1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



145 



In the bridge of Marlorell in Spniii, there are arches both of the 

 semicircular and the pointed form. From the drawing in De hi Borde's 

 work it appears tliat the gothic arcli (which is of 133 Frenc-h feet 

 span) is an enhirgenient of tlie water way, for tlie stones of two circuhir 

 arches where it exists, are reinainini;, and exluliit (lie ancient work 

 which was probably Roman. The arch is from the highest part of the 

 soffit to the water TO French feet. De la Borde does not say wdien 

 this arch was constrncted, but its magnitude renders the time of its 

 being built a matter of interest in a ijueslion as to the origin of its 

 form, for it would be wonderful if the .Saracens had employed this 

 mode of building, de novo, when an arch of less elevation would liave 

 better answered the purpose of a public way, and their Arabian or 

 even Moorish origin was not likely to lead them to construct bridges 

 of great span and height over the water w'ay, there being little neces- 

 sity for such edifices iu their own country. 



The first crusade was subsequent to the Council of Clermont in 1095, 

 and it was at this council that the banner of the cross was assumed, 

 from this assumption of the form of the Latin cross, it is probable that 

 the plan of most of our catliedrals was adopted. None of the churches 

 of Wisby have this shape, although there exist the repeated ])illars, 

 arches, an 1 groins. The most ancient churches, viz. the church of 

 Stukelev, that at Cambridge, and those of Northampton and the Tem- 

 ple, with the chapel at Ludlow, are totally diflferent. 



When the slender pillars were used it became necessary to employ 

 the buttress, Mr. Samuel Ware* has successfully shown their import- 

 ance, there is little appearance of their employment in the buildings 

 of Wisby, where the pillars are of greater bulk and better calculated 

 to support stone vaulted roofs. Stone groins certainly existed in this 

 country at an early period, but they are confined to the crypts, and 

 particular parts of buildings. The church of Stukelev does not ex- 

 hibit any appearance of a stone arch in the main part c.f the building 

 which has a wooden roof, and the Temple church has a wooden roof 

 both over the circular part and the body, both which roofs are ex- 

 tremely ancient, anil verging into great decay, though of the finest 

 oak. 



It may be deserving of inquiry as to where the largest and most 

 perfect groin exists, domes are of greater antiquity, perhaps the groin 

 of Julian's palace at Paris is that best known in this part of Europe. 



I w ill conclude these observations by referring to the correspondence 

 which has taken place relative to the ruins of Wisby with Major Gerss 

 of Stockholm, by w liich it will appear that for the sura of SO/, numerous 

 dravvings can be supplied. The printed documents which were pro- 

 cared by ray sun at Stockholm, accompany this paper, together with a 

 transhition of a short history of Gothland and Wisby, the general map 

 of the country will exhibit the situation of the island and the city, and 

 the appendices afford various authorities of its antiquity and destruction. 

 The lithograph plan of the city of Wisby will show the situations of 

 the various churches and Wisby Klingwalls. Parts 1 and 2 will exhibit 

 the buildings which have formed the subject of an intended work, but 

 which has not gone beyond these two portions of it. It is to be hoped 

 that it will be continued and improved upon. 

 January 30, 1S4 1. 



A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON PALLADIO. 



.\DDRESiEl) TO MR. CROKER, &C. &t. 



I had hopeil to have pursued a train of thought upon Palladio and 

 his school, without startling one critic into life. Like a young and 

 cautious mariner, I ventured not far into the open sea, because I knew 

 critics were afloat, and because I knew them armed with every classic 

 weapon of attack. These gentlemen, like pirates grown old in their 

 ugly warfare, are ever to be found on the ocean of taste, whilst, with 

 weapons sharpened upon some old ruin, and with prejudice for a war 

 cry, they hunt for every modest searcher after the beauties of Italian 

 art. It was for this reason, perhaps, that a partiality for Palladio 

 seldom tempted me to an invidious comparison; I merely admired a 

 man of original daring, and left a crowd of copyists and purloiners 

 from Athens and Rome to interpret at their pleasure. 



A sail, however, is astern, bearing up the gallant Mr. Croker, who, 

 with spy-glass in hand, finds my rigging defective or my vessel weak. 

 His frown is on me for my late remarks u;ion Campbell and Palladio. 

 He thinks, however, because I cited no examples to support mv fan- 

 cies, that the guns of defence are few, and so his face changes into 

 smiles, and his laughing caution to surrounding friends is "risuni tene- 

 atisl" Now this amusing merriment in the critic amuses me, and 



Sre his « oik. " A Treatise on the Projiprlies of Arches and their Abut- 

 it Pieri.'' By Samiel 'Ware. Architect : Ix)ndon, 1809. 



were it not for the singular attitude of his pen at the conclusion of 

 his letter, I should have passed from his comment with a smile. Mr. 

 Croker's pen is made to sus|)end itself in threatening shape over me, 

 to alarm and intimidate my o;vn. Perhaps, however, it mav be that 

 the awkw-ard little feather which Mr. Croker handles, is conscious of 

 its intended misappropriation, and very properly shocked at the injurv 

 it is likely to inflict upon the fame of Palladio, forsakes his hand. 

 But why does the conscious sensitive thing hang over me ! Perhaps 

 to warn me of a future attack. Mr. Croker evidently imagines his 

 quill an object of terror, and so makes no small effort to direct rae to 

 it; but upon close inspection I perceive the little creature too harm- 

 less to disturb, and too innocent to vex. 



I do admire Palladio, and if my partiality is a passion, it is a passion 

 more like sentiment than the passion of a childish instinct. I admire 

 Palladio for his daring and originality, for his starting up in the midst 

 of error, when art began to grow fanciful and trifling, for his care in 

 shunning the evils of his time, and borrowing from the beauties of the 

 past. To test Palladio too severely by the models of antiquity, is 

 unfair and impossible, because the modification and change necessary 

 to the structure destroy the parallel. To test, too, Palladio by the 

 mean experiment of subordinate variations, is ungenerous, because 

 Roman architecture itself, imposed with its parts, much more than it 

 charmed i)y its minutiic. Palladio's great achievement, too, was the 

 adaptation of the orders to domestic habitations, in which antiquity 

 became subservient, and in which the whole array of detail was sub- 

 sidiary. One great reason why many condemn Palladio is, because he 

 leads them occasionally into error, and too loosely scatters his deco- 

 ration. Tell them of a palace or a church designed by him, and thev 

 will tell you of an incorrect member or a broken tympanum ; or speak 

 to them of originality, and they will shout for a precedent. The 

 source of beauty, however, may have been misunderstood, and the 

 elements of grandeur may have been mistaken. Beauty belongs to no 

 particular form, but to the harmony of relations blending in that form; 

 and the same principles which adjusted the lovely outlines of antiquity, 

 may enter into the composition of larger and grander objects. Nature 

 supplies such innumerable varieties of beautv, such apposite chanfes, 

 that I wonder iomc cannot perceive the lesson she would teach. These 

 few remarks, arising out of Mr. Croker's observations, are all I wish 

 at present to oft'er. I have not gone coolly into a digest upon Palladio, 

 because at present I have been alluded to merely in the language of 

 general disagreement. My reflections are therefore mere generalities, 

 but capable, 1 hope, of assuming a more connected form, should the 

 objections of a critic assume a sober shape and demand it. I do not, 

 however, allude to Mr. Croker so nuich, for his reflections are gene- 

 rally sound and liberal ; I rather fancy before me, as 1 write, the ene- 

 mies of Palladio's style to whom he addresses his " risum teneatis," 

 and in whose judgment nothing but the antique can please. 

 Jpiil 13, 1S41. 



Fkedisrick East. 



ENGINEERING WORKS OF THE ANCIENTS, No. 4. 



The last author from whom we took was Polybius, who lived B.C. 

 124, the one from whom we now select, Xenophon, preceded him in 

 time, living 100 B.C. 



Persian Exgixeerixg. 



canals — tigris — inundation" — irrigation. 



It is in those works which treat of I'ersia and Egypt that we find the 

 most information as to engineering, for the Greeks, as we have before ex- 

 plained, from geographical position, having no considerable rivers, 

 were not called upon to execute those long canals and large bridges 

 which were of vital necessity to their eastern and southern neighbours. 

 It is therefore in Asia and Africa that we must look for the schools of 

 engineering, of which the practice has been transmitted to us through 

 the Greeks and the Romans. When quoting from Herodotus we before 

 mentioned the Persian canals, and we now take from Xenophon, com-i> 

 mander of the Greek army, what he says on the subject in his work 

 called the Expedition of Cyrus, or Retreat of the Ten Thousand : it 

 being our purpose not to collect what has been said on each individual 

 subject, but to abstract from each author seriatim his separate testi- 

 mony, so as to form in these essays a kind of diplomatic collection or 

 chartulary, from which the student may derive his own materials. Of 

 the plain' of Babylon, our author says,* that in it are four canals de- 

 rived from the viver Tigris; being each one hundred feet in breadth, 



■ Bcok 1st. 



