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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



275 



they are extremely valuable ; but as for their being held up as the standard 

 of architectural excellence, and the types from which our present buildings 

 are to be formed, it is a moustrous absurdity, which has originated in the 

 blind admiration of modern times for every thing Pagan, to the prejudice aud 

 overthrow of Christian art and propriety. 



The Greeks erected their columns, Uke the uprights of Stonehenge, just so 

 far apart that the blocks they laid on them would not break by their oxuri 

 weiyht. The Christian architects, on the contrary, during the dark ayes, with 

 stone scarcely larger than ordinary bricks, threw their lofty vaults from slender 

 pillars across a vast intermediate space, and that at an amazing height, where 

 they had every difficulty of lateral pressure to contend with. Tliis leads me 

 to speak of buttresses, a distinguishing feature of Pointed Architecture, aud 

 the tirst we shall consider in detail. 



It need hardly be remarked that buttresses are necessary supports to a 

 lofty wall. A wall of three feet in thickness, with buttresses projecting three 

 feet more at intervals, is much stronger than a wall of six feet thick without 

 buttresses. A long unbroken mass of building without Hght and shade is 

 monotonous and unsightly ; it is evident, therefore, that both for strength 

 and beauty, breaks or projections are necessary in architecture. \Ve will now 

 examine in which style. Christian or Pagan, these have been most successfully 

 carried out. Pointed architecture does not conceal her construction, but 

 beautifies it : classic architecture seeks to conceal instead of decorating it, 

 and therefore has resorted to the use of engaged columns as breaks for strength 

 and effect; — nothing can be worse. A column is an architectural member 

 which should only be employed when a superincumbent weight is required 

 to be sustained unthout the obstruction of a silid wall ; but the moment a 

 wall is built, the necessity and propriety of columns cease, and engaged 



columns always produce the effect of having once been detached, and the in- 

 termediate spaces blocked up afterwards. 



A buttress in pointed architecture at once shows its purpose, and diminishes 



naturally as it rises and has less to resist. An engaged column, on the con- 



[ trary, is overhung by a cornice. A buttress, by means of water tables, can 



j be made to project such a distance as to produce a fine efiect of light and 



I shade. An engaged column can never project far on account of the cornice, 



and all the other members, necessarily according with the diameter of the 



column, would be increased beyond all proportion. 1 will now leave you to 



judge in which style the real intention of a buttress is best carried out'. 



I have yet to speak of flying buttresses, those bold arches, as their name 

 implies, by which the lateral thrust of the nave groining is thrown over the 

 aisles and transferred to the massive lower buttresses. Here again we see 

 the true principles of Christian architecture, by the conversion of an essential 

 support of the building into a light and elegant decoration. Who can stand 

 among the airy arches of .\miens, Cologne, Chartres, Beauvais, or Westmin- 

 ster, and not be filled with admiration at the mechanical skill and beautiful 

 combination of form which are united in their construction .' But, say the 

 modern critics, they are only props, and a bungling contrivance. Let us 

 examine this. Are the revived pagan buildings constructed with such superior 

 skill as to dispense with these supports .' By no means ; the clumsy vaults of 

 St. Paul's, London, mere coffered semi-arches, without ribs or intersections, 

 hace their flyiny buttresses ; but as this style of architecture does not admit 

 of the yreat principle of decorating utility, these buttresses, instead of being 

 made ornamental, are concealed by an enormous screen, going entirely round 

 the building. So that in fact one half of the edifice is built to conceal the 

 otiier. 



Section of a Pointed Church, with the Flying Buttresses decorated. 



Although we will not go so far as to say it is inconsistent with cor- 

 rect principles of taste to introduce columns merely for the sake of 

 decoration,— a doctrine which il consistently and strictly followed up, 

 would put us out of conceit with the ornamental parts of many Gothic 

 structures also ; — we certainly do agree with Mr. Pugin in the main. 

 Beautiful as we consider Grecian architecture to be as regards its 

 mere forms, we have always felt it to be exceedingly iorne ana limited 

 in expression. The whole of it lies in a very narrow compass; it ad- 

 mits of scarcely any combinations; it may, in fact be said to be stereo- 

 type. Like a barrel-organ it can play only a single set of tunes, which 

 however agreeable they maybe at first, become tiresome by repetition. 

 Antiquarian travellers visit Lycia and other parts of Asia Minor, aud 

 merely return with mare's-nest discoveries of what we may find just 



Section of St. Paul's. London, a Church built in the revived Pagan 

 style, with the Flying Buttresses concealed by a Screen. 



as well, in our own libraries and portfolios ; or if they do chance to 

 meet with something like a new idea for a column or capital, scarcely 

 ever is it turned to account, but we go on with our hackneyed llissu* 

 Ionic, &c., usque ad nauseam. — But we are now improving upon Mr. 

 Pugin, so let us cut short our own remarks, and retuni to him and his 

 book. 



As it will, doubtless, be ere long in the hands of most of our readers, 

 who will then have the advantage of the numerous illustrations as well 

 as the wliole of the text, we shall not attempt to follow its author step 

 by step ; therefore, passing over many clever original remarks in re- 

 gard to ' mouldings,' and the "use of the splayed form,' &c., we shall 

 notice his free animadversions on the preposterous absurdities passed 

 off by fashionable upholsterers, cabinet-makers, and paper-hangers as 



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