1950.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



177 



BRIDGEWATER HOUSE. 



Charles B.\RnY, Esq., R.A., Arcliitect. 



{JTith an Engraving^ Plate VII.) 



ELEVATION OF THE WEST OB GARDEN FRONT. 



Little remains to be added to what was said of this work of 

 Mr. Barry's, in No. 156 of our Journal (Vol. XII. p. 1), when we 

 gave an elevation of the south front. One thing which we may 

 here do, is to correct an error that may mislead some of our distant 

 readers as to the precise locality of the mansion, the engraver 

 having put " St. James's Park" on the plate instead of the Green 

 Park. That the first-mentioned is not the actual situation is 

 perhaps to be regretted, for where it now stands Bridgewater 

 House is not seen to full advantage, the site being far more 

 favourable as regards the view /rom its windows, than for affording 

 that satisfactory view of it, and that close inspection which so 

 finished a piece of architecture is intitled to. Could this palatial 

 town residence and Apsley House be made to change places, the 

 entrance to Piccadilly would be really imposing, though its im- 

 posingness would partake also of imposition, by leading strangers 

 to expect to find many other noble and aristocratic mansions of a 

 similar class, in whicli we need not say they would be grievously 

 disappointed; whereas the insipid, humdrum style, or no-style, of 

 Apsley House promises so very little for anything else of similar 

 kind that even the mesqnuwrie of Buckingham Palace excites less 

 astonishment than would else be the case. 



The two elevations which we have now given of Bridgewater 

 House render description superfluous, since it would be only re- 

 iterating what may be far better understood from the engravings. 

 And, in way of remark, we have merely to call attention to the 

 study of detail, and the solicitous finish exemplified in this edifice, 

 and which contrasts so strongly with the carelessness and ineiiuality 

 of design, that detract considerably from the general merit of even 

 some of our best buildings. Of the interior of the Earl of EUes- 

 mere's mansion we are at present unable to speak, but hope that 

 it will be in our power to do so on some other opportunity. The 

 sole information relative to it we can here give is, that since the 

 house was begun the plan has been considerably altered— in one 

 respect at least — as there will now be, a spacious central hall the 

 entire height of the building, with colonnades around it, on the 

 level of the principal floor, instead of two small inner courts with 

 the first flight of the grand staircase carrried up between them; 

 according to which arrangement what will now be open colonnades 

 would have been closed gallery-like corridors, lighted from their 

 ceilings. 



LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE; 



By Samuel Clegg, Jun., m.i.c.e., f.g.s. 

 Delivered at the College for General Practical Science, Putney, Surrey. 



(president, his grace the nUKH OF BUCCLEOCH, K.G.) 



Lecture VI. 

 Origin op Greek Architecture. — The Three Orders. 

 • There is no country whose early history is more involved in 

 obscurity and fable than that of Greece. As Josephus remarks, 

 speaking of the Greeks: "As for their care about the writing 

 down of their histories, it is very near the last thing they set 

 about." The Greeks were an ardent and imaginative people, 

 proud of their country, and regarding as barbarians all those who 

 had no claim to the Hellenic name. Their early historians were 

 bards, or rhapsodists, whose recitations, describing the deeds and 

 events that led to the glory of Greece, were listened to with eager 

 interest. Thus, every action and circumstance was painted in the 

 glowing hues of poetry. They disdained an earthly parentage 

 for their heroes, whose descent they traced from nymphs and 

 divinities, and believed that the gods themselves came down from 

 Olympus to take part in their conflicts, or to contest the privilege 

 of presiding over the rising states and cities of their favoured 

 land. The return of the Heraclidae, and the founding of the 

 kingdom of Lacedspmon, took place about llul b.c. Before this, 

 colonies had settled in iEtolia, and the Beeotian Thebes was a 

 flourishing city. In 104-4, fresh colonies went out to Ionia; and a 

 band of Greeks had established themselves on the southern shore of 

 Italy, the germ of Magna Graecia, Apollonia, and other cities 



No. 153.— Vol. XIII.— June, 1S50. 



along the western coast of Greece, were founded by the Corinthi- 

 ans, who carried witli them the sacred fire that, if extinguished, 

 might only be rekindled at the holy altar of the mother state. 

 Then follo'wed the foundation of Syracuse, Gela, and other Sicilian 

 cities. Thus, the Hellenic race spread themselves not only oyer 

 Greece, but in Asia Minor, the south of Italy, and Sicily; shedding 

 over all these countries the light of that genius that seemed their 

 birthright. 



A kind of rude Doric and Ionic already existed in Phojnicia, 

 though not formed into those express ccmibinations that could 

 claim the name of "Order." It is probable that the Greeks received 

 their first ideas upon the art of building from that country; but, 

 in the true artistic spirit, they so harmonised and fitted it to their 

 peculiar habits, institutions, climate, and materials, as to have 

 made it so completely their own that it is not worth while to 

 wander in search of its birthplace: it may therefore be accepted, 

 in its early forms as in its fullest development, as de facto Greek 

 architecture. 



Nature seemed to have combined in that one spot of earth 

 everything that could tend to the advancement of art, that man- 

 kind might for once behold perfection. In no age or country 

 has the training of youth so fully called forth the united physical 

 and intellectual powers: the body was strengthened and invi- 

 gorated by athletic exercises, and the mind enlarged and elevated 

 by the sense of freedom, and a certain responsibility in the state. 

 Equally removed from the severity of the north and the enervating 

 tendencies of the tropics, the frame received elasticity and force, 

 combined with softness and grace. The spirit of rivalry amongst 

 the small states into which Greece was divided, leading to con- 

 tests of skill in the Olympic and other games, and frequently to 

 struggles of a less peaceful nature, kept their energies awake, 

 and "forbade them to sink into the feebleness of repose. The 

 influence of a serene and sunny climate, and a constant familiarity 

 with the grand and beautiful scenes of nature, raised the imagina- 

 tive faculty to the highest pitch. The Greek saw around him 

 majestic mountains, sinking in picturesque declivities to the culti- 

 vated plain below; the island-studded sea, reflecting in its pure 

 depths the azure of the heavens; what wonder that he was haunted 

 by beauty as with a spell, and strove to reproduce in art the ideas 

 of sublimity and loveliness witli which he was inspired.^ Italy, 

 from the same cause, has been the land of painting and of song: 

 but the inexhaustible stores of marble inclosed within her moun- 

 tains, seemed to denote that nature intended Greece to produce 

 those transcendent works of architecture, and sculpture also, that 

 have been a lesson to all successive ages. 



Tliere can be no doubt that construction in wood was the 

 original type of Greek arcliitecture. From such an origin alone 

 could that proper balance of thrust and resistance, that nice adjust- 

 ment of parts, and accurate knowledge of strength and weight have 

 arisen, that made building first a science and then an art. Though 

 magnificent and gigantic edifices were erected in Egypt, India, 

 and Assyria, it is undoubtedly the fact, that the wooden hut first 

 led to those combinations that'produced "The Orders;" and Greece 

 therefore pre-eminently claims our attention as our first mistress 

 in the art, and Greek architecture as the parent of all succeeding 

 styles. Though the wooden hut was the original type, we cannot 

 imagine the log cabin of an indigent peasant to have been the 

 imniediate precursor of a splendid stone edifice, fit to adorn a city; 

 nor can the bringing to perfection the wooden model, nor the 

 imitating it in stone, nor the establishment of the orders, be 

 referred to any one individual, or single point of time. No art 

 can be said to be invented, much less one so complicated as archi- 

 tecture: its forms and proportions could only take their rise 

 slowly from the bosom of time and experience. \Ve must sup- 

 pose that the builders of the first cabin only raised such a struc- 

 ture as would be necessary to shelter them from the inclemency of 

 the weather, and were determined in the form by the nature of 

 the materials at hand. The arid plains of the south and east were 

 left behind with their scanty growth of palm and poplar; and 

 dense forests were spread on all sides, offering a new and plentiful 

 material to the ingenuity of the first settlers. They therefore 

 hewed trees, and jdaced their trunks upright in the ground to 

 support the roof, filling-in the intervals with intertwining branches 

 made weather-proof with turf or mud; other trunks would then 

 be laid horizontally upon the uprights, and covered over with 

 boughs and rushes, or turf— and the primitive hut would be com- 

 pleted. As the damp penetrated to their dwellings, they would 

 find the necessity of laying a flooring of timber, and raising the 

 roof by rafters meeting at an angle to throw off the ^jet. A hut 

 so constructed would suffice for all the material wants of its occu- 



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