1842.1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



21 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS XXXIII. 



" I nnisl have lil)er(y 

 Withal, as large a charier as ihc wimfs, 

 To blow on » horn 1 please." 



I. A " little bird " has reporteJ to rae that there have been sundry and 

 several complaints, which complaints I am willing to accept as compliments. 

 Never did I for a single moment imagine that my Note Book would be pa- 

 latable to every body, being aware that it must, on the contrary, be unpalat- 

 able to a good'many bodies, who, nevertheless, it seems, cannot abstain from 

 reading it, notwithstanding that it is entirely optional on their part to do so 

 or not. If those particular articles are not at all to their taste, why, in the 

 name of common sense, do they not pass them over .> They are no more 

 compelled to read every column of every number of the Journal, than to 

 wade every morning through the whole of the Times newspaper, advertise- 

 ments and all. 



They do not relish Candidus ; so be it— I will not quarrel with them on 

 that account ; nevertheless, I merely say that at all events their dislike 

 appears to be uo uiorc than a mere disliking, for which they either are un- 

 able or do not care to assign adequate cause, cUe wherefore should they be 

 so forbearing as not to e.'ipose what they consider my errors and mischievous 

 or unsound opinions. If my Note Book contains a good deal of " nonsen- 

 sical stuff," its nonsense must at any rate be of a very attractive kind, since 

 it compels them to read whether they will or no. Therefore, if it finds 

 readers, both among those who relish, and those who disrelish it, I have no 

 particular reason to be ashamed of it. 



1 suspect there is another and more powerful motive than mere dislike 

 which makes mv Anti-Candidus express themselves with a soreness and 

 Boumcss. It is very true they themselves can skip over the offensive 

 Fasciculi, but they cannot compel others to do so. Aye, there's the rub ! 

 Thev arc frightened, lest other people should read — and perhaps have their 

 eyes opened, by some of my remarks, to prejudices and abuses nliich they 

 would have remain untouched, and to abuses they would rather screen than 

 expose. No doubt there arc some who, were it in their power, woidd sup- 

 press architectural criticism, and architectural journals likewise, altogether ; 

 and that for very sufficient and prudential reasons, as far as themselves are 

 concerned. Well are they aware that the more the public are kept in igno- 

 rance of architecture, and the less any topics belonging to it are brought 

 under discussion, the better for them. No doubt there are several worthy 

 gentlemen who, if they durst, would protest against the exposures which 

 have from time to time been made relative to mal-practices in competition ; 

 others, again, who think that it is high time for this Journal itself to be 

 brought to a close. Such persons may not exactly be simpletons themselves 



Q„ the contrary, exceedingly wise in their generation ; but assuredly they 



must take editors to be complete simpletons and noodles, if they suppose the 

 latter will alter their places and arrangements according to the fancy of 

 every boily or any body who chooses to express a dislike to any part of them, 

 Surelv my Note Book is not so contagious as to infect with its virulence the 

 whole of ever) number of the " Civil Engineer; " should it, however, really 

 be so — in the opinion of certain people at least ; such persons had better 

 decline taking in the work. Awful would be the consequences — positively 

 fatal to the publication ; for our editor might then say, as 11 the cele- 

 brated bootmaker is reported to have done, when a blustering consequential 

 gentleman once threatened to deal with him no longer, " John, do you hear 

 that ■ Tell them to close the shop windows directly. It is all up with us 



now — we are positively undone, for here is .Mr. going to withdraw 



his custom from us '. But John, first of all open the door for Mr. , 



and wish him a vciy gooil morning." 



II. Auiong the odd " y/iey »nyv" of the day, it has been rumoured that 

 the magnifictnt stnicturc now building in Tlirea<lueeille Street is destined 

 for nothing less than the reception of the Soanean Museum. That such 

 must ccrtaiidy he the case, is argued because no one can tell or possibly 

 divine, what it cm be intended for at all, if not for such purpose. Another 

 cogent argument is derived from Sir John's well known attachment to the 

 old lady of Threadnccdlo Street — her, I mean, who keeps the money-shop — 

 and although these may acem very inauflicient reasono, exceedingly vague 

 and chimerical ones, far graver hypotheses have been hatched into systems 

 all-compact, out of hints and surmbcs equally visionary and fantastical. It 



will be objected that the Soanean Museum must not on any account be re- 

 moved from the house it now occupies — but then there is not Ihc slightest 

 necessity that it should be, since house and all may be removed from Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields to Threadncedle Street — a mere step of way compared with the 

 distance a house once travelled to Loretto — and be commodiously enough 

 placed in one of the spacious halls within the new structure, without under- 

 going any Procrustean operation. Though small as a house, it will cut a very 

 respectable figure stuck up in a room as a model. It may, indeed, further 

 be objected — however, I cannot stand to knock down objections, like nine- 

 pins, as fast as peo)>le choose to set them up, therefore must be allowed to 

 cut them short by calling upon any body who thinks himself capable to start 

 some more int/enhus idea than my own as to the proposed destination of the 

 building in question. 



III. — Travellers have undoubtedly the privilege of romancing — that i>, of 

 lying, including a lit(le blundering also ; but when Mrs. Abigail Adams says 

 that Canterbury contains " a numbn- of old cathedraU," she does avail herself 

 of the traveller's privilege rather too freely, and indiscreetly also. Perhaps 

 the good lady " saw double " at the time, and seeing two cathedrals, multi- 

 plied them into a " number." Another no less extraordinary blunder occurs 

 in a very recent German work on St. Petersburg, in which the writer has 

 confounded the Kazan Sobor or Cathedral with the new St. Isaac's church, 

 and has ma<le the whole account a continued blunder, for he has gone de- 

 scribing and criticising the former building, mistaking it all the while for the 

 latter; which is the more unaccountable, because the last, which is hardljr 

 yet terminated, happens to be just now the great architectural lion of the 

 Northern capital. It is as if any one should mistake St. Paul's for the new 

 Houses of Pailiament, and describing the latter as having been erected by Sir 

 C. Mien, speak of their noble dome. In one of the volumes of Lardner's 

 Cyclop;edia, Covent Garden Theatre is said to be a specimen of Grecian Ionic 

 architecture, while the Post Ollice is similarly metamorphosed into one of 

 Grecian Doric — which proves that if Doctor Diogenes Larncdman, as Fraser 

 calls him, was not a downright humbug himself, that he ccrtaiidy employed 

 literary ignoramuses and humbugs to manufacture some of his books. 



IV. " Love at first sight " is not always to be relied upon — at least not in 

 architecture ; there are many productions, whether buildings or design!, 

 which captivate the eye at first view, yet sadly disappoint us when we come 

 to examine them, or after nc return to them. One almost infallible test of 

 merit in art, that after the interest of curiosity has subsided, a work will not 

 only continue to captivate, but that beauties, at first scarcely noticed, make 

 them felt more and more. It would be well were every architect to apply 

 such test to his own designs and studies, to examine them scrupulously, after 

 laying them aside for awhile, for the purpose both of ascertaining whether 

 they satisfy him in his own mind as well as they did at first, and of consider- 

 ing how they might be further improved. Invention and fertility of imagi- 

 nation may do much, they indeed furnish the ideas upon which to work, but 

 the great secret of perfection lies principally in the careful study of the whole, 

 and no less carefully finishing up of every part. The " slap-bang " school 

 are above all such dilatoriness and trouble, they do not stand upon trifles ; 

 with them every thing is hit or miss, they never blot, they never revise; it is 

 always " first come, first served " with them ; they cousider it loss of time to 

 wait for a second idea. They are worse than bears, for they do not even 

 care to lick their own offspring into shape. 



V. The character of the " celebrated Mr. Compo," in the tale entitled 

 " St. .Vntholin's or Old and New Churches." is by no means an over-drawn 

 caricature. The cheap-church mania has afforded employment of late years 

 to a good many Mr. Compos, manufacturers of Brummagem Gothic, or 

 Brummagem Grecian — tasteless noodles in themselves, hut who find (till 

 greater noodles who patronise them. The Compos may be said to be what 

 is usually termed " a fine family " ; they spring up like mushrooms, although 

 very few of tncm ever vfyrlale. There is a church now going on somewhere 

 in tow[i, which, it is to be feared, will turn out a veVy .Mr. Compo-ish affair, 

 a most dainty specimen of Brummagem Gothic. The necessity for strict 

 economy may be sufficient excuse for plainness, but none whatever for Ihc 

 insurtVrably vulgar taste and paltriness displayed in many structures of the 

 kind. Uherc the funds arc so bcggariy th.it nothing can he done, the most 

 advisable course would be to attempt ii.ilhing beyond hare walls and a roof. 

 llomeUness may be endurable, naj. even respectable, whereas the miserly 

 show of miserable trumpery finery, of which many new churches arc instances, 

 is so far from being respectable, that it is almost imlecent. 



VI. Speaking of the recent competition for the Devon Lunatic County 

 Asylum, the Western Times eipressed the hope that there would be " a pub- 

 lic exhibition of all the ilcsigns, aeconlmj lo ttlabluhtd euttom m aU arcM- 



