92 ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. 



which they could at no time do if placed near the top of the 

 space under the portico. That part of the entablature called 

 the frieze, when carried round windows, and terminated at top 

 by a cornice, has a good effect ; it takes away from the 

 poverty, or too great simplicity, of angles, which always injure 

 the effect of elegant edifices. For this reason, it should be 

 introduced into all buildings above the rank of cottages, ex- 

 cept those of the gloomy sort, as jails, &c. Its excellent effect 

 in streets cannot be better displayed than in the Bank Build- 

 ings opposite the front of the Bank of England, and in some 

 parts of Prince's Street, Edinburgh. In all buildings that have 

 any pretensions to elegance, or any character uniting beauty 

 with use, naked angles, or, as a mechanic would express it, 

 plan finishing of corners, ought as much as possible to be 

 avoided, either by bold pilasters, projecting stones, or double 

 angles*. — Angles in recesses, in the external parts of edifices, 

 should not be made double, because that would clog them up 

 and give them a heavy appearance. But in all apartments 

 finished with pilasters or columns, or any similar projections, as 

 halls generally are, the angles should also be doubled, by plac- 

 ing in them either columns or parts of pilasters, as at the hall 

 of Hare wood. In some varieties of Gothic architecture, a slen- 



* The term double angles may be explained, by observing, that they appear 

 as if a square slice had been cut out of each prominent or projecting corner from 

 the top to the ground. 



