcely a 

 foot of plain masonry is to be seen here. The architect has rigidly 

 copied the columns and entablature from an ancient example, but he 

 has misapplied and misarranged them, and the order which charms by 

 its lightness and grace, the spectator in the Campo Vaecino, seems 

 here clumsy and heavy, and the substructure does not seem half strong 

 enough to carry the entablature. The ornamental parts of the order 

 are passably executed ; all the others both in design and execution 

 (no man could make those things on the principal door architrave or- 

 namental), are most wretched. To conclude, this building has cost an 

 enormous sum. I shall probably return to this subject, meanwhile 



I remain, your's, &c. 



Seyton. 

 Liverfool, January 19, lb41. 



Ancient Tries of the Spanisli Chestnut. — Although certainly not a native of 

 this country, England produces some exceedingly remarkable specimens of 

 tliis valuable tree, in Betchwork Park, near Dorking, there are some Span- 

 ish chestnut trees of exiraorcUnary size and great age. certainly the largest 

 and oldest in that part of the country. There are about 80 trees, all of lar^e 

 dimensions. The subjoined table exhibits the circumference of some of the 

 largest, taken about three leet from the ground : — 



No. 1 

 2 



No certain record, 1 believe, exists oi the age of these trees, but they are 

 probably coeval with the first Betchworth Castle, founded in 1377, when 

 "John Fitzalan, second son of Richard, Earl of Arundel, had license to em- 

 battle his manor-house here." — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



