Iff' JBp A LETTER TO THF. SOCIETY OF THE DILETTANTI, WORKS TN PROGRESS WINDSOR. P ■ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/lettertosocietyoOOkels A LETTER TO THE SOCIETY OF THE DILETTANTI. A LETTER TO THE SOCIETY OF THE DILETTANTI, ON THE WORKS IN PROGRESS AT WINDSOR. BY MELA BRITANNICUS. At Windsor Castle let us pass a day, Where all cry out : " What sums are thrown away ! " So proud, so grand; of that stupendous air, Soft and agreeable came never there. Greatness with W tt dwells in such a draught, As brings all Brobdignag before your thought. To compass this his building is a town ; The Windsor Towers eye not with a frown, Grandeur like his demands a mural crown. Pope to Lord Burlington, with a variorum reading. LONDON : SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS. MDCCCXXVIL Printed by J. Davy, Queen-street, Seven-dials. LETTER, to. &c. J. apprehend, Gentlemen, that the criterion of a good architect consists, not so much in treading in the steps of ancient professors of the art, as in the power of feeling the spirit of the age in which he lives, and in considering, whether or no his plans proposed, square with the ideas of social order current in his time, as well as with those ways of life, which denote a later and more extended civilization; and which must exclude all notions of fitness from those edifices, which accord solely with the B 2 feudal and suspicious manners of our Saxon and Norman ancestors. This reflection is, perhaps, one of the greatest moment in the noble art of architecture; and its importance may be said to increase in the same ratio, as the size, durability, and notoriety of any structure in contemplation. Its weight is also increased by the reflection, that of all arts, there are none that speak so directly and generally to the mind, as architecture. " A house that is set upon a hill cannot be hid" saith the old adage ; and such is the influence of buildings on a grand scale, that it would be scarcely too much to assert, that the inhabitants of any rural neighbourhood, will be cheerful or uncommu- nicative, according to the style of any princely fabric that domineers around them ; and which their mental vision must often contemplate, compulsorily as it were, in their idle hours. These reflections, gentlemen, do not appear 3 to have met the mind of the great Vitruvius of the Goths, destined, under our committee of taste, to superintend the innovations at Windsor, who seems to say triumphantly : ** nihil actum est, nisi turribus arcem Cingimus, et Gothicis castellum construo saxis ;" and to add: " omne tuli punctum, provided I can gothicise the pile completely " ; or in other words, " provided I can push back the public mind from the ways of life which mark the nineteenth, to those which characterized the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." I do not pretend to enter into a minute criticism of the alterations already effected . It must be obvious to those who have lately inspected them, that the materials employed are good, that the windows are Gothic, essentially Gothic, that several of the towers are not ill corbelled, and that probably the portcullis-cases, the donjon- b 2 4 keeps, together with those precious accompa- niments of the civilization of the " good olden time," the holes for the melted lead and boiling oil, together with the bow and arrow bat- tlements, so requisite in the warfare of the nineteenth century, will be duly and religi- ously imitated; as nearly so, as the most zealous readers of Walter Scott and Anne RatclifFe can possibly wish.* Now at our epoch, wherein the spirit (as we hope) of improvement seems to have left these architec- tural characteristics of past times in the lurch, * Perhaps, nevertheless, some one might ask, why those turrets are thrust into the angle of St. George's Hall ? Care piccole torri che fate qua? Now turrets of the description in question, generally mark the centre in wings of a gothic building. They are here the more supererogatory, since the vast towers which elbow them, one on the terrace, the other in the court, have been raised materially, thus forming an unprecedented cluster. In revenge, we have the opening to the Long walk, which both ignonnt and skilful concur in admiring. 5 which consideration should teach us to look for something cheerful and inviting, rather than what is stale and repulsive, in public buildings, may we not conclude that the plan already advanced in execution, would be more appro- priate in the scene of a melo-drama at the Cobourg Theatre than at Windsor? Can we expect to see St. George's Hall waving, as in the days of the Edwards and Henrys, " with all the pomp of ' chivalrie" \ How many knights are we to descry, cased in steel, with ostrich plumes in their helmets, speeding breathless and dusty from the Holy Land, the portcullises to be raised, and the drawbridges to be let down with a clattering fracas of chains at their approach? Of two things, one must be the result. Either the committee had in view, that such must be the characteristics of the Court of England in this, and the succeeding century at least; or they must be taxed with an over-fondness for a 6 style, which can only now be consistent in the imaginative pages of the Great Known. Add too, that a large Gothic pile is least of all desi- rable to be preserved in our island, where so many monuments of that order exist more or less perfect, and which of late have been copied even to nausea by wealthy individuals ; where the climate is dull, and where the Gothic style, especially in palaces of notoriety, can only tend to fill the mind with selfish and disagree- able associations. For all castellated mansions present the idea of repulsive defiance ; and few ever approach a pile of gloomy towers, without saying secretly: " Here dwells a feudal lord; will he condescend to allow me to enter, or has he commanded his porter to frown on me from the frowning battlements V These ideas, gen- tlemen, acting no doubt with different force on different minds, it is impossible wholly to dispel ; and the architecture of the Goths for 7 regal residences, has been long rejected by the Italians and French, nations in these respects, wiser than our own ; and I have heard it appropriately enough defined by the latter, as V Architecture des Hibous, Those artists who are too devoted to its gloomy irregularity, and cumbrous magnificence, would do well to weigh a sentence of the Roman master of the art, who thus estimates, in general terms, the value of an architect: " Cum magnificenter opus perfectum aspic ietur ab omni potest ate, impensce laudabuntur; cum subtiliter, officinatoris probabitur ex actio; cum vero venustate, proportionibus^ et symmetriis habuerit auctoritatem 3 tunc fuerit gloria architecti"* Now, of these qualifica- tions, the director of Gothic buildings may think himself fortunate, if he can reap the merit due to great expense and magnificence alone ; * Vitruv. lib. ii. ad fin. 8 from the other two, as stated by Vitruvius, the uncouth nature of the style seems almost to exclude him; and the truth of this will be manifest/on considering that any stone-mason, of short apprenticeship, is able to carve Gothic mouldings, while Grecian and Italian buildings can scarcely brook mediocrity in the sculpture destined to embellish them. If it were hesi^ tated, whether a copy of the great temples at Thebes, or Apollinopolis, were to be imitated at Windsor, or whether the actual plan were to be adopted, I suspect that no person of genuine taste would withhold his vote from the former ; for the Egyptian style, though by no means to be commended for a modern palace, would at least exhibit something interesting, something in the hieroglyphics, which referred the mind to astronomy; something which, though austere, would feed the spectator with those sacred recollections, which hover eter- 9 nally round Nilus. But in an ordinary Gothic chateau, what is the first idea presented to the mind? — A prison. What in the most embel- lished of the same style? — At best, an orna- mented Bastile. Let us not, on the other hand, be insensible to the merits of a well-constructed Gothic edifice for sacred worship ; since gene- ral opinion, in the north of Europe at least, seems to coincide with the dictates of nume- rous writers, who have insisted on its aptitude for that purpose. The preceding strictures, therefore, only refer to the adoption of the style, in our age especially, for palaces, and mansions of notoriety. One would naturally imagine that a com- mittee of taste, before they ventured to touch a pile of such importance as Windsor, would have appointed some delegate of tact to cast his eyes attentively over the palaces of the 10 country; who would find only the dull brick one of Kensington; that at Hampton Court, spacious indeed, but gloomy; that at Kew, which has all the inconveniences of the Gothic, without any of its grandeur; the Hindostanee fabric, grafted on the Ionic pavilion, at Brigh- ton; the palace, or rather college for decrepid pensioners, at St. James's; and the Palladian pile of Carlton House, which, by a singular fatality, though among the best buildings in the metropolis, is already doomed to destruc- tion. He would then, no doubt, consider circumstantially the actual condition of the castle at Windsor ; where he would be struck with a vast heterogeneous edifice, presenting scanty monuments of its first founders ; to which a small portion, built of puny materials, was added in the reign of Elizabeth, so defaced by subsequent additions, and injudicious inno- vations, that he might almost read, " Take it ii away!" written on every stone. He would then cast a coup d'ceil, over the additions made in the reign of Charles II., which, though from their vastness they had something imposing, had they been destined to be removed entirely, would have left very little to regret, especially when we consider the ruinous condition of the timbers, and the bastard Gothic aspect of the towers and curtains, pierced throughout with Roman casements; neither, could any thing- have been materially to be regretted, except two or three of the ceilings of Verrio, who, as a painter, ranks but little higher than Sir James Thornhill. He would then cast his eye round the cheerful terrace, and without any effort of genius, would be struck with its unrivalled capability of presenting to view a Greeco- Palladian edifice, which should unite the cheerful, the magnificent, and the habitable; and not a cluster of sombre and inaccessible 12 towers, such as may well frighten the Muses from their " green retreats; " such as Eccelino, tyrant of Padua, may be imagined to have peeped from; or such as may have existed at Empoli, where the Ghibellines and Guelphs decreed to tear their country to pieces ; " " dove fu per ciascun sofferto di tor re via Fiorenza" to use the energetic diction of Dante.* These considerations appear to have made but a slender impression on the architect acting under our committee of taste, who, no doubt, sees in his nightly visions a mural crown suspended over his temples,* without any iEschines to oppose him, for treading in * When at Padua a few years since, I was shewn the observatory near the botanic garden, in a strange style, methought, for a building of that nature. " Quella fu la torre fabricata dal tiranno Eccelino," cried the guide. I need scarcely add, that it was Gothic, quintessential ly Gothic, 13 the footsteps, and extending the ideas of an architect to Henry VII. Howbeit, these con- siderations, even with the supposition that he had been willing to be influenced by them, of course, now fall to the ground ; now that one hundred and fifty thousand pounds have been spent in the building, and now that we must expect a great portion of the remaining sum voted, to be applied (if report be true) to the raising of the round tower an additional hun- dred feet; which, good taste, even in Gothic architecture, revolts from as excessive, and which the destined occupants will loathe, every time that they heave their asthmatic breathings in ascending the steep and tortuous stair- cases. " But," cries the bigotted antiquarian : " what! would you have proposed to raze to the ground that pile, which has been conse- crated by the Edwards, the Henrys, and Elizabeth, which is identified with all the 14 chivalrous recollections of the Holy Land, and which was so deservedly appreciated by George III. and his family?" I assert boldly, Yes; and add, that seeing the heterogeneous, and half undermined state of the old edifice, the fastidious lover of past art would, I repeat, have had nothing rationally to regret, but two at most of those ceilings, " where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre," several of which already bear proofs of decay. The test vindication that I can make, gentlemen, of the dislike entertained by the Gr&co- Britons of the style of the new works at Windsor, will be a sketch, consisting indeed of little more than simple lines, but sufficient for you, conversant with works of this descrip- tion, to form a tolerable idea of the spirit of the architecture, which I would have pro- posed; to form a perfect idea of the whole, 15 would require a series of drawings of several weeks' labour; a work indeed of superero- gation, now that the plan is irrevocably deter- mined. Presuming then, that you are well ac- quainted with the topography of the castle, I submit the following sketch to your appeal ; not with the indulgence of a vain reverie, that any thing similar could now be adopted; but with the hope of deterring future committees of taste (as they are called) from embracing, with head-strong temerity, plans for national buildings of the greatest import and expense, wholly abhorrent from the ways of life, and progressive civilization of our age.* I am the * What should we think of a Venetian committee of taste, of about two hundred years ago, if it had passed a vote of 300,000 sequins to restore the castle of Eccelino, which I remember to have seen at Bassano on the Brenta, to ks antiquated Gothic; instead of encouraging the cheerful and 16 more inclined to hazard this sketch, (and it aspires to nothing higher) when I consider the notoriety of the edifice in question; when I reflect how many lovers of art may hereafter come from Italy and France, to observe the works which England, probably at the zenith of her grandeur, shall have undertaken. Surely they will exclaim, as their eyes wander from Ccesars, to the Maids of Honor, or Devil's Towers:* " Voila an edifice qui conviendroit a merveille aux hfaos de Waiter Scott, ou Men a Richard Cceur-de-Lion ; mais pour creer un tel elegant "style invented by Palladio, and his school ? But this is exactly what has been done by the committee in reference to Windsor. * This nomenclature is in the true spirit of Gothic pro- priety. The tower called Ccesar's, cannot date earlier than the reign of Henry I. — the synonym of the Maids of Honor, or Devil's Tower, is worthy some disciple of Alaric. Club- bing the devil with the respectable maids of honor, as a suitor, we presume, en dernier resort, is in the genuine style of Gothic gallantry. 17 ouvrage au dix-neuvieme siecle, il faut que sa Majeste ait ete entouree de conseillcrs d'un esprit fort gothique;" while many of our countrymen will remark with Pope : Lo ! what vast heaps of littleness around ; The whole a laboured quarry above ground. And how could such criticisms be answered by the approvers of the style of the works in execution ? Only by a shrug of the shoulder, and the all-silencing reply of De gustibus non disputandum ; followed up by the mustachio argument: stet pro ratione voluntas. But it is not my object to insist further on fruitless declamation ; it remains for me to develop the general views, which, in my humble opinion, should have influenced the mind of any director of the works at Windsor. It is, however, necessary to premise, as a postulate, that the c 18 Castle exists in imagination, as it did in reality A. D. 1823. If any one ascends the Secretary of State's Tower, and looks towards the north, he will have the Winchester Tower facing him, or very nearly.* From the eastern extremity of which draw a line, that shall join the eastern end of the Secretary of State's. All the buildings to the right of the spectator, should be razed to the ground, while all to the left, comprehend- ing the Chapel, and Lower Ward, should be preserved. I have stated the general reasons why I would destroy, de fond en comble, the principal range of apartments ; it now remains for me to say, why I would preserve those of * See the Topography of the Castle by that clever architect Batty Langley. London, 1743. 19 the Lower Ward. It should be remembered, that the Chapel of St. George is, as it were, the sacred store-house of the glory of many illustrious men ; and that though its exterior presents nothing remarkable, the interior is so beautiful, as almost to baffle criticism; that though surrounded by unseemly buildings, and consequently having much of its indivi- dual effect destroyed, it stands relatively to the Castle, in no very conspicuous site ; that the surrounding buildings answer well enough their purposes, as residences for those attached to the Chapel, and as dwellings bestowed in charity on the poor knights. They are, in- deed, sufficiently untoward ; yet I do not see what would be gained by their removal, which could only be effected at great expense, and at considerable inconvenience to the Dean and Chapter. Another reason for preserving the Lower Court is, that the lovers of past times, c2 20 numerous in our isle, might continue to feed their minds with the most ancient part of the Castle; for the buildings of the Upper Ward are but as of yesterday, when compared with those of the Lower. All the towers and build- ings from Caesar's to the Winchester, which made Wickham, would remain then intact. Destroy the guard-room, and raise a stone wall of eight feet in height, along the line already drawn, which would insulate the Lower Ward and its buildings. Follows the demolition of the Round Tower, and of the rampart from Elizabeth's gallery to the Win- chester tower ; also of that part of the terrace parallel to the rampart; and the earth would be shovelled down, forming a sloping declivity as far as that slip of garden in the mead below, nearly opposite Eton, where it shall be left for the present. The grand work of destruc- tion would then begin at the end of Elizabeth's 21 gallery, and be carried progressively round as far as the Secretary of State's Tower, our first point of observation. The stones of the old building, of such value in the future operations, would then be piled a few yards off on the eastern and southern sides of the terrace; the choice furniture, together with the more valuable floorings and wainscotings, being properly stowed elsewhere. We have then the Round Tower, its tumulus, and all the surrounding buildings to the East levelled, in short, complete rase campagne on the TERRACE. It is not easy to trace the origin of terraces ; though it is most plausible to refer them to a military source. It is probable that the Per- gama of Troy stood on a species of terrace, which, no doubt, formed the proper post for 22 the sentries. As civilization extended, these terraces were transformed into places of re- creation and embellishment by the wealthier Greeks and Romans; and the gardens of Sallust at Rome, if we may judge from their site, presented one of the most perfect spe- cimens of the ancient embellished terrace; surpassed probably by none but the hanging gardens of Babylon, which, if we may believe the testimonies of ancient writers, were in all probability never elsewhere equalled.* But the Goths, those marrers of civilization, pushed back the terrace to its infantine state ; that is, to a contracted walk for sentries on duty, covered at best with bald gravel, and planted with sentry boxes at stated intervals. * In my last visit to the Roman metropolis, I was glad to see some attempts to restore this terrace to its ancient magnificence. The Pincian hill, planted in avenues of flourishing trees, presents now one of the most interesting public walks at Rome. 23 The best specimen that remains of their works of this description probably existing in any country, is the terrace in question; yet this can hardly show a continuous straight line of fifty feet, where one would think none but a drunkard could miss following one. Nunquam lined didicerunt uti, to quote Cicero in a letter to his brother, who had employed some awkward architects ! A little bit tacked on to a prior little bit, seems to have been the ne plus ultra of the genius of the Goths ; in their castellated mansions, be it understood, for in their churches they succeeded better. If any thing cheerful or spacious be found in terraces annexed to Gothic piles, it must be traced to a subsequent period. The present director of the works has indeed this advantage over his precursors, that owing to his superior education and experience, he has at his com- mand a greater coup a" ceil than them; still if 24 he means to abide by the spirit and essence of his style, I do not see how he can extend the terrace in question, or avoid giving repetitions of those cochlear staircases leading to it from the castle, with portals about four feet and a half, by two feet and a half, so that the relieving sentry getting fat, now that he has no Waterloo to thin him, may stick in the portal, to the merriment of his comrades on duty, stationed in box I., box II., &c. Neither could it be deemed at all irrelevant to the style, to erect a gyratory staircase leading to the royal cabinet, the giddiness occasioned by the approach to which, would expel the subject-matter of conference, as effectually as a heave, during a squall in the Bay of Biscay, from the brain of any coun- sellor of state. For the commonest observa- tion of the style of castles built from the days of the Conqueror to those of Henry VI. 25 inclusive, will confirm these as among the leading features of the order; neither do I see how the architect can avoid copying them, except per licentiam architectonicam, which figure may, I hope, prove as convenient as the per licentiam of the poets. The next operation would be the raising and extending of the terrace, so as to form a perfect square. It should be so raised, as to present no where a less elevation than ten feet from the surrounding soil; the stones of the old building would present a^ good mate- rials as could be wished for this part of the work; and plenty of rubbish would be at hand to help the filling up. Find the middle point of the Long Walk, and draw a line from it, preserving the parallel of the avenue northward to the Thames. This line would bisect the terrace, and palace destined for it, 26 Twenty-five feet , south of the terrace wall, draw a line at right angles with this, extend- ing to the east three hundred feet, and to the west, the same distance. We have then found the length and position of the terrace wall to the south. Complete the square ; the western side of which would pass twenty feet or nearly, west of the bow window of Eliza- beth's gallery ; to the north, it would exceed the terrace raised by that Queen, about the same distance; while to the east, it would sometimes fall short of, and sometimes about equal the existing terrace wall.* Describe a square within the aforesaid; any side of which shall be three hundred feet, the extent of the new building, which will leave a space * The proposal to gain ground by the extension of the terrace wall to the south, is not without reason. For the expense of filling up and walling would be quadrupled on the north, where the ground sinks so rapidly. 27 all round of one hundred and fifty feet for the breadth of each side of the terrace, which to the west, would be separated from the Secretary of State's and Winchester towers, by about one hundred and eighty feet mean distance. A clear idea then is exposed of the extent of the terrace, and of the exterior dimensions of the building. Proceed we now to the DECORATIONS OF THE TERRACE. The distinguished owner of the Borromean isles in the Lago Maggiore, as I was told by a person at Arona, being plied upon a time, by one of those whose heads are full of the wild and picturesque, to demolish his artificial terraces, replied: " My object is to have a garden artfully arranged close to my dwelling, 28 where I may walk without being scratched by thorns; as for wild nature, I have abun- dance of it around me:" and the answer was wise. For there is nothing more erroneous in the principles of English gardening, than to imagine that the immediate neighbourhood of any great house is beautified by letting nature run riot in the trees and plants. This is more strictly true in those palaces set off with terraces; objects eminently artificial, where, in our climate especially, we ought to court as much as possible an open sunny walk, and not be compelled to bow to every picturesque bough that we may meet, lest the bough, reproving us for our incivility, might roughly knock off our hats, and bruise our temples into the bargain. If nature then be employed to embellish such a work, she should serve rather as the handmaid than the mistress. It is then fair to assume, that the 29 old parterres, relieved by statues and fountains, provided they degenerate not into those silly concetti, which characterized many of the Italian and Dutch gardens, will be found to be the most appropriate ornaments for a terrace.* The forms for parterres, which may be considered the best, are the oblong oval, the simple parallelogram of a double square, the circular, and perhaps occasionally, the square, and hexagon. If you adopt any thing more complex, your garden will have the aspect of an old dame's carpet-pattern, and wind in those silly labyrinthal forms, which have been long since deservedly exploded* * Whimsical conceits were often affected by the ancients in their gardens, as well as by the moderns. Pliny the Consul, speaking of his Tuscan villa near Citta di Castello, has described with pleasure the squirting fountains, the architect's and his own names cut in box, &c. Proper accompaniments for the peacocks and cones of yew-trees, seen sometimes in the neighbourhood of London. 30 Neither, perhaps, can the beauty of parterres be enhanced further than by fine gravel walks, set off with box trimmings, or other peren- nials, carried indeed in different directions; but preserving the straight line, except when a handsome fountain, or statue, may require a circular space to set them off. Neither could I ever see any thing desirable in those vases to serve as flower pots; for exclusive of the plants thriving generally better in the par- terres, their liability to be broken amounts to a certainty in those gardens frequented by the public, as will be clear to those who, like myself, have visited the Roman villas, from the Aldobrandini at Frascati, to the Pamfili Doria on the Janiculum. Statues to please should always be above mediocrity ; neither should they be numerous ; and single figures well executed will have a 31 better effect on a terrace than several together in one group. Moreover it may be always remarked, that grouped statues are much more liable to suffer from damp, and mutilation, than single figures, and if any one of the component statues be injured, the effect of the whole suffers in consequence, as is the case with the celebrated Toro Farnese at Naples. All sorts of shrubs, and odoriferous plants that can bear our climate, should bloom in the parterres ; the hardier, of course, towards the north and east, the tenderer on the opposite points. These, though not for- mally clipped, should be so submitted to the pruning-knife, as not to exceed about four feet in height; for, otherwise, the views of the statues and fountains, as well as of the park, would be shut out. It should be remem- bered, that I am speaking of terraces, not of 32 shrubberies. The fountains and statues form now our subject of consideration. Of all embellishments, fountains for the ter- race at Windsor seem prima facie, the most impracticable. But we live in times wherein greater miracles have been accomplished through steam, than the mere propulsion of water from a lower to a higher level of scarcely two hundred feet. Some months ago being on a visit to the Chelsea water- works, and falling into conversation with the superintendent, I was informed by him that his engine, one of about sixty or eighty horse power, could force water to the height of St. Paul's, if required. I smiled incredulous; but when he shewed me the waters propelled with such force, as to threaten the rending of the pipes asunder, I became a convert to his 33 assertion. Many who have been at Paris, have visited the machine at Marly, a work of some merit for its epoch, whereby certain buckets are dragged sluggishly up a declivity, which, however, furnish sufficient water for the pipes at Versailles. If then such be the adequacy of a machine comparatively weak, what might we not expect to be effected by a steam-engine of two hundred horse power, erected a few yards below Windsor bridge? One might, indeed, tremble for the strength of the pipes, but not for the power of the machine to supply in abundance the urns of eight river deities on the terrace, the number which I propose to adorn it. The science of applying steam to hydraulic engines is, indeed, as yet in its infancy; and those who are gifted with mechanical and D 34 mathematical talents might graft numerous problems on this theory.* Fountains, especially in northern clim'ates, where the wind is often boisterous, ought to be rather of the falling than spouting kind. Those who have been at Rome, must remember that Triton, near the Barberini palace, the water spouted by which invariably transgresses its bason, and eats away the statue; even the more powerful, those, for instance, of St. Peter's, do the same by the action of the wind; while the Fontana di Trevi, and that of San Pietro Montorio, both falling fountains, and incomparably the best at Rome, transmit their streams regularly, whether the wind * It would indeed furnish an interesting hydraulic problem to discover, whether the eight pipes should branch from one great iron globe, into which the water should rush with irresistible force 5 or whether the pipes should branch, each from its own reservoir. Quod est demonstrandum* 35 blows, or no. The forms which I propose for the eight basons, will be four circular, and four double squares, with cycloidal turn- ings at either end; the diameters of the former about thirty feet, and the minor dia- meters of the latter about twenty-five. These could not be of marble without vast expense; but those hard compositions known as Roman, or other cements, with the labia turned like those of the simplest vase, would present a sufficiently handsome appearance, and be not so liable to suffer from the water and weather stains, as the marble. The water need not exceed three feet in depth in the different basons. The bronze statues of the river-deities will be as follow :* No. 1. — Abus, the Humber. 2. — Aufona, the Avon. * See the topographical sketch. D 2 36 No. 3. — Tridentus, the Trent. 4. — Sabrina, the Severn. 5. — Tamesis, the Thames. 6. — Vaga, the Wye. 7. — Tavus, the Tay. 8. — Deva, the Dee. These, with their urns also of bronze, and reclining on rocks, might be varied in attitude, though their design might be generally similar. Some might resemble the figures of Bernini's fountain in the Piazza Navona. Though it may appear anomalous to exhibit Father Thames otherwise than as a venerable bearded deity, yet here I would rather picture him full of youth and vigour, a juvenis imberbis, like the Acragas, and several other Sicilian rivers seen on medals. Sabrina fair, round whom the muse of Milton hovers with affection, might be cast like that fine statue of the 37 Dordogne in the gardens of Versailles ; while Vaga might start up like a young Naiad, dolce ridendo, as she contemplates her stream. The water poured with redundant force from the urns, sometimes in clean sheets of at least six feet in height, sometimes broken by the rock below, would preserve a powerful ripple in the basons, stocked with gold and silver fish, and fill the mind with a thousand agreeable associations. The water should regain the Thames by a common subterraneous brick conduit. Four marble statues, each single figures, will surround each of the basons; and new conceptions of their forms might furnish excellent studies for Chantrey, and his rising school of sculpture; reaping thereby the ap- plause due to originality, instead of servilely copying the monuments of the Vatican and Florence. These will be as follow: 38 No. 9. — Vertumnus. 10. — Pomona. 11. — Diana. 12. — Endymion. 13. — Achilles. 14. — Briseis. 15. — Hermione. 16. — Orestes. 17. — Mars. 18. — Venus. 19. — Herse. 20. — Mercury. 21. — Perseus. 22. — Andromeda. 23. — Sappho. 24. — Phaon. 25. — Ulysses. 26. — Penelope. 27. — Dido. 28. — iENEAS. 29. — Hector. 39 No. 30. — Andromache. 31. — Helena. 32. — Paris. 33. — HlPPOMENES. 34. — Atalanta. 35. — Ariadne. 36. — Bacchus. 37. — Zephyrus. 38. — Flora. 39. — Ceres. 40. — Triptolemus.* * Unci puer monstrator aratri, as he is called by Virgil. It must be observed, that in England, as well as in Italy, statues suffer from the green mildew. This, I imagine, might be obviated by a simple remedy. If you take advantage of a dry day every three or four months, and dip a painter's brush in hot soft soap suds, painting as it were the statue, especially in the angular parts, and then apply the usual washing process with hot water, with the help of the brush, the marble, even in our humid climate, would preserve its lustre for a century and more. The more corrosive chemical abstergents might thus be spared, so hazardous always for the marble. 40 Thus we should have presented to view, the principal heroes and heroines of the two first poets that the world ever saw, Homer and Virgil; together with the major part of those beautiful emanations of the genius of Ovid, the Heroides. An idea at first occurred, that the distinguished men and women of our own country would furnish the best ornaments for the terrace ; but their portraits haunt us in our libraries ; their Gothic habiliments too, would look absurd and grotesque in marble. No : — Graios evpellas furcd, tamen usque recurrent. With regard to the balustrades, they should be open, and not exceed four feet in height, at most. Stone is preferable to iron, of which we have so much about us. I never saw any thing agreeable in those swelling balusters, which present an useless idea of strength, 41 where but little strength is required. The balustrade then continued all round the terrace, will consist of a series of little Tuscan co- lumns, with their entablature, preserving the systyle intercolumination ; every twenty to be interrupted by a shut parapet of the space of five of the columns. Three grand flights of stone steps will mark the approaches to the terrace. The ends of the balustrades to be ornamented, to the south, with a colossal lion and lioness couchant ; to the west, with a stag and hind couchant; and to the east, with a stag and hind also couchant. It must be confessed, that the tax of general admission to the public, often paid in England by the possessors of the exquisite in nature or art, is somewhat irksome; neither is it likely, that the public are much gainers thereby; for the sportsman would be rather 42 glutted than pleased with his day's shooting, were he to stir a covey of pheasants or ptar- migans every twenty yards he advanced : and philosophers have remarked with truth, that the pleasures of life are enhanced by the conquest of some difficulties. Moreover, there is no reason why a country palace should not furnish the pleasures of retirement occasionally to those, whose position in life is often irksome from its too great publicity. It is for these reasons, that I would propose the privacy of the terrace throughout the year, except on certain festivals, and on Sundays from the first day of May to the thirtieth of September inclusive; on which days the steam-engine should be lighted, so as to have the fountains in full play at the close of morning service, and so to continue to half an hour past sunset. ************* * ************* * 43 But I am constrained to remove the Daedalean wings of the imagination, and to contemplate dull Gothic reality. The turfed moat — the centipedal round tower — the gloomy barbican — the fretted roofs, but little seen, which con- sume so much mind, without developing its higher powers — the corbelled parapet over- hanging the iron-grated window — the duly numbered sentry-boxes on the bald gravel walk. — Such are the objects, destined of course to cheer our minds at Windsor, if, at least, the architect means to be true to the style which he has adopted; for, laying aside the great additional cost, which such fountains as above sketched would, in unison with the actual design occasion, it is obvious at a glance to any Vitruvian tiro, that they would be wholly anomalous and risible in a Gothic terrace. Neither do I see what statues could properly be employed, except perhaps a colossal one of 44 Hermanric in mail, the centenarian hero of the Goths, striding the round tower like the Colossus of Rhodes ; or unless we have dragged to view those Anglo-Saxon deities, which the Duke of Buckingham has wisely placed out of public view in his gardens at Stowe, as monu- ments of an uncouth and barbarous epoch. For the placing of classic statues on cheerful parterres round a Gothic pile, would be about as consonant with good taste, as the filling of those niches in our cathedrals, made vacant by the iconoclastic fury of the puritans, with the major deities of Greece; or to pursue the analogy closer, it would be about as congruous with common sense, as the act of a certain moral and moralizing legislature, beyond dis- pute the wisest in the world, which vests its hereditary hierarchy in the colonel of a regiment of light dragoons, and quondam member of a jockey club! 45 But my business now is with a house that is made with hands, and not with a house that is not made with hands ; which latter has been built in a preceding work.* Proceed we then to the ELEVATIONS. It is an ordinary error of architects, when required to give a splendid specimen of their art, to think that every end is gained by piling columns in useless profusion ; not only incur- ring thereby vast expense, but subjecting themselves to the disapprobation of true judges of the art, every part of which, as practised by the most expert professors of Greece and * See Remarks on the Geography of Great Britain, comprising Strictures on its Hierarchy; by Mela Britannicus. Ridgway, MDCCCXXV. 46 Rome, has its meaning, and rejects as much on the one hand, a too sparing application of columns, as on the other, a too indiscriminate use of them. The perfect square, set off with columns thus employed, appears, I think, to furnish upon the whole, the most satisfactory form for a palace of notoriety ; the four grand fronts presenting at once an idea of solidity, and magnificence, enclosing one inner court, and not several, like the Vatican, and the gridiron arrangement of the Escurial.* The aurea simplicitas of the Greeks, is better pre- * Perhaps as good a specimen of a palace that exists, is the shell of that built by the Emperor Charles V., which I saw at Granada some years since, and still remaining within the precincts of the Alhambra. Louis XIV. who saw beauties in Versailles which no one else did, rejected St. Germain en Laye, standing relatively to the Seine, much as Windsor does to the Thames. Both sites seem adapted for the exhi- bition of a cheerful and elegant palace : and both, though nature has done much for either, seem destined to display Bastile-like towers. — Proh Architectura / 47 served by only having two rows of windows ; if you adopt four, your building will infallibly have a barrack-like appearance. I have re- jected in the annexed design, not only the appearance, but the existence of roofs with garrets, which are always the bane of good architecture. " Where then," it may be asked, "should the servants sleep?" If a spacious area be carried round two or three sides of the inner court, the area would not only afford ample room for all the requisite offices, but also excellent sleeping-rooms for the servants, male and female; always more at hand, than if they be heard trotting up and down to their pigeon-holes in the roof. Plate the first exhibits the northern and southern elevations. The Corinthian columns are from the temple of Jupiter Tonans at 48 Rome; but I have adopted a different enta- blature. The pediment, which is left plain in the design, might be adorned with a figure of Britannia, standing in the centre, surrounded by reclining figures of Scotia, Wallia, Hiber- nia, and Csesarea, with their characteristic emblems. The antee in each wing, will sup- port a balcony of about twelve feet in breadth, to which the large French windows of the principal apartments will open ; this balcony, as seen in the plate, will be supported by antse, ornamented with colossal figures in the highest relief, the effect of which is in some measure lost in so small an engraving as the annexed; but their exact character may be known, by referring to those beautiful figures found by Stuart in the Incantada at Thessa- lonica. Four Persians, carved in bold relief, will, in the antee, support the extremities of 49 either wing.* The projecting balconies will, of course, form alcoves underneath, in the two elevations; consequently, there will be four of these alcoves open to the grand terrace; two of which will be adorned with terminal busts of the poets of Great Britain; and two, with terminal busts of her statesmen, and men of letters. We have then a general idea of the northern and southern fronts; the eastern and western elevations would, of course, exhibit "a different, and probably a simpler, design. Plate the second, displays a design for the portal of the entrance to the Long Walk — the Corinthian, indifferently engraved in the an- nexed plate, is from the temple of the Caesars * See Stuart's Athens, vol. iii. ch. ix. plates 6 to 13. The Persians are from a specimen given by Sir William Chambers in his plate of Caryatides. E 50 at Nismes, incontestably one of the choicest specimens of the order.* The eight statues will represent so many vestal virgins holding gas-lamps, the pure flame of which will be no inapt type of the sacred fire, and serve for the more homely use of lighting the entrance to the town of Windsor. It will be seen that * Few are the specimens remaining of this order, which betray the Grecian chisel. The lantern of Demosthenes, the temple at Iackli near Mylasa, a capital found in the ruins of the temple of Apollo Didymoeus, the Iacantada at Thessalonica, are quasi all that we can attribute to Grecian artists. But these, I think, are surpassed in beauty by the specimen at Nismes, which though Roman, is worthy of the age of Pericles. To get at as good a standard of the Corinthian as can be wished, assign seventy minutes to the Nismes capital; to obtain the best jet of the acanthus foliage, draw a right line from the extreme angle of the abacus, to where the acanthus shoots from the astragal : and let all the intervening members, and acanthus leaves, be tangents to the above line : adopt the base of the specimen at Iackli ; preserve the rest of the members as at Nismes ; and you will obtain a model not easily surpassed ; which to stand out clear, may be styled the Mela Corinthian. 51 the dados of the pedestals to the columns, are marked with three lines. It is with the help of these three little lines, that I propose to interpret the scamilli impares of Vitruvius, that eternal crux to his commentators, I imagine them to have been nothing more than so many receding facias, of what breadth is uncertain ; but no doubt sufficient to obviate the idea of the superincumbent building over-topping its perpendicular, likely to be the case from the unequal hardness of the foundations. It will be remembered, that scamillus means a little bench, which these facias, either of unequal breadth or number, as implied by the word impares, will not ill picture. The interpreta- tions of Galiani and Newton, to neither of which I can acquiesce, are well known ; but I am not aware that what is given above, has been ever hazarded before. e 2 52 THE INNER COURT. Architects are too often apt to sacrifice immense sums to the embellishment of inner courts, objects (except in the Gothic style, which entails more useless expenditure than any other) of very secondary consideration. This being the case, it is not only expedient to build inner courts of inferior materials, whereby much money is saved, but also to sacrifice therein uniformity to convenience; for it cannot be dissembled that the great regularity requisite in the exterior of Grecian and Italian architecture, is but too often hostile to the convenient interior arrangement, which the skilful architect will remedy, by not being too solicitous about the regular aspect of an inner court. The difficulty of imagining a back communication to the palace, 53 almost induced me to reject the subjoined de- sign altogether. But the word tunnel cleared all difficulties. This will pierce the terrace on the western side. The archway, lighted with about a dozen lamps, would furnish an useful adit through the Lower Ward, as well to the butcher, the baker, and grocery-maker, as to the more august inhabitants, if ever the wind and rain might make it disagreeable to traverse the terrace. The centre of the inner court will display a bronze equestrian statue of Alfred the Great; the extraordinary vigour of whose mind is felt at this hour, in most of our in- stitutions. The portrait can, of course, be only ideal; but it may be cast much in the same mould as the Marcus Aurelius of the 54 Capitol, or the Balbi at Naples, with some- thing of the Saxon costume super-induced.* SOME IDEAS RESPECTING THE INTERIOR. It may be easily imagined, that if any one were to enter the portico, as seen in the * I should nevertheless be rather checked by the conside- ration what inestimable blessings we owe to our first and matchless hierarch the Eighth Harry. It would appear, that Alfred had too puny a mind to grasp at the hereditary hierarchy of his country. The statue then ought, perhaps, to be erected to his worthier rival. Yes, I ought to pause on this occasion, especially as Lord John Russell, in his Essay on the British Government, has consecrated a whole chapter to Henry VIII., surmounting it with this epigraphe: When love could teach a monarch to be wise, And gospel light first beamed from Bullen's eyes : and especially when I see that he has not devoted a word to Alfred. 55 elevation, he would find to his right and left, two large folding doors of richly carved oak, each leading into the principal range of apart- ments. The noblest of these might be wain- scoted with American cedar; and the fine Vandykes and other pictures, which his Ma- jesty possesses, and knows how to appreciate duly, might be imbedded therein, set off with carvings in the same wood, like those of that capital artisan Gibbons, who flourished in the reign of the Second Charles.* Painters can- not, I think, throw away their talents more effectually, than by ceiling-painting. Exclu- sive of the constrained attitudes to which both artist and spectator must be subjected, the one in executing, the other in surveying, painted cielings, we can hardly be reconciled to the appearance of sovereigns seated in * American cedar might be purchased in London, at the close of the last year, at nine-pence per foot. 56 clouds among cherubim and seraphim, with their lutes, violins, and bassoons, for which phantasies, we are indebted to the Italian taste in its decrepitude, during the seven- teenth century. On a visit to the Palazzo Costaguti at Rome, where the genius of Do- menichino riots full as much as at Sanf Andrea della Valle, I questioned if that artist would not have been a gainer in fame, had he been con- tent with a horizontal exposition of his frescos. If you take four or five hundred Venetian sequins, and hammer them into fine leaf gold, setting off therewith cedar roofs, com- posed of beams laid transversely, and exhi- biting carved roses, richly gilt, in receding hexagons, you will have a ceiling as noble perhaps, as can reasonably be imagined.* * Some of the best specimens of such ceilings may be seen in Chambers's Civil Architecture; there are also two or 57 Three or four of the chief apartments thus em- bellished, and furnished with crimson silk, would present a very rich appearance, and remind the spectator of what he has read of the villa of that spirited sovereign Solomon, which he laid out with a true virtuoso's eye, at the roots of Lebanon, waving with its cedars. State- bed rooms, those silly appendages to palaces, are become, as it were, obsolete of themselves; and since they are laughed at now by the children and their nurses, I need scarcely add, that they would find no place in the annexed design. A cheap simplicity of furniture should prevail in the bed rooms. The flooring of the best apartments should be parquetted, and not laid longitudinally, as always in England. three excellent models given by Cleriseau in his Antiquites de Nismes. 58 THE LITTLE PARK. Slight will be the alterations which I would propose for the Little Park. It will be remem- bered that, in the first pages of this work, we shovelled down the earth to form a gradual slope from between the western end of the Terrace and the Lower Ward, to that slip of garden nearly opposite Eton. This garden should be destroyed, to make way for a line of horse-chesnut trees, the luxuriant foliage of which, would, in a very few years, form a cor- responding line of trees to the existing elms on the opposite side; thus completing the grand avenue from the base of the terrace to the Thames. The mead between the trees should be left wholly unplanted, and be terminated by a walled Ha ! Ha! of fifteen feet in depth, which would admit an uninterrupted view of the 59 river from the northern side of the terrace. Acacias, mountain ashes, Carolina poplars, and a few Spanish chesnut trees, should be planted on the declivity, connecting with the line of horse-chesnuts, and be carried along the space between the western side of the Terrace, and the Lower Ward, the towers and pinnacles of which, seen over-topping the new plantations, would present an agreeable perspective from the western terrace walk, and exclude the view of the unseemly buildings and chimnies of Windsor. The stables erected by his late Majesty, are placed in as good a position as can be wished, relative to the new buildings, and except a few plantations to conceal them from the south-western angle of the terrace, no further expense need be incurred in that quarter. If you add a dozen cedars of Lebanon to as 60 many beeches on the eastern side of the Park, it will be abundantly planted; for it is an error to imagine that in our clime, plantations should be thick. When such, they only serve to enmesh the smoke and vapours so prevalent in our isle.* They exclude too the verdant turf, one of the most pleasant features of the British landscape. There are several minor avenues leading to nothing, in the lower part of the Little Park, which had better be hewn down; to make way for a few young plantations, leaving of course the finer single trees. There is also a farm-house, about half a mile from the terrace, * The cedar of Lebanon, that magnificent child of the forest, is found to succeed well in most parts of Britain, provided they be planted in a sheltered situation, and have full room to expand their boughs. They appear to delight in a soil in which a gravelly-chalk predominates. Twenty years growth will already furnish handsome trees. 61 to the east, which had better be removed else- where. Numbers 41 and 42 are the ingress and egress of the tunnel or arch-way piercing the terrace, and leading to the inner court.* Numbers 43 and 44 will be the Windsor and Frogmore Lodges, built much in the same spirit, as that lately erected near Grosvenor gate in Hyde-park ; one will exhibit the Doric of Vignola, the other, that of Andrea Palladio. Number 45 will be a walled Ha ! Ha ! of fif- teen feet in depth, surmounted with an invisible iron fence. Numbers 46, will be two avenues of cedars * See the topographical sketch. 62 of Lebanon, corresponding with the trees in the Long Walk. Exclusive of the portal, the design for which is here given, there will be only one building of embellishment proposed, and that will be an Ionic temple on the mound at the end of the Long Walk. But, before entering on its details, which will be very short and sim- ple, I purpose subjoining two diatribes; one on the Ionic order, the other on the Hama- dryads. ON THE IONIC ORDER. The origins of the Doric and Corinthian or- ders seem to be pretty satisfactorily traced; the former having been referred to the Egyptians, the latter to the well-known story of the acan- 63 thus and basket.* But the origin of the Ionic has hitherto perplexed architects and scholars. Some have imagined the volute to be an imita- tion of the curls that play gracefully round the temples of a young girl ; others, to the acci- dental curving of the bark of trees, that served as columns to the earlier temples. The Abate Uggeri, well known for his architectural know- ledge at Rome, in his work illustrative of the three orders, has inserted a letter from one of his friends, ascribing the discovery of the volute, to the usage of spreading veils in front of the Doric temples, and afterwards folding them in the shape of bales of cloth round the * In one of the galleries of the Theban temples, Denon found the complete shaft of a Doric column ; " elle resemble tellement par sa dimension, et sa cannelure, a la colonne Dorique, qn'elle peut en etre Vorigine :" he adds. Few monuments that he noticed, are of more import than this. It must date by at least five centuries earlier than the Ptolemies. 64 Doric capitals, thus ready for future use. But I can hardly acquiesce to either of the above opinions. Strolling one evening at Rome, ( nescio quid meditans antiquum) through Trastevere to the Acqua Paolo, I happened to notice an Ionic capital, imbedded in a ruined portion of those old walls which flank the Janiculum. Hard by, there lay the fragment, probably of an antique altar, an angle of which exhibited a ram's head. I was immediately struck with the coincidental appearance of this with the Ionic volute, and on my return to the Piazza di Spagna, wrote a letter to the Abate Uggeri, stating my belief in the ram's horns furnishing the first idea of the volute ; and supported my arguments, as nearly as I can remember, by the reflection, that among the Egyptians, the heads of animals sometimes served as capitals to columns, as 65 Denon has shewn, in a shaft with a bull's head for its capital;* also, that in the early- ages of Greece, the heads of animals sacri- ficed, were probably suspended on the archi- traves. I added, that it is also fair to infer, that the ram's head often took place there, as well as the bull's and stag's; the skulls of which, borrowed no doubt from this cus- tom, were sometimes carved in the Roman Doric friezes, and sometimes in the Corin- thian. Now, is it not plausible to surmise, that a ram's head, accidentally suspended over a Doric abacus, may have struck the imagination of some Daedalus, who had tra- velled, perhaps, in Egypt for instruction, previous to the time of Herodotus, and that he cradled in his brain this foetus of the Ionic order, destined afterwards to be bred, and * Voyage en Egypte; planche 60, fig. 10. F 66 receive the finish of its education under the great sculptors of Greece? After all, I do not pretend to apply Eureeka to what is only hazarded as a plausible speculation.* Of the monuments that remain of this elegant order, various are the opinions which should obtain the preference. Many give the palm to the temple of Erechtheus at Athens ; while others seek the standard in the inventions of later architects. The first appears objectionable, from the too great length of the neck, pre- senting the idea of a composite, rather than pure Ionic specimen. Let us rather search for the best form in its native soil, Ionia ; and * Denon give us an Egyptian capital, in which it is easy to trace considerable resemblance to the Ionic. See planche 60, fig. 3 ; and he conjectures that this capital, evidently of remote antiquity, may have been the archetype of the order. — Perhaps. But what furnished the origin of this Egyptian capital, studded as it is with volutes? The ram's horns, are my answer. 67 I doubt if we can find a better, than in the remains of the temple of Bacchus at Teos, as given in the Ionian antiquities. The fluted eight diameters unite elegance with solidity in a happy medium ; and I have little hesita- tion in proposing it as a standard model of the order. ON THE HAMADRYADS. Every body knows that the Hamadryads were nymphs who flourished and perished simultaneously with the trees, of which they were the guardians. Ovid has beautifully pictured the lamentations of the Hamadryad killed by Erisichthon, as he felled her tree ; Dixit, et obliquos dum telum librat in ictus Contremuit, gemitumque dedit Dodonia quercus ; Et pariter frondes, pariter pallescere glandes Coep£re, ac longi pallorem ducere rami, F 2 68 Cujus ut in trunco fecit manus impia vulnus, Haud aliter flnxit discusso cortice sanguis, Quam solet ante aras, ingens ubi victima taurus Concidit Editus e medio sonus est cum robore talis; " Nympha sub hoc ego sum, Cereri gratissima, lign Quue tibi factorum pcenas instare tuorum Vaticinor moriens, nostri solatia lethi." Which I thus render: He spoke, and as the glitt'ring hatchet rose To strike, the oak felt paralysing throes; Unusual qualms its stubborn heart assail : The qui v' ring boughs from fear began to quail, The acorns rustled, and the leaves grew pale. Soon as the stem was sever'd with the stroke, Blood spouted from the bark — down fell the oak ; Just as the steer, beside the altar bound, Staggers beneath the sacrificing wound. This plaintive voice escapes the prostrate tree : " Ah fellest wretch ! Thus then thou fellest me 69 With parent stock ! remorseless art thou prov'd, That slay'st a nymph by Ceres dearly lov'd ! Prompt punishment awaits thy deed — my death Shall be reveng'd, I swear with dying- breath!" Let alone by Erisichthon, this maid of the forest would have lived as long as her tree, confirmed by Pindar, and by Homer in his hymn to Venus : Teivo^evvigiv sQvgav eti %0ov/ novXvfiolsiqy, Twv de %o^ov ^v%v\ Xsitei Qccog yehioiQ. Coeval with their towering- oaks and pines, Each nymph or flourishes, or life resigns. Ausonius, in one of his Idylls, is orthodox on this point : Non sine Hamadryadis fato cadit arborea trabs ; 70 But in another, a heretic ; to wit, in the Idyll, wherein mentioning the longevity of several animals, he states, that they were all sur- passed by the Hamadryads, who flourished one hundred thousand years and more, which Pliny gravely refutes as fabulous. Ter binos deciesque novem super exit in annos Justa senescentum quos implet vita virorum. Hos novies superat vivendo garrula cornix, Et quater egreditur cornicis soecula cervus; Alipedem cervum ter vincit corvus ; et ilium Multiplicat novies Phoenix reparabilis ales; Quem vos perpetuo deeies prsevertitis aevo Nymph* Hamadryades, quarum longissima vita est. Which I thus render: If limits due to human life you fix, You'll rarely find 'em pass years ninety-six. A full four centuries the stag survives, For eight and more, the prattling raven lives; 71 The crow's twelve ages long may well surprise ; A full ten thousand years the Phoenix flies, Ere from the teeming nest again he's seen to rise. Fair Hamadryads! you, ten myriads round Of years enjoy, among your trees to bound. } With regard to their origin, whether on paternal or maternal side, we are left much in the dark. " Prenez-garde" says Bayle, in his usual smirking manner, " que Pausanias remarque quelles naissaient principalement du ckene" But we find from Athenaeus, that one Oxylus was their father, and one Syke their mother, and that their names were as follow : Karye, Balane, Kranea, Oxya, JEgira, Ptelea, Ampele, and Syke. These in French would run thus : Demoiselles Noyer, Chataigner, Cornouiller, Erable, Peuplier, Orme, Vigne, et Figuier. It matters not, however, to whom related, or by whom begot, since they are unquestionably 72 among the most pleasing emanations of the genius of the Greeks. I find no more than the above eight noticed in any known author; and it must be con- fessed, that it is somewhat untoward to find no Drysa among them ; for Demoiselle DuchSne belongs of right to the party ; neither can she with any grace be omitted, being iM ttyxny a Hamadryad. I propose, then, assigning her a proper place with her eight sisters in the TEMPLE OF DIANA AND THE HAMADRYADS, at the end of the Long Walk. Which will be a circular monopteral of twenty Ionic columns from the Temple of Bacchus at Teos, with two feet and a half diameter. The dome elliptic, 73 pierced with a large ceil de boeuf, with plate- glass in copper frames. The floor will be a mosaic of British and Irish marbles. In the centre will be placed, an exact copy, in Carrara marble, of the Diana and Hind of Versailles, a statue, equalled by very few transmitted to us from antiquity. Round her will stand in niches, and in running attitudes, the nine Hamadryads, each holding branches of their respective trees in their right hands, with their names simply inscribed on the pedestals. My Etonian muse, as yet ungothicised, suggested the following verses as a fit inscrip- tion for the pedestal of the Diana : VINDICAT. HOS. SALTVS. SIBI. CASTA. DIANA. DECOROS. NEC. QVERITVR. GRAIOS. DESERVISSE. LARES. CLAMAT. OVANS. V1NS0RA. MIHI. PRAEBEBIT. AMOENAM. SEDEM. ET. FLOREBIT. SEMPER. AMORE. MEO. 74 HEVS. FVGITE. VST AM. DELON. OREADES. EN. NOVA. SEDES. EN. VT. FAGINAS. B AS I AT. AVRA. COMAS. EN. VT. PRATA. VIRENT. QVAE. PLVR1MA. QVERCVS. OBVMBRAT. PLAVDITE. ADESTIS. ENIM. PLAVDITE. IIAMADRYADES, It seems to be generally understood, that the sum of three hundred thousand pounds has been voted for the works at Windsor; sufficient, I ween, for an assemblage of prison- like towers. It were difficult to arrive at a tolerable estimate of what my above architectural lucu- cubration would cost realizing. Nevertheless, I have good reason to think, that with a proper economy in the materials of the old pile, and with a due use of brick-work in the invisible parts of the different buildings, the above sum voted would liquidate the expense of a palace, which would leave not much to envy- to Versailles, or Saint Ildephonso. I compute roughly as follows : The eight reclining bronze statues, with their urns and rocks, each at £3500. , £28,000 The thirty-two marble statues, with their pedestals, each at £600 19,200 Raising, extending, and new walling the terrace, including archway, balus- trades, and steps, with their ornaments 23,000 Steam-engine, comprising the foun- tain-pipes, and subterraneous conduit to the Thames 12,000 76 Arrangement and planting of the parterres on the terrace 500 The eight fountain-basins 2,300 The two lodges facing the Long Walk 5,000 The grand portal to the Long Walk 15,000 The temple, with the statues at the end of the Long Walk 18,000 The bronze equestrian statue to Alfred... 5,000 The palace 185,000 £313,000 77 If we call the sum voted Guineas, there can be little doubt that it would suffice, not only for the erection of the buildings proposed, but also for the setting off with due elegance very many of the minor architectural embellish- ments, at least in the principal facades. With regard to the materials, the palace should be raised of Purbeck stone. To save expence, I would not object to the use of hard white brick, set off with stone mouldings, for the inner court. The grand portal might be of Bath stone, and the statues of the Vestal. Virgins, of the artificial stone of Code. The same material for the animals on the balustrades of the terrace steps. The two lodges, and the temple in the Long Walk, might be also of Bath stone. 78 But " Cut bono, amice, illcetuce lucubrationesV cries Mercurius, striking my shoulders with his caduceus; and cui bono he may well ex- claim; since the die is cast, and Windsor is destined for the next ten centuries and more, to be wrapped in a feudal and dun magni- ficence. What is done cannot be undone. It is then useless for us to regret what is already so far advanced, more especially when we consider that the Brobdignag bantling of the Committee of Taste will be sure to find gothic Glumdalclitches enough to swaddle, nurse, and caress it. The Graeco-Britons must, therefore, endeavour to eye the works in pro- gress with as much satisfaction as they can muster ; and with Walter Scott in one pocket, and Anne RatclifFe in the other, together with the help of a chivalrous melodrame at the Coburg, the preceding night, they must prime their minds for a Sunday's excursion to the 79 Castle; and try to conjure up, what they can never more see in reality, some princess, pining for her lover in the Holy Land, at the iron- grated window of the fifth story of the great eastern tower, and beating her bosom by the glimmer of a gothic lamp, lest some Fatima of Acre should " see him galloping " with too tender an interest from her battlements. To be serious, let us hope that the architect will be able to emancipate himself from that criti- cism, and those regrets, which he must expect to hear from several quarters, with all the suc- cess that his friends and admirers can wish in his behalf. That he possesses talents for his art, I see no reason to question ; and, certainly, an undeniable palm of merit is presented to his grasp, in that difficult point of architecture, internal arrangement. That he may obtain this to his fullest satisfaction, is my sincere wish ; as well as success in picturesque effect, a quality 80 which cannot be denied to Gothic architecture. Nevertheless, three visits to Windsor have suggested these strictures, which, I trust, Gentlemen, whatever be your opinions re- garding them, you will give me credit for having written without the slightest tincture of personally invidious motives. Nothing, indeed, but a conviction of the importance of that palace, in forming a precedent for style, could have induced me to transgress thus long on your leisure; and you, Gentle- men, who are, as it were, the depositaries and guardians of Grecian and Italian virtii in our isle, will, if I do not egregiously err, regret with me, that a longer pause was not made, before the style of the works was decided upon; that the judgment of others, and especially your own, was not consulted with due deliberation ; that, in fine, the Ictini and Palladios have been compelled in our 81 age, to make way for the Sugers and Wick- hams, whose geniuses are irretrievably destined to preside over the vast works now in progress at Windsor. I am, Gentlemen, Your very obedient Servant, MELA BRITANNICUS. G POSTSCRIPT. The general improvements, Gentlemen, of the metropolis, which have been carried on of late years, must be pronounced, upon the whole, satisfactory. The Regent Street, pro- bably the first in Europe, reflects great credit on the talents of Mr. Nash. Though the materials are none of the best, the space of the trottoirs, the general aspect of the different lines of building, some indeed inferior to others, but presenting nevertheless an imposing whole, baffle any fair criticism. The buildings in the Regent's Park, with three or four exceptions, are in a handsome style ; we will wave any panegyric on the materials ; but the 84 Villa Greenough boasts a symmetry of design, which, if Pericles were alive, he might fairly envy. The. lodges in the Hyde Park are in a good spirit; though I am aware of no argu- ment that can countenance the omission of Doric friezes. The palace raised for the late Duke of York will be found vastly to surpass in style, the new pile of Buckingham house. The new facade to the Treasury buildings presents a pretty specimen of architecture. If there be an edifice which lays open a more enviable field than another, for a happy display of the art, it is indisputably a Museum. This consideration throws, I fear, a cloud over the immense building now in hand in Russell Street. Better far would have been a design for three distinct buildings; one, for the mo- numents of the Fine Arts; one, for the objects of Natural History ; and one, for the Library, 85 Manuscripts, and Medals. These might have been contiguous to each other, developing a riante, and not too lofty architecture. Com- pare in imagination the effect of such with the great square now in execution, enclosing, from its loftiness, for eight months annually, a smoky fog, which may be cut in cubic feet. Many hundred eyes are fixed on the architect; let us hope that a judicious internal arrange- ment may, in some measure, redeem the too barrack-like aspect of the exterior. It would be well if our architects, when they undertake to give us a Grecian plan for a church, would not surmount the pile with spires, or towers. If the belfry be indepen- dent, and placed a few feet off, either in the rear, or at one angle of the building, like the Venetian campanili, the effect would be much improved. 86 With regard to the architectural innovations in the provincial towns, most that have fallen under my observation, are below mediocrity. A paltry Gothic seems to be the order of the day in the sacred buildings. The corporation of a wealthy Lancastrian city, finding turtle not so dyspeptic as stone, have lately raised a church called Gothic, at great expense, which is eclipsed, both in purity of style and dimensions, by several churches in Somerset- shire. For a very few hundreds of pounds more, they might have realized a splendid and enlarged copy of the San Stefano Rotondo at Rome. The mercurial inhabitants of Bir- mingham would do well to rase that vile brick church, the disgrace of their town, below the market place, and erect in its room, a copy of that beautiful temple at Ariccia, built by the Cavaliere Bernini, one of the best speci- mens of Italian ecclesiastical architecture that 87 I ever beheld. This, I suspect, would not cost that opulent city more than £40,000., a charity more efficacious and muscle-exciting, than their heavy poor-rates. Edinburgh has developed a happy architec- » tural skill in most of the fabrics which she has lately undertaken. But it must be con- fessed, that the buildings in Glasgow are very unworthy a city of such opulence. If we turn our eyes to the bridges, we find ample reason to congratulate the public. In my travels through nearly all European coun- tries, none that I ever saw, can compete with the Waterloo bridge, but that thrown across the Garonne at Bordeaux, which yields, never- theless, to its rival, in durability of material. The new London bridge, from its striking 88 simplicity, can hardly fail doing credit to its architect. I wish I could augur as much in favour of its subaqueous rival, the Tunnel. Many of us have passed through the grotto of Posilippo ; yet even in the brilliant climate of Naples, the lamps, though nourished with oxygen by a hole in the centre, burn with a feeble glimmer. What sort of light then can we expect to see from the gas lamps in the tunnel, clouded as it must be by a vaporous smoke? Will, moreover, this vast subfluvial undertaking be compensated by adequate use? To ask this is the more plausible, when we see the Southwark bridge " che dal sol salkgra" but little traversed. These questions, and many others, must, no doubt, have occurred to the intelligent mind of M. Brunei. Let us wish him success ; and it were ungracious to attempt to throw cold water on a work, 89 which will have abundance of it on every side, and which, at least, must bear the cha- racter of grandeur. Let us make an escape from the green and blue silt beneath the Thames, and gain the ethereal regions. Though it is obvious that external grace of architecture in astronomical buildings ought to weigh like a feather in the scale, when compared with the scientific arrangement of the interior; still it must be confessed, that the works at the Observatory of Greenwich appear little better than a tissue of blunders. The old edifice was but poorly adapted for its purpose, which consideration should have suggested the expediency of destroying it, de fond en comble, instead of adding patch- work to patch-work of brick and plaister. Since, however, so much money has been of late expended on that structure, it can scarcely 90 be deemed advisable to demolish it at present. Perhaps, some twenty or thirty years hence, it might be taken grandly in hand. For, if good observatories be thought requisite at our Universities, surely an excellent one ought to be looked for at the seat of our meridian, and citadel of the British Urania. ce Pleased with the spot which gave Eliza birth, I kneel and kiss the consecrated earth ;" and, therefore, suggest the removal of that poor pedestrian statue in the College Square, facing the river, and the substitution of one in bronze of Elizabeth on horseback, as she appeared at Tilbury Fort; for rare, or rather none are our monuments in sculpture of that Queen. A humble native of Greenwich hints this in favour of the greatest personage that Greenwich ever produced. 91 It would be well if the City of London would give orders to demolish that caricature of Queen Anne in stone, which stands in front of their cathedral, and substitute in its room, a colossal statue of Saint Paul shaking the viper from his hand; this, I imagine, might be executed handsomely in marble for fifteen hundred pounds. It would not only harmo- nize well with the building, but it might be contemplated as an allegory of the rejection of the spiritual domination of Rome by our ancestors. But before the corporation of the honourable city troubles itself with the erection of this statue, it would not do amiss to learn how to organize its hierarchy ; for on referring to the eighth chapter of the twenty-fifth, book of the Spirit of Laws, I find this paragraph : " Lorsque la religion a beaucoup de ministres, 92 il est naturel qu'ils aient un chef, et que le pontificat y soit 6tabli. Dans la monarchie, ou Ton ne sauroit trop separer les ordres de l'etat, et ou Ton ne doit point assembler sur une mime tite toutes les 'puissances, il est bon que le pofitificat soit skpare de V empire. La meme necessite ne se rencontre pas dans le gouverne- ment despotique, dont la nature est le reunir sur une mime tete tous les pouvoirs." It is unfortunate for the poor Baron Montesquieu, that he should have opposed to him in opinion the two legislative bodies of the wisest of nations, who have hitherto contemplated, and persist in contemplating, with due satisfaction, their hereditary hierarchy, vested in the colo- nel of a regiment of light dragoons, and quon- dam member of a jockey club. Hcec, cum animadvertissem distentam occupa- tionibus civitatem, publicis et privatis negotiis, 93 paucis judicavi scribenda, uti angusto spatio va- cuitatis, ea legentes breviter percipere possent M. Vitruvius Pollio, Praefat. ad Lib. V. THE END. Printed by 7. Davy, Queen Street, Seven Dials. X THE GETTY CENTER LIBRARY m i