Lack '1 r ! t REMARKS ON Secular & flomestic %vtYxitttKtt, PRESENT & FUTURE. By GEOEGE GILBEET SCOTT, A.E.A., AUTHOR OF "A PLEA FOR THE FAITHFUL RESTORATION OF ANCIENT CHUKCHES." i LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 1 85 7. PRINTED BY MESSRS. PARKER, CORN-MARKET, OXFORD. TO A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, Esq., M.P., D.C.L., &c, "Whose talented father, the late Thomas Hope, Esq., in his ad- mirable " Historical Essay on Architecture," was, perhaps, the first to direct attention to the history of the arts of the modern, as distinguished from the ancient, civilization ; and who has him- self taken so leading a position among those who, in different countries of Europe, are labouring in the revival of their indi- genous architecture, as the nucleus on which to develope that of the future, This humble attempt to aid that revival is, in earnest trust that he will unflinchingly continue to press on to its natural results the cause he has so long and ably advocated, Most respectfully inscribed, By his very faithful Servant, THE AUTHOR. Hampstead, July, 1857. b Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/remarksonsecularOOscot PREFACE. TJST offering to the public the following, as I fear somewhat rough and crude remarks upon secular and domestic architecture, I feel bound to preface them with a few words in explanation of their origin and object. I have for many years been strongly impressed with the following facts : — First, that the vernacular Domestic architecture of our day is wholly unworthy of our state of civilization, and requires a thorough reformation. Secondly, that the attempts which have been made to effect this, whether by those who favour the Ita- lian, mediaeval, or other styles, though often most praiseworthy, have been in the main unsuccessful. Thirdly, that the success, however incomplete, of the great movement by which Pointed architecture has been revived for ecclesiastical purposes, though un- questionably the one great fact of our day, so far as architecture is concerned, has not hitherto had full scope for producing a corresponding effect upon our secular buildings. Fourthly, that this has been caused chiefly by two viii PREFACE. circumstances : — the impression which, strange as it may be, is so prevalent that Gothic architecture is essentially an ecclesiastical style, and that though eminently suited to churches, it is not fitted for other classes of buildings, and the consequent unnatural se- verance which has taken place within the last few years between ecclesiastical and secular architecture, — a severance which has never existed at any former period; and, on the other hand, the want of a due appreciation of the question by many of the architects themselves who have been engaged in this revival, which has led, in many cases, to an uncertainty and hesitation in their efforts when engaged in secular works. Fifthly, that a thoroughly erroneous impression prevails as to the principles on which the revival of Pointed architecture is founded and carried on ; that it is an antiquarian movement, and seeks to revive all that is ancient, instead of being, as is really the case, pre-eminently free, comprehensive, and practical; ready to adapt itself to every change in the habits of society, to embrace every new material or system of construction, and to adopt implicitly and naturally, and with hearty good will, every invention or im- provement, whether artistic, constructional, or directed to the increase of comfort and convenience. A long and serious consideration of these facts led me, about two years since, to commence in my leisure moments a series of somewhat unconnected papers bearing upon them, and, the subject growing upon me PREFACE. IX as I proceeded, these have in the course of time in- creased into the present volume. I must plead the unconnected way in which they have been written as my excuse for the want of system, and the frequent repetition which will, I fear, be found in them. I should also mention, that from various causes the pub- lication has been delayed for a twelvemonth since the completion of the manuscript, and for several months since nearly the whole was in print, which will ac- count for some remarks being inconsistent with the date. The two first chapters, though read at an ar- chitectural meeting, were written expressly for this volume. My object has not been to write a book which will be praised for its systematic complete- ness, or for its composition, — in these respects I leave it to take its chance, — but simply to do good by suggesting remedies for the evils I have enumerated. I want to call attention to the meanness of our vernacular architecture, and to the very partial suc- cess which has hitherto attended the attempts at its improvement; I want to point out the absurdity of the theory that one style is suited to churches and another to houses, and of the consequent divorce be- tween ecclesiastical and secular architecture ; to press upon architects who are engaged in the Gothic revival the paramount duty of rendering it consistent by per- fecting it, and that on a systematic principle, in its domestic and secular branches ; and, finally, to shew to the public that we aim not at a dead antiquarian revival, but at developing upon the basis of the indi- X PREFACE. genous architecture of our own country, a style which will be pre-eminently that of our own age, and will naturally, readily, and with right good will and hearti- ness, meet all its requirements, and embrace all its arts, improvements, and inventions. If I shall have in any degree contributed towards these ends, my object in undertaking this little work will have been effected. I will only add one more prefatory remark, — that I disclaim as a deduction from what I have written in this volume any, even the slightest, feeling of depre- ciation of the talents or efforts of those who have been labouring in the styles which, while fully appreciating their intrinsic beauties, I do not think best suited to our own uses. One, in particular, among cotemporary architects, I should be grieved at the very thought of paining. I need hardly say that I refer to our highly- gifted and noble-minded Professor of Architecture at the Eoyal Academy, — a man whose every aspiration and sentiment is devoted to the promotion of art ; and who, though practically and by education a Greek, has shewn by his enthusiastic treatises upon mediae- val sculpture that, had circumstances so directed his earlier studies, he would have been the great leader and ornament of our Gothic revival. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Present State of Domestic Architecture in its Vernacular Form ....... 1 CHAPTEE II. The Eevival of Pointed Architecture, viewed in its bearing upon Domestic Buildings . . . . .10 CHAPTEE III. On the leading External Features and Characteristics of Buildings ....... 24 CHAPTEE IV. Internal Features and Decorations . . . .52 CHAPTEE V. Materials of Buildings . . . . .91 CHAPTEE VI. Country and Town. ISTo. I. — Buildings in the Country . 112 CHAPTEE VII. Country and Town. No. II. — Buildings in Towns . .163 PAGE Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. Buildings in Towns continued. — Public Buildings . .187 CHAPTER IX. Commercial Buildings, &c. ..... 209 CHAPTER X. On Restorations . . . . . .225 CHAPTER XI. On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood in Architecture , 235 CHAPTER XII. The Architecture of the Euture . . . .258 NOTE. On the Uses to be made of the Mediaeval Architecture of Italy 275 CHAPTEK I. a THE PRESENT STATE OF DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN ITS EE we, as Englishmen, satisfied with the state of domestic architecture amongst us, or ought we to be so? I am not asking whether our dining-rooms are com- fortable, our drawing-rooms brilliant, or our parlours snug,— we are pretty sure to take care of ourselves as to comfort, — but are our houses pleasant things to look upon, as well as comfortable to live in? Are they objects which we feel a national pride in, or would wish to point out to our visitors from other countries as symbolizing well with the state of civili- zation we profess to have attained ? Do they contrast satisfactorily with the houses of our forefathers, built in periods we are accustomed to think rude ? Do our town-houses add grandeur and picturesque effect to the streets of our cities? Do our country-houses harmo- nize well with the scenery around them, and add beauty to the landscape ? Then, again, how do we feel satisfied with the look of our country towns ? Does a view of their streets tend to elevate the feelings and excite our patriotic pride? Do our great manufac- turing and commercial towns contrast favourably with a This and the following chapter were read at a meeting of the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Architectural Societies, held at Newark in 1855. VERNACULAR FORM. B 2 The present state of Domestic Architecture the ancient seats of industry and commerce, such as we see in Flanders and Germany ? Again, how do we like the look of the cottages of our poor, as compared with the old cottages we often find of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as those of the villages of Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, and Somerset? On the whole, is the good taste and good feeling these different domestic works display snch as makes ns feel a secret pride in the place and period in which our lot has been cast ? If so, I can only say that our taste is even worse than I suppose it to be. No ; though taste is, with the community at large, undoubtedly at discount, I cannot believe tnat there are many amongst us who, if they took the trouble to ask themselves such ques- tions as the above, could screw np their consciences to give a favourable reply. The fact is that, from being all our lives surrounded (more or less) with ugli- ness, we take it as a thing of course, and hardly give it a thought. Now let us look back for a moment to former periods, when civilization was far less advanced. Go back almost as far as you like, — go to the very in- fancy of modern civilization, — and as far back as any remains of domestic buildings have escaped the hand of time, we find them more systematically treated as to care for external appearance, than is usual among ourselves. From the twelfth century onwards, we have domestic remains which, in every instance, how- ever simple they may be, display real architectural thought and care. Of the thirteenth century, many of the remains of houses, both in cities and in the country, though never richly ornamented, are really noble specimens of architecture. In the fourteenth in its Vernacular Form. 3 they become — though retaining a grand simplicity of treatment — magnificent ; while in the fifteenth and sixteenth the domestic architects strained every nerve to render their cities noble and picturesque, and their country-houses beautiful additions to the scenery which surrounded them. Even the barns of these times are often finer objects, and more architectural buildings, than our houses. Their warehouses, as we see at Nuremberg, though severely plain as suited their uses, were noble and dignified buildings; while their cloth-halls, market- houses, and town-halls, were often much finer, and more impressive, (though infinitely less costly,) than our palaces. To the very close of the middle ages a noble senti- ment pervaded every building. In some instances, particularly abroad, a taste for the fantastic had some- what injured the domestic, as it had the ecclesiastical, architecture, especially in cases where funds were superabundant ; but in general we find a grand sim- plicity of character, a generous and natural treatment — adapting every feature thoroughly and fearlessly to its uses, — and an abstinence from over-strained effort beyond what the occasion demanded, accompanied by an instinctive power of giving beauty to every form which utility might suggest, lasting up to the very period of the renaissance of the long-exploded archi- tecture of the ancient world. As instances of this, see the older portions of Hampton- court, or of Eton College, the ruins of Wing- field Manor-house, and the remains of numberless do- mestic buildings of the fifteenth and the commence- ment of the sixteenth centuries. The first effect of the revival of Eoman detail was b 2 4 The present state of Domestic Architecture to foster a feeling for extravagant and fantastic forms of ornament. The high gables of the Gothic honse or hall became broken into all kinds of fanciful forms, and every feature of the old style was remodelled into some new shape, though the general feeling was in a great measure retained. The architecture, conse- quently, of the latter half of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, while retaining much of the noble feeling of the previous age, had lost its purity and simplicity ; still, however, one can never see the domestic works of those days without admiration, and still we see the great pervading prin- ciple that no building can be so homely in its uses as not to be deserving of careful thought in its design. It seems to be generally imagined that the merits of the Elizabethan style are most displayed in its grand baronial mansions, such as Burleigh or Hat- field. I think quite the contrary. A style is best tested by reducing it to its humblest conditions ; and the great glory of this style is, not that it produced gorgeous and costly mansions for the nobles, — for here its weakness is shewn in the fantastic forms it often assumed, — but that it produced beautifully simple, yet perfectly architectural, cottages for the poor ; ap- propriate and comfortable farm-houses ; and pleasant- looking residences for the smaller country gentlemen, and for the inhabitants of country towns and villages. In these the faults of the style rarely shew themselves ; the parts are always simple and natural, the leading forms the same as at the best periods, and the " clas- sic" admixture is not obtrusive, being only seen in the profiles of the few simple mouldings. In this style, as in all preceding it, the great principle holds good, that no mean or contemptible in it a Vernacular For in. 5 architecture exists: from the palace to the cottage, every building was treated with care to its appear- ance; and an object painful to the eye was held to be just as inexcusable as an offence against any of the other senses, — and none the less so on account of ' the homeliness of its uses ; nor was the modern prin- ciple up to this time thought of, that, provided your house administers to your own comforts within, no mat- ter how much it offends your neighbour's eye without. The departure from these principles commences, in England, with the period of the great rebellion, though this event only affected it indirectly. The real cause of the change was the more perfect introduction of pure Palladian classicism, which came about from va- rious causes at this period, and was fostered by the long sojourn of our nobles on the Continent, and the general breaking up of our national traditions. The change, however, was by no means complete. Our ecclesiastics, at the Eestoration, in many cases at- tempted to perpetuate the old style of building, and in the rural districts the retention of the old forms was very general throughout the seventeenth, and even to the end of the eighteenth, centuries ; so much so, that in some of the more secluded villages of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, and, probably, some other counties, cottages continued to be built, up to the beginning of the present century, in a manner which one would almost call " Elizabethan," and the framing of timber buildings, such as barns, &c, con- tinued much the same (though in a ruder form) as in the middle ages, — and even now an unsophisticated village carpenter or mason, if simply following his own uncorrupted instinct, often reverts, unconsciously, to the old way of doing things. f> The present state of Domestic Architecture The great war from 1793 to 1815 has been the deluge which has, for the most part, swept away all true feeling for characteristic domestic architecture. Up to that time, whatever the style, whether exotic or traditional, we find some remaining traces of re- gard to appearance, some lingering sense of beauty, even in the simplest structures ; but from that time this has (as a general rule) ceased to be the case : the house-builder, left to himself, ceased even to think of the appearance of its structure, unless its importance were such as to compel him to pay it some little re- gard ; and from that time to the present our country has become disfigured by masses of brick and mortar such as the most barbarous age or nation would reject with disgust. Within the last few years, architects, and the more educated classes of the public, have become conscious of this miserable degradation — this unfathomable ba- thos of the public taste, and many praiseworthy attempts have been made to remedy it. I do not at the present moment speak of these attempts, but rather of the vernacular house-building of the mil- lion ; for, as stated above, the real merits of a style are best tested by viewing it when reduced to its sim- plest conditions. Look at the vernacular cottage-building of the day, — not the ornate specimens which are seen near the park-gates of our nobility, nor those admirable at- tempts which are now happily becoming frequent, to raise the habitation of the labourer both in comfort and character, — but the spontaneous productions of our builders, where no external influence is brought to bear upon them. Can anything be more execrable ? Can anything be more utterly at variance with what in its Vernacular Form. 7 one would think should be the character of a country village, or more deadening to all the natural feelings of the labourer for his home ? Look, again, at the rows of miserable houses in the suburbs of our country towns, and at the wretched creations of speculating builders in the neighbour- hood of London : are they not vile beyond descrip- tion ? Look at the houses which grow up like mush- rooms round the Crystal Palace, and which appear wherever a needy landowner begins to let out his ground on building leases : are they not perfect plague- spots on the landscape, instead of heightening its beau- ties, as they ought to do ? And yet these display the vernacular style of house-building more truthfully than the forced productions of persons of more ambi- tious notions, and are, for the most part, much the same things denuded of a few ornaments, by which their natural ugliness is in a measure disguised. The builder's style of our day is, in fact, after making a certain abatement for want of skill, a truthful expo- sition of what is too generally the architect's style ; in the same manner as a Nuremberg warehouse of the fifteenth century shewed the style of the mansion or the Hotel de Yille reduced to its simplest elements, and proved its innate nobility ; as the tithe-barn of the fourteenth century proved that the architecture of the day was noble even in its simplest forms ; and as the cottages of a Northamptonshire village shew the architecture of Burleigh, of Kirby, or of Bush- ton, reduced to its elementary forms, and in doing so enhance, instead of diminishing, our opinion of its merits ; so do the erections of our speculating house- builders hold a truthful mirror to the majority of our house-architects, and shew them, without flat- 8 The present state of Domestic Architecture tery or detraction, what their architecture is in its native and normal conditions ; but instead of proving it noble, they exhibit it in its genuine meanness and deformity. In the same manner as the architecture of former ages has been proved noble by the natural beauty of its most normal and spontaneous produc- tions, so does that of our day stand before us self- condemned, when tested by the same ordeal. The one was proved to be alike suited to the most exalted and the humblest uses, the latter only tolerable in its forced and laboured efforts, but sinking into despicable mean- ness when reduced to its simpler elements \ I need hardly say that we want a style which will stand this test, — which will be pleasing in its most normal forms, yet be susceptible of every gradation of beauty, till it reach the noblest and most exalted objects to which art can aspire. If we can devise such a style for ourselves, by all means let us do so ; but if not, let us endeavour to develope it out of that of some former period which we find to have met these conditions : and happily we find such a nucleus to work upon in the native archi- b It may, perhaps, be objected to this, that our builders fail still more signally when they attempt a Gothic house, and that our old styles are, in their hands, even more execrable than their own. I would reply that, if three centuries of labour at revived c'assicism has failed in rendering the vernacular buildings tolerable, it is hardly to be expected that those who make such a hash of what they have had such long schooling in, should succeed better in a style they have never before tried. While our indigenous styles prevailed, they imparted to the humblest mechanic an instinctive sense of beauty and of propriety of form ; the exotic style, on the contrary, has utterly destro) r ed all such instinct, and, whatever intrinsic beauties it may possess, produces, in the hands of the un- learned, nothing but deformity. in Us Vernacular Form. 9 tecture of our own country, — the production of our own forefathers ; men bearing our own names ; whose lands still often remain in the same families; whose armorial bearings we are still proud to hold ; to whom we owe our liberties, our constitution, and our national customs ; and who, though living in simpler times, were the fathers of our modern civilization. This style of architecture, whose traditions have, in our rural districts, only vanished within the memory of man, has the strongest possible claims upon our affec- tion. It is the absence of anything to excite interest and to enlist the feelings of the heart, which has been the great cause of the present degradation of our ver- nacular architecture ; and it is a happy circumstance, that the style which on its own intrinsic merits recom- mends itself as the ground- work of the future, is that which above all others is calculated to enlist our love and sympathy, from its association with the past. CHAPTER II. THE REVIVAL OF POINTED ARCHITECTURE VIEWED IN ITS BEARING UPON DOMESTIC BUILDINGS. TT is now about fifteen years a since we took in hand in good earnest the great cause of the revival of our own national architecture. About an equal time had previously elapsed during which slight \ faint , irre- solute attempts had been made, but without shewing any strong or decided feeling for the greatness or the nobleness of the work. Let it not be believed that this great work has been the result of fashion \ It has, on the contrary, arisen from one of those revo- lutions in the human mind which from time to time occur, as if from some overruling guidance, and affect at once and simultaneously the minds of persons hav- ing no communication with each other, nor perhaps any previous knowledge of the subject in question, but who, from some unknown cause, are unconsciously a It is two years since this was written. h Nothing seems so mnch to gratify our opponents as to hear our great movement styled a "fashion," — as if they were doing honour to the noblest of arts by degrading it to the level of the trades of the tailor and the mantua-maker ! Let them know that what they are pleased to style a " fashion," has been the result of the most powerful and enthusiastic feelings ; that our work has origi- nated in intense love for what we are engaged upon ; that our la- bour has been to overthrow the fashions (if such they must needs be called) in which we were educated ; and that if ours is a fashion, it is not one we have followed, but one which we have had the honour of ourselves establishing. The Revival of Pointed Architecture, §c. 11 all drawn individually and separately into the same line of thought and to the same mental cravings, which only wait for an external impulse to awaken them into actual energy. We are taunted by our opponents as mere followers of a fashion, mere panderers to the caprices of public taste. For myself, I can assert that I commenced to sketch with delight from Gothic buildings before I knew one style of architecture from another, or hardly knew that there was such a profession as that to which I now belong ; that, after joining that profession as a pupil, I followed up my old bias at a time when there was nothing to encourage it, devoting to it every holiday I could get and every spare hour I could obtain, without a thought of ever having an oppor- tunity of turning it to practical account; and I am convinced that the same has been very much the case with all who have zealously followed what has since become so energetic a movement as to go far towards revolutionizing the popular taste in architecture. That movement, then, is not a mere fashion -it is no po- pular caprice; it is a deep-seated, earnest, and ener- getic revolution in the human mind, and one which is not peculiar to our own country or our OAvn Church, but which, in a greater or less degree, pervades all the countries where Gothic architecture once flourished . It is a craving after the resumption of our national architecture, the only genuine exponent of the civili- zation of the modern as distinguished from the ancient world, of the Northern as distinguished from the c Even in Italy a strong feeling for pointed architecture has arisen, and in one, at least, of her schools of art it excites greater enthusiasm than the works of the so-called " revival." 12 The Revival of Pointed Architecture Southern races, and, in some degree, of Christian as distinguished from Pagan art. How far has our movement been successful ? To this question almost every town and village sup- plies an answer. We everywhere see that ancient churches are more respected, and in innumerable in- stances restored to a state of seemly reparation. But the great fact is this ; that whereas forty years ago no one dreamed, if a new church were to be built, of attempting to assimilate it in style to those be- queathed to us by our forefathers, the reverse is now the case : no one ever now entertains the idea of building one in any style but those of our old churches. This (let alone the question of whether we do it well or ill) is a great fact, a great and signal revolution. It is true that many of our so-called restorations would have been far better left undone ; that both in repairing and building we have done much which we would gladly undo : true, that our new churches are often very far from carrying out the spirit of the style we aim at; still the aim is a great point gained. The change of style (so far as concerns our churches) is practically acknowledged, and is often carried out in a way which emulates, without servilely copying, our ancient churches, and which, taking up their spirit, accommodates it to the altered requirements of the present day. So far we may safely chronicle our success, — that we have thoroughly revolutionized our ecclesiastical architecture, and have brought it back to our true national type d . d Let it not be imagined that I mean by this that the ecclesias- tical branch of our work is anything like complete. On the con- viewed in its bearing upon Domestic Buildings. 13 There remains, however, a great work before us, — - our civil architecture is as yet unrevolutionized. We cannot, however, say that we are, in civil and domestic architecture, in precisely the same position in which we were as concerns church architecture fifteen years ago, for we have been all this time laying in stores of knowledge on the subject. We have put out our feelers. We have made many feeble and irresolute essays, not to mention many miserable failures. We have made our reconnaissances, but the real brunt of the attack is still to come. Let us gird on our har- ness for this new contest. It may seem at first sight hopeless, but let us look back at what we have already achieved, and our courage need not fail us. The first thing in preparing for more energetic exertion is to form a just estimate of our present position. As I said before, our course hitherto has been purely experimental; we have been foraging in detached parties, in different directions, and with varied suc- cess; but we have not been wasting our time. We have learned by our failures where our weak points lie; we have by thought and experiment learned to appreciate our difficulties, and have found out what are the tough points to be mastered; we have by a series of feints learned from our opponents what is to be their line of defence ; we know their arguments, and how to meet them ; we know their weak points, and how to assail them ; we have also laid in a great store of facts, and have deeply thought over the best trary, I think that one great effort is still before us ; we have still to make our style thoroughly our own, and, divesting ourselves of the shackles, though not of the aid, of precedent, to strike out boldly and fearlessly for ourselves. 14 The Revived of Pointed Architecture ways of using them; so that, on the whole, we are now in an excellent position for systematic and suc- cessful action. One of the most necessary steps to ensure success is to investigate carefully the causes of the partial failures of our own experimental endeavours, as well as of the more glaring errors of earlier attempts. These may, I think, be classed under the following heads : — 1st. The tendency to masquerading, or dressing up our buildings in characters which do not belong to them. 2ndly. The want of unity of purpose as to the style to be taken as our leading type. 3rdly. Our want of boldness in fearlessly adapting the style chosen to the requirements, the appliances, and the feelings of the present day; and importing into it every hint which we may gather from other styles, and every aid to be obtained from modern in- ventions, so as to render it, not an antiquarian matter, but strictly our own. 4thly. The absurd and growing error of considering ecclesiastical and secular architecture as so distinct, that the same person cannot practise both. The first of these causes of failure — the practice of architectural masquerading — is a vice so obvious and so absurd, that one would imagine it would only have to be once exposed to ensure its abandonment ! The practice of building abbeys for gentlemen's resi- dences is, we may hope, gone by; — the memory of such folly has, however, given an air of frivolity to the idea of Gothic domestic work, from which we have hardly yet recovered. The equally monstrous practice of castle-building is, unhappily,, not yet extinct. The viewed in its bearing upon Domestic Buildings. 15 Eoyal Academy exhibitions continue periodically to shew new specimens of it, and the largest and most carefully and learnedly executed Gothic mansion of the present day is not only a castle in name, — it is not a sham fortress, such as those of twenty years back, whose frowning gateway is perhaps flanked on either side with a three-foot clipped hedge, — but it is a real and carefully constructed mediaeval fortress, capable of standing a siege from an Edwardian army, — a bulwark against the inroads of a Llewelyn or a Glendower. No pains or outlay have been grudged to render the fortress impregnable under mediaeval conditions, and against an enemy of five centuries back, — " Whose bones are dust and their good swords rust, — ■ Whose souls are with the saints, we trust." Now this is the very height of masquerading. The learning and skill with which the pageant has been carried out reflect the highest credit upon the archi- tect ; yet I cannot but feel it to have been a serious injury to our cause, that so unreal a task should have been imposed upon him ; and a misfortune of no ordi- nary kind that so much knowledge and skill should not have been directed to the adaptation of the noble style in which he was working to the genuine require- ments of the nineteenth century e . e A justly popular writer on architecture somewhere compares our Gothic revival to the Eglintoun tournament. Had the custom of castle-building been the subject of his attempted parallel, it would have been a very fair one, for the very same scientific dis- coveries (themselves, by-the-bye, mediaeval) which have made de- fensive armour a useless burden, have also done away with the old system of fortification; but till he can point out the mechanical discoveries which have as completely superseded the arch, or have rendered that of the pointed form less beautiful or useful now, than 16 The Revival of Pointed Architecture Let us earnestly hope, then, that the use of castles having long since gone by, people will henceforth be contented to live in houses. The danger, however, of masquerading is not con- fined to these obvious and palpable fallacies: among those who best understand mediaeval art there is a danger of ultra-medieevalism in minor things, which often involves a good deal of the same spirit. The adoption of features whose uses are obsolete; the denying ourselves the use of such as are of modern introduction; the use of modes of decoration incon- sistent with the habits of the age ; indeed, everything which would make one feel that we are living in a house belonging essentially to a previous age, rather than our own, has a smacking more or less of arc7ii- tectural masquerade. We do not wish to adapt ourselves to mediaeval customs, but to adapt a style of art which accidentally was mediaeval, but is essentially national, to the wants and requirements of our own day. This, however, is a point to which I shall have to return presently. The second drawback to our success has been our want of unity of purpose in point of style. It may be considered an axiom in architecture, though one which the world is most loath to admit, that a style which is well fitted for one class of build- formerly ; which have caused Greek or Roman mouldings to be more suited to us than those designed by our own forefathers ; or which have rendered the foliage from the shores of the Mediterranean a more appropriate decoration for English buildings than that which flourishes around us, or heathen mythology more suitable to our sculpture than Scripture history or that of our own country, the parallel cannot go a step beyond the condemnation of such practices as those I am now exposing. viewed in its bearing upon Domestic Buildings. 17 ings ought (if it is good for anything) to be equally well suited to others. Many who sincerely approve of our movement so far as it applies to church architecture, think it should stop there ; or in other words, that pointed archi- tecture should be only our sacred language in art. Others, again, take an intermediate course, and adopt the Elizabethan for their houses, on the ground that while its leading forms sufficiently assimilate with those of our church architecture, house-building was better understood in the sixteenth century than in . the fourteenth, while the converse was the case with church architecture. Others, again, are willing to go a step further, and take the Tudor style for their domestic type, as the most perfect adaptation of purely pointed architecture to domestic uses. None of these theories will, however, bear a scrutiny. Unity of style is essential to consistency. We must select the style which in itself is the best, and has the strongest claims upon our sympathy, and for its proper use we must depend upon ourselves. In church architecture, we have so generally come to the conclusion that the best period of our national architecture was the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries, that we have insensibly adopted that as the groundwork of our revival. We did not select this period because the best- arranged churches were then erected, (for it may, I think, be proved that such are oftener to be found of a later date,) but simply because the architecture was then at its highest perfection ; for the shape and ar- c 18 The Revival of Pointed Architecture rangement of our churches we trust to ourselves, and to the dictates of our own requirements. Wow, this is precisely what we ought to do by secular architecture. Let us take the same style for our groundwork, and be guided solely by our own requirements in the use of it. Whatever is to be learned from the Tudor or Eliza- bethan, which is worth learning, may readily be trans- lated back into the higher style of art. If we cannot do this, we are unfit to work in any style. It may, perhaps, be objected, that while we have abundant material from which to revive the church architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, such is far from being the case with the domestic re- mains of that period. These are so scarce as to be almost architectural rarities, while the domestic works of the fifteenth and sixteenth century are everywhere abundant. This, it is true, is a drawback in several ways, yet it is not an unmitigated evil. It increases the difficulties of the architect by reducing his stock of precedents, and it renders his work less familiar to the mind of the ordinary observer, by its want of similarity to the more well-known types ; but, on the other hand, it leaves more to the imagination and in- ventive powers of the architect, and leaves him more unfettered by precedent to strike out freely such de- velopments as the practical conditions prescribed to him may suggest. The existing types, however, of the period in ques- tion, though not so abundant as to be familiar, are sufficiently so to remove all difficulty in learning the style, and are so manifestly superior in point of beauty to those of later periods, as to leave no question in the minds of those who are acquainted with them as to their comparative merits ; while such is the unity viewed in its hearing upon Domestic Buildings. 19 of principle throughout the whole range of pointed architecture, that there is no kind of difficulty in translating any idea we learn from works of its later stages back into the purer taste of its earlier days ; a process which adds novelty and freshness to familiar types. I do not advocate any extreme carefulness in ascertaining whether the features thus arrived at were actually ever used in the fourteenth century: this really does not in the least concern us ; our business being simply to cull from works of any date, or from our own conceptions, such ideas as are practically suited to meet our requirements, and to express them con- sistently with the feeling of the style in which we are working ; and if the result should differ from anything before done, so much the better, if only it be good. This brings me to the third of the causes which have hitherto impeded our success, — our want of bold- ness in adapting our architecture to our requirements, and thus making it thoroughly our own, This point has been in a great degree anticipated by what has been said under the former heads ; but as it in fact embraces the whole question, we must consider it more in detail. Architecture differs from her sister arts of painting and sculpture in this, that while they directly origi- nate from a feeling for beauty, and are either wholly independent of utility, or only accidentally connected with it, architecture results in the first instance from necessity, beauty being a superadded grace. The element of beauty may increase in its relative importance with the nature and objects of the build- ing, in proportion (to use a modern phrase) as the building becomes more monumental in its character; but in no class of building can beauty be consistently c2 20 The Revival of Pointed Architecture permitted to interfere, in any degree, with the effi- ciency with which the structure provides for, and carries out, the primary object of its erection, what- ever that may chance to be. TSo class of building is so completely the result of necessity as our houses, — our existence is dependent upon them, and health, comfort, and convenience de- mand that they should be constructed with all possible regard to the demands of our nature, and the customs and necessities of the state of society in which we are placed. We may superadd taste to any extent, but if it interferes with any of these primary requirements, it (just so far) defeats the objects for which domestic buildings are erected, and becomes a nuisance instead of luxury. It follows, that no style of architecture is good for anything which demands that utility should in any degree be sacrificed to taste. It has conse- quently been, in all ages, the aim of good architecture not only to add beauty to utility, but, so far as possi- ble, to make it grow out of, and result from, the uses and construction of the various parts of the building, — an object which becomes doubly urgent in those buildings on which our life, health, happiness and convenience, are in so great a degree dependent. Now I boldly assert that no style of architecture has so directly derived its characteristics from utility as that which I am advocating ; that no style is capable of adding so much that is beautiful and pleasurable, not only without reducing, but as arising out of its uses, as this ; and that no style is equally capable of adapting itself to varied requirements, or of enlisting in its service the inventions, materials, and ideas which are introduced by the advance of social improvement. viewed in its bearing upon Domestic Buildings. 21 If we so misuse it as to make it reject these pro- gressive improvements, or clash with reasonable re- quirements, it is our own fault, and we prove thereby, not the inapplicability of our architecture, but our own individual incapacity or want of practice in the use of it. While making these remarks, however, let me not be misunderstood. I am free to admit that in chang- ing from the style of art in which we have been brought up, and which we found ready to our hand, it is not to be expected that everything will come right of itself, without thought and study. When we consider the enormous social changes which have taken place, the greatest wonder is that pointed architecture is found so *easily to adapt itself to our wants, not that we make mistakes in the use of it. The fourth hindrance to our success has been the error of considering church architecture as essentially distinct from that for secular purposes, — which has in a great degree deprived our domestic buildings of the advantage of the study which has of late years been devoted to our ancient architecture. It is impossible for any one to study the domestic works of the middle ages, without also studying their ecclesiastical remains. Their style is identical, though the application of it is varied to suit the differing uses to which it is directed. The majority of the remains of our ancient styles are ecclesiastical ; and apart from these, the styles cannot be studied. To suppose, then, that an architect can understand our old domestic styles without understanding ecclesiastical architec- ture, or that the knowledge of the latter clashes with that of the former, is a manifest absurdity. Yet, in the face of this, it has become the custom to talk of 22 The Revival of Pointed Architecture a church architect as if he could understand nothing but churches, though, in all probability, he was drilled into all the practical routine of house -building before he ever touched a church, and though he may since have given the most deep and earnest thought to the application of pointed architecture to secular purposes. The only persons who can build good Gothic houses are those who understand Gothic architecture, and who earnestly aim at its perfect adaptation to the ne- cessities of our age; and if they understand church architecture also, so much the better. This divorce of secular from ecclesiastical architec- ture is a fancy of only the last few years. It was never heard of in former days; but in our day it is especially absurd, so far as it applies to houses in the pointed styles, inasmuch as these styles can only be understood by those who have studied church archi- tecture. Much of our modern church architecture, it is true, is contemptible enough ; but the practice I am combating has led to the production of multitudes of the vilest abortions which can be conceived, under the name of Gothic houses, and which have done more to bring the cause into contempt than all other adverse influences put together. To recapitulate, then, — I would urge, as the primary steps to the success of our movement, that we should, first, guard severely against architectural masquerading in all its guises, and make our buildings assume the form which honestly belongs to them ; secondly, that we should adhere strictly to unity of aim in point of style, while we make that style assume varied cha- racter suited to the uses and position in which we employ it; that we should fearlessly bend our archi- tecture to the uses of our buildings and the require- viewed in its bearing upon Domestic Buildings. 23 ments of our age, instead of endeavouring to bend them to our architecture ; and fourthly, that all who aspire to a share in this great revival should first make themselves masters of the style they aim to revive, even at the risk of being dubbed "church architects." / CHAPTEE III. ON THE LEADING EXTERNAL FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BUILDINGS. WINDOWS. "VTO feature in domestic architecture requires more consideration than the tvindoiv. To give the re- quisite amount of light, without unduly cutting up the wall j to admit air when you want it, without admit- ting wind and wet, which you do not want ; to have free scope for viewing external objects, without need- lessly exposing your rooms from the exterior ; and to do all this in such a way as will add beauty and character to your building, both within and without, are important objects to be aimed at in any style. It has been very much the fashion to assert that a Gothic house must be defective in these particulars ; indeed, our assailants have made this one of their strong points, and have put together a string of terms, such as "dark rooms," "dark monkish buildings," "dark passages," &c, &c, which they use whenever the subject is alluded to : and, so much are people who do not look into things for themselves misled by these stock terms, that one frequently hears persons, not otherwise unfavourable to Gothic architecture, coolly say that they think, in a country like ours, where light is scarce, the Italian style is preferable, as affording greater facilities for its admission ! Under On the leading External Features, fyc. 25 what an extraordinary delusion these persons must suppose the originators of both these styles to have acted ! We generally imagine the characteristics of different styles of architecture to have arisen in a great degree from local necessities, and, among other causes, from difference of climate : here, however, it would appear that the Northern architects, being espe- cially in need of light, originated a style whose great characteristic is its exclusion, — an error happily com- pensated for by the- architects of Italy, who, dealing with a superabundance of light, and a burning sun, which they would naturally desire to exclude, fell, luckily for us, into the parallel blunder of contriving a style eminently suited to the free admission of both ; so that we have nothing now to do but simply to make a mutual exchange of styles, and both will be suited to a nicety ! The truth, however, is, that no such blunder ever was made, excepting in the fertile imagination of our opponents. Gothic architecture, as might be ex- pected from its Northern origin, is par eminence a window style ; so much so, that by its windows we most readily distinguish it from other styles, and by them we define its different historical changes. In the pure Greek the window comes in only as a thing to be ashamed of, and the means of lighting the finest Greek temples are still a mystery. In Bo- man buildings it assumes a more definite position, but still seems rather admitted as a necessary in- truder than a legitimate part of the architecture. It is in the works of the middle ages that the window first takes its proper position, as one of the most essential architectural features, and as the most impor- tant vehicle for architectural decoration. It may be 26 On the leading External Features and that the Italian architects of the Eenaissance suc- ceeded in remedying in a great degree this defect in the ancient styles, but it was the example of the mediaeval architects which enabled them to do so. Even now the window is felt to be an intruder in purely classic architecture ; so much so, that in the most magnificent of its recent productions — St. George's Hall, at Liverpool — every effort has been used (at least on the show side) to conceal the means by which the light is admitted, as if the " offspring of heaven first-born" were one of those meaner necessities of our nature which we reluctantly admit, instead of hailing with love. " But," it will be said, " surely it is true that many old-fashioned Gothic rooms are gloomy." It may be so; and so are many modern rooms which are not Gothic. Many rooms may have been intended to be gloomy, as the cell of the monk, or the prison- chamber in a castle ; others may have become gloomy through the effects of age upon their wainscotted or tapestried walls, and their panelled ceilings ; but, so far from their being of necessity dark, no style admits of so large a proportion of window, and in the Eliza- bethan style, which in its windows is essentially the same as its predecessors, we know that the rooms were often made inconveniently light. Lord Bacon finds fault with the excess of window in the houses of his day, saying of them, u You shall have some- times fair houses so full of glass, that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold." If rooms, then, in these styles were often made too light, no difficulty can exist as to making them of the right degree of lightness for any purpose or situa- tion ; indeed, this is so obvious, that it is scarcely Characteristics of Buildings. 27 worth discussing, and I must apologise for having said so much in reply to so absurd an objection a . I will now proceed to consider in detail some of the questions which suggest themselves as to the treat- ment of windows. The first which presents itself is, whether windows in domestic works should be arched. There are two conflicting theories which have their advocates among writers on architecture. The one demands that every form should be the simple and obvious result of construction or utility ; the other assumes a certain normal construction to belong to the very essence of a style, and demands that this shall be displayed on all occasions, whether utility demands it or not. Now, there are two normal methods of covering an opening, — the one by a horizontal lintel or architrave, the other by an arch. The first of the above-named theories would claim that in the same building, or in buildings of the same style, the one or the other should be used as circumstances may chance to dic- tate : thus, if stone be abundant, it would claim arches for wide openings, and lintels for narrow ones, and perhaps lintels, aided by relieving arches, for those of moderate width; or if brick be the material, the arch would be almost exclusively used. The other theory, on the contrary, would exact a choice of system at the outset, and a strict adherence to it throughout. Thus, if the lintel be adopted as a There is, in fact, no style by which nearly so much light can be obtained without injury to the effect. "We may perforate our entire wall with continuous window-work; or, stopping short of that extreme, may use windows of a width which would be destruc- tive to beauty in other styles. 28 On the leading External Features and the rule, it must be used even for the widest open- ings ; or, if the arch be the normal type of the style, it must be used over openings so narrow as to make it a mere useless pretence. Again, as there are round-arch and pointed-arch styles, the first theory would in either case admit the normal form to be deviated from where conve- nience may suggest, while the other would demand the selected symbol to be adhered to under all cir- cumstances. The first is the theory dictated by common sense, the second by pedantry; yet we must so far temper the latitude given by the one as to prevent its in- troducing positive discord. It is quite true that the forms which satisfy the obvious demands of construc- tion are, so far as this is evident, satisfactory to the instinct of common sense, and may even pass for beauties, but they have no necessary connection with beauty or harmony of form, though, by a happy co- incidence, they often suggest what is agreable to the eye. The common-sense theory, then, must be tempered, where found needful, by the principle of harmony and good taste : thus, in a lintel style, the arch should be an exception, used only from obvious necessity ; and in an arch style, the lintel should be sparingly used, and in positions in which an arch would ob- viously be needless, unless itself aided by a relieving arch. Again, in a building in which the round arch predominates, other forms should only come in as the result of practical considerations; and in a building where the pointed arch is the leading type, the round or other forms of arch may be admitted freely, but never without a practical reason. Characteristics of Buildings. 29 I claim, then, for Gothic architecture the liberty to use the arch or the lintel as circumstances may- dictate, but reserving fully a preference, cceteris pari- Ins, for the arch; and in the same manner I claim for it the free choice of the different forms of arch, as may be best suited to each particular position, but urge, at the same time, a general preference for the pointed arch. Again, there are at the present day two other con- flicting notions as to the mode of covering openings in Gothic domestic work. Mr. Buskin, on one side, urges that the pointed arch being the most perfect mode of covering a void, and being the essence of the style, openings should generally, excepting perhaps very small ones, be so bridged over, though below the arch the space may be filled in by a tympanum or a lintel, to bring it to a square form, should it be more convenient. The opposing theory, if theory it can be called, (for though so prevalent as to be almost universal, it is a mere popular prejudice,) is that the arched win- dow is an ecclesiastical feature, and, as such, is to be carefully avoided in secular buildings. So prevalent is this most groundless notion, that one can hardly use an arched window in a house, a school, or other ordinary building, without hearing some remark about its being like a church; as if pointed arched windows were now the badge or sym- bol of a church, just as a few years back those with the round arch were held to be of a dissenting chapel. Here, again, the truth lies between the two notions. The pointed arch makes, as a general rule, the best and most dignified covering for an opening, and being 30 On the leading External Features and also the marked feature of the style, should be used, where practicable, in all Gothic buildings. There are, however, positions in which it becomes impracticable or useless, — as, for instance, in the sides of a very low aisle in a country church, where the eaves come down so low as to leave no room for it : here we continually find the square-headed window resorted to for conve- nience, while the pointed arch asserts its rights in the ends, and wherever else there is room for it, or work for it to do. Just in the same way in a house : a room of ordinary height scarcely affords space for a pointed arch, and this is the great reason why the square head is so general; but in a staircase, or in a hall, or other room of greater height, or in a house on so lofty a scale as to give scope for it, the pointed arch is at once returned to as the natural form : but it is not a whit more ecclesiastical to use the pointed arch in a house where there is height for it, than it is secular to omit it in the low aisle of a church where there is not height for it. In each we should use it where we can get it, and where it will be serviceable and convenient, but be free to dispense with it where such ceases to be the case. The next question is, whether a Gothic domestic window must of necessity be mullioned. Here, again, while recommending a general adhe- rence to the customary type, I would claim the same freedom which I have advocated on the question of the arch. It may be objected that in the one case the liberty I claim is only that which was made use of by the mediaeval architects, whilst I am now claim- ing, apparently, somewhat more : such, however, is not the case. The mullioned window seems to have been nearly universal in English domestic works, but Characteristics of Buildings. 31 abroad the mullion was omitted whenever convenience suggested its absence. This is all I claim in our own works. I hold the mullioned window to be the typical window of the style — to be in the abstract by far the most pleasing which can be used, and I deny that in general it is open to any objection on the ground of practical con- venience : I therefore urge its use as the prevailing window in Gothic buildings. In doing so, however, I demand that we shall not be enslaved to our rules, and that in any case where circumstances may demand another form, we shall be perfectly free to use our own discretion. Here, as in all other cases, I would say, " Be master of your rules, but never let them be your masters." The great argument against the mullion by the ob- jectors to Gothic architecture is, of course, the fact that it reduces the individual apertures to somewhat small width. As a matter of taste, I think this gene- rally an advantage, whether from within or without ; as in the former case it divides the view into por- tions, which almost always tends to improve it ; while in the latter it takes off that look of large gaps in the wall which is decidedly unpleasing in any style. It is, however, seldom recollected by the objectors, to what a narrow compass their objection may be re- duced. In the first place, it only applies at all to windows of one class of width, e. g. from three feet to four, or four and a half feet, in width, such as are usually divided by one mullion. If a window in the ordinary style of the day is wanted to be much more than this width, it becomes too wide for a sash to run well, and we at once find two narrow slips cut off the sides by wood mullions. Now a space of five feet 32 On the leading External Features and six inches, or six feet b , would in a Gothic window only have two mullions, and it would require the same number of w r ooden posts in the ordinary style. Again, the objection, whatever it may be worth, almost ceases to exist when w r e leave our own shores for other coun- tries. The width of window which would require one mullion, or suit a single sash, would be divided up the middle by the centre bar of a French casement, which forms, when the window is shut, an equal ob- struction with a mullion. It is curious, too, to observe how frequently our classic architects resort to the mul- lion as a matter of taste or convenience. I have no- ticed among the new buildings in the neighbourhood of the Bank, that, though built by architects who would cry out loudly against using Gothic architec- ture in such a position, almost a majority have some equivalent to a mullion in their windows c . If, then, the classic architect considers himself free to use this feature when he pleases, the Gothic ar- chitect may surely claim the same privilege while working in a style to which it is so suitable, yet still be equally free to omit it when he sees reason to do so. There are many instances in which the mullion must of necessity be omitted ; e. g. in cases where the window serves also as a door, opening into a balcony, terrace, or what not. These amphibious apertures are more frequent in modern than in ancient houses, and if well managed, add greatly to their beauty. In wide windows, portions may be left undivided for the same b These dimensions apply to buildings of moderate scale ; in public buildings and large mansions they would be greater. c The Eoyal Exchange has windows almost as decidedly mullioned as the Houses of Parliament. Characteristics of Buildings. 33 purpose ; arid in houses where the mullioned window is the rule, certain windows, or portions of windows, may fairly be so made, even when not serving also as doors. In the mediaeval houses in Venice the windows are nearly all unmullioned, for though the centre of each front is generally occupied by an arcade supported by columns, and often crowned with tracery, this by no means constitutes a mullioned window, inasmuch as the int er coin mniat ions are at least equal to the usual width of an unmullioned window, while their ordinary windows of four or five feet in width are constantly undivided. I confess I think the beauty of a Gothic building is somewhat damaged by such a practice, but it sufficiently proves that the mullion was not con- sidered an essential feature, and that in cases where it would cause inconvenience it may fairly be omitted. I would, however, generally recommend the use of some form of the French casement in cases where the mullion is dispensed with, so as to avoid the appearance of a wide, undivided gap. If the window is high enough, or has an arched head, there may be tracery above an unmullioned opening ; or an arched tympanum, containing either tracery or other decoration, would greatly relieve its effect. In many modern buildings in Germany the wood casements are so arranged as to give quite the effect of a mullioned window when shut, but to leave the space undivided when open, while the upper part is often filled with ornamental work of metal or other material. This system might be very readily adapted to a Gothic window, where needful. In short, if the mind of the architect is fully imbued with the spirit of the style, he will never be at a loss for resources to D 34 On the leading External Features and meet any accidental requirements of this or any other kind. In mullioned windows there are several different varieties of construction. First, the ordinary stone or wood mullion, shewing similarly without and within the window, and serving as the framework in which the glazing is fixed, and the casement or other opening hung. This is the common system in England, and appears to be the most simple and obvious contrivance. Secondly, we have the system so usual in France of cutting off the inner face of the mullion to a square surface, against which is fixed a wooden frame to re- ceive the glass and the casements. And thirdly, the Italian system (often, however, found elsewhere) of substituting detached shafts for mullions, and placing behind, and unconnected with them, wood frames, as in the French plan. If the casements or sashes are to be of metal, the ordinary English mullion seems to be the best ; but if of wood, the French and Italian systems offer great advantages; or the mullion may be wholly of wood, which is somewhat more consist- ent, though less suited to a dignified building. In this country, the great crux in Gothic domestic work is how the windows are to open. "We have be- come so wedded to the ordinary sliding sash, that people fancy they are suffering under persecution if asked to submit to any other mode of opening their windows. It seems useless to remind them that this fancy is peculiar to Englishmen, or at least only shared with them by the Dutch, and that all other nations adopt the casement. No such arguments avail ; — the sash-window has been registered with Magna Charta, Habeas Corpus, and Trial by Jury, as the English- Characteristics of Buildings. 35 man's birthright, and it seems hopeless to dream of his relinquishing his privilege. Happily, however, the Gothic window does not demand so distressing a condition. By two of the above systems the wooden sash may readily be nsed behind the stone mullion ; by a third, a wooden mullion may be formed into a sash-frame ; and even in the ordinary stone mullion metal sashes may be hung, so as to slide in the ordinary manner; so that no real difficulty oc- curs on this head. There is, no doubt, some real advantage in this mode of opening. The sash, moving in its own plane, is in the way of nothing else, nor finds anything else in its way. A casement opening outwards may sweep flower-pots from the window-sill, or opening inwards may invade the curtains or the dressing-table, — offences of which our British favourite is not guilty ; so that it is satisfactory to know that no force need be put upon our inclinations, but that the sash is still open to us. I confess, however, I rather prefer a well-made copper casement, such as one sees in Mr. Blore's Elizabethan mansions. For the glazing, it seems to me that if we condemn the old system of diamonds, or small-pattern glazing, as inconsistent with the spirit of our age, and our praiseworthy desire to see clearly out of our windows, we ought, in good houses, to go at once into the oppo- site extreme of plate-glass, as undivided as possible. It is one of the most useful and beautiful inventions of our day, and eminently calculated to give cheer- fulness to our houses. In cottages, however, I should hesitate long before giving up the old system of quarries and lead lights, nor in better houses would I scruple to use pattern- d2 36 On the leading External Features and glazing in the same building, or, perhaps, in the same window with plate-glass ; for where the external view is not important, the subdivision of the space into mosaic-like patterns is always agreeable. We might, for instance, use this kind of glazing in staircase win- dows, and even in the upper portions of transomed windows where plate-glass is used below. I would aim, in the construction of the sashes or casements, and in the mode of glazing, as in other matters, at increasing rather than limiting our range, by freely admitting all modern improvements, without exclud- ing the old systems. In these points, however, more perhaps than in any others, is the special attention of the architect and mechanist required, with a view to bringing them to the greatest possible degree of me- chanical perfection. On the perfect mechanism of the system of opening and shutting our windows the com- fort of our houses depends, perhaps, in a greater de- gree than on any other single feature which could be named; and this is the point on which we are, I think, at present the least perfect. There can be no real difficulty about it, It only requires to be care- fully and practically gone into. The objects are to contrive, first, the best possible casement, whether of metal or wood, and whether applied to pattern-glazing or to plate or sheet-glass ; secondly, the best possible system of sliding sash under the same conditions. I should mention that the design of the window itself ought to be influenced by the system intended to be adopted for opening it ; and there can be little doubt that where sashes are to be used, a square- headed window possesses considerable advantages. I have contended for perfect freedom of choice between arched and square-headed windows, but con- Characteristics of Buildings. 37 venience will, in a majority of cases, decide the ques- tion in favour of the square head, as best suited to the limited height of an ordinary room, as carrying up the light as near as possible to the ceiling, and as being more convenient for opening. Some variety of the square head will consequently always prevail as the rule in modern, as was the case in ancient, houses, but not to the exclusion of the more characteristic type when opportunity offers. The arched and traceried windows may freely be used in houses of the higher class, and in public buildings, but in ordinary private residences they must ever be the exceptions, though always admissible. The arched window, with the tympanum unpierced, will in many cases unite the two principles with excellent effect, and in nearly all cases a constructional or discharging arch should be introduced over a square head, both for strength and character. The same freedom which I claim for the entire window, I demand also for its individual lights. They may be square-headed or arched, (with or with- out cusping,) as may be preferred: the latter, of course, looks best, but the former is quite consistent, and does not, as is often imagined, indicate a late style. It is to be found in windows of all periods, from the Eomanesque to the latest Gothic. A window with a tympanum to each light, under an arched or tre- foiled head, is also admissible, and looks well. The free use of balconies is calculated not only to add cheerfulness to our houses, and aid in impart- ing a distinctive character especially suited to our own day, but also to add much to their variety and beauty. In ordinary houses the balcony-fronts are, perhaps, better of metal-work, and as open as possible, or they may take off from the apparent height of the 38 On the leading Externed Features and window; but where stories are lofty, stone may be used for them, as in the well-known Venetian types. In either case they are open to unlimited variety: stone balcony-fronts, for example, may be formed of balustrades, arcaded work, tracery, panelling, dia- pering, open scroll-work or inlaid work ; and each variety may be of what design we may fancy. Besides the fully developed balcony, however, there are several minor forms of it, all useful in their place : as, for instance, a horizontal projecting sill, with or without brackets below or metal guards above, on which flowers may be placed ; or open balustrading of metal or stone between the jambs of a window, to admit of its being opened to the floor, in the absence of a projecting balcony. All such features I would commend to the special attention of domestic architects, both as being conducive to actual convenience and to pleasantness of effect, and as elements of cheerful variety. Nearly allied to the balcony is the canopy, — the equivalent in a Gothic window to the pediment ed window of classic styles. These, perhaps, belong chiefly to buildings of the higher order, and are scarcely appropriate excepting in connection with balconies, to which they appear to afford protection. They may be gabled or otherwise, and may be sup- ported by shafts or brackets, or both, and may either project but slightly from the wall, or overhang the whole depth of the balcony. They may be made ex- ceedingly beautiful, but should not be too liberally used, or they may import an air of fulsomeness into the design. In public buildings and in houses which approach a palatial scale, the windows may attain to great mag- Characteristics of BuihUu gs. 39 nificence without in the least encroaching upon their practical efficiency. I would advise, in any secular building, that the width of light in mullioned windows should be made as great as is consistent with the general scale ; but when we come to structures of a monumental grade, no fear need be entertained on this head. The ordinary lights, where mullions are used, may often be as wide as three feet ; and where the window assumes the form of an arcade, or of an undivided opening, lights may be used of four, five and even six feet in width, according to the scale of the building. A bold columnar structure both in jambs and mullions is productive of much dignity of character, but where perfect columns are used for mullions, I cannot help feeling a strong objection to placing a wide sash-window behind them. It seems an unmean- ing union of the divided and undivided window, not to mention that sashes do not run well when of undue width. I would always divide the sash-frame behind the columnar mullion. The arcades which occupy the centre of the fronts of Venetian palaces would almost appear to have had an amphibious character, and to have been intended as perfectly open arcades in sum- mer, but to be closed by a glazed screen, attached by irons to the back of the columns, in winter. Whether this were so or not, they seem hardly suited to our climate, unless backed by some more decided and visible provision for the permanent attachment of the window-frames : without this, they appear too much like an open arcade glazed as an after-thought ; but if so far modified as to appropriate them to our climate, they would become very convenient as well as beauti- ful in buildings of the higher order. 40 On the leading External Features and The arched head to the window always seems best suited to the dignity demanded by structures of this class. It may be either pierced with tracery or by detached openings, left unperforated over a square head, and filled with sculpture, or may assume a hun- dred other varieties, according to the fancy of the designer. The square-headed window is, however, not only perfectly admissible, but may be rigidly adhered to in buildings of the highest class ; and we see from the noble sixteenth century houses in Scotland that even the wide, oblong, and undivided opening is, by good management, capable of producing an effect har- monizing perfectly well with Gothic forms ; indeed, it may be said generally, that though our style will impart to buildings of the highest class any degree of magnificence, it is equally susceptible of the most severe simplicity without any risk of losing dignity ; indeed, rather the contrary, for there can be no doubt that our failures are usually on the other side. In designing windows, I would always recommend that the block form of their constructive elements be kept in view, that the fancy may not run wild and clash with reasonable construction. It is a good plan to draw out the constructive form denuded of deco- rative features, as a guide, and to add to this some diagram relating to the mode of opening contemplated, as well as to the internal fittings, that by reference to these, the window may be designed in perfect ac- cordance with its construction and uses. By follow- ing these rules, many noble varieties will occur to the designer, and he w T ili secure himself against his imagination running counter to his reason, — a danger to which searchers after novelty are somewhat liable. I shall not follow out windows in their many beau- Characteristics of Buildings. 41 tiful varieties, as bay-windows, oriels, dormers, &c, all of which are subject to the same varied forms of which I have been speaking. My object is not to write a treatise, but to advocate liberty in our mode of dealing with each feature of our domestic work, for the exer- cise of which none, perhaps, offers so wide a scope as the window; while, unquestionably, no style gives such an infinity of forms to the window as that I am advocating. What with the vast variety in the kind of window, and in their pattern, added to the modi- fications suggested by modern convenience, and by types borrowed from different countries, the num- ber of changes which may be rung on this one fea- ture, the window, are as inexhaustible as they are charming. DOOEWAYS. Of doorways I have much less to say than of win- dows. They present few practical difficulties. They, too, may be either arched or square-headed, though the latter is only suited to narrow openings, unless placed under an arch with an intervening tympanum, which may be either plain, decorated with sculpture, or may be pierced so as to form a window. This is, in fact, one of the best forms of doorway, where there is height for it. The arch may, of course, be either of full height or segmental, as is most convenient. As a general rule, a square head, whether assuming the form of a lintel or tympanum, should be strengthened by corbels, adding to the support of its ends, and shortening its bearing. In domestic buildings, it is always desirable to have 42 On the leading External Features and wood frames to the doors, rather than to hang them to the stone jambs, as is usual in churches. The door itself is better panelled than simply boarded, as church doors usually are ; indeed, the heavy, massive character of the latter should be carefully avoided. Their pa- nels may be glazed, if convenience requires it ; and if so, may be filled in with beautiful guards of wrought iron- work or brass. The porch is a feature to the use of which Gothic architecture affords great facilities, but I do not know that it needs here any particular remark, except that they may be either of timber, or of brick or stone. In the absence of a porch, a projecting penthouse, either of wood or stone, is often a convenience, and conduces much to picturesque effect; or a porch may assume the form of a portico, carried only by two or more columns, as is so often seen in Italy. EOOFS. The pitch of the roof is a subject demanding more consideration than it has, I think, yet received. It is mainly regulated by three conditions — taste, climate, and material; in addition to which may be men- tioned the actual construction of the roof, though that more frequently depends on the pitch than the latter on it. None of these conditions are absolutely imperative. Taste may, and continually does, modify its demands to suit the occasion. Climate, for instance, may sug- gest a high roof, yet daily experience shews that it does not in all cases demand it; or it may suggest a low roof, without in any degree militating against Characteristics of Buildings. 43 a high one; and the material of covering may not demand a high pitch, yet may be none the worse, but rather the better for it. The only imperative condi- tion is the use of those rough materials, such as tile and stone slate, which will not exclude the rain if laid at a low pitch. We find ourselves, then, in this, as on many other questions, left very much to the dic- tates of our own reason. The way in which taste regulates the pitch of roof, is by suiting it to the general feeling of the style. If that feeling be in favour of a horizontal tendency in the general character, the low pitch seems to suggest itself; while, if the tendency be rather towards ver- tical lines, the high pitch takes the precedence. Thus, as a general rule, Grecian architecture delights in the low, spreading pediment, and pointed architecture in the lofty, aspiring gable ; and we may be content, without reasoning further, to lay down these natural preferences as inherent upon the two styles, and, therefore, only to be departed from to meet special and exceptional demands. The pitch may also be said to have some reference to the mode in which the openings are covered : thus, in the pure lintel construction of Egypt and Persia, the roof-line was horizontal ; in Greece, where neces- sity demanded a sloped covering, it was still kept as low as possible ; at Eome, where the round arch was used jointly with the lintel, a higher pediment was admitted ; when the round arch superseded the lintel, the roof rose to a right angle ; and lastly, the intro- duction of the pointed arch was accompanied by roofs often rising with the arch itself to an angle of sixty degrees, and again sinking down into comparative flat- ness with the introduction of the depressed arch. 44 On the leading External Features and I prefer, however, the more obvious theory, that the roof should harmonize with the general character of the style. The fact that in Italy the roofs of mediaeval buildings were generally low, I am, I confess, rather disposed to attribute to classic traditions than the di- rect effect of climate. My own experience of Italy would not lead me to predicate of it any want of necessity for efficient roofing. In my first night under an Italian roof, I was nearly flooded out of my bedroom by the tor- rents of rain which the low covering failed to ex- clude, while on the last evening of my stay I was ancle-deep in snow at a railway-station in the plains of Lombardy, and that after only half-an-hour's fall, and in the very beginning of November. Nor do my reminiscences of the furious swellings of the Arno, or of roads converted into rugged and deeply-fur- rowed water-courses, and in parts nearly washed away by three days' rain, impress me with the necessity for a good slope to your roof being much less in Italy than in England. It is a fashion among writers on architecture to speak of Italy as always basking under an unclouded sun, and of more northern countries as constantly enveloped in mist or buried in snow. No doubt there is a great change of climate between the north and south of the Alps, one necessitating in the north all measures for admitting sunshine, and in the south for moderating it ; but I much doubt whether in other respects there is such a difference, but that a high roof would be better than a low one in Italy as well as in England. I am, therefore, rather disposed to attribute the low roofs of Italy to antique tradition than to climate ; while in the north, harmony of style Characteristics of Buildings. 45 and the demands of climate both suggested high roofs, and their demands were unchecked by any ad- verse tradition. Our roofing materials, for the most part, leave us pretty free as to pitch. Common tiles ought not to be laid lower than an angle of forty-five degrees, but are better at a higher pitch, which the ordinary stone slate absolutely demands. The thin flagstone slates of Yorkshire and Lancashire may be laid somewhat lower than forty-five degrees, but are far better higher. The "Westmoreland slate may be laid as low as one- third the span, and the Welsh slate at one-fourth, but both are better for a higher pitch. Lead may be laid nearly flat, but is a noble covering to a high roof. So that we are really but little under the sway of ma- terial, and must limit our rules to these : — first, that in the abstract a high roof is suitable to a climate which is subject to heavy falls of snow, and is, as a general rule, better than a low one ; secondly, that some roofing materials demand, and probably all are better for, a good slope ; thirdly, that a high roof is more suited to the general feeling of pointed archi- tecture than a low one. The most reasonable practical conclusion, then, is that we should adopt the high roof as our rule in all cases where we have no strong reason for using other forms; but, on the other hand, that we should not allow ourselves to be enslaved to a rule which daily experience shews us not to be absolute in any of its conditions. In the majority of modern Gothic houses, the roof- pitch is very unpleasantly exaggerated, being made much greater than in old houses : this should be care- fully avoided. We find in Yorkshire and Lancashire, 46 On the leading External Features and where the flag-slate was used, old houses with roofs lower thau a right angle : this looks too low, but it is less unpleasing than our modern exaggerations. An equilateral roof belongs to nothing short of a cathedral ; the common church-roof is about the angle of a pentagon, with the rafter about six-sevenths of its span, but house-roofs are seldom so high. An old Swiss cottage is as mediaeval in its idea as any other Gothic house, yet its pitch is often nearly as low as that of our modern slated roofs. This was caused by the dread of storms ; and the effect is so pleasing as to shew us that, where circumstances sug- gest a low roof, we need not be afraid of it, however much we may prefer a high one. I have now discussed the three great features of a Gothic building which may, in some people's minds, stand in the way of the general adoption of the style for civil purposes ; I mean the pointed arch, the mul- lioned window, and the high-pitched roof. These are, no doubt, the most prominent characteristics of the style, and as such should, as a general rule, be ad- hered to ; and the more strictly, the more perfect the character of the building will be. But as there may, in particular cases, or in the minds of particular in- dividuals, be objections to some one or more of these features, I have endeavoured to shew that the rules of the style are not so rigid as to demand the use in every case of all its normal characteristics ; that Gothic architecture, though essentially an arch style, still freely admits of the trabeated construction ; and that though it delights in the pointed arch, it permits the use of the round or the segment ; that though the mullioned window is one of its most characteris- tic features, it admits of undivided openings, and that Characteristics of Building*. 47 it allows great latitude not only in the design of the window itself, which may be of all varieties, from the square opening to the arched and traceried window, but also in the minor accessories, such as the glazing and the mode of opening the lights ; and, finally, that though it delights in the high-pitched roof, as that best according with the sentiment of the style, it admits, as occasion serves, of every form of roof, from the perfect flat upwards. Gothic architecture is, in fact, the most free and unfettered of all styles. It embraces every reasonable system of practical construction, though it boldly selects from among them those which are the best and most consistent, and places them in the foremost rank, as its chosen and best-loved characteristics. " But,' 7 I hear an objector ask, " wdiat will have become of your Gothic building when robbed of its pointed arches, its mullioned windows, and its high roofs ? will it not be like Hamlet with the character of the Prince of Denmark dispensed with ? Surely a building with lintelled openings or round arches, with wide, undivided windows, and with low roofs, can lay little claim to the name of Gothic; and it would be better at once to be satisfied with a style in which such are the essential features, than to adopt anything so effete as Gothic architecture robbed of all its leading characteristics !" No such thing. Even if I were advocating the omission of these character- istics, I believe a better style might be made out of what is left of Gothic architecture than the dull, in- sipid style of the present day ; it would, to say the least, have the charm of novelty, and anything would be better than the wretched routine of our vernacular architecture. 48 On the leading External Features and Far be it from me, however, to propose anything so absurd ! All I advocate is freedom ; unity of style, but liberty in the use of it. I love the pointed arch, the mullioned window, and the high- pitched gable too well to wish to set them aside in any one instance in which they are suitable, and I hold that in nine cases out of ten they are by- far the best things you can use : all I wish to urge is, that if in any instance they are found to clash with the requirements of a building, there is a principle of common sense inherent in Gothic architecture which will at once dispense with their use, and that nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that if circumstances forbid the use of one or more of these features, we must at once quit our style and adopt Italian. It is not very probable that chances would be so adverse as ever to demand the absence of all three of these characteristics in one building ; but should it so happen, I would only ask whether, if the same circum- stances had occurred in the fourteenth century, the builders of those days would not in the face of them have made their work as unmistakably Gothic as if no such difficulties had existed. Enough remains, if rightly used, to give a true Gothic character to the building even in so extreme a case as this, though I should be sorry to see the experiment tried, and doubt whether its necessity is possible. In the Venetian palaces we often have the absence of two of these characteristics, the high roof and the mullioned window, yet what remains is thoroughly Gothic. In the church called Or' San Michele, at Florence, we have the low roof and the round arch used with the mullioned and richly-traceried window, and the whole effect remains Gothic. In some of the Characteristics of Buildings. 49 early French street- fronts we have the low roof and the square-headed but mullioned window. The same is often the case in our own later buildings ; while in some of the rude castellated remains in Wales and elsewhere all three are absent together; and though we may be puzzled as to their date, no one mistakes the style. The wide window without -mullions is the greatest foe to character, and I would recommend its being but very exceptionally used, and then that it should be divided by wood casements. Indeed, I would sum up by saying, " Introduce all these beau- tiful characteristics of the style wherever you can; they give you the best arch, the best window, and the best roof ; then why not use them ? But if cir- cumstances forbid the use of one, or perhaps two of them, do not despair: the resources of the style are unlimited, and if your mind is embued with its true feeling, you will still produce a good building; and even if it should ever be your hard fate to have to build without any of the three, you may still find means of throwing character into your building, and making it effective, — certainly a great deal better than if you were to throw aside your style in despair, and return to the hackneyed architecture of the day, which systematically rejects all these beautiful features." I am not aware that there are any other of the leading features of Gothic architecture (externally, at least,) against which any popular prejudice is likely to exist ; the beauty and propriety of nearly every detail is too universally admitted to need any advo- cacy. The grand common-sense principle of decorat- ing in the most appropriate manner the parts ren- dered necessary by utility or construction, pervades the whole style ; and this principle comes home to every E 50 On the leading External Features and one's apprehension. Yon do not in Gothic, as in Italian architecture, plan a window where it is not wanted to match another which is, bnt simply nse or omit them as utility suggests. If yon want a bay- window to increase the capacity of your room and the range of your view, yon introduce it without a thought as to whether or not it corresponds with some other portions of the building; nor would you dream of such folly as adding one from any such motive where it is not wanted. This freedom of treatment gives in- finite variety to your buildings. Once master the prin- ciples of the style, and work as freemen, divesting yourselves of all feeling of being fettered by prece- dent, and there is no limit to the noble things which may be produced. Every difficulty may be turned into a beauty, and even poverty may give rise to a simple honesty of treatment, whose appropriateness will more than compensate for its homeliness. CHIMNEY - SHAFTS. Among the instances in which necessary objects have been made to contribute to beauty, the chimney-stack holds a prominent place. I single this out, while pass- ing over so many others, because I observe a disposi- tion among some of our best Gothic architects to neglect it, and to make their chimneys bare, and even ugly, from a feeling that the more ornate forms belong to the later styles which they repudiate, and which have been hackneyed ad nauseam in modern houses. This, however, is a feeling which must not be allowed too much influence. We are building in a northern climate, and in what is supposed to be par eminence a northern style ; and it is obvious that the means of Characteristics of Buildings. 51 warming our houses is only second in importance to those of lighting them. Add to this, that we live in an age in which comfort is so cared for, that every room, however small, must have its fireplace; it be- comes, then, doubly clear that the chimney must of necessity be one of the most prominent features in our domestic buildings, and common sense demands that it should be carefully and architecturally treated. From the thirteenth century onward it was so treated, and made greatly to conduce to the beauty of the building ; and strange indeed would it be, if now, in reviving our national architecture, we were to abandon to ugliness a feature now become doubly essential. The increased number of our flues does, however, demand some reconsideration of their treatment. We cannot to any great extent subdivide them, as for- merly, into separate shafts, each containing but one flue ; we may do this here and there, but the mul- titude of flues forbids its being done generally. If, again, the beautiful brick chimney- shafts of our later mediaeval buildings have been hackneyed in modern times, surely we can make new designs for ourselves equally beautiful, and not open to the same objection ! We may study all the varieties which we find, from the earliest use of the chimney down to the beautifully simple brick shafts of the seventeenth century cottage, and take hints from them all, but still make our de- signs for ourselves to suit our slightly altered require- ments, and at the same time give freshness of charac- ter to our works. There is here a wide field for novelty of treatment. e 2 CHAPTER IV. INTERNAL FEATURES AND DECORATIONS. TN" the interior of our houses we have even greater scope than externally for giving originality of cha- racter to our style, and for rendering it essentially our own, rather than a mere revivaL WOOD-WOKK. In the wood-work alone there is unlimited oppor- tunity for original development. The joiners of the last century or two have done much to render the mechanical construction of these internal fittings both convenient and easy of execution ; but, working in the style of their time, all their contrivances and arrange- ments have been adapted to it. It is for us to exa- mine carefully into what they have been doing, — to subject it to a rigorous scrutiny, to reject such of their practices as are petty, such as savour in any degree of sham, and such as arise especially from the style they are working in; but to avail ourselves of all which is genuine and useful. We should do the same with the ancient joiners' work; distinguishing the features which are imperfect or clumsy, or which arose from the great abundance of material, from those which are dictated by soundness and truthfulness of construction, and which are especially characteristic of the style. By uniting the good qualities of both, and by adding whatever, either in construction or in design, our own Internal Features and Decorations. 53 necessities or our individual taste may suggest, we may obtain what is at once consistent with the style we are reviving, and with the usages of our own day ; while in its decorative character it is open to variety only limited by the inventive powers of the architect. Here, as elsewhere, the character may very fairly be varied to meet the taste of those for whom the house is built. A person of antiquarian prepossessions may find pleasure in making his house rigidly me- diaeval : I have no wish to dissuade him from doing so, and can sympathize in his feelings ; what I wish to urge is this, — that in reviving Gothic architecture for civil and domestic purposes, we do not mean such a domestic style as existed in the middle ages, any more than the leaders of the classic Eenaissance of the six- teenth century aimed at reproducing Eoman villas, such as have since been excavated at Pompeii ? but that we wish to revive the artistic style of our indigenous architecture, applying it freely, and subject to the rules of common sense, to our own requirements ; and that in doing so, we are at liberty, within the reason- able limits of the style, to adhere as closely to me- diaeval feeling, or to bend it as much to the feelings of our own day, as our individual taste and judgment may dictate. CEILINGS, In ceilings, again, this rule, or rather this liberty, is very important. In houses of the earlier periods, so far as we know them, it seems to have been most usual to expose the actual timbers of the floors, so as to form the ceiling (if it may be called so) of the room below, the actual floor-boards being sometimes seen between the joists, or a board used as a panel, or 54 Internal Features and Decorations. possibly a surface of plastering being used below them to fill in the interstices. This purely constructional ceiling seems to have been usual in the Venetian and other mediaeval palaces in Italy, and was common throughout Europe. It is in floors the equivalent to an open roof, — the simple exposure, with or without decoration, of the actual construction. The next description of ceiling is that in which the beams and other main timbers only are exposed, the joists being concealed either by panelling, plain board- ing, or perhaps by plain plastering. The third is where no constructive features are seen, but the whole surface is lined with panelling or boarding, the panels always having wood mouldings, the plain faces usually boarded, but occasionally plastered. Plain plastered ceilings also occur; but I know of no instance in which, during the true Gothic periods, plaster cornices, or mouldings, have been used in ceilings. I have met with one case, in a church of the end of the fifteenth century, in which a ceiling being divided into panels by wood mouldings, the plain spaces are covered with a very hard surface of plaster, in which geometrical patterns were set out with the compasses, as if as a guide for decorative painting. N o better ceiling could, perhaps, be devised for modern uses. All the above are legitimate modes of forming a ceiling. The first, or constructive ceiling, is perhaps best suited to a public building. It is less suited to a house, as the multiplicity of its rooms makes it difficult so to ar- range the. timbers as to look well in all of them. The second, or semi- constructive plan, suits the larger rooms of a house, but not the smaller ones, as the beams are not likely to come symmetrically in all; while the third, or non- constructive ceiling, suits those Internal Features and Decorations. 55 in which it is inconvenient to shew the main tim- bers. Have we not, however, a fonrth course open to us, or at least a legitimate variety upon the two last ? It is a natural reaction, when we find that a ma- terial, or mode of workmanship, has become debased by misuse, to treat it as an immedicabile vulnus, and to proscribe its use altogether; and I believe that in many cases it is by far the safest mode of dealing with those materials, &c, which have become the verna- cular vehicles for sham and deception. The legitimate use of such sinning material too often serves as an excuse for its base misuse, so that it may be safest to expunge it for a time from our materia architec- tonica. This has been, in some degree, the case with plaster. No material has either so sinned, or been so sinned against. It is the grand vehicle for the abominable and contemptible shamming which has degraded the archi- tecture of our age, and it is natural that we should cast it off as an accursed tiling. As, however, we are compelled to admit it for encrusting plain internal walls and for plain ceilings, it may be well that we should take the pains to define its proper use as dis- tinguished from its misuse, rather than condemn the innocent with the guilty. By using plaster for plain surfaces we at once admit that it has a legitimate use ; the question is, whether that one form exhausts its honest claims. If we want to fresco a dome or a coved ceiling, we are again driven to its use, which shews that its province may fairly be extended; and when we find that it can readily be used for mouldings, and that ornamental work may be either cast in it or modelled by the 56 Internal Features and Decorations. hand, it is difficult to find any very strong arguments against availing ourselves of these natural properties of lime and gypsum, excepting that experience proves them to be liable to abuse. If, then, they have a use and an abuse, let us try to investigate and distinguish them. 1st. The popular use of plaster in imitation of stone is an abuse so gross and manifest, as to need no dis- cussion ; it is a simple abomination. 2ndly. The use of plaster in imitation of wood in ceilings, roofs, panelling, &c, so common in sham Gothic work, is equally beneath contempt: no one who would take the trouble of reading these papers, would dream of such monstrosities. 3rdly. The use of plaster for mouldings so designed as to be evidently and especially suitable to either wood or stone, is almost equally illegitimate, though no means may be taken to complete the deception by imitating the colour or surface of those materials. We often see this in cornices to rooms, and also in panelled ceilings ; the former being exactly what they would have been had stone been used, and the latter precisely the same in design as would be adopted for wood panelling. The most glaring instance of this, which I recollect, is the roof (if it may be called so) of the hall at King's College, Cambridge, which is a precise copy in plaster of that at Crosby Hall. It may be said, that all untruthfulness is in such cases avoided by leaving the plaster apparent and unmasked, but the misuse of the material remains the same. I have seen it argued in one of the letters in defence of architec- tural shams, which so frequently appear in architec- tural periodicals, that to make material an element in our estimate of the merits of a building is lowering Internal Features and Decorations. 57 architecture from the province of thought and design to that of mere building, — that if an architect has made a fine design intended to have been executed in stone, and circumstances afterwards cause it to be only done in cement, the artistic merit is the same, and the architect is equally deserving of honour. Had the design been so executed by another, and against the express protest of the designer, there would be some truth in this, but if the architect deliberately transfers to plaster the design he had intended for stone, or, as is usually the case, actually designs work to be executed in plaster without any change from what he would have made it if of stone, whatever may be the abstract merits of the design, he is clearly open to the severest censure ; for in one case the material is essentially constructive, and the construction must be suggestive of the design, while in the other the material is essentially non -constructive ; and though it is perfectly lawful to conceal, it is insulting archi- tecture to give it a pseudo-constructive external de- sign which belies the actual construction. Plaster may fairly encrust a wall, or an arch, or a ceiling, because it does but hide what we know to be there ; but if we so plaster over a horizontal brick arch as to make it look like a massive stone lintel, or if we use corbels and brackets as if to carry weight, while in fact they are but stuck up against a wall, we demean our art into a mere pretence. The same is the case with ceilings. If we bracket out with wood for a plaster cornice, and thereby make it look like one of stone, — or if we hang cradling from ceilings, which, when plastered, will make them mimic the noble coffered marble coverings of the Greeks, — or if we torture our plaster into the form of the 58 Internal Features and Decorations. beautiful old Gothic oaken ceilings, it is manifest to all who are not besotted with the fallacies of modern building, that we are but degrading the art we pre- tend to practise, even though we may stop short of the final step of painting plaster in imitation of stone or wood. In what way, then, may plaster be legitimately used ? So far as ceilings are concerned, we may answer that if we go beyond plain ceilings, and the plain panels enclosed by wood mouldings, we must design a new system of decoration evidently suited to plaster, and not trenching upon the province of wood or stone. Any system of surface decoration without bold relief or heavy projection, is perfectly legitimate in plaster, because it may evidently be worked in the material without extraneous aid. The Elizabethan builders were among the first to see this. Had the idea occurred at an earlier period, we should probably have had ceilings in the pointed styles diapered over in low relief. As it happened, this was not thought of till the change of style had commenced, and con- sequently we have abundance of very legitimately de- signed plaster ceilings in the Elizabethan style, but few or none of earlier periods. It is our place to sup- ply the deficiency. Experience has, however, proved that though these ceilings are designed with correct intention, they are somewhat too heavy for the mate- rial ; they trench too closely upon designs suitable to wood, and consequently we often find that their weight has caused them to break away from the lathing. This we shall do well to avoid, by limiting ourselves strictly to diaper, as distinguished from panelled designs. In cornices we must strictly keep to such a degree Internal Features and Decorations, 59 of relief as plaster will readily bear, without the aid of wooden bracketing and cradling ; otherwise the design at once becomes inconsistent with onr materia]. In this respect our ordinary vernacular house-builders are more correct in their practice than our architects. They use cornices which project but slightly from the wall and ceiling, and with no bulk of material in the angle, so that they easily support themselves by their own strength ; while architects seem to think this too humble an expedient, and, by the aid of an internal construction of wood, bring out their cornices to imi- tate the solidity of stone. For once the mere builder is in the right, — economy teaches him, for the nonce, to be truthful, and to adapt his design to his material ; while the more ambitious architect at once abandons economy and truthfulness, by aiming at more than his material is fit for. I have heard the plaster imitations of coffered ceil- ings defended on the plea that they are suggested by the actual timber construction which they en- crust ; — I do not believe a word of it. It is possible that the main beams may occasionally coincide with a leading architrave in the ceiling ; but all the rest, to say the least, is sham ; and to make the best of it, a beam encrusted in plaster is not very consistent : but the majority of these ceilings are elaborately con- structed pieces of cradling, made expressly to receive the plaster coating, having no connection with the framing of the floor, and are utterly to be condemned as suggesting a construction which does not exist, and as representing it in a material in its very na- ture non- constructive. By limiting plaster to uses for which its nature fits it, we may introduce a feature into our domestic 60 Internal Features and Decorations. architecture which is wholly novel and exceedingly pleasing. A wood ceiling has the disadvantage of ab- sorbing light, plaster has the great advantage of re- flecting it, so that in the majority of cases the latter is the most practically suitable material for the pur- pose ; and by taking advantage of its adaptation to a light system of surface decoration, which relieves without unduly disturbing the flat surface of the ceiling, and also of its susceptibility of enrichment, to any degree, by painting and gilding, we shall add to our domestic architecture an element perfectly con- sistent with the style we are endeavouring to de- velope, and thoroughly adapted to the wants of our own day. To recapitulate : — we have for our ceilings a con- siderable range to choose from. We have first the purely constructive floor, shewing beams, joists, &c, as is so frequent in the old houses of France and Italy. These may be rendered highly ornamental by moulding and carving the timbers, by the use of beautiful corbels, and by the addition of painted deco- ration. Secondly, the partially constructive ceiling, shewing the beams but concealing the joists with wood panelling. Thirdly, the non- constructive ceil- ing, in which all the timbers are hidden by wood panel- ling. Fourthly, either of the two last, with plaster substituted for boarding in the plain spaces within the panels, or the whole surface between the beams. Fifthly, the diapered plaster ceilings above suggest- ed, either concealing all the timbers or shewing the principal beams, and with either plaster cornices, as above suggested, or wood cornices, as may be pre- ferred. All these are capable of every variety of simplicity Internal Features and Decorations. 61 or richness, and are open to any degree of enrichment by colouring which may be desired. CHIMNEY-PIECES. In chimney-pieces there is room for great variety. Not only may we ring every change between the actual reproduction of a medieval chimney-piece and a mere Gothic rendering of the ordinary modern type, but each of these changes is open to an infinity of varieties of design, and of combinations of material. Mediaeval chimney- openings themselves present a considerable diversity of type. We have the opening flat with the wall, covered by a straight lintel, an arch or a lintel on brackets ; we have the same decorated by projecting pillars and panelled frieze, with a corniced shelf, or with some other kind of frontispiece framing the opening ; and we also have the hooded chimney-piece, overhanging the opening, and supported on pillars or brackets, or both, and of an infinity of different designs, from the most rigidly simple form, providing for the practical requirements in the plainest possible manner, to the richest designs. These forms, with certain modifica- tions, are perfectly consistent with modern conve- nience, and, consequently, quite open to us. In lofty rooms, the hooded chimney possesses great dignity. The beauty of many which remain is very great. The Edwardian castles give excellent specimens of the plainer forms, and richer specimens are occasionally found in the precincts of cathedrals, in the domestic parts of abbeys, &c. Of those which are not hooded, very rich specimens are found at Windsor, Hampton- 62 Internal Features and Decorations. court, Tattershall and Kenilworth castles, &c., but they are usually of a later date than those on the hooded type. Of the latter kind splendid specimens exist abroad, both in France, Germany, and Italy. In de- signing on any of these types, we have great oppor- tunities of adding richness and novelty by the intro- duction of varied material, — as marbles of different colours, mosaic-work, encaustic tiles, carved and inlaid woods, &c. The modern chimney-piece, in its usual form, is a very mean contrivance. It pretends to great massive- ness, while it is in reality a mere box, formed often of the thinnest slabs of marble. This artifice we must repudiate, and either go to the expense of real mas- siveness, or rest satisfied with less ambitious designs or material. The only excuse for this marble joinery is when it is used as a means of introducing marbles of varied colour, and then care should be taken not to produce an effect of deceptive massiveness ; simple design, with moderate but real substance, is infinitely to be preferred to an ostentatious display of smartness with artificial bulk: and where marble, honestly used, would be too costly, it is better to use plain stone, though it is well in this case to select a hard, close- grained material, which will bear occasional washing. If it becomes necessary to paint them, they should be decoratively painted, — not a mere stone-colour ; indeed, a plain stone chimney-piece, well decorated by painting, is a very legitimate thing. In buildings of considerable architectural character the chimneys present a fine field for decoration of a high order, — such as sculpture, inlaying, mosaic, paint- Internal Features and Decorations, 63 ing on porcelain, &c. ; indeed, there is hardly any in- ternal feature which offers greater opportunities for beauty of design and novelty of treatment. GEATES. While on the subject of chimney-pieces, I may add a word on that of grates. In old times the dog-bars were in almost universal use, with or without an ornamental iron back (called, I believe, a reredos). Certainly nothing can look handsomer, and more in character with a Gothic fire- place, than the noble ornamental dog-bars we often see in ancient mansions ; but we must beware of two not unnatural errors on the subject. First, the idea that they are in any degree essential to the style; and, secondly, that they are an antiquated feature, now become obsolete. They are neither the one nor the other, but form one of the thousand instances in which the mediaeval builders, &c, carried out the great principle of decorating objects of practical uti- lity. Dog-bars are neither essentially Gothic, nor is their use obsolete. They are simply the natural mode of providing for a wood-fire. They are no further medieval than that wood was in those days the or- dinary fuel, and no further obsolete than that in most parts of England such has now ceased to be the case. In France, where wood is still the ordinary fuel, dog- bars are still in constant use, though usually without much attempt at ornamental character; but in Eng- land, where coal is the common fuel, it would clearly be absurd to use a contrivance only suited to wood. We often see grates designed for Gothic or Eliza- bethan buildings, as if the designer was halting be- 64 Internal Features and Decorations. tween two opinions, — admitting the claims of coal to a provision suited to its requirements, yet hankering after the beauty of the old dog-bars. Thus the grate is made for a coal-fire ; but great standards, as if for dog-bars, are attached to its flanks, of no imaginable use but to obstruct the warmth from all persons not directly in front of the fire. This is a manifest absur- dity, and ought at once to be exploded. If we want a wood-fire, let us have dog-bars ; but if we are to have coal, let us construct our grates to suit it, without any idle hankering after contrivances suited to other wants. There is, however, another system, against which I have not so much to say ; it is simply this — • to provide dog-bars as for a wood-fire, but to make also a moveable grate, which can be laid across these dog-bars, and in which a coal-fire can be made. This is a perfectly rational contrivance, provided only that the practical conditions really suggest it. Where it is really the case that a fire may be wanted sometimes of wood, and sometimes of coal, as may often occur in houses in the country, I can conceive nothing bet- ter; but do not let us invent improbable conditions as an excuse for the introduction of a favourite form ; but in towns and places where the use of wood-fires is unlikely, let us honestly provide for what is wanted, and make grates for coal, giving them a character suited to the style in which we are working, without mimicing forms which resulted from different neces- sities. There are a great number of modes of constructing grates suited to coal-fires, and there can be no reason why the inhabitant of a Gothic house should be de- barred from following his individual fancies as to the grate he may prefer, any more than his neighbour Internal Features and Decorations, 65 who dwells, a la mode, in an Italian villa ; nor can I conceive any difficulty in designing stoves of any rea- sonable construction, in a manner suitable to the style, though many attempts at doing so, by incapable per- sons, have been utterly futile and disgusting. A man, however, who can design a Gothic building as it ought to be, will not fail in rendering its minor appliances characteristic, however modern their invention. There is no doubt that the different varieties of the register stove are the most popular for town-houses. These may be made both pleasing and consistent in design, and are open to much variety of ornament, whether in iron or polished steel, or by the introduction of brass, or encaustic tiles or porcelain ; and though the parts most exposed to the fire are probably best made of cast-iron, there is an ample field for fine wrought iron-work, or artistic decorations in bronze, in the por- tions less liable to be injured by heat. That class of fireplace in which the iron grate forms a less conspicuous part, and in which the larger part of the construction is of brick or tile, is still more obviously suited to a Gothic house, and, I think, in country-houses will generally be preferred. Encaustic tiles are particularly well suited to their splayed sides, though a more decorative kind should, in good houses, be used, than those made for floors. In treating of iron- work, we are apt to view it as having only two classes — wrought and cast. The modern manufacturers of grates have, however, done good service by the introduction of a third class — cast-iron, subsequently worked up by the hand, and with its mouldings and plain faces ground to a smooth, bright surface. Much more may be made of this than has hitherto been done ; besides which, polished steel, F 66 Internal Features and Decorations. whether wrought into ornamental forms or not, offers a wide field to the designer. THE STAIRCASE. One of the most important internal features of a house is, unquestionably, the staircase : and here we are left almost wholly to follow our own develop- ments, as the staircase was a part somewhat neglected in mediaeval buildings, especially in England. Abroad we find it treated more boldly ; but, generally, it may be said that the staircase did not become developed as a feature of first-rate importance till the sixteenth century, when the style was about to change. That this did not arise from any inaptitude in the style to produce fine staircases, is amply proved by many in- stances in which accidental circumstances led to a de- parture from the prevailing custom, — as, for instance, many examples in the French chateaux ; staircases in some of the cathedrals, &c, as that in the transepts at St. Ouen, &c. ; and the beautiful external stair- cases in the courtyards of some of the early Italian palaces. A noble specimen also occurs at Christ Church, Oxford, which, though actually erected in the time of Charles L, no one would, from its character, suspect not to be a part of Wolsey's structure. In smaller staircases the mediaeval builders were eminently skilled, and it is clear that had their habits led them to require them on a more magnificent scale, they would have been as successful in them as they inva- riably were in giving a noble and appropriate charac- ter to whatever they required, whether for construc- tion or utility. The staircase affords, in any style, a wide field for Internal Features and Decorations. 67 architectural effect, and in a Gothic building is open to much novelty of treatment. The very fact that it was not fully developed in old buildings, will give a freshness and life to it if well treated by ourselves. It may assume a vast variety of forms, as circum- stances may suggest. An ordinary stone staircase, such as people are in the habit of dubbing " handsome," without thinking it so, is, after all, a very dull thing : your neat stone steps, with moulded nosings, stuck by one end into the wall, cleverly notched one upon another, and brought to a nice smooth slope beneath, with neat cast-iron or bronze balusters, and French polished mahogany rail, screwed round like a cornu-ammonis at the foot, is an excellent thing in its way, and far it be from me to say a word against so time- honoured a contrivance. Let us speak well of the bridge which carries us safe over the stream, and on the same principle think gratefully of the staircase which conducts us so pleasantly to the drawing-room. All I have to say against it is, that with all its practi- cal good qualities, there is a sleepy, self-satisfied look about it which one would like to disturb. I have Gothicized this typic modern staircase pretty success- fully, but still it looks sleepy, as if its only duty were to shew you the way to bed. It does its duty so well, and so neatly and unobtrusively, that it is really a shame to find fault with it ; all I ask is to give it a fillip, just to make it brush up and look more lively. This may, perhaps, be done in some measure by alter- ing its details, as by putting corbels under the steps where they run into the wall, giving the nosings a more sprightly section, using handsome wrought iron balustrading, giving new forms to the hand-rail, and r2 68 Internal Features and Decorations. inventing some less hackneyed commencement for it than the usual ram's horn or " cur-tail." All this will do good, but there is nothing so calculated to keep things alive as competition, and I can think of nothing so likely to dispel the dulness of our staircases as the introduction of a few fresh types, instead of sticking so pertinaciously to one. Now, in a Gothic building there are great facilities for this. Most of the usual types are different from those now in use : some old stone staircases, for in- stance, run up between two walls, the inner one per- forated with arcades; some are supported towards the interior by small pillars, with or without arches ; others wind round a massive pillar which runs up and supports the vaulting of the ceiling ; others, again, turn round two such pillars, with straight flights in the intervals ; some entwine round a circular well perforated with arcading, while others are nearly on our modern type, though greatly varied in the mode of carrying out. If steps support themselves, as in modern stairs, from their hold by one end in the wall, we do not find them splayed off at a slope to the very end, as if to weaken their hold, but left square, so as to be readily and firmly fixed ; and it is usual to find corbelling of some kind to add further strength, — often a stepped corbelling, forming a kind of socket into which the steps are fixed. Again, there is no merit in the smooth, sloping soffit, except where the stairs are so low as to make you fearful about your head. Where the height is ample, the under side of the step may be moulded into any form which may appear agreeable, such mouldings being stopped before the step enters the wall. The balustrade, again, offers a wide field for variety. Internal Features and Decorations. 69 In a large staircase, and where the ends of the steps are well supported, a continuous stone balustrade, carved in open-work or otherwise, is very suitable. A balustrade of small marble pillars, such as those to the balconies at Venice, is very pleasing and ap- propriate ; but where the ends of the steps have no direct support, a metal balustrade, with hand-rail of metal or wood, is the most appropriate, and offers an unlimited field for decoration. The wooden staircase, though less constructive in its character, and not so well suited to a public build- ing, offers, nevertheless, fully as wide a field for appro- priate and artistic design. Here the Elizabethan staircase is very suggestive of modes of treatment equally applicable in a better style. The bold moulded string, carved, perhaps, with running foliage, armorial bearings, mottoes, or inscrip- tions ; the stately newels, surmounted, possibly, by figures or the supporters of the arms of the proprietor * % the massive rail, moulded to fit well to the hand, and the balustrade formed either of individual balusters, arcading, tracery, or of continuous open scroll-work, offer a perfectly unlimited scope for the fancy of the designer, whether he may wish to make his work simple and homely, or of any degree of richness which the character of the building may demand. And all these varied forms will possess additional freshness from the fact that we must design them for ourselves, our precedents being so scarce as to amount to little more than suggestions. In staircases of a high degree of decoration, much may be done by the introduction of inlaid woods ; it is a mode of enrichment too much overlooked in our Gothic works, though just as legitimate as mosaics are 70 Internal Features and Decorations. in stonework ; indeed, exactly parallel to them, — both being the natural mode of making use of those mate- rials whose value consists, not in their constructive uses, but in the beauty and variety of the colour and texture of their sectional surfaces. Of this, however, I shall have more to say hereafter. riooES. Floors are too much lost sight of in modern houses as a field for decoration. In halls and other paved portions, all the varied beauties of paving are open to the choice. If plain stone be used, it may be varied in colour and form, and diversified here and there with encaustic tiles. Marbles of varied colours, also relieved by mosaic-work or encaustic tiles, or by mosaic composed of tiles, offer an abundant fund of varied beauty. Another valuable element in the decoration of floors is the use of incised patterns, either cut in stone or marble, and filled in with coloured cements. The extent to which this may be carried is quite un- limited. In its coarser form it may be seen at the cathedral of St. Omer, and in its more refined varie- ties in that at Sienna. The designs need not be limited to geometrical or foliated patterns, but may contain figures or groups drawn with any degree of refinement, the only conditions being that they must be in lines, as on an encaustic tile or a Greek vase, and that the design should convey the idea of the smallest possible amount of relief a . a See a very interesting paper on this subject read at the Architec- tural Museum by "W*. Burges, Esq., and published in " The Builder." Internal Features and Decorations. 71 All these modes of producing richness in the floors need to be more or less studied afresh to fit them for private buildings, in which they will be more closely- seen, and therefore require more minute and careful finish than is desirable in churches. In wood floors, too, there is great room for enrich- ment by parquetry — the correlative of tesselated or mosaic pavements; and certainly floors thus orna- mented, and only partially covered with carpets, add much to the beauty of a room. METAL -WOKK. The use of ornamental metal- work for locks, hinges, &c, is a point requiring great attention in a Gothic house; it is, however, coming so much into general use, that I need not do more than advert to it. It is admirably carried out in the Houses of Parliament and their adjuncts ; but being open to an infinity of varied designs, the architect cannot give too much thought to it. For houses of a simpler character, tolerably suitable metal furniture may be procured ready made from any of those four or five metal-workers who have devoted their attention to the subject ; but it would be much better if each architect would carefully de- sign it for himself. There are few arts which owe so much to our Gothic revival as metal- work, whether in wrought iron, brass, or even in the precious metals. The true modes of using iron and brass in architecture may fairly be asserted to have been revived by the almost unaided exertions of the late Mr. Pugin. Till his time, nothing could be more miserable than almost all which was done ; the true principles of their application seemed 72 Internal Features and Decorations, utterly lost; but by his exertions a perfectly new phase has come over these arts, and they have be- come as beautiful and truthful as they before were trashy and offensive. It is pleasant, too, to think that the great seat of metal manufactures — whose name had become the byword for everything which was vile and untruthful — has vindicated its character by becoming the scene of this great revival, in which the principles, precepts, and designs of Pugin have been so ably realized by Mr. Hardman — a name which ought never to be forgotten, as the first to carry out this good work, though he has since been ably fol- lowed up by others. COLOURED DECORATIONS. The internal decorations of houses, &c, offer too wide a field to be more than superficially touched upon here ; they would, in fact, form a subject for a separate treatise. I would say, generally, that my leading principle applies to this equally with all the other departments of house-building, — that while adhering strictly to the essential feeling of the style, we should nevertheless make our work a thing of our own day, not a mere mimicry of that of a former age ; but that in doing so we may follow the dictates of our own individual taste, or that of those for whom the house is erected, as to the degree of modern or medieval feeling with which we may choose to treat it. Some may prefer their houses to border closely (in their decorations, as in other respects,) upon the mediaeval : these will, I think, always be the exceptions ; — others may prefer a mere translation of the ordinary decorations of the Internal Features and Decorations. 73 day : these will ever be numerous, but certainly not those with whose taste I should most sympathize; — while an intermediate party, whom I should wish to see in a majority, would endeavour to seize upon the essential aesthetic principles and feeling of the style of art which they have adopted, and to carry them out with perfect freedom ; earing little for pre- cedent, and less for antiquarianism, but aiming solely at doing what they are about in the best possible way. The great principles of colouring are the same for all styles. It is difficult enough to find out what they are, and I agree with Mr. Euskin, that most of those who act upon them do so unconsciously, and from an instinctive perception of what is harmonious and beautiful, rather than by reference to any ascer- tained rules. But, whatever the principles may be, they are wholly independent of style ; and it is there- fore beside my subject to attempt to enter upon them. What I wish to urge is, that in the decoration of Gothic, as of any other buildings, no feeling of an- tiquarianism should be permitted to lead us to depart from the principles of sound taste. There is no subject on which we are, at the present day, so much in danger of being led astray as in the coloured decorations of our buildings. "We had for years been going on under the impression — so far, at least, as concerns our public buildings — that the plainer and more devoid of colour the material, the more pure and chaste would be the building ; we had fancied a plain and uniform stone-colour essential to our exteriors, and a quaker-like drab the most classic hue for interiors. Suddenly, however, a new light has come in upon us. We find that the builders of our cathedrals delighted not in stone-colour, but co- 74 Internal Features and Decorations. vered it with rich tinctures whenever the opportunity offered; we find, even, that the pure and pearl-like marble of the Greeks was similarly enriched, — indeed, that in no style of architecture has monochromy ever been deemed a beauty. The discovery appears to have driven us to desperation ! The lovers of the stone- colour still denounce any departure from it as barba- rous, and declare it impossible that the builders of the Periclean or the Edwardian ages could have perpe- trated it ; while those who know that they did so in very deed, fly off to the contrary extreme, and boldly enunciate the doctrine that colour is the grand essen- tial of architecture, and, so that we get it, that artistic treatment of it is but a secondary affair. It is diffi- cult to say which party do the most harm. One is absolutely passive in its bad taste, the other is often rabidly active in the enormities it perpetrates: one certainly errs on the safe side, by leaving us the blank sheet on which good painting may at some time be executed; the other too often spoils the fair surface by barbarous and tasteless disfigurements. Our posi- tion is this : having so long discarded coloured deco- ration, excepting in a very small minority of our buildings, few amongst us have any knowledge of its principles, or (which is far more important) any eye for harmonious colouring ; nor in many cases do even those who so loudly cry out for polychromy perceive very correctly the difference between good and bad decoration. For my own part, I think the majority of what is done is utterly disgusting, and infinitely worse than the quaker drab which it sup- planted. Surely the advocates of colour do not ima- gine that it imparts beauty irrespectively of the artis- tic skill with which it is applied ! Bad designs or bad Internal Features and Decorations. 75 carving are offensive enough ; but bad colouring is ut- terly detestable, and makes a building, which without it might be harmless, absolutely intolerable. The colouring of a room should be as artistically arranged, in a certain sense, as that of a picture. I do not mean that it requires, of necessity, the same degree of skill, but the same sort of skill exercised on a humbler object. As it approaches the work of the painter, in the higher sense of the word, it requires more nearly the same amount, as well as the same sort, of skill ; till in its highest development we find it taxing to their utmost the powers of a Giotto, a Michael Angelo, or a Eaphael. Surely, then, we are not, even in its humblest walks, to treat it as a matter in which little or no artistic skill is needed ! The mode of painting the ordinary wood-work of a room in a Gothic house is one of the most puzzling questions - one has to deal with. The spirit of the style would, perhaps, lead one to leave it in ordinary cases unpainted, particularly if handsome woods are used; and these may in buildings of a higher order be inlaid, as has already been adverted to. I am, however, speaking of a simple building, in which deal is the material used. In cornices and ceilings the woodwork is, of course, open to decoration suited to that of the room in general ; but I refer rather to the ordinary parts, such as doors, shutters, and skirtings. It has become customary to varnish these parts with a slight stain, to add richness to the tone; and this, if carefully done, looks exceedingly well. We ought, however, to be prepared with other modes of finishing, in case this happens not to be liked, or might be considered inharmonious with the decoration to be adopted for the room in general, — not to men- 76 Internal Features and Decorations. tion the inevitable fact, that our stained and varnished deal must become, in a few years, shabby, and require to be painted over. The world at large will say, "Grain it to look like any wood you may fancy:" I need not, however, say a word in reply. We have repudiated shams, and can have nothing to say to them. We have, however, become so accustomed to these imitations of materials which, if real, would be beautiful, that our eye rebels against plain paint- ing; and I confess I value this feeling, as a relief from our general love of colourless objects. A satin- wood door would, no doubt, be a very pretty thing, and if the grainer plays his tricks well, his imitation of it is also pretty : we reject it on principle ; but if we go back to plain painting, we are losers in point of beauty and richness of tone. The course which strikes me as the most reasonable is to expend the same amount of money and skill upon some legitimate decoration, which others do upon imitating rich woods. There, is no reason why a door should be painted in plain colour ; why should it not be picked out in different tints, its mouldings touched in with richer colours, and its panels decorated with delicately de- signed enrichment, in simple lines and flat painting ? This would cost no more than graining, and in an ordinary house should be kept very simple and sub- dued ; while in a more decorative building it might be richer in proportion : but I am convinced that if treated with taste, and well studied, it would be far more telling than the spurious fallacies of the day, and would offer an infinite variety suited to the style of decoration adopted in the rooms; for the ground colours may be of any variety, from white upwards, as may be thought most suitable, and the decorative Internal Features and Decorations, 77 additions may be of the simplest or the richest kind, — though, as a general rule, too great richness in such a position is, I think, to be avoided. Further variety may be given by parts being in dead and parts in var- nished colours ; the latter, being more durable, are in their practical use more equivalent to graining, which is, by being varnished, rendered more lasting than plain paint. Similar enrichments in flat pattern- work are also admissible upon a ground of natural wood, as upon varnished deal, and with excellent effect, if sparingly and judiciously used. For the walls, in ordinary houses, papering is so convenient, and so thoroughly established a mode of decoration, that it is of the utmost importance that it should receive more attention from architects than it has yet done. Pugin, Owen Jones, and others have designed patterns for papers; but in all important buildings, the architect should always design them for himself, or at least have them designed under his own direction, by some decorative artist in whose skill he can place full confidence. In general, I quite agree with Mr. Owen Jones in his leading principles, particularly as to the desirable- ness of keeping our patterns flat. I think, however, that this principle is in danger of being overstated. It is like the controversy on the same question as applied to stained glass, — one party deprecating the use of any shading whatever, while another repudiates the restriction with scorn, and luxuriates in pictures with landscape backgrounds, and figures in their na- tive rotundity. The true theory would appear to be this, — that in decorating a part of a building which is in any degree functional, we should not disturb its surface by such 78 Internal Features and Decorations. an amount of relief, real or suggestive, as would ap- pear to clash with its structural requirements. Thus, a floor is essentially flat, and it is manifest that its decoration should not appear to make it otherwise. A vaulted surface, such as the interior of a dome, or the panels between the ribs of groining, ought not to be so boldly decorated as to disturb their essential form. The glass of a window possesses this quality in a less degree, but as one object in decorating it is to pre- vent its being a mere gap in the architecture, and to make it a bond of unity between the sides of the opening, it should not, in my opinion, be made into a picture, giving the effect of great differences of distance, though moderate pictorial relief is allowable. In the same way with a wall : its functional quality, as a wall, should not be disturbed, and therefore its decorations should generally be flat; but on borders, or in detached panels cut out from the general surface, greater relief is allowable in the objects represented. On the whole, however, I think that even paintings of the highest order, executed on the walls of a building, should have less varieties of distance, and should have a somewhat flatter treatment, than is customary in detached pictures. The fact of their being painted directly on the wall so far unites them with the architecture as to claim of them a certain degree of subordination to it, — a claim, however, stronger or less imperative, in proportion as they cover a greater or less space; for if the painting be large, it is more essentially a part of the wall, and if small, it may almost be viewed as having a separate existence, like an ordinary framed picture. If the papering or the painted decoration of a room be ar- ranged in panels, the degree of flatness in the patterns Internal Features and Decorations. 79 of the borders and the panels should vary reciprocally. That is to say, that if the panel contains fresco, or other painting, as in the early Italian decorations, the border should be hard and architectural, and any foliage in it should be flat ; but if the panel be filled with a uniform flat diaper, greater relief is admissible in the border, so that one or the other may supply the rigidity of character essential to a wall. In any case, I hold absolute shadows cast upon the ground surfaces to be inadmissible in any decorative pattern-work. "When we come to the more strictly architectural features of a building, the same rule applies with still greater force. To paint the shaft of a column in such a manner as to disturb its rigidity, would be absurd. In pilasters, a certain licence is taken by panelling their surface ; in which case the panel may be more freely painted than its margin, though it should not convey the idea of more than surface- ornament ; not that any painted decoration should represent carved ornament, but the degree of relief suggested should not, in such a position, (or in any, excepting in figure-painting in distinct compartments,) exceed what would have been right in carving. The ornamentation of wall-surfaces is not, however, confined to painted decoration or paper-hangings. The manufacture of stamped leather hangings has been very successfully revived, and is a most effective de- scription of surface-ornament, well deserving of the careful attention of those who are concerned in the erection of houses of a superior class; and I need hardly mention the appropriateness of damasks, fig- ured silken hangings, and other rich woven fabrics, and above all, of tapestry, the noblest of wall deco- rations, excepting only fresco and oil-paintings of the 80 Internal Features and Decorations. higher orders. In the designing or directing of all these the architect should have a primary influence, and even in works of the highest kind the painter should work hand in hand with the architect. If historical or illustrative painting be used in conjunc- tion with architecture, I need hardly say that no medievalism is needed in the selection of the subjects. Illustrations of Scripture history ; of that of our own or of other countries ; of the progress of science ; of the works of celebrated poets ; of the historical tradi- tions of the neighbourhood, or of the family of the proprietor; or a thousand other classes of subjects, are open to choice b : nor should any distinct medise- b The divorce which has taken place in later times between paint- ing and architecture, has been one of the causes of that triviality in the choice of subject which is one of the most melancholy charac- teristics of modern art. It seems rarely to occur to our painters that their wonderful talents have been conferred upon them for noble and elevating purposes. They have been gifted with a power which, when man was made in the image of his Creator, was reserved for a favoured few ; yet are often content to use it for the most trivial purposes. Even the most spirit-stirring events, such as keep the whole world in breathless excitement, scarcely suffice to awaken them from their busy trifling. The^siege of Troy supplied subjects to the artists of Greece throughout their entire history; yet the three Exhibitions at the Royal Academy which have taken place since the undertaking of the siege of Sebastopol, (an enterprise marked by, perhaps, a greater number of instances of heroism, gene- rosity, and self-devotion, than any other which could be named,) have received scarcely any impress from these great passing events. It is curious that our great painter of animals stands almost alone as stepping forward to record on canvas those noble acts of his fellow- countrymen which our historical painters have neglected to chroni- cle. I trust that these remarks will not be taken as presumptuous or unkind : I only wish to remind the gifted professors of our sister art, that they seem in danger of forgetting how noble are the pur- poses of their mission; for though no one would wish to banish Internal Features and Decorations. 81 valism, as such, be admitted in the treatment. In the mode of representing subjects nsed in conjunction with architecture, there are conventionalisms of two classes, — those resulting from the position, and those be- longing to the age. The former should apply almost equally to any period or style ; the latter is the crea- ture of circumstances, and should never be imitated. In the Assyrian sculptures, the low relief belongs to • the position, and might be judiciously imitated in any style, being exactly similar in principle to the cele- brated frieze of the Parthenon ; but the extreme stiff- ness of the figures, and the arbitrary conventionality of the mode of representing objects at different dis- tances, belong solely to the period, and would be ludi- crous if imitated. The same is the case with mediaeval painting. It possesses, almost always, characteristics peculiarly adapted to its position in connection with architec- ture. The rigidity of the lines, the hard, strong treat- ment, the absence of attempt at high relief and of startling pictorial effect, are all points resulting from the position in which it was used. It has other cha- racteristics apart from this which may be advantage- ously studied, — as the earnestness and simple honesty wjth which the tale is always told, the modesty of the dresses, and often the extreme beauty of the drapery, and a certain nobleness of sentiment which at the best periods is nearly always to be found in it. On the from art those lighter of its creations which are so productive of cheerfulness and amusement, much less those exquisite branches which tend so strongly to foster our admiration of the works of Nature, there can be no doubt that its noblest purpose is to excite to generous enthusiasm our sentiments of patriotism, virtue, and religion. G 82 Internal Features and Decorations. other hand, it has characteristics and faults peculiar to its period: a want of perfect knowledge of the figure, often a deliberate and conventional disfigure- ment of it by unnatural twists and bends, an over- accentuation of the story, as if the artist doubted his own power to tell, and that of the spectator to under- stand, it, and a vein Of grotesqueness even in the most solemn subjects, — all these belonged to the period, and should be avoided. We are now accustomed to a perfectly contrary mode of treatment, having beau- ties and faults of its own; and while I would advise the study of the works of former ages, with a view to learning from them the beauties which belong to them independently of the conventionalisms of their period, I would urge that lessons so learned should not be permitted to lead us to forego any of the real beauties in the art of our own day. The decoration of ceilings is, perhaps, a more delicate operation than even that of walls. Crude, hard colour here is destructive, and a certain indescribable airi- ness is necessary in the general effect of the colouring, even when the tinctures are strong and comparatively decided, which they may be in lofty apartments. The decoration of ceilings may vary from the slight- est and most simple kind up to the highest class of artistic ornamentation, — from the few lines or touches, such as in Germany one sees in the humblest rooms in a country inn, up to the noble painted ceilings of the Doge's Palace or the Sistine Chapel. The neglect of the simpler decoration of ceilings in this country is one of the thousand-and-one absurdi- ties to which our insular position and self-satisfied disposition lead us deliberately to blind ourselves. We have no objection to foreign fashions which can Internal Features and Decorations. 83 be purchased ready-made, so we buy French paper- hangings without scruple ; and I dare say, if German ceilings were sold in the shops, we should use them : but because they require the art of the workman to be directly applied to them, we shrink from them as something beyond our reach, or inconsistent with an age and land of manufactures and trade, though no- thing can be more easy of execution or moderate in cost; the only requisite being — what unluckily is a scarce thing among us — a correct eye, I have above enumerated several classes of ceilings : as, first, those in which all the timbers are exposed ; secondly, those in which only the beams and principal timbers are shewn, the rest being filled in with pa- nelling or plaster ; thirdly, those in which the whole of the timbers are concealed by panelling; fourthly, those which are entirely of plaster, with more or less enrichment, in the manner of the Elizabethan ceil- ings; and fifthly, mixed ceilings, combining two or more of the above systems, as ceilings with wood ribs and plaster panels, &c. The coloured decorations of these require different modes of treatment. The timbers, for instance, which appear, may either preserve their natural colour, or may have a slight degree of decoration, leading the natural colour as a ground, or may be wholly con- cealed with rich colouring : a slight diaper pattern on plain timber looks exceedingly well. Where the joists are exposed, with strips of plaster or wood panels between, the latter may be filled in with a flat diaper pattern. Panels of wood, if the natural colour is pre- served as a ground, should still have either an orna- mental centre or border, or be filled in with a powder- ing over its whole surface. g2 81 Internal Features and Decorations. Plaster requires more delicate colouring than wood. Its light colour is valuable as rendering the room more cheerful, and should not be lost in the decoration, which should be so managed as to leave it evident to the eye that it is plaster, and has been treated as such; indeed, this rule should always be observed. I prefer the surface of wood to be left as a ground- work, that there may be no mistake about the mate- rial; but if concealed by colour, its tone should be strong and decided; while that of plaster should be delicate and airy, so as to render the material distin- guishable even when coloured. In a panelled ceiling, the panels ought not to be made of plaster merely to save expense, but as a lighter and more reflecting sur- face ; and it should, of course, be treated accordingly. In conclusion, let me repeat that, however humble the decorations, they need the mind of the artist to apply them with success. Colour is only beautiful when skilfully used, and will be better left harmless in the colour-shop than be used without art or feeling. Query, — Could not our principles of decorative paint- ing be reformed and rectified by reference to Nature ? How sparing is Nature of her brightest tints, and how lavish of her intermediate hues ! Why, then, should we reverse the order, and make the latter the excep- tion, instead of the rule? Look at the sky itself: — it is only occasionally that its blue is pure, and then only over our heads, softening down into an infinity of in- termediate tints towards the horizon; and even the pure blue in our zenith is more beautiful when seen between fleecy clouds, or through interstices of fo- liage. " And over all the pure clear blue Shining the forest lattice through." Internal Features and Decorations. 85 As if Nature's broadest field of colour, the emblem of heaven's purity, were too much for us to see unveiled. Next to the blue vault of heaven, Nature's widest sheet of colour is the green mantle she has spread over the earth : but how infinitely varied is this ! Though green is predominant, it is truly a robe of many colours. In the first place, green itself is not a pure colour; but, waiving this, how infinite are the varieties of green, and most of them requiring some- thing beyond mere blue and yellow to produce them. Then, in many cases each leaf has its upper and its under tint, and the young leaves vary in colour from the older ones, not only in their shade of green, but often in not being green at all : as, for instance, the young leaves of the rose, the maple, and the vine, which are often crimson. Then, again, each leaf has its shady side, which tones down the whole colour of the tree or the plant, while distance again comes in to aid the variety ; so that even if every leaf of every tree were in itself of the brightest green, this would only appear on the sunny side of the leaves, and of those only on the sunny side of the trees in your im- mediate foreground, — all else being of softer and altered tints. Besides sky and foliage, there is no wide use of single bright colours in Nature. The sea, it is true, is sometimes a broad sheet of blue or green ; but this is quite exceptional, and never very bright, or un- broken in its colouring, — oftener the very embodiment of the sweetest and softest hues. Then, again, the colours of rocks, of earth, and of the trunks and branches of trees, and of the animal creation, — what an infinite variety of the quieter in- termediate tints, and how rare the use of the pure, 86 Internal Features and Decorations. unmodified colour ! The brightest spots in Nature's colouring are flowers, the plumage of tropical birds, and the colours of some few insects, &c. These are Nature's brilliant touches, by which she brightens up her quieter general tints, and makes them sparkle with brilliancy and beauty. Even these, however, are not generally of pure, unmixed colour; indeed, such are the exceptions. There are many more flowers of inter- mediate shades than of pure blue, yellow, or scarlet, though these are pretty freely used, and form the last and most sparkling touches. Should not this, then, be the general principle of decorative colouring? In selecting, again, the actual colours we use, — should we not do well to imitate the patterns given us by Nature ? The blue used in our ceilings should not exceed in depth that usually seen in the sky, and possibly, we may add, that in the sky of the cli- mate where it is used, as seen in the finest weather ; our greens might be imitated from the varied colours of leaves, and in picking out in different shades of green, we might use together those which we find on the fronts and backs of the same leaf ; as, for exam- ple, the rich deep green of the olive-leaf relieved by a cold whitish green, like that on the back of the same leaf. Then, again, of flowers, — what an infinite variety of exquisite colours might be derived from them, and what beautiful combinations be obtained by observing how they are placed in juxtaposition with each other, and with the particular tints of their leaves, reserving always the colours of the brightest flowers for our last touches. I believe that much more might be done by this mode of studying Nature than by any theory of Internal Features and Decorations. 87 the proportions and harmony of colours, — though such theories, no doubt, are useful, and, if correct, will co- incide in their results. PAINTED GLASS. The use of painted glass in domestic buildings must of course be regulated by utilitarian considerations. The great uses of a window are to admit light and view, and these must not, in general, be infringed upon. There are, however, situations in which the view from a window is unimportant or objectionable, and where light is sufficiently abundant to allow of a slight reduction, and then painted glass may be used with great advantage. In transomed windows, it may often be used in the upper division ; and in staircases, halls, and corridors, for the entire window, if light is plentiful. It strikes me that the stained glass for houses (especially in sitting-rooms) should be very different in description from that in churches or large public buildings. It should be more transparent and more delicately finished. The Munich glass, though, as I think, very ill-suited to a church, is not so to a room ; but the ordinary system of glass-painting, executed with increased care and delicacy, would meet the case sufficiently. The subjects should, of course, vary with the situation, and the same choice is open as in the case of wall-decorations. Heraldry also forms a most important element in painted glass for domestic build- ings, and adds much, if skilfully used, both to its beauty and interest. There is, however, no subject connected with deco- rative art, the principles of which are so thoroughly 88 Internal Features and Decorations. unsettled as glass-painting, nor any which it is so dan- gerous to speak on, unless we wish to bring a hornet's nest about us. There are some half-dozen distinct sets of opinions on the subject, and the defenders of each are ready to stand by it to the last gasp, and, if need be, to prove its truth upon the bodies or reputations of all assailants. A preacher in the last century illustrated the injunc- tion to " walk circumspectly," by asking his hearers if they had ever seen a cat walking along a wall set with broken glass ; and the same kind of caution is, perhaps, necessary in meddling with the same material in its other combinations with architecture. As, how- ever, I have no favourite theory to defend, no sworn friends to protect, and no foes to run down, I do not know that I need trouble myself much about how my remarks may be received. The great questions which agitate these wrathful champions are mainly, whether the effect of stained glass should be flat, or in full relief like an oil-paint- ing; and whether the figures should be stiff and quaint as in the old examples, or be drawn freely and artistically as in any other kind of picture. On these, too, are hung a number of minor questions ; some of them important, others too idle to deserve considera- tion. The advocates of these conflicting views, having contrived to lash themselves into fury, seem scarcely able to entertain the question whether there may not be intermediate stages between these extremes which may be each suited to particular cases and condi- tions. They rather glory in exaggerating each his own theory, till they unconsciously reduce it ad ab- surdam. Unhappily, we have still to hope for the advent of an Internal Features and Decorations. 89 artist of such commanding talent, and such clear percep- tion of what is right, as to override all their theories, and to put a stop to angry disputations by the only practical argument — the indisputable merits of his works. My own opinion is that, what with the rancour of these disputes, the incompetency of a large number of glass- painters, and the dull mediocrity of others, the whole subject has got into such confusion as to need working out de novo ; that this must be done less by theorists c than by actual artists, and that these must qualify them- selves not only by a more careful and philosophical study of old examples than they have yet received, but also of the works of the early Italian painters, superadded to a perfect familiarity with the art of later periods, and a thorough appreciation of the con- ditions and objects of the particular branch they have to re-develope. I confess I think the merits of stained glass are in a great degree independent of these dis- puted questions : what we want is artists who have vigour of imagination and power of execution, united with a proper knowledge of their subject. Artistic merit is wholly independent of the mere manner of execution. A work of pure outline — as the figures on a Greek vase — may be as artistic as the sculptures of the Parthenon or the paintings of Eaphael, and the noblest artist may treat his subject as severely as Cimabue or Giotto without losing a spark of his power. It is simply ridiculous to imagine that there is any- thing unartistic in flat treatment, or that any parti- cular power or skill is necessarily displayed by adopt- c I am far from meaning by this to depreciate the efforts of those writers to whom we are indebted for the greater part of what we know on this subject, as well as for many important practical dis- coveries. 90 Internal Features and Decorations. ing a system of high relief : these are mere elements in the hand of the trne artist, to be nsed by him ac- cording to the conditions which, in his judgment, are prescribed by the nature of the work. It is probable that he will consider painted glass to allow of less relief and less depth of shadow or variety of distance than other classes of painting ; that a greater degree of severity is, as a general rule, suited to it than to ordinary painting; and that strong outlines are for the most part more agreeable to its conditions than soft shading ; — but he will also, as I imagine, perceive that all these rules are modified by the position of the window, and that while the finest art of which he is master should be devoted to all, the degree of relief, of pictorial effect, of severity of treatment, and of soft- ness of shading, are subject to an infinity of variations, according to the circumstances of the case : and parti- cularly, that the greatest amount of freedom, relief, and of delicate finish are demanded where his art is applied to the decoration of domestic architecture. I would urge, however, that, whatever may be judged best for the purpose, the two great follies of modern glass- painting may be eschewed, and that we may neither fill our windows with stupid caricatures of mediseval drawing, nor with sickly copies, by powerless hands, from the paintings of Eaphael, Eubens, or West. CHAPTEK Y. MATERIALS OF BUILDINGS. npHE materials of civil and domestic buildings must, -■- of course, in a great degree depend upon local cir- cumstances : as, for instance, brick must always con- tinue the rule in London, and freestone at Bath or Paris ; while in the Cotswold Hills, or in Devonshire, rubble stone, and in the chalk districts flint, present themselves as the natural materials. The conditions, however, prescribed by Nature are far from being imperative. The facilities of transit often neutralize, or even reverse them. The countries where stone is abundant are often equally favourable for brick ; while in others, where brick is the natural material, water-carriage or railways often render rub- ble stone actually cheaper ; and in buildings not strictly limited as to cost, a tolerable degree of freedom in the choice of material may always be exercised. The materials for external use may be briefly classed under the three heads of stone, brick, and timber: among which it may be said, generally, that stone may be considered more dignified than brick, and brick than timber. This is, however, open to an infinity of exceptions; a really fine brick building being vastly superior to a rude stone one, and many timber buildings being far finer than they could readily have been made in brick. 92 Materials of Buildings. Stone seems suited, par excellence, to monumental, brick to commercial, and timber to rural architecture ; though this rule is anything but general in its appli- cation. In buildings of the most dignified class, I cannot help strongly holding that wrought stone is the only proper material. The merits of brick having been much underrated, a reaction has recently taken place, which for the time almost amounts to a mania ; but, after all which may be said, and with perfect justice, of the capabilities of brick, the fact must ever remain, that stone must hold the highest place in point of dignity and beauty. Everything, however, depends on how the materials are used. A uniform stone front without diversity of colour may look handsome, but will always be wanting in life and spirit. The ordinary system of building the walls in a somewhat rougher kind of stone than the dressings, produces a certain degree of relief, and for ordinary buildings is the most natural mode of construction, inasmuch as common sense dictates in buildings where economy is an object, the use of a material for the mass of the work which is moderate in cost, while the more ornamental portions demand one of a finer description. This mode of building must, therefore, always prevail : it is founded on common sense, and no argument can disturb it. It must, however, be admitted that its very frequency and reasonableness give it a commonplace air. The mind is satisfied with it, and the eye acknowledges that in a simple building the relief of surface in a great degree makes up for the lack of ornament ; yet, taken in its normal form, there can be no doubt that in this kind of building, there is wanted the artistic touch which severs mere construction from the work Materials of Buildings. 93 of taste and art. It is but little that is wanted, yet that little is important. There should be enough to shew that the rougher mass of the walling has been thought of, and cared for, by the architect, — there may be more than this, but thus much is necessary to render the building satisfactory. This artistic touch may have also a constructive utility, and if so, all the better: — such is the case with bands of brick, which both strengthen and relieve the rubble walls of Roman structures ; and those of stone, which bind together the brick walls of Lombardic churches, or the rubble walls of other countries. This construc- tive use, however, is not essential. The herring-bone- work of the Norman builders, the alternate white and brown courses of a Northamptonshire church, the chequer- work of stone and flint often found in other districts, the more elaborate surface decoration in the same material so frequent in Norfolk and Suffolk, with a hundred other parallel contrivances, are specimens of artistic relief having no constructive object, yet adding vastly to the beauty of the work, and shewing the mind of the builder even in the plain surfaces of the walling. In structures of a higher character, such as public buildings of importance, especially in large towns, the use of mere walling stone seems hardly consistent ; the dignity of the building demands the use of wrought stonework throughout, which deprives us even of the relief of surface common to the most ordinary build- ings. This loss may, it is true, be compensated by increased architectural decoration, but that in no degree precludes, or necessarily supersedes, relief in colour produced by the use of varied material, — a species of decoration till lately much neglected, and which 94 Materials of Buildings. has recently received the name of constructive poly- chromy. Among the Italians of the middle ages this kind of decoration was carried to a great extent : as, for in- stance, in the cathedral of Florence and its exquisite campanile, where the mass of the walls being of white marble, they are interstratified, panelled, and inlaid with red and green marbles, the polychromy varying in scale from deep constructive courses to fine mosaic- work. This is of continual recurrence in Italy, and is in fact rather the rule than the exception in works of the best periods. In the cathedral at Genoa, for in- stance, it is exquisitely carried out in the internal columns, and in the western portals. It is not, how- ever, necessary, or even desirable, to carry it to this elaborate extent ; a very slight variety of colour, ob- tained without increase of cost, will often be sufficient to lighten up a building of which the tone would other- wise be dull and insipid. This, however, as all other systems of colouring, demands the hand of the artist, and, without it, becomes simply disgusting ; but if artistically used, and not overdone, it becomes one of the most valuable architectural elements. It does not demand costly materials like the rich marbles of the Appenines : the same men who so successfully applied those splendid materials, were equally happy in their use of brick and stone. With us, the richer productions of nature must be reserved for the last touches, but we have abundant opportunity with our more ordinary materials, to produce any reasonable variety of tint which we may need to enliven our architecture. In fact, marbles are generally too susceptible of change from such a climate as ours, to render them very desirable for external 31 ate rials of Buildings. 95 use, though internally of immense importance and ar- tistic value ; but polished granite and serpentine seem to promise greater permanence of colour and surface. These may be used with admirable effect for shafts (whether constructive or decorative), abaci, panels, inlaying, &c, &c, as the particular design of the building may suggest ; and may also be formed into bold mosaic in bands, friezes, panels, &c, which would be a splendid addition to our usually prosaic archi- tecture. So much has of late been said and written on the subject of brickwork, that it would be superfluous for me to add much on that head. A few years back nearly everything was built of brick, and that of the dullest kind. At the commencement, however, of our Gothic movement, great efforts were made both to bring back more extensively the use of stone, and improve that of brick : both were in some degree suc- cessful ; but railways coming opportunely to our aid, and the use of stone walling being found far less costly than had been imagined, the increased use of stone outstripped the improvements in the use of brick, and threatened to supersede it. This has now led to a reaction in vindication of the neglected capabilities of brick, which is rather in danger of defeating its own object by becoming a mania. The object is most im- portant, but it is equally so that the pursuit of it should be well regulated, and should not be carried beyond the limits dictated by common sense, or it may end in nauseating the public taste, instead of en- listing it in favour of our views. I think, however, that there is less danger of this in domestic buildings, than in those of greater dig- nity. Brick is the most convenient material for house- C6 Materials of Buildings, building, particularly in towns, so the more we en- deavour to improve its use the better ; and I think the public are pretty sure to sympathize with the effort. It is quite clear that there is little inherent beauty in brick per se. If we doubt this, one glance at a London street will bring conviction. If we say that it is to red brick that we attribute this intrinsic beauty, a reference to our country towns, and the majority of ordinary houses built in the country, will dispel the illusion. " An ugly red brick house" is an expression in everybody's mouth, and one which the conscious- ness of everyone of his own likes and dislikes prevents our assailing ; yet, in the face of this, how frequently do we use, and with perfect heartiness, such ex- pressions as these, — " A fine old red brick house or, "a fine structure of red brick." Now, what is the reason that in one case we hate the material, and in the other we as sincerely admire it ? It is not that in one case the colour is crude and new, and in the other tempered by age, for the ugly brick house is often fifty years older than the one we admire ; nor can we quite truthfully say that it is the harmony of the material with Gothic architecture which pleases us, for we cannot fairly withhold a due meed of admiration for many red brick structures of the age of Sir Christopher Wren ; and there are many other styles in which it has been used with ex- cellent effect. Where, then, does the secret lie ? I would answer, — on the very surface, and in the ob- vious fact, that no material looks well if not skilfully and artistically used. This, however, seems especially the case with brick. A material of a quiet, inoffensive colour, like stone, does not look so ill when unskilfully Materials of Buildings. 27 used. If rough, there is a picturesqueness about it which is pleasing ; if smooth, it gives the idea of care and good workmanship, with some suggestion of costliness. Eich marbles, again, have an intrinsic beauty quite apart from their form : but brick has none of these qualities. It has not a mild, harmless colour ; it has neither a picturesque roughness, nor a finished smoothness of surface ; and though its colour may be rich, it is not in itself beautiful, like the varied hues of marbles. It depends for good looks, therefore, more than most materials do, on the skill with which it is used ; and in the absence of such skill, its colour is too strong and obtrusive to permit it to be harmless, but, on the contrary, renders it — like all other strong colours inartistically applied — offensive ; while the very same cause makes its value the greater when used aright. I suggest this enquiry only with a view to guard against the impression which some persons seem to entertain, that brick in itself has beauties which render its use meritorious. It has, it is true, merits and ca- pabilities which, in skilful hands, may produce the most striking and agreeable effects ; but it should not be forgotten that they are somewhat powerful quali- ties, the careless use of which is equally certain of producing ugliness. A brick building, consequently, calls for the utmost exercise of the architect's skill, and will as richly reward his pains as it would se- verely punish his negligence. To tell how to make a good building is as diffi- cult as to direct an artist how to make a good picture. There are in each a number of elements very necessary to success, but, after all, they differ little from the colour on the painter's palette : all depends on the H 98 Materials of Buildings. using of them ; — one man thoroughly versed in prin- ciples turns out nothing good; while another, act- ing only upon instinct, or rather upon the dictates of an artistic eye and mind, rarely produces any- thing bad. The requisites, however, to a good, as distinguished from a bad brick building, are perhaps mainly as fol- lows : — ■ First, that the design should be such as is in itself calculated to look well. ]STo material will redeem a bad design ; but brick has a tendency to shew its de- fects to the worst advantage. Secondly, that there should at least be something about the architectural treatment to shew that the architect had the material in view from the first; — nothing aids a design more than these evidences of thought and interest. Thirdly, that the colour of the material should be relieved, to a moderate extent, either by the use of bricks of other colours (particularly black or grey), by stone dressings or materials of some other colour, or by a greater or less degree of actual ornamental work in the material itself. The brick architecture of the middle ages has of course always the first, and usually has one or both of the other of the above-mentioned characteristics; and to these is to be attributed the fact that it is always beautiful, while the vernacular brick architec- ture of our own day is nearly always hideous. The old buildings were such as would look well, and the modern ones such as would look ill, whatever the material; the old ones are usually, and the modern ones rarely, designed with reference to the material ; and the old ones are for the most part, and the mo- Materials of Buildings. 09 dern ones scarcely ever, relieved either in colour or by ornamental work in the material itself. Besides these three more essential characteristics, much may be done in the selection of the brick, both as to colour and form. Different clays burn to diffe- rent varieties of red, and the same varies much in colour according to the manufacture and the mode of firing. To obtain a thoroughly good result, great atten- tion should be paid to this. There are, for instance, two distinct modes of making brick ; one in which the clay is made to slip easily through the mould by the use of water, and the other by the use of sand. The former gives a crude, earthenware surface to the brick, which seldom looks well unless the clay has an extra- ordinary natural tendency to a good colour ; the other, if the sand itself be of good quality for the purpose, gives the brick, when well burnt, a beautiful bloom, which adds immensely to its beauty, and, if the brick be a little over-burnt, gives it that beautiful grey or black semi-glaze which is so useful an element in diversifying the surface of brickwork. This glaze was, however, occasionally given intentionally, as to encaustic tiles, for we often find it of a green colour, and applied especially to ornamental bricks. As a general rule, a crimson hue is to be preferred to a scarlet ; and, though all the bricks in a wall ought not to be alike, it is better to have a good proportion of a fine, deep, rich colour, — satisfactory at once to the eye from its beauty, and to the mind as indicative of good burning and consequent durability. That extreme smoothness produced by pressing is not usually pleasing, and the thin joints which accom- pany it are much the contrary. In many parts, how- ever, of the north of England, no good bricks are to be h2 100 Materials of Buildings. obtained excepting those so manufactured, and they give a crudeness to the aspect of the building much less agreeable than the sandy surface before al- luded to. The shape of a brick has also a great influence on the effect in work. Our bricks are too short for their thickness, — they should either be thinner or longer. I should say thinner for small buildings, and longer for large ones. If, for instance, we had for large buildings facing-bricks of the usual thickness, but nearly a foot long, they would look well, and would work in with a backing of common bricks, if necessary ; but for small buildings, bricks of the usual length and breadth, but only about 2|th inches in thickness, would look the best. In the north of Germany, bricks were used in the middle ages for large buildings of much greater size than we now use them : this would have been good, had the thickness been kept moderate ; but that being increased in proportion, the bricks were often insufficiently burnt ; and, excepting in buildings of gigantic size, they look clumsy. The Eoman brick, which was twice the length of ours, and little more than half the thickness, was in the other extreme, — but it is the better side to err on. Their length en- sures good bonding, while their thinness causes them to be thoroughly burnt. In England, the use of brick was not frequent till nearly the close of the middle ages, though it is oc- casionally met with of earlier date. It was at that period used much more for domestic than ecclesiasti- cal buildings, and was very successfully treated. Eton College and Hampton Court are among the more fami- liar examples : here the windows are usually dressed with stone, and the surface relieved by intersecting Materials of Buildings. 101 patterns in grey semi-glazed headers. In many build- ings, however, the use of stone is more or less, and sometimes wholly, dispensed with, — every architectu- ' ral detail being moulded or cut in the brick itself. We have some splendid specimens of this in Norfolk, where the minutest details are beautifully worked in brick, and with admirable effect. The same is the case with chimney -shafts of most of the houses of the period, which are decorated with an infinity of orna- mental pattern-work in brick. In other cases, the face of the bricks themselves, forming the surface of the wall, is stamped with a variety of surface-orna- ment. The study of our own brick architecture alone would furnish us with a great fund of instruction for the more successful application of brick to our modern buildings. We have, however, in different districts on the Continent many other examples, and classes of examples, to aid our studies. In Flanders we find a light-coloured brick largely used, and much ornamental work executed in it, with occasionally the use of coloured (e. g. green) bricks as a relief. In the north of Germany we find brickwork of all ages, from the Komanesque onwards. It is usually red diversified with black, on very dark green glazed bricks, often in alternate courses, or alternating in the jambs and arches of windows ; and there is much orna- mental moulded brick, the window jambs and mullions, and even a rude tracery, being executed in the same material. Parapets and friezes are often of this rough tracery, the backs of the panels being plastered, and originally painted in various ways. Friezes of running foliage and other patterns are also frequent, and gene- rally of glazed brick. 102 Materials of Buildings. Northern Italy is, however, in many respects a bet- ter field for the study of brickwork. "We find it there used in every form. Sometimes the entire building is of brick, excepting, perhaps, a few marble shafts in the windows and doorways, — the richest work being executed in brick with all the delicacy of carved stone. In others the brick is beautifully and most artistically intermingled and alternated with stone, and the most ,playful and exquisite effects obtained ; in others, brick is used with its natural companion, terra cotta, and without stone; but I do not recollect observing in Italy the use of bricks of different colours in the same work. The subject has, however, been so amply elu- cidated, and is so familiar to travellers of architectural taste, that I will not attempt to carry it out. In buildings in other countries, bricks are found enamelled in varied colours and patterns, or relieved with embossed and enamelled tiles, so that, taken as a whole, the brick architecture of the middle ages is rich in the extreme in the lessons it offers us in the art of constructive decoration. It is for us to turn these lessons to good account. Much has already been done, and much has been suggested in writing, — all we want is skill and judgment to follow it out to a successful result : and I confess that what I most fear is that, by exaggerated and tasteless attempts, the whole subject may become vulgarized and nauseating. The attempts one sees both in exhibitions of drawings, and in a more practical form, unquestionably give cause for such fears. One great thing to be observed is not to overdo the variegation of colour. In our own mediaeval build- ings, the utmost we ever meet with is the chequer- ing of the surface with a uniform reticulation of grey Materials of Buildings. 103 headers. If the colour of these is quiet, the uniformity of pattern prevents it from being distracting, and pro- duces a sameness of hue in the general tone of the building; but if the headers are black, or brightly glazed, it will probably be too much. I confess, in- deed, I do not like absolutely black bricks at all. If encaustic tiles or enamelled bricks be used, the co- lours should be quiet and grave, or they will disturb the repose of the design; and they should be very sparingly used. Stone used with brickwork should not be too white ; a warmer and more solid tone is better. Moulded bricks may often be very advan- tageously used, particularly in buildings in which a great amount of stone-dressings would produce too disturbed an effect. Terra-cotta seems the natural accompaniment of brick, but it should not be used as an artificial stone. It is merely the highest development of brick, and should be used as such. ~No attempt should be made to assimilate its colour to that of stone. It is far bet- ter that it should have that light red colour which seems natural to it, and which, while it relieves the darker colour of brick, still harmonizes with it. Terra- cotta should always be constructively made, and con- structively used; not in great blocks like stone, — in which case it is always a mere sham, — but made of the dimensions most suitable to the nature of its ma- nufacture, and the design made suitable to those di- mensions ; — thus treating it honourably as a genuine and acknowledged material, not insulting and degrad- ing it by making it a mere pretender, appearing in borrowed feathers. So far from imitating stone, it should be made incapable of being mistaken for it ; the design and construction being obvioijsly different : 104 Materials of Buildings. and to make this still more obvious, and at the same time to take full advantage of the material, enamelled enrichments might with great advantage be used in it. Thus by the judicious use of brick, (moulded as well as plain,) encaustic tile, and terra-cotta, we might de- velope a variety of constructive decoration peculiarly our own. This might also help us to solve a problem of great difficulty bearing upon London house-fronts. Ordi- nary brick will not do for them ; its absorbency causes the rapid adhesion of smoke, which penetrates the sur- face, and renders the whole building a gloomy, light- absorbing mass : stone, excepting the hardest kinds, is nearly as bad. This is one cause for the prevalence of cement ; — we want a cheerful, bright material which will not attract smoke and dirt, and will reflect light instead of absorbing it. An attempt has recently been made to meet this need, and with some success. It consists of a white or light- coloured brick with a vitrified, non-absorbent surface; its great defect is the glossy face, which would, I fear, produce a disagreeable effect. They should be vitrified, but dead, and without gloss ; they should be accompanied by terra-cotta, with the same non-absorbent surface ; and they should be of various colours, as might be required, and the effect should be capable of being heightened by the use of enamelled patterns, to which might readily be added encaustic tiles, or tile-mosaics, made expressly to harmonize with them, and used in panels, friezes, or other suit- able positions, where they would not disturb the con- structive effect. This would work a greater reformation in our ordi- Materials of Buildings. 105 nary street-architecture than anything which can be conceived ; only let it be done quietly and artistically, not in the flaring, exaggerated manner which seems the only way in which an Englishman can do any- thing, if he once departs from his old humdrum routine. For country houses in the chalk districts, flint is a very pleasing material, and capable of much variety. It may be used either in its rough form as it comes to hand, broken to a face, or actually squared; or different parts of the building may be done in each, or in two of these modes. It may be either dressed with stone or with brick ;— either, if well done, has an excellent effect. If the former is used, it looks well, and is good construction, to have bands of stone at different heights in the walls; and much may be done in parapets, and other parts of a building, by inlaying flint into stone in patterns, or by bands of a kind of coarse mosaic of stone and flint. If brick be used for the dressings, banding-courses are equally advantageous, and the surface may in parts be quilted and reticulated by headers, which both strengthen and decorate the walls. . The use of plaster, legitimate and illegitimate, has already been touched upon while treating of ceilings. I have no great wish to see it developed for exteriors even in its most legitimate forms, but as cases occur in which it is necessary, it may be well to allude to it. In our old churches we find plastered exteriors of every date, and at Venice the plain wall-surface of the mediaeval houses was generally plastered and painted in diaper patterns. If plastering is in any cases neces- sary, the great thing to be observed is to avoid all pretence, and to treat it naturally. The impressed 106 Materials of Buildings. pattern-work prevalent to this day in the plastered exteriors in Essex and Hertfordshire, is very sugges- tive; and there can be no doubt that an impressed diaper of simple lines is the best mode of decorating flat plastered surfaces a . As a general rule, however, external plastering has been so infamously abused, that it is somewhat dan- gerous to meddle with it. Timber-building must, in these days, be reserved, for the most part, for fancy buildings in the country, such as lodges, &c, &c, or for some quite exceptional purposes. It is a most pleasing style of building, and one admits its comparative obsoleteness with sorrow. Still, however, it is not so far obsolete but that it is most desirable to study it carefully, and to preserve accurate records of the examples which remain to us ; and in some neighbourhoods it may still be a natural mode of construction: and it may very often be used for parts of buildings, — as the spaces within gables, overhanging stories, porches, &c, &c. I may say a little more on this subject when speaking of rural structures. NEW MATERIALS. The above are the principal classes of architectural materials which belong to the present in common with all previous ages. The mechanical enterprise, how- ever, which seems to be the peculiar characteristic of a I had written this some months before I heard of my friend Mr. Eerrey's patent for the execution of impressed diapering upon plaster, an invention which, if kept to its legitimate uses, seems likely to be very advantngeous. Materials of Buildings. 107 our own period and race, has opened out to us the use of materials either unknown to our ancestors, or only by them used for subordinate purposes. It is at present doubtful how far these modern in- ventions may eventually affect external architecture, but, internally, their influence has already been very great. By far the most important of these new introduc- tions is the enormous development attained in the uses both of wrought and cast iron; and it is in roofing that it exercises its most important influence. The builders of former times rarely used cast iron, and then only for small objects, such as the back of a fireplace : in wrought iron, on the contrary, they were pre-eminently skilled, though their works seldom extended beyond the dimensions of a screen. The peculiarity of modern ironwork is that, whether cast or wrought, it is unlimited in the extent of its appli- cation, — not only forming roofs of a width unequalled in other material, but bridges spanning wide rivers, or even arms of the sea. It is self-evident that this triumph of modern metallic construction opens out a perfectly new field for architectural development. Hitherto it has usually been treated as a mere matter of engineering, and com- paratively little done to bring it within the province of art. It is true that some of these wonderful con- structions have an inherent beauty of their own, which renders them architectural even in their normal forms. A simply and naturally constructed cast-iron bridge has almost always a certain degree of beauty ; a sus- pension-bridge would puzzle the most ingenious bungler to render it unpleasing, — (the curve which the laws of nature dictate is too beautiful for him to spoil) ; and 108 Materials of Buildings, a really good iron roof is, perhaps, as easily made pleasing as ngly. There are, however, some other pieces of metal construction which are always ugly, unless artistically treated ; such, for instance, as beams of cast or wrought iron ; girder bridges, and perhaps tubular bridges; though all of these are to be redeemed by the exercise of a little skill. Then, again, there is the use of iron for entire structures ; not only, as at the Crystal Palace, (which I view as an exceptional expe- dient, well suited to its own purpose, but to few others,) but structures of a graver and more solid description. Now, do these introductions of modern engineering belong to any one style of architecture more than another ? People fancy that, because they have grown up during the prevalence of our modern classicism, they have something to do with it. I deny this in toto. Is not an iron bridge, or an iron roof, more allied to mediaeval timber construction, than to any works we know of classic antiquity ? Has a suspen- sion-bridge any nearer relationship to the Parthenon than to Westminster Hall ? Is it not a work founded on natural laws, which belong as much to one period as another ? It may be said that classic architecture, being (in modern phraseology) a "trabeated" style, it may lay claim to iron beams and girder bridges ; but, in truth, Gothic architecture had as much to do with beams as that of Greece or Eome ; and the only at all successful instance I have seen of architecturalizing cast-iron beams, isiin Mr. Butterfield's Gothic build- ings in Margaret-street. Then, again, of the iron and glass structures so much in vogue, — are they especially Grecian, Eoman, or Eenaissance in their idea ? What should we say, for instance, of their great type, the Crystal Palace ? Materials of Buildings. 109 Is it more like a Grecian temple, or a Gothic ca- thedral? The fact is, that all these iron constructions are, if anything, more suited to Gothic than classic archi- tecture, though our opponents always seem to think that they have said a good thing when they pass jokes upon the Gothic revivalists, as if their very hair would stand on end at the introduction of modern in- ventions into their architecture, when the real state of the case is this, — that when our opponents make use of such inventions they appear ashamed of them, and use all kinds of petty contrivances to hide them, or make them look like something else ; while, when we use them, we endeavour to do so honestly, modifying our design to suit them, and so make them form legitimate elements, instead of pieces of architectural legerdemain. It is a curious fact, that in a recent competition for a public building, in which the prepossessions were decidedly in favour of the classic styles, and in which there were submitted classic designs of considerable merit, the final decision was in favour of a Gothic design, chiefly on the ground of its carrying out more successfully than the others the condition that the principal quadrangle should be covered by a glass and iron structure after the manner of the Crystal Palace. Yet so rapidly has the subject developed itself, that the design for this iron construction has since been almost entirely remodelled, and that now intended to be executed is a vast improvement upon the design which, a few months back, beat its classic competitors out of the field. The subject of metal construction seems likely to assume great importance in the hands of those engaged 110 Materials of Buildings. in the Gothic revival. A beautiful design for a church entirely of iron has recently been published by the Ecclesiological Society, shewing that quite a new version of the beauties of a Gothic interior might be obtained by the use of wrought iron for its entire construction. Mr. Skidmore, so well known for his skill in iron and brass-work, as well as in the use of the precious metals, has since written to that Society a very interesting letter, pressing the use of iron largely as a matter, not of economy, but of principle, — as being pre-eminently the material of our own day, — and urges, on that ground, that we should be more thoroughly acting up to the spirit of the builders of the middle ages by its adoption, than by limiting our- selves to timber and stone. He has since stated his view, in an extended form, in a Paper read at a public meeting of that Society, to which I beg to call special attention. There can be no doubt that the iron roof is sus- ceptible of exquisite beauty, and is peculiarly adapted to treatment suited to our style; and I would strongly urge attention to this subject. It is not, perhaps, suitable to every class of building b , but to many more, probably, than it has yet been applied to ; and certainly is capable of infinitely greater beauty than it has yet attained. Metallic construction is the great development of our age, and it speaks ill for the taste of our architects that they have done so little to ren- der it beautiful. I commend this task, then, to the special care of the architects engaged in our revival The classic architects have greatly neglected it, — it is for us to b One of the greatest difficulties attendant upon iron construction is its tendency to condensation of moisture. Materials of Buildings. Ill add the charm of beauty to what is at present hut crude, unadorned construction. I ought, while on this subject, to add a few words upon fire-proof construction. Its importance no one can for a moment dispute, and there can be no doubt that it is destined to become far more general than at present, and to attain far greater perfection. The way in which it will affect the questions of which I have treated, is chiefly in its forbidding the use of wood in ceilings, and thus rendering the develop- ment of ornamented plaster, which I have recom- mended for this purpose, absolutely necessary, as about the only system of decoration at our disposal. It will become a question whether the iron beams can, even in a building of a finished character, be allowed to be exposed. If they are so, they must certainly be more highly finished than any I have yet seen ; but as brass has been most successfully introduced as a construc- tive material, or for decorating construction, — as in the new Museum at Berlin, — there can be no reason why iron should not be so. This will add another to my classes of ceilings, i. e. ceilings with ornamental wrought-iron beams, (perhaps decorated with brass,) and the interstices filled in with diaper, or other orna- mental work in plaster, perhaps with stone or terra- cotta cornices. I would also suggest, whether porcelain may not be brought in to heighten the effect. CEAPTEE VI. COUNTRY AND TOWN. No. I. — BUILDINGS IN THE COUNTRY. OD made the country, and man made the town," ^ — and perhaps the highest tribute ever offered to Gothic architecture, (not excepting that of Eomney the painter, who said that Grecian architecture was the production of glorious men, but Gothic architec- ture that of gods,) is that involuntarily paid it by our opponents when they argue that, though our style, no doubt, agrees well with rural scenery and accom- paniments, they are convinced that it is quite out of harmony when used in our towns ! I can conceive of no better test of the works of man, than their harmony with the works of God. Whether in morals or in taste, these are the great standards set before us. If, then, either our conduct or our works of art appear in any degree to bear this test, and, cceteris paribus, to shew some harmony, how- ever humble, — some community of sentiment, however distant, with these glorious examples; or, to say the least, if the contrast, or want of harmony they present, is less jarring, less painful, than that displayed by other conduct or other works; just so far may they be judged to be, in their humble way, morally right, or correct in taste : nor is the inference in any degree Country and Town, fyc* 113 weakened by their removal from immediate juxta- position with the standards by which they have been judged. The continued presence of the standard is in no degree necessary to the truth of the result. That which, on comparison with the works of Is at i ire, has been proved best to harmonize with them, continues to be the best when separated from them. To suppose it otherwise would be unphilosophical ; but the notion of our opponents, that because a style harmonizes well with natural objects, it becomes ipso facto objection- able in their absence, is one of the most palpable absurdities ever broached : as well might it be argued, that because a man has taken a high degree at the University, he is unfitted for the church or the bar, or that success in ecclesiastical architecture is fatal to the claims of an architect to be engaged on secular works. I have something more, however, to say on this point. The argument I am using not only renders harmless the weapons of our adversaries, but it turns their point against themselves. Let it not be thought that they bring their objections dishonestly, — far from it : they see that Gothic buildings in the country are harmonious in their effect, and most unwillingly, yet honestly, admit that the style is suitable to rural positions. They see, however, that, when used in towns as they now are, a certain degree of discord arises, and — the wish being father to the thought — they jump to the conclusion that it is unsuitable to towns. It needs little argument to shew the fallacy of this conclusion : Gothic architecture having been tried by the one true test — its harmony with the works of i 114 Country and Town. Nature — is proved to be good and noble; but when placed among the modern works of man, the harmony ceases. The conclusion, then, is inevitable, that the fault lies not in the style, but in the company in which it is placed, which stands self- condemned by its discordance with a style which is in harmony with the only true standard ; and that the practical lesson to be deduced from it is, that we must lose no time in reforming the character of our towns, by the intro- duction of the greatest possible quantity of that archi- tecture which has borne the test of nature, so that our towns, though made by man, may not be needlessly discordant with the country, which was made by God. While, however, I advocate uniformity of style, whether in town or country, I do not for a moment desire an identity in its application. It is one of the most striking characteristics of the works of Nature, that she suits each thoroughly to its position, though a uniformity of principle runs through the whole. We must follow her in this as well as in her other perfec- tions ; and the style we advocate stands pre-eminent in its success in doing so. I boldly assert, that no style of architecture which the world has ever pro- duced has shewn a tithe of this elasticity in adapting itself to every circumstance, position, and material. It is its greatest and most striking characteristic. I shall have to advert to this repeatedly, and will at present confine myself to the case in hand ; and I need do little more than ask the student of Gothic archi- tecture whether, charming as it always is amid rural scenery, he has ever found this to be its exclusive characteristic ? On the contrary, he must ever have found its noblest creations in crowded cities; and it seems to have delighted in compensating for the ab- iVb. — Buildings in the Country. 115 sence of natural accompaniments by giving to its own creations yet nobler and more majestic forms. Do, for instance, our mighty cathedrals owe any part of their beauty to juxtaposition with Nature ? If chance has brought them in contact with it, they seem to re- joice in the re-union ; but the city is their home, and for it they were designed. The lesser churches of our ancient cities either modestly fit themselves into cor- ners where space is denied them, or expand into stateliness where it is granted, but in either case harmonize well with their position. The great town- halls of Flanders or Germany need no natural objects to enhance their magnificence, and the houses of a mediseval city — identical in style, though differing in its application from their cotemporaries in the country, — present infinitely greater variety of outline, more stateliness of effect, and more playfulness of detail than has been attained in other styles, without the thought ever being suggested that they belong to - an architecture intrinsically rural. I will now proceed to consider the peculiar charac- teristics of country and town architecture, with its application to different classes of buildings belonging to each. The special condition of rural architecture is its freedom. Unlimited (comparatively speaking) in space, unrestricted by municipal regulations, and unfettered by neighbouring buildings, you are free to push out right and left, and to adopt what forms convenience, or individual taste, may happen to suggest. This freedom may be more or less perfect according to circumstances, but in any case it is the great charac- teristic of country as distinguished from town building. In the town, as a general rule, all is restriction ; in i 2 116 Country and Town. the country, all is liberty. Not to take advantage of this freedom would be absurd ; it not only gives full scope to making our houses as convenient, agreeable, and good-looking as we please, but it is also a con- dition itself in harmony with the natural objects around us. The difference between country and town architecture, then, does not lie in style, — to have a separate style for each would be mere frivolity, — but it lies mainly in the truthfulness and skill with which w T e meet these leading conditions : in the one case, so using our liberty as to render it in the greatest degree conducive to beauty, convenience, and harmony with the surrounding scenery, without permitting it to de- generate into license ; in the other, so tempering our restrictions as not only to reduce to the lowest amount the disadvantages they entail, but to render them pro- ductive of beauties of another class from those attain- able in buildings on free sites, and belonging par emi- nence to town architecture. I will at present confine myself to the former. The grand principle of planning is that every room should be in its right position, — both positively and re- latively to one another, — to the approaches, views, and aspect ; and that this should be so effected as not only to avoid disturbing architectural beauty, either within or without, but to be in the highest degree conducive to it. In a town, many imperfections in arrange- ment must necessarily be borne with, but in a country house there is scope for the perfect attainment of these objects, while it is the peculiar felicity of Gothic architecture, that it gains beauty by the accidental irregularities which arise from the necessities of the plan; and though it freely admits of symmetrical arrangement, it seems rather to rejoice in creating No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 117 beauty out of the forms fortuitously suggested by practical utility. Mr. Kuskiu says on this subject, — " The variety of the Gothic schools is the more healthy and beautiful, because in many cases it is entirely unstudied, and results not from mere love of change, but from prac- tical necessities. For in the one point of view Gothic is not only the best, but the only rational architecture, as being that which can fit itself most easily to all services, vulgar or noble. Undefined in the slope of its roof, height of shaft, breadth of arch, or disposition of ground-plan, it can shrink into a turret, expand into a hall, coil into a staircase, or spring into a spire with undegraded grace and unexhausted energy ; and whenever it finds occasion for change in form or purpose, it submits to it without the slightest sense of loss, either in its unity or majesty, — subtle and flexible as a fiery serpent, but ever attentive to the voice of the charmer. And it is one of the chief virtues of the Gothic builders, that they never suffered ideas of outside symmetries and consistencies to interfere with the real use and value of what they did. If they wanted a window, they opened one ; a room, they added one ; a buttress, they built one, — utterly regardless of any established conventionalites of external appearance ; knowing, as indeed it always happened, that such daring interruptions of the formal plan would rather give additional interest to its symmetry than injure it." Pugin was, I believe, the first to point out dis- tinctly this characteristic. In the following passages he not only defines well the " true principle," but guards against its abuse ; anticipating both the stu- pidity of modern designers, — ever forgetful of the spirit, while they imitate the letter,— and also the argument which our opponents would attempt to ground on their mistakes. Speaking of the old English mansions, he says, — "They were substantial, appropriate edifices, suited by 118 Country and Town. their scale and arrangement for the purposes of habitation. Each part of these buildings indicated its particular distinc- tion : the turreted gatehouse and porter's lodging, the en- trance-porch, the high-crested roof, and louvred hall, with its capacious chimney, the great chambers, the vast kitchens and offices, all forming distinct and beautiful features, not masked or concealed under one monotonous front, but by their variety in form and outline increasing the effect of the building." * * # * * " I must here mention two great defects, very common in modern pointed buildings, both of which arise from the great fundamental principle of decorating utility not being under- stood. In the first place, many architects apply the details and minor features of the pointed style to classic masses and arrangements ; they adhere scrupulously to the regularity and symmetry of the latter, while they attempt to disguise it by the mouldings and accessories of the former. They must have two of everything, one on each side : no matter if all the required accommodation is contained in one half of the design, a shell of another half must be built to keep up uniformity. What can be more absurd ? Because a man has a real door to enter his house by on one side, he must have a mock one through which he cannot get in on the other. How inconsistent it is to make and glaze a window which is to be icalled up ab initio ! * * * * * " In the second place, when modern architects avoid this defect of regularity, they frequently fall into one equally great with regard to irregularity ; I mean, when a build- ing is designed to be picturesque, by sticking as many ins and outs, ups and downs, about it as possible. The pic- turesque effect of the ancient buildings results from ingenious methods by which the old builders overcame local and constructive difficulties. An edifice which is arranged with the principal view of looking picturesque is sure to resemble an artificial waterfall or a made-up rock, which are generally so un- naturally natural as to appear ridiculous. " An architect should exhibit his skill by turning the diffi- No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 119 culties which occur in raising an elevation from a convent- ent plan into so many picturesque beauties ; and this con- stitutes the great difference between the principles of classic and pointed domestic architecture. In the former he icoulcl be compelled to devise expedients to cover these irregularities ; in the latter he has only to beautify them. But I am quite assured that all the irregularities that are so beautiful in ancient architecture, are the result of certain necessary difficulties, and were never purposely designed 3 ; for to make a building inconvenient for the sake of obtaining irregularity, would be scarcely less ridiculous than preparing working drawings for a new ruin. But all these inconsistencies have arisen from this great error — the plans of buildings are designed to suit the elevation, instead of the elevation being made subservient to the plan." This is, in fact, the great principle of good design, whatever the style ; but what particularly belongs to the subject in hand, is the double fact that a country situation calls it especially into exercise, and that the genius of Gothic architecture gives it freer scope than any other style. There is, however, an abuse of the principle beyond that which Pugin has announced ; I mean the notion that our style gives license to careless planning, and that, no matter how you throw your rooms about, they will make a good-looking building, as certainly as the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, a It is a favourite notion, that to be Gothic a building must be irregular. This is a great mistake. The true theory is, that the architect should be free to use regular or irregular forms, as the pur- poses of his building may suggest. The architects to the great Halles and Hotels de Ville in Belgium, and to the municipal palaces in the Italian cities, usually made them regular and uniform, because their uses did not suggest a broken outline ; and, picturesque as are those mediaeval cities which were the growth of ages, those which were founded anew were often as geometrically formal as an Ame- rican town. 120 Country and Town. shake them about as you like, will fall into a good figure at last. Such is by no means the case. It is true that no position of rooms, doors, and win- dows, which the circumstances of the site dictate, is likely to be so unmanageable that you need despair of making your building shapely and architectural; but this is where the skill of the architect is called into requisition : he must neither make his plan independently of his elevation, nor his elevation of his plan, but in making his arrangements, must ever keep a side-look at the architectural part of the question. Pugin would do this so instinctively as to be almost unconscious of it ; but his words, taken without this guard, might lead young architects to think no such double exercise of skill needful, and that the planning and the architecture are the results of entirely separate acts of the mind, instead of de- manding, in some degree, simultaneous thought. There is a trite objection to irregular plans, on the ground that they require as much wall as would en- close a rectangular parallelogram of their extreme di- mensions. This is obviously true, and is an economical consideration not to be lost sight of, but it must not be permitted to have undue weight. The parallelogram or the square may, perhaps, be viewed as the point de de- part ; — the primary idea of a plan, — and economy of walling, may suggest that we should not, in an ordinary house of small dimensions, branch out too widely from it ; but to expect that we can treat the rooms of a house whose number, size, and relative position are regu- lated by the multifarious accidents of site and conve- nience, as you do the pieces of a Chinese puzzle, and pack them together into a square box, would be cal- culating on something little short of miraculous : nor No, I. — Buildings in the Country. 121 would the result be in any degree desirable, even if at- tained, (which is next to impossible, without sacrifice of convenience) ; for not only would it produce an un- pleasing building, but the trifling economy in walling would be counterbalanced by inconvenience in roofing and increase of internal partitions ; — and the loss of wall is accompanied by a loss of window-space, which is a much more important consideration than the value of a few rods of brickwork. The fact is, that the " square-built" house of the auctioneer's jargon is usually one of the most inconvenient and ugly of buildings, and to sacrifice good planning and good architecture for the petty economy supposed to belong to it is simply absurd ; — nevertheless, in houses of or- dinary size, I would so far keep this mural economy in view, as to avoid all unreasonable spreading out, keeping my plan as compact as the proper arrange- ment of the rooms will permit, scrupulously avoiding all projections made for picturesque effect, and not suggested by utility. It would be both hopeless and unnecessary to at- tempt to go through all the different varieties of country-houses, &c, but a few leading classes may be briefly adverted to. To begin, then, with the ordinary villa. Its charac- teristics should be quiet cheerfulness and unpretend- ing comfort; it should, both within and without, be the very embodiment of innocent and simple enjoy- ment. No foolish affectation of rusticity, but the reality of everything which tends to the appreciation of country pleasures in their more refined form. The external design should so unite itself with the natural objects around, that they should appear necessary to one another, and that neither could be very different 122 Country and Town. without the other suffering. The architecture should be quiet and simple, the material that most suited to the neighbourhood, — neither too formal and highly finished, nor yet too rustic. The interior should par- take of the same general feeling. It should bear no resemblance to the formality of a town-house; — the rooms should be moderate in height, and not too rigidly regular in form ; some of the ceilings should shew their timbers wholly or in part; some of the windows should, if it suits the position, open out upon the garden, or into conservatories. In most situa- tions, the house should spread wide rather than run up high ; but circumstances may vary this. In this, as in other classes of house-building, the servants' apartments should be well cared for. They should be allowed a fair share in the enjoyments pro- vided for their masters. I have seen houses replete with comfort and surrounded with beauty, where, when you once get into the servants' rooms, you might as well be in a prison: — this is morally wrong : let us give our dependants a share in our pleasures, and they will serve us none the less efficiently for it. In planting round a country-house, people sometimes seem to delight in blocking up their neighbours' views, and keeping all the local scenery to themselves ; — they also take special pains in " planting out" every glimpse of the cottages of the poor, as objects peculiarly offen- sive to their refined taste ! Neither of these is right : we should never make our pleasures interfere with those of others, nor should we seek needlessly to hide from our view those humble neighbours whom we are assured we shall always have, and whose presence tends not only to make us thankful for our comforts, but mindful of our obligations ; one of which, by the No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 123 way, is (so far as our influence goes) to render their habitations more comfortable and more sightly. I need hardly say anything about the suitableness of our style to all this ; even our opponents would scarcely venture a word against it; indeed, it is so evidently and pre-eminently suited, that it needs no advocacy. All I will at present say on this subject is, that no one need feel, in adopting our style, that he is pinning himself to any trite or set form of architecture, for there is very wide choice as to its application. The different local materials — as brick, the endless com- binations of wrought and rough stone, and those of varied tints, — flint and brick, — flint and stone, — tim- ber, tile, and even plaster (in an honest form) in com- bination with timber, — give an almost endless variety to choose from ; besides which, the developments I am urging in the style itself vary with the material, and bring in novelties at all points. Whatever the material or the architecture, its beauty will always be enhanced by the liberal introduction of flowers and creepers upon the walls : they exceed all our architecture ; but when the two are well combined, the effects produced are truly charming. In going upwards in the scale of villas, we soon find ourselves trenching upon the department of the residences of the landed proprietor, of which I will speak in due time. The great difference which should mark the boundary of these classes is, that there should be in the manor-house a greater air of dignity than in the mere villa ; but I shall have more to say on this presently. There is, however, a class of villa to which what I have been saying hardly applies ; I mean those which are immediately round London, and which are packed 124 Country and Town. s~> closely that they have no means of developing their proper characteristics. All I can say of them is, that they should possess as many of these qualities as pos- sible ; but, as they become in some degree an inter- mediate stage between the country and town-house, it is quite right to treat them as such. The confined space renders greater height necessary, and where this is very decidedly the case, it is better economy of space, and avoids gauntness of effect, to place them in pairs. The effect of undue height may, however, always be taken off by management. Porches, bay- windows, balconies, stringcourses, or other features tending to divide the height, all help, if used with skill ; and when trees and shrubs grow up, they take it off altogether. I know no class of building on which it is so diffi- cult to offer practical hints as this, nor any which stands more in need of them. Our street architecture is bad enough, and our rural buildings give us little to boast of, but this intermediate class is worse than either, though in one respect the most important, — for if we build badly in a street, we spoil nothing but what was bad before ; and if we build an unsightly country-house, natural beauties remain, probably so much in the majority as to drown its ugliness ; but if we cut up beautiful fields, &c, into roads lined on either side with houses which are sickening to look upon, we b^th ruin what before was lovely, and leave little or nothing to mask or retrieve the disfigure- ment. Surely nothing was ever half so villanous as the villa-building about London ! One of its abominations is the niggardly way in which they chop up the ground, — leaving the smallest possible space in front jVb. I. — Buildings in the Country. 125 and on either side, and a mere strip between three vile brick walls behind; — and all this, forsooth, be- cause "land is so excessively valuable in the neigh- bourhood." Land which when in the form of fields never produced much more than £5 an acre, is no sooner cut up into slips and dubbed " building land," than it is at once valued at £100. If Londoners are sd idiotic as to pay such rents, we can hardly expect landlords to deal more liberally. The cupidity of the landlord goes hand in hand with the stupidity of the tenant ; and the consequence is, that the beautiful fields round London are every day being rendered hideous and disgusting by speculating builders, to whose remorseless hands they are consigned : and if people are such fools as to go to live four miles out of London, and get no more ground than they would get in the City -road or at Pentonville, I do not know how we can expect it to be otherwise. Even near country railway-stations the same miserable policy prevails, and we see at Harrow, Maiden, Kingston, and round the Crystal Palace, outlying masses of the same hideous and close-packed house-building which disgraces the outskirts of London. One's very heart bleeds when looking at the lovely slopes of Hampstead, respited from the most ignominious destruction only by a clause in a will ! Already the once beautiful vicinity of St. John's Wood is engulphed ; already have the Fellows of Eton given up their charming property to the destroyer of beauty and the manufacturer of ground-rents ; — the wave of tasteless building seems raising its crest to overwhelm the still more lovely fields beyond, and if a compact be not speedily made, all which can be hoped for is a few more years of loveliness, and then — the deluge. 126 Country and Town. I would earnestly press upon those who feel an interest in the subject, the importance of a timely compromise. It is absurd to imagine that a spot so close upon the metropolis should for ever remain as pasture-land, — nor will the laying of it out for building of necessity destroy its beauty. It is the execrable modern system of building which is so destructive. The ground is eminently calculated for the erection of villa residences of the highest order, and if laid out with liberality and taste, and the houses suitably designed, its beauties might even be enhanced by the change ; whereas, if left to chance, the loveliest spot near Lon- don will become utterly degraded. What I would, then, urge is this, — that the proprietor be permitted to grant building-leases on the following conditions : — that the whole be subject to a committee of taste, to be ap- pointed by the Crown ; that the ground be laid out by the most eminent landscape gardeners, to be nomi- nated by such committee ; that no house shall be be- low a certain grade, nor have less than a certain quan- tity of ground ; that the committee shall have an abso- lute veto upon the design proposed ; that no house be built without a regular architect; and that one or two architects be appointed by the committee, with- out whose approval no design shall be carried out. The permission to build should not, I need hardly say, extend to the Heath, which must either remain as it is, or be purchased by the Crown as a public park b . The position of Hampstead is so peculiar, as fully to warrant such an exceptional legislative arrangement. In its geological position, its scenery, and the salubrity of its atmosphere, it is equally remarkable. b Since the above was written the question has, as I learn, been favourably entertained by the Metropolitan Board of Works. JVb. /. — Buildings in the Country. 127 If the geologist makes a section through London from the Menai Straits to those of Dover, he will find that the highest stratum (in the language of his science) is the little cap of sand on Hampstead Heath. If he confines his observations to the tertiary basin of London, he finds this the central spot from which its whole breadth can be surveyed, from the Surrey Downs on the south to the Chiltern Hills on the north. The lover of fine scenery will see here, within four miles of London, views which it would be difficult to surpass within an hundred ; while the valetudinarian will find, within half an hour's drive, an atmosphere little infe- rior to that of Tunbridge Wells. A spot in every way so marked, close to London, and accidentally placed under so peculiar a tenure, seems fully to warrant such a course as I have suggested ; and I cannot but think that the proprietor would gladly fall in with an ar- rangement which would perpetuate the beauties of his estate, and save it from the merciless hands of the speculator, and the deluge of bad taste with which nearly the whole circuit of London is overwhelmed e . In some cases, a considerable effort has been made to improve the character of villa-building, but the effort has usually been made far too apparent. They have an exotic, hot-house look. A person looking out for a house feels an instinctive dread of living in so portentous-looking a structure; they have nothing homely or pleasant about them, — all is sacrificed to an ostentatious, unquiet-looking effect. The character which ought to mark this class of house is a quiet, homely, and unpretending cheerful- ness. The material and workmanship should be more c I may mention that when I wrote this, I had no prospect of becoming myself an inhabitant of Hampstead. 128 Country and Town. neat and highly finished than if the house had been quite in the country. I confess, too, a preference, in such houses, for a considerable proportion of light- coloured material. Eed brick looks well for a coun- try house, and for here and there one among these suburban villas, but it is too heavy and dark-coloured to be their general material. It looks well, however, when used to relieve light-coloured materials, pro- vided only it is done with judgment and good taste. I like, too, in houses in and near London, to see the red brick nicely worked. The old Hedgerly and Chal- font cutters, such as one sees used in old houses, are particularly suitable to the purpose ; and much may now be done to give a piquancy to the effect, by the use of encaustic or other glazed tiles ; but they should be used delicately, and in very small quantities, or they at once become vulgar. Altogether, I commend this class of building to the special study of architects, as one, more than almost any other, loudly calling for reformation. Of the suitableness of our style to essentially country buildings, such as farm-houses and labourers' cottages, it is almost needless to speak ; — it is doubt- ed, I should think, by none but builders and Scotch agents ; and the latter useful class have lately shewn signs of coming to a better feeling. As a general rule, I would found my treatment of these buildings, in great measure, upon the traditional style of building in the neighbourhood. These local characteristics are a most interesting subject of study, and have not, I think, been sufficiently attended to. They depend, of course, very much upon geological position, and, as a consequence, upon the materials at hand, though sub- ject to changes independent of such causes. A par- No. I. — Buildings in the Country, 129 ticular type seems to follow the oolitic range to a great distance. It is strongly marked in the Isle of Portland, where many beautiful cottages remain in the villages. It prevails through Somerset, Glou- cestershire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Eutland, and Lincolnshire, following the oolitic hills, and may exist in other parts of the chain. The buildings of this type are seldom earlier than the beginning of the seventeenth century, but are evidently derived from earlier sources ; they have very high gables with flat tabling, square chimneys, in some districts set dia- gonally, in others divided by narrow slits; the win- dows low, square-headed, and mullioned ; very good dormers; bay-windows pretty frequent, and in some districts crowned with gables, even when on a canted plan. Their late date is only betrayed by the profile of the mouldings. Here and there, however, a fragment of earlier date is found, sometimes of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, which shews that much the same general idea had long prevailed; and, on the other hand, the seventeenth century style is usually found to prevail, with very trifling modifications, down to the close of the eighteenth, and even into the present century, thus forming an unbroken chain, reaching from the best period of Pointed architecture almost to the present day. In these districts I should only make such modifications as are necessary to mark the style, which we adopt as our leading guide. The same style, with local variations, prevails in many other free-stone districts. In neighbourhoods where there is only rubble-stone, we find the walling of that material, but the windows of wood, the chimneys of brick, and the gable- roofs K 130 Country and Town. usually overhanging, instead of being finished with stone tabling. If timber be specially abundant, portions of the building, as the spaces within the gables, and sometimes the upper story, or some other part, are constructed of it. The same varieties are gone through with in brick districts. In some we have nothing but brick for walls, dressings, copings, mouldings, and even for the mullions of windows ; in others, brick walling and stone dressings; in others, again, brick with wood windows, or brick intermixed with timber. Flint, again, offers another local element for varied com- bination, being sometimes dressed with stone, some- times the flint and stone, or flint and brick, intermixed fortuitously, or in a regular order throughout. Timber construction, again, varies locally, both in the mode of framing, the manner and material of rilling it in or covering it, and in many other respects. Sussex, Cheshire, Herefordshire, Essex, &c, &c, have each their local type of timber-building. These may be divided into two leading classes : one, in which the timbers are shewn ; and the other, in which they are concealed. In the former, the intervals are filled in with brick, variously disposed, plaster, or boarding; in the latter they are covered with plaster, — plain, rough-cast, or stamped in patterns, — or with tiling, often of ornamental forms. The stamped plaster, or pargetting, is particularly prevalent in Essex and Hertfordshire. The brick chimneys of farm-houses and cottages are well worthy of study. Occasionally we find them octagonal, and highly decorated ; but this rather seems to belong to a superior class of structure : those, how- ever, which are formed of ordinary bricks display a No. — Buildings in the Country. 131 wonderful degree of instinctive perception of beauty and outline. However simple, they are almost always elegant and well-proportioned; while, when we try to imitate them, unless we give working drawings, on which the projection of every course is shewn and arranged with careful study, we are sure to fail in producing anything equal to the old ones. It is a pity that no work has ever been undertaken to illustrate these humbler remains of our traditional architecture. We have excellent works on our ca- thedrals and parish churches, on castles and mansions of the higher class, and generally on remains of a decidedly architectural character; but we have none upon these humble, but no less interesting, classes of buildings: yet I believe they would shew in a still more remarkable degree the wonderful instinct for beauty which prevailed so long as we retained our indigenous style of building. Nothing, indeed, can be more humbling than to examine into the multiplied proofs of the fact, that during the last five centuries, in which we consider ourselves to have been gradually progressirg in civilization, there has been an equally progressive deterioration in taste. Whether we exa- mine it by means of our cathedrals, our parish churches, the mansions of the nobility, or humble rural struc- tures, we find the same result, — that the earliest dis- play the greatest natural perception of beauty, which gradually diminishes till we reach our own age, when we find in the more ordinary structures that it has utterly vanished, and in others that it is a mere exotic. So true is this, that in the single item of chimney- stacks, the uninstructed bricklayer in a country vil- lage of the fifteenth or sixteenth century extemporized, probably without a drawing, and unconscious of effort, k 2 13.2 Country and Toivn. a composition more elegant and better proportioned than the best architect of the present day can invent by the most careful study of every part. The reason is obvious : — they were working at their own archi- tecture, which had grown up with them, which was formed upon the material they had at hand, and was suited to the climate and their natural wants : generation after generation had always done their best with it, and nothing really ugly existed. We, on the contrary, work at a style imported from distant lands, the original examples of which comparatively few, even of the educated classes, have ever seen; a style unsuited to our materials, climate, or habits, and the very meaning of which is unintelligible excepting as a matter of erudition. The workman has, conse- quently, long ceased to think about it, and has been a mere machine in the hands of the architect ; and even he does little more than produce permutations and combinations, more or less erudite, of the works of artists of other races, the study of which has been the chief part of his education. To get into a healthy state, we ought to work out the whole problem afresh ; but as this is impossible, let us at least take our hints from the examples of unsophisticated times in our oivn country, and those whose customs were allied to it ; let us not go to ancient Greece or Eome for examples, but to the remains of our own villages and farmsteads, where the hand of the destroyer has still left myriads of examples, — not for us to copy, but on which we can at least re-form our ideas. Few of these rural structures are so characteristic as the barns ; and here the succession is much more com- plete than is usual in houses : for though the barn of one country differs greatly from that of another, each No. I. — Buildings in the ountry. 183 seems to adhere to its own type from age to age, with no variation beyond the gradual deterioration in taste before mentioned. We have in England barns of every period during the last six hundred years, and with less essential changes of construction than per- haps in any other class of building. I only recollect two important varieties of type, — that with aisles and that without, — each subject, of course, to changes of material, particularly that from stone or brick to tim- ber. The celebrated Glastonbury barn is, I suppose, the finest specimen of the stone barn without aisles. It is of the fourteenth century, and is as fine a build- ing as many of the churches or clining-halls of the period. The great barn at Ely, now destroyed, was probably the finest specimen with aisles. It was of the thirteenth century, and on a grand scale. That at Peterborough is of the same age, and is still per- fect. There is a noble one at Harmonds worth, in Mid- dlesex, which shews the same type carried out entirely in timber. The very same construction is kept up to the present day in districts where timber is abundant, — differing only in the inferior manner in which every part is carried out. It retains the mere rudiments, but in the lowest state of degradation. The barn and the dining-hall in early times were often not much unlike. At Nurstead in Kent was, till lately, a hall of the fourteenth century very much like one of these noble barns, having aisles with timber pillars ; and the Bishop's palace at Hereford is found to have been formed out of a vast hall of Norman date, and of the same construction. This we take as a hint that there will be no inconsistency in our applying the construc- tion of these noble storehouses to other purposes to which we may find it suited. 131 Country and Town, The German barn differs from the English one in having the entrance at each end, instead of by large porches in the sides ; the aisles being occnpied by sta- bles, cow-houses, and even the farmer's residence; while the corn is stowed away in the capacious roof. In the construction of all these buildings at the pre- sent day, regard must, of course, be had to existing requirements, whether of the farmer himself, or arising from the improvements and alterations in agriculture, but we may take the old stye as a groundwork. It has not been my object to treat of the practical arrangement of houses : each man knows best what he needs, and may be trusted to see that his house is made convenient; or, if he is building houses to let, self-interest will lead him to make them such as will get tenants ; — but when we come to the cottages of the poor, the case is different. The poor man has nothing to do with the planning of his house, nor has he much choice as to what kind of house he will live in. It therefore devolves upon others to see that he is housed, to say the least, with due regard to decency and to the common comforts of life. Much attention has of late been paid to this, but it is a subject which cannot too often or too forcibly be pressed upon the attention of landlords. I shall have to return to it when speaking of town-buildings, but I cannot help here remarking, that the neglect of our labouring population, at a time when the luxuries of the upper classes are daily increasing, is one of the most serious subjects for reflection. It is a smoulder- ing volcano which may one day burst forth to the de- struction of all we value or hold dear. The right of the peasantry to inhabit a country stands before that of the landlord to possess it. The land may be tilled No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 135 without landlords, but not without a peasantry, and they were seated upon it ages before the earliest date to which his title can be traced back. It follows that he holds his land subject to the moral condition that his peasantry are allowed their fair share in the pro- duce. Every estate ought to provide well for the number of labourers necessary to its proper cultivation, including their families, with their aged, sick, and infirm. I am not speaking of that legalized swindling by which some landlords (happily but few) endeavour, by the destruction of cottages, to drive their labourers into adjoining parishes, that the sick and infirm may be supported by the rates on other estates ; I am sup- posing the landlord to be an upright man, but from education apt to view his responsibilities in a legal rather than a moral point of view, and to think that by letting his land he shifts his duties upon others, or that, as proprietor of the soil, his own moral rights are paramount, and that he has a right in the sight of God either to make it a wilderness for his own sport, — as is the fashion in one part of the island, — or to let the labourer take his chance and shift for himself as he can. His peasantry have a claim upon him (not on the ground of charity, but of moral right) that, before he spends the produce of the soil in luxury, he should see that those who are necessary to its production, the natural and immemorial inhabitants of the country, are well looked to, fairly paid, and suitably housed. It would be a great object so to design cottages that, in a country where wages are not ground down to the lowest fraction, the labourers would be able to pay a rent for them which would at least pay as good an interest upon the cost as if the money were in the 136 Country and Town. funds : it tends to make the labourer more independent, through feeling that he pays a fair rent; and it re- moves all excuse for bad cottages, by shewing that the building of good ones need not involve pecuniary sacrifice. It does not, however, follow from this that land- lords should view cottage-building as an investment, or limit its cost to the rule I have mentioned. That, of course, should be the minimum cost; but whether from a wish that the cottages on their estates should be ornamental features, or that their comforts should exceed the minimum scale, or because the rate of labour is not such as to permit of rents being pro- portioned to the outlay, it is open to landlords to make their cottages superior to what the above rule would permit ; and the only check I would suggest is, that it is better not to go so far in the opposite direction as to countenance the plea that the erection of good cot- tages is impossible except to the rich. The style and materials of cottages should depend on the neighbourhood. Where it possesses a good traditional type, it would be better to make that the groundwork, excepting in cases where essential changes have taken place, such as the clearing of a country once abundant in timber. In any case, however, some trifling variation may be needed to bring it back to our style, though in buildings of so humble a develop- ment the merest touch is all which is required, and even that is scarcely necessary. It is, in fact, seldom (except in a freestone country) that the exact style of a cottage is discernible. It is sufficient that it should follow the leading form of an old English building, be genuine and natural in its construction, and be free from the petty basenesses of the modern vernacular. iVb. /. — Buildings in the Country. 137 A cottage of rough stone, where freestone is scarce, requires neither quoins nor dressings ; its windows may be of wood, set in mere openings in the rough wall ; and these openings may be covered with rough low arches, or with lintels. The same may be said of brick cottages. Flint requires some dressings, and in the absence of stone, brick answers for them perfectly well. I remember noticing a new cottage the other day of flint, dressed and reticulated with brick, with wood frames and mullions, and the gables of timber, plastered and slightly relieved by a stamped pattern, which I thought looked exceedingly natural and well. The gables might, in such a case, very appropriately be tiled. The usual materials for cottages may be thus classed : — 1. Stone, more or less rough, with complete dress- ings of cut stone. 2. Brick with stone dressings. 3. Flint with stone dressings. 4. Bough stone without dressings, but with wood window -frames and mullions. 5. Brick without dressings. 6. Flint with brick dressings, and wood frames and mullions. 7. Timber framing, either filled in with brick or plaster, or covered over by plaster or tiles. 8. Brick or rubble, plastered either with rough-cast or otherwise. 9. The different descriptions of mud or cob building, or of clay lumps and unburnt bricks ; in either case finished externally with plaster. 10. Various combinations of the above. These, taken in connection with the diversities in the 138 Country and Town. materials applicable to each, offer an almost indefinite amonnt of variety. The materials for covering are, of course, thatch, stone-slate, tile, and common slate. Of these, slate is unquestionably the worst, being hot in summer and cold in winter ; which is a more serious evil in cottages than any other building, as all the bedrooms are usually in some degree in contact with the roofs. On the same ground, thatch is undoubtedly the best cover- ing, as none is so proof against changes of temperature ; but there seems now to be an objection felt to it on account of the increased demand for straw for manure. Stone-slate is somewhat heavy for the timbers ; so that, as a general rule, I suppose that tile may be considered as the covering likely to prevail. The warmest and most comfortable of all cottages, so long as they remain in good repair, are probably those built of mud or cob, and covered with thatch ; and they may be made to look exceedingly well : nor need the material be considered mean, for in many neighbourhoods it is formed of a natural stratum of disintegrated stone peculiarly suited to the purpose, and which sets into a very compact mass ; and the ex- ternal plastering may, if desired, be rendered decora- tive either by stamped patterns or by that kind of rude diaper of rough- cast and plain plaster which one often sees in old houses. The windows would be formed of wood, and are better if made to project be- yond the surface ; and the chimneys are either of brick or stone. I once built a very large parsonage-house, which cost two or three thousand pounds, of this material, covered with a thick thatch of reeds, expressly with a view to warmth. No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 139 Hollow walls are also very conducive to warmth; and when walls are built of flint or rubble, particularly if the stone is either very porous or of a hard, cold nature, like granite, it is very advantageous to line the walls with brick, leaving a small hollow space be- tween. Timber-building, in which the timber is exposed, is, I fear, getting out of elate, owing to the scarcity of oak, and other timber being hardly sufficiently durable. Where suitable timber, however, can be obtained, it is certainly one of the most pleasing kinds of cottage- building. The same objection does not hold good when the timbers are concealed by plaster ; and we have the evidence of the old houses in many districts, especially in the eastern counties, to shew that this is far from an unpleasing mode of building ; and even with houses of brick or rubble-stone, I confess I think it best, where the material is indifferent or pervious to wet, to coat it with rough-cast. In counties like De- vonshire and Cornwall, where a rubble-wall will not resist the driving rains, this is found almost necessary to comfort. There are so many treatises on the arrangement of cottages, that those who wish to get information on the subject need never be at a loss. Every cottage should contain a good-sized living-room, a pantry, a small shed, and three bedrooms. This is the mini- mum accommodation. A class above this may have a little parlour, and perhaps a back-kitchen. Country cottages may be either single or in pairs : in the lat- ter case, the entrances should be as distinct as possible. Each cottage should have a good garden d . In villages, d It is earnestly to be wished that every agricultural labourer had 140 Country and Town. and near towns, they may be in rows ; but it is far better to be only in pairs. They should vary in size and arrangement, to suit different families, and work- ing people of different grades. I do not like the plan of arranging them in such a way that one family occu- pies the lower and another the upper story. It is ne- cessary in large towns ; but in the country each man should feel that, however humble his dwelling, he at least has it all to himself. It appears a somewhat startling transition to pass suddenly from the cottages of the poor to the mansion of the nobleman or great landed proprietor, and this was not the order in which I had intended to have taken them ; yet it may not be an unwholesome thing thus to bring into immediate contact the rude and confined habitation of the labourer — and our plea that his sense of decency may not be outraged by making him and his family all sleep in one room — with the enormous requirements of his neighbour at the mansion, who has not, perhaps, a larger family than himself. I do not wish to place the two cases in invidious comparison. Providence has ordained the different orders and gradations into which the human family is divided, and it is right and necessary that it should be maintained; yet it is well, from time to time, to fall back upon first principles, as a check upon the a piece of land of his own for growing corn or other crops. Nothing tends more to raise his social position, whether physical or moral. Lord Bacon, both in his Essays and in his life of King Henry VII., mentions the enforcement of this as one of the wisest acts of that monarch. It is probable, as he speaks of it as a great cause of the superiority of the English soldiers, that it was only the revival of a custom which had become neglected during the wars of the Roses. It was, no doubt, one cause of the superior character of the cottages of the succeeding century. No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 141 extremes into which these differences are apt to run, and as a wholesome suggestion to the rich man, that his luxuries and his state cease to be morally right if he has not first provided for the just and reasonable requirements of his dependants ; and that they become actually immoral if their cost prevents his performing to the full the duties inherent upon his position. As Pugin says, " every person should be lodged as becomes his station and dignity;" and the first con- sideration in building a house is that its scale, both as to size and character, should be in just proportion to the means and position of its occupant. The position of a landed proprietor, be he squire or nobleman, is one of dignity. Wealth must always bring its responsibilities, but a landed proprietor is especially in a responsible position. He is the natural head of his parish or district, — in which he should be looked up to as the bond of union between the classes. To him the poor man should look up for protection; those in doubt or difficulty for advice ; the ill-disposed for reproof or punishment; the deserving, of all classes, for consideration and hospitality ; and all for a digni- fied, honourable, and Christian example. The maxim of his life should be, " A good man sheweth favour and lendeth ; he will guide his affairs with discretion. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor : his right- eousness endureth for ever ; his horn shall be exalted with honour." It is a great misfortune to our country that the landed gentry are in many districts so reduced in numbers. The prodigious accumulation of land in the hands of a few is, perhaps, as injurious as its ex- treme subdivision. I well recollect a district in which nearly all the 142 Country and Town. ancient estates had, by a series of fortuitous circum- stances, come into the hands of one noble family. Every village had some remains of its ancient manor- house ; — sometimes the house itself, now inhabited by a farmer ; in others, perhaps, only the entrance- gates, the dove-house, or the stables ; in others, only some mounds, plantations, or fish-ponds, to mark its site; while in each the parish church contained tombs of every date, commemorative of the old proprietors ; and perhaps some aged peasant would delight to tell you his reminiscences of good Judge this, or old Lancelot that, who, when he was a boy, retained the ancient patrimony. All, however, was now swept away; the villages had no secular head, and all in- fluence was concentrated in one dominant family, whose mighty palace lorded it over the whole neigh- bourhood. Misfortune came upon that family, and half a county was left without a head. I am, however, wandering from my subject : — what I aim at by my picture of what I imagine a landlord should be, is to suggest the kind of sentiment his residence should express. He has been blessed with wealth, and he need not shrink from using it in its proper degree. He has been placed by Providence in a position of authority and dignity, and no false modesty should deter him from expressing this, quietly and gravely, in the cha- racter of his house. His position demands of him a certain reasonable degree of hospitality, not confined to his rich neighbours, but extended to others, and especially to his tenants and poorer dependants ; his house should be so planned as to render this prac- ticable. His lot has, perhaps, been cast in one of Nature's choicest spots, and he should cultivate and No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 143 improve its natural beauties, both for his own enjoy- ment and that of his neighbours. All this, however, he should do in moderation, and in just proportion to his position and means; neither letting modesty in- duce him to lodge himself in a manner more suited to the order below him, nor ambition lead him to exceed what is proportioned to the means placed by Provi- dence in his hands ; and (as a general rule) as it will ever be the case that large numbers of the poor will be provided for far below their just requirements, he should keep his own enjoyments rather below than in excess of his means, so as always to leave a surplus in hand for the extra and unexpected demands of public or private charity, and for supplying the wants, whe- ther temporal or spiritual, of those whom Providence has placed in a less favoured position. It is not easy to define wherein the dignity of an architectural work consists, much less to give rules for its attainment. ]STo doubt there are external and ma- terial conditions conducive to the noble effect of build- ing. We fancy we can see in the majestic towers and frowning gateways of the Edwardian castle the ele- ments of its stately grandeur ; and may feel that, de- prived of these lordly features, we might seek in vain to give dignity to our modern houses, whose condi- tions are so essentially utilitarian and domestic. I do not, however, think that we need despair. True dig- nity does not necessarily lie in those external condi- tions which are, in fact, but the means — and truly very fitting ones — of its expression. It lies rather in the mind of the designer. Dignified architecture can- not be produced by a low and narrow mind. The sen- timent and tone of thought of the designer will always influence the design, and the first step, I am con- 144 Country and Town. vinced, towards producing noble architecture, is to cul- tivate a corresponding tone of thought and feeling. In better days, the objects by which an architect was every day surrounded were generally calculated to elevate the sentiments ; but, unhappily, in these days the very contrary is the case ; while the hurry and turmoil of business is ill calculated to promote that tone of mind which conduces to noble design. Per- haps the best preparation for it is visiting fine works of former ages, and retirement among the beauties of Nature. The happiest architect is he who can best realize and longest sustain this favourable tone of thought, and who possesses inventive power and ar- tistic skill to bring it to practical results. I do not mean by this that, with a man of skill and high feeling, good architecture will come spontane- ously, and with little effort ; — no such thing. There may be happy moments when such may seem to be the case, but as a general rule, anything worth pro- ducing is the result of laborious and long- sustained effort. Sometimes such results are only attained by an exhaustive process ; every imaginable idea having been, as it would seem, tried, and the mind wearied out with ill success, when at last the right idea occurs of itself, without further effort. This is certainly not the happiest state of mind for designing, yet that it is not wholly unfavourable is proved by the rejection of the less worthy thoughts. In seeking, then, to give dignity to a house propor- tioned to the position of its owner, it is more neces- sary to aim at a dignified tone of feeling while design- ing it, than at features which we imagine calculated to produce the effect desired, but which may or may not be really suited to the building. The sentiment, No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 145 it is true, must be expressed through material forms ; but if it be present in the mind of the designer, he will not long want the means of giving it visible existence. The material requisites for a dignified building may, perhaps, be thus enumerated : — 1. A good and commanding position. The merits of a building may override deficiencies in this respect, but cannot wholly annihilate them. 2. Suitable material and first-rate execution, which do much to give dignity to a good building, though (as in the last case) defects in these qualities may also be overridden by the merits of the design. 3. Actual dimension, and especially height. 4. A full development and bold, generous treatment both of the whole design and of its parts, according to the requirements; scrupulously avoiding features clearly not needed, and which are obviously intro- duced for effect alone, but boldly developing such as naturally arise either from the exigencies of the build- ing or from the site. 5. Making each part to express as distinctly as pos- sible its use and destination, not mixing up the whole into an homogeneous mass, nor so dressing out the humbler and inferior portions that they could be mis- taken for the more important ones, but letting each speak its rank and position in the arrangement of the whole. Beyond these, I do. not know that one can lay down any rule : all else must result from the tone of mind of the architect, and his power of communicating it to his design, united with a correct appreciation of the ex- pression proper to the particular building he has in hand. L 116 Country and Town. The proper expressions for a country mansion of the higher class, — the residence of a landed proprietor, — beyond that degree of dignity suited to the condition of the owner, are, perhaps, first, a friendly, unforbid- ding air, giving the idea of a kind of patriarchal hos- pitality; a look that seems to invite approach rather than repel it. Secondly, an air which appears to con- nect it with the history of the country, and a style which belongs to it. Tliirdly, a character which har- monizes well with the surrounding scenery, and unites itself with it, as if not only were the best spot chosen for the house, and its natural beauties fostered and in- creased so as to render this the central focus, but fur- ther, that the house itself should seem to be the very thing which was necessary to give the last touch and finish to the scene, — the object for which Nature had prepared the site, and without which its charms would be incomplete. Now, do the majority of our country mansions an- swer to these conditions ? Do they thus unite in their expression dignity, hospitality, historical association, and harmony with the surrounding scenery ? I must confess of the greater part of them, that they appear to me to be the reverse of all this. They are either with- out dignity, or it is too conscious to be genuine. In attempting it, they often attain an artificial stateliness which is very different from true dignity and destroys all claim to the next qualification, — an air of patriar- chal hospitality. Their character is anything but his- torical, being a (probably very unsuccessful) impor- tation from Italy ; for the most part not such as their mother-country would be proud to own. And, finally, they are very far from harmonizing with, or enhancing, the beauty of the scenery in which they are placed. No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 147 It may truly be said that the great ornaments of English scenery are the charming parks with which it is interspersed, while the greatest drawback to the beauty of these parks is the uncongenial character of the mansions which they surround. Instead of being the central point and climax of the scene, one is apt to wish them out of the way, that its beauties may be the better appreciated. Their cold and proud Palla- dianism, so far from inviting, seems to forbid ap- proach ; one feels under a painful restraint so long as they are in view ; and the only rural thoughts they suggest are of game-keepers and park-rangers, whom one fancies ready at every turn to repel the timorous steps of the intruder. Now, do we feel the same at the sight of an old Elizabethan or Gothic house ? The very reverse is the case. They are always the great point of attraction in the view ; one delights to stop and dwell long upon them : they not only harmonize with, but are the crowning ornaments of, the scenery. One feels, when turning from them, as if leaving a friend, while their image long remains impressed upon the memory. Nor is this alone the result of association, for it is shared in a very considerable degree by modern houses in the same styles, and in a greater or less degree according to the merits of their design. Even the mere confec- tionary Gothic of five-and-twenty years back is not wholly devoid of it. Whatever their faults, the aspect of such structures is not forbidding, and to an un- sophisticated eye not tutored to distinguish between good and bad architecture, we usually find that they are pleasing, though to one who understands Gothic architecture, and knows what it is capable of, they are disgusting enough. l 2 148 Country and Town, I am quite sure that Gothic architecture has uot had a fair trial as applied to buildings of this class. The first attempts were in the form known as " ab- beys:" could anything be expected from an idea so absurd? The next form adopted was the " castle;" a type equally obsolete, yet even now not wholly set aside. The manifest absurdity of two such types led to the adoption of the Elizabethan mansion as a guide. This approved itself to common sense, and success has generally attended it. It produces neither castles nor abbeys, but houses ; and this is one point gained, to say the least. Its weak point is this, that it is adopt- ing a style artistically imperfect and impure. It is practically good, and retains many of the leading merits of the preceding styles, and it accidentally belongs to a period at which house -building received special and successful attention, which, from circum- stances equally accidental, had been less the case dur- ing the best period of Gothic architecture. I would, then, demand that all that is practically good and all which is noble in the Elizabethan mansion should be retained, but that its details should be set aside so far as they are defective, and their place supplied by those of an earlier and purer period, — other features of the nobler style being imported into it so far as they are applicable ; and that the whole should undergo such a process of careful and thoughtful remodelling at the hands of men really fitted for the task, as, without losing the historical element of the style, will render it thoroughly suited to the demands of our own day. If this be done in good earnest by men conversant with the subject, we have a truly glorious prospect before us, and I can see no end to the noble develop- ments it might give rise to : but as long as people will No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 149 go on putting such works into the hands of men who are utterly ignorant of Gothic architecture, and with- out a spark of enthusiasm for its re-development, they need not wonder if all their attempts turn out mise- rable failures. The remains which exist of the domestic archi- tecture of the middle ages are eminently beautiful, and full of truthful and dignified expression. It happens unfortunately, that, from the warlike state of society and the necessity for places of defence, the majority of the mansions of the highest class were castellated, and so unfitted for models ; but even these contain details of the highest value to those who would take in hand the task I have been proposing. Enough remains, however, of private houses to shew that the same noble taste which pervades the churches of those days was also brought to bear upon the secu- lar buildings, and that the period of the perfection of Gothic architecture, though not that of the fullest development of domestic architecture in its practical sense, furnished the choicest models, by the aid of which we can develope it for ourselves. Though in using these invaluable materials I would, as I have so often said, never revive anything un- suited to our own day, there are, nevertheless, fea- tures in ancient houses which have been permitted to fall into disuse, the revival of which is well worthy of consideration. One of these features is the Great Hall. In my opinion, the residence of a great landed proprietor should never be without this. Its disuse was accom- panied by the decay of that ancient hospitality which is impossible without it. I do not mean that our nobility and gentry of the present day arc otherwise 150 Country and Town. than hospitable, — the fact is the very reverse of this ; —nor would I presume to find fault with the select- ness of their society, — it is right that each class in society should be select ; — indeed, the higher classes when at their country residences are most kind and hospitable to those of other classes, as well as towards the clergy and professional men in their own neigh- bourhood. What I refer to is that broader hospitality which belongs especially to the great landlord, — the inviting of his tenantry and dependants to celebrate a family festival; that which belongs to the head of a district, — as the entertainment occasionally of the magistrates or other authorities of his neighbourhood ; that which belongs to a high-sheriff, — as the calling to- gether of the grand jury and the bar to meet the judges at the assize-time ; and generally that class of occasional hospitality which requires a more spacious room than an ordinary dining-room. I remember being once at the house of a nobleman on an occasion when, had he not possessed a great hall, it would have been next to impossible to have entertained the company invited, though the circumstances were such as rendered it quite necessary to invite them, and that without limi- tation of numbers. Such occasions are decidedly on the increase. Large assemblies are called together by meetings of scientific societies, agricultural meetings, consecrations and re-openings of churches, and many other causes which render this enlarged hospitality on the part of the great man of the neighbourhood both desirable and practically of frequent occurrence. In old times, the great hall was the usual dining- room of the family, and was also the entrance-hall of the house, being only parted from the vestibule by a screen. The entrance of the mansion of the present No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 151 day is, historically speaking, the representative of the hall of former times, though the dining-room is the successor to its principal uses. Still, however, the modern hall has not quite abdicated its ancient cha- racter : it is often the lounging place of the family, or the playing-room of the children ; it is still the place for hanging up old armour and ancient weapons, and is decorated still with antlers and other emblems of the chase. For a hall which is to unite with these the occa- sional reversion to its old use as the great scene of hospitality, it is necessary to modify in some degree its ancient position. It must not be absolutely or necessarily the entrance-hall. Even when a hall is used as a gentlemen's morning-room, it is very in- convenient that every caller should have to pass through it; but when it is to be used for public entertainments, this is absolutely inadmissible. If, then, the hall be placed, as I think is best, near the entrance, the vestibule, which in ancient houses is very small and narrow, should be extended to a larger size, and made to communicate with the rooms and staircases without the necessity of passing through the hall. It need not be severed from the hall other- wise than by a screen, as in old times, but it should be rendered practicable to reach the reception-rooms either through the hall or not so, as may be preferred. The hall will thus become a delightful sitting-room, particularly in summer ; and its privacy be sufficiently preserved, without losing its natural connection with the entrance to the mansion. In old houses which surround a court, the hall is most usually found on the inner side of the court. This does not, however, materially alter the case, as 152 Country and Town. the principal entrance is still usually in connection with it, and is reached by crossing the court. At Hengrave-hall, where it is so placed, it looks as if it must have been approached by the corridor which surrounds the court, but it has been so tampered with, that the old arrangement is not very obvious. It is not necessary that the dining-hall should be constructed with an open roof, nor that it should occupy the whole height of the house. It is better, perhaps, that it should be so constructed, but not essential. It may occupy the height of two out of three stories of the house ; and in some old houses it is only of the general height of the story, but in that case it loses much of its character. The hall should be treated internally somewhat differently from an ordinary apartment. The timbers in the roof or ceiling should be boldly shewn, and be of substantial dimensions. The windows and door- ways should be filled with stained -glass, and the whole should have more of a monumental character (to use a favourite modern term) than other parts of the house. It may or may not have the dais and bay- window of former times. It should be decorated with heraldic bearings, large family portraits, the insignia of the chase, &c, &c. It should, of course, be easily accessible from the kitchens ; and as the same is also necessary for the ordinary dining-room, the two should be placed in close connection. Another feature which I would occasionally revive is the gallery. In many old houses which retain it, it is found most useful. At Crewe-hall it is decidedly the most agreeable room in the whole of that delight- ful house. The chapel is, happily, a pretty constant part of a No, I. — Buildings in the Country, 153 nobleman's mansion, but not so frequent in bouses of a secondary character. I think it ought to be far more general. It need not, perhaps, go beyond the mere oratory, or a room set apart for family devotions, but I think every large house ought to have such a room. Its arrangement and design would vary accord- ing as to whether it is properly a chapel or a prayer- room. If the former, it should be arranged more per- fectly and ecclesiastically than in the latter case. The plan of having a gallery for the family, and placing domestics below, is not without ancient precedent, and though, perhaps, open to some objections, has the advantage of facilitating the attendance upon evening prayers, which is difficult for ladies if the chapel is too rigidly ecclesiastical in its arrangements. I need hardly say that the hall and chapel should be boldly shewn in the external design, — not by any special effort, but naturally, and as they happen to come. It is interesting to see in what a variety of forms the chapel shews itself in ancient castles and mansions, — its place chosen as convenience happened to dictate ; but whatever its position, its ecclesiastical character evidently appearing. In some cases it is a distinct building like a church, as at Porchester Castle; in others, like a miniature cathedral, as at Windsor or Mount St. Michael ; or in the ordinary form of a chapel, as the ancient royal palaces of Westminster and Paris, and innumerable other instances. In ordinary cases, however, it forms an integral part of the building itself ; and this will in the generality of modern mansions be the most con- venient usage. In old houses, the chapel is usually on the upper 154 Country and Town. story, simply because this contained the principal apartments ; and the same reason will perhaps usually place it, with us, on the ground-floor, though there is some advantage in its being above, as it is somewhat objectionable to place any other apartment over the chapel, — though in the case of a mere oratory this does not hold good. . The two great types for the plans of grand mansions are, perhaps, that which is and that which is not ar- ranged round an enclosed court or quadrangle. Each is open to an indefinite amount of variety, but the two special classes in each arise from the question of whether the plans be or be not symmetrical. The noblest plans, I am inclined to think, are those which do enclose courts, but which are not symmetrical ; or rather, I should say, which are arranged on a leading idea which is symmetrical, but which break out and deviate from this idea freely, as occasion may dictate. Whatever the plan, a noble treatment should per- vade the whole, whether in the distribution of the parts or in their architectural design. In the treat- ment of the interior, I would freely and fearlessly borrow hints from every quarter — from the Edwardian castle to the Elizabethan mansion ; from the Venetian palace to the most modern residence ; and yet I would not make the character really like any of them, but cement together the ideas suggested by all into a homogeneous whole by means of the newly-developed architecture I have been all along advocating, — an architecture founded on the finest period of our na- tional styles, but enriched by all that we can learn from other sources, and adapted, wherever neces- sary, to the usages, resources, and requirements of our own day. No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 155 I have already glanced cursorily at the modes in which the various parts of interiors may be treated consistently with our style, and shewn what an in- finity of splendid ornamentation is open to our choice, embracing at once all which we learn from antiquity, all which is practised at the present day, and all which we may be able to generate or develope from the inventions and mechanical facilities which sur- round us; rejecting only out of each class such as from change of circumstances are obsolete, and such as are in themselves base or untruthful. All these should unite in enhancing the beauty of our palatial architecture, — The chapel and corridors perhaps richly vaulted in stone ; — the hall nobly roofed with oak ; — the ceilings of the rooms either boldly shewing their timbers, partially or throughout, or richly panelled with wood; or, if plastered, treated genuinely and truthfully, without aping ideas borrowed from other materials ; — the floors of halls and passages paved with stone, tile, marble enriched with incised or tessellated work, or being a union of all; those of the leading apartments of polished oak and parqueterie (the ren- dering of mosaic into wood) ; — rich wainscoting used where suitable, and the woodwork throughout ho- nestly treated, and of character proportioned to its position, — not neglecting the use of inlaying in the richer woods ; — marble liberally used in suitable posi- tions, the , plainer kinds inlaid and studiously con- trasted with the richer; — the coloured decorations, whether of walls or ceilings, or in stained glass, deli- cately and artistically treated, and of the highest art we can obtain, and everywhere proportioned to their position; — historical and fresco-painting freely used, and in a style at once suited to the architecture, and 156 Country and Town. thoroughly free from what can be called medievalism, in the sense in which the term is misused to imply an antiquated, grotesque, or imperfect mode of drawing; ■ — all of these, and an infinity of other modes of orna- mentation are open to the architect in this class of building. I am not intending to advocate architectural lux- ury by presenting this rich bill of fare. It is only in works of the highest class that I would wish to see all these sources of beauty united. In general, even in the mansion of the nobleman, we may be content with the simpler of these, with here and there a touch of the choicer and costlier kinds of decoration, to give life and spirit to the whole ; — while in the houses of a less palatial character, I would always recommend a treatment proportioned to their class. In dealing with a person whose taste has too much of the cold, quaker- like tendency which has been so prevalent of late years, I would seek to lead him into an appreciation of the charms of a warmth and life according with the tone which Nature has thrown over all her works ; but to a man endowed with a full appreciation of all this, and with a taste which would lead him into all the luxuries of rich decoration, I would rather suggest a curb upon his imagination, unless his fortune and position are in proportion to it. — Our most refined as well as our grosser tastes demand a wholesome re- straint : — " Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite." Lord Bacon has given an ideal of a nobleman's mansion of his day, as he thought it should be. I do not suppose anyone ever dreamed of realizing it, inasmuch as the design of every building, and espe- cially of every house, must be the result of accidents JYo. I. — Buildings in the Country. 157 of site, approach, aspect, prospect, and of individual requirements peculiar to itself, and which, an abstract idea, or a design framed to suit other circumstances, could never meet : still, however, his suggestions may not have been without their use, and I will endeavour to sketch out an ideal of the same kind of what I fancy a nobleman's house might consist- ently be like in our own day. I would imagine it, then, to occupy a site of good elevation, approached nearly on a level, or at a gentle rise from the northern side, but sloping rapidly to the south ; the position being chosen at the brow, which should be screened by higher elevations towards the east and north, but open towards the south, south- east, and west, in which directions I will suppose the most desirable views to lie. In such a position, the approaches will be invisible from the principal rooms, which, with the gardens, terraces, &c, on which they open, as well as the best views and aspects, will be left undisturbed. The ground-floor level should be raised a few feet above that of the approaches, so that the southward slope may develope a good basement-story, level with the ground on the opposite side. I will first suppose my building to be distributed round the four sides of a large quadrangle, which would be entered through a gateway-tower in the north front. On the opposite side of the quadrangle would be the principal entrance to the building itself, which would be by some description of porch or portico, under which carriages might pass. This would lead into a vestibule of some thirty feet square, — to the right of which would be the principal staircase, and to the left the great hall, the latter reaching from the ground- floor to the roof, and separated from the vestibule by 158 Country and Town. a screen of wood or marble. Beyond these, running east and west, would be a grand corridor, commu- nicating with the principal suite of rooms, which would face southward, and return again along the western side of the quadrangle, — the corridor being, perhaps, there next to the court, and the suite of rooms follow- ing it towards the gardens, and facing west. The south range of rooms would terminate eastward with the ordinary dining-room, which would face eastward ; the serving-rooms both to this and to the great hall having private approaches from the offices. The east- ern side would have a corridor as the west, but the rooms would be for more ordinary purposes, and the domestic offices would surround a minor court on the same side. The southern front, and perhaps the west- ern also, should open upon a noble terrace, the width and distribution of which must vary with the nature of the site. It may be a single terrace of moderate width, overlooking the flower-gardens ; or it may be so expanded as to be a flower-garden itself; or, if the ground permit, both may be united, — an upper terrace laid out as a parterre, overlooking a more extended one arranged as a formal flower-garden, and that in its turn commanding views of the less regularly planted pleasure-gardens below ; but the bearings of the ground will suggest endless varieties in the distribution of these charming accessories, — the one condition com- mon to all being, that there be always an abundance of flowers within close view of the windows of all the most frequented rooms. They are the most refreshing, and perhaps the least liable to abuse, of all the luxuries which nature has so profusely provided for our enjoyment. Conservatories, too, should be made readily approachable from the house, and possibly, in iVb. /. — Buildings in the Country. 159 some instances, from the apartments. I would ima- gine some of them to extend eastward, flanking the southern wall of the domestic offices, and facing a wide extension of the terrace; and others placed in con- nection with the garden, lying westward of the house ; and in some instances they might, perhaps, be placed in an upper story, approachable from a lady's boudoir. The position of the chapel would vary very much with local circumstances. It might, for instance, be in a line with the hall, but beyond the eastern cor- ridor, its east end opening upon the terrace; or it might face the quadrangle, projecting from its west- ern side; or, again, it might form the eastern ex- tremity of the north front ; or it might be placed in some part of the upper floor, — in which case it should have a staircase of its own. In any case, it should be clearly marked, and made boldly to break in upon the uniformity of the design. The business-room of the nobleman, with its wait- ing rooms, and secretary's room, and probably with a private library, and extensive strong rooms, should be placed on the east side, for the sake of being readily accessible from the offices, the steward's room, &c. ; and perhaps on the west side might be placed those smaller and more private sitting-rooms which are so necessary to the comfort of the family ; and some of these might extend into the north front, for the sake of coolness in summer. I would have entrances of a minor kind both on the east and west sides of the quadrangle, and per- haps staircase-towers in some of its angles. There might be a certain proportion of bed-rooms on the ground-floor, should space permit, — possibly on the northern side of the court. There would gene- 160 Country and Town. rally be two stories of bedrooms above, but this would vary in different portions, with the design of the house. A certain proportion of the rooms on the first floor, (and possibly on the ground-floor also,) should be arranged in groups, so that visitors of one family might be lodged together; each of such groups having a boudoir attached to it, and, of course, having its own arrangements complete in other ways. The apart- ments occupied by the lord and lady of the house should receive special attention, and should be replete with everything conducive to comfort and convenience. There are two important apartments which I have not yet noticed ; I mean the library and the gallery. The former should assume a very marked and con- spicuous form ; it would, probably, form a part of the southern range of rooms, but it should be very dif- ferent in character from the generality of them, occu- pying the height of two stories, and clearly distin- guishable in its external elevation from the ordinary reception-rooms. In its internal character it should be graver and more severe, and its decorations would all bear reference to its uses. The gallery should probably be on the first-floor, and on the northern side; occupying, perhaps, the whole length of that facade. It would form a delightful morning-room in summer, besides being most useful as a picture-gal- lery. Others of the rooms might be fitted up to re- ceive objects of antiquity, art, or natural science, as might chance to be desired. There should be a considerable number of minor staircases between the floors of bedrooms, and arrange- ments made by which ladies may have their maids within a convenient distance. The servants, generally, would be lodged round their own court. I would try No. I. — Buildings in the Country. 161 to make their apartments as pleasant as. possible, and to let them have a private garden of their own adjoin- ing their portion of the honse e . Endless varieties of the arrangements will, however, be suggested by circumstances : some round a court, as the above, and others forming several smaller courts ; some rouud three sides of one, — others without such a feature at all ; and others, again, perfectly irregular in outline. In external character, a noble simplicity is greatly to be preferred to extreme elaboration. I have never, in the domestic architecture of the best periods of mediaeval art, — the latter half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth centuries, — seen what would be called rich external decoration, otherwise than sparingly used for a few special parts. A tissue of costly ornament over the entire building I have never seen ; and I am certain that it is destructive to true dignity. The great object is that every part or feature necessary for use should be boldly and carefully designed, so that everything the eye may single out should be found to be both in itself fine, and also well harmonized with one another, and with the whole. Our Edwardian castles are noble examples of this : every part masculine and grandly simple ; no fear of having too much plain face, and uniformity neither sought nor dreaded ; everything, in short, nobly, straightforwardly, and naturally treated. We may, e It would be endless to attempt an ideal description of this por- tion of the house. The requisites to the perfect arrangement of the domestic offices and servants' apartments seem every day becoming more extensive, and there can be no doubt that on these points being carefully studied much of the convenience and g .od management of a great establishment depends. M 162 Country and Town. however, reasonably use a greater degree of richness in our more peaceful mansions. The windows will be larger and more numerous, and may be more orna- mentally treated ; while the height of the stories will give them great scope and boldness, and the whole may be more highly finished: but I would strive earnestly to obtain this without the sacrifice of that grandeur of sentiment which is so infinitely more valuable than any delicacy of ornament. The roofs being generally gabled, though occasion- ally hipped, and the parapets unembattled, will give a mansion of this kind a look very different from a castle ; but the demands of convenience will often produce those irregular projections and breaks, and differences in height, which add so much to the beauty of those noble buildings. These should, however, be used in moderation, or they will destroy simplicity. There can be no doubt that hewn stone is the most dignified material for such a building, but I would strongly urge the use of a moderate degree of variety of colour, — such as shafts of marble, or polished granite, inlaid parapets, spandrels and bands, &c, &c. ; but if carried too far, it becomes frivolous and distracting. The use of towers must be limited by their utility ; — one or two such breaks in the height are valuable, but I would only use them where useful. It is, however, perfectly consistent to obtain variety of height by using extra stories in certain parts, as utility may permit. CHAPTEE VII. COUNTRY AND TOWN. NO. II.— BUILDINGS IN TOWNS. rpHEEE is certainly a great difference as regards ex- ~L ternal conditions between buildings in the country and in towns : tlie one all freedom, the other rigidly limited to certain lines and enclosing planes ; the one luxuriating in the beautiful accompaniments of nature, the other having nothing with which to harmonize but the neighbouring buildings. This must unquestionably produce a wide distinc- tion in point of character and treatment, but it is simply absurd to argue that the change of conditions demands a change of style. The style of every period has pervaded all classes of buildings, shaping itself to meet their varied conditions. The theory that one style should be used for the country and another for towns, one for a church and another for a house, is one of the absurdities peculiar to the present day. Two concurrent styles may be running the gauntlet one against the other, — this involves no kind of ab- surdity; but their respective advocates should, to be consistent, each hold their style to be the best for all purposes. The absurdity of the thing arises from that sickly liberalism which admits a style to be the best for one class of building, but thinks a different one m 2 16A Country and Town. should be used for another ; as if a form of architec- ture is good for anything, and proper to be used at all, unless it has the flexibility and expansiveness which would fit it to one great object as well as to another. The practical argument, however, brought against using our old English styles in towns, while tolerating them in the country, is this : — that clas- sic architecture has the claim of actual possession as regards the towns, while the country is free ; and consequently, that though in the country we may reasonably make use of that architecture which is ad- mitted best to harmonize with the creations of nature, we must, on the same principle, use in towns such a style as will accord with the character which already prevails there. As this professes to be a strictly practical argument, I will give it an equally practical answer. Simply look at one of our towns : — look at it from without and from within, — at its most pretentious and at its hum- blest buildings ; and when you have seen enough of it, quietly ask yourself how much respect is due to the architecture in possession. I am not speaking of the praiseworthy attempts which are now being made to improve it, but of the mass of our town architecture as it actually exists ; and I doubt whether any period of the world's history has produced anything more utterly despicable than it is. What ! are we to respect — I will not say the archi- tecture, for it is an insult to our noble art to use such a misnomer — but that absence of all architectural thought or feeling which has degraded our ancient cities, which has disfigured our country towns and villages, and rendered the greatest city in the world a huge wilderness of ugliness ? Is the architecture of iVo. II. — Buildings in Towns. 165 the future to be shaped to harmonize with this ? The house-building of our day is a perfect plague-spot on the fair face of our country. Wherever a new town grows up, whether through manufactures, through the establishment of a watering-place, or from whatever cause, it seems to bring a blight upon all instinctive taste and good feeling ; wherever an existing town extends itself, it spreads hideousness over all within its reach. The prevailing style, if it can be called so, has dried up all sense of beauty both among our builders and among the population at large ; so that not only the humbler portion of the commercial orders, and those below them, seem utterly incapable of per- ceiving the difference between ugliness and beauty, but even among the educated classes anything like a true perception of it is quite an exception, and taste in building (whatever the style) is admitted as a tolerated weakness, rather than shewed as a matter in which we are all equally interested, and which is calculated to give to all daily and hourly gratification. Now what imaginable claim can this wretched in- cubus have upon our respect or consideration? All the claim it has is to be kicked out as quickly and as effectually as possible. It does not necessarily follow that the style I advocate is the one to take its place, but this much I do think, — every man of taste and feeling must admit that the vernacular mode of house- building must be swept away with the besom of de- struction, as a public nuisance and a national disgrace. I think this pretty effectually disposes of the argu- ment I am dealing with. It may be that in some cases it may be desirable to make the change, whatever it may be, not too harsh- ly, so as to avoid too clashing a contrast during the 166 Country and Town. period of transition. I shall have to consider this in speaking of buildings erected in proximity to existing structures of a decidedly architectural character, such as our club-houses and public buildings ; but the argu- ment that we are generally to have respect, in our future architecture, to that manner of building which has spread its dull and heartless ugliness over the length and breadth of our land, is unworthy of a moment's consideration: I will therefore proceed to the question of how far the style I have been advo- cating for country residences is capable of adapting itself to the conditions prescribed by town architecture. The mere question of whether it possesses such capa- bility may be at once disposed of by reference to the remains of mediaeval architecture in all the ancient cities of Europe. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that, from the twelfth century onwards, the archi- tecture of the period was just as well represented in the streets of the cities as in the baronial castle or the manor-house. It pervaded everything, adapting itself naturally, and without effort, to every position, material, and requirement ; was equally at home in the palace and the cottage, — the church and the town-hall, the monastery and the hospital, the barn and the warehouse ; was equally well adapted to the gabled street-fronts of a German city, or the square and cor- niced facades of an Italian palace ; and employed with equal success, whatever material came to hand, whether the timber of Coventry or Brunswick, the brick of Lubeck, Bruges or Verona, the plaster of Essex, the rubble, flint or freestone of different English districts, or the splendid marbles of Florence. " Yes," it may perhaps be answered, "we admit that your style did all this, and did it successfully, so far as No. II. — Buildings in Totem. 167 concerns the demands of its own period, but our day requires something different," Of course it does so ; but is it likely that a form of architecture which has never failed in adapting itself perfectly to every exi- gency by which it has been tried, will be found to have lost its virtue, and to fail in meeting the altered re- quirements of the present day ? Let us, to say the least, give it a fair trial. At the same time, I sincerely trust that the work will not be taken in hand by the men who have made so contemptible a hash of their own style of building, but by a new race of architects, — men who have studied and who understand the prin- ciples of the style on which they desire to ground their developments ; men who have hearts to feel and eyes to perceive the difference between ugliness and beauty, and who have that instinctive perception of common sense and propriety, as well as that freshness of inven- tion, which will enable them to seize upon the true sentiment of the architecture which they select as their groundwork, and to adapt it naturally and fear- lessly to the wants of their own days. The primary condition of street architecture is that each house can, as a general rule, present only one front to the view, and that this front is usually a single plane, and part of the same plane with that of an indefinite number of other fronts. Legislative regu- lations have, ' from time to time, rendered this condition more and more absolute by either forbidding, or re- ducing within the very narrowest limits, projections or breaks in our street architecture, so that we have now submitted to us the problem of how to produce a pleas- ing effect by dealing with an almost continuous plane. In the middle ages this condition was far less abso- lute. In timber houses, the overhanging stories offered 168 Country and Town. an agreeable and picturesque mode of varying the forms of the street-front, and, whatever the material, projecting oriels, &c, were always allowable, while actual deviations from the line of the street were oc- casionally admitted. These offered almost indefinite elements for picturesque effect. In laying out new squares and streets of dwelling-houses where ground is reasonably abundant, it is usual to set back the houses a few feet from the pavement, — which not only greatly adds to the comfort of the house, but gives scope for oriels, porches, or other projections which are forbidden when the house comes up to the street- line. The condition of perfect flatness is therefore limited to those streets which are principally devoted to shops. It is to be regretted that it should be im- perative even in this case ; for the projecting win- dows which in old houses we often find over shops, are a great relief to the street, and improve the houses without doing any conceivable harm. The question before us, however, is how the con- dition can best be met where it does exist, and whether our old styles are as capable of meeting it as any other. The great means of relieving the monotony caused by this prescribed flatness is by availing ourselves freely of the freedom which in one direction is left us, — I mean, of course, in the height. The flatness which is utterly intolerable in Baker-street or Gower-street, where united with uniformity in height, is compara- tively harmless when the houses vary considerably in this respect, even when their terminating lines are horizontal, and is still less felt when that difference of height is united with terminal outlines in themselves beautiful or picturesque. Thus we feel little offended by the flat facades of No. II. — Buildings in Towns. 169 the Venetian houses, because, independently of their individual beauty, their diversities in height produce a varied sky-line; while in a Flemish or a German city, though the fronts are often unbroken by any considerable projection, the outline above being not only varied, but shaped into systematic and beautiful forms, no sense of monotony remains. There are, however, some difficulties about gabled street-fronts. Our building- acts require that the party- wall between two houses should rise well above the roofs, so that in the case of either being on fire there shall be a defence against its being communicated to the roof of the other ; besides which, the chimney-stacks are of necessity on the party-walls, and it is also necessary that they should rise, so far as possible, from the highest part of the roof ; whereas, if the houses were simply gabled towards the street, they must rise out of the intervening gutters. These difficulties have led to the custom, vernacular in and about London, of making the roofs of houses the reverse of being gabled, being made like a V, instead of an A, or more properly, perhaps, having two half-gables instead of one whole one; — a most ludicrous-looking arrangement where not concealed, as it usually is ; for though in a long row of houses it gives a number of complete gables, the row always terminates in half-gables. There can be no doubt that it is usually best to roof street-houses with a longitudinal ridge parallel to the street, and if we wish the front to be gabled, to effect it by cross roofs intersecting with the main roof, — an arrangement having the additional advantage of giving the greatest amount of room for attics. We are, how- ever, by no means compelled by our style to make use of gabled fronts ; it allows us the most perfect liberty. 170 Country and Town. As before mentioned, the Gothic street-fronts in Italy look well with horizontal cornices ; and in the earlier street- architecture in France gables seldom appear. We are, in fact, at liberty to use gabled or corniced fronts, as we please, or may use dormer-windows behind, or in conjunction with the parapet, or, in fact, any other rea- sonable variety of front we please, as well as having free choice of high or low roofs ; and, though a later invention, the mansard roof is perfectly applicable to our style. A bold block cornice, with or without corbel-table, and carrying a parapet pierced or other- wise, will always be an effective element in street- architecture ; and if backed by a high-pitched roof, so much the better. The magnificent dormer-windows so frequent in French architecture form a noble fea- ture in street-architecture, and are readily translate- able into an earlier style than that in which they most prevail. The balcony was comparatively little used in the Gothic architecture of northern Europe, though most extensively in that of the south ; but has become so usual among ourselves, that it is absolutely necessary that it should be systematically used in any attempts we make to generate a style for ourselves. Happily, our building-acts do not forbid their use, and they are almost the only projection of any importance allowed us in our ordinary street-fronts, (excepting, indeed, that the enormous cornice, which, as it endangers human life, is freely permitted) ; it is therefore good policy to use them liberally, and if they will allow us to canopy on windows, we should give another element of pic- turesque effect as well as of utility, provided that we limit them to their proper place — the sunny side of the street. No, II. — Buildings in To tens. 171 One very valuable element in street-architecture is the individualizing of the houses, giving, so far as pos- sible, to each its own front clearly marked out from those of its neighbours, rather than grouping them into masses. I do not insist strongly on this, as there are difficulties about it, but I wish to call attention to the fact, that where every house has its own individual design, the prevailing character of the architecture is of necessity vertical, while if the houses be uniform, or grouped into large masses, it is almost as sure to be horizontal: and I need hardly say that the differ- ence in the effect produced is prodigious. The fact that in most of our streets, as Cheapside, the Strand, Oxford-street, &c, each man has built his house as he liked, and that the whole is consequently cut up into vertical strips, is the one thing which re- deems them from that abject insipidity which we see paramount in Gower or Harley-street ; but if every one of these vertical divisions had a beautiful design of its own, differing in height, in outline, and in treat- ment, and terminating in a good sky-line, our streets would at once become as picturesque and pleasing as those of the great mediaeval cities. The most marvellous thing is that persons imagine the very contrary to be the case, and that by pulling down portions of our streets, and rebuilding them in uniform masses, they are reforming their defects, in- stead of depriving them of the only good quality they possess ! Thus they think the Eue de Eivoli the finest street in the world, instead of being in many respects one of the dullest. That street, which is in every one's mouth as the beau-ideal of beauty, consists of a house with two plain arches on the lower story, and two quaker-like windows on each of the others, — not a bit 172 Country and Town. better than any architect's pupil could draw after being six months in an office, — repeated some five hundred times in a row a . Its monotony is only relieved by sundry bold breaks formed by cross streets opening into it: but the reason why people believe in it is that, having only one side, and every one walking on that side, you really do not see it, but see only the gardens and the palace on the other side of the way ; added to which, it must be admitted that a long covered arcade is always agreeable when you are under it, both in its lengthened perspective, and as de- fending you from sun and rain. It is a great pity that in the continuation of this street, while its intole- rable monotony has happily been broken, its one re- deeming feature, the arcade, has been discontinued. If we want to study street-architecture at Paris, this is certainly not the one to go to ; but a vast deal may be learned from many of the older streets, which are but little thought of by our countrymen, but which contain many of the elements on which its beauty de- pends ; though it must be admitted that in many cases the busy look of a range of Parisian street-fronts re- sults from a cause no less ignominious than the uni- versal use of outside Venetian shutters, which, flapping back against the walls, hide their native flatness, which would otherwise be little less than in a Lon- don street. When a street is newly erected, and not by distinct individuals, it would be unreasonable to follow out to its fullest extent the principle of individualizing the houses. A certain degree of uniformity will, in such a This is the more remarkable, as the French have a proverb to the effect that ennui is the offspring of uniformity. No. II. — Buildings in Towns. 173 a case, be not only inevitable, but reasonable, as it would be absurd for one man to build houses all dif- fering from one another, as if in imaginary imitation of the varied tastes and fancies of a number of different persons. In such cases the houses must be grouped into masses. In these masses, however, individuality need not be wholly lost sight of ; indeed, it is better to take some means of marking out the houses, even if they are alike. The London regulation of raising the party-wall above the roof helps to do this, and, if well managed, may have a good effect ; but it is desirable to have some vertical line of demarcation between the houses, which will break the horizontality incident upon a long succession of similar fronts. I would in no case, however, make too many houses together alike, — it is in every way undesirable. Tenants have different wants and fancies, and a prudent builder will try to anticipate them by making his houses of differing calibre, arrangement, and elevation. No one likes his house to be an undefined slice of an unlimited and uniform range ; he likes to see his house, and for it to be plainly distinguished by others : so that if we must make several together alike, they should not only be divided, but be so few in group that you may mark out your own as the middle house of three, the second of four, and so on ; which you cannot do if there are many alike in one row. In Eegent-street this has been managed with some skill by making groups, not alike, but differing on some symmetrical principle ; and I must say that the outline has been rather successfully broken. This seems, however, somewhat too studied and set to agree with the genius of Gothic architecture. I think a more accidental arrangement is better — a few houses 174 Country and Town. of one scale and a few of another, some higher than others — a group of gabled fronts, and another with parapets and dormers, or parapets alone, with some little touch of system, though chiefly arranged with a view to varied wants. I admit that some grandeur of effect is occasionally gained by a vast continuity ; but it is a dull and monotonous grandeur, and most untempting to the inhabitants, who can only know their own houses by the number on the door. There is nothing in connection with street architec- ture which so loudly demands reformation as the treat- ment of shop-fronts. We have been called a nation of shop-keepers, yet there are few things in which we fail more signally than in our shops. If our streets possessed a particle of beauty, the shops would destroy it, for where would be the consistency of bold and effective street-architecture, if the whole is to be sup- ported upon a wall of glass ? The very idea of its being necessary to the satisfaction of the eye to see how a building is supported is utterly ignored, and fronts of towering altitude are erected with no apparent sub- structure but plate-glass ! Surely no age but our own would have endured such barbaric building ! Now there is not the least occasion for this. I know by my own experience, and to my own cost, that shops in many foreign cities where this is not the case are far more attractive than those in London ; and that even when the window is comparatively small, and separat- ed from the door or from other windows by consider- able piers of brick or stone, there is still room enough left for a display of goods infinitely more tasteful and more tempting to the passers-by than that in London shops. It is not, however, necessary to have large piers ; — why not carry the front upon pillars of hard No. II. — Buildings in Towns 175 stone, or of polished marble or granite ? The openings might be covered either by arches or beams ; either are open to an absolute infinity of modes of decoration. There is also another form of shop-front which is legi- timate ; I mean that which projects from the wall in the form of a bay-window. In some lines of street this form is general. If the fronts are narrow, I sup- pose we must here submit to leaving the mode of sup- port between the door and one side of the party-wall or the other invisible ; but the piers bounding the shop should be made bold and massive, and that to the door should have evident strength. When, how- ever, the front is wide, so as to have a door in the middle, two good intermediate supports may be shewn. The actual supporters of the walls above shops are generally thin cast-iron pillars, which are placed within the glass, and thus become invisible as parts of the design. I do not quarrel with metallic pillars, nor object to their being thin, provided only that they are seen. Now, why not shew your iron columns boldly, if you must have them, and make them worth looking at ? I recollect in the Museum at Berlin thin columns with highly decorative bracketing, &c, all of brass, and of exquisite workmanship, carrying the beams of floors. This is just the thing for a shop- front, and might, whether in Gothic or any other ar- chitecture, be made to form a most beautiful and novel mode of decorative construction, and would give both the reality and appearance of strength without obstruction to view. Of all styles, however, ours is best suited to effect these objects, and that in a vast variety of dif- ferent modes, so as to enable us to make our shop- fronts a genuine portion of our architecture, instead of the destroyer of all architectural beauty and consis- 176 Country and Town. tency. In the decoration of our shop-fronts there is great scope for playful imagination in illustrating, by emblems and other devices, the trade carried on. This is, however, open to the objection of being ephemeral, as the shop is liable at any time to change hands ; so that in the majority of instances it may be better to confine this to the coloured decorations. I know few questions so difficult, or so well worthy of careful consideration, as the materials for street- architecture. The ordinary brownish yellow brick of London is not very pleasing in its best state, but after a few years' absorption of smoky rain-water it settles down into the dullest dirt-colour. Suffolk white brick is still more absorbent, and acquires a colour not unlike the sails of a steam-boat, or the jacket of a stoker. Eed brick is liable to the same infection, but holds out against it far better. At last, however, it gives way, its downward course being in the order of ver- milion passing into Indian red, and that by several gradations into chocolate colour, and finally vanishing into lamp-black, by which time it becomes necessary to rub it down and grant it a new lease in the shape of a wash of vermilion colour. I believe the bricks which have kept their colour best are the old red cut- ters from Chalfont and Hedgerley. They have the advantage, too, of being capable of restoration by means of sand and water, without having resort to artificial colouring. The most successful brick fronts in London are of yellow cutters dressed with red cut- ters, but they are very costly. Stone, again, is liable to objection. Caen stone decays ; Bath stone gets grubby-looking; Portland is too costly. Eed brick rubbed to a smooth surface, and dressed with Portland JYo. II — Buildings in Towns. 177 stone, is perhaps the best thing yet arrived at, espe- cially if united, as before mentioned, with yellow brick also rubbed. The smooth face is less attractive to the smoky water, and may most readily be cleaned, if soiled. These difficulties, with the horrid gloom of a soot- coloured street, have led to the modern rage for ce- mented fronts, — a system (as now followed) destruc- tive to every correct feeling, and to all dignity and truthfulness. The cement generally in use is in itself the most hideous of all materials, being, in fact, the colour of wet brown paper; but it is washed over with a lively stone-colour, and the operation repeated as often as required ; or the whole is coated with com- mon oil-paint. Other cements are used which do not require this treatment at first, but come to the same thing in a few years. 'Not to mention the meanness of the whole system, — being a complete travestie of materials and construc- tion which do not exist, — it is unpleasing when fresh from the stonewasher's brush, and hideous when the weather exposes the raw material ; so that we have gained little by its use except a dull, drab-coloured look in our streets, possibly one shade less depressing than the smoke-colour of Go wer- street, but infinitely less satisfactory to our common sense, and to our per- ceptions of right and wrong. It appears from this that we want a new material for our ordinary street-architecture. This want was well pointed out in an article in the " Times" in 1850, enumerating the advantages which might be hoped from the Great Exhibition : — " We want walls combining warmth, cheapness, durabil- ity, and strength ; faced with a material that shall imbibe N 178 Country and Toicn. neither the damp nor the smoke, and which an occasional ablution will make as good as new. We want a substitute for the everlasting paint-pot, for scaffolds and stench. Can- not this be effected by the use of brick, hollowed, hardened, glazed, coloured, and moulded, as the case may require ?" What we wanted six years ago we still want ; one step only has been made towards its attainment : I refer to Bidgeway's glazed bricks, which I have before spoken of. These are of a yellowish colour, and the glaze is far too apparent ; they are also very costly : still they approach what we want, which is a brick of any colour or colours we may choose, with a surface just so smooth as to resist the lodgment of smoke without losing texture, and just so far vitrified as to prevent absorption without having a visible gloss. This mate- rial should be capable of being moulded to any reason- able form. It may be defined as a non-absorbent terra- cotta without visible glaze united with a brick having similar qualities, and embracing such natural colours as are usual in brickwork. Added to these colours, however, it should be susceptible of a richer inlaying of enamel, by which the ornamental parts could be brightened up, and their effect heightened. The terra-cotta would thus at once be absolved from the stigma of being an artificial stone, and would receive a character of its own, and that unattainable by any other material. In a building of such a material, fur- ther variety could be attained by inlaying the non- constructive parts with encaustic tiles, which are, in fact, of a precisely similar material to that I am imagining. In using such a material, I need hardly say that the design must be made to suit it, not the material adapted to a stone design. The cornices must be constructed in courses, with which the mouldings No. II. — Buildings in Towns. 179 must range ; the projection must not be greater than the material will bear without having resort to un- natural contrivances; such features as brackets, cor- bels, &c, must not be used, unless really capable of doing their work, instead of being stuck up against the wall and pretending to do it. Nothing could be more pleasing, more truthful, or more utilitarian, than such a system of building ; nor can I conceive of anything more susceptible of novel and beautiful varieties of decorative character, nor more thoroughly suited to the true spirit of Gothic architecture ; and moreover, there is no real difficulty about it. It only wants some one who knows what he requires, and who has enough of it to do to render experiments worth his while, to take it seriously in hand and work it thoroughly out. The difficulty is, that domestic architecture is so thoroughly in the hands of architects and builders of the compo school, that no one who really cares for the matter has a chance given him of working out a reformation. Those little streets which we find in the outskirts of London and great towns, and which contain the resi- dences of the poor, with here and there a little shop, are at present as offensively ugly as it is possible to fancy. A very little thought in designing would ob- viate this. If the windows were margined with red brick, and perhaps had simple wood mullions, the roofs made moderately high, with a continuous ridge paral- lel to the street, and just divided by the coped party- walls and chimney-stacks, and with plain dormer win- dows, these streets would at once become pleasing, and at little expense. They want little more architecture than such a mere touch as this ; and our style gives all that is wanted without the slightest effort. n 2 180 Country and Town, The same applies to streets of larger houses which are cut up iuto lodgings for the poor. There is no difficulty in rendering the exteriors of such houses pleasing and cheerful without any increase of cost worth thinking of. Here, however, we get into questions of infinitely more serious import. The exteriors of such buildings might as well be decent, it is true ; but to reform ex- ternals without going deeper would be mere mockery. The viler their appearance, the more truthfully does it express what is within. Of all our national crimes, perhaps the most flagrant is the state in which, year after year, we leave the dwellings of the poor in Lon- don and others of our great cities. It is scarcely pos- sible to conceive a greater outrage upon humanity than the permission by our governors of the continuance of such an evil. I have, while speaking of country build- ings, expressed myself with some freedom on the du- ties of landed proprietors as regards the dwellings of the peasantry, and of the claims of the poor, not as a matter of charity which may be granted or withheld, but of absolute right in the eyes of God and man, — a right morally equal to that of the landlord himself, and of more ancient date than his title to his lands. The case of the poor in towns cannot morally be less strong, but it differs in this respect — that it becomes difficult to say against whom their rights are to be asserted. These rights are, that, at a rent proportioned to the rate of wages, and such as they may fairly be expected to afford, they should be able to obtain lodgings in which they can live healthfully, conveniently, and consistently with the common decencies of life. In the country, the claim may fairly be shewn to be as against the landed proprietors. In towns, the question No. II. — Buildings in Towns. 181 is not so simple. There are cases in towns nearly parallel to that of the proprietors of a country estate ; as, for instance, where one man owns a large part of a town, or of its suburbs ; it is then clearly his duty, in laying out his land for building, to see that proper provision is made for the poorer classes. The moral onus is, however, shared with him by others. It is clear, for instance, that the great manufacturer who draws around him a teeming population, is none the less responsible for their proper lodging on account of his not happening to be a large freeholder in the parish; the great tradesman who employs a large number of workmen cannot with fairness shift his re- sponsibilities towards them upon his ground landlord ; nor can the man of wealth, whose comfort and luxu- ries demand the aid of many of the poorer classes, refer their claims upon him to the owner of the ground-rent of his mansion. Even in the country this joint responsibility exists ; but the landlord there holds a position so paramount, that the onus of seeing, at least to the proper housing of his peasantry fairly devolves upon him. The great question, then, is, how are the poor to be provided with lodgings ? The cases where great land- lords lay out large districts for building are excep- tional, but I think, so far as they go, they should be compelled by act of parliament to devote a portion of their land to the poor. A still stronger case exists where new streets are cut through thickly-populated districts, and the poor are ousted, and thus compelled to congregate more densely than ever elsewhere. This is a thing which must ever be occurring in all thriving cities, and its effects have always been found to be the same, whether in London, in Paris, or in ancient 18.2 Country and Town. Borne,— and in each must be met by the same means, viz. by the addition, as opportunity will allow, of cor- responding districts devoted to good and healthful dwellings for the poor ; and I think that nothing can be more clear than that, either where the government of a country, or any company armed with their au- thority, ejects the poor for the sake of public improve- ments, they should be bound to make good to them, in some suitable place, all which they have taken, and that in a form consistent with comfort, health, and decency. But what I have suggested provides for only two classes of cases; far more than this is re- quired. The mass of abomination still remains un- touched, and the question is, whose duty it is to touch it. Being a divided responsibility, it clearly belongs in some shape to the public; but whether to the country at large, or to the inhabitants of each particu- lar town, is less clear. I think, however, the latter are morally the responsible parties, and I would beg to suggest some such legislative course as the follow- ing : — That a permanent commission be appointed by Government, whose duty it will be to enquire into the state of the lodgings of the poor in all great towns, and who shall be armed with authority to compel the municipal or other local authorities either to purchase ground near their respective towns, and build suitable habitations to be let at rents approved by the commis- sion ; or to buy up (the sale being made compulsory) the present miserable lodging-houses, and remodel them under a certain code of regulations, so drawn up as to secure to the poor what is necessary to their comfort, without falling into the opposite error of ren- dering them so costly, that a rent which a poor man can pay will not produce anything like a return for No. II. — Buildings in Towns. 183 the outlay. The rule I would suggest for regulating the outlay and return should be, that, after allowing for drawbacks, the property should pay an interest equal to that of funded property at the time. This is as much as ought to be looked for in carrying out a public benefit, and could, I feel sure, be secured b . "No terms of praise would be too high to be applied to those philanthropic men who have during the last ten or twelve years been so actively and zealously en- gaged in studying and practically carrying out the im- provement of the dwellings of the working classes, nor is it possible to over-estimate the results which may fairly be expected from their generous and judicious labours. They have thoroughly exposed the enormity of the evils from which the poor are suffering, and they have shewn us the ways in which their case is to be met, and the thorough practicability of meeting it. Why is it, then, that things go on so nearly as they did, and that the dwelling of the workman is so little ameliorated ? Is it from any falling off in zeal among these patriotic men, or that they are less warmly sup- ported than they could wish ? There may be something in the latter ; but the real cause is this — that the mag- nitude of the evil is such that it cannot be reached by private endeavours. These are not only demanded, but absolutely necessary, as pioneers to a greater work, and as the means of shaming our Legislature into doing what is one of their first and greatest duties : but the monstrous evil itself can only be removed by the high hand of power ; and it is the duty of every man who loves his country, and wishes to avert from it the just b A mode has recently been struck out by a friend of mine, Mr. I. Robinson, of making such habitations form a better invest- ment, by occupying the lower part of the frontage with shops. 181 Country and Town, judgments of Heaven, to demand from our governors instantly to take in hand the reformation of this crying abuse, this standing disgrace, this foul stigma upon the fair fame of our country. Where is the consistency of voting millions for the architectural improvement of our metropolis, when one-half of its inhabitants are left to lodge themselves in dwellings more barbarous and less fitted for human habitations than the wigwam of the Indian or the tent of the gipsy ? Where is the com- mon sense of taxing every county for the erection of magnificent prisons for the reception of those whom we leave to learn crimes and immorality which sink them below the level of the beasts, through our neg- lect to provide them with the means of living consist- ently with the demands of human nature c ? Or what mockery can be more cruel than to flatter men with promises of sharing in the elective franchise and the rights of citizenship, when we deliberately leave them to herd together in dwellings little better than the black hole at Calcutta, and into which we should shudder at the thought of thrusting the vilest cri- minal ? The case is, in fact, too dreadful for contemplation, and its very horrors have steeled our hearts and seared our consciences, till we read the statements of those who search out these dens of filth and misery as we read some horrid tale of fiction, or see tragic scenes represented on the stage. To recapitulate : I hold it to be the duty — primarily of the Government, and secondarily of every good c It has been my misfortune on two occasions to serve on the grand jury at the Old Bailey, when the crimes which have come before us, originating entirely from this cause, have been too fearful even to think of. JYo. II. — Buildings in Towns. 185 citizen — to do their utmost to abate this crying evil ; that every one laying out land for building should feel himself bound to devote a portion, either of the ground or of his gains, to carrying out this object; that all legalized building companies should be compelled, not only to make full restitution of all which they take from the poor, but also to provide for their habitations in proportion to those of other classes ; and that go- vernments are in duty bound to bring forward such legislative measures as will compel corporations, or other local authorities, to provide for the proper hous- ing of the poor. In the meantime, I call upon all who love their country to press these duties home upon the proper parties, and give practical proof of their sin- cerity by largely supporting those societies which have taken the matter in hand. If men of wealth would devote a regular proportion of their investments to these objects, a great fund might be raised, and that without any important sacri- fice. I cannot recommend it as a profitable invest- ment, though it will always make some return ; but if viewed in a higher light — as money lent to the poor — - I think we may reckon that in the end it will be re- paid with interest. I would further press upon every man of wealth who is studying the improvement of his own habi- tation, to tax himself with a proportionate sum for doing the same for his poor neighbours ; and upon my own profession would I especially urge the duty of devoting a little of the time which they give to study- ing the luxuries of domestic architecture, and the requirements of their wealthy clients, to the practical consideration of the humble necessities of the working classes. 186 Country and Town. As an example of what we should do to further this object, I would beg every architect carefully to ex- amine the little work by my friend Mr. Henry Koberts, published by the Society for promoting the Improve- ment of the Dwellings of the "Working Classes. I do not ask them necessarily to adopt his conclusions, or to follow his designs, but I beg of them to take ex- ample from his careful and disinterested labours ; and if, setting out from the level to which he has already brought the subject, they can build upon what he has done improvements of their own, no one would, I am convinced, be more grateful than he. I have departed from my general object in what I have said on this subject, having spoken only of practical convenience, and not at all on architectural character; nor will I attempt to make good my omission. If we can wipe out this foul blot from our national character, and supply our poor with proper habitations, I have no doubt that their exteriors will participate in a sufficient degree in any improvement of feeling which we may succeed in developing in the general domestic style of our day. CHAPTEE VIII. BUILDINGS IN TOWNS, CONTINUED. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. PEEHAPS the most important of all the branches of my subject is the style and treatment of public buildings in our cities and towns; and here is felt more strongly than even in ordinary domestic works, the effects of the artificial and unnatural severance of civil from ecclesiastical architecture. The fact of a man who has been guilty of building churches, or of appearing as an advocate of the revival of Gothic archi- tecture, being thereby debarred from exercising his talents in designing the great secular buildings of the day, as if he had committed a misdemeanour depriving him of the honours of his professional standing, has the natural consequence of preventing that concen- tration of thought upon the development of a more national style for our public buildings, which seems to me to be a matter of the utmost importance to the advancement of art, and freeing it from the shackles of that dull copyism in which it seems condemned to be for ever bound. Twenty years back a great advance was made in this respect, but it has never been followed up. In inviting designs for the Houses of Parliament, it was made a condition that they should be in one of our 188 Public Buildings. national styles of architecture. The site and the his- torical associations demanded this, and it was viewed and treated as an exceptional case. We do not wish or expect this to be repeated; all we would ask is, the liberty to express our ideas and to develope our thoughts, from which it seems agreed by all parties that we should practically be debarred \ Though I consider the Houses of Parliament (with certain acknowledged faults — the natural result of its being the first modern building of its class, and of being founded on too late and too elaborate a style,) to be still the most successful public building of our day, I quite agree with those who think its character in many respects unsuited to the ordinary circum- stances of our public buildings. Those who have followed the course of my argu- ments and suggestions in the foregoing chapters, will know that I am not advocating the direct revival of a style, but rather the development of one for ourselves suited to the requirements and feelings of our day; and that I only differ from many others who are quietly thinking out the same subject, in being of opinion that such a development may be more suc- cessfully founded on our own indigenous architecture, aided by that of other European nations at the same periods, than on the styles of the old world. I am no medievalist ; I do not advocate the styles of the middle ages as such. If we had a distinctive architecture of our own day worthy of the greatness of our age, I should be content to follow it ; but we a Since I wrote this, the entire project of the great Palace of Ad- ministration has developed itself. The competition is open to all styles. Let us hope that it is really as open as its terms would lead us to expect ! Buildings in Towns, continued. 189 have not ; and the middle ages having been the latest period which possessed a style of its own, and that style having been in part the property of onr own country, I strongly hold that it has greater prima facie claims to be used as the nucleus of our developments than those of ancient Greece or Eome. The old and the new worlds (I use the terms in their historical sense) were severed by the most marked line of separation which Providence has ever drawn between different periods of history, — the destruction of the Eoman Empire, and with it the arts and civilization of the ancient world. As the age of Pericles is the culminating point in the architecture of the old world, so is our Edwar- dian period (the age of Dante and Giotto) that of the architecture of the new world. From these points (as seems the lot of human arts) each degenerated, and while our civilization in other respects has been wonderfully developing itself, we have in architec- ture committed the fatal error of adopting the style of the ancient world, instead of developing our own, and have consequently been groping on for centuries without any style which marks our period in the world's history. My great aim is to promote such a development. I think such can be founded on the nucleus afforded by the best period of the architecture of the modern, as distinguished from the ancient, world ; not by its di- rect revival, but by building upon it, as a foundation, a style suggested by our own wants and national feelings. I have in the course of the foregoing pages repeat- edly called attention to the gradation of character which I think admissible according to circumstances. As a general rule, I would aim, not to give our buildings a 190 Public Buildings. medieval character, but to develope for them a style founded on one which was, accidentally, mediaeval, but which we must work out into one essentially of our own day. In the Houses of Parliament the case was different ; a mediaeval feeling was sought as har- monizing with local and historical associations, and development was only admissible so far as it was found necessary for utility and convenience ; and though the exterior loses effect from over-ornamentation, nothing can be more admirable than the manner in which this has been carried out in the interior, the fittings and management of which appear to me to be unequalled in any modern building, of whatever style, which I have seen ; and I would strongly recommend the care- ful study of them by anyone engaged in domestic and civil architecture. In most positions, however, we must aim at some- thing different ; and I will endeavour to make a few suggestions on the subject. I will first suppose that our public building presents a street-front to one of our great thoroughfares, ranging with buildings of perhaps equal importance and per- manency with itself in the modern Italian style. In such a case the two primary considerations are, — first, to make such a design as is in the abstract suited to a street-front ; secondly, such as will not clash harshly with surrounding buildings. It is the fashion to decry the introduction of any but the classical Ita- lian styles in such situations, as if perfect uniformity of character were essential to beauty. The Eenaissance architects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries felt no such scruples at introducing changes of style, and the Grand Canal at Venice and the streets of other Italian cities shew that no disagreeable effect results Buildings in Towns, continued. 191 from it. Their disciples, however, of the present day, endeavour to keep possession of the monopoly of our street-architecture by decrying those changes which their masters were the first to make, and denouncing as contrary to good taste that variety of style in street- architecture which the founders of their school origi- nated. The objection is only well founded when the contrast is made too severe. The Elizabethan archi- tects adopted in such cases the outline of the Gothic buildings which surrounded them, and no discord was felt to exist. The Renaissance architects of Venice and of Florence also adopted forms sufficiently har- monizing with those of the mediseval palaces around them, and I believe no one has ever complained of painful want of harmony from their juxtaposition; indeed, I think our painters would tell us that the contrary is the case. We must do the same. "We must carefully consider what forms will harmonize and what will clash. It does not follow that all changes are inharmonious, or monotony would be the great rule of beauty — a rule to which nature gives the lie ; on the other hand, that there are discords in art as well as in music, no one will deny. Our task, then, while introducing variety, is to avoid discord. Gabled fronts mixed with others of a more hori- zontal outline do not always produce want of harmony. I noticed, not a quarter of an hour after writing the last paragraph, a single modern gabled house among a number of others with horizontal cornices, and was struck with the picturesqueness of the group. In this case, however, the heights and widths of the houses were very irregular, and the harmony resulted from the gable completing a picturesque irregularity. In a 192 Public Buildings. more architectural street the experiment would be somewhat dangerous. The judgment of the architect should tell him where he can safely do such a thing. In my imaginary case, I suppose too great a regu- larity and architectural symmetry in the existing buildings to permit so violent a contrast, — a range of palaces such as those on the Grand Canal, rather than of mere house-fronts such as those in a German city. I may be twitted for inconsistency in thus fre- quently referring to Italian Gothic when advocating a more national style than the Italian Eenaissance; but it must be recollected that I am at this moment not discussing what is best in the abstract, but how a Gothic street-front may be best designed to range harmoniously with Italian ones ; and though I would not advocate the direct use of Italian Gothic b , I think I am not inconsistent in expecting to derive from it some useful hints for the solution of my problem. Italy is the land of street-palaces, and the Eenaissance there began, not from the decay of pointed architec- ture, but almost from the days of its perfection; so that among the Italian palaces we have every gra- dation, from the best Gothic period of the fourteenth century to the Palladian of the sixteenth ; and, what is more remarkable, the block form of these varieties does not very essentially differ, all having a horizontal cornice, and all but the most confirmed Palladian having the stories clearly marked, and the ranges of windows forming the chief architectural feature. The process of change seems to have been, — first, the b I purpose reprinting in a note at the end of this book, some obser- vations which I made on this subject at the annual meeting of the Ec- clesiological Society in 1855, with perhaps some additional remarks. Buildings in Towns, continued. 193 gradual enlargement of the cornice ; secondly, the increasing classicism of the details ; thirdly, the sub- stitution of the round arch for the pointed, (itself not a very marked change, as it is frequent during the former periods,) and using it contemporaneously with the division of the window into two by a columnar mullion, with a species of tracery in the head. Of this stage, the Eicardi and Strozzi palaces afford, perhaps, the best examples. Fourthly, the introduction of rus- tication, both of the walls and quoins. Fifthly, the extinction of the Gothic element by the introduction of square -topped windows, with architraves and cor- nices or pediments, the natural division into stories remaining undisturbed. Of this, the Farnese Palace is the great type. Sixthly and lastly, the system of di- viding up the front by three-quarter columns or pilas- ters, and thus finally destroying the natural composi- tion of the facade. Sir Charles Barry did good service when he com- menced the retracing of these steps by adopting the Farnese type as his guide ; and it would be well for us to retrace a few more of these gradations, and to take hints from such palaces as the Bicardi, the Strozzi, and those of the preceding century ; and working them up for ourselves, with details of our own, to make them aid us in harmonizing our palatial fronts with their Eenais- sance neighbours, as these had been in their day de- signed to accord with their Gothic predecessors. To go more into particulars, I think in such positions we should adopt the horizontal cornice, and give it consi- derable importance, though designing it with Gothic rather than classic details. We should have uniform ranges of arched windows subdivided into lights of considerable width by columns rather than mullions, o 194 Public Buildings. the tracery, if any, being of the boldest and simplest form, — a mere circle being sufficient. We may give to these windows projecting sills or balconies at pleasure, and the central windows may be grouped on the Venetian principle, if desired. I should de- cidedly give the windows pointed arches if there is height for them, though on my theory that the archi- tecture of the future should combine the three great principles of the lintel and the round and the pointed arch, I cannot object to the semicircle when circum- stances suggest it ; and we see in the beautiful trace- ried windows of Or ' San Michele and other mediaeval buildings how perfectly it may be made to harmonize with Gothic design. I am uncertain how far it may be consistent to accentuate the angles by projecting quoins, but I would certainly do so in some instances by shafts. The details I would not make in any degree like Italian. It is not necessary that, because we borrow ideas from Italy for a specific purpose, we should feel bound to borrow others which do not aid that purpose. This would be copyism rather than development. The mouldings should be founded rather on Northern than on Southern Gothic; or, more properly, they should be designed to suit the case independently of either. The capitals, even if they resemble Corinthian in any degree in outline, should be founded on natural foliage of familiar types. ~No conventionalisms either of clas- sic or mediaeval origin should be admitted ; all should be fresh and genuine, and as far as possible indepen- dent of precedent ; and every feature and arrangement should appear the natural result of its position and its object. While relinquishing gabled fronts, I should not feel Buildings in Towns, continued. 195 bound to avoid high roofs. I have before advocated liberty in this respect ; but there is no question that a high roof adds greatly to the dignity of a building, and is more consistent with Northern architecture. A low roof to a building facing a street is, architecturally, equivalent to no roof at all, inasmuch as it is utterly invisible. A lofty roof rising boldly from behind the parapet, and relieved or not by dormer-windows, will give individuality to our building, and, while not mak- ing it discordant with its apparently roofless neigh- bours, will give it a predominance and dignity as com- pared with them. A palatial street-front, such as I am imagining, should have a certain degree of preciousness given to it by the choiceness of its sculpture and the richness of its materials. It would be lowering my subject to say that no shams or imitations should be admitted ; they are happily already banished from the exterior of our public buildings ; but I would go further, and say that no inferior or second-rate materials should be used. I would use no Bath stone, which a year or two of London smoke brings to the colour of the ground; nor would I use Caen stone, which in the same time will begin to decay, and in a few more years will utterly perish; but I would use, without hesitation, the most durable stone, or, if the money will not be allowed, would rather leave my plain sur- faces of brick than use bad stone. I would further, if possible, endeavour to give warmth and richness to the architecture by the intro- duction, to a limited extent, of materials of varied colour. I would, for instance, for my window-shafts and mullion-pillars use polished red granite. I would carry out the same idea by the use of a warm-coloured o 2 196 Public Buildings. stone (as, for instance, the red Mansfield stone, one of the best stones in England,) for the alternate voussoirs of arches, and elsewhere as the design might suggest, and in some places might go to the length of intro- ducing a kind of simple mosaic of coloured materials, to heighten and brighten the effects. All these acces- sories, however, must be in moderation, and be rigor- ously subjected to the design. For buildings of a second class brick may be advan- tageously used; but, as already urged, a brick dif- fering from any yet in use, and one which will not become saturated with smoky moisture, and thus be speedily assimilated to the mud of a London street. In such buildings, the dressings might be either of stone or of a non -absorbent terra-cotta. I need hardly repeat what I have before stated, that I always use this term in the sense of the highest development of ornamental brick, not in that of artificial stone; in- deed, I should decidedly object to it as misused if it even accidentally looked like stone ; for its conditions are so different, that if truthfully and constructively used, it could scarcely resemble it. Enamelled terra- cotta, tile-mosaic and encaustic tiles, might also enter into the decoration of such a building, as has been before suggested. In the above suggestions I have supposed our public building, in scale and position, to be not inde- pendent of those which surround it, — just as a build- ing under the shadow of a great cathedral should be strongly influenced by its predominant neighbour. Others may be influenced in a less degree by the pre- ponderating number of its Italian neighbours. A public structure may, for example, be equally sur- rounded with buildings in a particular style with that Buildings in Towns, continued. 197 I have been imagining, yet be on so vast a scale as to rnle its neighbourhood, instead of being governed by it. It may be so far detached as to have a full right to independent and individual treatment, or it may have near neighbours in contrary styles, so that claims on this ground are neutralized. In such cases, the treatment should be more or less unbiassed, accord- ing to the circumstances, and the architect must rely upon his own judgment as to how far, if at all, he allows his design to be affected by them. I suppose it will hardly be argued that we have been so successful in our public buildings in the clas- sic styles, as to render it at all sacrilegious to enter- tain a wish to disturb their time-honoured character. The sepulchral Bank, the chilly Post-Ofhce, the in- significant National Gallery, and that most unpalatial of buildings, Buckingham Palace, do not, I think, awaken in our breasts any very warm feeling for the style which has produced them. And if a few other buildings have been more happy, they have certainly not been so pre-eminently successful as to lead us, so very religiously as is the fashion, to adhere to their worn-out style, as if it were as much part and parcel of us as Magna Charta or the Thirty-nine Articles. When we get, then, to such a case as I am now sup- posing, in which the claims of locality and neighbour- ship cannot be urged against us, I really do think we may at least be allowed to advocate another style with- out being considered visionaries or revolutionists. There are many classes of public buildings to which few would dispute the applicability and appropriate- ness of Gothic architecture. Schools and colleges of all classes stand, perhaps, in the foremost rank ; indeed, they are made over to our 198 Public Buildings. style almost as much as churches themselves. Pub- lic libraries might have been expected to have been similarly conceded, yet the two Universities have refused to do so. I must say that I think it would be difficult to conceive anything more noble than an extensive library, carried out with true feeling, and in a style founded on that of the best period of our art. Hospitals and other charitable institutions are occa- sionally made over to us, and few will dispute the im- mense superiority of our style for such purposes. Few things surprise me more than the neglect which pointed architecture has met with among the builders of town-halls. Next to churches, the finest of mediaeval structures existing are, perhaps, the town-halls of Flan- ders, Germany, France, and some of the free cities of Italy ; yet scarcely an attempt has been made to revive these noble buildings in England, and town-halls are continually being erected in our provincial towns in styles as thoroughly unsuitable as can be conceived, and at a cost which would, in good hands and in a right style, have enabled them to vie with the glories of Brussels, Louvain or Ypres. Nothing can be more grievous than to see magnificent opportunities thus thrown away, and structures erected which can never be looked upon with pleasure or satisfaction. What character would a fine Hotel de Ville give to one of our great seats of manufacture or commerce ! Con- ceive for one moment what a glorious structure might have been erected at Leeds, and how perfectly mag- nificent a one at Liverpool ! I the less regret the lat- ter, because it was commenced before we could have done it justice in our own style; yet I cannot but marvel, whenever I pass it, to think of that dead out- line being considered a fair result of the enormous Buildings in Toivm, continued. 199 outlay; and at a building in which the great study has been (on the show side, at least,) to conceal its windows, being the subject of such unbounded ex- ultation. Nevertheless, it is one of the best build- ings of its class ; and its lamented architect was, un- questionably, one of the choice spirits of our day, and one who, like him whose lot it has been to complete his work, pursued his art with the most noble and enthusiastic love. Even the little market-house of a country town, with the hall in its upper story, would in our style become a very charming building. I have often thought, while looking at the queer structures one sees of this kind, how sweetly their essentials could be translated into a really national style, and what an ornament they would become to the towns which they now disfigure. The same is the case with that modern class of structure the corn-exchange : they are mostly large halls, with or without columns, and assume so naturally a Gothic form, that it seems to have cost their architects quite an effort to avoid it. Exchanges, cloth-halls, and all that class of buildings, are, in fact, of mediaeval origin, and their ideal leads most natu- rally to the style of their first erection. The same may be said of public markets, which would fall in beautifully with our style, and for which we should find many ancient types more or less direct. In every one of these structures, however, I would endeavour to strike out in a new line, and to make their character the creation (in some degree, at least, ) of our own day, though founded upon the tradition of the architecture which alone belongs to our race and country, and which alone claims any part in our his- torical associations. 200 Public Buildings. There are other classes of public buildings which are in a great degree peculiar to our own day, and whose existence is the result of the particular organi- zation of our commercial and legislative transactions, as well as of the social habits which distinguish, the present from any previous period in the history of human civilization. To this class belong banks, in- surance-offices, club-houses, museums, public picture- galleries, and almost all classes of government-offices. The latter, it is true, have their types in the Mai- sons de Yille of continental towns, and in the Bro- lettos and the palaces of the dukes and podestas of the Italian cities, which were chiefly occupied by the offices of the legislature; but the extent to which such business has developed itself at the present day renders the buildings required for its transaction almost a new class. The advocates of a new style of architecture suited to the nineteenth century have here a good card to play ; and I am not disposed to join issue with them upon their general theory, but only as to the mode in which it is to be carried out. I freely admit that buildings whose uses and origin belong especially to our own day have, on that ground, a pre-eminent claim to be treated in a manner at once new and characteristic of the age which they represent. And I am as ready to admit that we shall be equally far from effecting this by binding ourselves closely to the style of the me- dieeval Hotel de Yille, the Soman Palazzo, or the palace {in nuhibus) of Inigo Jones. Are we, then, to invent a spick-and-span new style to suit them ? This involves two other questions : — first, Is it morally possible to invent such a style? secondly, Are these buildings to differ in their character from others of Buildings in Towns, continued. 201 their own age ? My reply to both is in the negative. No age of the world has ever deliberately invented a new style, nor yet made use of a style for one class of buildings different from what it applies to others. If, then, my arguments as to style in general hold good, they avail equally for these as for any other class of buildings. But, to go more closely into the matter, — is the fact that a commercial system, certain political institu- tions, or a particular phase of social civilization which originated in Europe during what are called the mid- dle ages, or whose origin may be termed " Gothic," have happened so to develope themselves in modern times as to require structures of a somewhat new kind for the carrying out of their purposes, — is this fact, I would ask, any reason why the architecture of such structures, instead of being itself also a deve- lopment of that which originated in these middle ages, should be copied from that of ancient Eome, with which these institutions have no historical association ; or from the works of certain Italian architects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who saw fit to revive the architecture of a former world? Eeason would point to a course the very reverse of this, and claim for such buildings a link of connection with the his- tory of that family of nations from whose institutions they originate. The same applies yet more strongly to royal palaces, and to the town mansions of the nobility. Surely those who govern a state, and take the lead in a social system the history of which is bound up in that of the middle ages, should glory in developing a style for their residences out of the architecture of those times, — an architecture which has never been sur- 202 Public Buildings. passed for boldness, originality, and beauty, while readily shaping itself to new requirements, and sus- ceptible of any degree of new refinement. The construction upon a Gothic basis of a new pa- latial style is a task at once truly noble and worthy of the efforts of a great age. The lovers of the beaten track will argue against it, that it is safer and wiser to follow out what has already been prepared to our hand, and that the palatial Italian being in possession, it is the part of prudence to let it so continue. The advocates of a new style will, on the other hand, ob- ject that we should be only repeating the error of the first classic revivers, and that if we wish our art to express the sentiments of our age, we must form it de novo for ourselves. To the first I would reply, that the Italian style has produced nothing new for many a long day — its highest efforts in modern times being merely a more implicit falling back upon the works of its originators ; and the very fact that a pala- tial style based upon an English rather than a Eoman foundation is in some degree a novelty and leaves scope to the invention, is a strong point in its favour — being the very thing we want to throw new life into our art. To the latter class of objectors I would reply that, as I have before said, every development of art must have a foundation, — to attempt a pure invention is vain ; and I appeal to them whether the foundation I propose is not both more consistent with reason and good feeling, and at the same time more calculated to produce the novelty which they desire, than any attempt to develope upon the worn-out style now in possession. To generate such a palatial style as I desiderate, the primary qualification which is necessary is a noble Buildings in Towns, continued. 203 and elevated tone of mind. To attempt it as a mere effort of invention would be vain. Its chief charac- teristic being grandeur of sentiment, it demands of ne- cessity the same on the part of its author. I have already insisted on this in speaking of the country man- sions of the nobility, and what I have there stated as to the more material requisites of a noble structure has in a great degree anticipated what I have now to say as to the characteristics of a palatial style. At the risk, however, of repetition, I will attempt to enu- merate them. The first may be said to be stateliness, — which may result from actual extent and elevation, from a noble simplicity of general form, and the avoiding of need- less breaks and subdivisions ; from the evident gene- rosity and massiveness of the construction, from the boldness and strong character of the details, from breadth of surface, and the fearless use of a due pro- portion of unadorned wall-face ; and, lastly, from a commanding outline, and well-studied proportions. Secondly I would place beauty and refinement of the architectural detail ; no form being admitted which has not been thoroughly studied, and sifted and purged from every crude, inelegant, and unrefined element ; thus uniting boldness and massive character with perfection of form. In many recent attempts at originality this rule has been utterly neglected, and forms introduced for mere novelty's sake which are both barbarous and inelegant, and their proportions almost wholly neglected. Among the features calculated to aid in giving a palatial character, 1 may instance the following : — first, Porticoes, — the design of which opens a wide field for novelty and freshness of invention, as applied to 204 Public Buildings. Gothic architecture, and which seem essential to build- ings of the highest order. Secondly, a more columnar style of decoration throughout the building than is usual in the established types. This will be found to have been very much the case with the domestic architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but we should do well to carry it out much further, as few things add so much to nobility of character. On this point I would draw attention to the wide distinc- tion between a structural and a decorative column; and while suggesting that the latter should be made somewhat bolder than has hitherto been usual, would point out the danger of making them so large as to look structural ; or, on the other hand, of making structural columns so small as to be confused with those which are merely decorative. Thirdly I would place the use, when consistent with utility, of long ranges of covered arcading, not only on the lower story, but also above. Here I would point out a great inconsistency in the Italian Eenaissance buildings, particularly those of the description commonly called Palladian, — an inconsis- tency, as usual, especially singled out for imitation amongst ourselves ; — I mean the confusion of the ar- cade or colonnade with the wall. An open colonnade or arcade is one thing, and a very useful and orna- mental one, — a wall pierced with windows is quite another ; but the Italian revivers and their followers, unwilling to rest satisfied with the beauties of one at a time, systematically lay one upon another, using the colonnade or arcade as a sort of veil hung over the face of a wall to hide its nakedness ; or, in other words, they first design the building as if it were to be surrounded by an open peristyle or arcade, either of Buildings in Towns, continued. 205 its whole height or forming external galleries round the several stories, and then add walls blocking up the openings. I do not deny that they often produce considerable architectural effect by this arrangement, but it is produced at the sacrifice of architectural con- sistency. One of the most striking fronts of Inigo Jones' design for Whitehall unites all three construc- tive systems in one. It is a colonnade, an arcade, and a wall with windows, laid one upon another. To look at the elevation, one would think it was a double-gal- leried front — -the inner gallery being arcaded, and the outer one with columns and entablature ; the wall and windows appearing through the openings, — whereas in reality all three are compressed into one. I do not complain of the desire to relieve the face of the wall by any such means as these ; what I object to is using for it forms intended for other purposes, and which have only to be freed from their filling in to convert them at once into open galleries, — as, for instance, at Somerset-house, where there is not a par- ticle of difference between the open arches of the entrance and the walled-up arches of the rest of the front. What I wish to deduce from the above remarks is, that wall-arcading ought to be either purely decora- tive, in which case it should be so light as to forbid the thought of its separate existence ; or else so clearly a constructive portion of the wall, and so intimately united with it, that the two evidently constitute a single structure, and are incapable of being separated; and that the design of the arcade shall not in any way suggest the idea of an open gallery. Fourthly, I would mention cornices and balustrades. These have been much neglected in our modern works, 206 Public Buildings. and the cornice does not assnme that importance in mediaeval buildings north of the Alps which it de- serves. Few features tend more to give a palatial air to a building than a noble cornice. We have excel- lent elements for its development in our own earlier styles and the French examples of the thirteenth cen- tury, and we shall be much aided in it by reference to Italian examples of about the same period. It is a feature, however, which we should do well to work out afresh for ourselves. Where the building is of sufficient extent, its ar- rangement round noble quadrangles has a great ten- dency to give it the character we desire ; and though no rule can be laid down as to the number of stories, great grandeur has sometimes been given to such quadrangles by their multiplication, as on the eastern side of the court of the Doge's palace, which, though impure in style, being a mixture of Eenaissance with Gothic forms, has as palatial an aspect as any work of its extent I recollect. Material has great value in producing this dignity of style. It should be evidently the best of its kind. Costly materials, such as marble, serpentine, and po- lished granite, and costly decorations, such as mosaic and inlaying, are of the utmost importance. The sculpture used in the decoration of such a building should be of the highest class, and calculated by its subjects and their treatment to produce noble and elevating impressions. The figures should not be too much penned up in narrow niches, but should have room to stand with dignity, as those round Or' San Mi- chele at Florence. The doorways should be the richest points in the architecture, and might contain sculpture of a more Buildings in Towns , continued. 207 finished and elaborate description than is suitable else- where ; the doorway being almost the only part of a building which we are in the habit of viewing sepa- rately and closely. The windows should be large and ample, deeply recessed, and boldly and nobly decorated. Their mul- lions should consist of marble or granite columns of good diameter, but may be omitted where balconies are used, which should be frequent where there are views to be gained by them, and should themselves be grandly designed, their balustrades being either of stone, or of finely designed bronze or wrought iron- work. If the roofs be shewn, they should rise fearlessly to the proper pitch, not seem to draw in their horns like a snail, as if dreading the touch of criticism. How many English architects admire the lofty roofs of the Tuileries or the Hotel de Yille at Paris, and determine to take a lesson from them ; but when they sketch such roofs on their own designs, become frightened at their own temerity, and cut them down again to a half-measure ! Eoofs in our style should be either nobly developed, or not made an element in the de- sign at all. In decorating our roofs we have much to learn : I refer my readers to the paper read on ornamental lead- work at the Architectural Museum, by Mr. W. Burges, since published in " The Builder," and in the u Ec- clesiologist. " This beautiful system of decorating roofs is purely mediaeval in its origin, though it has been continued in Eenaissance buildings, especially in France. Internally, the same feeling may be carried out by taking care that everything shall be nobly treated. 208 Public Buildings. Spacious halls, fine vaulted corridors, and grand suites of apartments, each of them having an individual cha- racter suited to its purpose, and many of them con- taining objects of art and vertu of the highest order, rich marble columns and alabaster arches, tesselated pavements, sculpture, painted decorations, frescoes and painted glass of the highest order, wall- hangings of embossed leather, figured silk or tapestry, ceilings finely designed and enriched with artistic decorations, and a thousand other accompaniments of architecture in its highest developments, will not be wanting to complete the internal beauty of a palatial design ; but if the dignified tone of mind and the noble intention be present with the architect, but few only of these costly elements will be necessary to give the same ex- pression to his works. I have not ventured upon the subject of furniture, fearing by entering upon so extensive a field need- lessly to prolong my task. I believe, however, that few now entertain any doubt as to the suitableness of our style to such purposes. If they do, they need only go over the domestic portions of the Houses of Parliament. Mr. Crace, perhaps the best authority on such a subject that I can quote, assures me that he finds it more easy and more natural to design convenient and comfortable furniture in Gothic than in any other style; and I suppose that after all the abuse which modern upholstery has met with since the Exhibition of 1851, it will hardly be argued that the claims of the prevailing style are inviolable. CHAPTEE IX. COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS, &c. npHEEE is one important class of buildings which must ever exist in large proportion in onr com- mercial towns, and which, if we are not prepared to give np the towns to ugliness, must receive more attention than heretofore. I refer to warehouses and factories. It is customary among our opponents to speak of a Gothic warehouse as if the idea were a very good joke, which they should like to see, for the nonce, put into practice. Are these people ignorant of the fact, that all which has ever been done that was good for anything in the way of warehouses was either done in the middle ages, or has been derived from tra- ditions of what was then done, and that the demorali- zation of commercial building commenced and deve- loped itself during the ages of revived classicism ? If they are ignorant of this, I beg now to call their at- tention to the fact, leaving it to speak for itself. The mediaeval builders had no notion of the seats of commerce and manufacture being given up to unsight- liness, nor of their buildings, however utilitarian, being allowed to disfigure their cities. We find, ac- cordingly, that their warehouses were as nobly treated as any other of their buildings. The finest ware- houses in existence are probably those remaining in the old commercial cities of Germany. There are 210 Commercial Buildings, 8fc. great numbers of them at Nuremberg. One, which I recollect taking special note of, is a detached mass of building of about the same dimensions as "Westmin- ster-hall, — roughly speaking, seventy-five feet wide by three hundred long, externally. It is nine stories high, six of which are in the roof. The windows are simple square openings, with external shutters, — those to the stories in the roof are very simple, ungabled dormers, the great multitude of which has an excellent effect. One of the most striking features is the crane-house, which forms a gigantic dormer in the centre of each side, six stories high, and constructed of timber. The most architectural features are the entrances, which are very ornamental ; and the gables, which are filled with a kind of coarse tracery. The whole speaks its purpose at the first glance, is thoroughly utilitarian in its whole appearance, with very little expenditure be- yond the demands of necessity, and yet is as grand a building as one need wish to see. There are others nearly of the same size, constructed wholly or mainly of timber, which are also very noble structures ; and numbers of smaller ones forming parts of the streets, generally very simple in their design, with the single exception of their doorways, which are very architecturally treated, usually having the badges of their builder, and some sculptural device bearing reference to his trade. One would not wish to reproduce these warehouses unaltered, but they unquestionably furnish us with most valuable hints for the treatment of similar build- ings ; and more than this, they have practically given the type to which all good buildings of the kind have more or less conformed. I have noticed, in connection with the port of Bos- Commercial Buildings, fyc. 211 ton, a number of warehouses erected probably in the middle of the last century, which, though mean and rough in material and construction, haye a marked family-likeness to these old Nuremberg structures ; just as a barn built fifty years back is evidently a legitimate, though degenerate, descendant of its glo- rious old prototypes of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and even now, wherever a warehouse as- sumes anything of a genuine, or any other than a de- based, form, it always evinces some resemblance to the old type. I have noticed this in many which have been recently erected both in England and Scotland. In some few even the high roof has been retained ; but where such is not the case, though its absence is a great loss, much grandeur of effect is often produced by simple and genuine treatment. There is an in- stance of this in the great warehouse in the goods- station at Nottingham. Its span is about equal to the great Nuremberg example, but in length it is not more than half, and its roof is low ; but in spite of these two defects, from straightforward, massive, and natural treatment, it has a good deal of the same noble character ; and its effect is enhanced by the canal pass- ing through it under two massive arches. When warehouses rise out of a river or a canal, still greater grandeur may be obtained. Their lower sto- ries should be evidently massive, and capable of re- sisting the effects of water ; and the openings should be few and small, as in the sea-story of a Venetian palace. Though our great factories are the growth of modern usage, and have no type, so far as I am aware, in the middle ages, they are so nearly allied to warehouses, that the same remarks in a great measure apply to p2 212 Commercial Buildings, fyc. them. They differ chiefly in requiring windows of much larger size, and this rather detracts from their natural dignity ; they are nevertheless capable of being nobly treated, and, even as they are, have often a very fine and imposing effect. Some of those in the West Eiding of Yorkshire are noble structures, and a very little more thought in designing them might make them much more so — though, unhappily, the fact of the case rather militates against this ; for such is the perversity of our age, that wherever any attempt has been deliberately made to do something better than usual, the result has been the very contrary. Beauty in this class of building seems to result from carrying out the obvious requirements and conditions of the case in the most genuine and natural manner, — ■ masking nothing, — making no attempt to give the building a character other than its own, — making parts which have the same functions uniform and alike, — giving the whole an obvious air of strength, simplicity, and capacity, — and reserving the architec- tural touches for a few special points, as the doorways or the eaves-cornice, and making them rather express severe strength than any refinement of design. The chimneys of factories may be made magnificent ob- jects. They are too frequently very much the con- trary ; so much so, that a town full of high chimneys is usually set down as irreclaimably hideous. What would the mediaeval builders have thought of a city being rendered ugly by the presence of a hundred towers, or by the height and number of its church- spires? In their hands they would have become so many elements of beauty and grandeur a . a Let it not be thought, however, that I mean to favour the no- tion of making chimney -shafts to look like towers. Nothing can be Commercial Buildings, fyc. 213 Their principle was, and onrs ought to be, to make everything which is useful and necessary not only beautiful in the abstract, but also beautiful in a de- gree and in a manner evidently suited to and ex- pressive of its use, and resulting directly from its natural form and mode of construction. If we were simply to follow out this rule, no ugly building need ever again be erected ; but every structure, however utilitarian, humble, or even mean its purpose, might, without aping what belongs to its superiors, do its part naturally and in its own proper degree in making our seats of commerce and manufacture at once beau- tiful and rational, — qualities in which they are at present singularly deficient. Let me, however, say one word to prevent being mis- understood. I am by no means anxious that any dis- tinct efforts should be made to " Gothicize" buildings of this class. We must take thiugs in their due order. We have begun with the temple, and must go on into other classes of building; but utilitarian structures ought to be influenced indirectly , not by effort. In the middle ages they grew up under the influence of a Gothic atmosphere, and imbibed from it just enough of architectural feeling to give vitality and spirit to their stern forms. The same ought to be the case with us. Any Gothic features which we throw into them ought to be the result of the general feeling which is growing up among us, and it should infuse itself into buildings of this class almost unconsciously. The direct application of architecture to them in a time like this, when we have no established style, more absurd than to make a shaft for the conveyance of smoke look like a tower you would desire to ascend for the pleasantness of the prospect. 214 Commercial Buildings, fyc. would endanger that simplicity and genuine character on which their good effect mainly depends. An ar- chitect, however, imbued with the right feeling, would be sure to impart it to such works, though striving to be purely utilitarian. All I wish at present to urge is, that a Gothic feeling suits these buildings far more than that of any other style of architecture. There is, however, another kind of warehouse, which in our day demands, and has of late received, special attention ; — I mean the semi-domestic warehouse which ranges with ordinary street-fronts. These, too, had their equivalents in the middle ages, when the mer- chant's house and warehouse were often under one roof. Thus we find in the old German and Flemish cities innumerable houses of which the upper stories were clearly used for such purposes, — the goods being raised by cranes from the street. Many of these are of gigantic size, presenting gables to the streets of sixty or seventy feet span, containing numerous ware- house stories in the roof. The fronts, whether in timber, brick, or stone, are often extremely ornamental, and far more architecturally treated in their details than the sterner kind of warehouse which I have hitherto been describing. Though our merchants have long since ceased to live at their houses of business, this class of warehouse still exists among us, and has not wholly lost its domestic character, as not unfre- quently twenty, thirty, or even forty assistants are lodged in them. They are usually intended for more delicate goods than the rougher warehouses before spoken of, and may rather be described as wholesale shops of vast size and of many stories, and united with a somewhat extensive dwelling-house. Great efforts have lately been made to architec- Commercial Buildings, fyc. 215 turalize this class of building, and with so much suc- cess that I should be loath to say a word of disparage- ment, were it not so much the fashion to speak of them as the great triumphs of modern architecture, and the great evidence of its vitality. This " nourish of trumpets" is even carried to the extent of a jeering challenge to us to do anything so good, or a bantering wish that they could see us make the attempt. Now, without at all wishing to imitate the tone of our oppo- nents, much less to disparage honest effort wherever it is to be met with, I would simply ask whether, after three centuries of classicism, it has at length been dis- covered that the great panacea of architecture is to make Florentine palaces serve as models for London warehouses ? Yet such is really not far from a correct description of this boasted development. I will not, however, say a word more against a movement with the main object of which I heartily sympathize, and which is tending, to say the least, to beautify the streets of the city of London, and of some of our great manufacturing towns. One feature only in these build- ings will I criticise. Why, in the name of common sense, is it considered necessary that because the Strozzi, Eicardi, and Farnese palaces have gigantic cornices, the same should be the case with a haber- dasher's magazine in a London street? I would not trouble myself to put the question, were not human life being constantly sacrificed to this absurd mania. It may be questionable whether, even in those noble edifices, this ponderous crown may not be viewed as an exaggeration. The eye and the mind are, however, there assured, by the generous treatment of the whole structure, that the walls are proportioned to their mighty capping, and that, ponderous as is its over-hang- 216 Commercial Buildings, fyc. ing, it is duly balanced by the mass behind ; — but are we equally satisfied of this when looking at their modern imitations ? On the contrary, we well know that the walls are not one half-brick thicker than necessity demands, and that the cornice has no more stone in it than the nicest calculation shews to be unavoidable, and we, consequently, shudder when we look up at the perilous mass which seems miraculously suspended over our heads, and find but cold comfort in the assur- ance that it is well balanced by the weight of the roof, or secured by iron ties down the back of the wall. It has, further, been well remarked that the amount of light in a London street is not so great as to afford a strip of four or five feet being cut off from the narrow opening through which it is admitted. These buildings should unite the ordinary charac- teristics of street-architecture with the severe and more utilitarian character of a warehouse. They should be simple and massive in general treatment, but with more architectural detail than an ordinary warehouse ; indeed, their character may fairly, though in moderation, symbolize the position of the pro- prietor : — the upright, substantial, and straightforward character of an English merchant may be well ex- pressed by their massive utilitarianism ; his princely but well-husbanded wealth by their good though mo- derate architectural decoration. No material seems so well suited to this kind of building as brickwork. They seem the very objects to which it is most perfectly fitted, and they seem scarcely to need the aid of any other material. It should, how- ever, be modestly used, and with but little variety of colour, or gravity and sobriety of effect will be lost. The window-frames, with or without mullions, may Commercial Buildings, fyc. 217 be well managed in iron. If iron mullions be used, they should assume the form of pillars. The cornice should be moderate, and may be wholly of brick. I would recommend a high roof with parapets of orna- mental brickwork, and bold dormers. Internally, the construction should be wholly fire-proof, and the archi- tectural design made to suit such construction, (for I may mention that some of these warehouses, in which ornamental goods are exhibited, have highly architec- tural interiors). That all this can be better carried out in Gothic than in classic feeling must, I think, be manifest to all who know anything of the capabilities of the two styles. There is another class of buildings nearly allied to the commercial class ; — I mean the buildings connected with railways. It has recently become fashionable to speak of these as pre-eminently successful specimens of utilitarian architecture. This is, unquestionably, what they ought to be, but as certainly what, for the most part, they are not. If by utilitarian architecture they mean to designate only a class of buildings which answers its purpose, these structures, like most others, may be so designated ; and possibly one may further accord to them the credit of answering their purpose without any very serious let or hindrance, — but some- thing more is intended. By utilitarian architecture is meant such as not only answers its purpose most perfectly, but does so in the most natural manner, and derives its character from its uses ; that it has just that amount and just that kind of good looks which suit its class and its uses ; and that these good looks are derived from a natural and rational manner of decorating the forms which its uses suggest. That all this can be said of the majority of railway buildings 218 Commercial Buildings, fyc. will, I think, be hardly asserted b . There is, in fact, no general character among them at all. Some are profusely decorated Elizabethan, some are very bad Gothic ; others are in the Italian palatial style ; others, again, miserable travesties of the Crystal Palace; a large class rejoice in all the luxuries of compo and sham, and another grovels in unmitigated meanness. To make, then, any statement which applies to all would be impossible, but we may safely assert that all cannot be right, nor all good utilitarian architecture. After all, however, there is a remainder to which this praise may fairly be applied. As instances, I will mention the two great engine- houses at Camden Town, — one oblong, the other cir- cular. These could hardly be better ; and though what mouldings they have are Eoman, their whole aspect is that of Gothic buildings. Many of the great sheds are also far from unpleasing. An iron roof in its most normal condition is too spider-like a structure to be handsome, but with a very little attention this defect is obviated. The most wonderful specimen, probably, is that at the great Birmingham Station ; the hand- somest, though certainly somewhat abnormal, that at b Piig'in says on this subject, — " The railways, had they been na- turally treated, afforded a fine scope for grand and massive architec- ture. Little more was required than buttresses, weathering, and segmental arches, resistance to lateral and perpendicular pressure. I do not hesitate to say, that by merely following out the work that was required to its natural conclusion, building exactly what was wanted in the simplest and most substantial manner, — mere con- struction, as the old men weathered the flanking walls of their defences, — tens of thousands of pounds could have been saved on every line, and grand and durable masses of building been pro- duced ; but from inconsistency, whenever anything sublime has been attempted at the stations, the result is perfectly ridiculous." . Commercial Buildings, fyc. 219 the terminus of the Strasburg Station at Paris. The last-mentioned would be perfectly suitable to a Gothic hall. The most contemptible of railway sheds is, probably, that at Dover ; indeed, if anything would make an Englishman ashamed of his country, it would be his disgust at finding himself under that meanest of roofs on his return from a continental tour ; — a feel- ing in no degree mitigated by the contrast between the South-eastern English and the Northern French railway carriages ! There are some simple country stations between Lancaster and Carlisle which have always struck me as the best stations of the smaller kind I have seen in England. They are perfectly plain and unpretending, and in the style of the old cottages in stone districts. I do not know whether the great station at Carlisle was designed by the same hand : if so, it is a notable instance of a person who succeeds well in small things failing in large ones. I must except, however, the refreshment-room, which is like an old dining-hall on a small scale, and is itself quite refreshing, — contrast- ing most pleasantly with those close, stuffy cabins at Crewe and elsewhere which symbolize anything rather than refreshment. The best developments of railway architecture I have seen are on the Hanoverian lines. The buildings (omitting some on the common German type, which are unworthy of notice,) are of two classes, — one mainly of brick, and the other of timber. The former is chiefly of red, relieved by yellow brick, and con- tains a good deal of ornamental work of a simple but telling kind, in moulded brick : the arches are round, and the roofs of low pitch ; but the former suggest a Eomanesque rather than classic origin, and the latter 220 Commercial Buildings, fyc. are more Swiss than Italian. The timber buildings are a union of the old German and the Swiss types, but treated in a free, unfettered manner. The two classes are intimately connected, — the brick class agreeing in its roofs with the timber buildings, and the latter often united with the same description of brick- work with the former. There are also in other parts of Germany railway buildings which are very suggestive, but it is really dangerous in this country to hint at such a thing, as, if the hint is taken at all, one is sure to see lifeless and servile copies in positions where none of the con- ditions apply, instead of genuine, common-sense de- velopments — just as Mr. Butterfield's brickwork and Paxton's ridge-and-furrow roofs are travestied all over the country, till one is utterly sick at the sight of them. Much might be said on the subject of engineering works. Their character is certainly open to great im- provement, and any architectural touches which may be given to it would be fully as suitable if of Gothic, as of classic form. Engineering works are very irregular in point of beauty, — some intrinsically fine, and others basely ugly. An iron arched bridge may always be made beautiful, and it would be difficult to make a suspension-bridge anything else, — its natural curve rendering beauty inherent to it. Engineering works, in whatever style, must always derive their chief character from their purpose and construction, and so much of architecture as they add to this will usually be that most prevalent at the period. It would therefore be advocating a vicious principle to press strongly upon engineers a preference to this or that style of architecture. The choice of style must Commercial Buildings, fyc. 221 come from other sources. There can, however, be no doubt that the style I advocate will adapt itself with the most perfect readiness to these great works c . It is especially the style of all others whose great principle is to decorate construction, and this is just what is wanted : equally at home in arcuated or trabeated buildings, — adopting, ad libitum, any form or any proportion of arch, — delighting in timber (and con- sequently in metal) framing, glorying in exhibiting its power in the grandeur it gives to the mere fabric, as in castles, &c. — and adopting with right good will every material and system of construction. I can conceive of no style so eminently calculated to suit the freedom and pure constructiveness of engineering works ; nor can I imagine anything more grand than such works carried out on the true principles of our style d . Much as we pride ourselves in our modern bridges, I feel convinced that they might be still more nobly and naturally treated if designed in con- formity with the principles of Gothic architecture. The mediaeval bridge-builders used, as we do, arches of any form which suited their purpose ; and in addi- tion to the pointed arch, we find in their works the segment, the semicircle, and the ellipse. The leading point in which they differed from the present system was in the use of ribs instead of a continuous soffite to their arches. Our modern bridges would be much more consistent if so constructed, for their haunches c There is a noble viaduct at Durham in which this is in some degree exemplified. d It is a singular fact that the Romans occasionally used the pointed arch for their aqueducts, and that its earliest appearance is in the purely engineering works of the Egyptians, the Pelasgi, and the Etrurians. 222 Commercial Buildings, fyc. are usually filled iu internally with longitudinal walls at small intervals, and such walls would, clearly, be better supported by bold ribs than by a continuous vault. Nothing could be more natural than the piers and breakwaters of an old bridge, and though their scale is wanting in boldness, it would be a noble task to expand it to the dimensions demanded by modern engineering, and to do so with the same severe sim- plicity which pervades all our ancient specimens of purely constructive architecture. Having now gone cursorily through the principal classes of secular and domestic buildings, I will close this part of my work with a few remarks upon one subject to which I have hitherto omitted to advert; — I mean the degree of religious character which ought in a Christian country to be imparted to secular buildings. There are few things more curious than the objec- tion which many people express to a Gothic house on the score of its looking religious e . It is a feeling quite of a piece with the Sunday religion of the day. Eeli- gious feeling must be limited to Sundays, and even then to the hours of service ; and in the same spirit, though Christian architecture is thought suitable for a church, we find people gravely holding that a pagan style is more befitting their private houses. My ob- ject is not, however, to refute this absurd doctrine, e This objection to our style reminds one of that unfortunate member of parliament who ventured to taunt Wilberforce as " the honourable and religious member," and by doing so brought down upon himself one of the most memorable pieces of castigation on record. * Commercial Buildings, fyc. 223 but rather to consider whether our religion should not shew itself in our houses in some way much more di- rect than by so dubious an evidence as the style of their architecture. Surely the writing on our walls should tell some- thing different of us from that on the palace of a pagan king, — that " the God in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways, have Ave not glorified !" We decorate our houses with all kinds of frivolous allusion to classic mythology, simply because we find that the ancient heathens shewed in that way their respect for their own religion ; but we think it quite out of place to evince any recognition of that which we profess to believe to be the one true religion, and of Him on whose favour we know that our safety and happiness alone depend. Such was not always the case. It is most interest- ing, in the old timber towns, villages, and rustic build- ings in Germany, particularly in those erected shortly after the Eeformation, to see texts of Scripture carved over every door and on almost every beam, — each house suggesting some moral precept, or some prayer for the Divine blessing upon its inhabitants. The same is often, though less constantly, found in our own houses of the same period ; and we should do well to take a lesson from them. I would not, however, make these religious allu- sions so profuse as to seem fulsome or ostentatious : — " God is in heaven, and we upon earth, therefore let our words be few." Yet it would be well that a cau- tion, a precept, or a promise should occasionally catch our eye in the midst of our every- day employments, and that the sculpture or painted decorations of our 224 Commercial Buildings, fyc. houses should, here and there, contain some allusion to the faith we profess to hold. Mr. Owen Jones says, with some truth, that the faith of every age having shewn itself in its archi- tecture, and our religion being the worship of mam- mon, our architecture pretty truthfully reflects our belief. Let those who are satisfied that this should con- tinue, avoid the style I have advocated ; and, in com- pany with the founders of buildings, of whatever class, whose uses are to corrupt and lower the hu- man character, let them continue to make use of that pagan architecture so infinitely better suited to their faith ! CHAPTEE X. ON RESTORATIONS. T HAVE, on a former occasion, expressed myself pretty strongly on the restoration of churches, and my views on restoration in general are pretty well known ; still, however, a few words on the subject as viewed in connection with ancient houses, and other secular buildings, may not be out of place. The general principle which I hold to is this : — that remains which are valuable only on historical grounds, and as relics of antiquity, while demanding the most careful protection, must never on any pretext be re- stored. That those which add to their antiquarian claims others founded on the art and beauty which they possess, demand equal protection, but admit of such partial and conservative restorations as are ne- cessary to avert the entire loss of their beauty and design ; and that such is still more decidedly the case when, as in the case of churches, their first uses still continue, and the work is not a mere specimen of anti- quity or of art, but a building still used for the same purposes for which it was first erected ; though in any case restoration must be applied with a most tender hand, and with the most scrupulous regard to the original design, the most rigorous determination to preserve every original feature, and with the most entire abnegation of self, and devotion to the preser- vation of the work committed to us. Q 226 On Restorations. All this applies in full force to the restoration of ancient houses and mansions, as it is clear that in carrying out such works all that is ancient should be most faithfully preserved. There remain, however, many questions which de- mand the most careful consideration. The principle which has been acted upon in all ages in making addi- tions to buildings, is to do so in the style of the period in which the additions were made. Our own age is the first which has acknowledged antiquarian princi- ples, or the claims of buildings of different ages to be treated in the style of their own respective periods. This characteristic of our age is as distinctive as are the styles which have marked other periods. I do not, therefore, deem that we are departing from the gene- ral usage in following out the feeling which marks our time; which, while failing in a style peculiarly its own, is the first in which all previous styles have been understood. This peculiar, and I think not very unsound, feeling of our age would, if carried to its fullest extent, lead us, when making additions or alterations to an Eliza- bethan house, to make them Elizabethan ; in a Tudor house, Tudor ; in an Edwardian castle, to make them Edwardian, &c, &c. This, however theoretically de- fensible, would, if taken as an imperative rule, amount to absolute slavery. It is the happy position of those who are labouring for the revival and re-development of a style of our own, to be able to take a perfectly free, unfettered, and consistent view of the question, and to regulate our course according to the merits of each particular case. To us, the style which we are reviving, or rather that which we are ourselves developing and gene- On Restorations. 227 rating from the study of our native architecture and that of our neighbours at its best period, is bond fide the style of our own day. We ignore that miserable travestie which, in the hands of builders and pseudo- architects, has become so far vernacular as to make every town and city in our land an absolute eye-sore to every man of taste and feeling ; nor can we acknowledge that to be England's own architecture of the nineteenth century which is only to be learned from the works of pagan antiquity or of the Italian revivers in the fifteenth century, and can only be kept up to the mark by ever and anon bringing architects and artists from Eome to see that we keep in the right groove. Whatever the world around may think, to us that style only is the true style of our day which we are founding on the noblest works of our own forefathers, aided by kindred works in surrounding countries, and developing into one peculiarly our own ; and in dealing with old build- ings we feel ourselves at liberty either to adopt this style in the additions, &c. which we make, or to follow out that of the existing building, as appears best to our judgment, according to the merits of the case. Our knowledge of pre-existing styles renders this par excellence the age for restoration, and it would be simply shutting our eyes to one of the great charac- teristics of our day, if we were to feel hesitation in carrying out our peculiar mission. Yet when our judg- ment tells us that the style of the existing building is not so paramount as to demand the conformity of all works we may add to it, nor so discordant as to refuse to be associated with our own style, we may feel our- selves equally free to add to it in that style ; or where this would be incongruous, we ought not to scruple at giving a tinge of its feeling to works whose leading Q 2 228 On Restorations. features are made to conform with those of existing buildings. Thus, in making additions to an Elizabethan building, the question as to whether those additions should be Elizabethan would depend upon the extent and merits of the existing works. If they are far more extensive than the additions, and are in them- selves good, I think they should be followed ; but not so rigorously as to forbid our refining and improving it by giving it a little of the feeling of our own style. It is curious that there is so remarkable a resemblance between some Elizabethan details and those of the fourteenth century, that I have in some instances failed to distinguish them. I would take advantage of this, and carry it out much further. I would avoid the ugly foliage of the sixteenth century, and supply its place with natural leaves which belong to all pe- riods ; and generally I would not scruple to soften the asperities of the style, without giving it any features which could be objected to as discordant with its general sentiment. If, however, the old remains are small as compared with our proposed work, or in themselves inferior, I would not hesitate at throwing off all fetters, and strike out boldly in our own style. In dealing with a building of a late Gothic period, the same rule, or rather the same liberty, holds good. Here no discordance is created by adding to it in our own way, the styles being so intimately allied. JSTor, if the magnitude of the building and its historical associations seem to forbid a departure from its gene- ral character, need we in the least fear to tone our own works so as to harmonize them in some degree to the style we prefer, particularly by avoiding such features as we feel to be debased or corrupt, and by falling back upon Nature for our foliated decoration. On Restorations. 229 When we get back to works of the fourteenth cen- tury, no difficulties remain, — such buildings being the foundation of our own style. Here, in restoring ori- ginal portions we should, as in other styles, adhere scrupulously to what we find, but in making additions we may fearlessly make use of our own developments ; for here no diversity of character will exist, our own style being the very same, applied to and enriched by the wants and inventions of our own day. I can con- ceive of no task more delightful than the faithful restoration of what remains of this most perfect phase of mediaeval art, and the production alongside of it of our own version of the same art, but so modified as to meet all the requirements of our own day, and so enriched as to enlist under its banner every discovery, every invention, and every new art which five inter- vening centuries have been able to generate ; and not only this, but allying itself, without losing its national character, with all that is really good and noble of the arts of other countries, and even embracing within its pale, ideas borrowed from those of the most distant nations. I have, at the commencement of this work, ex- pressed myself in strong terms as hostile to modern castle-building, as being on the very face of it grossly frivolous and unreal. The case, however, is different when we come to the restoration of ancient castles. These possess the same claims upon preservation and conservative restoration which I have advocated for other works which are at once relics of antiquity and specimens of ancient art. They should be most re- ligiously protected, and so far — and so far only — as is necessary, from time to time, receive such repairs as are required for their conservation. 230 On Restorations. Where they are still used as the residences of noble families, certain difficulties may occur as to the treat- ment of their interiors, inasmuch as a mediaeval for- tress is not likely to be particularly convenient as a modern and peaceful residence. Still, if portions of the interior retain their pristine form, I would, at all sacrifices, preserve them unaltered. The historical in- terest attached to them overrides any practical incon- venience which may arise from their having been built for other than their present uses. If a gentleman will, as we have seen, deliberately erect a mediaeval fortress, and without any practical necessity submit to living in a building designed on models having no relation to the uses to which it is to be applied, surely we may ask of those who possess genuine specimens of this noble class of building, to submit to the trifling inconvenience which may arise from preserving intact the few apartments which may have been handed down to them in their old state, considering that they are at liberty to add whatever may be wanting, and to fit up consistently with altered requirements such parts as have lost their ancient form. We do not, however, by asking this one sacrifice to antiquarian feeling, imply the remotest wish that the modern lord of an ancient castle should forego any of the conveniences or comforts of his day. On the con- trary, I would apply to him the same remarks which I have made on additions to houses of the fourteenth century, and so far from objecting to his fitting up his rooms (those of historical and antiquarian interest alone excepted) with every regard to modern wants, I would rather glory in shewing, in the fittings of his apartments, how marvellously the style is open to adaptation to every conceivable requirement — so much On Restorations. 231 so, as positively to luxuriate in shaping itself to every- thing which taste, comfort, or modern discovery may suggest. It is a task almost too charming to be hoped for, to carry out this glorious idea, — to restore in all its nobility a stern Edwardian castle, scrupulously preserving all its external grandeur, restoring in their pristine form such of its apartments as the hall, the chapel, and others which may have come down to us unaltered, but fitting up the rest in the true spirit and inspiration of the noble style of art which pro- duced the lordly structure, while so shaping it as to suit the wants, the feelings, and taste of its present occupant as perfectly as its first builder met the re- quirements of its then feudal and warlike lord. Yet this is no fantastic dream, — it is just what our style will effect, if rightly handled. A truly lamentable error has recently been fallen into at Alnwick Castle. That stately structure, the home of the ancient Percys, a place replete with the most stirring historical reminiscences, and the scene of an infinity of romantic incidents, had, from the effects of time and injudicious alterations, in great measure lost its ancient character. The present Duke of Northumberland conceived the princely idea of its thorough restoration, — a work which, so far as the exterior is concerned, would appear to have been ex- ceedingly well carried out by his architect, Mr. Salvin. At this point, however, his Grace appears to have become alarmed, and to have asked himself whether he was to sacrifice his future comforts, and the luxuries of modern life, and to be immured within the stern apartments of a feudal fortress. The true answer is obvious — that nothing of the kind was necessary, but that, on the contrary, he had before him the noblest 232 On Restorations. opportunity, perhaps, ever offered of bending the beau- tiful style of the fourteenth century to meet the usages and refinements of the nineteenth. It positively takes one's breath away to think of so glorious an oppor- tunity, and I heartily commiserate the architect whose unhappy lot it has been to let it slip. Whether the princely Lord of Alnwick thought he had no alter- native between the debased Gothic of Windsor and (what I hope I shall be pardoned for calling) the mimic feudalism of Peckferton, I know not; but the result was this — that, happening at the time to winter in Eome, his Grace became enamoured of the interiors of the Eenaissance palaces, and fostered the infelicitous idea of making his ancestral residence a feudal castle without and a Eoman palazzo within ; and this is now being actually carried into effect, in a manner so liberal and so costly as only to render one's grief the more poignant, that a scheme conceived in so princely a spirit should be ruined by so unfor- tunate an error. These works are not being carried out by the Duke's .excellent architect, Mr. Salvin, but by artists brought from Eome for the purpose, at the head of whom was the celebrated and now lamented Caaina. From the description given of the works it appears that most of the choicest portions are to be executed in Italy, but that for the more ordinary carving a school has been established on the spot, under the direction of Italian artists, every possible pains being taken in instructing local workmen in the exotic art, as if it were now for the first time introduced into England. Conceive for one moment what would have been the result, had all this liberality and energy been directed to instructing them in the true style of our own On Restorations. 233 country, and had these simple workmen, instead of being perplexed by drilling them into producing forms of ornament which they cannot comprehend, and which have no relation to the forms of Nature with which they are surrounded, been directed to study the an- cient works within their reach, — as at York, Durham, or Hexham ; or in those cloisters of which it is said that — " JN"or herb nor floweret glistened there But was carved in the cloister-arches as fair." And if they had been then taught that the true mode of carrying the art to still higher and higher perfec- tion, was to study and arrange for themselves the works of Nature which surround them at every step, learning from them ever new beauties and ever fresh ideas, — beauties and thoughts not belonging to one age of the world, but to all time, — though varying in every country, as Nature has seen fit to give variety to its productions. I will not dwell longer on this subject, than to call attention to two singular and not uninstructive con- siderations which it suggests. The first is this, — that though the so-called " revival of art" took place in Italy some three or four centuries back, and all Europe has been working at it nearly ever since, it appears, on the evidence of the most distinguished architect in Eome, that its best productions are the works of its first revivers. This certainly does not say much for it as a progressive art. The second is not unlike it ; it is this, — that though the revived Eoman architecture was transplanted into England some two hundred and fifty years since, and is considered by our architects to be so thoroughly acclimatized and naturalized, that they stand by it as if it were as much the Englishman's 234 On Restorations. birthright as Magna Charta itself, the unwelcome fact has at length oozed out, that if we wish to carry out the style in its perfection, the proper course is to import architects from Home to do it ! Surely this is suffi- cient proof that it remains an exotic art ! It is stepping out of my province to say much about our treatment of buildings erected under the influence of this " revival of art." I am just now hard at work, in more than one instance, in transforming their out- side and inside into my own style, and natter myself that no one will ever regret the change. I may, however, admit that I should not do this if the build- ings possessed any real merit. In other cases, I have striven to throw into them a little of the feeling of our style; — this may be done very successfully in the coloured decorations, in the carving, in stained glass, in inlaid works, and in mosaic pavements, and even in panelled ceilings, without causing any real discord. If obliged to use Corinthian columns, I would not dream of following the hackneyed type, but would vary the capitals, and form them out of natural foliage. Ionic, I own, would puzzle me ! — It is not, however, a part of my mission to shew how the vernacular classic styles are to have new blood thrown into them, though, where necessary, I should not despair. In all these works, if we set about them with good judgment, sound principle, and true feeling, we are likely to take the right course in the long-run. CHAPTEE XI. ON THE BOUNDARIES OF TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD IN ARCHITECTURE. S in morals nothing is so certainly indicative of a degraded state of society as the decline of truthfulness and the prevalence of deceit, so in art the surest signs of degradation are the decay of reality and truth, and the general adoption of systems of deception and sham. Measured by this rule, the vernacular architecture of our day would indeed be found wanting! The system of falsehood seems ingrained in its very heart's core. The hold which it has upon every branch of archi- tecture and construction — indeed, upon every thought and every idea of our vernacular builders, is truly amaz- ing, and can scarcely be credited till we examine care- fully into what goes on around us every day and on every side. Truthfulness and reality are not only un- appreciated, but almost unknown, or known only to be disliked and ridiculed. The same unsoundness and want of principle which leads to frauds and wholesale forgeries among commercial men — which leads to the adulteration of our food and medicines, and to the manufacture of spurious articles of every possible de- scription — revels unchecked in our architecture, be- cause, not being there a moral crime, this is considered a fair and open field for the free exercise of that taste for counterfeits which is so deeply rooted in every branch of society. 236 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood This seems to be viewed as not only an innocent mode of giving vent to the overflowings of onr en- thusiasm in the cause of deception, but it is imagined that the world in general, and architecture in parti- cular, are positive gainers by it, and that the perfec- tion to which we have brought the art of shamming is really a thing to be proud of, — one of the great re- sults of England's freedom, — and that the liberty of shamming is as much one of our national bulwarks, as liberty of the conscience or of the press. Not only are our brick houses cemented over in the forms of every kind of constructive or architectural features belonging to stone, — brick arches made to look like stone lintels, and in some cases stone lintels cleverly made to imitate brick arches, — plaster, wood, or paper painted to look like marble and granite, — mean woods constantly and everywhere made to look like rich ones, — metal like stone or wood, and wood like metal, — paper like tile, and everything some- thing different from what it is, — but every good and useful invention which might be made conducive to enriching our architecture with new modes of con- struction and decoration, is in its turn degraded by being made to pander to the universal preference for falsehood over truth, and is used, not as a new ele- ment to be treated honourably and honestly on its own merits, but only as another method of imitating at a cheaper rate something which we already pos- sessed; or, if the new material be too valuable or of too stubborn a nature to be enlisted in the ranks of active imitation, it has to submit to it in a passive sense, and becomes vulgarized by being itself made the object of counterfeits. One half of the arts which are practised are mere imitations of something different; in Architecture. 237 one half of the manual skill which is exercised is wasted on spurious copies of something which would itself be too costly, instead of being honestly directed into some legitimate channel ; and far more than one half of everything one sees is not what it appears to be, but something cheaper made to look like it. It is not, however, in materials, construction, and decoration alone that the disease exhibits itself: the designs of our buildings are often in themselves fal- lacious. Buildings are made to look different from what they are. The character of a front presents the most extreme contrast to that of the parts less seen, and belongs perhaps to a building of a totally dif- ferent class : the architecture not only does not re- sult from construction, but actually belies it; neces- sary objects, instead of being honestly treated, are made to look like something else which is neither necessary nor suitable ; tricks are played to produce uniformity, — to conceal doors and windows, &c, where needed, or to look like them where not needed; indeed, there is no end to the trickery and unreality to which the noble art of architecture has been sub- jected. Against this deliberate and utter degradation of our art, many an indignant protest has of late years been made. It was first exposed in all its despicableness by Pugin, who, had he done nothing else, would have established his name for all future ages as the great reformer of architecture. His noble protest has been followed up by others, and it is a proud thing to think of, that among those who follow out the Gothic revival, the principle of strict truthfulness is universally acknowledged as their guiding star: — true, they may often be led away from it by false 238 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood lights, they may often inadvertently fall into archi- tectural unrealities ; in an age of falsehood, they will of necessity sometimes wander into error, but with the great principle of truthfulness ever before them as their acknowledged guide, they must in the end suc- ceed. " Magna est Veritas et prcevalebit." As might have been anticipated, the continued pro- test against a system so inveterate as that I have been describing has brought a hornets' nest about the heads of the protesters. It might, I say, have been antici- pated that the entire swarm of speculating house- builders, the intermediate race between builders and architects, and all who practically view architecture as a trade, should rise in indignation at such an in- vasion of their liberties ; but it was not to have been imagined that the same would be the case with men professing a respect for their profession, men who attend the meetings of the Eoyal Institute of British Architects, who visit the classic shores of Italy and Greece, who write books on the principles of archi- tecture, and are the correspondents of architectural journals ! One would have supposed of such persons, that however they might have been previously in- fected with the prevalent disease, they would have been only too grateful to have their attention called to it, and the remedy prescribed. With some it has been so, but with many the very thought of truthful- ness as an element of architecture serves only to pro- voke silly sarcasm ; and the exposure of the causes of the degradation of the art they profess to honour, in- stead of leading them to devote heart and hand to raising and purifying it, only excites them to vilify those who point out the evil, — to bring arguments shewing falsehood to be better than truth, — or, if in Architecture. 239 obliged to admit the charge, to meet it with a tu quoque, as if our occasional failures were a conclusive refutation of our arguments. I should not have taken the trouble to go over this well-trodden ground, nor to advocate principles which most of those who would trouble themselves to read this book would consider self-evident, were it not from a wish to meet one class of answer constantly given to our arguments, — that founded on the difficulty of defining in every instance where truth ends and fal- lacy begins. "When inveighing against some palpable and dis- graceful sham which no argument can be invented to defend, we are often dexterously met by the proposal of a difficult case, — a question of boundaries, — one so near the frontiers which sever truth from falsehood, that one is, for a moment, at fault in determining on which side it lies : and it is triumphantly urged that, if we fail in deciding to which it belongs — if we con- demn as false what appears unobjectionable, or admit as truthful what appears to contain an element of sham — we have at once given up our principles, and admitted that of our adversaries, viz. that there is no such thing as truth or falsehood in art. When, for instance, we object to painting deal to look like oak, we are asked what we think of Gilding ; and if we defend it, it is at once said that if we may make wood or stone look like gold, surely we may make deal look like oak, or plaster like stone ! If, again, we are decrying the custom of jointing plaster in imitation of stone, we may have the mediaeval prac- tice thrown in our teeth of drawing red lines in the forms of stonework on the plastering of churches; and the admission of the one practice it is argued 240 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood. will of necessity carry the other. If we argue against veneering, the ancient practice of overlaying walls with slabs of rich marble is brought against us ; and a hundred other such cases are ready to be brought forward to meet each of our objections, and possibly we are, as it is imagined, finally wound up with the argument that, after all, every kind of painting is a sham ; that representations of foliage or flowers are as much an imitation as grained wainscot, — that painting of figures come under the same category with studied representations of mouldings which do not exist, — that plain plastering in our rooms, or papering upon that, is a mere expedient of conceal- ing the fact that our walls are of too rude a material to be left visible; and, to come to the gist of the argument, that our cry for reality and against sham is a mere piece of idle purism readily reducible ad absurdum. Now, I do not wish to confuse the malpractices I am arguing against with the graver moral delin- quencies of falsehood and hypocrisy from which we are obliged to borrow the terms which we apply to them, yet they are so precisely parallel that, except- ing that one involves moral turpitude and the other does not, nearly everything that can be said of one applies also to the other. The very same line of argument which our opponents take to reduce our opposition to architectural falsehood ad absurdum, would prove with equal success that there is no cul- pability in moral falsehood, and that any objections which may be felt to it are the mere vapourings of visionary purism. The confines of truth and falsehood are just as diffi- cult to be clearly traced in morals as in art. A fabri- in Architecture. 241 cated story in a newspaper and in a tale-book do not seem very essentially different ; a profession by word of month of fidelity and friendship seems much the same thing with commencing a letter with "My dear Sir" and ending it with "very faithfully yours;" and every day brings with it many instances in which the exact line of demarcation between truthfulness and deception is most difficult, and often most perplex- ing to define. Yet who would venture to argue from this that truth is a mere phantom, and that, because we do not always know its boundaries, and must often admit what is in a sense false to be no deception, or what is literally true to be in effect fallacious, we must give up truth as a mere Utopian imagination, and indulge in falsehood ad libitum ? Yet if the line of argument hold good of fallacy in art, it must apply with equal force to fallacy in morals. The fact, however, is that in both the broad line to be followed is distinct and patent to the most ordi- nary apprehension. Subtle casuistry nearly always arises from a hankering after what we know to be wrong. Each man's consciousness tells him distinctly, in a great majority of cases, whether he is acting truthfully or not, and even in difficult cases it will usually lead him to a right decision, unless inclina- tion, self-interest, or fear of man dispose him to de- cide wrong; and any great stress laid on the diffi- culties of these frontier cases is nearly always symp- tomatic of a disposition to mystify the rules of right and wrong, as an excuse for choosing the latter. Just so in art, — the main line is plain and broad, with no ex- cuse of error : the less simple cases will generally be decided rightly by any one who honestly wishes so to decide ; but if the desire is to decide wrongly, which R 242 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood is too often the case, the difficulty of distinguishing the boundary line affords an excellent excuse for a wrong decision: yet the fact remains that the per- son so deciding, in nine cases out of ten, knows that he is in the wrong, and does not really feel the diffi- culties which he adduces as his excuse. The great definition of a falsehood is the intention to deceive, — and where this exists there can be no doubt about the question of right and wrong. In most cases this rule is applicable to architectural morality. The positive, at least, always holds good, though the negative does not in all instances. If modes of construction, decoration, &c, are brought fairly to this test, we shall generally arrive at a right conclusion. It is not so much the question whether the person making use of them actually intends to deceive, but rather whether such is the purpose and meaning of the system adopted. It is possible that each individual who has his house cemented in imi- tation of stone, or his doors grained like oak, does not of necessity wish or expect them to be mistaken for the materials represented; yet no one would dis- pute the fact that the meaning of the system is the intention to make the work look as if of a different material, and that the better it is done, the more complete the deception; nor would anyone defend such practices on the ground that the work is usually so badly done that there is no danger of deception; for a system of workmanship whose merits vary in- versely as the skill of its execution would hardly find a reasonable defender. The principle, then, of all these systems is the intention to deceive. If well carried out, the intention is more or less realized ; if so badly done as to negative the intention, it becomes worse than in Architecture. 243 contemptible, — like the conversation of a man who has become so inured to lying, that his most frivolous remarks are garnished with petty falsehoods, and that from mere habit, and without any particular desire to deceive. The whole system of marble-papers in halls, marble and granite -painting on shop-fronts, &c, &c, is of the latter class, — a sort of petty lying without wishing to be believed, — mere falsehood from habit, — the working out at the pores of the poison with which our entire system is saturated. So far, indeed, is the absurdity of these tricks from being an excuse for their baseness, that it is one of the strongest proofs of the degradation to which the system of deception has reduced us. Our builders and decorators seem as if truth had become impossible to them, even when not deliberately wish- ing to deceive a . We must, then, estimate the truthfulness or fallacy of a practice by the test of intention to deceive , and that not on the part of the individual alone, but of the system he is following; and if we acknowledge the principle of truth and reality, must inexorably reject everything which will not bear this test. The Jesuitical argument that all painting is sham will at once fall to the ground. If plain painting is intended to deceive, what, pray, is the deception which is intended ? What is your plain white or red door intended to imitate? Nor if you pick it out in dif- ferent colours and patterns, is the case altered; it personates nothing, — it is merely ornamented. "But," a There are some manufactures in which no patterns are used, but imitations of something else. Such, for instance, is the case with floor-cloths, — though the mode of printing them certainly goes far to relieve them from the charge of actual deception. e2 24 I On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood it will perhaps be argued, " surely if you represent flowers, or leaves, or figures, there is as much imitation as if you represent wood." Apply the test : is decep- tion intended ? Certainly not ; — no one imagines a panel to be made of leaves, or flowers, or little boys ; nor if painted to the very life, would the thought occur that they are real ; it is but a picture on a panel ; — deception is impossible, or even the thought of it. But if those flowers or leaves were so shaded as to look like carving, the case is altered ; instead of a pic- ture, it becomes sham carving, and is more or less culpable in proportion to the intention to imitate carving. And, finally, if your door is painted like wainscot or mahogany the deception is palpable, for if there is any intention in it at all, it is that it shall pass for what it is not; the better it is done, the greater the fraud ; and if the intention be defeated by bad workmanship, it becomes not more truthful, but only more contemptible b . It may be said that there are cases where the imitation is so excellent that it ac- quires, like the curtain of Parrhasius, an artistic value, — that the painting in Greenwich Chapel is a specimen of this, — and even that much graining and marble- painting is so exquisitely done as to be valuable as a work of art. This is true in a certain degree ; but if such things be admitted at all, let them be put forward distinctly as works of art, — pieces of legerdemain to amuse little boys and girls, — and I have little to say b Our practice of staining deal may be cited as being near the border. It is proved to be so by many simple country architects specifying it to be done "in imitation of oak." It ought to be so perfectly transparent as to shew the real grain of the deal, and not so dark as to suggest any other wood. The only excuse we have for it is the extreme lightness of the colour of common deal. in Architecture, 245 against them; but if gravely introduced into archi- tecture, their frivolity must be apparent to every one. Happily, such specimens of sleight-of-hand are too costly to be common, and it is almost idle to say that the skill they require is wasted on such gimcrackery, and will always find more worthy objects on which to expend itself. The intention to deceive in such cases is the gist of the whole matter, but it is only a playful deception, like making April-fools, and as little de- serves serious consideration : let them practise it who find it amusing, and feel it a worthy exercise of their talents, but let it not appear in conjunction with ar- chitecture. "But," it will be asked, "what can you say in defence of gilding, — is not this a palpable decep- tion?" Again apply the test: do we or do we not intend deception, or is the system founded on such an intention? I trow not. Do we or do we not, when gilding stone or wood, do so with any thought or de- sire that it shall be supposed to be gold ? The very idea carries absurdity in its face, and its impossibility is its best refutation. It may be said that other imi- tations which we do condemn are equally impossible, — as a wide ceiling, or a door painted like marble. If it can be shewn that Nature has endowed marble or granite with such ductility as to render it reasonable to coat doors or ceilings with them, pray use them so ; but, even then, do not imitate this incrustation in paint. These are the mere blunderings of imbecility, lying in the very face of ocular evidence. Gilding is the legitimate use of a property with which Nature has endowed its choicest material, a substance too scarce to be used in a solid form ex- cepting for small objects, yet so beautiful in itself, and so valuable in harmonizing colours, that its pre- 246 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood sence as a decorative material is largely demanded; — a demand happily met by its truly wonderful duc- tility and malleability, which render it capable of almost indefinite extension, either superficially or in length. Gold is reduced by the simple process of beating to 282^oo of an inch in thickness, so that by one cubic inch of gold nearly 2,000 superficial feet may be overlaid. Nor does this by any means exhaust its capability of extension. It is said that if a silver wire be coated with gold leaf, and the wire then drawn to the ex- treme length of which it is capable, it will still be found, on examination by the strongest microscope, to be as perfectly gilded as at first. Now, if Nature has given this astonishing property to one of her most valuable and beautiful materials, it is fair to conclude that it is with the intention of our availing ourselves largely of its other great property of conferring beauty and harmony on less sightly mate- rials ; and it is for us gratefully to accept the gift. " But," it may be answered, " all this is only making good our case. We are not raising objections to gilding, — quite the contrary, — its propriety is to us self-evident ; but we hold it, nevertheless, to be an imitation, and our argument is, that Nature herself having clearly provided for our using it as such, she has established the very principle which you seek to condemn." Not at all so. In the first place, it is no imitation (strictly speaking), being itself gold ; but waiving this, I hold that it is not used as an imitation, but in the same manner as pigments — to beautify a surface, not to make it appear like another material. The scale on which it is used renders this obviously impossible, and its position^ added to the capability in Architecture. 247 of gold being so used, render it so clearly a mere sur- face decoration, that the idea of deception is at once put out of the question ; and, if tried by the test of intention to deceive, whether applied to the system itself or the individual following it, stands acquitted at the first glance. " Now, however," my opponent will say, " I have got you. I have tracked you out into your last re- treating-place, and brought you at length to bay. What do you say to gilding articles of brass, copper, or silver ? Surely here is the intention to deceive ! It is manifestly intended that they should pass for gold, as they might readily be made of gold, and similar articles are every day so made. In what respect does gilding silver to look like gold differ from painting deal to look like oak ? And yet the practice is sanc- tioned by the very mediaeval artists to whom you appeal as witnesses in your favour; it is practised under the direction of the promoters of your revival, and by none more largely than by your great cham- pion Pugin. And this is not all; the articles thus imitating gold are dedicated to the most sacred of religious uses, and solemnly presented at the very altars of God !» In the first place, I beg to remind my opponent of the title of this chapter : my subject is the boundaries of truth and falsehood in architecture. I will not shirk the question on the ground that it does not be- long to architecture ; plate and other metal- work are accessories to architecture, and they must not be di- vorced ; but my subject being one of boundaries, it is no triumph to bring me to the gist of my subject, and to point out to me one of those frontier questions of which it was my purpose to treat. That it is such a 248 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood question I must freely admit, and possibly the prac- tice may go so far as to have one foot on the wrong side of the boundary. In the first place, let me remark that the overlaying of one material with another is distinct from simple imitation, and deserves to be treated separately from it. One material may be useful and not beautiful, another beautiful and not particularly useful; and, subject to certain limitations, it may be consistent with truthfulness to overlay one with the other, so as to unite their natural properties. Again, one material may possess strength and another durability, and the two may be united in the same manner without neces- sarily sacrificing reality. No one would object to coat- ing vessels of iron or copper with tin, to prevent the one from becoming corroded and the other from infect- ing the liquids it contains : the vessel if made of a single metal would fail of answering its purpose, but by uniting the two all difficulties are met. The pro- perty of uniting in this way is a special attribute of metals, and any theory which would rob them of it must have a flaw in it, though it is quite possible that the property may be made a wrong use of. Again, copper is a most useful metal, but has a dis- agreeable colour when tarnished, and communicates an offensive smell to the hands, both which defects are obviated by gilding it. Brass, too, when bright, differs only slightly in colour from gold, but soon loses its brilliancy; gilding prevents this. In all these cases, the custom of coating these baser but useful metals is not founded on any intention to deceive, but has a useful, practical purpose. If the objects are of any reasonable size there is no risk of deception, and it is simply a case of ordinary gild- in Architecture. 249 ing. With small movable articles such a risk may exist, and it might be well to adopt some style of dif- ferencing them to prevent this. The real frontier question, however, is when we come to gilding silver. There is, no doubt, a superior cleanliness in a gold surface, which has led to the practice of gilding the interiors of spoons and vessels of silver. This prac- tice is clearly unobjectionable, as the real material is exposed elsewhere, and speaks for itself. As regards the exterior, I presume the practical argument to be the greater liability of silver to tarnish. It is venture- some to speak against so time-honoured a custom, but I do not hesitate to express a decided opinion against the practice of gilding the entire surface of a silver vessel. We here reach the actual boundary of truth and falsehood; and I am convinced that if we adopt this custom we overstep it. We are using a pre- cious metal, and one quite fit to be exposed to view; there is no physical necessity for coating it over, as in the case of copper : then why make our gift look more costly than it is ? We increase its beauty, but it is at the sacrifice of truth; and the same or greater beauty may be obtained without such a sacri- fice by parcel- gilding, which shews the material of the mass, and makes it evident that the gold is a super- ficial decoration. One step beyond this I decline to defend. This naturally leads me to the general question of superficial facings. I remember once having it put to me somewhat triumphantly, whether ashlaring the face of a brick or rough stone wall were not a sham. The natural reply is, that we present a real material constructively used, and that common sense and the practice of all ages lead to putting the sightly ma- 250 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood terial outside, and the rougher yet useful mass within. Or, to apply my test — that though walls are sometimes built of solid block-stone, no such idea is intended to be conveyed by facing a wall with ashlar. A more difficult case, however, is the facing of buildings with thin slabs of marble, — a custom sanc- tioned by the practice of the Italian and Byzantine architects of the middle ages. I confess I much dis- like to see this done with plain marbles, which, in countries where they are abundant, may fairly be ex- pected to be constructively used, as they usually, in fact, are. The case, however, is entirely altered when we come to the richer and more precious mar- bles, whose value consists in the beauty of the colour- ing of their sectional surfaces. These marbles may, it is true, be used constructively, as the Eomans used them, but this, as a general rule, is a somewhat ostentatious wastefulness of Nature's gifts, and it seems more truth- ful, as well as more reasonable, to reserve such mate- rials for the use to which they are best fitted — surface decoration. In the case of columns it is different ; if rich materials are used, they must be in the solid ; but elsewhere mere superficial application is not only ad- missible, but preferable, subject only to its being so applied as to convey no idea of being constructive. Thus, in St. Mark's at Yenice the columns are of pre- cious marbles, but the walls and massive piers only faced with slabs ; and these, as if to prevent the pos- sibility of deception, are placed with their lengthway vertical, to indicate that they are not constructive. This is perfectly truthful; but I confess I am not favourable to such wholesale incrustations. I should wish in dignified building to see the construction, and m Architecture. 251 to reserve rich casings for panels, tympanums, in- layings, and other unfunctional features. Let it, however, be clearly understood that I say this not so much on the ground of truthfulness as of dignity, and rendering strength apparent ; for truthfulness, whether in morals or in art, does not demand that every fact shall be stated, but merely that no statement shall be made which is false: we are not bound to tell our family secrets, or to expose the brick walls of our drawing-rooms, but if we volunteer a communication, it should be true ; and if we profess to expose a ma- terial, it should be genuine. Then, again, of veneering. There are woods which are utterly unfit for constructive use, yet which have such exquisite beauty in the sectional surfaces, that their rejection would be the sacrifice of one of the elements of decoration provided for us by Nature. I confess that I think veneering the legitimate use of such woods, only that I would make it evident, by surrounding it in a border of other material, or in- laying it in patterns, or any other way which makes the fact evident that it is an overlaying, not the constructive material. Exquisite beauty may be ob- tained by such genuine use of veneering; it is the exact parallel to facing with precious marbles, and should be subjected to the same rules. Yeneering with ordinary woods to save the cost of using them in a solid form, and any veneering which pretends to solidity, is an abomination, though we are so accus- tomed to it that it rarely strikes us so. In like manner, many of the materials, &c, now used untruthfully might be legitimately applied. I have already treated of plaster, both for external and internal application, and urged that if it must be 252 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood used, a system of ornamentation should be invented especially applicable to it. Terra-cotta is an invaluable material, yet it is con- stantly used as a sham stone. I have claimed for it a more honourable treatment, as a legitimate element having its own properties and capabilities. The same may be said of many other inventions now basely misused. The beautiful invention of japanning and polishing slate need not be abused to counterfeiting marble. It would be far more valuable if the idea of marble were forgotten, and beautiful colour and pattern- work applied to it. Possibly the same might be said of scagliola. It is a material of considerable richness, but abused to deception : could not new and independent beauties be produced by it, by using it in brilliant colours and rich patterns, without any idea of imitating marbles ? Colours could then be intro- duced which no marble possesses, and which would add new beauties to our interiors, unalloyed with the consciousness of unreality. Even artificial stones might be rendered useful, and a new character added to them by introducing differ- ences of colour and coloured patterns, which would be impossible in real stone, and would at once disclaim for them all pretence to be what they are not. Let me, then, earnestly press upon all inventors of new material, &c, not to dishonour their offspring by passing it off for something that it is not, but to put it forward boldly as a new element, a thing not to be ashamed of, and to skulk behind a base pretence, but to stand forward honestly on its own legitimate bearings. The practices which I am decrying are often de- fended on the ground of ancient authority. It is said in Architecture. 253 that no period of art was free from shams ; they are found in Egypt, in Greece, in Kome, in the mediseval work in Italy, and occasionally even in those of Northern Europe : then why be so squeamish about them now ? I would reply, that if the practice is base, no amount of precedent will render it otherwise. In no noble style has it been the rule; let us follow the good examples, not the bad: we should not defend lying because it is common in Italy: — Quid Eo?nce faciam? mentiri nescio. The Italians never were so truthful in their notions as Northern nations; they represented marbles, mouldings, and mosaics by paint- ing : they did not do it with an exact view to decep- tion, as the representations are little more than sug- gestive : yet it is a blot on their otherwise noble deco- rations, and must strike every one as injuring them. We might as reasonably advocate the moral vices of these nations on the ground of precedent, as argue that untruthfulness in art is admissible on their authority. A practice common in our Gothic churches shews the delicacy of feeling with which their builders dis- tinguished truth from falsehood. They felt, as we do, that an unbroken sheet of plaster has an uncon- structive and unpleasing effect, and therefore covered it with some simple decoration ; but wishing to sug- gest the idea of construction without counterfeiting it, they often covered their wall with a kind of quasi stone-jointing drawn in dark red lines, often double, each ideal stone having a rosette, a sprig of foliage, or other ornament drawn in it in the same colour, and often a margin round it, or the space between the double lines beaded, or otherwise ornamented. No 254 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood one can call this a sham ; it gives a constructive idea but in the most imaginative way, clearly telling us that it is but a suggestion. It has been well said of some of the Fathers of the Church, that in the free expression of their thoughts they sometimes inadvertently suggested ideas in them- selves harmless, but which they would never have uttered, had they been able to foresee what errors would in future ages be founded upon them ; and possibly the mediaeval decorators would have ab- stained from even this delicate suggestion, much more from the palpable departures from strict prin- ciple which we find in Italy, had they known to what degradation their noble art was destined to sink, and that their practice would ever be cited in its defence. To truthfulness or fallacy of design and construc- tion, the same test and the same general rules may be applied. I have in the course of the foregoing pages particularized many kinds of untruthfulness in design, and urged a common-sense mode of dealing with things ; founding everything we do on our own actual requirements, and the circumstances of each particular case. Especially have I spoken against all direct pursuit of the picturesque beyond what natu- rally results from skilful though simple treatment, and of all affectations of novelty, quaintness, and eccen- tricity, while giving free scope to well-regulated ima- gination and freshness of invention. This may suffice for the general subject. Its boun- daries may be pretty correctly traced by the test of intention or tendency to deceive. If a building has a character belonging to structures of another class, it is deceptive. If its front is unreasonably pretentious in Architecture. 255 and its other parts mean; if it gives the idea of splendour without, while poor within; or if exter- nally it assumes the modest garb of a cottage, while within all is splendour and luxury; if its design belies its construction, &c, &c, it is open to the same charge, inasmuch as all these are means of deception. There are, however, border-cases which must be ac- quitted of the charge. Thus, in the Gothic church, the attached groining- shaft does not actually carry the vaulting, nor does the Grecian pilaster actually carry the entablature ; in both cases they do but slightly aid the wall which does the real work; their actual use being merely to accentuate the line of bearing for the satisfaction of the eye. Again, in vaulting, in what- ever style, the springers, though apparently part of the arch, are more correctly corbels carrying it, being often built in the solid of the wall, and even hori- zontally jointed. Artistically, they are part of the vault, — structurally, a portion of the wall, yet no de- ception is intended. When stone lintels are used of a length incapable of self-support, the relieving arches placed over them should not be concealed. It is a kind of deception which injures the beauty of the building, and might lead inexperienced observers to attribute undue strength to material. Where stone architraves can- not be obtained of due length, concealed arch-joints, as used by English architects, are vicious. The ap- pearance of a ponderous stone with vertical joints, suspended you know not how, is most painful; but if you shew the arch-joints, as is usual in France, (however inconsistent with the principles of trabeated architecture,) you at least make your construction 256 On the Boundaries of Truth and Falsehood truthful, and avoid an unpleasing anomaly. While features should never be introduced for mere effect where not suggested by any practical cause, it may in some cases be lawful to use them to hide an un- avoidable inelegance, — as the junction of two roofs whose natural intersection is uncouth. In all such cases we should apply our test. — If we are conscious of wishing to create a false impression, we must at once put on the curb ; but if we only desire to avoid unsightliness without introducing a sham, — to screen an unpleasing part without putting forward a fallacy, the case is different; but in these frontier questions, we should always lean to the stricter side when any uncertainty exists. Finally, it may be suggested by some one well disposed to our views, whether, though all this strict- ness is necessary in church-building, where any kind of frivolity is unworthy of the dignity of the sub- ject, the same holds good in buildings of a secular, and perhaps undignified, character ; whether, though "We seek divine simplicity in him who handles things divine," in the things of ordinary life a little license and play- fulness is not allowable. I fully admit this within certain limits; but we may be playful without being vicious, — merry, jocose, and even frivolous, without being untruthful. To ob- ject to shamming in a church while we admit it in a house, is like punishing a child for telling lies on a Sunday. I would not even in churches press matters to the extent of purism, and possibly in merely do- mestic work a little more license may be admissible, but no building for any serious use admits of delibe- in Architecture, 257 rate fallacy in material or design. All ages have had their gimcracks, in which nonsense is perhaps more truthful than reality ; but as we do not wish our houses to rank with such structures, but with the residences of rational beings, for goodness' sake let us treat them as such, and not enshrine ourselves and our children in temples of falsehood on the plea that we are only in sport ! s CHAPTEE XII. THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE FUTURE. GHALL we ever have an architecture of our own ^ day? This is a question to which much thought is being devoted, but to which no satisfactory answer has been, or perhaps can be, given. The very question has been, I believe, the result of our Gothic Eenaissance, which has, at least, set people thinking. When the world had gone on for three centuries vegetating over the revived Eoman till it was heartily tired of it, and after a not very successful attempt to purify it by reference to the original Greek, our archi- tecture at length found itself brought to a dead lock. Then came our grand effort for the revival of our own national style as the nucleus for future develop- ments. The Classicists fought hard against it, but — their own architecture being a Eenaissance, and that of the style of a foreign land and of an old world — they failed to enunciate any philosophical argument against the revival of the native architecture of our own country and our own family of nations. For a while they found themselves at fault, — when a new party came to their rescue, whose leading doc- trine was that every Eenaissance is wrong, and that a new style must be aimed at. After all, however, they appear in practice to be little other than our old The Architecture of the Future. 259 opponents in a new dress, and, under colour of advo- cating a style of the nineteenth century, have as yet done little more than attempt to obtain a new lease of the old state of things. Many of this party are, however, I am convinced sincere, and though we differ as to means, we fully agree with them as to the object to be aimed at, and would rather hail them as fellow- labourers than view them as opponents. We are agreed that the architec- ture of the day has become powerless, that the Eenais- sance of the sixteenth century was a false moA^e, and that our aim must be at a style of our own. We differ in this — that while one thinks the false step must be retraced before we can get into the right groove, and that the indigenous style of our race must be our point de depart, the other views this as a repetition of the original error, and holds that the point from which the future is to start must be that (however false) at which we now find ourselves. The difference is un- fortunate ; but if we cannot convince one another, let us each press forward according to our own views, and possibly we may come together in the end. The peculiar characteristic of the present day, as compared with all former periods, is this, — that we are acquainted with the history of art. We know better whence each nation of antiquity derived its arts than they ever knew themselves, and can trace out with precision the progressions of which those who were their prime movers were almost uncon- scious. What, for instance, did the Greek know of his joint debt to Egypt and Assyria for the elements from which he developed his noble architecture ? The Eoman, it is true, was conscious of his copyism from the Greek, but was probably ignorant that he was s2 260 The Architecture of the Future. only overlaying with, a Grecian exterior an indigenous architecture of his own land, and that the native and the imported elements were ever striving for the mastery. Still less conscious were the Eomanesque builders that they were developing out of the ruins of an old world an element which Borne had neglected to perfect, and which was destined to generate, under a new civilization, a style of w T hich the ancient world had never seen even the faintest foreshadowing ; and I fear our glorious builders of the thirteenth century, while revelling in this amazing production of human skill, were almost as unconscious of what they had reached, or how they had attained it. It is reserved to us, alone of all the generations of the human race, to know perfectly our own stand- ing-point, and to look back upon a perfect history of what has gone before us, tracing out all the changes in the arts of the past as clearly as if every scene in its long drama were re-enacted before our eyes. This is amazingly interesting to us as a matter of amusement and erudition, but I fear is a hinderance rather than a help to us as artists. In all periods of genuine art no one thought much of the past, — each devoted his energies wholly to the present. Their efforts were consequently concentrated, and none of their thoughts dissipated or diverted from the one object before them; and to this we mainly owe the perfection which each phase of art in its turn attained. Facts, however, are stubborn things — and as we cannot, if we would, alter the conditions under which we have to work, let us (not — as I was going to say — submit to them, but) compel them to submit to us, and make them subservient to our own work. The Architecture of the Future. 261 Whether, then, the architecture of the future be eliminated by developing on a classic or a Gothic nucleus, it is self-evident that it must receive much of its colouring from this peculiar characteristic of our age. It would be absurd to imagine that our know- ledge of the whole history of art will be without its influence upon that which we ourselves generate, — it is impossible that it should be so. Influence it must exert, — it is for us to guide that influence by subject- ing it to our intellect. Like the portraiture of wisdom in ancient sculpture, we should have one face ever con- templating the past, and another always studying the demands of the future. The first natural effect of working with this vivid panorama of the past placed constantly in our view, is to induce a capricious eclecticism — building now in this style, now in that — content t.o pluck the flowers of history without cultivating any of our own. This is not, however, the part of wisdom. We have to lay down a plan for the future — to choose a dis- tinct course and to follow it with determination, and, having fixed on the line we will take, to develope and enrich it with our utmost energy — using informa- tion of other kinds as a means of amplifying and giving scope to the art which it is our aim to gene- rate, and never suffering it to allure us from the course we have selected. Leaving it to others to speculate on developments to be founded on a " classic" basis, I will attempt to do so on the result of that movement in which we wish to be labourers. I think we may, in the first place, lay down for the architecture of the future, that it must unite in itself the two great normal principles of construction 262 The Architecture of the Future. — tlie lintel and the arch. It is impossible that either of these can ever again be relinquished; each must in future be adopted as convenience dictates. The buildings of the middle ages admitted both, but it is for us more systematically to unite them. In the next place, I think it equally certain that in arched construction all reasonable forms of arch must be held admissible ; — knowing all forms, we are at liberty to reject any which may be shewn to be capricious, unsightly, or contrary to principles of sound construction; but we are not at liberty to proscribe any which are free from these objections. We have no right to limit the legitimate elements of construction, — nor could we do so if we tried. Especially must our future architecture embrace, and that heartily, the two leading forms — the round and the pointed arch. Eeason dictates as a necessary con- dition to a perfect arcuated style, that the arch should be capable of any necessary height, in proportion to its span, which circumstances may dictate. To pre- scribe a given proportion for all cases, or to say that it shall never exceed one half of its span, is to impose absurd fetters upon construction and proportion. The prima facie method of increasing or diminishing the height of our arch at pleasure would be to make all which are not semicircles, semi-ellipses, the springing line forming either the major or the minor axis, as we wish the arch to be lower or higher than the semi- circle. An elliptical arch is not, however, a pleasant form, and if higher than a semicircle it is most dis- agreeable; the simple expedients, therefore, are the segment and the pointed arch, and these answer all ordinary purposes. Where, however, the majority of the arches in a building are pointed, it is often more The Architecture of the Future. 263 harmonious, if one of a low proportion be wanted, to use a segmental pointed arch, rather than the semi- circle or the plain segment. In great engineering works, other curves, as the ellipse, the cycloid, &c, are admissible, as mechanical conditions may suggest, and though unpleasing on a small scale, where it is obvious that other forms would answer, they always seem to satisfy the eye where they are demanded by mechanical laws. Our archi- tecture, then, must embrace within its pale all these forms of arch. Again, holding as I do that the arch must ever in future claim precedence over the beam and lin- tel, and that in ordinary positions the pointed arch is better than the semicircle, as carrying more weight with less outward pressure, and as embracing within itself an indefinite power of varying its proportions, I would go a step further, and predicate of the archi- tecture of the future that, while embracing the tra- beated and the arcuated principles, it would prefer the latter; and that, admitting all good forms of arch, it would reserve a strong preference for the pointed. In like manner I claim liberty as to the form of roof, but with a strong reservation in favour of the high pitch. So, again, in windows, — though pointed architecture delights in the mullioned and traceried window, we must not put fetters on the individual feeling of our house-builders. One man may like a subdivided win- dow, but another may feel it an unpleasant constraint upon him : our architecture must be sufficiently com- prehensive to allow each man his choice in a matter like this, which involves, or ought to involve, no es- sential principle. Our windows, then, — particularly 264 The Architecture of the Future. our domestic windows, — will be divided or undivided at pleasure, but reserving a strong preference to the former. Fifthly. I would next claim for our future architec- ture a system of ornamentation independent of that of previously existing styles, though not rejecting them when found to bear the touchstone of Nature and the ordeal of reason. All works of pure decoration, whe- ther in sculpture or painting, must be remodelled by reference to Nature, — an implicit and unconditional falling back on which must be the great, all-pervading characteristic of the future style. In the application of Nature to architecture, the new developments will not refuse, but on the contrary accept with all gratitude, the aid of former works of art; — not studying Nature through them, but only using them as helps in the study and application of lessons learned from the fountain-head : and, while admitting the principle of what is called conven- tionalizing our imitations of Nature, so as to render them suitable to their material and situation, and not refusing to learn the art of doing this from the works of our predecessors, I would claim for it the rejection of all merely conventional forms of ornament in ancient styles, and the working out of all such as we may require fresh for ourselves. The range of natural objects brought under our no- tice being in these days greatly extended, I would open our art wide for their reception, rejecting no- thing which is beautiful and suitable, but giving the preference to objects likely to be readily recognised and understood. In figure-sculpture I would urge the implicit falling back upon Nature and fact, and generally as it is pre- The Architecture of the Future. 265 sen ted to our own observation. Greek sculpture should be studied just as Gothic carved foliage should be, — not as a substitute for Nature, on which both are founded, but as examples placed before us of the per- fection in which Nature has been studied and depicted by artists of former periods. In the same way the sculpture of the middle ages should be studied, — espe- cially with regard to dignity of expression and reli- gious sentiment, but also from its remarkable power of according with architectural positions, and from the beauty and dignity of its treatment of drapery. Our own inelegant costume is an admitted drawback, yet when professing to depict scenes of the present day, let us not hesitate to make them truthful, and perhaps our doing so may lead in time to the removal of the evil we lament. In its coloured decorations our future architecture has a noble field for development and invention. The whole subject must, I am convinced, be worked out afresh ; at present it seems to be in a state of hopeless confusion, but in my opinion is far from being in reality so hopeless as it appears. We want the efforts of real artists to be brought to bear upon it. We need a master-mind which can grasp the great prin- ciples which pervade all good art, and which, out of the immense fund of material left us by the Greek, the Eoman, the Byzantine, the medieeval, and the oriental decorators, can sift out all that is good, bring it to the touchstone of Nature and of natural princi- ples, and out of it generate a perfect style worthy of the highest efforts of which art is capable, and em- bracing every kind of coloured decoration of which architecture is susceptible. I need hardly say that all the disputes between flat- 266 The Architecture of the Future. ness and relief, and between natural and conventional drawing, would vanish with the advent of such a style. It would probably be then seen that every variety of treatment, from the simple outline to the most perfectly finished painting, has its place, and is suited to its own proper position ; and that, while no circumstance will excuse the caricaturing and deform- ing the human figure — the visible exponent of the image of God, — or the employment in its representa- tion of other than the best artists we can obtain, it will still appear too obvious to be disputed, that dif- ferent architectural positions will dictate greater or less degrees of severity and rigidity of treatment, or will leave it free and unfettered; but that in either case the artistic power demanded of the artist will be precisely the same, — that is to say, the very greatest he is possessed of. No possible circumstances afford an excuse for doing what has to be clone in other than the very best way which our abilities or resources render attainable. As I started on the supposition that the develop- ments of the future are to be founded on our own pointed architecture as a nucleus, I of course assume that the style will be essentially and mainly of that family; but I at the same time hold that it will be a perfectly new phase, differing more from any form that pointed architecture has hitherto assumed than any of those varieties (whether chronological or na- tional) from one another. It will differ, not only through expressing the ideas of another age, but also from its comprehensiveness. This must, in fact, be its leading characteristic. As before stated, the re- markable feature of our age, so far as it bears upon this subject, is our knowledge of all arts which have The Architecture of the Future. 267 existed. This, in my opinion, absolutely precludes us from generating a perfectly new art, spontaneously growing as a plant from its seed, as has been the case in former periods. Knowing all which has gone be- fore, we can scarcely fail to cull from among them such ideas as seem to have value for ourselves. Some of these ideas may possibly appear incongruous with the nucleus on which we are working, but this will not often occur ; and a living art has marvellous fa- cility for the admission of ideas apparently incon- gruous, and of harmonizing them with itself. Espe- cially, however, will all that is good in the various phases of pointed architecture be united under one head. Assuming in each country of Europe its own Gothic of the best period as a centre, it will, we would predict, become enriched by the best ideas of all other periods and countries. Not only must the different varieties of the architecture of "Western Europe be laid under contribution, but the great Eastern branch of Christian art be brought to aid our own, and espe- cially must we fill up the one great hiatus in our Northern styles by making that most noble feature, the dome, to form a conspicuous element in our future developments. This, however, is but a part of the amplification which the future architecture is, we imagine, to re- ceive ; it is merely its inheritance from the past, — its retrospective element. To this will be added, or rather on this foundation will be built, the creations of the prospective element. All the changes in the state and feeling of society which have taken place, or are yet to arise, (unless, indeed, such changes be vicious,) must be provided for. All inventions and discoveries must be brought 268 The Architecture of the Future. under tribute, and every new material or mode of ap- plying it must be made subservient to the one great end; and especially must our works be enriched by the introduction of all the varieties of richly coloured natural productions which circumstances may bring within our reach. Our architecture must unite within itself all that can be learned from the past, all that is demanded by the present, and all which will be developed by the future, — the style we select for our starting-point being the bond of union which will cement all these elements into one perfect and homogeneous whole. As, again, the style of the future must be unlimited in its comprehensiveness, so must it be also universal in its applicability. Like all genuine styles, its root must be in the temple, but its branches must en- twine themselves into every object for which architec- ture is needed, — excepting only such objects as are in their own nature vicious or mischievous, which I would gladly leave as an heirloom to other styles. The question has sometimes occurred to me, whether it is consistent with the spirit of the present day that its style should originate in religion, and from thence spread into its secular branches. At first sight it would, unhappily, appear that, however earnestly we might wish such to be the origin and growth of our future architecture, nothing could more thoroughly belie the spirit of the age whose God, as Mr. Owen Jones tells us, is Mammon. Still, however, there is hope in the fact that the only style which bids fair to form the groundwork of the future, is not only one sacred in its own origin, but one which in our own day is considered as par eminence ecclesiastical. It is admitted by friend and foe that we have The Architecture of the Future. 2G9 ^rightly or wrongly) succeeded in re-establishing the pointed style as the sacred architecture of our day. Our enemies say that this is a misfortune, — a grand mistake, — but do not dispute the fact ; cold friends admit both the fact and its propriety, but tell us to stop there, and let our architecture henceforth have its profane as well as its sacred language : but far be it from us to admit such a half-hearted argu- ment ! Having established, and that I hope on a solid basis, our sacred architecture, (though we trust we have done no more than to make it take root, and that its true and healthy growth is still future,) it is for us now to graft upon the sacred stock the germ of every noble, every useful, and every pleasant branch of secular architecture, and to labour hard to promote their vigorous and healthy development ; so that, with all the worldliness and self-seeking which characterize our age, our secular arts may after all be legitimate offshoots from a sacred stock. Our architecture, then, must be universal in its applicability. The style which is best for the church, must be equally so for the palace, the court of justice, the market, and the dwelling-house. It must em- brace also engineering works, — as bridges, viaducts, and railway constructions. It must influence the cha- racter of our commercial structures, as warehouses and factories, and our agricultural buildings and labourers' cottages ; yet must it be so elastic as to shape itself afresh for every one of these purposes, so that while no one can say that we have a different style for the church, the palace, the factory, and the cottage, no one, on the other hand, can accuse us of making any one of these buildings affect the character of another. Each must have its own forms and characteristics, yet 270 The Architecture of the Future. a bond of union pervade the whole which will make it clear that all belong to one commanding, compre- hensive, and all-pervading style. It would be superfluous to argue that one of the characteristics of the future style must be truthfulness. The very existence of a living style presupposes this. True it may be that, at all periods, truth has been forgotten in individual cases, — it is a part of the weakness of our nature, — but no art can be worth a thought which systematically permits such departure from principle. It is the disgrace of a period like our own which possesses no true style, and is a vice which must vanish at the advent of a living architecture. One of the characteristics of our age, or rather one of its vainglorious boasts, is its practical character. In art it has utterly failed in carrying out this feeling ; still, however, there is no doubt that it is the aim and intention of the age to be practical, and this must give its tone to the architecture of the future. It must be pre-eminently practical, and (if I may use the term) straightfonvard. It must not aim at artistic effects, — it must avoid fantastic and strange forms ; it must have a simple primary aim at utility ; at, in the first place, thoroughly and in the best way providing for the object for which the building is erected; and, secondly, at expressing that purpose in its architec- tural aspect ; superadding to this so much of beauty, of artistic form, and of picturesqueness, as is evidently consistent with its purpose, and as naturally results from the forms which convenience dictates. Quaintness is not one of the characteristic feelings of the age, and should be but sparingly used in our architecture — as the grain of garlick — just to give a piquancy to the otherwise too common-sense character The Architecture of the Future. 271 of our designs. All this does not preclude spirit and force pervading everything, — the more of them the better. What I am objecting to is that intentional queerness and artistic ugliness which some of our young architects labour to produce. Next to perfect fitness for its object, both in fact and in expression, actual beauty must ever be the leading aim of archi- tectural design. Another characteristic which we may expect in the rising style, is a universality in its feelings towards collateral arts. It must open its arms wide to receive all that is good and beautiful. It must not be for ever questioning whether the pictures, sculpture, or objects of vertu which are brought within its walls are or are not consistent with its character. As it must be capable of meeting all wants, of using all materials, and of adopting all legitimate constructive processes, so must it admit as accessories all that is genuine and beautiful in other branches of art. I do not mean that it is to be capable of uniting in itself arts which have characterized different ages and countries, — it may learn from all, and embody in itself the lessons thus learned ; — but I am now rather speaking of unattached objects of art, as pictures, sculpture, jewelry, &c, &c. "While, however, I would claim for it the free ad- mission of all works of this kind, I would also demand of it that it should influence all these subsidiary and collateral arts ; so that, without in any degree cramp- ing their natural vitality, they may evidently belong to the great and catholic system of which my imagined architectural style will be the leading type. Our architecture being founded on reason and Na- ture, aided and influenced by knowledge of the past 272 The Architecture of the Future, and tho requirements of the present and the future, our other arts must acknowledge the same principles and influences, and will unite with our architecture without losing a whit of their scope or freshness. Lastly, it ma}^ be asked, what influence do we ex- pect that the present so-called classic styles will exer- cise upon the result we are imagining ? Is the work of three centuries to be unfelt in the future develop- ments, and its monuments to remain among us in a state of isolation, exercising no influence upon future art ? It would, I am convinced, be as unphilosophical to wish, as it would be unreasonable to expect this. The actual course of things may probably be some- thing of this kind. The two great schools of archi- tecture (known unreasonably enough by the names of Classic and Gothic) will probably run on for many years collaterally. In each there will be a servile and a developing party, and in each the latter will be ever gaining the ascendancy. As the developing parties in the Classic school progress, they will probably be ever striving to perfect the arcuated element in their architecture ; they will also see that the perpetuation ad infinitum of the details used in ancient Rome is, on the very face of it, absurd, and will substitute orna- ments founded upon Nature for the worn-out enrich- ments of their school. This, with the introduction of new materials and inventions, and the constructive colouring which we also aim at, will gradually assimi- late their developments to our own, till at length (as I fully believe) they will unite in a style infinitely more Gothic than classic. The influence of existing classicism on our own de- velopments will, I apprehend, be comparatively slight, but still pretty decided. As in Italy the presence of The Architecture of the Future. 273 antique remains ever influenced the mediaeval styles, so will the presence of the imitations of them influence, though in a vastly less degree, our own works. The Roman remains, however, in Italy were noble, and pointed back to a glorious history ; no wonder, then, that their influence was strong. Such can hardly be predicated of our own pseudo-classic buildings, though doubtless many of them possess great merit. All that is really national or historical in the buildings around us must ever draw us towards the mediaeval styles. What, then, will be the effect of our classic buildings on our new style ? I think it will be little other than to lead us in tow-buildings to assimilate our leading forms, in a slight degree, to those by which they must for many years be surrounded; and, as a means of doing this, I think they will lead us to study the mediaeval works of Italy in conjunction with our own ; not to adopt Italian Gothic, but simply to learn from it so much as will enable us to soften down the asperity of the contrast between our own Gothic and the mass of modern buildings ; and to prevent our introducing positive discords, while we are developing an architec- ture which we hope will in due time supersede that hard, ungenial style, which at present paralyzes every warm and hearty aspiration for noble architecture in the minds of the generality of our population. Finally, what hinders that we should at once com- mence the attainment of this noble and long-desired object? Is it that we wait the advent of some mighty genius, who will override all our petty jealousies, preju- dices, and difficulties, and set us at once in the right path ? If so, we may long wait in vain ; for even such a genius as Pugin rarely appears twice in a century. T 274 The Architecture of the Future. Does it require that some great catastrophe should demolish our social system, and that another should rise out of its ruins ? If so, long may we wait for the event ! No ; our hinclerance is our want of unity and steadiness of aim and purpose ; it is, too, the frivolity of those who, after cheering us on for a time, turn against us just when attaining a nucleus on which to develope. — " A rolling stone gathers no moss." We want our nucleus to be overlaid with successive growths which arise from the necessities, inventions, and feelings of our time ; but if it is to gather such moss we must unite, one and all, in one steady, un- flinching effort, constant, untiring, and in the same direction. NOTE. ON THE USES TO BE MADE OF THE MEDLEVAL ARCHITECTURE OE ITALY. The Gothic revivers have of late been somewhat severely taunted by their opponents, on the free use they have made of ideas derived from the Italian works of the middle ages. It is likely enough that we may be more or less deserving of such taunts, and I feel rather glad of them as curbs upon the tendency to which we are all liable to depart from the strictness of our own principles, and to indulge in too free an eclecticism. The argument used against us is this : — that, while we profess 'to be reviving our native architecture, we substitute for it that of Italy ; and, while we declaim against the classic styles as unsuited to our climate, we feel no scruples at using that which, though mediaeval, belongs to the same southern lands. Did we do this to the extent which our critics would wish to prove, we should be, in some degree at least, deserving of their censures. Even then, however, their case would not be so strong as they imagine it. Classic architecture is the indigenous offspring of southern climes, or, so far as it is derivative, came from countries still more southward than those which perfected it. Gothic architecture, on the contrary, is the offspring of northern climes, and when found in Italy is in some degree exotic, being imported from the north. If, therefore, we bring back to our northern countries the ideas which it developed during its sojourn in Italy, we are not necessarily import- ing southern architecture, but only a modified variety of our own. Still, however, I quite agree that it would be in- T 2 276 NOTE. consistent to import it in the form which it has assumed under a warmer sun. It is occasionally done, but I think it mistaken. Are there not, however, features which it may have de- veloped in Italy, which are unconnected with climate ? Did it not so happen that the social state of the Italian, cities during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was particu- larly well calculated for generating a palatial style suited to town mansions and public buildings? This state of things was not the result of climate, but was accidental ; why then are we to be debarred from learning lessons from works which originated from circumstances as likely to arise in one country as another ? Again, had not the Italian architects command of rich material, from which the cotemporary builders here were debarred ? Why, then, should we not learn from their mode of using them now that we are able to procure corre- sponding materials? To introduce features belonging es- sentially to a southern climate, or those semi-classic details which arose from their occupying the site of departed classi- cism, and which are the great defects of mediaeval Italian, would be absurd ; but to avail ourselves of any ideas which were there worked out, and which are unconnected with any of the circumstances, physical or moral, which essentially dis- tinguish Italy from England, is simply the part of common- sense. The fact is, however, that those who say most on this sub- ject know little of what is or is not Italian ; and if we attempt any deviation from the most familiar types, par- ticularly if we adopt an early character, and a somewhat columnar type, they at once conclude that it is Venetian, though it probably bears but little resemblance to anything in Venice, and contains no essentially southern element a . The following remarks, written two years ago, express my general views on the subject. They are reprinted from the " Ecclesiologist" of June, 1855. a Many of the details which are talked of as Italian are frequent throughout France, and exist in works executed in Normandy while under English rule, and are to be found even in English buildings. MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY. 277 " One of the most important cautions which the student of mediaeval architecture should impose upon himself, on first visiting Italy, is to guard carefully against being too much carried away by the reaction against former prejudice. The lover of Pointed architecture usually visits Italy late, and almost always under the impression that it contains little that is exactly in his line ; and when, so far from this im- pression being confirmed, he finds that it is absolutely filled with objects of the deepest interest to him, he is apt to fly at once to the opposite extreme, and to be so much enamoured of these newly- discovered beauties, as to think them superior to those of the works on which his former ideas and know- ledge had been founded. This is a great mistake. Were it even true that the Pointed architecture of Italy were superior to our own, it would be unwise to in any degree substitute it for that which is pre-eminently our national form of architecture, and which has on that ground (as well as so many others) such special claims to be made the basis of our future developments. Such, however, is far from being the case. Italian Pointed, though replete with beauty, is per se very inferior as an architectural style to the cotemporary architecture of Eng- land, and especially of France. Its details are so mixed with reminiscences of classic antiquity, and its construction falls so far short of carrying out fully the great principles of Pointed architecture, that it must ever be considered as a far less perfect development of the style than those of Northern Europe. These facts, however, once admitted, Italian Pointed may be studied with very great advantage, and will be found to supply a vast fund of material which may be used to enrich and render more copious and complete that which we derive from our northern examples ; and which may be imported into our own style, without in any degree infringing upon its nationality. It is almost presumptuous to attempt an enumeration of the lessons we may learn from Italian art before a society which has given so much practical consideration to the subject. 278 NOTE. The first I will notice is the extensive use of what has received the name of Constructional Polychromy. This is perhaps the very first thing which strikes the eye on visit- ing Italian works of the middle ages. Its highest develop- ment is of course where marbles of different colours are used in the actual construction of the building, as in the Cathedral and Campanile at Florence. The mass of the work is there of white or veined marble, but is interstratified and panelled in certain proportions with red and dark green marbles ; in addition to which the parts are enriched by inlaid patterns, in marbles of various colours, the whole forming the most exquisite combination of colour which can well be imagined. At the Cathedral at Sienna the only materials are, so far as I can recollect, white (or veined) and black marbles, which are for the most part alternated in equal proportions. Here the effect is very inferior to what we see at Florence ; the contrast is too crude, and the proportions of dark and light colour unpleasing. This was, however, corrected in the addition commenced, but never completed, on the south side of the church, where the columns have only one course of black to four of white, with a slight addition of inlaying ; and here the effect is exceedingly fine and harmonious. In the east end, also, the proportion of white and black courses, and of inlaid pattern, is exceedingly pleasing. I mention this, because it is of the utmost importance, if this mode of decoration is attempted, that the proportions of the different colours be most carefully studied. The use of marbles of different colours for detached shafts is a universal feature in Italian Pointed, and is a system of decoration peculiarly open to ourselves, from the great variety of rich material now at our disposal. I will mention one instance of it which particularly struck me. I refer to one or two pillars at the western end of the nave arcades in the cathedral at Genoa. These are of later date than the church in general, and are so beautiful in their detail, that, without any wish to disparage Italian architecture, my first involun- tary impression was that they must have been designed by a French artist, of which I am the more convinced from looking again at my sketches. The artist, however, made MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTU11E OF ITALY. 279 himself perfect master of the Italian material. The pillars consist of an octagonal nucleus of plain stone, nearly con- cealed by twenty-four detached shafts which surround it. These are most beautifully arranged, both in position, size, and colour. Those occupying the four cardinal faces (1 ft. 5 in. in diameter) are of a rich mottle of crimson, green, and white. Those on the diagonal faces (11 in. in diameter) are alternately of white and black ; and between these and the great shafts are, in each interval, two smaller shafts, (6| in. and 4f in. in diameter,) also black and white, but the colours counterchanged, so that on two sides we have three white and two black, and on the others three black and two white. The richly carved capitals are white, the abacus with carved cresting of dark marble ; the bases (supported by stiff foliage) are of a mottle of black and crimson on a light coloured plinth. The superincumbent arches are of alternate vous- soirs of light and dark marble. The whole struck me as the most beautiful combination I had seen, and applies especially to my present subject, inasmuch as the design clearly belongs to Northern Gothic, though the material and its treatment are Italian. Much the same may be said of the beautiful western por- tals of the same church, evidently designed by the same hand. The details are for the most part purely French, as is the general design, but the use of polychromatic materials is carried to its fullest extent, as also is the use of that beau- tiful Italian feature, the twisted column and moulding. In one of these portals, of which I took memoranda, the larger detached shafts are alternately of green and dark mottled marbles ; the smaller ones of a red mottle and black. They are placed against a flat splayed jamb, of great depth, which is formed of alternate courses of dark and light marble, the light courses being each inlaid with small pattern-work. The bases are white, with the beautiful French enrichment of supporting leaves; the plinth is in courses of various colours, inlaid, dark upon white, and white upon dark. The arch-stones are alternately dark and white, but in some of the orders the individual bowtills are cut out, and black or white inserted; counterchanging in each course — an ex- 280 NOTE. aggeration, perhaps, of the principle, as it infringes a little upon the construction. On the whole, these western parts of the cathedral strike me as among the most valuable speci- mens I have seen, and the more so as they fully illustrate the principle I am advocating, of enriching Northern Gothic with Italian ideas, but doing so without infringing upon its essential characteristics. We have here ready to our hand an original instance of what I suggest. The form, perhaps, of constructive polychromy which most concerns ourselves is that produced by the use of brick and stone, (with the occasional addition of marble.) Yerona is peculiarly rich in work of this kind. In these works we usually find each order of the arches of doorwa} r s, windows, &c, in alternate voussoirs of stone and brick, their relative positions counterchanged in the different orders, and some- times the orders thus formed are alternated with others en- tirely of stone, and carved. These features are exceedingly beautiful. The same occurs in the Old Palace at Mantua, and is indeed common throughout that part of Italy ; the walls are usually banded at intervals with single courses of stone. While on the subject of brick, I may just mention the great beauty of many Italian buildings which are wholly of that material. Such is the case with the ancient parts of the cathedral, and with the tower of another church, at Man- tua, works by no means devoid of ornament ; but I recollect no work of this kind which struck me so much as the Mer- canzia at Bologna. Its front is of exquisite beauty, and is almost wholly of brick, including carvings of the richest character and the most beautiful execution. The church of S. Petronius in the same city, a structure of extreme gran- deur, though I cannot admire its detail, is internally almost wholly of brick, though unfortunately now whitewashed. Its foliated capitals and other ornaments are of brick. As, however, Mr. Street has made the brick architecture of Italy his special subject, I will not say more upon it. I may, however, in connection with it, call attention to the extensive use of terra-cotta, or brick of a superior kind and on a larger scale, used for the more artistic portions of buildings. When MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY. 281 used in these days, terra- cotta is treated as a sham stone, but in the old Italian buildings I never saw it used otherwise than as the highest development of brick. The practice of overlaying buildings with thin slabs of marble I will not dwell upon. It is open to this objection, that if the slabs are quasi-constructive in their distribution, they involve a sham ; if not so, they disturb the constructive idea which it is so desirable to keep up in dignified architecture. I consider the practice fair and admissible, if not pretending to be constructive, but would suggest that it would be much better to limit it to panels and other subordinate parts, — the genuine walling material being shewn around it. I may mention that, at S. Mark's at Venice, the slabs are placed with their longest dimension vertical, as if to prevent any thought of their pretending to be constructive. In the do- mestic buildings at Yenice, the windows being generally of marble, while the walls are of plastered brickwork ; the former are made almost like a modern chimney-piece, the whole window construction being cut out from the wall into which it is built by what a modern mason would call an ' out ground/ or thin strip of marble (perhaps an inch and a half thick) built edgeway into the wall, and enclosing the orna- mental dressings of the window. The edge of this slip of marble is cut into the peculiar Venetian dentil. Coloured marbles are often used within this framing. The next Italian element I will mention as capable of being imported into our own styles, is mosaic work. This offers too wide a scope for me to attempt to dwell upon it. We have full proof that our own church builders considered it suitable to their works, from their introduction of it in Westminster Abbey and other buildings. The glass mosaic used as a decoration for architecture (as distinguished from floors) seems to me, if its manufacture were successfully re- vived, to be a very beautiful and legitimate enrichment. The glass, however, must be opaque, and the gold external, pro- tected only by a glaze on its surface. In the instances of it which we have in Westminster Abbey, it is used with Italian architecture ; but this seems merely the result of employing Italian workmen. It might as readily have been used in a 282 NOTE. work of English design. In the cathedral at Prague, a large external surface is faced with it or with some very similar mosaic. The whole subject of painted wall- decoration may be studied with the greatest advantage in Italy. In northern buildings we generally find it in a very fragmentary state from decay and intentional obliteration, but in Italy we may study it in its integrity. Besides this, the Italians having always ex- celled as colourists, the intrinsic merits of their decorations may fairly be supposed to be such as to command our special attention. Their details, however, I would not generally re- commend to direct imitation, being very much derived from classic ornament, and they are frequently guilty of the modern sin of shamming, their decorations often representing marble of different kinds, moulding, and mosaics. The bands or borders of ornamental work with which they framed their frescoes, or divided the surfaces of wall or ceiling, and with which they edged their windows or the compartments of groined vaulting, are often peculiarly beautiful in their treat- ment, and, though bearing strong traces of the antique, fur- nish very useful hints for ourselves. Their mode of intro- ducing small busts of saints in fresco in quatrefoils, &c, at intervals in these borders, and in circles in the vaulting, is peculiarly beautiful, and might be imitated where a more extended use of fresco would be impossible. I may mention that the borders to the groining compartments are often faulty in uniting too completely with the rib, and appearing to give it a disproportionate width. Fresco-painting, properly so called, can only be studied in Italy. It is the great glory of mediseval art in that country, but is too wide a subject for me to venture upon. I will just throw out for consideration, whether, in frescoes used as a part of architectural decorations, the Italian method of ren- dering them complete paintings without an outline, or that more usual in the north, of defining every figure (as in glass) by a strong outline, is the most appropriate. While on the subject of frescoes, I will suggest, as a point meriting careful consideration, whether their presence is any legitimate reason for avoiding rich stained glass. Such would not ap- MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY. 283 pear to have been the practice in Italy. In the chapel in the Arena at Padua (a building evidently designed expressly as a field for artistic decorations of the highest order,) rem- nants of rich glass exist sufficient to shew that it originally filled the windows, and its absence gives a cold, crude tone to the decorations. In the church of S. Petronius at Bologna, many frescoes have existed, though now obliterated, but the windows are still filled with the richest glass. The apse of Santa Croce, at Florence, retains both its frescoes and its glass, the latter fully as rich as that in northern churches, and though I spent a considerable time in it, carefully ex- amining its detail, the question of whether the frescoes suffered from the glass never so much as occurred to my mind. It may be that the amount of light diffused in a southern at- mosphere may admit of both, but that in our climate it would not, — but, as we use about double the surface of window that the Italians did, one would think that this ought to correct our deficiency of light. Among the specimens of Italian Decorated interiors which particularly struck me, I may mention the exquisite chapel of S. Felice in the church of S. Antonio at Padua, and that of S. John, under the east end of the cathedral at Sienna. The latter, however, I was pre- vented from examining carefully. The architecture itself of Italian Pointed buildings, as I have said before, does not strike me as being suited to our imitation in its main features, nor yet in its more ordinary de- tails. Even here, however, the exceptions to be made are very numerous. First, I would mention the use of twisted shafts of an infinity of patterns, often enriched with carving or mosaic, — also of twisted or cable mouldings, around arches, and in many other positions. These, particularly the former, seem to me to furnish a decorative element of great value. The window tracery is often inferior, but occasionally is treated in a most masterly manner, as in the filling in of the round arches in Or San Michele, at Florence. These were originally the arches of a market-house, but were altered to Gothic win- dows of exquisite beauty and great originality. They are figured in Professor Willis's Work. I cannot mention this building without noticing the wonderful ciborium, altar, and 284 NOTE. altar-enclosure it contains : one of the most splendid works of its kind in existence, decorated with sculpture, inlaid mar- ble, coloured glass, and almost every kind of enrichment. To go through the range of Italian Pointed architecture, and pick out the parts I think capable of being used con- sistently with our own, would be a most lengthy business. It is better to suggest the principle, and leave every one to use it to the best of his own judgment. One great question which the subject suggests is the problem of the use of the dome in Pointed architecture, much too wide a question, however, for the present occasion. The extensive use of round unclustered pillars ; the splendid pulpits (e. g. those at Sienna and Pisa) ; the treatment of sepulchral monuments (not always, however, felicitous) ; the beautiful introduction of sculptured busts (as in the painted decorations) ; the sculp- ture generally ; the greater scope given to niche-figures than in our narrow niches ; the practice of canopying windows and flanking them with detached shafts standing on corbels beyond the face of the wall ; the splendid quasi-machicolated cornices and parapets (as those of the cathedral and cam- panile at Florence) ; and an infinity of other features, deserve a most attentive though discriminating study. Lastly, the domestic architecture of Italy will, if rightly used, add a great store of useful materials to that which we obtain from our own examples. The square, corniced street- fronts (though I should mention that they were almost as common in French towns) are in many positions more suited to modern use than the gabled front. The treatment of the windows, the freedom with which the openings are either divided by mullions or left unbroken, as convenience might dictate ; the beautiful way in which balconies, balustrades, external staircases, and all kinds of objects of ordinary re- quirement are introduced, offer a copious field for most useful practical study, and one greatly tending to supply what is wanting in our own domestic architecture. In making use, however, of such suggestions, the difference of climate must never be lost sight of. I will only add that my object having been to point out in a hasty way what I think suited to our own use in Italian MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE OF ITALY. 285 Pointed, I have not adverted to the features to be rejected. What I wish to suggest is the careful avoiding of the un- bridled eclecticism of the day, which leads every traveller to run wild after what he happens to have seen last, and to urge our strict adherence to the great principle upon which we have started, — "the revival of our own national branch of Christian art, as the basis of future development, and the making use of other branches not as in any degree super- seding, but adding copiousness to, our own." PRINTED BY MESSItS. PARKER, CORN-MARKET, OXFORD. / _ GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 3 3125 00655 9252