108 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Aprii. 



line of large boats across the river, he made use of them as a coffer- 

 dam or lireakwatcr, and iiuder the shelter of them, passed over the 

 troops in canoes, and swam over the horses, which were guided along- 

 side of l!.e vessels hy nieii stationed on hoard of them. 



At Xew Carthage (Carthagena) in Spain, one of their principal 

 colonies, we again hnd traces of their engineering works, between the 

 lake and the sea they cut a narrow navigable canal, and across this 

 there was a bridge used by carriages and beasts of burden. In the city, 

 one of the hills was dedicated to Aletes, who is said to have obtained 

 divine honours, from having first discovered the silver mines, which 

 were extensively wrought by the Carthaginiixns in Spain. 



'jHEJK i..\()l.\KEl!IN(j — BlilUGES — PBCENICE — PSOI'HIS. 



hi Kpirus we find mention of a bridge, wliich seems to have been 

 after the fashion of that at Babylon, mentioned in our first article, and 

 to have been of a class common among the ancients. Tliis was at 

 Phupnice, and had piers of stone with moveable planks laid upon it. 

 At Psojihis in Arcadia a bridge is mentioned over the Erymanthus, a 

 great and rapid stream. 



CAU.SKWAV — AMBRACUS. 



Arobracus in Etolia is described as a fortress cf considerable strength 

 situated in the middle of a marsh, and secured by a wall and outworks 

 It was only to be approached by one narrow causeway. It was be- 

 sieged and taken by Philip king of Macedonia, who carried causeways 

 through the marsh. 



sizii or i'Ofi-i'S. 

 Speaking of Tichos, a fortress near Patrae, Polybiiis says that it was 

 of no great size, being not more than a stadium and a half in circum- 

 ference, so that it might have sides of eighty yards in length. 



ENGINEERS. 



Among the supplies furnislied by the Rhodians to the Sinopeans in 

 their war against Mithridates,* engineers are mentioned, and military 

 engines. 



REBUILDING OF HHODES. 



On the destruction of Rhodes by an earthquake, large supplies were 

 sent by the allies of that city in order to enable them to rebuild it. 

 Among these supplies Ptolemy, king of Egvpt, sent forty thousand 

 cubits of square pieces of fir; a hundred architects, and three hundred 

 and fifty labourers. Antigonus sent them ten thousand pieces of tim- 

 ber, that was proper to be cut into solid blocks from eight to sixteen 

 cubits : five thousand planks of seven cubits ; three thousand weight of 



iron. Seleucus his father sent ten thousand cubits of timber Other 



parties sent in the same proportion. 



Building materials seem to have been considered as of great value, 

 for in case of the sacking of tow ns the timber and tiles were frequently 

 carried otT. 



EPISODES OF PLAN. 



(Continued from page 7i.J 



Ali ilot'Gii they may seem to betray a consciousness of the weak- 

 ness of our cause, upon the principle of qui excuse, dccuse, we have con- 

 sidered the preceding remarks necessary, in order to combat the 

 opposition which the system we would recommend is likely to encoun- 

 ter. But it would be a positive weakness on our part, were we to 

 assume u deprecatory and apologetic tone, as if we had misgivings of 

 our own, and accordingly threw ourselves entirely upon the indulgence 

 of our readers, for presuming to bring forward what its novelty alone 

 may be thought to condemn. The starting matters altogether so new 

 is in itself an act of presumption, if merely because it is a tacit re- 

 proach upon the indolence, the indifference, or ignorant carelessness of 

 those, who, having had the opportiuiity, have never touched upon, or 

 called attention to them ; consequently sinning as we do to that extent, 

 we mav dispense with vihat would be as troublesome to ourselves, and 

 :is impertinent towards our readers, as it would be useless.— namely, 

 any affectation of modesty. 



Be it said that opportunities for applying any striking combinations 

 of plan, even in the way of episodical parts in a building, are of rare 

 occurrence, that ought to be a i-aiS07i dc plus wherefore every thing 

 like an opportunity should be eagerly caught at, and turned to the ut- 

 most account. So far from which being the case, it ajjpears to be 



• PoIybiBs book 4, cliap. 5. 



especially shunned. There are some hundreds of seats and residences 

 throughout the country, from which, putting them all together, hardly 

 half a dozen fresh ideas are to be obtained. That they may be " goodly 

 iiouses," — well built, and containing well proportioned^ expensively 

 and luxuriously furnished rooms, is not denied. Their plans mav be 

 perfectly unexceptionable as regards comfort and convenience, — ^free 

 from aught amounting to a fault, or even to a blemish, nevertheless as 

 insipid and uninteresting as possible. Look at the majority of the 

 plans given in Richardson's Vitruvius Britannicus, — which, it mav be 

 presumed, are rather above than under the average: do they offer a 

 single happy architectural point worth studying ? Yet in houses of 

 the class there shown, some merit of that kind might reasonably enough 

 be expected. Tlie chief lesson to be derived from them is that both 

 their employers and architects themselves are satisfied with the very 

 first ideas that come io hand — and the hand seems to have more to do 

 with such matters, than the mind. Exceptions, it is true, are to be 

 found ; Tel they are merely the rari nantes in gurgite ros/o; — which 

 circumstance, however, much as it is to be regretted in itself, has its 

 convenience, because all the examples of that kind might be collected 

 together within a moderate compass; and it has frequently struck us 

 as rather singular that no one should hitherto have brought out a pub- 

 lication devoted entirely to a series of studies of interior architecture, 

 elucidated not only by plans and sections, but perspective views also, 

 for the purpose of showing effects. Of course we would have only the 

 very cream served up, without a particle of that " thrice skimmed 

 sky-blue," which architectural caterers are too much in the habit of 

 imposing upon their customers. 



Were it properly got up, some such work as what we liave just 

 pointed out, would be found eminently instructive, particularly if ac- 

 companied hy penlimenti and rurtutions of the plans (in wood-cuts), 

 showing the same general ideas differently modified, ft is true, some- 

 thing of the kind may even now be picked up out of architectural pub- 

 lications ; but then it is net from such as are to be met with in a mode- 

 rate collection, or as are likely to fall in the way of students. Neither 

 are such subjects satisfactorily elucidated, when they occur merely as 

 parts of general plans and sections, in which latter far more is some- 

 times left unexplained and doubtful, than is actually shown. It may 

 be said, and very truly so, that the want of any work of the kind has 

 not been felt, or else we should have had not only one, but a number 

 of them ere now, as in all such cases supply invariably keeps pace with 

 demand. Yet, if this cannot be disputed, it seems to us only an addi- 

 tional proof of the utter disregard paid to tlie subject itself; as if any 

 thing would do for interior architecture, and that nothing more is re- 

 quired in the way of designing than to be able to draw the doors, 

 chimney-piece, and cornices of the rooms in a section. An architect, 

 it would seem, requires no instruction for designing the interior of a 

 building, except what he can gather from his own observation and 

 practice; positive lessons and studies for the purpose, are quite unne- 

 cessary. There he may safely be left entirely to his own guidance ; 

 although, if such be the case, we do not see, wherefore so many finical 

 rules should be deemed necessary for even the most trivial circum- 

 stances in external architecture,— more es])ecially as those petty rules 

 are after all little better than impertinences, for those who are worthy 

 of the name of artists are guided by something better, while those who 

 are not, blunder on hv help of rules, pretty much as they would blunder 

 on without them. Hardlv can it be said that there is less occasion for 

 the student's directing his attention to interior arrangement and design, 

 than to exterior architecture, there being, according to the doctrine of 

 chances, quite as much probability that he may have at least one op- 

 portunity of displaying his taste and ability in planning and decorating 

 a moderate sized yet recherche residence, as that he will ever be called 

 upon to erect a |)alace, a senate-house, a cathedral, a museum, or in 

 short any one of those //heni.rts upon which academical students are set 

 to work their wits before they are capable of producing a single new 

 idea on a moderate scale. — To be sure there is less study required for 

 producing something catching on a large scale, where the "lion's-hide" 

 pompousness of the subject conceals the inanity and poverty of the 

 conception. 



Probably the remarks we have just made, will be considered quite 

 irrelevant and impertinent; and that they are somewhat ungracious 

 we admit — would to Heaven! thev could be proved to be utterly un- 

 founded and unjust! — But of introductory observation our re.iidershave 

 by this time had enough — more than may be altogether palatable; it be- 

 hoves us therefore, now to come at once to our professed subject ; 

 which is, indeed, one both so new in itself, so complicated, and of such 

 extent, as to render the task we have undertaken rather an embarras- 

 sing one. We do not pretend, however, to treat it systematically, 

 proceeding gradually from the simplest elements of plan', to the most 

 varied combinations of them; but shall merely in the first instance, 

 enumerate some of the leading circuinitanoes by •which ditferent com- 



