1842.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



G3 



RSVIE-WS. 



Domestic Archttetim : contaimng PriiieipUs of Dmigninz Public 

 Building)), Priralt Diceiling-houuo, \c. ^f. By Richaku Brow.v, 

 Professor of Architecture. 4to. Parti — 13. 



There are occasions on nliicli to show lenity would argue either 

 stupidity or dishonesty, rather than mercy; and most assuredly the 

 present is one of them, for scarcely ever have we met with a more 

 egregious specimen of arrant book-making, of quackery and charla- 

 tanry, than this publication. Of ((uackery and impudence tlie very 

 title itself bears ev idence, the author there assuming to himself the style 

 of " Professor of Architecture I" Undoubtedly any man may call 

 himself "Professor" of anything, if it so pleases him; yet, as custom 

 does not warrant the use of the term as signifying no more than one 

 who fullows any particular tr.uie or calling, the self-assumption of it 

 is so far from conferriui? any respectability, that it is rather a sign of 

 vulgar-mindediiess, and low paltry artitice. Absurd at the very best, 

 tins kind of self-bestowed professorship becomes <!oub!y or trebly so 

 in the cise of Mr. Richard Brown, since lie might with equal propriety 

 have signed himself Professor of Poetry. Whether he has any quali- 

 fications for setting up in the latter character, we know not ; but we 

 do know that he possesses none whatever for that of a professor of the 

 other art, it being very plain that, instead of being at all capable of 

 instructing others in architecture, he is most profoundly ignorant of it, 

 even of its first rudiments, and the commonest principles of taste, and 

 that he needs to go to school, though we question whether it would 

 be to any purpose. 



The work is altogether a very flagrant instance of " Catch-penny." 

 — Whv then, it will be said, bestow any notice on it? why drag it 

 from its obscurity ? why not pass it by with silent contempt ? — Because 

 it is, in our opinion, a very fit subject for castigatifn.- The treating 

 offenders of the kind merely with contempt, is nothing else than grant- 

 ing them impunity. What care they for contempt, who know them- 

 selves to be contemptible pretenders, and who are utterly indifferent 

 to public opinion, that is, to the opinion of the intelligent, provided 

 they can but impose upon the ignorant and credulous, and obtain their 

 favour and patronage ? Exposure tliey may dread, contempt they 

 only mock at. We do not say that even exposure does much good, 

 as far as correcting the offenders themselves goes ; still it is attended 

 with salutary effect, opening the eyes of the public, by putting them on 

 their guard against productions of the kind, and by making others shy 

 of risking similar castigation. Were publications of the kind merely 

 worthless, they might be allowed to pass without very strict inquiiy: 

 but they are, on the contrary, positively mischievous, since they not 

 only do not promote good taste, but diffuse the very worst, amongst 

 workmen and mechanics. It is to trash of this kind, published under 

 the name of collections of " Designs," that we may ascribe those abor- 

 tions and monstrosities in brick and mortar, which spring up in various 

 parts of the country. Instead of promoting the advancement of the 

 art, they positively retard it; and instead of being at all creditable to 

 anv one concerned in thcni, they cast a sort of slur upon the whole 

 profession, and tend to bring the very study of architecture into 

 contempt. 



It certainly is most mortifying to reflect upon the humiliating light 

 in which foreigners must look upon the present state of the art in this 

 country, if they judge of it, — as they are most likely to do, — from such 

 publications as the present one and some others ; more especially, if 

 to their appearance be added the non-appcarnnci of architectural 

 works of a higher order, of which there certainly has been a great 

 dearth of late, far more so than used to be the case when the profession 

 was by no means so numerous as at the present day. Whatever may 

 be the cause of this — whether it be jiartly owing to a very increased 

 demand in this country for foreign architectural works, in preference 

 to those of our own production — we pretend not to judge. Such is 

 lie fuct ; and it is one that has been stated by otiicr writers, not 

 without some degree of bitterness. Let the remote cause be what it 

 may, there can !>•• little doubt that the immediate one is the wiuit of 

 encouragement among us for works of the same class as are continually 

 issuing from the publisning houses of Prance and (iermany. Hardly 

 is the profession any more lucrative on the continent than in this 

 country, else that circumstance might be taken as a sulVicicnt explana- 

 tion of the matter ; yet, such not being the case, we must leave our 

 readers to account for it in the btrst way they can, — satisfactorily, if 

 they can ; although it is anything but satisfactory in itself. 



At all events, it is deplorable enough that, while very inadequate 

 encouragement is given to works which would be really creditable 

 both to the art and tu the profession, there ahould lo any at all fur the 



vamped-up, catch-penny productions, of which the one before us is so 

 egregious a specimen. As for the literary portion, it consists either of 

 mere scissors-and-pa«te work, or of ihe most irrelevant, far-fetched rig- 

 marole, that can well be imagined, ami a great deal of what, if not 

 actually absurd in itself, becomes absurd, when Itiggid in for the nonce, 

 as we here find it, without having any sort of connexion with the 

 subject or the occasion. What, iu the name of common sense, li:ui the 

 mention of antediluvian architecture, or meagre, schoolboy sketches of 

 the history of Egypti m and other still less known early styles of an- 

 tiquity, to do wiUi mu Jem " Domestic Architecture," — more especially 

 in a volume of designs for ordinary vilhis, or rather, of villanous 

 designs of most extraordinary ugliness i Very far more discreet 

 would it have been, to have omitted the mention of styles altogether, 

 since the less people understand about them, the more likely they will 

 be to tolerate those samples of them which the Professor here exhibits, 

 and which most convincingly prove that lie h is not the very slightest 

 knowledge of any one style whatever, his designs being actual bur- 

 lesques upon the different styles they purport to exemplify. Evident 

 it is also that he cannot yet copy the Grecian orders, for the three 

 figures pretending to represent them are only monstrous caricatures. 

 In fact, the drawing of all the plates is most atrociously bad, so bad .is 

 to be the onlv consolatory circumstance of all. Had the plates them- 

 selves been tolerably well drawn and engraved, — had they been, io 

 young-lady phrase, " exceedingly pretty," — we should have been 

 almost in despair; but, as good luck would have it, they are »o 

 wretched in every respect, as to display the designs in unmitigated 

 uf liness ; coiisequentiv, the mischievousness of the work is so far 

 neutralized. The designs now show themselves at the first gl ince to 

 be utter trash ; whereas, had they been flittered by the engraver, — 

 had they been managed with a little taste and adroitness on his part, 

 — the ignorance, the blunders, and the barbarous ideas they display, 

 might perhaps have p;issed undetected by the class of persons among 

 whom the Professor, or his publisher, looks for customers. As it is, 

 no one, we feel morally assured, that is, no one who is not a candidate 

 for Bedlam or some county asylum, will be ambitious of building for 

 himself in the Brownean Florentine, Tudor, Flemish, Stuart, or any 

 other style whatever, according to the learned Professor's notiotis of 

 it. But, hold ! the suspicion has just come across us, that, after all, 

 the Professor is neither more nor less than a wicked, prankish wag, 

 who, in order to discover how far gullibility will go, has here ma- 

 liciously put forth a series of hoaxing, farcical caricatures, as exarnples 

 of the respective styles, and perhaps as a covert satire on the aftecta- 

 tion of imitating all' sorts of outlandish styles, and that in the most 

 barbarous manner. Certainly such must be his intention in regard to 

 the specimen he has given us of the Grecian style, which partakes far 

 less of Greece than it does of my grandmother: therefore, as the 

 character of Grecian architecture is now tolerably well understood, he 

 would hardly have ventured upon such an example, except as an 

 obvious burlesque. In his design for an " .\nglo-tirecian Museum," 

 he makes a scurvy hit at .Soane, caricaturing his architectural eccen- 

 tricities most unmercifully; and, among other freaks, placing Ionic 

 columns with the balusterside of their capitals outwards! The section 

 of the building, in which this Anglo-Grecian peculiarity manifests 

 itself, is further remarkable for the «r.uiiU_fic construction of the roof, 

 and for showing Doric columns with chamber-pot-shaped capiuU 

 supporting arches, another Anglo-(irccian neculiarity I — the said 

 columns being very little higher than the hand-rail of the staircise. 

 Lest the drift of the satire should by any possibility be misunderstood, 

 this plate is entitled ".Soanean Museum, section ami component parts," 

 the I ist being little better than the scrawls an idle boy would make 

 upon his slate. 



If he chooses tu avail himself of it, we give the ingenious Professor 

 the full benefit of our suspicion; but if he rejects it, we must set him 

 down as one of the greatest ignor imuses that ever ventured before 

 the public. It is really astonishing that a person who shows himself 

 so thoroughly incompetent in every respect, so utterly destitute of 

 every qnalification, should have Ihe effrontery to offer to the public a 

 parcel of disgracefullv miserable drawings,— so execrably vile, that It 

 is incomprehensible how any respectable, or how any publisher at al,, 

 could be induced tu touch' them. It is possible that the latter parly 

 may have been impos.vl upon, and, owing to his own ignorance if the 

 subject, has been led to that whi.li, as a respectable and f.ur-dca lOg 

 tradesman, he otherwise wouM have rejected with scorn, and m)t leol 

 himself in any way to such a piece of impudent quackery. 



However devoid of merit thov may have Iteeii in tiicmielves, wc 

 have generally been able hitherto to pick up a s-rviceaWe idea or 

 hint, from productions of the kind. Not so, however, from Professor 

 Brown's : his designs are as (hill a.s they are hideous ; they offer 

 nothing whatevi-r that can, by any uossibilitv, be shaped to any pur- 

 pose. His plans are about as' absurd as his elevations j corUinly most 



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