188 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[April, 



which have appeared in the Art Joiii-nal, aio open to surli cen- 

 sure; and even the hest of them show very (pieHtionable and so- 

 so-isli taste, and liorrowed ideas — borrowed, moreover, from the 

 worst school, that of the so-called Rococo; wild and capricious, 

 yet imbecile and dull. Instead of grace, or any a])proach to it, we 

 have only grotesqueness and grimace — incoherent shapes tortured 

 into such deformity that only the intrinsic beauty of material and 

 cohmr, together with the fictitious value of cost — which is often in 

 direct inverse ratio to festhetic value — can render them endurable 

 to the eye. No doubt very serviceable lessons may be derived 

 from corru|)t modes and fashions of design, because from them we 

 may learn what are the faults and errors which are studiously to 

 be shunned. 



In all those modes which, however they may be distinguished 

 from each other, come under the general denomination of Rococo, 

 the taste shown is so very coarse, and the faults so gross, that it 

 might be thought t!ie slightest degi-ee of esthetic feeling would 

 deter from re-adopting them at the present day, itfter we have be- 

 come acquainted with specimens of both classic and medijeval 

 design, which are infinitely superior. Such strange perversity is 

 to be accounted for only as verifying the remark, that 



*'L*enmu dn beau .im^ne le goutdu laid." 

 The perversity becomes all the greater because accompanied by 

 inconsistency: with us the preposterous taste which there is now an 

 unfortunate disposition to revive, is no longer costume, but mere 

 masquerade, put on at the bidding of fashion. So long as it was 

 costume, it extended to everything alike — not only to furniture and 

 interior decoration, but to architecture itself; to equi|iages and 

 carriages, to dress, and to gardening. The human form was dis- 

 figured by the most extravagant and absurd attire; and nature 

 itself metamorphosed, as far as it could be, by the operation of the 

 shears, and the applicati(m of the line and compasses. In all 

 things alike, the unnatural was mistaken for the artistic; the only 

 difference being, that while the natural was made to imitate the 

 artificial, the artificial was made to imitate the natural. Execrable 

 as such false taste must be pronounced, there were excuses for it 

 in its own day, which no longer exist; because then, instead of being 

 taken up for the nonce, ready made, it gi-ew up conformably to cir- 

 cumstances. Clumsy and barbarous as it was, it was not a relapse 

 into what had been discarded; which kind of falling back upon what 

 once had vogue, merely on account, j)erhai)s, of the name it bears, 

 and the reminiscences attached to it, is a totally diil'erent matter 

 from reverting to it for the purpose of studying and appropriating 

 to ourselves its better qualities. To adopt by-gone tastes and 

 fashions by taking them just as we find them, is like transplanting 

 dead trees. Our own ideas being exhausted, we are fain, for the 

 sake of a little temjiorary novelty, to resort to such as had been 

 worn out previously, and into which we are incapable of infusing 

 the vitality and spontaneousness requisite for reviving more than 

 merely nominally any past style. 



Had weanyfundamentaland rational principles of taste, thesudden 

 changes of fashion, now so frequent, from one extreme of taste to an- 

 other, could not occur. Change there still would be, but it would be 

 gradual, natural, progressive — the result of improvement, and regu- 

 lated by motive. At present, those w ho are artists do not attempt 

 to guide or regulate the taste of the public in those matters which, 

 however influential upon a correct feeling for art generally, are not 

 immediately connected with their own pursuits and practice. 

 Architects themselves do not bestow any study upon furniture and 

 fittings-up, or on other internal decoration than what actually 

 belongs to construction. They do not qualify themselves even for 

 superintending such matters, but turn them over entirely to those 

 who, however clever they may be in their way, are rather artisans 

 than artists — very capable of executing, but seldom capable of 

 designing more than piecemeal ornament and detail. No wonder, 

 therefore, that we so seldom find completeness of ensemble and 

 due artistic keeping in even the most sumptuously furnished apart- 

 ments. Every separate article or ornament may he irreproachable 

 in itself, yet the reproach of unequal and careless, if not actually 

 bad taste, may be deserved by the discordant assemblage of them. 

 An upholsterer's show-room, or a furniture bazaar, or a curiosity 

 shop is one thing, and a tastefully furnislu'd room quite another. 

 Fashion, however, can sam-tion the most jialpaMo absurdities and 

 extravagances; and at Paris, it was f(u- a wliilc, in the time of the 

 Consulate, the fashion to assemble in the same room a congress of 

 chairs and other pieces of furniture, all differing from each other; 

 a whim so outrageous, as to be excusable only as a satirical sym- 

 holisation of political chaos and conflict. 



In his highly interesting comparative view of the materkil state 

 of society in England, and its progress since 1685, Mr. Macaulay 



has omitted to touch upon the subject to wliich we are rather call- 

 ing attention than jiretending to treat of it formally. Yet it is 

 what was surely not wholly undeserving of a iaw touches of his gra- 

 phic pen, more especially as there is now a hankeriu"- after what 

 smacks of the perruque, or e\en of Queen Bess's ruff or farthingale 

 in ameullemcnt, — which is, in our opinion, of evil augurv to sound 

 taste. In a bona fide old English mansion, contemporarv furniture 

 that has been a heir-loom for successive generations, is i'n its place, 

 and in keeping with all the rest. It possesses there an historic 

 value which reconciles us to its want of elegance. Its cumbrous 

 stateliness, and even its clumsiness, is quaint, and carries with it 

 an air of the formal aristocratic dignity affected in by-gone times. 

 There it is genuine costume, and impresses us like' the graphic 

 descriptions of similar interiors and their accessories in Scott's 

 novels. In Butch pictures again, and in Hogarth's plates, the fur- 

 niture and fashion respectively exhibited in" them are the charac- 

 teristic stage-properties of the scene; but to imitate things of that 

 kind now-a-days, amounts to a confession that we have learnt 

 nothing whatever from all that we ha\e become acquainted with, 

 have studied, or pretended to study, in the interim; but arejust as 

 far off as ever from having any settled and rational standard of taste. 

 Nay, after having cheated ourselves into the belief that we were 

 beginning to appreciate and arrive at a degree of refined elegance 

 previously unknown to modern times, we are fain to relapse, by way 

 of change, into the fulsome tawdriness and gewgaw fancies of the 

 Louis-Quatorze and Louis-Quinze periods, which, if they can lay 

 claim to the name of style at all, may be classed with that of the 

 pastrycook and confectioner. Such mode of decoration takes cog- 

 nisance of adscititious ornament alone, and makes that consist of 

 nothing more than mere scallopings, crimpings, and zig-zags; so 

 that in spite of its seeming variety, it is essentially monotonous, 

 and even its very freaks betray barrenness of invention. It is 

 capable of but one expression, that of arrogant, purse-proud 

 pomposity. 



Instead of turning to such radically vicious and tasteless man- 

 ner, we should do better to go back to the days of Adam at once — of 

 Rohert Adam we mean — who, jjrosaic and feeble as was his taste 

 in architecture, did something to improve the general style of fur- 

 niture. Praiseworthy it certainly was in him to endeavour to place 

 that subordinate branch of design upon a much more artistic foot- 

 ing than he found it. It is one, however, that requires talent of a 

 peculiar kind; nor is it every architect who could descend to it with- 

 out falling also, even if he would condeseemi to make the attempt. 

 Heideloft', for instance, has done much for the illustration of Ger- 

 man mediaexal architecture, yet has failed most signally in his 

 designs for Gothic furniture, most of which violate every prin- 

 ciple of convenience as well as of beauty. The taste which he has 

 shown is so truly detestable as to be harmless, since it can hardly 

 fail to disgust at first sight; and yet we ought to have our doubts 

 as to that, when we find such portentous monsti'osities paraded as 

 " admirable designs in furniture," in an English publication which 

 professes to watch diligently over the interests of eveiy depart- 

 ment of art. 



REMARKS ON THE SANITARY LABOURS 



CONNECTED WITH THE 



DRAINAGE OF THE METROPOLIS. 



" When ive inquire what facts are to be niado tlie materials of Science, perhaps the 

 answer which we sliould most commonly receive would be, 'TRUE FACTS,* as distin- 

 guished fiom any mere interences or opinions of our own.'* — WHEWELL: 'Philoso- 

 phy of the Inductive Sciences.' Vol II., B. 11, p. lya. 



Thiktv years have now elapsed since the inquiry, instituted in 

 1819, respecting the supply of water to the metropolis, led Mr. 

 John Martin the artist, to the consideration of our water supply — 

 the relieving the River Thames from its impurities — and the pre- 

 serving the sewage for agricultural purposes' — the three most 

 important points connected with the present metropolitan drainage 

 question. 



While it is to be deeply deplored that more successful means 

 have not been found or adopted for the nuire speedy alleviation of 

 the evils afflicting the public health of the metropolis generally, 

 but more particularly of that ])ortion of the labouring population 

 which, for want of time and means, are unable to avail themselves 

 of such private remedial measures as are within the reach of the 

 compar.itively richer part of the community, we cannot conceal 



1 See Second Report of Select Committee on BletropoIl» Improrements. Quest. 18S7, 



p. HS. 1»S8. 



