342 



ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 



Part II. 



stone, adhering to a coat of mortar on a brick wall; giving the 

 unpleasant impression of being a mock ornament, liable to 

 fall off and expose the unseemly groundwork beneath them. 

 The same may be said of stucco, which affects, by imitating 

 its joints, to be real stone-work ; and in which we appear to 

 delight, as if it were a disgrace to use bricks, or as if these 

 were incapable of being rendered highly ornamental and 

 effective. (See below, p. 352.) 



Unfortunately, we derived our early impressions respecting 

 the use of the half column from the tasteless Romans, who 

 adopted as the rule what with the Greeks was rather the 

 exception ; and what was generally confined by them to posi- 

 tions well suited to it. The same objection may be raised to 

 the indiscriminate use of pilasters ; extending to the height of 

 two stories. [On the other hand, the propriety of dividing the 

 stories by string-courses is obvious ; and it is consistent with 

 reason and good taste, instead of being a mere introduction of 

 ornament without the inquiry whether it is suitable or not.] 

 For by dividing the house into stories its real disposition is 

 followed out : composed as it is of several floors, one over the 

 other ; while on the contrary, the office of a column is to 

 support upon its summit an architrave, or a 

 roof, without an intervening floor clinging to 

 its shaft. There are also certain conditions in 

 the arrangement of the stories, which are some- 

 times overlooked, as the proportion of the 

 windows in each ; and we see instances of im- 

 mense windows on the first floor with others of 

 a diminutive size immediately above them, 

 having the appearance of belonging to two dif- 

 ferent buildings put together by mistake ; which 

 are equally destructive of all symmetry, whether 

 in a tower or a house. They are not improved by the upper 

 story being disproportionably low compared to the one below 



