1841.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



97 



for a country squire, we must not have anything clerical at all. In the 

 Gothic cathedral immense length was required to provide for numerous pro- 

 cessions with music, when the effect produced by them is overcoming. Great 

 elevation was also necessary. We always see, therefore, in such buildings, 

 one part of great length, and as the screen was not originally placed where it 

 now is, hut at the entrance, the view was surprising, for wliile we had figures 

 six feet high close to us, in the distance they were reduced to insignificance. 

 If we look at the means adopted to produce elevation, we shall see that, 

 however numerous the divisions of the columns were to provide the strength 

 required, the architects always took care to have some sm.all fillets, which, 

 being continuons from the bottom to the top, and there vanishing into 

 nothing, give the mind a conception of vast and unlimited height. The con- 

 templation of a cathedral of this kind appears, perhaps, much more elevated, 

 and has a greater effect in raising the imaginition than even a mountain 

 itself. 



I know nothing in architecture which contains more composition th u 

 Gothic architecture — the Greek temple of vast proportions perched on an 

 isolated rock is simple and majestic — hut the Gothic cathedral contains an 

 interminable variety of applications from nature. Having said enough on 

 composition in architecture, I may say that it is of no trifling importance to 

 the historical or landscape painter — both will find excellent studies in Gothic 

 architecture. In the combinations of the architect and the artist there is 

 something more required than mere arrangement of parts, for though the 

 Greek architect is limited to such as are symmetrical, the Gothic is not so 

 strictly limited, and the historical painter is called upon for no symmetry at 

 all, yet composition, to have a lasting effect, must operate on the mind, as 

 much as on the eye. We therefore require a combination of poetical feeling 

 with symmetrical arrangement, for to the architect fine feeling belongs as 

 much as to the artist, and although an architect may not have it in his power 

 to make a cathedral, yet he can show nuich of the same qualifications in a 

 small building, in furniture and hangings, or in plaie for a dining room. Plate 

 is generally ordered at the silversmiths to he made after the pattern of that 

 of Mr. So and So, who h.Td It presented to hini for services in tlie East Indies, 

 but as Mrs. So and So, who has never been in India, must have her plate like 

 that of the other individual, it may be m.ide .is similar as possible in shape, 

 and yet far from it in detail, and analogous to the condition of the lady. A 

 case in point occurred to me, I was asked to design a monument for a person 

 who was of a very peculiar character, of good circumstances, had been in 

 trade, and led a very even samely life. The deceased having a relation who 

 had died at the bead of his regiment, a monument was desired for him like 

 his cousin's. Here was the contrast, a quiet merchant and a dashing colonel, 

 however 1 did what I could, and 1 do hope the thing will not he found fault 

 with. If we have a piece of jilate to design, we need not attend most to the 

 weight of the material, hut with lighter materials we may endeavour to give 

 an appearance of quantity, making the ornaments bold, and cutting away 

 metal and material in different places — although, by the by, persons do inquire 

 into the weight of metal. I have known this to be the case with Committees 

 of the House of Commons, where silver has been preferred to bronze, because 

 it would make a difference of 1501. in the value of the material, though the 

 bronze would have cost more in the end, as the cost of the chasing was 

 greater. There .ire severiil things stand much in the way of good composi- 

 tion — want of a fair protection for copyright, and want of judgment in the 

 public. In the many competitions which are advertised every day. the paltry 

 premium offered for the design maybe a hundred pounds, while the profit on 

 he work to be executed may perhaps be thousands. There is a third diffi- 

 culty, and that is want of power, in artists, from the want of fair competition, 

 producing dificiency of high intellect, for those who have the power know 

 better than to exert it on such occasions, they can trust to other ways for 

 making money. 



ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 

 Feb. 8. — Edward Blore, V.P. in the Chair. 



Messrs. G. A. Burn and J. J. Cole were elected as Associates. 



Among the donations was a copy of Mr. Hay's elegant work entitled 

 Illustrations of Cairo, presented by Mr. Greenougb, and Mr. Scoles exhibited 

 an interesting drawing by the late Mr. Bondmi of the Catljedral of St. 

 Peter's at Rome, and St. Paul's, London. 



'J'he constTHction of the stone arch, commonly called the itone beam, which 

 erists beticreti the tamers of Lincoln Cathedral, having been discussed at a 

 [irevious meeting of the Institute without any satisfactory results, from the 

 paucity of data which existed in regard to this curious work of science, Mr. 

 Nicholson. Fellow of the Institute, and resident architect at Lincoln, for- 

 warded the following particulars. The arch is at a height of 80 feet from 

 the pavement, immediately over the junction of the vaulting between the 

 towers and the vaulting of the nave ; its abutments are thus formed by the 

 eastern walls of the two towers. The arch consists of 23 stones of unequal 

 lengths ; the width of the extrados is barely 1 ft. 9J in., the thickness of the 

 ■irch is uniform throughout, 11 inches. The span measured horizontally 

 is '27 ft. 11 in. between its apparent abutments, but the arch probably pene- 

 trates some more recent casing of the tower walls, so that probably the actual 

 horizontal span equals 30 ft. The southern abutment is 1'2J inches higher 



than the northern. This arch has hitherto been considered the segment of 

 an arch ; but the observations of Mr. \icholson led him to the conchision, 

 that it is a pointed one, each half arch being stnick with radii of different 

 lengths, an inequality arising probably from unequal settlement. It is con- 

 structed of stone from the Lincoln quarries, tlie exposed surfaces being 

 wrought with the toothed chisel in a careless manner. The joints are ill 

 formed, and have a mass of mortar full half an inch thick witliin them. The 

 arch vibrates perceptibly, and Mr. Nicholson is of opinion that the practice 

 of visitors jumping upon it in order to produce this vibration, m.ay eventually 

 lead to very lamentalde results. Mr. Papwortli suggested that very probably 

 the arch was constructed by the masons at the time to serve as a fixed mark, 

 by wliich to test the accuracy of the vaidting of the nave, particularly in the 

 groining stones. But Mr. .Nicholson considered this ingenions hypothesis 

 hardly admissable, as the four walls themselves afforded a solid datura by 

 which to control the several levels of the vaultings. 



Mr. Poynter read some admirable practi.'al observations on the construc- 

 tion of observiitories, with which we hope to furnish our readers at full length 

 in some early number. 



Feb. 22.— J. K.w, V. P. in the Chair. 



Mr. G. Godwin was admitted as Fellow, and Messrs. Wood and Clarke 

 were elected as Associates. 



A volume of exquisite drawings by S. Burchell, Esq., of the details of Prior 

 Birde's chantry in Bath .Abbey, and ten guineas from T. L. Donaldson, Esq., 

 secretary for foreign correspondence, were announced among the donations, 

 and two numbers of a very well executed German work on Gothic architec- 

 ture, now publishing at Nuremburg, were presented by Messrs. Black &: Arm- 

 strong, booksellers, of London. This publication is remarkable for the judg- 

 ment with which the subjects are selected, and the tasteful effect with which 

 they are engraved. 



A letter was read from M. Vaudoyer, corresponding member, communi- 

 cating various particulars connected with architecture of recent occurrence at 

 Paris, particularly in regard to Marochetti's monument to Napoleon, which 

 consists of an enormous sphere on a square base, surmounted by an eques- 

 trian st.atue of the emperor with his frock coat and little hat. The style of 

 the monument, and the employment of a foreigner on such a work, has ex- 

 cited much displeasure among the artists of Paris. M. Vaudoyer described 

 a new species of competition, which took place in the time of Louis XVI., 

 who was anxious to complete, in a becoming manner, the Palace of Versailles, 

 then unfinished. Upon the recommendation of Monsieur Le Comte d'.\ig- 

 uillers, five of the most celebrated architects of the period were introduced 

 to the King, wlio explained to them his views and wishes, and called upon 

 them to assist him by their talents in rendering the Palace of Versailles 

 worthy the nation. He assigned to each of them 12,000 francs as a compli- 

 mentary sum, and 3000 francs to cover expences, and gave them S months 

 to prepare their (ksigns. The intention was, when Messrs. Chalgrin. Heur- 

 tier, .'\ntoine, Peyre Jun. and Paris, the architects chosen, had completed 

 their designs to have them exhibited to the public, and then examined by a 

 jury consisting of the candidates themselves and four oti.er architects. Tliis 

 committee were to make individual reports on each, and a general report on 

 the whole, and to select the two best for recommendation to tlie King, wlio 

 was to he at liberty to choose any parts of the other designs, so as if expe- 

 dient to form a new one composed of the chief beauties in the whole num- 

 ber, and which was to be carried into execution by one or both of the two 

 selected by the jury. The designs were m.ide and paid for, but never ex- 

 hibited ; for the storms of the revolutionary period began to clou.] the hori- 

 zon of the arts, and the scheme, so admirably projected, had no positive 

 results. But M. Peyre pubhshed his, in his volume of designs, 1818. 



Mr. Scoles, fellow, read an analysis of Col. Howard \'yse's splendid work 

 on the Pyramids of Egypt. The great pyr.imid covers rather more than 13 

 acres, each side of the square being 764 ft., and the height is 480 ft. 9 in. 

 It is generally supposed that the area of Lincoln's Inn Fields equals that of 

 the Great Pyramid. But it appears that one side of that square brtweeu the 

 houses, being 831 ft. and the other 625 ft. in., its area is less than tliat of 

 the Great Pyramid by about 64,000 square feet. The lieight of St. Paul's is 

 365 ft. or 115 ft. 9 in. less than the Egyptian building. Mr. Stoles then 

 minutely described the mode of construction, the arrangement of the cham- 

 bers and galleries, the objects found, and the chronological history of the 

 erection and events connected with these huge wonders of antique art, tracing 

 it down to the discoveries of the gallant author, and for which we must refer 

 the reader to the work itself. Mr. Ferring, a civil engineer, took tlie di- 

 mensions of these edifices, and Mr. .Vrrundale had the management of the 

 volume, and the preparation of the drawings confided to him by the nninifi- 

 ccnt author. Mr Scoles' description, which was rendered doubly valuable 

 from his own personal examination of these monuments, w,is listened to with 

 much attention, and gave rise to some curious remarks by Jlr. Hamilton and 

 other members. For our part, we cannot help imagining that tliere still 

 remain unexplored chambers in these masses of construciion, and tli.at dis- 

 coveries may still repay tlie patient investigation of future enterprising tra- 

 vellers. 



