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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



The Parthenon, and the temple of Neptune at Poestum, are now 

 stripped of oruament, yet they make up by simplicity and unity of 

 design, for the want of it, except in the estimation of those architects 

 who conceive that they are defective in not having steeples ! 



We mav not be going too far in saying, that the Parthenon is the 

 best, and the temples at Poestum the earliest examples of the Doric 

 order. The former was erected nearly 500 years before our era, in 

 the best days of Grecian art. Of the date of the latter we know 

 nothing, except that a colony from Greece settled in Calabria, and 

 founded the city of Posidonia, before Rome was built : even if we 

 did not know this, they bear the impress of Grecian mind, and reject 

 the hand of any other master. 



It is the practice of modern times to take a Greek or a Roman por- 

 tico, and place it in front of a windowed, corniced, and balustraded 

 building like our Post Office (Dublin). By this expedient, unity of design 

 is destroyed; and however correct or beautiful the portico may be in 

 itself, it will not appear to the same advantage as if its cornice 

 squared with the sides of the building. When this arrangement may 

 be incompatible with the required purpose, it is much better to dis- 

 pense with the columnar ordinance altogether, and have recourse to 

 some of the other styles. I am rejoiced to find that a new system has 

 lately been introduced iuto England, of erecting plain, symmetrical 

 structures, surmounted with a handsome unbroken cornice, such as 

 that of the Faranese Palace at Rome. In some remarks which I 

 published on architecture, I pointed out the advantages of this style, 

 before I was aware that its introduction was in contemplation.* The 

 nearest approach we have to this style in Dublin is the Royal Hiber- 

 nian Academy. The unbroken line of the cornice at the top of the build- 

 ing has a good effect. It will stand a comparison with the Palladian one 

 on the newly fronted edifice in Merrion-square ; and the recessed por- 

 tico 13 much better than one placed up against the main structure would 

 Lave been. There are however some great defects in this building : the 

 Vandal headed windows, resting on little bustles; the Doric columns 

 of the portico are too slender, being about seven diameters high, which 

 is two more than they ought to have been under such a superstructure. 

 The angles of the walls, next the columns, should have had pilasters 

 or antis. The balustrade at tlie top of the building is in bad taste. 

 Balusters are deformed dwarfish columns of the Vandal, and are not 

 in good keeping with columns of the Greek school, no more than a 

 pigmy would be a suitable quiver-bearer for the Pythian Apollo : 

 besides, a cornice is the proper finish for an architectural structure. 

 The arrangement of the windows also is bad, not corresponding at all 

 •with the opening of the recessed portico. 



One cannot view our Custom House (Dublin) without feeling that all 

 simplicity was sacrificed in its construction, according to the false taste 

 of that period. If the cornice had not been so much broken up, and 

 there had been no balustrade or attic above it, the eSect would have 

 been good: as it is, the building can only strike us for its magnitude, 

 the good quality of the stone, and the fine situation it enjoys. It 

 must be admitted that when viewed from such a distance that its 

 faulty details cannot be observed, the eft'ect is fine, and just such as it 

 would have been from every point of view, had Greek simplicity 

 guided the architect in its design. 



What is it that rivets the eye on the Irisli Round Towers ? It is 

 not any historical association, for the history of our country does not 

 speak of them: neither are they Vitruvian nor Palladian; they are 

 better — simple, graceful, and beautiful; and therein lies their attrac- 

 tion. May I be permitted to speak on behalf of that of Glendalough, 

 which, for want of a little restoration, bids fair to be in ruins ere it be 

 recorded in the long expected work on Round Towers, from the pen 

 and pencil of Mr. Petrie. Surely his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, 

 who is lord of the soil, cannot be aware of its delapidation. 



The same observations apply to the Egyptian obelisk, commonly 

 called Cleopatra's Needle, of which there are so many in modern 

 Rome. The best imitation of this, with which I am acquainted, is to 

 be found in the Primate's demesne at Armagh ; and although it is not 



• Travelling Sketches in Various Countries, vol. ii, p. 206. 



to be compared in magnitude to the Wellington Testimonial in the 

 Phoenix Park, and did not perhaps cost one tenth of the sum paid for 

 the erection of that trophy, yet far excels in beauty of proportion ; 

 showing us that mere masses of material, unless arranged with taste, 

 fail to produce satisfaction, whatever name maybe given for the 

 purpose of rendering them imposing. 



The combination of parts of different orders in the same building is 

 to be avoided, for although the association of Goths and Vandals, as 

 the destroyers of the remains of ancient art in the south of Europe, be 

 strong in our minds, yet the union of the Gothic and Vandal styles 

 cannot be recommended. A striking example of this occurs in the 

 Duomo at Milan; it has Vandal windows and doors, although all the 

 other parts of the edifice are florid Gothic. 



The Greeks never surcharged their buildings with ornaments ; yet 

 both they, and after them the Romans, devoted the greatest care to 

 the composition and finish of works never intended to come in close 

 contact with the sight. I have been perfectly astonished at the 

 beauty of the mouldings and capitals, when strewed on the ground 

 amidst rubbish and ruins. Together with a deviation from the Greek 

 models, a desire for multiplicity of ornament and novelty was intro- 

 duced; and long ere the fall of the Roman empire, luxury and refine- 

 ment, which sapped their power in the government of the world, 

 tended also to the decline of architecture. May we not express a 

 hope that a recurrence of the same principles may not produce the 

 same effect in our own times and country. 



The Elgin marbles in the British Museum, which challenge a com- 

 parison with the best works of antiquity in the possession of other 

 countries, were, for the most part, placed on the tympanum of the 

 Parthenon, upwards of 50 feet above the level of the eye. The 

 column of Trajan is 132 foet high. These casts were taken for me by 

 a man who was suspended from the top in a basket; you may judge of 

 the finish of the marble by the casts, after the original had been 

 exposed to the weather during so many centuries. 



I have now endeavoured to set before you some of the prevailing 

 errors of modern architecture, and some of the beauties of the ancient. 

 In advocating a closer acquaintance vi'ith the latter, I may quote the 

 words of an eminent painter, who observes, " From the remains of the 

 works of the ancients the modern arts were revived, and it is by their 

 means that they must be restored a second time. However it may 

 mortify our vanitj', we must be forced to allow them our masters; and 

 we may venture to prophesy, that when they shall cease to be studied, 

 arts will no longer flourish, and we shall again relapse into barbarism." 



ON ARCHITECTURAL PRECEDENT. 



Sir — Permit me, through the medium of your journal, to make a few ob- 

 servations on your correspondent H. S.'s remarks on " Architectural Prece- 

 dent," which appeared in your journal for January last. I think it is but 

 right, before we condemn in toto the use of precedent, to inquire a little into 

 its origin. 



Precedent I conceive to be coeval with architecture, and that of archi- 

 tecture with the necessary wants of man ; and as age after age became more 

 refined, so the wants, and necessarily the architecture. It would be impossible 

 to find a nation throughout the world,'at any period of its existence, whose 

 architecture did not progress in an equal ratio with its refinement, but 

 throughout never changed its character. The first laws being laid down, the 

 architects invariably followed them : and why .' because they were made to 

 suit the wants of the nation, both as regards climate and economy. Indeed 

 to such an extent has this been carried, that were it not for the remains of 

 architectural elegance scattered up and down that part of the once refined 

 world, what would there now remain to tell of the highly polished Athens, 

 or of the internal comfort and domestic economy of the ancient inhabitants 

 of Pompeii and Herculaneum ? Your correspondent, in liis desire to do 

 away with precedent, starts out with condemning the course of study pur- 

 sued in an architect's office. Now I should rather say, the fault (if it be 

 one,) does not commence here, but in the very first dawn of the pupil's infant 

 mind, because it is the most natural course of events, and necessarily so, that 

 seeing one kind of architecture, the mind gets imbued and impressed with a 



