1841.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



3.37 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XXXI. 



•' I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the wine's, 

 To blow on wliom I please." 



I. Those who rail against competition, not because competitions are 

 for the most part vilely conducted — most bunglingly also, supposing there 

 to be houestv of intention, or else most fraudulently, as there is fre- 

 quently good reason to suspect, perhaps all but positive evidence to 

 prove — the deciaimers against competition, carefully keep out of 

 sight the mischiefs that have been produced by non-competition. It 

 is impossible to believe that Buckingham Palace would have been the 

 miserable architectural abortion it now is, an object of shame to En- 

 glishmen, and of contempt to foreigners, had others been allowed to 

 measure their talents with those of John Nash. In such case an open 

 competition might not have been at all advisable, but a middle course 

 might have been pursued, and a certain number of those of most like- 

 lihood in the profession should have been invited to send in designs, 

 and every set of drawings should have been paid for except those by the 

 successful architect, who would be amply remunerated otherwise. 

 A thousand pounds a-piece would not, perhaps, have been at all too 

 much : while it would have been sufficient to induce those selected as 

 competitors to exert themselves heartily, it would not have been an 

 extravagant reward, considering the study such a subject would have 

 required, the expenses the competitors must have incurred, and the 

 other engagements they must have neglected or postponed. Sup- 

 posing the number of competitors had been ten — it might have been 

 fewer, the £9,000 would not have been recklessly squandered. Even 

 supposing the result had been precisely the same as at present, we 

 should at least have had the satisfaction of knowing that the bauble 

 we have now got was the very best thing of its kind that was to be 

 had. As it is, there was the saving of a few thousands in the first 

 instance, and we have got John Nash's chef-d'ceuvre — no very great 

 bargain after all, any way, when we take into account the tens of 

 thousands expended in pulling down and re-building, while it was in 

 progress, and afterwards in botching it up and licking it into shape. 



II. The anti-competitionists would do well to consider what sort of 

 design we should have had for the new Houses of Parliament, had 

 there been no competition, but a Nash, a Soane, or a Smirke, been 

 called in, and left to do his best or his worst, and to go on as he 

 pleased without further inquiry. Without much fear of contradiction, 

 it may be affirmed that had there been a competition for the National 

 (jallery, we should have had something better rather than worse than 

 the present structure ; and the same may be said in regard to a great 

 manv other buildings. Of course it must he assumed that the com- 

 petition is fairly manuged, and that there be not only perfect fairness, 

 but the recjuisite taste and judgment also. It is no satisfaction to be 

 assured that the decision has been made to the best of their ability by 

 those with whom it rested, if the choice itself convicts them of utter 

 in;ibility and incapacitv for such office. If associated with bad taste, 

 honesty may do more harm than good in such matters ; yet as far as 

 honesty is concerned, there is very little danger of any mischievous 

 consequences from excess of it, at least not just now, for, if reports 

 may be credited, some very ugly instances of thorough-paced roguery 

 and rascalitv in the management of competitions, have recently taken 

 place. 



III. If no other, there is at least one remarkable peculiarity attend- 

 ing architectural criticism, viz. that so far from endeavouring to be 

 un courant dujoiir, it generally lags most wofully behind-hand, as if it 

 were almost a positive breach of decorum, to discuss the merits of 

 productions belonging to our own times. Why it should be considered 

 requisite to exercise such forbearance towards living architects and 

 their works, more especially, the very reverse of it being freciuently 

 manifested in the case of literary men, actors, artists, &c., it is difficult 

 to understand. Neither is such over-delicacy particularly compli- 

 mentary, since it almost amounts to a confession that it is impossible 

 to speak honestly of the living without also speaking harshly, therefore 

 the critic who would neither give otfence nor compromise his own 

 judgment, has no other alternative than silence. On the other hand, 

 however, Brummagem criticism and puffery are allowed to circulate 

 freely enough ; for though delicacy may witlihold some from giving 

 their opinion unreservedly in the case of architects either living or 

 recently deceased, many there are who do not scruple to cry up 

 almost every thing as a wonder of its kind. With them every goose 

 is a swan, or rather a phoenix. Whatever they are speaking of is, for 



the time being, superlative of its kind. Their chief merit is their im- 

 partiality, since they treat all alike, making no distinction between a 

 Charles Barry and a Richard Brown. Yes, incredible as it may seem, 

 even Professor Brown has his admirers; not long ago a flaring-up puff 

 appeared in a weekly paper on the Professor's "Domestic Architec- 

 ture," bearing testimony to the value of the work, and the varied 

 talent displayed in the designs, " which w'ould afford to the student 

 examples in every style of building" ! Thus a publication which is 

 absolutely pestiferous in taste, and as far as it circulates, is calculated 

 to spread the most vulgar taste throughout the land, not only escapes 

 reprobation, but is actually recommended as an authority and a trust- 

 worthy guide. Pity it is that Pugin did not show up some specimens 

 of bis brother Professor's designs along with " castellated " firegrates, 

 and similar monstrosities. Should Welby not be yet aware of the 

 existence of Brown's publication, we earnestly recommend it to him, 

 for he will find in it some exceedingly piquant tid-bits, tn/er alia, a 

 sample of Egyptian that might very well pass fur one of the plagues 

 of Egypt. 



IV. Want of keeping is so exceedingly prevalent a fault iu archi- 

 tectural design, that it would seem to be the most excusable of any, 

 as being of all others, the one most difficult to be avoided, whereas I 

 should "decide precisely the reverse, it being, in my own opinion, one 

 of the most offensive and the least venial, because that which argues 

 the absence of artistical feeling. In every composition there ought 

 to be some leading features, and some parts of a building will very 

 properly bear to be more ornamented than the rest ; yet this should 

 be so managed that the enstmbk shall appear consistent, and the whole 

 design all of a piece as to taste. Look at the Post Office— there are 

 Ionic columns, but the structure itself is absolutely dowdy in its style. 

 Look at the Post Office, Dublin— there we have another large Grecian 

 Ionic portico attached to a very plain and ordinary house-front. Look 

 at Goldsmith's Hall— the lower half of the design is altogether diffe- 

 rent and distinct in character from the upper one. Look again at 

 Lord Sefton's new mansion in Belgrave Square— within a carriage 

 porch of the very plainest Italian Doric possible, is a doorway of 

 unusually rich design, which, in such situation, looks as much over- 

 dressed in itself, as it causes the columns and their entablature to 

 look plain, even to the appearance of being unfinished. In a new 

 house near Park Lane, I observe there is some approach to the Italian 

 style, the elevation being crowned by a cornice somewhat bolder and 

 richer than usual ; but the windows!— they are in the modern Pseudo- 

 Grecian fashion, with no other dressings than architraves, and those 

 of the very plainest description. In all such cases it looks as if the 

 architect had been obliged to pare down his design in order to save 

 expense, and that, instead of simplifying it consistently throughout, 

 he had merely omitted in execution that decoration which was in the 

 first instance proposed as essential to unity of expression. 



V. Another great and pervading vice in modern design is that so 

 little regard is had tc the sound and legitimate principle of commenc- 

 ing decoration by first applying it to essential features — those arising 

 out of construction, or required by utility and convenience, instead of 

 introducing what is merely for embellishment, while other things that 

 cannot possibly be omitted or got rid of, are left not only plain, but 

 quite rude in appearance, so as to become, by contrast, positive eye- 

 sores. That such errors in taste — such violation of all artistic prin- 

 ciples of composition, should ever be committed, is grievous enough, 

 but that it should be committed so very frequently, and by those who 

 are so fastidious and puritanically pedantic in regard to matters of 

 infinitely less importance, is most grievous and most provoking. 

 Utility and beauty ought to go baud in hand, but should be made to do so 

 after a very different fashion from what is now generally the case, 

 when one half of a design aims at nothing more than unadorned use- 

 fulness, and the other at ostentatious show. Their usefulness does 

 not reconcile us to ugly chimneys and chimney-pots confusedly hud- 

 dled together on the roof of a building — to bare openings for windows, 

 or else having only some scanty common-place mouldings bestowed 

 on them, — to insignificance and vulgarity as regards matters of that 

 kind, while unnecessary and inconsistent, therefore absurd parade is 

 indulged in as regards others. One ill consequence of such unfortu- 

 nate system is that people are satisfied with mere shreds and patches 

 of design, and think it quite enough if they are able to say such or 

 such a part is very good, though the general effect may nevertheless 

 be poor in the extreme, and the whole no better than a jumblb of the 

 most incoherent and contradictory members. 



Progress of Sleam.— We learn that in a short time the merchants of St 

 Pelersbursh will have a direct line ot steam communication, ria the Noitli 

 of Germany, Yarmouth, and this city, with New York.— Bristol Simidard. 



2 Y 



