352 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



mouldings and other ornamental features ; and those Gothic 

 churches, which are made of small stones of various sizes and 

 shapes, with quoins of ashlar blocks, have certainly a far more 

 pleasing effect, than when of perfectly regular masonry. 



The choice of materials is not always attended to ; and bricks, 

 so much employed in England, are far from being properly 

 appreciated. We seem to use them, like many other things, 

 mechanically ; and we have been said, perhaps not unjustly, to 

 have a mechanical mind. If we want a cornice, or a string- 

 course, or any other ornament to a brick building, it must be 

 of stone : though the most satisfactory effect may be obtained 

 in brickwork, or terra-cotta. It is true that a brick is a 

 rectangular object, which serves for making a wall, and it may 

 be arranged as a mutule, or quincunx, and a few other simple 

 ornamental devices ; but why should it be confined to a simple 

 shape ? It is of clay, and clay can be made into as many 

 forms as the ingenuity of man can devise ; and the rich terra- 

 cotta designs in mouldings at Bologna, as well as at Pavia, 

 Brescia, Mantua, and other places in Northern Italy*, are 

 equal, and in some positions superior, to stone. 



115. Among other errors is the distorted imitation of Greek 

 ornaments ; and nowhere is this more apparent than in the 

 echinus, or egg-moulding ; which was quickly debased by 

 the Romans, and still more in Renaissance time. Indeed,, 

 it is to be regretted that the Renaissance architects, in 

 borrowing from the ancients, were satisfied with corrupting 

 the original they copied, without adopting its real spirit ; or 

 so modifying and reconstructing it, as to make a new creation 

 of their own. Moreover, instead of following the examples of 

 earlier and better times, they exaggerated the defects of the 

 latest Roman buildings, by cutting up pediments and other 

 members into the most graceless shapes, and covering the 



* See Street's " Brick and Marble of Northern Italy." 



