42 Retrospective Criticism. 



me easily in the effect produced on myself at the sight of a most superb sup- 

 per, served to the Imperial Family and court, in the theatre of the Hermitage 

 Palace at St. Petersburg, by a similar arrangement, I could mention, also, 

 the very varied effect that can be thus made use of in the disposition of a 

 large and crowded company, in the court fetes given at the Favorita Palace, 

 near Portici, by the court of that country ; and at several others, which, as is 

 usual on the Continent, are placed under the direction and invention of 

 educated artists, when the fete is for the celebration of any royal alliance or 

 other state purpose. I must not be tedious, but perhaps this may suggest a 

 hint, through your journal, to our plodding idle school of architects, and sur- 

 prise or awaken their drawing-boards. 



Trentham has many unfortunate circumstances belonging to it. The house 

 is so confined by roads, and that fine expanse of water is continually thrusting 

 itself on the eye, and forcing it in vain to look for an outUne that is not grace- 

 less. The house is altogether little, inside and out. It would be a fine villa, 

 and ought to be at Turnham Green or Wimbledon. It is wholly silent in in- 

 spiring any notions of seigneurial or aristocratic feeling, such as seem belong- 

 ing to this puissant family. The flower-garden is the only great thing about 

 it. That compartment next the house is very successful ; the lower one wants 

 dressing. I think there would not be too much grass, if the beds had handsome 

 stone borders or edges. It should not have gravel, I think, otherwise the 

 whole would be a glare. Its great defect in design is its tameness. It wants 

 a boundary of clipped' bosquets or berceaux, to give some light and shadow, 

 and to define more strongly its beginning and separation from the park. The 

 bronze statues do well near the architecture of the house, but, if deprived 

 of that accompaniment, they cease to assist in the general effect, and incur the 

 charge of being misplaced. Against a Portugal laurel they come off badly, 

 and can only be of value when close to them. — H. B. August 18. 1840. 



The above communication was sent us long after we had written our re- 

 marks on the same places, made in May, though not published till November, 

 As we consider the taste of the writer to be of the very first order, both in 

 ai-chitecture and landscape-gardening, we feel much gratified and strengthened 

 in om" own views, from their coincidence with what we consider so high an 

 authority. With respect to the conservatory at Chatsworth, there can be no 

 doubt that a classical form would have been more generally approved of; but 

 much of the approval and disapproval in such matters has its origin in pre- 

 viously formed associations. Whenever any form is presented to us so en- 

 tirely new as that of the conservatory at Chatsworth, it ought to be tested by 

 its utility ; and few, we think, will deny that the structure in question is ad- 

 mirably adapted for all the purposes of the kind of culture intended, the 

 enclosure of a tropical grove. We are surprised to hear the workmanship 

 and the materials objected to, for, when we were on the spot, we thought 

 them both excellent. — Cond. 



Mr. Penn's Mode of heating Hot-houses. — I feel that in my paper on Mr. 

 Penn's mode of heating, which appeared in your Volume for 1840, p. 040., I 

 ought to have cautioned persons against erecting the apparatus as at first-ap- 

 plied by the inventor, or as figured in the Gardener's Magazine, volume for 

 1840, p. 122 — 127, This is the more necessary, as in distant countries, or 

 even in distant parts of this country, many persons in erecting it may follow 

 exactly the sections and descriptions given in the Magazine, and the result 

 must be a failure; as to heating an early forcing-house sufficiently, with the 

 pipes placed outside, it would in particular cases (high winds for instance) 

 amount to an impossibiUty. But allowing it could be accomplished, it must 

 be at an enormous sacrifice of heat ; as much heat is absorbed by the materials 

 that encase the pipes, which when placed outside nuist be given out in the 

 back sheds, without in the smallest degree benefiting the space intended to be 

 heated. When the pipes arc placed inside, this circumstance becomes a great 

 consideration, as I find the materials so heated continue to give out heat 



