126 
REVIEWS. 
[Nature and Art, April 1, 1867. 
by way of China, and possibly tlfrougli Behring’s Straits in 
tho fifth century. 
In making this round of the globe, visiting “ all 
countries ” where there are remains of buildings, you will 
find that your cicerone is not a dull, dry matter-of-fact 
architect, knowing nothing but the knowledge which is 
peculiar to his hobby. On the contrary, the architecture of 
each country is treated in relation to the race of people, and 
to the requirements of their religion or life. In the preface, 
the author claims that if he were to state the most 
important feature of his work, it would be its “ Ethno- 
graphy.” He says : — 
“ My impression is that, unless the essential affinities of 
styles are perceived, and their application can be traced, the 
history of architecture is a mere memoria technica for con- 
necting buildings together ; but whenever their true relations 
are grasped, their history rises to the dignity of a science. 
Myconviction is, that when properlyappreciated, architecture 
will be considered as important in tracing the affinities of 
races as language ; and that, in many cases, it is even more 
so, because more fixed and more easily read, while it is 
quite as essentially characteristic. So deeply impressed am 
I with the importance of this element, not only to the art of 
architecture, but to the science of mankind, that I feel 
that if I have been enabled to place it in a clear and 
intelligible form, I shall not have lived or laboured in vain.” 
Probably there are few who are prepared for such claims 
on the part of architecture. The most of people generally 
think that buildings are produced anyhow, or, if there is a 
style about different periods of architecture, that it is very 
general and vague, and not at all to be depended upon. 
But it is a great and important principle that there are not 
more reliable records in history than the buildings of a 
country. The manner in which men have built houses, 
temples, and tombs, the material of construction, the 
ornaments and sculptural decoration, are in every land 
among the most trustworthy arguments which history can 
produce. They are the fossils of their several periods. 
Inscriptions may be interpolations of a later date, or 
written falsehoods of the time ; books are generally the 
written records of a man, or expound the views of some 
set of men at a given moment. This architecture never is. 
So far as it goes, as a record, it must express the truth 
regarding the ideas, the wants, and aspirations of an epoch. 
The details of a building, its arrangement of parts, its 
mouldings and its ornaments are as certain data as is the 
structure of plants in botanical classification. 
No better illustration of the foregoing proposition could 
be given than the discoveries which Mr. Fergusson made 
about Jerusalem. There was a building there called the 
Holy Sepulchre, and there was another called the Mosque of 
Omar. When Mr. Fergusson began to consider the character 
of these buildings, he was struck with the pretended name 
of the “Mosque of Omar,” and his knowledge of oriental 
architecture at once told him that no Mahomedan ever 
raised it for a mosque. A more minute investigation es- 
tablished the fact, that it could not have been built before 
the time of Diocletian, and not later than that of Justinian. 
Intermediate came the reign of Constantine, and it was 
known that Constantine had built a House of Prayer, which 
he commanded “ should be erected round the Saviour’s 
tomb on a scale of rich and lavish magnificence, which 
should surpass all others in beauty ; and that the details 
of the building should be such that the finest structure in 
any city of any empire might be excelled by it.” Such were 
Constantine’s orders, and no building in Jerusalem except 
the Dome of the Rock realizes them. It is one of the 
finest examples of richness and lavish magnificence in the 
world, and it is from its detail of ornament and con- 
struction, a building of the age of Constantine. Here on 
this architectural stronghold Mr. Fergusson takes his stand. 
Eusebius and other historians have been brought into the 
controversy. Old monks and pilgrims who have left 
writings in early days have been appealed to ; and all 
these historical and written data have been quoted on each 
side, with that air of triumph which indicates that they are 
authorities confirming the most opposite opinions ; but 
in the midst of this long and heated controversy, with so 
much uncertainty about the meaning of historical docu- 
ments, the architectural facts and the argument founded upon 
them stand untouched, and by these written stones it has 
come to pass that a man understanding the writing, has 
been able to overthrow an error believed in for ages ; to 
make clear what the regular sources of history had failed 
to do ; and thus to establish the value of architecture as a 
study in relation to the “ science of mankind.” 
Mr. Fergusson intended to give a greater importance to the 
Druidical remains than he has done, and he was at the 
trouble of a journey to Carnac in Brittany, to see the 
wonderful monuments there. The questions involved 
made it evident that justice could not be done without going 
beyond the purpose of the present work ; thus the matter 
is left within the limits due to its importance, and the 
author awaits some other opportunity to give full justice to 
the architecture of the Druids. 
There is one very interesting chapter on the ancient 
Celtic architecture of Ireland. The author seems to think 
that the style did not come by way of England from Europe, 
but that its origin must be sought in the East, and that it 
must have reached Ireland by some very early and 
independent source. This is in keeping with the traditions 
of the country, and also with the fact that when Augustine 
arrived from Rome, he found that Christianity had got to 
our islands before him. How it came is one of the dark 
points in our primitive history: birt the generally received idea 
is, that it was by way of Ireland that Columba carried it 
over to Iona, and that it thence spread all over Scotland, 
and as far south as York. It was in virtue of this pre- 
conversion that York so long contended for the Primacy of 
England against the claims of Canterbury. 
The principal interest is, of course, in the two first 
volumes, which treat of the ancient architecture of the 
world. The third and concluding volume begins with the 
Renaissance as the commencement of modern architecture, 
and from that point the subject is brought down to the 
present day. 
The quantity and quality of the woodcut illustrations 
cannot be too highly praised : of this our readers may judge 
for themselves, for, through the kindness of the publisher, 
we are enabled to give a couple of the drawings which add 
so much interest to Mr. Fergusson’s pages. One is “ the 
great Tower of the Pagoda Wat-Ching, at Bangkok ; ” and 
the other is a “View of Exterior Corridor, Nakhon Wat.” 
The last of these was quite a discovery on the part of 
Mouhot, and so great wa.s the interest felt in it, that an 
amateur photographer — Mr. J. Thomson— penetrated into 
the jungle, and has brought home a most complete set of 
photographs of this vast and wonderful temple. These 
photographs produced quite a sensation at the last British 
Association’s meeting, for the style of architecture can 
scarcely be identified with any other in the East. The 
square pillars of the corridor in the illustration seem more 
allied to the Erectlieum than to any Indian building. The 
temple, although Buddhist, has the story of the Ramayana 
sculptured all along its corridors, a circumstance which 
indicates the existence of Hindoo ideas in this part of the 
world at a very early date. 
We must acknowledge our thanks to Mr. Murray for 
having placed it in our power to furnish our readers with 
two such beautiful illustrations of these last and most 
important discoveries in ancient architecture. 
Hours of Work and Play. By Frances Power Cobbe. 
London : N. Triibner & Co., 1867. 
Of the fourteen papers composing this book, twelve are 
reprints from high-class magazines, whose pages they have 
adorned during the last three years. Any eulogy of ours 
upon Work of the worthiest and Play of the most sparkling 
order, which originally found favour with the conductors, 
and doubtless with the myriad readers of such periodicals 
as MacmAllan, Fraser, Temple Bar, Once a Week, or The 
Atlantic Monthly, may seem somewhat after date ; but we 
will nevertheless congratulate Miss Cobbe on the popularity 
