PART fill. ARCHITECT U HE. 89 



the productions of Greece or Rome. To take a part which in 

 one edifice is applied to the noblest purposes, and which pro- 

 duces an effect of light and shade, so striking as not to be sur- 

 passed by any object in nature ; to take that part, and place 

 it where it is incapable of either of these beauties, stimulates 

 to a comparison ; and the difference occasioned by the change 

 of situation is no sooner perceived, than good taste recoils at 

 the deformity ? or spurns the heterogeneous assemblage. Let any 

 person observe the noble effect of the portico of St. Martin's 

 church near Charing Cross, and then pass to the front of Somer- 

 set House ; and if he be at all sensible of the effect of visible 

 objects, he must observe this difference. The same may be per- 

 ceived in Edinburgh, by viewing first the portico of St. An- 

 drew's church, or the Surgeons' Hall ; and afterwards, Char- 

 lotte Square, the east side of St. Andrew's Square, or the 

 Register Office. There is a kind of middle way, between plac- 

 ing columns where they are of real use, and where they are fixed 

 in the wall, wTiich is equally to be condemned. In this case, 

 they are placed just so as to appear distinct and unconnected. 

 The entablature which they support is of no use, because, pro- 

 jecting so little, it neither affords shelter, nor produces suffi- 

 cient shadow. This mode is exemplified in the New College 

 and Bank of Edinburgh. It is often placed where neither 

 shelter nor shade are necessary; as in that huge mass of defor- 

 mity, the Bank of England. 



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