UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 ANDREW 
 
 SMITH 
 
 HALLIDIC: 
 
PEINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 ARCHITECTURE 
 
 TRACED IN 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON BUILDINGS 
 
 PRIMEVAL, EGYPTIAN, PHENICIAN OR SYRIAN, GRECIAN, 
 
 ROMAN, GOTHIC OR CORRUPT ROMAN, 
 ARABIAN OR SARACENIC, OLD ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL, 
 
 OLD ENGLISH MILITARY AND DOMESTIC, REVIVED 
 
 GRECIAN, CHINESE, INDIAN, MODERN ANGLO-GOTHIC, 
 
 AND MODERN ENGLISH DOMESTIC: 
 
 5n a j&wcs of Setters to a 
 
 BY WILLIAM MITFORD, ESQ. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR RODWELL AND MARTIN, 
 
 NEW BOND-STREET. 
 
 1824, 
 
'N A 27rr, 
 
C O N T E N T S. 
 
 Letter I. Origin of Architecture. Five principal Classes 
 of Architecture. Utility the foundation of Design in all 
 Architecture. Design controlled by materials. First 
 buildings in each class of Architecture - - - - p. I 
 
 Letter II. Gratification of the mind through the eye, th 
 object of a second class of Principles of Design in Archi- 
 tecture. Connection and Discord of the Useful with the 
 Beautiful and the Picture sk -------p. 8 
 
 Letter HI. First Buildings noticed in History. Tower of 
 Babel. Jacob's Pillars. Egyptian Building. Temple of 
 Dagon. Temple of Jerusalem and Solomon's Palace p. 14 
 
 Letter IV. Migration of Arts from the East into Greece. 
 Architecture of Homer's Age. Origin of the Grecian 
 Temple. Circular Building. Stonehenge. Early use 
 of Bricks. Rectilinear Building. Importance of the 
 Altar. Completion of the Grecian Temple - - p. 20 
 
 Letter V. Character of Design in Egyptian Architecture. 
 Stone and Brick, Egyptian Materials. Timber a princi- 
 pal Material of the early Grecian Architecture - p. 27 
 
 Letter VI. Change of character of Design, in Grecian 
 Architecture, ensuing from change of Matefal. Illustra- 
 tion of the relation between the Useful and the Graceful. 
 Delineation and Painting unequal to the representation of 
 effects of Architecture. Descriptive Sketches of the early 
 Grecian Temple .-------- p. 33 
 
 A i 
 
 103245 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 Letter VII. Grecian Orders of Architecture - - p. 44 
 
 Letter VIII. Grecian Architecture not limited to the Three 
 Orders. Grecian Civil Building. Grecian Architecture 
 after Alexander's Age - - ------ p. 56 
 
 Letter IX. Tuscan and early Roman Architecture In- 
 troduction of Grecian Taste at Rome. Invention of 
 the Arch. Extension of its use. Triumphal Arch. 
 
 l Theaters. ---Aqueducts - P< ^3 
 
 Letter X. Characteristical Differences of Exterior and In- 
 terior Architecture. Grecian Interior Architecture p. 73 
 
 Letter XI. Interior Architecture. Grecian Circular Build- 
 ing. Roman Circular Building. Roman Interior Archi- 
 tecture -------------p. 8i 
 
 Letter X II. -Decline of Roman Architecture. Gothic 
 
 Architecture. Arahian or Saracenic Architecture. 
 
 r 
 
 Buildings of Charlemain's Age ------ p. 90 
 
 Letter XIII. Architecture in England. Saxon and Nor- 
 man derived from the later Roman. Comparative Merits 
 of the Colonnade and Arcade for Interior Architec- 
 ture -------------- p. 0,6 
 
 Letter XIX. Sources of a new Style of Architecture. 
 Introduction of the Pointed Arch into European Build- 
 ing -- ------------ p. 102 
 
 Letter XV. English Ecclesiastical Architecture of the 
 Plantagenet reigns. Salisbury Cathedral - -- p. 108 
 
 Letter XVI. Perfection of the Ecclesiastical Architecture 
 of the Plan hi genet reigns ------- p. 120 
 
i 
 
 Letter XVII. Defects of the Plantagenet Architecture. 
 The Plantagenet Style in small Buildings - - p. 124 
 
 Letter XVIII. Old English Military and Domestic Ar- 
 chitecture ------------ p. 131 
 
 Letter XIX. English Military and Domestic Architecture 
 after Edward the First. Plantagenet Ecclesiastical Ar- 
 chitecture how far properly English - - - - p. 143 
 
 Letter XX. Revival of Roman Architecture. Introduc- 
 tion ef revived Rormn Architecture into England by 
 Inigo Jones --- __-__--- p. 147 
 
 Letter XXL Roman Architecture in England. Wren. 
 St. Paul's Cathedral - - - - - - - - p. 154 
 
 Letter XXII. Roman Architecture in England. Wren. 
 Vanbrugh. Lord Burlington. Gibbs - - - p. 168 
 
 Letter XXIII. Revival of Grecian- Architecture p. 171 
 
 ^ Letter XXIV. Revival of attention in England to old 
 National Architecture --------p. 176 
 
 Letter XXV. Chinese and Indian Architecture p, 180 
 Letter XXVI. Modern Varieties in Architecture p. 189 
 Letter XXVII. Modern Anglo-Gothic Architecture p. 196 
 Letter XXVIII. Old English Domestic Architecture p. 208 
 Letter XXIX. Domestic Architecture. Towns p. 214 
 
 Letter XXX. Domestic Architecture. Country Houses 
 
 p. 225 
 
PRINCIPLES 
 
 OF 
 
 DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURE 
 
 TRACED, 
 IN OBSERVATIONS ON BUILDINGS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Vrigin of Architecture. Five principal Classes of Archie 
 teclure. Utility the foundation of Dejign in all Archi- 
 tecture. Design controlled by materials. First building* 
 in each class of Architecture. 
 
 "\ ^I7HEN after otir conversations on the prin- 
 ciples of Design in Architecture, you 
 desired me to put in writing my thoughts on the 
 subject, you were aware not only that I was not 
 an architect, but moreover that I never had applied 
 myself to the study of architecture with anything 
 like the devotion of a Lord Burlington or a Thomas 
 Hope, and that I was far from pretending to 
 either architectonic science or building skill like 
 theirs. But I must acknowledge to you a farther 
 deficiency: loving the art as I do, and valuing 
 your commands as I do, I cannot undertake the 
 labor of such reference to books, whether within my 
 B 
 
3 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 past reading, or beyond it, as would be requisite, 
 even had I in greater amount other requisites, for 
 the perfection of a treatise on the subject. Com- 
 plying with your desire then, as far as I readily 
 can, the store in my mind, such as it is, must 
 principally serve me. You however could nearly 
 calculate both my means and my deficiencies 
 when you urged your requisition ; and so, using, 
 as I best may, what I possess, I proceed to our 
 subject. 
 
 To obtain the Principles of an art we must 
 consider its Purposes ; and, in tracing these we 
 shall be led of course to advert to its Origin. 
 
 Architecture, for its Purposes, may be divided, 
 I think, under five classes : Sacred, Civil, Mili- 
 tary, Domestic, a'nd Monumental. 
 
 For the origin of architecture, we may look to 
 he wants of our first forefathers. The need of 
 protection against heat, cold, and rain, and, as 
 the very first family increased in number, the 
 desire of occasional privacy, would urge to the 
 exertion of human ingenuity in building, 
 
 Yet perhaps RELIGION may have excited at- 
 tempts toward architecture as soon as even the phy- 
 sical wants of naked man. We read of Sacrifice 
 among the first memorials of times after the fall ; 
 and again, after the flood, the building of an Altar 
 is the first matter recorded. When Man* sub- 
 
IN" ARCHITECTURE. 3 
 
 jccted to Death, was reduced to take, as a boon, 
 the permission to destroy and devour his fellow- 
 creatures, for the support of his own precarious 
 life, the degradation was softened, and correction 
 
 ' O ' 
 
 of his vitiated mind was at the same time provided, 
 by sacrifice ; giving to the bloody business of 
 preparing the meal, the dignity, and mixing with 
 it the devotion, of a religious ceremony. The 
 altar, originating from this institution, was the first 
 structure for religious purposes ; and remained 
 the only one, we read of, for some ages. Not in 
 sacred writ alone, but among the earliest memo- 
 rials of heathen nations also, with frequent 
 mention of the altar, we find no notice of any 
 other building for religious ceremony. 
 
 CIVIL ARCHITECTURE appears to have 
 arisen very early, with the multiplication of man- 
 kind. According to the computation of the most 
 authoritative chronologers, it was but about a cen- 
 tury after the flood when a CITY is recorded to 
 have been built. The very expression, a city, 
 implies civil architecture, or building for the com- 
 mon purposes of a numerous society. 
 
 MILITARY ARCHITECTURE would have its 
 origin not probably before, yet not, in any likeli- 
 hood, long after civil. It was the resource of the 
 more honest and more civilized, of increasing and 
 spreading mankind, for defence against the vio- 
 lence of the ruder and more profligate. 
 B 2 
 
4 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 The need of providing permanence for memory 
 of interesting transactions, together with the desire 
 of honoring the illustrious dead, and transmitting 
 their fame to posterity, produced a fifth kind of 
 architecture, the Monumental. 
 
 The First particular Building, of which notice 
 has been preserved in hiftory, is that extraordi- 
 nary one, described in the account of the first 
 city, the tower of Babel. The term tower generally 
 implies military purpose, but none such is here 
 any otherwise indicated. Monumental purpose 
 is clearly mentioned ; which may have been com- 
 bined with military purpose, or civil, or both ; though 
 the monumental alone is declared. The tower of 
 Babel however may claim to be the first PUBLIC 
 building noticed in the history of the world.' 
 
 Architecture, in all its branches, originating 
 from the wants of mankind, the first Principle 
 of DESIGN in building must be UTILITY. 
 The chief object of Domestic architecture is 
 private or domestic convenience ; of Sacred, 
 convenience for religious ceremony; of Civil, 
 public convenience, a fitness for the common pur- 
 poses of many families, associated in one commu- 
 nity, and under one government; of Military, 
 the end is safety, whether of a single family, or 
 anymore numerous society; of Monumental it i$ 
 indication of facts, and preservation of memory 
 of them. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 5 
 
 The PURPOSE being decided, materials, ac- 
 commodated to that purpose must be found ; and 
 these will powerfully controll the DESIGN. Wood, 
 stone, brick, and unbaked earth, severally require 
 different proportions of supporting to supported 
 matter. Two beams of small diameter will bear 
 a long beam resting on them, and much structure 
 of wood above. In building with stone, far less 
 interval can be allowed between the supporting 
 pillars, or piers, and the beam which is to bear 
 the superstructure, though but a roof. Hence Two 
 differing Styles of Design arise. 
 
 Very extensively over the world, Timber would 
 be the material most readily brought to use ; and 
 therefore, especially for DOMESTIC BUILDING, 
 first or principally used. Probably, in most 
 countries, the first houses nearly resembled the 
 American wigwam, or hut ; composed of poles 
 arranged circularly, with the larger end fixed in 
 the ground, and the smaller bound together at 
 top ; such thatching being added as the country 
 offered. Our great master, Vitruvius, has sup- 
 posed primeval dwellings to have been nearly of 
 this description ; and the Irish cabin, at this day, 
 is hardly one full step in architecture beyond. 
 
 But, for the SACRED ARCHITECTURE of the 
 early ages, the altar being its principal, if not 
 only object, the power of bearing fire was a requi- 
 site quality, and wood therefore inadmissible. 
 
6 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Sod or earth might serve, but the superiority of 
 stone was obvious. Stone, accordingly we find, 
 was very early used ; and probably the art of 
 Masonry originated in the construction of altars. 
 
 Where the art of Masonry was known, and 
 stone of any advantageous quality for its purposes 
 could be readily procured, that material could 
 not fail to be preferred to wood, for both CIVIL 
 and MILITARY architecture. Stone failing, if 
 bricks could be had, they would be next in pre- 
 ference : timber would be the lowest resource. 
 
 But, for MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE, 
 while letters, if known, were little extensively 
 cultivated, Hone had no equal superiority. Wood 
 was a material abounding with disadvantage. 
 Earth, in one important quality, its incorrupti- 
 bility, was greatly preferable : if heaped in a form 
 adapted to duration, it would hold that form for 
 ages. Where letters were unknown, and art 
 for representation in sculpture failed, the monu- - 
 mental barrow, of simply heaped earth, was 
 as effective a memorial as a building of stone. 
 
 This rude kind of monumental architecture, of 
 which instances are so numerous in various parts 
 of our own country, not only has been very 
 extensive over the world, but remained in common 
 use, to times when arts were so advanced that we 
 should hardly expect it. Not only, among the 
 Greeks, in Homer's time, sepulchral monuments, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 7 
 
 of even the most illustrious dead, were commonly 
 of earth; or of stones rudely heaped together, but 
 Herodotus furnishes an instance of the practice, 
 among the wealthy and polite Persians, so late as 
 the time of the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. 
 
 Nevertheless where the arts were in any 
 degreecultivated, and where leisure was found, 
 stone would be preferred for every kind of 
 monument. The earliest instance on record, 
 what appears to have been, not indeed properly of 
 a building, but a first step in the progress toward 
 monumental architecture, is the erection of a 
 stone by Jacob, as a pillar, in commemoration of 
 his dream concerning the way from earth to 
 heaven. The firft sepulchral monument noticed 
 is that of Rachel ; styled also a pillar, and raised 
 also by Jacob. 
 
 The rude barrow of earth or heaped stones, 
 appears to have been the leading step toward 
 the construction of the pyramid ; which is in truth 
 but a barrow, of superior material and higher art. 
 Those magnificent early monuments in Egypt, 
 which so excite the admiration, of the traveller on 
 the spot, and of all in "description, now scarcely 
 more tell their story than Silbury hill, or any 
 other barrow of Salisbury plain. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Gratification of the mind through the eye, the object of <i 
 second class of Principles of Design in Architecture. 
 Connection and Discord of the Useful with the Beautiful 
 and the Pictures^ 
 
 Yo u R approbation of my outset, reserving 
 your criticism, as you kindly say you do, 
 for time when I may have farther explained 
 myself, sufficiently encourages me to proceed. 
 
 The First Principle of all architecture, we have 
 observed, is UTILITY. But this first essential 
 and characteristical purpose, in the several kinds 
 of building, being attained, the mind of man would 
 soon begin to look farther ; for, though woman 
 may be eminently, yet she is not alone the orna- 
 ment-loving animal. Nor surely is this disgrace- 
 ful. On the contrary it is among the honorable 
 privileges of reason; and then only becomes 
 matter for reproach, as everything, good in mode- 
 ration, will be, when carried to excess. 
 
 But the Greek word which, in the witty defi- 
 nition I have alluded to, has been commonly 
 considered as meaning ornament, we know 
 means also order, decency, the becoming, the 
 graceful. May we not then be allowed to say 
 that Man, ' including woman, is an order-loving 
 and beauty-loving animal? Architecture, I think, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 9 
 
 could not be carried far, before it would be 
 observed, of forms, and proportions, and distribu- 
 tion of parts, in buildings, that some are generally 
 pleasing, others displeasing; that some impress 
 an idea of grandeur, others of meanness ; that 
 some partake of the beautiful, others of ugliness. 
 Hence would arise a second Principle of Design in 
 architecture : it would be desired, with the useful 
 to connect the graceful, the splendid, the awful, 
 and to avoid the offensive and the mean. 
 
 It has been questioned, among the learned and 
 ingenious, Whether Utility has any essential con- 
 nection with Beauty, or with picturesk effect? 
 Gilpin, discussing the subject, has shown himself 
 strongly inclined, though without complete de- 
 cision, to say No. On the contrary Akcnside 
 asks, 
 
 Can beauty dwell 
 Where health and active use are wanting ? 
 
 That the useful however is often found 
 directly thwarting both the picturesk and tie 
 beautiful seems obvious enough. Thus the culti- 
 vation of the soil, necessary for supplying the 
 wants of mankind, is highly adverse to the 
 beauty of landscape : 
 
 Juvat arva vide re 
 
 Non rastris hominum, non ulliobnoxia cura?. 
 
 Ye, in the midst of their greatest hostility, vail 
 
IO PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 I think, be found occasional truces and agree- 
 ments ; and, like warring mankind, they will 
 show many marks of consanguinity, and derivation 
 from one stock. The most picturesk of poets, 
 as Gilpin I think justly calls him, appears 
 to me to show, in the lines immediately following 
 those just quoted, that he thought so : 
 
 Jpsas Caucaseo steriles in vertice sylvas 
 Quas animosi Euri assidue franguntque feruntque 
 Bant alios aliae foetus; dant utile lignum, 
 !Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrosque cupressosque, &c. 
 Virg. Georll. 443. 
 
 An unbalanced tree, even Gilpin has said, is 
 offensive to the eye; the failure of balance, in its 
 appearance, unqualifies it both for the beautiful 
 and for the picturesk. But certainly the quality of 
 Balance belongs to Use: it is essential where utility 
 is the end. Belonging also to Grace and Picturesk 
 effect, here is clearly a connection between the 
 useful and the graceful and picturesk. 
 
 If we look to animal life, the frequent connection 
 of use and beauty is obvious, however any neces- 
 sity for their connection may be questionable. 
 Strength and speed rarely fail to accompany beau- 
 tiful limbs and graceful proportions. It may seem 
 as if this was intended by the bounty of heaven 
 for the gratification of man, while it might also be 
 useful to him in directing his choice among 
 animals, his subjects. But it is observed, of the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 11 
 
 interior composition of animal bodies, that the 
 parts concealed by the exterior frame, and so 
 not objects of common sight, even what are 
 called the noble parts, those of most important 
 use, with remarkable exception for the heart, are 
 without grace of form, and rather of offensive 
 appearance. 
 
 Nevertheless, with whatever exceptions, a 
 natural and necessary connection between the 
 useful and the graceful seems to me evident. 
 Perhaps it is no where more obvious than in 
 naval architecture. The simple hull of the 
 smallest boat, to be accommodated to swift 
 motion and ready guidance through the water, 
 requires a form of high elegance ; beautiful lines, 
 beautifully varied, giving a complexity to the 
 shape, almost equal to that of the limbs of ani- 
 mals, and preserving unity of general design almost 
 equally. If from this simple small machine, .we 
 look through all the classes, up to that stupen- 
 dous production of human art a first rate ship 
 of war, we see throughout, where use alone has 
 directed, it has led always (I think always) to grace- 
 ful forms and graceful proportions. In a large ship 
 on the stocks, with the ribs only placed on the 
 long connecting line of the keel, there is a 
 harmony, with a variety, of converging and di- 
 verging lines, wonderfully beautiful. And it is re- 
 markable enough how much the contrary has 
 
12 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 happened in shipbuilding, wherever the line of use 
 has been quitted. The French have often done 
 better; but nothing can be more inelegant and even 
 barbarous than the general style of decoration of 
 the ships of our royal navy. It may suffice to 
 mention the forms of architecture, borrowed from 
 stone buildings, and ridiculously misapplied, in 
 reeling attitudes, to machines of timber, of which 
 motion, and deviation from the perpendicular, 
 are essential properties. 
 
 Of the picturesk and beautiful, Gratification of 
 the Mind through the Eye is the ultimate object. 
 But, of architecture, Use is the first object; grati- 
 fication of the mind through the eye but secondary. 
 If then the beauty of picture depends, in any 
 degree, on utility, or the semblance of utility, 
 in the objects it represents, much more surely 
 must the grace of architecture rest on evident 
 utility. It is not that what is useful will therefore 
 be beautiful ; but that what is strikingly adverse 
 to use will be offensive, and so will be adverse to 
 the purpose of beauty, which is to please. The 
 picturesk however, as distinguilhed from the 
 beautiful, has I think, less than the proper beautiful, 
 any essential connection with the useful. But 
 those forms which, among infinitely varying tastes, 
 the general sense of mankind reckons beautiful, 
 have all, I am inclined to believe, a natural and 
 necessary and intimate connection with the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. lj 
 
 useful, I say those forms which the general sense 
 of mankind has agreed to call beautiful : because, 
 after the various attempts of very ingenious, very 
 learned, and very able men to analyze and define 
 beauty, there is yet no complete agreement 
 Nor, in attempts to define the sublime has tltere 
 been more success. Indeed I cannot help 
 doubting if it would not have been better to have 
 left those matters as Longinus, I will not say was 
 contented to leave them, but rested in having 
 them ; and that the world of letters should have 
 continued to defer to his long-allowed authority. 
 But though I think there is large connection be- 
 tween utility and beauty, yet, in treating of archi- 
 tecture it will be expedient to distinguish between 
 the simply useful, and the beautiful; of which, 
 though the semblance of fitness for use may be 
 an essentisl quality, yet gratification of the mind 
 through the eye, and not real use, is the substantial 
 object. Architecture is essentially among the 
 useful arts. Through its power to impress 
 ideas of the sublime and beautiful, it become* 
 associated among the ornamental arts, or those 
 commonly called the fine arts. Hence arise 
 two distinct characters of Design in architecture, 
 the useful arid the ornamental. The term Design 
 
 C5 
 
 certainly may be properly applicable to both. But, 
 in the practice of language it is more commonly 
 limited to Architecture considered as one of the 
 
14 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN* 
 
 fine arts, the sister of Painting, than extended to 
 it as simply a useful art. Of all the fine arts, 
 however, architecture far the most holds neces- 
 sary and close connection with the useful; for 
 it is obvious that for the most merely ornamental 
 edifice, the useful in building must be regarded, 
 to make the edifice even hold together. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 first Buildings noticed inliistory. Tower of Babel. Jacob's 
 Pillars. Egyptian Building. Temple ofDagon. Temple 
 of Jerusalem and Solomon's Palace. 
 
 THE great field for Design in Architecture will of 
 course be found in building for a large commu- 
 nity rather than for an individual, in structures 
 sacred, civil, or military, rather than domestic, in 
 monuments for a nation rather than for a family, 
 But the perfection of design, which has been 
 attained in public building, may afterward, with 
 judgement in the application, contribute to the 
 elegance of private and domestic architecture. 
 Public buildings, however, having first attract- 
 ed the notice of historians and recorders of 
 events, those who would trace the history of archi- 
 tecture, must necessarily begin with them. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 13 
 
 That extraordinary public building, mentioned, 
 in my first letter, as the earliest on record, the 
 tower of Babel, was of so early an age that it 
 may be supposed to have been raised by art 
 derived from antediluvian times, and to have 
 exhibited some features of antediluvian design. 
 The form of the building, however, is not at all 
 indicated by the historian. But the principal 
 material, it will not be alien to our purpose 
 to remark, was artificial ; it was brick ; and, we 
 are told, well-burnt brick. Hence it appears 
 that, even at that time, among assembled 
 mankind, the art of building was not in absolute 
 infancy. 
 
 But the people of whom, after the dispersion 
 at Babel, the oldest extant history proceeds to 
 treat, had no cities. In the manner of the' mo- 
 dern Arabs and Tartars, living in incampments, 
 their dwellings were accommodated to ready 
 removal. Civil architecture therefore they could 
 little know. Their altars and their monumental 
 pillars, alone of their buildings, would last to 
 posterity. Of their altars we find frequent men- 
 tion. "The first monumental pillar on record, 
 raised for lasting evidence of a contract, I have 
 already noticed. The first sepulchral monument 
 follows, in the same history, erected by tlie same 
 person. In the age of Abraham, and of his son 
 Isaac, a natural cavern appears to have beea 
 
16 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 1 
 
 prized for burial of the illustrious dead. In that 
 of his grandson, Jacob, the pillar, which seems to 
 have been first imagined for giving permanence 
 to memory of a contract, was adopted for mark- 
 ing the place where the relics of a deceased person 
 were deposited. The earliest instance we read 
 of was the pillar erected by Jacob, in honor of 
 his departed wife Rachel. 
 
 But, while the architecture of the wandering 
 progeny of Abraham was limited to altars and 
 monumental pillars, the art had been making 
 greater advances among the settled people of 
 Egypt. What edifices were in that early age 
 there erected, or in what style, we know not ; 
 but the employment of many thousands in making 
 and burning bricks, indicates that building to a 
 great extent was going forward. 
 
 In Syria, howev j er (allow me, for convenience, to 
 follow those who comprehend under that name all 
 the countries between the Mediterranean and the 
 great desert) architecture had been making con- 
 siderable advances, while the Israelites were living 
 
 o 
 
 in Egypt. Palestine, when they conquered it, 
 abounded with towns, some of them walled. 
 But, after the tower of Babel, we find no notice 
 of any particular edifice, in any part of the 
 world, whence the manner of building can be in- 
 ferred, during the lapse, according to the generally 
 received chronology, of more than. ten centuries. 
 
IN" ARCHITECTUKE. 17 
 
 Then the temple of Dagon, the imaginary god of 
 the Philistines, Occurs. This must have been a 
 structure of great size; but the circumstances 
 related of the death of Sampson, show that 
 the principal material must have been wood ; 
 and this indication we find strengthened by what 
 will come hereafter under notice. Less than a 
 century and half then brings us to a period that, 
 for so early an age, may be called luminous. 
 Two buildings remain described, in considerable 
 detail, which had great fame in their own and in 
 all following ages, the temple of Jerusalem and 
 the palace of Lebanon, built by Solomon, king of 
 Judaea. 
 
 But before this time, as the very early 
 historian from whom w r e have the account of 
 these edifices shows, the circumstances of Syria 
 had urged the people to cultivate the art of 
 masonry. The country was divided among many 
 communities, often in arms against each other ; 
 whence arose value for that art which could erect 
 strono- walls around towns, with towers and bat- 
 
 O ' 
 
 tlements, and whatever might be advantageous for 
 defence. So far evidently the art of the age 
 had been much employed, before Solomon's 
 reign. At the same time the extensive forests 
 of Lebanon, on the northern boundary of Ju- 
 daea, furnished an abundance of timber, of two 
 of the most valuable kinds for the carpenter's 
 C 
 
iS PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 purposes, the fir, and the cedar. Domestic con- 
 venience, for which readiness of construction is 
 often important, and public convenience, which 
 requires accommodation for assembled multitudes, 
 would urge to the use of these, and promote the 
 cultivation of the joiner s art. 
 
 Solomon appears to have proposed to raise the 
 most magnificent temple, and the most splendid 
 palace, that had yet been seen; unless greater 
 power and wealth may have produced in Egypt, or 
 in Babylonia, and possibly in regions eastward of 
 Babylonia, magnificence which he could not rival. 
 But Solomon had married the king of Egypt's 
 daughter. The art, the science, and the taste of 
 that country therefore would be open to him. 
 
 The circumstances of Egypt, natural and poli- 
 tical, were peculiar; and the peculiarities of both 
 could not fail to affect the Architecture. The 
 whole country being united under one government, 
 \nd singularly protected by nature against the ap- 
 proach of hostile neighbours, military architecture 
 would not be cultivated there as in Syria. Being 
 nearly destitute of wood, the various stones, with 
 which it abounded, would be the materials for its 
 edifices, where any splendor was desired ; and they 
 institutions and the superstition of the Egyptians 
 led them to desire magnificence in Civil, but more 
 especially in Sacred Architecture. .Accordingly 
 the art of working stone was carried to great 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. lg 
 
 perfection among them; at how early a period we 
 know not, but certainly very early : and through 
 the lasting quality of their stones, and the freedom 
 of their climate from the destructive effects of 
 frost, large relics of their buildings, to this day, 
 show their style and manner, of an antiquity not 
 to be exactly fixed, but certainly beyond what 
 can be ascertained of any other country. 
 
 Thus, in Solomon's age, Egypt had the ablest 
 stoneworkers probably then in the world. But 
 the historian specially assures us that Phenicia 
 had the most skilful Hewers of Wood, as our 
 translation renders it ; for which, ,as the narrative 
 seems enough to show, might not improperly be 
 put, carpenters and joiners and carvers. A supply 
 of these was obtained from the friendship of the 
 king of Tyre, who was in alliance with the king of 
 Judaea. Whether then merely for speed and 
 cheapness, or whether for the superiority in taste 
 and execution of the Phenician designers and 
 workmen, not only much of the solid, but all the 
 ornamental parts, of both the temple and the 
 palace, which were not of metal, appear to have 
 been of wood : not only floors and roots were of 
 timber, but walls were wainscoted, even columns 
 were wooden, and among much interior decoration, 
 in carving of the same material, there was what it 
 should seem may not improperly be called statuary 
 of wood. If the account at large, in the book of 
 
20 PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 Kings (though probably the extracts and ingenious 
 comment in Wilkins's Magna Gnecia may have 
 led you to it) should not be in your recollection, I 
 think in turning to it at your leisure you will not 
 fail of amusement. 
 
 L E T T E R IV. 
 
 Migration of Arts from the East into Greece. Architect UK 
 of Homer's Age. Origin of the Grecian Temple. Circular 
 Building. Stojiehenge. Early use of Bricks. Rectilinear 
 feuilding. Importance of the Attar. Completion of the 
 Grecian Temple. 
 
 1 HAT the arts migrated to Greece from the East, 
 and especially from Phenicia, is shown so satis- 
 factorily by Homer, that we hardly want the 
 confirmation furnished by the concurring testimo- 
 nies of later writers* In Homer's time the Greeks 
 seem to have had neither temples, nor any of 
 those other public buildings, the gymnasium, the 
 stoa, or the theater, which afterward, among the 
 republics, to the great promotion of architecture, 
 were esteemed necessary in even the smallest 
 city. So late as his age, the patriarchal form of 
 government so prevailed, that the palaces of princes 
 were buildings for every ordinary public purpose, 
 and they seem to have been the only buildings 
 for public purposes. The royal palace of Troy 
 
IX ARCHITECTURE. 21 
 
 is described as very spacious; the material stone, 
 artificially wrought; the apartments numerous. 
 Beyond this, information fails. But the city walls 
 of Troy are celebrated : they are said to have been 
 the work of gods. This fable largely implies that 
 neither Trojans nor Greeks, of those days, excelled 
 in such works. The walls of Troy, so I think 
 the fable may safely be interpreted, had been 
 raised by the art of foreign workmen, engaged for 
 the purpose. Of the palace no part seems to 
 have been appropriated to religious ceremony. As 
 among the Israelites, before Solomon, so among 
 the Greeks yet in Homer's time, the only struc- 
 ture, for Sacred use, was the Altar. 
 
 The primeval altar appears to have been 
 equally in Asia and in Greece, no more than a 
 hearth ; formed, as the art of the place and day 
 could form it best, for holding a fire, to prepare 
 the victim for the meal. It differed from the 
 camp-kitchen of our days, where the ordinary 
 process is seething or boiling, as the preferred 
 resource then, for converting flesh into wholesome 
 food for mankind, was roasting. A Pavement 
 around the Altar was an early addition. Thus 
 was obviated the inconvenience of dust in dry 
 weather, of mud in wet, and of the filthy mixture 
 of the blood of victims with the soil at all times. 
 
 The Pavement, added to the Altar, seems 
 utmost improvement of Sacred Architectun 
 c 3 
 
22 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Greece, so late as Homer's time ; at least nothing 
 remains from him clearly indicating more. Nor 
 was even that addition common ; for he speaks 
 of the pavements of Apollo at Delphi and 
 Minerva at Athens as extraordinary works, be- 
 coming places of superior religious celebrity. A 
 temple appears to have been unknown, at least 
 as existing in Greece ; and a priesthood equally so. 
 Even the Eleusinian mysteries are not mentioned 
 in his extant works. It is however remarkable 
 that, of all Greece, he seems to have been least 
 acquainted with Attica. 
 
 After the addition of a Pavement to the Altar, 
 the next step apparently, and a great one, in sacred 
 Architecture, was the superaddition of a Colon- 
 nade around the Pavement. Thus was formed 
 the Roofless Temple ; common among the early 
 Greeks, and familiar even to those of later times. 
 The purpose seems to have been to give dignity 
 to a chosen spot, and to mark it for seclusion 
 frOrn profane steps, without denying the sacred 
 ceremonies to the devout eye. Had the pave 
 ments of Apollo at Delphi and Minerva at 
 Athens, already in Homer's time, a surrounding 
 colonnade ? or how otherwise the superiority im - 
 plied in his mention of them ? 
 
 It seems to me probable (you will correct me 
 if you think me wrong) that the Circular was the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 23 
 
 general form of primeval buildings, for whatever 
 purpose. For the hut, where walls and roof were 
 one ; for the barrow, where duration of the figure 
 given to a moldering material, was a principal ob- 
 ject ; and for the fortress, where equal power in 
 every point, for both offence and defence was 
 wanted, the advantage of the circular form is obvi- 
 ous : for the altar it was commodious, and even for 
 the temple, while roofless, it would be without in- 
 convenience. Certainly it was of extejisive preva- 
 lence, and especially in our own country ; where 
 not only all the numerous earthen monuments of 
 the dead, but all the rude temples of stone, attri- 
 buted to the Druids, and the oldest fortresses, 
 built with a superiority of art indicating a later 
 age, are circular. Of the latter sort, the castles of 
 Lanceston and Restormel in Cornwall, are emi- 
 nent examples ;. and that extraordinary relic of 
 .British antiquity, Stonehenge, with all its rude- 
 ness, is perhaps the most magnificent, and indeed 
 far from the rudest, of examples existing of a 
 style of temple which has been extensive over the 
 world. 
 
 But in two of the countries where population 
 seems to have first abounded, and arts first made 
 progress, Egypt and Babylonia, wood was little 
 produced ; in Babylonia no stone was- found ; and 
 in Egypt, though stone of the harder kinds, por- 
 C4 
 
24 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 1 
 
 phyry, granite, and basalt, abounded, yet any so 
 yielding to the tool as to be commodious for or- 
 dinary building, was rare. Necessity thus urged 
 t@ the invention and use of bricks ; which we are 
 assured were largely used in Egypt. The com- 
 mon employment of this material would hardly 
 fail to lead to the rectangular form in building. 
 The brick itself would far more readily be made 
 in a rectangular than any other regular form 
 adapted to building. That form in the material 
 would lead to an analogous form in the edifice to 
 
 o 
 
 be raised with it, to which other circumstances 
 would also persuade. Where a roof was desired, 
 it would be found most easily managed for strait 
 walls : when a building was to be divided into 
 several apartments, the advantage of the rect- 
 angular form would be as obvious as the incon- 
 venience of every other ; for domestic archi- 
 tecture, aptitude for division is an important 
 quality. Experience then of the superior con- 
 venience of that form for the domestic would 
 recommend it for other buildings ; and, if the 
 Grecian temple rose on the ruin of the king's 
 palace, its form would be likely to be at once 
 rectangular. I do not remember that any trace 
 of a circular temple has been found in Greece. 
 
 In the times of which Homer's poems treat, 
 kings, we find, were universally pontiffs; their 
 private estates principal iy- furnished the victims in 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 25 
 
 the sacrificial feast, and the common place for 
 the ceremony was in front of their palace gate* 
 When the governments of all the little states of 
 Greece where changed to republics, some new 
 provision was wanted for the maintenance of the 
 prevailing religion. Whether then spreading 
 from Eleusis, or in whatever other manner arising, 
 not long after Homer, priesthoods were instituted, 
 and temples built in every part of Greece ; and 
 what the king's income formerly did, a revenue pro 
 vided by the community was appointed to supply. 
 The establishment seems to have been generally 
 large and expensive ; numerous inferior ministers, 
 hcrdmen, butchers, and cooks, forming an impor- 
 tant part of it. 
 
 The rite of sacrifice was an institution peculiarly 
 adapted to the early ages of the world : connecting 
 religion with the daily meal, it was fraught with 
 benefit to depraved and wandering man. That 
 general sense of religion, and of dependence on 
 the deity, which, among the grossest corruptions 
 of belief and practice, it powerfully assisted to 
 maintain, was oi inestimable use, if only through the 
 respect which it inspired for the sanctity of oaths. 
 But the offering on the altar moreover brought the 
 society together, and often it was the only resource 
 of the indigent against starving : the institution 
 operated as a poor-law for the early ages. Re- 
 verence for the altar therefore was inculcated in 
 
26 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 early infancy ; to hold as a brotherhood all who 
 communicated in the ceremony, and shared in 
 the charitable meal there, became respected as 
 the law equally of God and man : to profane 
 the altar, to offer violence to any at the altar, 
 to break an oath sworn at the altar, were esteemed 
 crimes involving the guilty in enmity, at the same 
 time, with the deity and with all mankind. How 
 far the refinement, or the idleness, of our days, 
 abolishing, by neglect, that small and easy portion 
 of the ceremony, recommended by the example 
 of the divine author of the religion we profess, 
 and habitually observed by our fathers, are, even 
 in a worldly view, doing ill, may deserve consider- 
 ation beyond any proper limits of our subject here. 
 Through what circumstances then the Temple 
 grew and became, hardly less than the Altar, 
 a necessary appendage of Grecian religion, we 
 are equally uninformed as how the revolution 
 happened, which abolished the civil, judicial, and 
 military offices of kings, leaving the sacerdotal. 
 But, though the king's palace seems to have 
 had no part appropriated to religious ceremony, 
 yet, being the depository of whatever furniture 
 and utensils the rite of sacrifice required, a sub- 
 stitute would bs wanted, when the palace was 
 no more. To supply this want, the cell seems to 
 have been added to the Grecian temple. In the 
 climate then of most of the countries occupied 
 
JN ARCHITECTURE. 27 
 
 by the Greeks, shelter was highly desirable against 
 the scorching heat of the sun, and against heavy 
 rains, but not equally against cold, unless for a 
 small portion of the year. With such shelter 
 the peristyle around the cell, the roof being added, 
 would accommodate numbers ; and thus the ordi- 
 nary form of the Grecian temple was completed. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Character of Design in Egyptian Architecture. Stone and 
 Brick, Egyptian Materials. Timber a principal Material 
 of the early Grecian Architecture. 
 
 JN o considerable monuments, of early anti- 
 quity, as far as I recollect from my reading 
 of travels, are known to remain in Palestine or 
 Phenicia. Any certain knowledge of what was 
 there, before Alexander's conquest gave preva- 
 lence to the Grecian taste, we gather almost only 
 from the very interesting descriptions of Solomon's 
 temple and palace, in the book of Kings, and from 
 the account of the restored temple of Jerusalem, 
 extant in the history of Josephus ; both, though 
 highly curious and valuable, yet very scanty for 
 the architect's purpose. 
 
 But, in Egypt, the existing buildings, of anti- 
 quity beyond chronological research, are of a 
 
28 PRIXCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 magnificence to excite the admiration of ever}' 1 
 traveller, and of all others, whom the descriptions? 
 faithful evidently from the concurrence of tra- 
 vellers of different ages and different nations, 
 have reached. Of these buildings, I think we have 
 agreed, in looking together over the published 
 representations of them, that they exhibit much 
 of the principles, but nothing of the perfection, of 
 fine taste. Often we see in them an imposing 
 grandeur, but depraved by the interference of 
 something incongruous; often very elegant simpli- 
 city, but injured by the intrusion of something 
 incoherently complex ; often good proportion of 
 principal parts, with effect deranged by misma- 
 nagement of divisions and subordinate forms ; often 
 eager purpose of ornament and decoration, never 
 happily pursued. An able criticism on Egyptian 
 architecture, pointing out, in the various build- 
 ings, the good principles, which the Greeks, with 
 the penetration to discover had the judgement to 
 adopt, and the mismanagement of that detail, 
 which the Greeks, also adopting in part, had the 
 happy good taste to improve arid perfect, might 
 be highly advantageous for students. 
 
 I venture here, you see, to suppose Grecian 
 architecture derived from Egypt. The learned and 
 ingenious architect Wilkins, in his late publica- 
 tion of the Antiquities of Sicily and the south of 
 Italy, has ventured an opinion that the Gre- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 2$ 
 
 cian Doric column, not of Grecian invention, 
 was precisely the column of Solomon's temple at 
 Jerusalem. But, to establish this, it was neces- 
 sary to controvert our translation of the Bible ; 
 which renders by the word chapiter, (a word ob- 
 viously enough of the same import as capital) 
 what he reckons could not, in the original, mean 
 the capital ; for, ' we should offend,' he says, 
 ' against every just idea of proportion, were we 
 1 to imagine that the capitals of the columns 
 * were little less than one-third of the height of 
 ' the shaft.' It cannot, I think indeed be dis- 
 puted, at least I would not dispute, that a column 
 so proportioned would be ill proportioned ; and 
 yet I believe the true meaning of the passage to 
 be given in our translation of the Bible. Not 
 only it is the most obvious interpretation, but it is 
 very remarkably confirmed by remaining examples 
 of Egyptian architecture ; and that Solomon got 
 his style, at least in part, from Egypt, will I think 
 generally be reckoned more probable than that 
 Greece gained hers intire from Jerusalem. For 
 these matters, however, we can only amuse our- 
 selves with conjecture. What we are assured of 
 is, that Design in Architecture, whether indigenous 
 or adventitious, w r as perfected in Greece, at au 
 age when elsewhere, except as the account of 
 Solomon's buildings in the book of Kin<ys may 
 
 O O J 
 
JO PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 inform us, it is known only through the existing 
 relics of buildings in Egypt, 
 
 Stone and brick, we have observed, were the 
 materials of Egyptian building ; the former mostly 
 of an unfavorable kind, the latter essentially infe- 
 rior. In Greece, though most of its forests 
 have now been many centuries prostrate, yet, 
 to the time of its earliest extant historians, 
 timber abounded. The example then of Phe- 
 nicia, the mistress of Greece in the arts gene- 
 rally, could hardly fail to lead to an extensive 
 use of timber in building. Solomon's columns, 
 described as having chapiters, were of brass ; but 
 columns or pillars of wood, we find, were in 
 greater number, about his buildings. The silver- 
 fir abounded both in the forests of Phenicia, and 
 in the forests of Greece ; and the trunk of that 
 tree, reduced only to a competent length, would 
 be at once, almost w ithout farther workmanship, 
 the shaft of a Grecian column. The names of 
 many of the members of Grecian architecture, 
 assist other indications, showing wood to have 
 been largely used in the early Grecian temples ; 
 rind that remarkable circumstance in the Greek 
 language, the use of the word WOOD to signify 
 matter in general, so that the matter of, a 
 discourse was called the wood of a discourse, is a 
 powerful additional testimony that wood was the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 3! 
 
 principal material of the artists of the early 
 ages of Greece. To the time of Xenophon, the 
 time of the greatest perfection of Grecian art, 
 wood was a material not thought unfit even for 
 statues of the deities, in those smaller temples, 
 where neither a great revenue appropriated to 
 reiigious purposes, nor extensive puhlic favor, 
 afforded means for large expence. 
 
 The columns which the Egyptians, whether in- 
 venting, or wheresoever borrowing, used, gave 
 richness, and variety, and even grandeur to their 
 buildings. But grace was deficient ; the grace of 
 form, the grace of ornament, and even the grace 
 of proportion. Their proportions were those at- 
 tributed, in the book of Kings, to the brazen pil- 
 lars of Solomon's temple, which Wilkins has justly 
 reprobated. Egypt bore no tree to suggest the 
 idea of that elegant form, simple in its variety, 
 which the woods of Greece furnished, nearly com- 
 plete, in their natural growth. A palm-tree in- 
 deed might suggest an elegant form, what is called 
 a term ; but much refinement, under direction of 
 a chaste fancy, would be wanted to carry so far 
 the improvement of art, for her purposes, on ideas 
 suggested by nature, in forms, for her very different 
 purposes, already perfect. The palm-tree may 
 also have assisted toward the invention of the 
 Egyptian column. But the Phenicians had all 
 the advantage of Greece in fir-forests at hand. 
 
32 PRINCIPLES d*F DESIGN 
 
 Whether then Phenicians or Greeks first profited 
 from the advantage, for giving to their columns the 
 elegant form and elegant proportions, which we 
 admire in the oldest Grecian temples, can hardly 
 now be ascertained. In either country a pine or fir, 
 only felled and reduced to a convenient length, 
 making the shaft, the stem of another fir only 
 squared, became the architrave or mainbeam, 
 to connect the columns by their summits, and bear 
 the superstructure over the intervals. When a roof 
 \vas to be added, still pines, squared, and placed 
 across the architraves, as girders or joists, and 
 making what is called the frieze, sufficed for, what 
 was next wanted, support for the rafters. The 
 projection of these formed the cornice, crown- 
 piece, or top-finishing; and thus the parts, possibly 
 of Phenician, but certainly of Grecian columnal 
 building, were completed. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 33 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Change of character of Design, in Grecian Architecture, 
 - ensuing from change of Material.' Illustration of the 
 relation between the Useful and the Graceful. Delineation 
 find Painting unequal to the representation of effects of 
 Architecture. Descriptive Sketches of the early Grecian 
 Temple. 
 
 OF those early Grecian temples, whose principal 
 material was wood, no example can remain. 
 Many, of the most celebrated, are mentioned, in 
 history, to have been consumed by -fire; and 
 the rest, from the disposition of timber, and 
 especially fir, to corruption, must have perished 
 very many centuries ago. 
 
 With the material, it is probable the proportions 
 . of the parts, of the Grecian temple were some- 
 what altered ; or, perhaps, having before varied, 
 became more fixed. When either a growing 
 scarcity of timber, or the frequent destruction of 
 wood in buildings by fire, admonished to the use 
 of a material not subject to that calamity, some 
 new consideration of proportions would become 
 necessary. The extent of openings between 
 solid and solid, which might be large for Um- 
 ber, would become limited to the power which the 
 D 
 
 i 
 
34 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 artist possessed, of raising and placing 
 stone, of length to rest securely on the solid on 
 each side, and of substance to bear the super- 
 structure ; for the art of constructing arches 
 seems to have been then unknown. From 
 this consideration arose the proportions of the 
 oldest Grecian temples, of which relics are yet 
 standing ; less graceful perhaps than what were 
 adopted afterward, in times of more improved 
 art ; and yet, in the opinion of some modern 
 critics, of highly cultivated taste, carrying dignity 
 more than compensating the failure of the less 
 awfnl grace. But the proportions of all, the very 
 oldest Grecian columns known, are lightened by 
 that ornamental channelling, which we call the 
 fluting. What the Greeks gained from Syria, as 
 I before observed, we almost wholly want in- 
 formation. The relics of Egyptian antiquity 
 are large ; and here, though we find" examples 
 of what may have suggested the idea of the 
 fluting, yet the fluting itself is not found, nor what 
 could answer its purpose ; for the fluting appears 
 to have been originally imagined, not for orna- 
 ment, but for use. 
 
 Very remarkable illustration, indeed, of the 
 character of the relation between the Useful and the 
 Graceful, of their occasional connection, and their 
 occasional opposition, is, it appears to me, offered 
 --fey this ornament. It was common among th* 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. ' 35 
 
 antients, Greeks, and Barbarians, to travel far to 
 attend religious solemnities ; and, in these pious 
 journeys, to go accoutred, not, like the pilgrims 
 of the dark ages of Christianity, with shells, but, 
 more in the way of the knights errant, with arms. 
 During the sacred ceremony, however, arms were 
 to be deposited. Convenient stands of arms 
 therefore were wanted, and especially for that 
 cumbersome weapon, the spear ; which, among 
 the Greeks, like the lance of the age of chivalry, 
 marked the most honorable class of military ser- 
 vice. Around the columns of the temple the 
 spears of the votaries might be commodiously 
 arranged ; but, without the iluting, unless the cir- 
 cuit were completely filled, and the upright posi- 
 tion very exactly observed, the fall of a number 
 together might make considerable disturbance or 
 even mischief. Hence seems to have arisen that 
 early decoration, in the Grecian phrase the spear- 
 sheath, or spear-hold, tovptffyii, which, for its 
 simple elegance, acquired such favor, that, when 
 the use ceased, the thing was universally retained 
 in Grecian architecture. 
 
 But this very elegant ornament, while its use 
 remained, forbad another, which afterward 
 obtained just favor, the base. While the 
 column was wanted as a stand of arms, a 
 fease, such as we find in the other orders, 
 r> 2 
 
36 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 and in the Doric itself, in Roman architecture 
 with its projecting moldings and its plinth, 
 would have interfered very inconveniently with 
 the use of the fluting ; intruding itself into 
 the place required for secure footing for the 
 spears. It was when the use of the fluting 
 ceased, that, among other inrichments of architec- 
 ture, the base was added to the column ; of 
 which it became esteemed an essential member, 
 while the fluting was retained only as a decora- 
 tion. 
 
 Stone, abounding in most parts of Greece and 
 the Grecian colonies, came into extensive use, for 
 public buildings, at an age so early that several 
 of those, in their ruin still showing, in large 
 degree, what they were, are of antiquity beyond 
 the oldest extant Grecian history. These, to- 
 gether with all the best later existing monuments 
 of Grecian architectonic art, have been made 
 known to us by. accurate descriptions and de- 
 lineations. Stewart's Antiquities of Athens, the 
 publications of the society of Dilettanti, under 
 the title of Ionian Antiquities, Wood's Balbec 
 and Palmyra, and Wilkins's Magna Graecia, give 
 all of most importance that have been discovered, 
 or probably are remaining. 
 
 But it is not easy for any person (whether an 
 able and deeply practised architect should be 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 37 
 
 excepted, I cannot tell) to gain from picture a just 
 idea of the effects of any building of a kind he 
 never saw ; and, beyond most other buildings, 
 beyond any equally simple in general design, the 
 effects of the Grecian temple evade graphical 
 representation. The architect's geometrical ele- 
 vation, showing the thing, in one point of view, 
 exactly as it is, shows it however so as it cannot 
 possibly be seen by the human eye. Picture, 
 even if less accurate, yet giving the perspective, 
 so as to exhibit the proportions, not as they really 
 are, but nearly as to the beholder's eye they would 
 appear, offers a far juster idea of the visual effect. 
 But the power even of picture is extremely deficient 
 for the purpose. Some circumstances indeed 
 the painter can command very advantageously. 
 He can chuse the one point in which the building 
 to be represented is seen to most advantage : he 
 can chuse the circumstances of the atmosphere 
 most advantageous for light and shade and color- 
 ing ; and effects transient, and almost momentary, 
 in nature, he can fix, so that the beholder's eye 
 may dwell upon them and return to them. 
 
 Here is the advantage of the painter's art, 
 and it is great. For its deficiencies, I remem- 
 ber being particularly struck with an idea of 
 them, on first visiting the Flavian amphitheater 
 at Rome, in modern times called the Colosseum, 
 and I will therefore proceed to mention what thea 
 
 S3 
 
3$ . PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 occurred to me. In that magnificent and cele- 
 brated building, it was not the exterior, \vith its 
 several ranges of columns and arches, that grati- 
 fied me. The vast whole is frittered into a com- 
 parative littleness. The lofty surmounting wall, 
 with its pilasters, resting on its triple basement, 
 would in its ample sweep, when perfect, 1 dare say, 
 have a perspective that would be pleasing, as well 
 as highly magnificent ; but, to enjoy it, the eye 
 must avoid stooping to the incongruous flutter of 
 the triple basement below. I am however here 
 rather anticipating a subject that would belong 
 more properly to some future letter ; but I could 
 not wholly omit notice of the exterior, though my 
 immediate business is to pass to the interior of 
 this stupendous building. When I entered the 
 slowly winding corridores, of simplest construc- 
 tion, owing all their effect to forms and propor- 
 tions and nothing to ornament, when, in stepping 
 on, I saw the effect continually changing, yet 
 always pleasing- and always great, I ceased to 
 wonder at the eulogy and admiration of those 
 who have described this splendid relic of 
 , Roman imperial magnificence ; and at the same 
 time I ceased to wonder that, of the many repre- 
 sentations of it by able artists, none conveyed 
 ' ideas of architectonic merit, at all commensurate 
 \vith that admiration and eulogy. For it is not 
 - the one point of view, which the painter may, with 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 3 
 
 happiest art represent, that excites the admiration 
 and eulogy of the moving observer ; but the con- 
 tinual variety of effects, which he finds at every 
 step, at every turn of the eye, and which the 
 painter cannot give. 
 
 Let us then consider the parts of the Grecian 
 temple, and their combination, when it had 
 already a cell surrounded by columns, with a 
 roof over all, but remained otherwise in a style of 
 primeval simplicity. The columns are arranged 
 in form of a parallelogram, inclosing walls of the 
 same figure. The shafts of the columns are sur- 
 mounted with projecting caps; the architraves 
 rest on these $ the ends of the joists rest on the 
 architraves, forming what is called the frieze : the 
 eaves, overhanging the frieze, crown the work, 
 forming what is thence called the cornice. 
 
 A building could not be raised on a simpler plan, 
 one more evidently a single whole, with the parts 
 more obviously belonging to one another, and all 
 necessary to all ; and yet with this simplicity 
 there is a variety, that, if we consider it in detail, 
 may appear surprizing. The variety is given by 
 the separation and contrast of parts, leaving 
 connecting bonds ; so that the unity of the whole 
 remains evident. The columns are so many 
 separate solids, with voids of just space between 
 them; connected above by the intablature; below 
 by the floor: their circular form is contrasted 
 P4 
 
40 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 with the angular of all the rest of the building 
 and their perpendicular position with the hori- 
 zontal lines below and above them. The small 
 deviation of the outline of the shaft from the 
 perpendicular, gives a character peculiar to itself, 
 and the fluting multiplies this variety ; producing 
 a kind of intricacy highly amusing and pleasing 
 to the eye, without involving it in any difficulty 
 to comprehend the whole ; without anything 
 adverse to the general character of simplicity. 
 The horizontal lines of the architrave then con- 
 trast with the perpendicular, and nearly per- 
 pendicular, of the columns ; yet they form one 
 bond of connection for all. The projections in 
 the frieze, called triglyphs, the moldings and 
 breaks of the eaves or cornice, and the deviation 
 from the horizontal in the lines of the roof, 
 meeting in a point, as seen in front, and, as the 
 eye discovers in other points of view, forming a 
 ridge, complete the system of variety of parts, 
 harmonized in a single and well-combined whole. 
 Farther to examine this building then let us 
 place ourselves first overagainst the middle of 
 the portico. The eye sees, you are aware, not the 
 geometrical elevation, but the perspective. Look- 
 ing then first downward, it sweeps over the level 
 surface of the floor, on which all rests, and which 
 connects all, interrupted by the shafts of the 
 columns ; between which, penetrating, it catches 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 41 
 
 the perspective of the lateral range of columns on 
 each side. Raising the view then, it finds amuse- 
 ment among the converging and diverging lines 
 of the shafts and their flutings, with their various 
 lights and shadows. In following those lines it 
 meets no check till it reaches the capital, thwarting 
 them. This member introduces it to a new 
 system of lines, those of the intablature, parallel 
 to the floor from which it began its course. Here 
 it discovers a new intricacy, which, if leisure 
 occurs, may be examined with new amusement. 
 To complete the survey then, the eye has only to 
 glide by the easy ascent of the pediment to the 
 apex, a line quite in a new direction, but carrying 
 it to no great distance from those before observed : 
 
 O ' 
 
 whence descending again, it may glance over the 
 whole, and all being harmonized, with all its 
 variety it will strike as simple in its elegance. 
 
 In this view, nevertheless, advantageous as it 
 is, we take the building not in its most advanta 
 geous point. Far more varied and pleasing will 
 be the effects, as the eye moves from the central 
 station. Diverging, a little only, it will see still 
 the interior of each lateral range of columns: but 
 whereas, from the central point, it saw each range 
 the exact counterpart of the other in lines, and 
 differing only in the accidental and ever-altering 
 circumstances of light and shade, it now sees 
 them in a perspective differing in the lines also. 
 
 
42 PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 Moving farther, the character of the view becomef 
 greatly changed. The whole of the exterior of a 
 lateral range of columns comes within the com- 
 prehension of the eye, together with the whole of 
 the front, and a small part of the interior of the 
 Other lateral range. Nor is this advantageous 
 view limited, in reality, as in picture, to a single 
 point ; every step is rewarded with a variety, and 
 every passing cloud brings one. Twenty pictures 
 perhaps might represent the varieties offering 
 themselves at each step of twenty. But it were a 
 tiresome business to examine twenty pictures, so 
 nearly resembling one another, to find and ascertain 
 and compare their varieties ; whereas observing 
 those varieties in the single real object, highly 
 amusing, is also without labor ; and the matter of 
 regret often is that beautiful effects, given by 
 changes in the atmsphere, are too transient. 
 It is the merit of painting, as I before observed, 
 not to pursue varieties, but to fix interesting 
 objects, of a passing nature, in interesting points 
 of view ; so that the eye may rest upon 
 and return to them. This is the peculiar advan- 
 tage of painting, and a very high prerogative it is, 
 when used as Claud and the Poussins and Cor- 
 reggio and Raphael have had talent to use it. 
 
 But, if painting is unequal to the representation 
 of architectonic effects, far more must words be 
 deficient: their best power is to revive > in the 
 
' IN ARCHITECTURE. 43 
 
 iniiid- of the hearer or reader, the idea of forms 
 once seen, and direct to points, in the recollected 
 objects, to which attention may be desired. Hence 
 description is hazardous ; for that may be com- 
 plete for those practised in observation of archi- 
 tecture, which will be very deficient for the un- 
 practised ; and, what to the latter may be necessary 
 and even grateful, may annoy the former, as tedious 
 and superfluous. For this however, as for all other 
 matters, I depend upon your kind acceptance of 
 my endeavours, and, should my letters pass into 
 other hands, I must take my chance. 
 
44 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Grecian Orders of Architecture. 
 
 IT has been commonly remarked that the people 
 of those countries which we call Oriental, or the 
 East, have been remarkably adherent to fashion* 
 once established among them, and averse to 
 changes. But the Egyptians, in their habits 
 generally, beyond others monotonous, in their 
 architecture rather furnish an exception. They 
 had indeed a style of their own; but, within 
 that style, they indulged in a capricious variety : 
 we do not find, among the large remains of their 
 magnificent antient buildings, any settled ORDER 
 of architecture. 
 
 On the contrary all the oldest Grecian buildings, 
 known to us, either by existing relics or by de- 
 scription, show a remarkable sobriety of taste, an 
 extraordinary reserve in pursuit of variety; a 
 scrupulous adherence to the manner of fair forms 
 once approved and deserving to be so. During 
 Several centuries, all the Grecian temples, not 
 in Proper Greece only, but in all the settlements 
 of the nation, in Sicily, Italy, Asia, and 
 Africa, appear to have been all, with small 
 varieties only, of one general style of architec- 
 ture, afterward distinguished by .the title of the 
 DORIC ORDER, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 45 
 
 Was Homer inferior to Shakespear in power 
 of imagination ? Was Shakespear inferior to 
 Homer in natural sensibility to just order and 
 arrangement, and in power of discerning the be- 
 coming and the misbecoming ? Though a hasty 
 view of their works might lead to decide both 
 questions in the affirmative, yet perhaps, in careful 
 observation, ground may be discovered for much 
 dispute on the subject. How far Homer's inven- 
 tion was checked, and his judgement chastened, 
 by the fastidious taste of those for whom he com- 
 posed; how far Shakespear's carelessness, of ar- 
 rangement generally, and of the becoming often, 
 was encouraged by the licentious fancies, which 
 he was obliged to respect ; and what was the real 
 difference of mind between them, may be va- 
 riously imagined, and will not be easy convin- 
 cingly to show. 
 
 In architecture, however, it is evident, multi- 
 farious invention was not that in which Grecian 
 genius prided itself; extravagant variety was not 
 that in which Grecian taste was disposed to in- 
 dulge. Nice selection, advantageous combination, 
 and what the Greeks distinguished by the general 
 terms of harmony, and the becoming, were what 
 the Grecian mind was singularly directed to, and 
 in the attainment of which it singularly excelled. 
 Perhaps, as I believe I have before observed, 
 among monuments yet remaining in Egypt may 
 
4$ PRINCIPLES OF 4 DESIGN 1 
 
 be found the prototype of almost every form oc- 
 curring in Grecian architecture. What may havfc 
 been gathered from Phenicia or Palestine, however 
 v/ell the ingenious may guess, we cannot know. 
 But to have chosen the most graceful forms, and 
 the most harmonious combinations, even if not to 
 have invented them ; to have perseveringly 
 adhered to them ; to have prosecuted great im- 
 provement, without abandoning the original good 
 principle; and exclusively to have transmitted them 
 to late posterity, are certainly Grecian merits. 
 
 Nevertheless the proportions of the oldest 
 Grecian temples, known by relics yet stand- 
 ing, and by authentic descriptions published, 
 have not met with universal approbation. To 
 the eye accustomed to the proportions afterward 
 adopted, they have been apt to appear heavy and 
 less graceful. The early architects, emulating, it 
 may seem, the grandeur of the Egyptian style* 
 and successful in adding the graces of harmony 
 and simplicity, gave their buildings a massiveness, 
 which even some cultivated minds have been 
 disposed to reckon beyond elegance. Whether* 
 this judgement has ever been formed by those who 
 have seen the buildings, or whether it rests wholly 
 on delineated representation, I cannot tell. But, 
 I remember at Rome a professional architect, 
 eminent for extensive information and correct 
 taste, affirm ing that the great temple of Pacstum, 
 
IN" ARCHITECTURE. 47 
 
 when he first saw it, struck him as a building of 
 more grandeur of effect than Saint Peters 
 church at Rome. Saint Peter's is so beyond com- 
 parison the larger building, that the arrangement 
 and design only could give the advantage to the 
 Psestan temple. 
 
 It is not however my purpose to contend, that 
 the very massive proportions, of the oldest Grecian 
 temples, are those which, the modern architect 
 should generally take for his rule. It is evident 
 that the Grecian architects themselves, of those 
 generally esteemed the best times, did not reckon 
 the proportions of their predecessors models for 
 them exactly to follow. The Parthenon, the tem- 
 ple of Theseus, and the Propylsea, at Athens, 
 and the temple of Minerva at Sunium, with still 
 great massiveness, exhibit however lighter propor~ 
 tions, with perhaps no inferiority in grandeur, 
 For toward that quality height is necessary ; and 
 the greater effect will be produced, not by extrava- 
 gance, of either the lofty or the massive, but by 
 justly combining the two. It seems indeed to be 
 generally allowed that the early Grecian architec- 
 ture, while one order only was knqwn, reached 
 its highest perfection in the four buildings last 
 mentioned. 
 
 It is an old observation that there is, in almost 
 all human affairs, a progress analogous to the 
 life .of man ; an age of growth and obvious 
 
 \ 
 
4S PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 improvement, an age of perfection, the greatest of 
 which the subject may be capable, and an age after- 
 ward of decay. So it has been seen in all coun- 
 tries, especially with regard to what we call the 
 fine arts. But, among those ages, what precisely 
 are the limits of the age of perfection, is commonly 
 difficult to decide. In the infancy of man, progress 
 in the powers, of both body and mind, is obvious 
 enough : in elderhood, decay of bodily powers 
 is also obvious, and sometimes of the mental. But 
 what is the age in which precisely the greatest 
 value of various powers is found in any individual, 
 will not be easy to determine. And so it is of the 
 fine arts. Where is the most perfect combina- 
 tion of various merits in architecture, of strength 
 and lightness, of simplicity and ornament, of gran- 
 deur and beauty, various minds, even those equally 
 powerful by nature and improved by study, some 
 inclining to delight more in one, some in another, 
 of those kinds of merit, will ever be apt with 
 some variety to decide : 
 
 Tis with our judgements as our watches, none 
 Go just alike, but each believes his own. 
 
 Quot capitum vivunt, todidem studiorum 
 
 Millia. 
 
 In the progress of the arts, especially of sculp- 
 ture, the desire of increased splendor in edifices, 
 stimulated and assisted by increased wealth of 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 49 
 
 of the people for whom the buildings were raised, 
 brought forward a new order of architecture, 
 which earned, and under controll of a singularly 
 correct public taste, deserved . favor. But there 
 appears to have been a farther motive to the 
 innovation. The able innovators had observed, 
 in the ancient order, two defects. The lines of 
 the column, they thought, met those of the floor 
 over abruptly, and without grace of connection ; 
 and, in the intablature, not only the triglyphs and 
 metopes restrained the general proportions often 
 inconveniently for the general design, but there 
 was altogether a complexity, perhaps of oriental 
 origin, which, under Grecian taste, might be 
 rendered, by simplification, at the same time 
 more elegant in itself, and more susceptible of 
 x high embellishment. 
 
 The new order appears to have had its origin, 
 or at least to have gained its perfection, among 
 the Ionian cities of Lesser Asia; whence, on its 
 reception in Greece, it became distinguished by 
 the name of the IONIC ORDER. You laugh, I 
 know, at the stories gravely repeated by some 
 modern writers, of ancient kings, Ion, Dorus 
 and others, authors of the several races of 
 Grecian people, and inventors of orders of archi- 
 tecture to which they gave their names. I have 
 myself no scruple to follow the learned and 
 ingenious author of the preface to the second 
 volume of Ionian Antiquities, in adopting the 
 E 
 
5CT PRINCIPLES OF DESTGtf 
 
 account, originally given, as far as I have observed, 
 in a note of MitforiTs History of Greece, When 
 the new order obtained extensive favor, then first 
 a distinguishing name became wanted for the old 
 one; and this, continuing to be cultivated princi- 
 pally among the Dorian cities of the Greek nation, 
 thenceforward began to be called the Doric 
 order. 
 
 The architects who introduced the Ionic order r 
 showing their ingenuity by the novelty of many of 
 the parts, showed also their judgement and reserve 
 by a scrupulous adherence to old and approved 
 principles, and to old and approved general 
 design. In essential points, not only the temple 
 remained what it had been for ages, but even the 
 column and its intablature. The shaft, which is as 
 the body of the column, was altered only by a 
 small addition of proportional length, and a small 
 difference in the manner of the fluting. The 
 capital, the most characteristical member, consi- 
 derably altered in form, was however scarcely 
 altered in proportion. The change thus, great as 
 it was, hardly exceeded what dress may make m 
 the appearance of the human head. In the 
 intablature, the change of proportions was small, 
 but of forms considerable. Simplification appears 
 here to have been a principal object. The triglyphs^ 
 so inconveniently confining the designer in the 
 Doric, were done away. But through this very 
 simplification, opportunity was, gained for iatro- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. ${ 
 
 ducing new and superior kinds of embellishment, 
 by sculpture in the moldings, and in the frieze. 
 Whether then a view to ornament, or to use, first 
 introduced the division of the architrave in its 
 height, perhaps may be questioned; If stones of 
 dimensions to complete an architrave of a single 
 face, or powers to raise such to the required 
 elevation, and place them duly, were not ready^ 
 the purpose might be answered by two or three 
 ranges of stone, which without difficulty might be 
 raised and placed ; and then, by ingenious ma- 
 nagement, defect, concealed, was converted to 
 the purpose of decoration. 
 
 The oldest existing example, I believe, of the 
 triple architrave, is found in a very singular 
 building at Athens, the temple of Pandrosos-, 
 described in Stuart's first volume. The intro- 
 duction of the Ionic order, and the public favor 
 it, not undeservedly, gained, seem to have set 
 the spirit of innovation and variety in ferment, 
 even at Athens. In that singular building the 
 figures of beautiful w r omen hold the place of 
 columns. This is its striking extravagance : but 
 there are other deviations from common forniSj 
 not so militating with general principles of the 
 former architecture, but, on the contrary, marking 
 a deference to them, which deserves notice. It 
 is evident that grace of ornament has not been 
 proposed in the triplication of the architrave ; 
 E a 
 
52 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 for its breaks are not embellished with carving, or 
 even molding, as became afterward common. If 
 therefore it was not formed of three distinct stones, 
 in height (how that was I know not) the purpose 
 of the breaks could only be to accommodate the 
 apparent proportions to those of the member* 
 above. As for a frieze, whether this* temple has 
 one or not, seems questionable. Immediately on 
 the triple architrave rests a range of that form of 
 projecting members, commonly called dentiles, but 
 of a much larger proportion than those which 
 became ordinary in the Ionic intablature. They 
 seem to have been proposed to supersede the 
 Doric triglyphs. These were originally the em- 
 bellished ends of beams. The dentiles of the 
 temple of Pandrosos seem representatives of un- 
 adorned ends of smaller beams, or joists. The 
 occupation of the place of the frieze, by this 
 range of ends of joists, with the other peculiarities 
 of this mingled frieze and cornice, evidently has 
 not been so approved by the public voice as to 
 lead to any extensive imitation of it. The joist- 
 ends, however, or dentiles, reduced in size, wholly 
 detached from the frieze, and formed into a 
 member of the cornice, though not seen in the 
 oldest example of the Ionic order at Athens, ob- 
 tained such favor, apparently for the effect of 
 light and shade, as to become a distinguishing, 
 characteristic of the Ionic intablature. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 53 
 
 But the greatest novelty, which obtained esta- 
 blishment in the new order of architecture, was 
 the addition of a member at the bottom of the 
 shaft, with the name of the BASE And here I 
 must request you to look into the first volume of 
 Ionian Antiquities, in your library, for the Ionic 
 base represented in the second plate of the second 
 chapter. It projects from the foot of the shaft as 
 a surrounding table, having on its surface a groove 
 throughout its circuit. Can you tell me the 
 purpose of this tabular projection and its groove ? 
 Was it not to give footing fqr the spears, whose 
 heads were to be confined, as in the Doric order, 
 by the flutings ? If I am warranted in this fancy, 
 the purpose of the additional member of the new 
 order was double ; utility and grace; at the same, 
 time to connect the foot of the column more 
 elegantly with the floor, and to furnish a stand for 
 the spears, more out of the way of disturbance. - 
 Do not imagine that I would recommend this form 
 of base for modern imitation : it ceased among 
 
 o 
 
 the ancients when the purpose of use ceased. But 
 I think some witty critics, who have jeered the 
 Ionic base as an absurd form, might not Un- 
 reasonably be advised to look before they leap, to 
 inquire before they judge. 
 
 The order called the CORINTHIAN is said to 
 have been invented, and introduced to public 
 favor, by an Athenian architect, very soon after 
 3 
 
54 PRIKCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 the first use of the Ionic at Athens. And here it 
 appears to me highly to deserve notice, that the 
 Greeks, in the course of improvement, still went 
 on simplifying. The Ionic order rejected the in- 
 convenient complexity occasioned by the Doric 
 triglyph. So, I think, the Corinthian has been 
 originally proposed and recommended as an im- 
 provement on the Ionic, less in richness, than in 
 simplicity ; less for advancement of luxury in 
 architecture, than for its accommodating form, 
 Its superior readiness, through its simplicity, for 
 every situation in which a column could be desired. 
 The characteristical member of the Corinthian, 
 the capital, has a kind of native richness beyond 
 the other orders; but, in general outline, the 
 capital apart, it is eminent in simplicity ; and it 
 is always ready, which cannot be said of either 
 the Doric or Ionic, in its proper form, and with 
 its proper accompaniments, for all situations. 
 
 It is indeed through this very simplicity of 
 general character, that the Corinthian has its 
 superior aptitude for receiving, in greatest amount, 
 the highest decoration. The triglyph of the 
 Doric frieze not only throws difficulties in the way 
 of Design, from which the Ionic and Corinthian 
 orders are free, but in denying the simplicity, it 
 denies also the decoration, for both of which the 
 other orders afford the architect scope for choice. 
 The essential defect of the Ionic, the necessary 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 55 
 
 distortion of its capital to accommodate an angle, 
 is not, I will own, in my eye, a very great one ; yet 
 it must be owned that the Corinthian capital, in its 
 proper form suited to 'every situation, is more 
 perfect Vitruvius has reckoned the Ionic and 
 Corinthian orders to differ only in their capitals. 
 It is however certain that the cultivators of the 
 Corinthian introduced greater simplicity in the 
 general form of the cornice, furnishing neverthe- 
 less increased opportunity for embellishment of 
 the parts ; and they gave to the base a new form, 
 simpler, and yet better adapted to its situation 
 and office. Altogether, in the Corinthian order, 
 Grecian architecture reached its highest grace* 
 holding still the general principles of the earliest 
 Doric. In surveying the richest building of the 
 new order, the eye found similar conducting lines, 
 similar interrupting lines, different proportions, 
 but similar analogy of proportions, .and, wilh 
 decoration carried to the greatest luxuriance, a 
 similar limitation of place for it; so that, with al 
 the richness of ornament, through advantageous 
 
 * o 
 
 distribution simplicity remained an eminent cha- 
 racteristic of the whole. 
 
 I know not where or when first that simple kind 
 of ornament was introduced, which builders call 
 the staffing of the fluting. I admire the name, for 
 its just description of what I believe to have been 
 the thing. It seems to me evidently to represent 
 E 4 
 
56 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN . 
 
 the spear In its sheathing ; though I must own I 
 have not observed it in any representation of any 
 early Grecian building, of any of the orders, that 
 I can recollect. Possibly you can furnish me with 
 some information about it. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Grecian Architecture not limited to the Three Orders. 
 Grecian Civil Building. (Grecian Architecture after Alex- 
 ander's Age* 
 
 THE Egyptians were, in their statuary, singularly 
 precise and monotonous; and those stupendous* 
 examples of their monumental architecture, 
 the pyramids, are monotonous as their statues : 
 magnificent, not without elegance in their sim- 
 plicity, they afford . however example for no 
 building but a pyramid. But the numerous and 
 some splendid temples, or edifices for sacred 
 purposes, of which ruins remain in Egypt, vary so 
 much in style that they deny classification ; their 
 varieties are ; not to be brought under rule and 
 system, like the Greek, in what we call Orders of 
 architecture; and, though we may find among 
 them what to admire, what may suggest bold and 
 great ideas to the discriminating designer, what 
 may even suggest great and just principles of the- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 57 
 
 art, yet anything that the hand of taste would 
 follow, anything worthy of imitation in the detail, 
 is hardly discoverable there. 
 
 The TASTE of Grecian architecture has been 
 formed in the construction, principally, of the 
 Grecian temple ; and has ultimately rested on 
 the three orders, successively prevailing in use, 
 the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Not that, for 
 any one of those orders, the Grecian architects 
 limited themselves precisely to one model, or the 
 same proportions. Within certain bounds their 
 own, and probably the public taste, confined 
 them : but a moderate licence for variety appears 
 to have been denied by neither. 
 
 Nor did they scruple occasionally to adopt forms 
 not to be classed in any of the three orders. Such 
 are the small columns forming the porches of the 
 tower of the winds at Athens. If difference of 
 character in the capital alone might constitute an 
 order, as Vitruvius seems to reckon, this, for its 
 elegance, might deserve to be called the Attic 
 order. Where high decoration is desired, the 
 Corinthian is superior : where massiveness is the 
 quality wanted, the Doric must prevail : but 
 where the middle character of the Ionic is most 
 suiting, yet the less accommodating form of the 
 Ionic capital may disturb the design, this Attic 
 order might often well supply its place. 
 
 Some writers on architecture have reckoned, 
 
5$ PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 among the orders, that called the Caryatic ; 
 which, in the only example, as far as I recollect, 
 preserved from antiquity, the temple of Pan- 
 drosos at Athens, is at the same time generally 
 admired for its beauties, and condemned for its 
 extravagance. But even this building seems to 
 carry with it testimony to the chasteness of Gre- 
 cian, and especially of Attic taste ; which, having 
 seen the Caryatic order once, with rare felicity, 
 executed, kept the phoenix as an object of just 
 admiration, but, refusing it any claim to emula- 
 tion, w r ould give no encouragement to multiply 
 the kind. 
 
 Among all the novelties in the orders, however, 
 the Grecian architecture always held its original 
 character. Even when the conquests of Alex- 
 ander had spread the Grecian taate widely over 
 Asia, and put wealth into the hands of its direc- 
 tors inabling them to work upon the most mag- 
 nificent scale, and to indulge fancy in the most 
 costly decorations, still the general design main- 
 tained the character of a dignified simplicity. 
 The plan of the Grecian temple remained the 
 simple parallelogram. No love of ornament was 
 allowed to interrupt the lines of the shaft, with 
 its flutings, in conveying the eye from the base to 
 the capital, and giving thus at one view the mea- 
 sure of height. Equally the characteristical lines 
 ef the intablature remained, amid profusion of 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 59 
 
 embellishment, unbroken, and gave at once the 
 measure of length. Embellishment was never 
 allowed to produce confusion, or so to divide one 
 great thing into many little ones, that the effect of 
 the all-together was injured. Even in the decay 
 of literature and fine taste, when Longinus found 
 a city in the Asiatic desert a residence to be 
 preferred by a man of letters, where he might, in 
 best security, profit from the remaining rays of 
 the setting sun, to arrange the principles- of Gre- 
 cian literary taste, for the instruction of late pos- 
 terity, while darkness was gathering around the 
 existing generations, even among the corruptions 
 of the Palmyrene architecture, the great prin- 
 ciples of the best Grecian models were preserved ; 
 at least so preserved, that, looking to example 
 elsewhere around the world, we may wonder that 
 the ferment of innovation and the ferment of 
 decay, working together for so many centuries, 
 had produced no greater revolution. 
 
 Th6ugh the most numerous and most valuable 
 specimens of the Grecian style are those re- 
 maining exhibited in the ruins of their sacred 
 architecture, yet we are not without large indi- 
 cation of what it was in other branches. The 
 propylam of Athens, not accommodated, or in- 
 tended, for any military purposes, have been 
 however an appendage of military architecture : 
 they belong to the castle walls, forming the orna- 
 
60 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 mental approach to the castle gate. Composed 
 largely of columns, those columns, and all their 
 appendages, are precisely what are found in the 
 temples of the same day. Thus is shown the 
 opinion of the Grecian architects, in the golden 
 age of the arts of Greece, that the forms which 
 had originated and grown to perfection in the 
 construction of temples, were not exclusively 
 adapted to sacred building ; but, even for military 
 architecture, where Decoration was desired and 
 might be properly admitted, were preferable to 
 any others they eould devise. We see, in truth, 
 between the style of the propylaea and that of 
 several temples of the same or very nearly the 
 same age, no greater difference than is observa- 
 ble among the temples themselves. 
 
 If nothing in style, materially different from 
 what was approved in sacred, was wanted for the 
 decoration of military building, still less would 
 any variety be likely to be desired or desirable 
 for civil architecture. Accordingly all the re- 
 maining monuments show that one style per- 
 vaded all. After the temple, if not even equally 
 with it, the PALAESTRA, GYMNASIUM, or HALL 
 OF EXERCISE, seems to have been esteemed a 
 public building essentially necessary in every 
 Grecian city. It was the place where, in a 
 climate subject to violence of both heat and rain, 
 and, in a state of society and political institutions^, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. /)! 
 
 of continual and unceasing danger, so that much 
 confinement within the narrow limits of fortified 
 and close-built towns was necessary for common 
 as well as for individual safety, the youth of those 
 towns might practise the exercises necessary to 
 qualify them for defending their little community. 
 The palaestra seems to have been originally but a 
 shed, supported by posts; which, if the town pros- 
 pered, were superseded by columns of stone. If 
 the town advanced still in means, the STOA, 
 PORTICO, or HALL OF CONVERSATION, became 
 another ordinary public building, which seems origi- 
 nally to have differed little from the former. Then 
 public baths were added, and theaters. Use here 
 required different plans and different forms of 
 building. The column was not necessary, and 
 could be but scantily admitted, even as an orna- 
 mental appendage. But, among the ruins of nu- 
 merous theaters and of some baths, where curious 
 and learned travellers have successfully investi- 
 gated much of the general plan, and found many 
 of the smaller parts, yet very scanty indication 
 only has been discovered of the character of the 
 elevation. It is however evident enough that, 
 use having decided the manner of the essential 
 parts of the building, for decoration, what was 
 already approved in sacred architecture has been 
 adopted ; and so congenial, for all branches this 
 has been esteemed, as, with skill in adapting, 
 
62 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 to be preferable to anything new that could be 
 invented. It is evident also that the great prin- 
 ciples of design were the same for every branch. 
 Something analogous to what the painters call 
 BREADTH was eminent among them. How- 
 
 o 
 
 ever numerous the parts, it was required that 
 conducting and connecting lines should make 
 them, for the eye> one whole : whatever was the 
 contrast, discord was to be obviated : it was ob- 
 viated by something analogous, to what, in music, 
 is called the preparation and resolution of dis- 
 cords. Decoration was not to be wildly scat- 
 tered, but confined to appropriate places; and 
 finally, all was to be so harmonized, that, even with 
 the utmost richness of embellishment, simplicity of 
 the general design should still be striking, and 
 even remain the predominant characteristic. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Tuscan and early P.oma?i Architecture. Introduction of 
 Grecian Taste at E.ome. Invention of the Arch. Extension 
 of its use. Triumphal Arch. Theaters. Aqueducts. 
 
 I HAVE, in my former letters, presented you, as I 
 best could, with such views of Grecian architec- 
 ture, as appeared to me fittest to illustrate the 
 subject before us. I will now desire you to take 
 a turn with me among the remains of old 
 Rome. 
 
 Before the introduction of Grecian taste and 
 the employment of Grecian artists, the Roman 
 architecture appears, ih the account of Vitruvius r 
 and indeed in all accounts, to have been very 
 rude. Early Rome, its immediate territory fur- 
 nishing no valuable stone for building, was, like 
 early London, with fortifications perhaps, and 
 possibly some public buildings of stone, a wooden 
 city. Bricks, as also at London, came afterward 
 into use. The Tiburtine quarries, twenty-two 
 miles off, were the nearest that afforded stone of 
 any excellence. Thence, in the fifteenth century, 
 came the material for the justly celebrated saint 
 Peter's church; and the cost of the carriage alone, 
 being all by land, equalled the whole expence of 
 the building of saint Paul's at London in the 
 seventeenth; for which the stone ; though from a 
 
64 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 much greater distance, was brought at a cheaper 
 rate by sea. The colosseum, it is well known, 
 suffered demolition, in an age when the fine arts 
 were receiving their best cultivation, to save the 
 Farnese family the charge of bringing stone from 
 the quarry, to erect their palace in Home. A 
 city so situated must be rich and peaceful before 
 it could have fine buildings. 
 
 Nevertheless in the early days of Rome the 
 Grecian arts were not wholly unknown there. A 
 Greek was among its early kings, Tarquinius 
 Priscus. The neighbouring Tuscans, with whom 
 he was domiciliated, before he passed to Rome, 
 were also not unacquainted with the Grecian arts, 
 nor without a degree of cultivation of the arts 
 among themselves. They had a rude order of 
 architecture, which, as described by Vitruvius, 
 bore a near resemblance to the early Greek ; and 
 the Tuscan temple was, in form and manner, not 
 unlike the Grecian. 
 
 A remarkable difference, however, between the 
 Tuscan temple and the Grecian, will deserve our 
 notice, as we reckon it important to consider the 
 relations and dissonances of the beautiful and the 
 useful. Use, we have observed, led the Greeks 
 to that elegant though simple decoration of their 
 column, the fluting, and denied another ornament, 
 the base. But the spear, which was the cause of 
 both these effects, was not a Roman, nor probably 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 65 
 
 a common Tuscan weapon. The Roman legion- 
 ary's arms which, with an improved discipline, 
 adapted to them, conquered the world, nearly 
 resembled what, among the Greeks, were used only* 
 by troops esteemed, and on all occasions proved, 
 very inferior to their phalanx. The Tuscans and 
 Romans wanted no such stand for their arms as the 
 column, whose loftiness was peculiarly convenient 
 for the Grecian spear. Accordingly the fluting 
 seems to have been little, if at all, seen in the Tus- 
 can column. But the base was deemed an essen- 
 tial member ; not only as graceful, giving a more 
 elegant connection for the foot of the shaft with 
 the floor ; but useful, as its projection protected 
 the foot of the shaft from- injury. 
 
 According to Vitruvius, whose account is cor- 
 roborated by indications found in other writers, the 
 Romans, before they carried their conquests 
 eastward of the Adriatic, had no buildings com- 
 parable to those raised by the Greeks, even in 
 their colonies in Italy itself. They had however 
 temples, for description of which apparently w r e 
 may trust Vitruvius. The walls were of stone. 
 Columns of stone formed a portico. The architrave 
 was of timber, which, as Vitruvius has observed, 
 would allow a wide intercolumniation ; and, 
 accordingly, the intervals between the columns, 
 no purpose of use forbidding, were ungracefully 
 wide. The ends of the beams, forming the frieze, 
 F 
 
66 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 instead of being converted to ornament, as in the 
 old Grecian architecture, where they presented the 
 triglyph, were hidden, (so far fair appearance was 
 considered) with a fronting of stone. The roof 
 was framed of wood; with its ridge of a height 
 more adapted to inable coarse materials, probably 
 tiles, the roofing material of the present day at 
 Rome, with less skilful management than that of 
 the present day, to protect the interior against 
 rain and snow, than to give grace to the form of 
 the building. 
 
 Horace's boast of the rusticity of the elder 
 Romans, Virgil's Excudent alii, and various pas- 
 sages of the prose- writers, form a mass of collateral 
 . and presumptive evidence to the justness of this 
 account of Vitruvius. But when Greece was 
 subdued, and, quickly after, all the rich and 
 luxurious countries of the west of Asia, (then 
 Grecian kingdoms, and adorned with the most 
 costly works of Grecian art) soon the Romans 
 learned to despise the rude buildings of their 
 
 , forefathers. The wealth of the East being drained 
 to pamper their luxury, Grecian designers and 
 workmen (and it was perhaps the best, if not the 
 only good, use made of that wealth) w-ere called in 
 crowds to adorn Italy. Through the subjection 
 of all the richest and most polished parts of 
 Europe, Asia and Africa to the one dominion of 
 
 , Ptome, an accumulation of rich materials wai 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 67 
 
 formed, where, as in one vast hotbed, sprang up 
 at once to perfection that architecture, originating 
 from Greece, but rising with a character in some 
 degree its own, which is now called ROMAN. 
 
 I have formerly observed that, in the luxury of 
 the rich Grecian kingdoms, into which Alexan- 
 der's empire was divided, the simplicity of the 
 ancient Doric order lost its esteem, and the 
 Ionic seems to have had as little favor; the 
 Corinthian became the universal order. Nor, as 
 I have also formerly observed, was this order 
 recommended only by its elegant richness, but by 
 a convenience, and even simplicity ; in which, as 
 well as in richness, or opportunity to receive de- 
 coration, it excelled. I cannot help repeating 
 here that it appears to me a remarkable instance 
 of the correctness of Grecian taste, and its dispo- 
 sition to check extravagance, while seeking variety 
 and bent upon embellishment, that in reaching 
 at length the utmost richness of decoration in 
 architecture, it produced what, in its constitu- 
 ent parts, is the simplest and most accommo- 
 dating of the orders. With this recommendation 
 the Corinthian became the favorite order of the 
 Romans. 
 
 In the first prevalence of the taste for Grecian 
 architecture at Rome, such appears to have been 
 the respect for Grecian models, that the Grecian 
 plan for temples was adopted, without variation. 
 I hardly need remark, to you, that the same thing 
 r a 
 
68 PRINCIPLES -OY DESIGN 
 
 is observable of literature ; the best Roman 
 comedies being but translations from the Greek, 
 and even the great epic poem the ^Eneid, in some 
 parts little more than a copy, and in the rest an 
 imitation, of Homer. 
 
 But, before the conquest of Greece, a very 
 important novelty had been introduced into ar- 
 chitecture, the arch or vault, arcus, fornix, 
 xxu&px : when, or whence, appears uncertain. 
 Modern travellers, it is said, have found, among 
 the ruins of Mycenae, some gateways, supposed 
 older than the oldest known Grecian temples. In 
 those gateways, an account of which, I am told, 
 will soon be published, is seen what would be a 
 ready step toward the invention and use of the 
 arch; being indeed itself an imperfect arch, of 
 that pointed kind, which, in England, has obtained, 
 preposterously enough, the title of Gothic. On the 
 ends of the lintel of the gateway are placed two 
 stones, on their ends, leaning toward each other, 
 and meeting at top in a point. This contrivance 
 throwing the weight above, away from the open- 
 ing below, upon the solid wall on each side, 
 powerfully relieves the lintel, operating precisely 
 as an arch. 
 
 Nevertheless the perfect arch appears to have 
 been comparatively of late birth. The want of a 
 name for it, properly Greek, in so copious a 
 language, and so ready for all occasions, would 
 suffice to show how little the thing was known, in 
 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 69 
 
 early times, among the Grecian people. By some 
 it has been supposed much earlier known, or 
 much earlier in known use, among the Romans. 
 That extraordinary structure, magnificent in its 
 way, the cloaca maxima at Rome, has been' 
 attributed to Tarquinius Priscus. But Tarquinius 
 Priscus, though a Roman king, we are assured, 
 was a Grecian man. A sewer, however, or a 
 drain of some kind, in the bottom between the 
 Palatine and Capitoline hills at Rome, would, in 
 almost the earliest age of the city, be obviously 
 necessary toward any convenient union of those 
 two hills in one town. But I am disposed quits 
 to admit the arguments of that very diligent and 
 learned antiquarian the late Mr. King, that, though 
 a sewer had probably long before been there, yet 
 the cloaca, whose magnificence and excellent 
 masonry are yet matter for admiration, was a 
 work of Augustus Caesar's time. 
 
 The oldest Grecian arch, of which I know any 
 account remaining, if Stuart is right in his con- 
 jecture that it was of the age of the celebrated 
 Poikile portico at Athens, is that described in his 
 first volume of Athenian Antiquities. Its simple 
 elegance indeed indicates an early age. Before 
 the Roman conquest, however, the construction of 
 both arches and vaults appears to have been know n 
 in Greece, though not to have been very long 
 common. 
 
7O PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 The invention, or rather the introduction of the 
 ARCH into common use, certainly forms an era in 
 architecture. The opportunity afforded by it for 
 utility, as well as for magnificence and variety of 
 visual effect, is invaluable. Probably the military 
 gateway was its first object. The VAULT would 
 readily follow, when occasion required. The 
 desire of superseding the use, or supplying the 
 want, of timber for roofs, has probably led to it. 
 But it seems to have originated in very small 
 buildings. Stuart's section of the tower of the 
 winds, at Athens, shows a stone roof of a very 
 singular kind, a sort of a strait-lined dome ; the in- 
 terior of which however has, on its first rising from 
 the supporting wall, an arching tendency. His sec- 
 tion of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, in the 
 same volume, shows, in the interior, not only the 
 knowledge of the vault complete, but the execution 
 extendec^ even to the forming of a perfect dome. 
 
 From such beginnings, on a small scale, skill 
 growing, the art of arching appears to have 
 been already common, when the accumulation 
 of the wealth of the civilized world at Rome, and 
 the elegant taste of those who acquired the prin- 
 cipal command of it, afforded extraordinary 
 opportunities. The splendid ceremony of the 
 Roman triumph gave occasion -for that peculiar 
 kind of building, known by the name of the 
 triumphal arch; proposed wholly for ornament 
 
1Y ARCHITECTURE. 7$ 
 
 without use, and therefore giving the greatest la- 
 titude for the fancy of the designer. The prodi- 
 gious structures, theaters, amphitheaters, arid cir- 
 cuses, for the entertainment at once of the whole 
 population of the capital of the civilized world, 
 required a new kind of architecture, which the 
 arch was singularly qualified to assist. Among 
 the Greeks the practice had obtained, for which 
 the circumstances of many of the principal Gre- 
 cian cities, some in Europe, but more in Asia, 
 gave opportunity, to use a recess, in a marble 
 mountain's side, as a building, roughly formed by 
 nature, which art only polished and completed, 
 to answer the purpose of accommodating multi- 
 tudes in the entertainment of theatrical exhibi- 
 tions. Rome afforded no such opportunity : there 
 all was to be raised with stone to be brought 
 from afar ; and then, for the theater, the amphi- 
 theater and the circus, the arch was of inestimable 
 value. At the same time to supply the city abun- 
 dantly with fine water, a principal article, not of 
 use only, but of even extravagant luxury, among 
 the Roman people, those who desired to captivate 
 popular favor raised those magnificent beds for 
 rivers in the air, we might almost call them, which 
 are known by the name of aqueducts; and for 
 these also the arch was a most important novelty 
 in architecture. 
 
 New inventions not seldom bring about old 
 matters ; so that what, yielding to a first improve- 
 
72 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 ment, had been laid aside and grown obsolete, 
 comes recommended again by a second, and re- 
 turns into vogue as a novelty. So it seems to have 
 been with circular building. Adopted at first as 
 the readiest form in which a rude shelter could be 
 constructed, with improving art, it gave way to the 
 quadrilateral ; and, in the farther progress and 
 perfection of art, was restored for magnificence 
 and luxury. Thus, in the age of the greatest 
 perfection of the arts in Greece, the building at 
 Athens, called the tower of the winds, though 
 rectilinear, yet, as octagonal, appears to have been 
 a novelty; and it rnight be a ready step to the 
 circular, in that most elegant little structure the 
 choragic monument of Lysicrates, commonly 
 called the lantern of Demosthenes. Earlier the 
 immense theaters of the Greeks were semicircular, 
 their purpose requiring that form ; but they were 
 buildings without roof, and wholly of another 
 character. For buildings on a smaller scale, it will 
 be obvious, the progress was ready, from the 
 monument of Lysicrates at Athens, to the Sibyl's 
 temple at Tivoli. To increase dimensions, and 
 find means to extend the roof, would be matters 
 in the ordinary course of the progress of art, under 
 favoring circumstances; and so, when the patron- 
 age, of those who commanded the wealth of the 
 v.-orld, gave means for the exertion of the talents 
 of architects, the plan still expanding, at length 
 the graceful magnificence of the Pantheon rose. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 73 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Characteristical Differences of Exterior and Interior 
 Architecture. Grecian Interior Architecture. 
 
 HAVING traced Architecture, as I best could, 
 from earliest ages, through Egypt, Phenicia, 
 Palestine, and Greece, to Rome, I reached, 
 in my last letter, that splendid building the 
 Pantheon ; which, for grace and richness of 
 design, wiih magnificent dimensions, perhaps 
 never was excelled ; and, fortunately, of all of 
 its age, or nearly approaching its age, now above 
 eighteen centuries, hath stood by far the most 
 perfect. Gaining here then some breadth of 
 ground, I reckon it expedient to halt a little, that 
 we may, at some leisure, advert to a matter, 
 \vhich, although it must have forced itself upon 
 the consideration of every practical architect, has, 
 in my mind, not been sufficiently adverted to by 
 any architectonic writer, of those whose works 
 have fallen in my way ; I mean the distinction 
 of EXTERIOR and INTERIOR architecture. 
 
 OUTSIDE and INSIDE, in building, have dif- 
 ferent qualities, requiring different PRINCIPLES 
 of DESIGN; and the difference holds equally for 
 the USEFUL and the GRACEFUL. The distinctive 
 qualities of the EXTERIOR, respecting the USEFUL, ' 
 
74 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 are, that it should itself bear weather, and that it 
 should protect all within. Respecting the graceful, 
 First, the Exterior receives light from the un- 
 interrupted rays of the sun, so that every part, in 
 the same direction, receives the same light : 
 Second^, it may be seen from every variety of 
 distance, within human ken ; Thirdly, the whole 
 cannot possibly be seen from one point of view ; 
 but, Fourthly, sufficient distance being taken, 
 small in comparison of the stretch of human 
 vision, all that can come in view, from one point, 
 may be seen at one glance of the eye ; so that, 
 from any such point, no farther view can be 
 gained by any turn of the eye. The different 
 qualities of the INTERIOR, are, respecting the 
 USEFUL, that it is secured within walls, and 
 Under a roof, so as not to be liable to injury from 
 weather. Respecting the GRACEFUL, First, the 
 Interior can receive daylight but unequally, 
 through apertures, which it is for the architect to 
 direct for the best advantage : Secondly, the point 
 of sight is limited by the surrounding walls: 
 Thirdly, the* whole may be seen from one point, 
 but from no one point can be seen without turn- 
 ing the eye : whence, Fourthly, the interior, even 
 of the simplest room, from one stand, exhibits 
 always various views. That these characteristical 
 and strongly distinguished differences, of interior 
 and exterior architecture, must always require the 
 
JN ARCHITECTURE. 75 
 
 designer's careful consideration, is I think enough 
 obvious. 
 
 But, beside these two clearly distinguished 
 characters of outside and inside, which must 
 belong to every building with walls and a roof, 
 there is, in some buildings, a middle character, 
 partaking of both, yet differing from both ; and 
 this is eminent in the Grecian temple. The 
 Grecian temple, which, in architecture, like the 
 Greek and Roman classics in literature, will 
 probably, while the world shall last, afford the 
 surest test, and best measure of fine taste, had 
 its interior generally dark and unadorned : all the 
 display of elegance and richness was without. 
 But what was without the complete interior, the 
 cell, was far from being all equally outside of 
 the building ; a large proportion, all between the 
 columns and the cell, was of a mixed character. 
 As outside it was exposed laterally ; as inside, 
 sheltered above ; as outside, visible from a dis- 
 tance in part, but not completely; as inside, to 
 be seen intire, only by the eye within its bounds ; 
 and also, as inside, receiving daylight but inter- 
 ruptedly, through apertures disposed by the 
 architect. 
 
 Fortunately for following times, when elegance 
 in architecture more completely interior became 
 desirable, this midway portion, of the Grecian 
 temple of the best ages, offered not only all the 
 
76 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 necessary principles for it, but a very large portion 
 even of models for the parts. When a building' 
 is to be raised, what use demands being decided, 
 the next consideration for the designer, for inside 
 as well as for outside, is, no doubt, to harmonize 
 the various parts, and give them graceful com- 
 bination. When the temple was planned, the 
 perpendicular lines of the columrfs on one hand, 
 and of the wall of the cell on the other, were to 
 be harmonized with the horizontal lines of the 
 floor, on which both rested, and of the roof, 
 which they together supported. In the Doric 
 temple, the meeting of the COLUMN with the floor 
 was abrupt, the matter of use, as I have formerly 
 observed, so requiring. But no such obstacle to 
 a more graceful connection of the WALL with the 
 floor presenting itself, Grecian taste introduced 
 those forms of skirting, seen in some of the 
 early Doric temples, which have not been ex- 
 celled by any invention since. So also the antae r 
 or pilasters, not being wanted for use, like the 
 columns, as^ stands for arms, were raised on a 
 projection of the skirting, which served them as a 
 base. 
 
 The horizontal line of the ceiling then was to 
 be connected, with the wall on one side, and with 
 the intablature of the columns on the other. For 
 this the earlier architects seem to have been con- 
 tented with repeating, within, the simple form, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 77 
 
 and small topfmishing projection, of the exterior 
 architrave. Small alterations and additions, how- 
 ever, in some of the earlier temples, show that this 
 did not quite satisfy ; but it was an-advantageous 
 step toward improvements which followed. The 
 interlacing of the beams and joists, overhead, sug- 
 gested the early ornaments of the ceiling. 
 
 In the earlier temples the doorway seems to 
 have been generally the only aperture of the cell. 
 Some grace of connection, to make this not a mere 
 hole in a wall, remained desirable; and the more, 
 as it presented itself in the middle of the portico. 
 The form of the architrave, resting on the columns, 
 and bearing the superstructure, might readily offer 
 itself as fitting for the lintel of the doorway, 
 resting on its posts and also bearing the super- 
 structure. Satisfying, in the lintel, the extension 
 of its form, from the top down the sides of the 
 doorway, would also be an obvious expedient for 
 harmonizing all. The decoration, thus extended 
 from the lintel to the doorposts, given In the same 
 manner to the perpendicular as to the horizontal, 
 has obtained, in modern architectonic phrase, 
 altogether the title of architrave. When windows 
 came to be added, this form was equally appli- 
 cable, wanting only the addition of the sill. 
 
 Here is found so much done, that little more 
 would be needful toward the completion of 
 ordinary rooms, where splendor of ornament, or 
 
78 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 strikihg architectonic effect were not required. 
 Nevertheless the remaining examples of Grecian 
 design, for the interior, need only be compared 
 with the exterior of the same buildings, to evince, 
 I think, that the attention of architects, in the ages 
 of the purest G recian taste, had not been called 
 to effects within equally as to those without. 
 
 History furnishes a glimpse, a most imperfect 
 glimpse, of what cannot but excite the architect s 
 curiosity. The royal palace of Macedonia is said 
 to have been adorned with the best paintings of 
 Zeuxis, one of the most celebrated painters Greece 
 ever produced, in the age of the very best taste in 
 exterior architecture. What then was the archi- 
 tecture of the interior of that palace, whose apart- 
 ments were so superiorly adorned? The king, 
 Archelaus, whose taste and munificence led him 
 to be the patron of the greatest painter of that 
 age of the fine arts, was also the patron of one, 
 whose works, yet extant, rank him among the 
 greatest poets, Euripides, Such a prince surely 
 would not leave his palace wholly unimproved by 
 those architects of his day, whose talents have 
 been celebrated by cotemporaries and by poste- 
 rity, and are in some degree known by their workg 
 even yejt existing. 
 
 It is however possible, and indeed there seems 
 ground to say probable, that the chambers of the 
 Macedonian palace/ adorned by the pencil of 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. jg 
 
 Zeuxis, were not of much more architectonic 
 merit than those adorned with some of Raphael's 
 finest paintings, and thence palled Raphael's 
 chambers, in the Vatican palace at Rome; and I 
 think it may be ventured to be added that they 
 were probably not of less architectonic merit 
 For when, in the progress of things, after the 
 successful exertions of the Grecian architects to 
 give the highest grace to exterior architecture, in 
 the temples, it came to be desired to give a richer 
 elegance to the inside of buildings, and to decorate 
 what we call rooms, that middle style of building, 
 between inside and outside, in the portion of the 
 temple between the colonnade and the cell, would 
 furnish, as I have already observed, at once all 
 that was most necessary. When a building is to 
 be divided into rooms, the rectangular, the universal 
 form of the Grecian temple, must necessarily 
 prevail. The floor and walls and ceiling then 
 being decided, the first w r ant of the architect, for 
 decoration, would be to connect the bottom of his 
 walls gracefully with the floor, and the top with 
 the ceiling ; and thus far the interior of the tem- 
 ple colonnade would at once, as we have seen, 
 supply him. His only remaining positive want 
 then would be a finishing for his doors and win- 
 dows, for which also the temple, we have ob- 
 served, afforded him an advantageous model. 
 When the conquests of Alexander had esta- 
 
O PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 blished the Greek nation over all the western part 
 of Asia, and made it master of Egypt, the wealthy 
 kingdoms, which it composed in those countries, 
 became, far more than Greece itself, the scenes 
 of increased splendor and new design in architec- 
 ture. But the destructive and numerous 'revolu- 
 tions, ensuing, have left so little remaining, that, 
 unable to proceed on Grecian ground, I was re- 
 duced, in the conclusion of my last letter, to con- 
 duct you by a great leap, over time measured by 
 centuries, and space from Greece to Italy, to reach 
 objects for farther notice ; to which also I must, 
 in my next, return. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. gl 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 Interior Architecture. Grecian Circular Building. Roman 
 Circular Building. Roman Interior Architecture. 
 
 AMONG the ancient Greeks and Romans, not 
 only the religious worship, but the business of 
 the civil assemblies and courts of justice was 
 conducted in the open air, and the ancient theaters 
 were roofless. Splendor of interior architecture 
 thus was among them comparatively little desired. 
 But when occasion arose to accommodate multi- 
 tudes with shelter, in religious or in civil occupa- 
 tions, then a new care came upon the architect : 
 to provide sure support for an extensive roof 
 must be a principal matter for his attention. The 
 purpose indeed of the gymnasium or palaestra, 
 and the stoa or portico, was shelter against sun 
 and rain ; but, for this, the midway style, in the 
 manner of the portico and peristyle of the temple, 
 sufficed ; nor would the multiplication of columns, 
 within the precinct, occasion any great inconve- 
 nience. The growing luxury of public baths, 
 perhaps, first produced, among the Greeks, the 
 demand upon the architect to design a complete 
 room, of large dimensions. The great hall of the 
 baths, of the later times, appears to have been 
 sometimes a^ery large room and very splendid. 
 G 
 
82 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Columns however here also, might afford the 
 wanted support for the roof, or floor above, with- 
 out material interruption of the purposes of the 
 assembled company below. But, for religious 
 worship, and for the business of the halls of 
 justice, the pillars, with only their usual intervals, 
 would interfere very inconveniently with the sight 
 and hearing of numbers, defirous to see and hear. 
 
 Nor is the visual effect of columns the same in 
 interior as in exterior architecture. Neither the 
 point of view, nor the point of distance, for seeing 
 the range within the basilicon, can be chosen, as 
 for that without the temple. The operation of 
 light also differs widely. For the exterior it is 
 uniform, and the shadows are everywhere cor- 
 responding. For the interior, on the contrary, it 
 is broken and various, being admitted but in 
 parcels, through different apertures ; and, in large 
 buildings commonly in several and opposite 
 directions ; whence the shadows have less breadth 
 and simplicity. 
 
 It is however far from following that columns 
 are of no value for interior architecture. On 
 the contrary, within as without, judiciously in- 
 troduced, they give both a grace and a dignity, 
 such as nothing else can give. But the difference 
 of the effect, within and without, requires the 
 exercise of the architect's invention and judgement 
 
IX ARCHITECTURE. 83 
 
 The art of ARCHING was a discovery that gave 
 new, and great opportunities, both for use, and 
 for visual effect. The arcade is variously appli- 
 cable where the colonnade would ill suit. The, 
 convenience of the arch, especially for gateways, 
 is obvious. It seems probable that many of the 
 largest towns of antiquity, like the vast cities of 
 the Chinese at this day, denied admission for 
 wheeled carriages. The gates of Troy indeed, 
 whose walls were said to be a work of the gods, 
 allowed passage for the cars of the heroic ages, 
 which probably were very narrow. But we need 
 not dive so deeply into antiquity for examples. 
 Many ancient walled towns remain in the south of 
 Europe, even in the south of France, with gates 
 and streets so narrow, that no ordinary wheeled 
 carnage can enter, or could pass if within. The 
 excavated street of Pompeii, at the foot of 
 Vesuvius, built in the time of the Csssars, shows 
 in its pavement the track of carriages : but 
 those carriages could only follow each other ? 
 leaving barely safe room for one foot-passenger, 
 on a raised pavement, on each side. Inconvenience 
 is here obvious enough : need for so economizing 
 space, in that age, and that situation, seems 
 difficult to imagine ; nor does the thing appear 
 easily to be accounted for, but from that kind of 
 mechanical disposition, common among men as 
 among sheep, to follow the steps of those who 
 have gone before them. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 1 
 
 The celebrated gateway of the citadel of Athens, 
 known by the title of the propylaea, as described 
 by Stuart and others, has evidently been con- 
 structed with no view to admit the passage of 
 carriages. Arches, if at all then known, cer- 
 tainly not common, first furnished means to make 
 a fortified place at once secure and commodious. 
 Quickly they obtained universal preference for 
 portals. Recommended by obvious utility, as 
 well as by the united elegance and grandeur of 
 their effects for the eye, the growing magnificence 
 of Rome would add the utmost splendor of deco- 
 ration; and the light graces of the Corinthian 
 column were combined with the imposing mas- 
 siveness of the arch of triumph. 
 
 I -do not remember any account of a circular 
 temple among the Greeks ; and, at Rome, on the 
 first introduction of the Grecian taste, the Grecian 
 form for temples appears to have been scrupulously 
 followed. Perhaps the fashion of the arched roof 
 led to the fancy for circular buildings; of which 
 the choragic monument of Lysicrates, at Athens, 
 vulgarly called the lantern of Demosthenes, is the 
 oldest and indeed, within Greece, the only example 
 I know. Beautiful as it is, the scale is so much 
 below the useful, that the elegant little edifice^ 
 commonly called the Sibyl's temple, at Tivoli, may 
 be reckoned an improvement on it. The temple 
 
IIST ARCHITECTURE. 8^ 
 
 of Vesta, near the Tiber, at Rome, though its 
 proportions are singular, has still so much elegance, 
 that, for its larger dimensions, it may be reckoned 
 a farther improvement. 
 
 But, where shelter is wanted for an assembled 
 multitude, with opportunity for all at once to see 
 and hear, and it is desired that this shelter shall 
 he magnificent and permanent, then the circular 
 form offers superior advantages ; and thus it 
 appears to have recommended itself for that ex- 
 traordinary ancient edifice at Rome, the Pantheon. 
 Rectangular building may easily have any length ; 
 but for width, the circular form affords the greatest 
 means ; and, next to it, those rectilinear figures 
 which approach nearest to the circular character, 
 the hexagon, octagon, and so forth. 
 
 The circular form having been chosen for the 
 Pantheon, still space, beyond what was reckoned 
 convenient, or perhaps needful, witiiin the one 
 circle, was desired. The ingenuity with which it 
 has been gained, by recesses in the thickness of 
 wall, requisite for supporting the vast dome above, 
 is well worthy of the architect's observation. Real 
 strength, and apparent lightness, and useful space, 
 and magnificence of visual effect, have at once 
 been gained. 
 
 In this splendid building, whose interior, 
 singularly rich in variety of parts, and singularly 
 
86 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 happy in their combination, has been so fortunately 
 preserved more perfect than any other of all 
 antiquity, almost every circumstance of interior 
 architecture is found, for which the student may 
 want a model. But it must be observed, of the 
 circular form in building, that, advantageous as 
 its effect altogether is, a sort of distortion results 
 from it, in every opening, and in every projection : 
 nothing rectangular can perfectly associate with it. 
 Hence the Pantheon, in furnishing models for the 
 architect, requires his judgement, in accommo- 
 dating its shapes and proportions to a rectilinear 
 plan. 
 
 The proper Grecian style of interior archi- 
 tecture is, I think, little known to us but from 
 buildings of earlier times, when splendor of interior 
 was less in request. The architects, then, to 
 combine the wall with the ceiling, seem to have 
 been nearly contented with the simple form of the 
 architrave, and its moldings of small projection, 
 hardly differing from, the exterior of the same 
 member. But the able Grecian designers, 
 who, in the Augustan age, were called to adorn 
 Rome, apparently saw r , where the interior was 
 large, and richness of effect required, a deficiency 
 in this. Instead of an architrave only, therefore, 
 the whole intablature, as in the exterior, was 
 introduced into the interior of the building. Use, 
 
IK ARCHITECTURE. 87 
 
 or the semblance of use, for the frieze and cornice, 
 are certainly far less obvious in the interior than 
 in the exterior. The projection of the cornice, 
 however, seems quite in proper place as an assist- 
 ing support to the ceiling ; and the ablest archi- 
 tects of the Augustan age, it appears, thought the 
 frieze, and architrave, forms fitter to hold the 
 situation under it, in lofty rooms, than any other 
 they could devise, and would no where substitute 
 a novelty. 
 
 The rectangular plan, as we have before observed, 
 is so generally best adapted to the most ordinary 
 purposes of architecture, that it must be the gene- 
 rally prevailing plan ; and we find that, notwith- 
 standing the just fame of the Pantheon, Roman 
 taste, even for temples, reverted to the Grecian 
 parallelogram. Mostly also, for the Roman tem- 
 ples, as for the Grecian, the exterior was still the 
 principal object of decoration. In the magnificent 
 ruin, known by the name of the temple of Peace, 
 %ve find indeed a richness of interior, that may, 
 when perfect, have vied with that of the Pan- 
 theon. That the building called the temple of 
 Peace, however, was a temple, seems on better 
 ground doubted than imagined. But, whatever 
 was its purpose, its ruin is equally a valuable 
 source for the architect ; and in the same merit 
 that called the temple of Diana, at Nimes in 
 G 4 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Languedoc, excels. The chambers of Livia's and 
 Titus's baths at Rome, offer much for the deco- 
 rator with the pencil, but, as I recollect, not for 
 the man of the chisel. 
 
 A French architect at Rome, of time long be- 
 fore the passion of the French revolution had 
 that vent, which shortly proved how much the evils 
 of simple despotism are obscured by the flames of 
 despotism in the hands of a multitude, calculated 
 that there were more cubical feet of stone in Ves- 
 pasian's amphitheater alone, vulgarly the Colos- 
 seum, than in all the boasted edifices of Lewis the 
 Fourteenth. Yet, among even monarch archi- 
 tects, I suppose none ever equalled altogether, in 
 splendor of buildings, that strange mixture of vir- 
 tues and vices, of vast talents and vile passions, 
 the emperor Adrian. But, of his magnificent 
 buildings, very little of interior architecture re- 
 mains. That once most splendid edifice, his 
 tomb, so far like the Grecian temple as it was 
 pomp without, and misery within, when stripped 
 of every decoration, and despoiled of every limb, 
 remained and remains, an object of admiration ; 
 and, though raised without any view to. use, it has 
 become, by ready conversion, a fortress, for either 
 defence or controll of the adjacent city, more 
 powerful than the art of the age of its spoliation, 
 and many following ages, could construct. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE.. $g 
 
 The age of Adrian has been called, not un- 
 aptly, a second Augustan a<?e ; a character which 
 held, in considerable degree, through the reigns of 
 the Antonines. Ruin, equally to the arts and the 
 empire, revived under the monster Commodus ; 
 for it is a vain expectation of despots, that the 
 arts shall flourish, when the people are oppressed. 
 Diocletian's talents brought out a reviving gleam, 
 which returned under Constantine ; but, through 
 the fever of the intervening times, with weaker 
 and nearly expiring lustre. 
 
90 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 Decline of Roman Architecture.- Gothic Architecture. 
 Arabian or Saracenic Architecture. Buildings of Charh 
 main's Age. 
 
 JV.LY last letter touched upon the reign of Con- 
 stantine, which, far as decline in the arts had 
 gone, is, nevertheless, an important era in archi- 
 tecture. The establishment of the Christian 
 mode of worship required a style of building 
 considerably differing from the common heathen 
 temple. Instead of a mere sacristy for the 
 priests, the term at which the pomp of processions 
 ended, and in front of which, under the vault of 
 the sky, sacrifice was performed, shelter was re- 
 quired for the multitude, offering their prayers 
 according to the ritual, and receiving instruction 
 from their pastors. New plans were therefore 
 wanted, for buildings of great dimensions, with 
 new and superior attention to the interior. The 
 Pantheon then, rather than the Parthenon, would 
 be the model. 
 
 - But the circle, as I have before observed, with 
 its advantages, has denying qualities. Of all 
 buildings, then common, the Greek basiiicon, or 
 hall of justice, described by Vitruvius, and of 
 which an example remains nearly perfect, in, I 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 9! 
 
 forget the name of the church, at Rome, was 
 found most convenient for the Christian mode of 
 worship. It was nearly the Egyptian hall of 
 Vitruvius, with some added parts, which the 
 convenience of the judicial business required. 
 Some buildings of this kind were consecrated, 
 and an analogous plan was adopted for many 
 more, wanted to accommodate the multitudes 
 who now embraced, or were imboldened to 
 acknowledge, the hitherto persecuted faith. This 
 plan, with some varieties in the detail, and com- 
 monly with the addition of the transept, to give 
 the form of the cross (an addition advantageous 
 for the interior, but far otherwise for the exterior 
 effect) became general for Christian churches 
 through all succeeding times. 
 
 But, the zeal for bringing the new religious 
 establishment to completion, while the government 
 was favorable, would not wait the glow progress, 
 which the small proportion, then existing, of able, 
 artizans, with their best exertion, could make. A 
 cathedral was provided for the capital by the con- 
 version of a basilicon, adjoining the palace of the 
 Lateran family, dedicating it to St. John. This 
 building, you know, lost its pre-eminence in the 
 times of the successful resistance of the Roman 
 barons to the pontifical claims of absolute sove- 
 reignty, when the policy of the popes gave the 
 pi'erogative to St. Peter's, on the other side 
 
g2 , PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 of the Tiber. That splendid building, the tomb 
 of Adrian, was inviting ; but, its interior not 
 suiting for a church, its exterior was despoiled 
 of its beautiful columns, to adorn the interior 
 of the vast edifice of St. Paul without the 
 walls. Near the church of St. John Lateran 
 the building called the baptistery of Constantine 
 was raised, in the same manner, with the spoil 
 of other edifices ; and though this spoil was 
 brought together with a strange deficiency of 
 selection, and put up in such haste as not to allow 
 the reducing of columns, brought from different 
 buildings, even to one size of shaft, whence the 
 mixture is strikingly barbarous, yet the design is of 
 an ingenuity and elegance which have earned 
 Palladio's eulogy. Indeed I think it shows that, 
 even then, not taste and genius, in those who 
 directed the work, were wan ting, but only practised 
 hands, or time to form them for the pressure of 
 the occasion. 
 
 After Constantine follows a long blank in the 
 history of the arts. The Goths and other bar- 
 barians, who overwhelmed the Roman empire, 
 had no architects : their w r orks were only of 
 demolition. "When need of restoration, or of 
 new erection, arose, they employed the conquered 
 people. They loved ornament, however, as is 
 common with barbarians, to excess, heedless of 
 elegance. Under their patronage, the old forms 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. g3 
 
 were mostly followed, but the old proportions 
 neglected : the old decorations no hands remained 
 capable, with the old perfection, to execute : 
 new and capricious ornaments were mixed with 
 awkward imitations of the old ; and profusely, and 
 with little judgement, applied. 
 
 Such is the architecture, which, in the southern 
 parts of Europe, acquired the title of Gothic, 
 which it still retains, and most properly, having 
 been that of the Gothic conquerors of those 
 countries. I do not recollect noticing much of it 
 in Italy, where the profusion of better things so 
 draws attention, that dne may easily overlook 
 those of this kind. But neither do I remember 
 to have heard or read of any there so remarkable 
 as are seen in the south of France. The monu- 
 ments of saint Remy and the triumphal arch of 
 Cavaillon, in Provence, are striking examples and 
 in good preservation. 
 
 As the several hords of northern barbarians, . 
 who overran civilized Europe, all quickly embraced 
 the religion of the conquered, so, when the spirit 
 of destruction had spent its first fury, the eccle- 
 siastical establishments revived. But in the many 
 agonies of conquest (for Italy especially suffered 
 many) much destruction of churches, as well as 
 of buildings of every other kind, took place, while 
 encouragement, or means to build, with any splen- 
 dor, were little found. 
 
94 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 After centuries of confusion and darkness, 
 Europe was approaching to some little order, a 
 benefit much produced by the ascendancy which 
 the Roman church had acquired over all (for so 
 much, with all its iniquities, should be allowed to 
 that church) when a new enemy, from the south, 
 threatened to overwhelm the policy and arts and 
 religion, of that quarter of the world, in one ruin. 
 The Saracens of Arabia, masters of much of the 
 west of Asia, all the north of Africa, and almost 
 all Spain, pressed upon Sicily and Italy. Far 
 unlike the Goths, they were at the same time 
 enthusiastic in religion, and addicted to science 
 and the arts. Especially they had their own 
 style of architecture, which obtained prevalence 
 wherever their conquests established them. They 
 built with even extraordinary skill. But in their 
 buildings, as is observed of their writings, they 
 delighted more in the marvellous than the graceful. 
 Ingenuity is often striking in them ; richness they 
 much affected; but order, proportion, and all that 
 belongs to fine taste and chaste design, are little 
 found. 
 
 Amid the extreme darkness involving the north- 
 west of Europe, one extraordinary man, Charle- 
 main, rising to extensive dominion, did much toward 
 restoring civilization and arts. Meanwhile, in the 
 southeast, the decrepid Grecian empire, itself main- 
 taining but a sickly existence, had nevertheless 
 
IK ARCHITECTURE. 95 
 
 continued so far to stretch a protecting wing over 
 them, that they had never there equally approached 
 extinction. It seems probable that Charlemain 
 drew thence the architect and artizans who were 
 capable of designing and building such a church 
 as the cathedral of Aix in Germany. That 
 curious building, deviating enough in forms and 
 proportions, and inferior enough in execution, to 
 justify, for it the title of Gothic (as that title 
 has been generally applied on the continent) may 
 yet for its design, for the evidence of the mind of 
 the architect, and for its general effect, perhaps 
 be reckoned not very unworthy of the title of 
 Roman. 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XIII, 
 
 Architecture in England. Saxon and Norman derived from 
 ' the later Roman. -^Comparative Merits of the Colonnade 
 and Arcade for Interior Architecture. 
 
 IN the wars, carried on during centuries, which 
 ended in the complete conquest of all England, 
 and the best part of Scotland, by the Anglosaxons, 
 the buildings raised, during some previous centuries, 
 while the Romans were masters of the country, 
 appear to have been destroyed, or reduced to 
 ruins. Relics which have been discovered under 
 ground, far more than any above, prove what 
 their magnificence once was. 
 
 Our Anglosaxon forefathers were no more archi- 
 tects than the kindred Gothic hords, who overran 
 the south of Europe. Architecture and Christi- 
 anity came to them together from Italy. Churches 
 and monasteries were then built; in style, of course, 
 similar to that of the countries whence the Ar- 
 chitects and artizans came. Among the troubles 
 of the heptarchy, however, little could be done 
 for posterity. When the great Alfred, cotempo- 
 rary with Charlemain, succeeded to the throne of 
 all England, not a man in his kingdom, as the 
 historian of his day, Asser, assures us, was 
 capable of erecting a stone building. Bricks were 
 
1ST ARCHITECTURE. 97 
 
 known but as the production of a lost manufac- 
 ture, relics of antiquity, found only in Roman 
 works. Alfred, sending for artizans from the 
 continent, emulated, but probably could not rival 
 Charlemain. Nothing however, I believe, re^ 
 mains, at all indicating the style of design in his 
 works, or the magnitude. The cathedral of Ox- 
 ford, to which seems allowed the clearest claim to 
 the highest antiquity of any Saxon building, upon 
 a large scale, and in any good preservation, is attri- 
 buted to king Ethelred, about a century after 
 Alfred. The style is corrupt Roman ; that, in Italy, 
 called Gothic ; and perhaps the 'best of its kind in 
 England. 
 
 o 
 
 Reaching thus at length the earliest known 
 
 o o 
 
 English architecture, I must desire you to allow me 
 to trace my steps some way backward, to observe 
 whence the style of design, then adopted, sprung. 
 
 The art of forming an arch, whence followed 
 the vault and the dome, was so valuable, giving 
 so many new opportunities to the architect for 
 various ends, utility, grace, magnificence, that 
 it cannot be wonderful if its application was 
 carried to some excess. I do not however 
 recollect any example faulty in principle, be- 
 fore the age of Diocletian. Science, and learn- 
 ing, and the arts were then already far gone in 
 decline ; yet, within the wide pale of the Roman 
 empire were still able architects, not only capable 
 
 n 
 
98 fcRItfCTPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 of profiting from the splendid examples before 
 them, but of talent to add what might deserve 
 the imitation of following ages. I have already 
 mentioned the great hall of Diocletian's baths at 
 Rome, now the church of a Carthusian convent. 
 The architect employed to design his magnifi- 
 cent palace at Spalatro, in Dalmatia, either was 
 also an inventor, or adopted a novelty, of which 
 the ruins of that palace offer, I believe, the 
 oldest known example. Very inferior, in taste 
 and judgement, to the designer of the baths, he 
 was however not without talent or a critical eye : 
 he could see deficiencies, and imagine improve- 
 ments ; but his innovations, far from deserving 
 imitation, were much more exceptionable than the 
 old practice, which he was ambitious to mend. 
 
 The perfection of the Grecian column, for the 
 particular situation for which it was invented, the 
 peristyle of a Grecian temple, and its adverse 
 qualities for many other situations, where for its 
 many and superior graces it would be desirable, 
 cannot, I think, escape the observation of any 
 who give attention to design in architecture. 
 The generally disadvantageous circumstance is 
 the limitation of the openings between solid 
 and solid, to a very scanty space. Hence, the 
 colonnade, applied externally, too much obstructs 
 the light that should pass through windows within 
 it; applied internally, it not only darkens,, but 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 99 
 
 interrupts communication, often inconveniently. 
 When therefore rooms of high decoration were 
 to be provided (whether in private dwellings or 
 public buildings) of size to receive numbers, with 
 opportunity for free communication among all, or 
 for full observation of one point from all others 
 within the space, then some architectonic ar- 
 rangement, different from the Grecian colonnade, 
 was to be sought. 
 
 Early after the introduction of the art of arch- 
 ing, the arcade appears to have been brought into 
 use ; being variously applicable in circumstances 
 for which the colonnade is unlit. Not, like the 
 colonnade, limited for space between solid and 
 solid by the proportions of a single stone, forming 
 a flat architrave, it is almost unlimited ; and a 
 double arcade may sufficiently, for use equally and 
 for the eye, support an arched roof, far more ex- 
 tensive that can be properly committed to a 
 double colonnade. 
 
 But the arcade also has its adverse qualities ; 
 and, for some purposes, greater than the colon- 
 Bade. Though a far larger opening, proportioned 
 to the height, may be obtained between pier and 
 pier than between column and column, yet the 
 necessary thickness of the piers, and their an" 
 gular form, make large interruptions of both 
 ijght and communication ; whence the. irvconve* 
 
 
100 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 nience may be greater than from the frequency of 
 the smaller span, and cylindrical form, of the co- 
 lumns. 
 
 The architect of Diocletian's Spalatrian palace, 
 observing these things, appears to have proposed 
 to unite the advantages, avoiding the inconve- 
 niences, of both the column and the pier. To 
 effect this he would use the column as a pier, 
 and, instead of a horizontal architrave, he would 
 throw an arch from column to column. Whe- 
 ther he invented, or whether he adopted, his 
 scheme, it appears, was favored with imperial 
 patronage ; and, in the splendid palace in which, 
 under that patronage, it was executed, it had 
 every advantage for exhibition. 
 
 Nevertheless, for the exterior of buildings, as 
 it was there used, either the feelings of succeeding 
 architects, or the popular feeling, though amid 
 the wreck of all the arts, revolted at it ; for I 
 know not where the thing was repeated. But for 
 the interior, recommended by its convenience, 
 it obtained extensive popularity. It is found in 
 numerous churches of the middle ages on the 
 continent, and in all those, of our own country, 
 of the Saxon and first Norman times ; ready 
 convenience recommending it, when art was rude, 
 end popular taste uncultivated and gross. The 
 unfitness of a column to support even an arch, 
 simply, but still more an arch with a supei incum- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 101 
 
 bent weight of wall, is obvious to every discerning, 
 even though uncultivated, eye. 
 
 In course of time however, even time of barba- 
 rism, remedy for this was imagined. The column 
 was increased in proportional thickness, some- 
 times even to the scale of the oldest Doric, and 
 the graceful diminution of the shaft, with its rising 
 height, was abolished. Thus certainly the column 
 became fitter to perform the office of a pier. Nor 
 did an air of grandeur, however grace might be 
 deficient, always fail in the result. Such is the 
 style of the oldest churches of our country, of the 
 later Saxon and earlier Norman reigns. 
 
 A distinction has been commonly proposed be- 
 tween the Saxon and Norman architecture ; and 
 it has been said by an elegant writer, the latQ 
 lord Orford, that the Saxon is marked by its rude- 
 ness, and the Norman by its superiority, in both 
 design and execution. This fancy however, I 
 think, has been wearing away, as the antiquities of 
 our country have been more carefully inquired 
 after and more fully made known. To evince its 
 futility it might suffice to compare the cathedrals 
 of Oxford and Durham ; the former acknow- 
 ledged Saxon, the latter Norman. - What merit 
 any buildings, of either time, might have, was 
 owing, I apprehend, to architects neither Saxon 
 nor Norman, but either Italian, or, perhaps, 
 rather Constantinopolitan. Peculiarities, indi- 
 H 3 
 
102 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 eating difference of age, may possibly be found 
 among those buildings, but objects rather for 
 the antiquarian than the inquirer after architec- 
 tonic principles. The best architecture of the 
 Saxon and Norman times bears, nearly equally, 
 much of the character of that of the later Grecian 
 empire. 
 
 LETTER XIV, 
 
 Sources of anew Style of Architectures Introduction of the 
 Pointed Arch into European Building* 
 
 the northern conquerors had reduced 
 Europe, with slender exception for the eastern 
 empire, to general barbarism, so that the laity, of 
 all ranks, were unlettered, some sparks of science 
 yet maintained existence, though but a sickly 
 existence, in monasteries. Western Europe, po- 
 litically much divided, was then, for ecclesiastical 
 concerns, closely united under one head, of mighty 
 authority. In this state of things arose the ex- 
 traordinary commotion, originating from Rome, 
 called the crusade ; which put the affairs of na- 
 tions, within, and very far beyond, the wide pale 
 of the Roman church, into a new train ; and, 
 among other matters, produced powerful effects 
 on architecture. 
 
IX ARCHITECTURE. 103 
 
 The Arabs, or Saracens, against whose con- 
 quests in Asia the rude steel-clad knights of wes- 
 tern Europe directed their fury, were, compara- 
 tively a polished people. They had, as I hctve 
 already observed, their own architects and their 
 own style of architecture. Not only their wealth 
 inabled, and their disposition to luxury excited 
 them, to cultivate the art, but, disposed to letters, 
 they excelled in mathematical science. This, highly 
 important to perfection in building skill, is how- 
 ever no way connected with fine taste or feeling 
 for the fine arts; and unfortunately fine taste ap- . 
 pears to have been not naturally an Arabian 
 virtue. 
 
 Nevertheless the western Europeans, and es- 
 pecially the Normans and English, eager for ad- 
 venture, and, though ignorant, alive to curiosity, 
 looking everywhere, and ready to admire, found 
 what to admire in the Saracenic buildings. The 
 Greeks, as we have formerly observed, in their out- 
 set in the art, had been led by the circumstances 
 of their times and climate to direct their attention, 
 for matters of taste, almost only to the exterior ; 
 and thus they gathered Principles, admirably 
 adapted to the grace of the outside, but not 
 equally to that of the inside of buildings. The Sa- 
 racens, in similar climate, but otherwise in cir- 
 cumstances different, studious of the exterior, 
 especially for monumental architecture, neverthe- 
 H 4 
 
1O4 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 less directed their utmost skill more generally 
 to splendor within ; and, however wide of perfect 
 elegance, they succeeded so as to produce some 
 pleasing, but more surprizing effects. 
 
 , The purposes of the Grecian public buildings, 
 of the best ages, as we have formerly observed, 
 little required wide openings, unless for the gates 
 of fortified towns ; and there probably the Orna- 
 mental was generally dispensed with. Neverthe- 
 less for convenience often, as well as on many 
 occasions for grandeur, wide openings, with 
 ample provision for massive superstructure over 
 them, must be desirable ; and thus the ingenuity 
 of builders was directed to the art of Arching. 
 
 An investigation of the steps, discoverable 
 among ancient buildings in different parts of the 
 world, by which the art of arching has been per- 
 fected, might form a curious chapter in a his- 
 tory of architecture. The oldest existing ex- 
 ample, probably marking itself as a first step 
 toward that art, is that I have formerly no- 
 ticed, which, it is said, is to be given to the 
 world in a publication preparing by Mr. Cell. 
 But, among Daniel's views in India, there is 
 represented a very different contrivance, which 
 however may also have been a first step toward 
 arching. On massive pillar are laid stones, caps 
 rather than capitals, overhanging the shaft con- 
 siderably, in the line of the colonnade. Stones 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. I 05 
 
 -which would not reach from shaft to shaft, are 
 long enough to lie securely on the caps, and, 
 balancing one another, bear well a great superin* 
 cumbent weight of wall. Thus, through a con- 
 trivance very different from the former, and even 
 more inartificial, the office of an arch is, in con- 
 siderable amount, performed. Either of these re- 
 sources^ or both, might lead to improvement, and 
 at length to the perfect arch. It has struck me 
 as a remarkable circumstance that, in a castle 
 in England, I think that of Warkworth in Nor- 
 thumberland, I have seen the very contrivance of 
 the old Argolic architects, used for the support of 
 a chimney. Over a horizontal lintel or chimney- 
 breast, two strait stones are placed so as to form 
 a triangle with it. Their lower ends rest on the 
 lintel's ends, over the jambs : their upper ends 
 meet ; and thus the jambs bear the whole super- 
 incumbent weight ; all that stretches across the 
 void being relieved from it. The architect of 
 Warkworth surely did not get his knowledge from 
 Mycenae ; but similar need led, at both places, to 
 the same resource^ whether invented for the occa- 
 sion, or gained from prior example. 
 
 This very simple contrivance would lead most 
 readily to the construction of the peaked arch. 
 Where the space was too great, or materials too 
 defective, for one stone on each pier to serve 
 the purpose, two, or more, might be introduced, 
 
Jo6 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 only placing the lower stones more upright, 
 and giving others successively a little more in- 
 clination to the middle. Thus it was easy to 
 employ many; and so, with little art, to form a 
 very powerful support for superstructure, over a 
 large opening. If then, where this occurred, the 
 semicircular arch was already known, the farther 
 observation would be ready, that the peaked arch 
 associates more nearly witli the form of roof best 
 adapted to throw off rain ; and, moreover, if vaults 
 were desired, a vault constructed on the principle 
 of the peaked arch, with the view to throw off 
 rain, might be made much lighter than any arch 
 without the peak ; for, not only the weight to be 
 supported is less, but the lateral pressure, even 
 with the same weight, is less. Hence the peaked 
 arch also wants less substance of pillar or pier, for 
 its support, than any simple arch; and thus, where 
 something less massive, less necessarily incuin- 
 hering the floor, than the proper pier, is wanted 
 for internal architecture, opportunity is afforded 
 for giving support to the roof, or ceiling, with pil- 
 lars of considerably smaller dimensions. 
 
 These advantages appear to have recommended 
 the peaked arch to the Arabians, who seem cer- 
 tainly to have used it before it was known in 
 Europe. But its very virtues, in failure of correct 
 taste, led to extravagance. The Arabians, in 
 their buildings, have shown the same fancy as in 
 
JN ARCHITECTURE. 1O7 
 
 their writings ; fond of the marvellous rather than 
 of the chaste ; less studious of delighting, by 
 elegance of design, than of surprizing, by a display 
 of skill in execution. The result of proportions 
 obviously just, and a beautiful fitness of parts to 
 each other, was not pungent enough to satisfy their 
 feelings ; they were more gratified with the passion 
 of wonder, excited by the real concord of apparent 
 inconsistencies. Applying great skill, with little 
 or perverse taste, they placed a ponderous super- 
 structure, upon supports carrying the appearance 
 of being utterly inadequate to the office imposed 
 on them. Architecture of this character the 
 Arabian conquests extended from Asia to distant 
 Spain. But the Arabians appear to have had, no 
 more than the Egyptians before them, what we 
 call Orders of architecture ; and among their 
 buildings, spread to the west of Africa and to the 
 east of India, what has been originally their own, 
 what may have been gathered from ancient Egypt, 
 and what the Greek empire, which they always 
 bordered on and at length conquered, may have 
 furnished them, will hardly now be ascertained. 
 
108 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 English Ecclesiastical Architecture of the Plantagenet 
 reigns. Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 XiiXTRAORDiNARY consequences, in various ways, 
 could scarcely fail from so extraordinary an ebul- 
 lition , among nations, as that of the crusades. 
 In armies marching,, at the call of the pope, to 
 fight, under especial benediction, the battles of 
 the church, ecclesiastics and soldiers were uncom- 
 monly mingled : the monastical and the military 
 character were, in some instances, incorporated. 
 Some rays thus, from what existed in Europe of 
 polite learning, and of that taste which polite 
 learning has a tendency to form, brightened a 
 little the military ignorance of the age. With 
 many private estates wasted, and families beg- 
 gared, to raise means for the favorite adven- 
 ture, the ravage and desolation of extensive 
 -countries, and the destruction of millions of lives 
 were, in the moment, the most striking result. Yet 
 perhaps, in the end, compensation in public good 
 did not wholly fail for all the private evil. New 
 knowledge was acquired ; new channels of trade 
 were opened; activity was given to communi- 
 cation,, before unknown ; and commerce and 
 wealth, and arts and civilization grew among the 
 western nations.- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 10g 
 
 The ecclesiastical establishment, generally 
 throughout Europe, but especially in England, was 
 powerful, and consequently wealthy. With great 
 means, and disposition enough for great luxury, 
 beyond even worldly prudence, as in the final event 
 appeared, still enjoyment was restrained, for the 
 clergy, by ecclesiastical rule, and by the expedien- 
 cy of respecting popular prejudices, and engaging 
 popular admiration and favor. In this state, of 
 things, to build churches, and especially cathedral 
 and monastic churches, of a magnificence before 
 unknown, became a fashion of the day. What had 
 been seen in foreign parts, excited then, as was 
 likely, fancy for novelties in architecture. 
 
 The first innovation in our country, however, 
 was neither great nor happy. The tall, narrow, 
 round-topped Constantinopolitan window, which 
 was not without its grace, was changed for what 
 has been called the lancet window. This, found, 
 I think, in buildings as old as the reign of the 
 first Henry, appears to me commendable neither 
 for elegance nor utility. 
 
 A century or more had passed, and new 
 crusades, and more eminently successful, had 
 been made, when the circumstances occurred 
 which produced the extraordinary migration of 
 the city of Salisbury. The cathedral of the old 
 town was within the walls of the earl's castle ; 
 where, at this day, in the form of the soil, covered 
 
110 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN* 
 
 with turf, the vestiges are still distinguishable. 
 No subject could then contend with an earl but 
 a bishop ; and, though a bishop, supported from 
 Rome, could contend even with kings, yet, within 
 the walls of the earl's castle, even the bishop found 
 himself under unpleasant controll. The quarrel 
 becoming extreme, the bishop, with the pope's 
 approbation and support, resolved to withdraw 
 himself and his flock. Whatever might otherwise 
 be the merits of the dispute, the bishop certainly 
 was superior in popularity. Not only, through 
 the ready favor of the pope and the clergy, he 
 obtained, by a brief, a large sum of money for his 
 purposeSj but he drew almost the whole population 
 of the old city to the spot, between two and three 
 miles off, where, adjoining the new cathedral and 
 bishop's palace, which he built, the city of Sa- 
 lisbury, then laid out on a regular plan, with a 
 stream of water from the Avon, running through 
 the principal streets, to this day flourishes. 
 
 But you will remember these circumstances 
 and more (I quote them only from memory) of 
 the history of the times. What they lead to 
 remark, to the purpose of our investigation, is, 
 that then first, as far as I am aware, broke out, 
 at once, with surprizing splendor, the phenomenon 
 of the new ecclesiastical architecture. 
 
 The plan of Salisbury cathedral has that general 
 character, formerly noticed, which, on the first 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. HI 
 
 establishment of the Christian ecclesiastical polity, 
 under Constantine, gained vogue for churches ; 
 differing little from that of the court of justice of the 
 Roman empire, the basilicon of the Greeks ; unless 
 for the addition of the transept, generally adopted, 
 giving to the whole the form of a cross. Thus 
 far Salisbury cathedral resembled most of those 
 before erected in England, under the Saxon and 
 Norman reigns. But the elevation without, and 
 still more within, was new. 
 
 The architect, howsoever gaining his know- 
 ledge of the Arabian buildings, had evidently 
 admired some of their effects. What the Arabi- 
 ans themselves gained from the Greeks, whose em- 
 pire they overwhelmed, and some of whose forms, 
 in building, some of theirs closely resemble, I 
 cannot undertake to judge. But the architect of 
 Salisbury seems to me not to have been unac- 
 quainted with the Roman, or even with the Gre 
 clan style. Whether then the bold project were 
 originally his, or gained from some now unknown 
 other, borrowing I think evidently both from the 
 Grecian and Arabian, he exhibited, in his magni- 
 ficent work, a style altogether new. 
 
 The object, hitherto failing^ in buildings for the 
 assemblage of multitudes, was to provide a suffi- 
 ciently free space of floor, and ample daylight, 
 with sufficient support for the roof, preserving 
 everywhere proportions to satisfy the eye. The 
 
112 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Arabian pointed arch, however used with no good 
 effect by his predecessors, he saw singularly 
 adapted to his purpose. That form, if not with 
 perfect propriety, is yet conveniently called an 
 arch ; its purpose and use being precisely those of 
 an arch, though it is really not one, but a compo- 
 sition of two distinct curves; whence it may 
 perhaps be called a compound arch. Its advan- 
 tage, I have in a former letter observed, is, that it 
 throws the weight of the superstructure upon the 
 perpendicular support below, more directly and 
 with less lateral pressure, than any simple arch ; 
 whence less bulk of pier or pillar is wanted, in 
 proportion to the extent* of the opening. The floor 
 thus is less incumbered, and light less intercepted. 
 
 These great advantages for interior architecture 
 being attained, the next matter was to devise a 
 pillar or pier, such as might most advantageously 
 carry this compound arch. 
 
 The term PIER is commonly used to denote a 
 mass, generally quadrangular, of dimensions to 
 bear the lateral pressure of an arch : COLUMN* 
 and PILLAR are terms indifferently applied to 
 forms less massive ; equal to the perpendicular 
 pressure of what is called an intablature, but not 
 qualified for the lateral pressure of the arch. 
 There would, I think, be convenience in limiting 
 the word COLUMN to the forms nearly of the 
 Greek and Roman architecture, the proper sup^ 
 ports of a horizontal intablature ; and allowing a 
 
 
.IN ARCHITECTURE. 113 
 
 more extended signification to the term PILLAR^ 
 so as to include all forms of supporting material, 
 not regular column or proper pier. Writers 
 not artists will use technical terms incorrectly or 
 licentiously ; and thence the difficulty of ascertain- 
 ing the precise differences of the Greek, xiW, 
 ruAos;, ffai, and of the Latin columna, pila, 
 cippus. But I should be inclined to reckon x/ce 
 corresponding to COLUMN, ruAoj to PILLAR, and 
 rfan to PIER ; except that the term PIER is com- 
 monly used only for what supports a superin- 
 cumbent portion of edifice, whereas r&u we find 
 perhaps more frequently signifying a massive 
 monument, carrying an inscription, but support- 
 ing no superstructure, and for this we want a 
 name. 
 
 The Grecian column, however, is not by its 
 proportions alone unsuited to bear an arch, but 
 by its form also. Its lines, converging as they 
 rise, though elegantly contrasted with the hori- 
 zontal lines of a superincumbent intablature, are 
 at discord, not amounting to contrast, with the 
 diverging lines of a rising arch. The builders, 
 of the middle ages therefore, using the arch, for 
 the sake of the greater opening it allowed, in, 
 preference to the horizontal intablature, not in- 
 judiciously preferred, for its support, the perfect 
 cylinder, commonly seen in our churches of the 
 Saxon an.d Norman times. In fact they substituted 
 
 -^ I 
 
114 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 a pier for a column ; but, finding use would 
 dispense with the protruding angles of the 
 quadrangular form, they made it cylindrical, or 
 sometimes octagonal. 
 
 The character of a pier the architect of Salisbury 
 saw to his purpose ; but the heaviness of the 
 cylindrical form, faintly relieved in the octagonal, 
 he was earnest to improve. With the magnificence 
 of loftiness, which some buildings of the a<?es 
 preceding him attained, he would combine the 
 grace of lightness, in which they utterly failed. 
 Advantageously then, for this purpose, he 
 imagined the division of the office of pier between 
 eight cylinders, four larger, and four smaller, com- 
 bined so as to form one pillar. The plan of this 
 complex pillar is a composition of two squares, 
 cutting one another at angles of forty-five and one 
 hundred and thirty-five degrees. The smaller of 
 these squares has its sides and angles corresponding 
 with those of the main walls of the building ; and 
 within these squares the four larger cylinders stand, 
 in close array. At the angles of the larger squares, 
 projecting before the middle of the sides of the 
 smaller, stand the smaller cylinders ; of course 
 separated from each other, but each in contact with 
 two of the larger cylinders. The complex form, 
 thus produced, is well adapted to the office of a' 
 pier, well Contrived for the freest admission of light 
 and passage, and, being bound at top by one 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 115 
 
 capital, and at bottom by one base, isj for the 
 eye, both well harmonized and pleasingly varied. 
 
 From this form of the pillar has resulted the 
 form of the soffit (do I use the term rightly ?) of 
 the arch above. The soffit of the Greek and 
 Roman arch, rising from a quadrangular pier, has 
 a flat face, parallel to that of the pier. The 
 architects of the middle ages, to lighten both in 
 appearance and in reality, their arch, which was 
 to be supported not by a pier but by a pillar, ju- 
 diciously gave the soffit a form corresponding to 
 that of their pillar, semi -cylindrical, or semi- 
 octagonal. The architect of Salisbury, adopting 
 the same principle, gave the soffit of his arch still 
 more variety, and with it more lightness, adapt- 
 ing the form to that of the capital of his pillar of 
 eight cylinders, .from which it issues. How far 
 Arabian examples may have led to this I cannot 
 tell. 
 
 Aware then of the advantage of a conductor for 
 the eye, like the Grecian intablature, to the 
 magnificence of length in his building, he placed 
 a small horizontal cornice over his arches, for a 
 topfinishing to his ground story, which was thus 
 completed. 
 
 But the magnificence of height seems to have 
 been rather his favorite effect. He gave to his 
 building three distinct stories. Over that already 
 described, of mixed character, Greek and Arabian 
 
 -* I 2 
 
Il6 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 he placed a low story, in the manner of a met-* 
 zonine, purely Arabic. Without windows, its dark 
 recesses add a kind of mysterious solemnity to 
 the general effect ; and this is its only merit. Its 
 forms are without elegance, it harmonizes ill with 
 all about it, and it interrupts the lines that should 
 give to the eye, with best advantage, the measure 
 of the loftiness of the building. 
 
 Nevertheless the architect's judgement and in- 
 genuity are shown in the amount of association 
 managed between the uppermost story and the 
 lowest, in spite of the disadvantageous interrup- 
 tion of the metzonine. As if this were only an 
 intablature to his lower order, he has placed on it, 
 immediately over every pillar, a kind of cylindrical 
 pilaster, or rather a portion, as if a branch, of his 
 complex pillar, finished at top with a correspond- 
 ing capital. From this capital then, branches, still 
 aspiring, carry the eye to the summit of the ceil- 
 ing : where it finds invitation to descend on the 
 
 o " 
 
 opposite side. There the interruption of the 
 metzonine again occurs : were that away the eye 
 might measure, at one sweep, with the altitude, the 
 latitudinal expansion of the building. 
 
 Quitting the nave, then, let us observe those pil- 
 lars, simple cylinders, in that part called saint Mary's 
 chapel. Except for the want of the Grecian grace 
 of diminution in the rising shaft, they are, in form 
 and proportion, Grecian columns : but that grace 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. Il7 
 
 has been properly denied to them, because they 
 are put to the office, not of columns, but of piers. 
 Look then at their bases and their capitals. The 
 base is the Attic, coarsely executed indeed, but 
 the character is clear : and do you not acknow- 
 ledge, in the capital, that remarkable form the 
 capital of the Grecian antaor pilaster? Howso- 
 ever the designer got that form, it has been, to my 
 mind, judiciously chosen. If the Grecian Doric 
 column was known to him, he might think its 
 capital too simple for the situation ; he might 
 apprehend, for the Roman Doric, a deficiency in 
 the powers of execution of his workmen. 
 
 These circumstances appear to me remarkable 
 enough ; yet I have still other things to observe 
 of these singular pillars. You have seen sir 
 Robert Ainslie's collection of views in the Levant, 
 by Mayer. You have, I believe, in your library, 
 the coloured prints from some of them, published 
 by Bowyer. I wish you to look at that intitled 
 Fragments at Limisso, in Cyprus. Fragments of 
 Grecian columns appear there to have been put 
 together by barbarian hands, to serve as piers for 
 supporting pointed arches, of rude design and 
 construction, with a superstructure over them. 
 The idea of this heterogeneous mixture is, in saint 
 Mary's chapel, harmonized. The base, the shaft, 
 the capital, the arches, at Telmisso all at odds, 
 13 
 
llS PRINCIPLES OF BESIGtf 
 
 , are, in saint Mary's chapel, all of congenial 
 character, simply elegant. 
 
 But the architect of saint Mary's chapel has 
 not stopped there. His singular pillars, (whether 
 modern critics allow them to be included under 
 the title Gothic I know not) have a very extra- 
 ordinary appendage. The pillars of the nave of 
 the church, we have observed, are compounded 
 of four larger shafts and four smaller. These of 
 saint Mary's chapel are themselves single cylin- 
 ders; but, at some distance, a slender pillar, com- 
 plete with its own capital and base, is so con- 
 nected with each as to seem a kind of satellite 
 to the larger and more efficacious supporter of 
 the masonry above. Design here is so ingenious, 
 forms and proportions so generally pleasing, de- 
 coration so well disposed, superfluous ornament 
 so well avoided, and, with considerable intricacy 
 of plan, so much simplicity strikes the eye, that, 
 in a first and passing view, defect may pass un- 
 noticed. But as soon as the judgement begins 
 to work upon the matter received by the sight, 
 which with diligent observers will be quickly, 
 there will be found among the pleasing whole, 
 that part at which offence will be taken ; and 
 disgust must arise. The ingenious designer 
 surely has been over eager in emulation of some 
 effects which he has admired in Arabian archi- 
 
IJT ARCHITECTURE. 1 ig 
 
 lecture. Those quarterstaff pillars, so insulated, 
 are of themselves too evidently unfit for stone- 
 work ; the disproportion of the supporting to the 
 supported forms is too gross ; and the transverse 
 bars of iron, which have been found necessary to 
 steady those delicate Atlases, are a satire upon 
 them beyond all power of words. 
 
 Nevertheless the interior of Salisbury cathedral 
 altogether has sterling merit, enough to bear the 
 freest criticism of parts. Indeed I do not know 
 if there is a defect which does not indicate genius 
 in the designer, wanting only that correction of 
 judgement, hardly to be gained but from repeated 
 experiment. And for saint Mary's chapel in 
 particular, whether considered by the eye within, 
 or seen in the long course of the magnificent 
 approach to it from the western door of the cathe- 
 dral, (perhaps I should rather say as it might be 
 seen were the organ less unhappily an inter- 
 ruption) I think it a just object of the admiration 
 it has of late years largely met with. 
 
120 PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Perfection of the Ecclesiastical Architecture of the 
 Plantagenet Reigns. 
 
 SALISBURY cathedral, as a specimen of a new 
 style of architecture, would deserve admiration as 
 a phenomenon of art in any age, but is more 
 extraordinary as a production of the rude time 
 which gave it birth ; and yet a phenomenon 
 perhaps greater, or of a more uncommon kind, 
 followed. Without any perfection or any con- 
 siderable advancement in other arts, the art of 
 design in architecture did not stop at the high 
 point to which the builder of Salisbury cathedral 
 carried it. The defects and extravagances of that 
 altogether admirable edifice, not likely to be 
 corrected and chastened by the general taste of 
 the age, were however corrected and chastened 
 by succeeding architects. The designer of Salis- 
 bury was as the ^Eschylus, the designer of York, 
 and Lincoln, and some other cathedrals, as the 
 Sophocles and Euripides of ecclesiastical building. 
 And it appears a singular phenomenon, that a good 
 taste in architecture prevailed for centuries, while, 
 in every other line, with little exception but for the 
 unfollowed lustre of Chaucer's poetry, all was 
 barbarous and truly Gothic 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 121 
 
 This excellence of architecture began and ended 
 nearly with the reigns of the Plantagenet family ; 
 a long period, during great part of which there 
 was in England, through the wealth and circum- 
 
 O ' O 
 
 stances of the church, extraordinary encourage- 
 ment for the cultivation of the art. Accordingly 
 the improvements upon the example, so advan- 
 tageously given in Salisbury cathedral, were rapid. 
 The clustered pillars there, elegant in their form 
 and contrivance, are less satisfactory in their pro- 
 portions : they hardly afford that evidence, which 
 the eye of taste requires, to their sufficiency for 
 their office of supporting the superstructure. The 
 cornice of the lower story injures the effect of 
 height, by a midway interruption. The metzonine 
 show r s no connexion with either the story below or 
 the story above it. Following architects therefore 
 gave greater solidity to their pillars ; preserving 
 lightness by varieties of swelling and channelling, 
 through which an approach toward the effect of 
 the Grecian fluting was obtained. The projection 
 of the cornice of the lower story was so reduced 
 that it hardly remained a cornice : the interrup- 
 tion for the measure of height thus was lessened, 
 yet a line was left, advantageous for leading the 
 eye to the length. Favor continued for the Ara- 
 bian metzonine, with its dark recesses; but its 
 forms were brought to better harmony with those 
 about it, and interruption to the measure of height 
 was obviated by placing the base of the upper or- 
 der of piljars or pilasters immediately upon the 
 
122 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 capital of the lower, so that the shaft shoots 
 through the metzonine into the upper story, and 
 connects them, for the eye, with the lower story and 
 with one another. Of these early improvements 
 Westminster abbey stands a magnificent example. 
 The nave of the Plantagenet cathedral, in its 
 final perfection, more varied and decorated in its 
 parts than in the first essay at Salisbury, yet 
 simpler in general design, differed little from 
 the Egyptian hall of Vitruvius but in the or- 
 der of the architecture ; the Corinthian column, 
 with its intablature, being superseded by the 
 clustered pillar, with its appropriate super- 
 structure. The clustered pillar unices, in a great 
 degree, the lightness of a column with the support- 
 ing power of a pier. In the character of a pier, 
 it refuses the graceful diminution of the Grecian 
 shaft in rising ; and it requires the capital small 
 and simple : for it is not intended that th,e eye 
 should rest there (nothing meeting it, as in the 
 Grecian orders, to conduct the length of the 
 building) but, on the contrary it is invited, by 
 the slender pilaster, rising immediately from the 
 capital of the pillar, to continue its flight to the 
 ceiling. There, still without interruption, it finds 
 even invitation to direct its range variously, to 
 return by its steps, to drop on the side opposite 
 to that on which it ros.e^ or to pursue the course 
 of the vaulted ceiling' itself among its amusing 
 fretwork. In lowering the view, then, the varied 
 perspective of the length of the building occurs ; 
 the ranges of lofty pillars, with light and shad* 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 12$ 
 
 diversified by their clustered shape, and by the 
 alternacy of piers and windows ; variety in the 
 parts, everywhere combined with simplicity of 
 general design. Altogether, where extensive 
 shelter is wanted and sublime effect desired, this 
 combination of variety with simplicity, of intricacy 
 with intelligibility, of strength with lightness, of 
 great loftiness with just proportions, produces an 
 excellence hardly equalled in any other style of 
 interior architecture. 
 
 
124 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 Defects of the Plantagenet Architecture. The Plantagenct 
 Style in fmall Buildings. 
 
 V HE attention of the able designers who carried 
 interior architecture, in vast edifices, to such per- 
 fection in the Plantagenet reigns, has evidently 
 been far less required to exterior effect. The 
 outside however of the building, whose inside we 
 so admire, will demand some consideration. 
 
 The plan of the Plantagenet cathedral, a cross, 
 has circumstances of advantage for the interior, 
 which for the exterior operate in a contrary di- 
 rection. The projections of the transept, cutting 
 the magnificent length of the building in two, 
 injure the lateral effect. The addition, in width 
 is far from compensating the failure of uninter- 
 rupted course for the eye, in measuring the length. 
 The ailes, also, advantageous within, are highly 
 disadvantageous, and in an analogous manner, 
 without : they divide the magnificent loftiness of 
 the building ; the effect of the towering midway 
 height, within most advantageously displayed, 
 without is lost. In a lateral view r , if near, the 
 height of the ailes is the height of the edifice ; for 
 the nave is hidden by their projection. Buttresses 
 then are added. These have as little dignity as 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 125 
 
 beauty; broken in rising, and bent away from the 
 eye. Their effect on the body of the building is 
 most injurious ; frittering it in its length, frittering 
 it in its elevation ; they are as a kind of crooked 
 crutches to a colossus. Flying buttresses, as they 
 are called, have an elegance in their form, that 
 may please the eye, examining them severally ; 
 and, in their construction, they have an ingenuity, 
 the idea of which may amuse the fancy. v And 
 there rests their merit: they seem hardly right 
 appendages of stone-work : props of cane for a 
 giant, who ought to be able to stand by himself. 
 Thus, in the lateral view of the cathedral, neither 
 length nor height can be measured by the eye ; 
 all is fritter and flutter, and not beautiful even 
 in the parts : all is in perfect contrast with the 
 .elegance of the grand simplicity within. 
 . But, it is in the western front, the portal of 
 ceremonious entrance, that dignity and richness 
 are most required ; and to this those able designers 
 have not been inattentive. The western front has 
 commonly a height which, spreading, would carry 
 majesty. But, from the apex it drops rapidly. 
 The strait line of the first descent, if there are 
 not lateral towers, ceases at the eaves ; the 
 dropping is continued by the unequal steps of the 
 buttresses, and the character of the shape, alto- 
 gether/ is that of a disjointed, ill-formed pyramid. 
 
126 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 If there are lateral towers, the dignity, gained in 
 lofty extension, is injured by division. 
 
 In the midst of whatever failures, however, 
 one feature here is generally grand, and sometimes 
 beautiful, the window. The great span of the 
 compound arch ; the accommodation of its lines 
 to those of the roof, and the elegance of its 
 variation from them ; the unbroken height of the 
 sides ; and the well-imagined richness often of the 
 fretwork, so ingage the eye, that if, either through 
 carelessness, or purposely, it looks no farther, it 
 may go away satisfied that it has seen a fine 
 thing. 
 
 I believe the most celebrated, and altogether 
 the finest front of a Plantagenet cathedral is that 
 of York minster. I admire, with others, the inge- 
 nuity of the design, and the elegance of the parts. 
 The carved ornaments are, in themselves, beauti- 
 ful. But has that flowery frontal any analogy 
 with the majestic simplicity, the beautiful order, the 
 just composition and proportion of parts, and the 
 magnificent result of all, within ? Is it an advan- 
 tageous introduction ? But has it even a just 
 analogy in its own parts ? There is grandeur in 
 the vast cavity of the window. Is there anything 
 else- in the exterior, except greatness in the lump, 
 that has any grandeur of character. The cathedral 
 of Wells has, within, fine proportions and simple 
 
IW ARCHITECTURE. 127 
 
 elegance, no where perhaps exceeded ; but the 
 most expert lady's court dress fancier, when 
 simplicity was least in fashion, having to adorn 
 a lusty antiquated lady, would be puzzled to 
 outdo the complicated flutter without. A very 
 different style of design, with much of the Arabian 
 character, is seen in that called Solomon's porch 
 of Westminster abbey. Extraordinary ingenuity 
 is exhibited there, and, in some of the parts, 
 considerable beauty. The circular window, for 
 its expanse, with its richness, may be called even 
 magnificent. But has the whole any analogy with 
 the interior ? Is it not rather a flippant master of 
 ceremonies for conducting to the majesty within? 
 Greatness, however, even without any grac^ 
 may ingage admiration. A vast accumulation 
 of ill-combined and even small parts may have an 
 imposing effect. Bourke, if I remember right, 
 gives some credit even to ugliness as a source of 
 sublimity. I think however his taste would not 
 have recommended ugliness as a source of any 
 jnerit in architecture. But when a cathedral, 
 that of Westminster, for instance, is seen from 
 afar, towering over other buildings, lofty then in 
 appearance as in reality, with ail its little and ill- 
 combined parts lost to the eye, or blended by 
 distance and the interfering atmosphere, so as to 
 make it one great whole, then it becomes, if not a 
 
1'28 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 fine piece of architecture, yet a fine object in a 
 landscape. 
 
 When the analogies of the Plantagenet and the 
 G recian style first struck me, it occurred as matter 
 of wonder, that, so much as magnificence was the 
 object of the Plantagenet architects, and so suc- 
 cessfully as they attained sublime effect in the in- 
 terior, no attempt appears ever to have been made 
 by them to emulate, or at all to approach, the 
 elegant majesty of the Grecian portico without. 
 But, upon further observation and consideration, 
 I am decidely inclined to admire their forbear- 
 ance : it is to my mind a confirming proof of 
 extraordinary judiciousness. They saw their clus- 
 tered pillar, and the compound arch arising out 
 of it, adapted to the interior exclusively ; to com- 
 bination with the ceiling within, but not to any 
 advantageous form of intablature, for a portico 
 without. The pointed pinnacles, and curled 
 ornaments of the senile luxury, the pampered 
 dotage of that style, are miserable competitors 
 with the majestic simplicity of the Grecian forms, 
 which could bear the utmost richness of ornament, 
 and still, for their great characteristic, maintain 
 that simplicity. 
 
 But, as far as I can pursue observation on the 
 Plantagenet buildings, in the long period of its 
 better days, I still find occasion to admire. With 
 the disadvantages, to me appearing inherent in 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 1 2Q 
 
 the Plantagenet style, which deny an advan- 
 tageous exterior to the churches the most ele- 
 gantly magnificent within, it marks extraordinary 
 talent in the architects of those days that, for 
 smaller buildings, where buttresses were unneces- 
 
 o * 
 
 sary, and small breaks, and small ornaments and 
 few, might suffice for variety and richness, they 
 have sometimes attained considerable elegance. 
 The little chapel on Wakefield bridge, in York- 
 shire, is a justly celebrated example. I have seen 
 also many church-towers of pleasing design ; 
 pleasing in the general form and general propor- 
 tions ; pleasing in the parts, (for even buttresses, 
 elsewhere offensive crutches, are there proper 
 limbs) pleasing even in the ornaments, and in the 
 distribution of the ornaments. Peaked tops to 
 the openings, doors, and windows, I must however 
 own, are to my mind less becoming a tower. 
 The pointed arch belongs to the clustered pillar. 
 Yet it may be said, perhaps with some reason, 
 that, where the pointed arcade, with its clustered 
 pillars, forms the great feature of the style of ar- 
 chitecture, that commanding feature will require 
 analogous forms throughout. Thus peaked-topped 
 openings in church- towers may have at least their 
 apology. But I think habit only can bring the eye 
 to be satisfied with the intrusion of the peaked 
 arch in buildings otherwise wholly rectangular. 
 The church- tower however belongs in some 
 K 
 
130 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 degree to another style of architecture, the military ; 
 and indeed, I imagine, had its origin in military 
 purpose. I shall therefore quit it here to add a 
 very few words only on some other kinds of 
 buildings, more or less partaking of the ecclesi- 
 astical character. Those monumental edifices, 
 which have their name from the cross which their 
 summits bore, in many instances mark no common 
 talent in the designer, and especially those 
 erected by Edward the first, in honor of his 
 deceased queen. For ingenious invention, ele- 
 gance of general form, proportion of parts, beauty 
 of parts, no exterior, of the ornamental kind, in 
 the architecture now in England called Gothic, 
 "can compare with them. I can by no means 
 equally admire the richly- wrought shrine ; heavy 
 in its general form ; beautiful only in its parts. 
 But the aspiring shape of the cross, between 
 pyramid and obelisk, and the very ingenious 
 contrivance of the gradual reduction of breadth 
 in gaining elevation, assist the light elegance of 
 its parts, to give it singularly a character "of airy 
 gracefulness. Not that, after all, it can bear a 
 comparison with the very different elegance of 
 the Grecian monumental buildings. ' Simplex 
 muriditiis,' is not its description : the Plantagenet 
 architecture originated in large works, with inte- 
 rior effect the object; and its proper characteristic 
 is sublimity. Of this the long perspective of the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. -131 
 
 Cloister partakes : but in the interior of the lofty 
 Cathedral alone it has its full display. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Old English Military and Domestic Architecture. 
 
 'pHE ecclesiastical architecture of the Plantagenet 
 era is a wide subject, anil in its way a great one. 
 But if I have tolerably explained my idea of its 
 principles, you will allow me how to proceed to 
 a very different kind, the MILITARY ; with which, 
 in that era, another was much connected, the 
 DOMESTIC, and especially the highest order of the 
 domestic, the PALATIAL. Through the defi- 
 ciency of domestic security, which governments, 
 in all those called the middle ages, could afford, 
 the domestic residences of the wealthy, but 
 especially of sovereigns, were fortified; even 
 within walled towns, they were more or less 
 separate fortresses; and thence the term CASTLE, 
 originally describing only a military fortified post, 
 became the distinguishing name, more particularly 
 on the continent, for the residence of a family of 
 high rank. In England, before the Norman 
 reigns, the houses of the greatest appear to have 
 been mostly of wood, and their security depended 
 principally upon the multitude of retainers. 
 K 2 
 
13^ PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Some few royal castles, Corfe in Dorsetshire, 
 and possibly .others, had been raised under the 
 Saxon kings : but the more familiar use of stone 
 in building, and the extension of castellan archi- 
 tecture, and the establishment of . any English 
 character of that architecture, appear to have 
 followed the Norman conquest. 
 
 In Italy, Adrian's mausoleum at Rome, and 
 the tomb of Caecilia Metella, on the Appian way, 
 were found, by the barbarian conquerors of that 
 luxurious country, adapted to the purpose of 
 fortresses, beyond anything they were able to 
 build; so the former remains to this day the 
 citadel of Rome, and the other in its present 
 solitude, instead of its original elegant summit, 
 bears the ruins of the rude battlements of a bar- 
 barian baron. Thus the unlettered and artless 
 warriors of those times converted to the purpose 
 of fortresses, either for public or domestic use, 
 edifices raised by the better art of former ages, 
 with far other views. When they found, ready 
 to their hands, such as might serve immediate 
 need, they used them. If it became neces- 
 sary to build, they imitated, as with workmen 
 then to be found, they best could, the military art 
 of more inlightened ages. 
 
 Thus, in England also, the castellan architecture, 
 both that of the early Norman reigns, and what 
 little may have been before raised under the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 133 
 
 Saxon princes, was, equally with the ecclesiastical, 
 corrupt Roman; being what may most properly be 
 called Gothic, and, on the continent, continues to 
 hold that name. In some of the buildings now 
 generally attributed to that era, as Pevensea 
 castle in Sussex, and Bamborough in Northum- 
 berland, is found an excellence, both of design and 
 workmanship, which has excited question whether 
 they were not remaining from the Roman times. 
 That part, indeed, of Pevensea which is allowed 
 Roman, is far more barbarous than what is 
 attributed to Saxon or Norman times, possibly 
 the work of builders from Constantinople. 
 
 When that extraordinary phenomenon of the 
 arts, the new ecclesiastical architecture, was 
 brought forward, it did not occasion immediately 
 any alteration in the castellan style, to which 
 indeed it was little adapted. But every castle had 
 its chapel, and for this portion of the building the 
 new style soon obtained favor. 
 
 Already that style had reached its first, and 
 perhaps altogether its highest perfection, when 
 the first Edward, having subdued Wales, proposed 
 to use his conquest, not as a barbarian, but as a 
 great Christian prince, for the benefit, not more 
 of the conquerors, than of the turbulent, divided, 
 and lawless people whom he had reduced to a 
 salutary submission. Civilization and public and 
 K3 
 
134 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 private order being his objects, in building for- 
 tresses, for maintaining his conquest, he looked 
 far beyond the military purpose ; he would have 
 palaces in which he might himself not only reside 
 conveniently, but hold his court splendidly; and 
 not only communicate with his new people, but, 
 after the manner of the age, assemble his great 
 council or parliament, not of his new principality 
 alone, but, if need should be, of his whole 
 kingdom. 
 
 Of the extraordinary buildings, which, in the 
 prosecution of these noble designs, he raised, the 
 castles of Carnarvon and Conway, though both in 
 ruins, afford still large matter for the curious 
 after design in architecture, as well as for the 
 curious after history and antiquities. They have 
 been intended, as the plans evince, for different 
 purposes, and designed, as the differences in style 
 show, by different architects ; and those differences 
 are the more remarkable, as they were built almost 
 at the same time. Carnarvon castle has been 
 proposed as the palace of the capital of North 
 Wales ; or, from its extent and magnificence, it 
 might be supposed of the whole kingdom, perhaps 
 with a view even to the inclusion of Ireland. 
 The site of Conway castle, admirably selected as 
 for a fortress, has evidently also recommended 
 itself, to the taste of the royal builder, by the 
 superior beauties of landscape around : it has 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 135 
 
 been proposed as a pleasant residence ; so far as 
 residence could be pleasant, where precaution, 
 such as its plan and locality indicate, was required 
 for personal security. 
 
 The points in which the castles of Carnarvon 
 and Con way agree, deserve notice, as well as 
 those in which they differ. The architects of 
 both evidently felt difficulty from the state of 
 architecture in their age. Already, as I have 
 observed, the new style of ecclesiastical building 
 had been carried to great excellence. But this 
 was little fitted for any other kind of edifice ; 
 and especially its ornamental members, and best 
 effects, \vere unsuitable for fortresses. Large 
 openings, such as cathedral windows, except in 
 principal gateways, could not be allowed. The 
 pillar, which is as the mother of the pointed 
 arch, could hardly be introduced. For the various 
 openings required, whether in the military or in 
 the domestic part of the edifice, the pointed arch, 
 as these able architects saw, w^as generally need- 
 less, often inconvenient, always of incongruous 
 appearance. In the walls for military defence, 
 therefore, they followed the style of building which 
 had prevailed for the purpose, throughout Europe, 
 from the Roman timos ; the imitation having been 
 more or less perfect, nearly in proportion to the 
 knowledge and skill of the builders. Their 
 windows, for securuy, were very narrow without 
 K 4 
 
136 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 For the better diffusion of light through the 
 massive walls, they were splayed at top, at 
 bottom, and laterally, to a much greater width 
 and height within. One flat stone formed the 
 lintel, over the narrow exterior opening; but the 
 soffit, increasing in height, as well as in expansion, 
 toward the interior, was arched; not, in the 
 complex way, with a point, but, as better sense 
 required, in a simple segment of a circle. So 
 wherever common sense would revolt at the 
 pointed arch, wherever use clearly required ano- 
 ther form, as in the breasts of chimneys, of which 
 numerous examples remain, no deference for any 
 trick of the fashion of the day misled those men. 
 For the vast fireplaces only of their halls and 
 kitchens, too wide for the convenient application 
 of a single stone, they recurred to the pointed 
 arch. 
 
 For effect for the eye, the required height for 
 castle walls, and the projections, gave considerable 
 advantages ; but the architect's best opportunity 
 was in gateways. There the flat lintel would ill 
 serve; an arch of some kind was necessary; audit 
 is remarkable that the southern gate of Carnarvon 
 castle, which appears to have been the great 
 military entrance, is arched in simple semi-circle. 
 
 But the puzzle for these judicious designers has 
 not been for the military part of their plan. For 
 this their knowledge of the works of ages before 
 
IX ARCHITECTURE. 137 
 
 them, would serve; nor would practice in the 
 kind of work so fail in their workmen as to make 
 difficulty for the execution. But it was otherwise 
 for the palatial part of their buildings. Neither 
 themselves, probably, nor any then in Europe, 
 had been instructed in the Vitruvian style, or in 
 any style of any richness and elegance that would 
 harmonize with the military part of their -edifices; 
 nor, if they could have designed and applied the 
 Grecian or Roman orders, would workmen have 
 been found to execute them. The new eccle- 
 siastical was the only ornamental architecture of 
 the day. In our times the great difficulty, for 
 those who have desired to revive that style, is the 
 want of habit in it among workmen. This was 
 not felt then ; for the habit of workmen was formed 
 by practice in that style exclusively. How far 
 indeed it was of choice that the architects of 
 Carnarvon and Conway mixed the ecclesiastical 
 style of their day with the military, we cannot 
 know ; but that it was under no small pressure of 
 necessity seems obvious : they had learnt to design 
 ornamentally only in that way; their workmen 
 were accustomed to execute ornamental building 
 only in that way ; and the public favor was 
 ingaged to that style, there being no other of 
 which such splendid and elegant examples, or in- 
 deed examples of any splendor arid elegance, 
 were before the public eye. 
 
1^8 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 I cannot but wonder at the fancy of some 
 lovers of the picturesk, whose taste I otherwise 
 respect, that the architects of those times were 
 careless of unity. Except where difference of 
 style and manner have arisen,, during the inter- 
 vention of ages between different parts of a -build- 
 ing,, I do not recollect an instance of that archi- 
 tecture, in which unity of design is not conspicuous; 
 and, considering the difficulty which the ingenious 
 of these times have found to detect any rule by 
 which those architects were guided, I think I may 
 add surprizing. In my mind the great excellence 
 they attained especially resulted from a scrupulous, 
 though liberal, adherence to that golden rule of 
 design, which it was Aristotle's purpose to illus- 
 trate from Homer, Let there be a whole, har- 
 monized through all its parts* 
 
 My opinion therefore, I will own, is that ne- 
 cessity, rather than choice, led the designers of - 
 Carnarvon and Conway to the incongruous mix- 
 ture of the ecclesiastical architecture of their day 
 with the military. The great military gateway of 
 Carnarvon castle, as I have observed, has a semi- 
 circular arch, without ornament Decoration 
 was not there wanted ; a frowning grandeur was 
 more beseeming. But the portal of ceremonious 
 entrance, the palatial gateway, standing, like the 
 celebrated propylasa of Athens, within strong 
 defences, did not require consideration of means 
 
IN" ARCHITECTURE, 139 
 
 for resisting attack, to the exclusion of all other 
 considerations but, a more engaging kind of 
 majesty. How then was this to be obtained? 
 being wanted also in haste ; for the shortness of the 
 time, said to have been employed in raising these 
 vast edifices, is among their wonders. A style 
 already familiar, and which workmen were readily 
 to be found capable of executing,. the ecclesiasti- 
 cal, then and now admired, was that alone to 
 which they could easily resort. Hence it has 
 been, I suppose, that the great gateway of the 
 palatial part of Carnarvon castle, toward the 
 outer courts, has the pointed arch, and the ordi- 
 nary embellishments of die ecclesiastical archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 The royal apartments of Carnarvon are more 
 dilapidated than those of Conway ; and the bet- 
 ter preservation of these is the more fortunate, as 
 Conway has evidently been built, as I before ob- 
 served, with a view to pleasant residence; whence, 
 as may yet I think also be seen, the architecture 
 of the royal apartments has been more studied. 
 They have been designed in the richest style of 
 ecclesiastical building, and executed, no doubt, 
 by the best workmen then to be procured for 
 royal pay. What is called the queen's oriel is 
 remarkable for the fancy,, luxuriance and ele- 
 gance of the workmanship. Nor is the contri- 
 vance of the little terraced garden below, con- 
 
14O PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 sidering the history of the times, a matter of 
 small curiosity ; where, though all the surround- 
 ing country were hostile, fresh air might be safely 
 enjoyed ; and the commanding view of the 
 singularly beautiful landscape around, from both 
 that little garden and the bow-window of the 
 oriel, is so managed as to leave no doubt of the 
 purpose. 
 
 The opportunity which has been ably used to 
 Lave this little front, containing the private apart- 
 ments, not only so pleasantly situated, but so 
 strongly by nature, on a rock whose precipitous 
 sides sink into the river, that hardly an arrow's 
 shot could disturb the enjoyment even of the 
 little terraced garden which has been managed 
 before it, is not wholly beyond the architect's 
 purpose to observe. But more for our immediate 
 object is the style of this front of the private 
 apartments of this palace of the first Edward 
 It more resembles a house that Palladio might 
 have designed, than the things now built in what 
 is called the Gothic style. The character indeed of 
 the ecclesiastical architecture, alone seen within, 
 could not be wholly concealed without. But the 
 re erve with which it is shown is striking. Whe- 
 ther the architect was or was not acquainted 
 with the words of Horace's interdiction of the 
 extravagances of fancy, in his limitation of the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 141 
 
 f Quidlibet audendi potestas/ the spirit of it was 
 largely impressed on his mind : 
 
 * Sed non ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut 
 Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni.' 
 
 Those who w r ould build houses in imitation of 
 castles, or who would convert real old castles, 
 generally better left mere ornaments of land- 
 scape, would do well to study Conway. 
 
 The Castellan style, for exterior architecture, 
 has great advantages over the Ecclesiastical. The 
 lofty round tower, rising, like the Grecian column, 
 in one uninterrupted line to its capital, the ma- 
 chicolated and battlemented parapet, is a noble 
 object. Two such towers, at the distance con- 
 venient for a gateway between them, with an 
 arch of height nearly to reach the parapet, that 
 arch inscribed in a parallelogram, and other 
 arches and parallelograms below and within it, 
 form a combination of imposing grandeur. It 
 were indeed difficult to design such a tower, or 
 such a combination, so as not to have a great 
 effect. The unbroken length of curtain, then, 
 from tower to tower in the circuit of the walls, 
 and their height, and the towers themselves, 
 projected externally always, upward often, and 
 the shades thrown by these are all advantageous, 
 for sublimity rather than for beauty, yet for what 
 may be called an elegant grandeur. The small 
 
142 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN' 
 
 openings, commonly seen in castles, are but as 
 varieties in the surface ; not materially interrupt- 
 ing the breadth, whether in light or in shadow. 
 I know not that any thing of this kind has been 
 even proposed in modern buildings called Gothic : 
 the comforts required in a modern mansion, with 
 the generally necessary limitation of ex pence, too 
 much forbid. In ancient castles converted to 
 modern dwellings, it has been best retained, and, 
 as far as I have had opportunity to sqe, I tbink 
 retained only, at Warwick and Ainwick. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 143 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 English Military and Domestic Architecture after Edward 
 the First. Plant agenet EcclesiesticalArchitecture how far 
 properly English. 
 
 jT ROM what I have had means to observe, 
 I should suppose the remains of Edward the 
 first's castles to be the best existing examples of 
 the best architecture, both military and domestic, 
 of his age. Afterward the ecclesiastical, as might 
 be expected, more and more mixed itself with 
 both. The great military entrance of Lancaster 
 castle, of grandeur such as much to have struck 
 the very able architect of late years employed 
 upon the building, yet very inferior to Carnarvon, 
 has the pointed arch. But, throughout that mag- 
 nificent edifice, all the' smaller openings had the 
 horizontal lintel. 
 
 It appears however that, after a security for 
 person and property, little known in those ages on 
 the continent of Europe, was established for the 
 realm of England, by the excellent policy of that 
 great prince Henry the Second, the military style 
 of domestic architecture being no longer equally 
 wanted, castles were built only, or almost only, 
 where a foreign enemy was to be apprehended ; 
 on the borders of Scotland and Wales, and on 
 gome parts of the southern coast, liable to de- 
 
144 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 scents of transmarine foes. Fine timber abounded 
 in most parts of the country, and over-abounded 
 in many, there being no market for it. Stone 
 advantageous for building, was, in many parts not 
 found, and in few was equally ready for use as 
 the timber : the art of brickmaking was out of prac- 
 tice, if not out of knowledge. The houses there- 
 fore, even of the wealthiest, were mostly of timber ; 
 some of them of great magnificence. In these 
 the ecclesiastical style of the day universally pre- 
 vailed. The chapel, of course, was of the eccle- 
 siastical character ; even the great hall bore some 
 resemblance to a church ; and the rest of the 
 Louse to a monastery : or rather the whole resem- 
 bled a monastery, with its church and refectory, 
 the chambers being little better than monastic 
 cells. If, in either the monastery, or the family 
 dwelling, anything, beyond the chapel and the 
 eating-hall, had any architectonic merit, it was 
 the kitchen. This, in some larger monasteries, 
 and also in some larger family mansions, was in 
 a peculiar style of building; of which the octagonal 
 kitchen of Glastonbury abbey may be called even 
 a magnificent example. 
 
 Where our ecclesiastical architecture of the 
 Plantagenet reigns originated has been much in 
 question. Its wide differences from the Saracenic, 
 under which there was once a disposition to class 
 it, has, of later times, been largely shown and 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 143 
 
 admitted. Some have been desirous of claiming 
 
 Cr 
 
 it as an English invention. Against this the 
 examples, of great excellence, several in France, 
 some in Germany, one in Portugal, have been 
 alledged. Thus far however I think is indisput- 
 able, that it is so far peculiarly English, as 
 England is the only country throughout which it 
 has been the reigning style, for centuries, from 
 farthest south to farthest north, and from farthest 
 east to farthest west. Beyond England, northward, 
 it gained vogue in the south of Scotland, westward 
 in the east of Ireland, southward in the north of 
 France. I know not by whom the fine cathedrals 
 of Amiens and Orleans, and that half finished at 
 Auxerre, or the elegant church of saint Owen at 
 Rouen, were built. The cathedral of Rheims, more 
 celebrated than all, I never saw, nor can venture, 
 from any representation that has fallen in my way, 
 to speak of it critically. The architect of the 
 magnificent church of the convent of Batalha in 
 Portugal is said to have been of the sister British 
 realm, now united, Ireland. Eastward of France 
 the magnificent unfinished cathedral of Cologn 
 is the only building I recollect to have seen, that 
 has any clear title to association in the same 
 class of style. At Naples, an inferior building 
 of the kind, but completely bearing the cha- 
 racter, has been the work of the Norman con* 
 querors of that country. Whether anything of it 
 L 
 
146 PRINCIPLES Of DESIGW 
 
 remains from them in Sicily, I never heard, 
 England certainly has been the focus of that archi- 
 tecture. In England we trace the earliest display 
 of its excellence at Salisbury : only in England its 
 vigor following for centuries, and extending over 
 the whole country; York north, and Winchester 
 south, Ely east, and Wells west, may suffice for 
 mention : in England only is known anything 
 like that last display of its excellence, not less 
 extraordinary than the first, in King's college 
 chapel at Cambridge : in England only the com- 
 plete progress remains evident, from its earliest 
 excellence to its senile luxury and approaching 
 dotage, seen especially in Henry the seventh's 
 chapel at Westminster ; and in England only the 
 full exhibition of its metempsychosis, in the tran- 
 sition to the restored Roman architecture, through 
 the crude, half-formed style of Elizabeth and the 
 first James's reigns. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE; 147 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Revival of Roman Architecture. Introduction of revived 
 Roman Architecture into England by Inigo Jones. 
 
 ROME and Florence possessed no valuable style 
 of architecture, when in the fifteenth century, 
 literature and science, rising there with extraor- 
 dinary vigor, from the graves in which they had 
 lain for ages, were quickly attended by all the arts. 
 Then, as the ancient statues, eagerly sought under 
 the soil, so the ruins of ancient buildings, yet 
 standing on it, or only half buried, became objects 
 of just admiration ; and the obscure precepts of the 
 great Roman teacher of architecture, Vitruvius, 
 saved among the wreck of ancient letters, were 
 diligently studied. So Bramante, and Michael 
 Angelo, and Palladio, and many others, formed 
 their taste. The foundations of that "prodigious 
 building, saint Peter's church at Rome, were laid, 
 and f Roman architecture revived rapidly, in 
 great splendor. 
 
 At this time the example of Rome, highly re- 
 spected throughout Europe, was, for the church, 
 decisive. But the schism which quicldy arose, add- 
 ing vigor to literature in some branches, operated, 
 in those countries which revolted against the 
 corruptions of the Roman supremacy, as a check 
 - upon the fine arts, and especially architecture. 
 L 2 
 
148 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 The improvements of Italy had begun soon to 
 make their way into England. Some silver plate 
 of so early a date as Henry the seventh's reign, 
 shows the taste which the Italians distinguish by 
 the title of cinquecento. But as, in this world, 
 great benefits rarely come unattended with some 
 evil, and equally great evils not without some 
 compensating good, so, at the reformation, in- 
 tercourse with Rome becoming a political crime, 
 that advantageous migration of improved arts from 
 Italy was suddenly checked ; and, with a short 
 interval only and turbulent, during Mary's reign, 
 the interdiction continued near a century. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, the religious and political 
 enmities did not operate to the total prevention of 
 communication on arts and sciences. In Edward 
 the sixth's reign the Roman orders of architecture 
 were revived in London, in the magnificent resi- 
 dence built by the protector Somerset in the 
 Strand. But unhappily the style of his building 
 altogether was too defective to have or to deserve 
 public favor. A manner of applying the columns 
 of the Roman architecture advantageously, in 
 private mansions, had not then been imagined, 
 even in Italy. A style therefore, recommended 
 by the genius of Holbein, a very imperfect im- 
 provement of the common Gothic of the continent, 
 was no unsuccessful competitor with Somerset's 
 imperfect Roman, for succession to the Planta- 
 
1ST ARCHITECTURE. 1 49 
 
 genet style ; which the inlightened minds of the 
 times saw, with all its merits for church-building, 
 little accommodated to the general objects of 
 civil and domestic architecture. The result, 
 amid the prejudice against everything Roman, and 
 in the failure of an architect of observation and 
 talent to command the public taste in a good 
 course, was a style of building most barbarous, 
 during the two long reigns of Elizabeth and James 
 the first ; while more very large private mansions 
 were built, than in any equal period of our history. 
 Of public edifices, in that style, the schools at 
 Oxford are an eminent, and fortunately, of any 
 considerable magnitude, I believe, a singular 
 example. 
 
 Meanwhile saint Peter's at Rome, though a 
 model too vast for general purposes, yet, with all 
 its imperfections of general design, after several 
 alterations of the original plan, in the course of 
 more than a century while it was building, exhi- 
 bited altogether a most valuable school for the 
 taste of Europe, then emerging from, not absolute 
 barbarism, yet a semibarbarism. But Palladio 
 seems to have been the first who, with talent, 
 had opportunity, to show, in any considerable 
 extent, how the admirable style of the ruined 
 buildings of old Rome might be most advan- 
 tageously applied to modern civil and domestic 
 purposes. 
 
150 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 When the Roman architecture was to be 
 restored, the able men (and they were many, who 
 undertook to gather its rules) had before them two 
 different sources ; the preserved remains of Roman 
 building, and the didactic book of the Roman 
 architect Vitruvius; both highly valuable, each 
 highly assisting to the other, and yet in various 
 instances discordant, and both together abounding 
 with uncertainties and difficulties. Vitruvius lived 
 with Horace and Virgil and Livy, in the best days 
 of the Roman style, in every line, when taste was 
 fresh from Greece ; and he followed mostly Gre- 
 cian writers. The buildings, furnishing example, 
 were of different ages; and, among the most 
 splendid, were found considerable differences, 
 from Vitruvius, and from one another. But 
 Vitruvius, writing for his own times, and using the 
 technical terms then familiar, but wanting ex- 
 planation for times when they would cease to be 
 in common use, his work abounds with phrases, 
 the exact value of which is no longer to be clearly 
 ascertained. Many eminent architects therefore, 
 in the early days of the revival of the art, Palladio, 
 Seriio, Vignola, Searnozzi, Alberti, and others 
 publishing their ideas on the subject, differed 
 greatly, even about the most important propor- 
 tions of the orders ; and Bramante and Michael 
 Angelo, who preceded them, and Bernini and 
 others who followed, have shown, in their -works, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 151 
 
 still other differences ; all, however, conforming 
 to principles of ancient Roman design, and 
 adapting them generally with taste and judge* 
 ment. 
 
 By these able men beautiful edifices were 
 raised in various parts of Italy ; while the style, 
 mixed of corrupt Plantagenet architecture and 
 abortive Roman, as barbarous, as truly Gothic 
 as the coarsest Saxon or Norman, prevailed in 
 England. But, when classical learning flourished* 
 when Homer and Sophocles, and Virgil and Ho- 
 race were extensively read, when Shakespear 
 had written, and Milton was writing, such a 
 style could not hold public favor. An architect 
 of genius only was wanting to lead the public taste 
 at once to better things, and such a man arose in 
 Inigo Jones. 
 
 This elegant designer began his course in the 
 ill-mingled school of James the first's time. His 
 talents appear to have gained him early fame; and 
 saint John's college at Oxford, and Sherborne-house 
 in Gloucestershire, and some others, defective' as 
 the style is, show ideas above his masters. But, 
 fortunately, the way to Italy was no longer shut, 
 as it had been. A disposition in the crown toward 
 the Roman church, tlueatening to the civil in- 
 terests, as well as the established religion of the 
 country, favored the advancement of the fine arts. 
 Jones, going to Italy, presently gave his former idea* 
 
 L4 
 
152 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 of design to the winds. Studying in the schools 
 already formed there, and diligently observing 
 what was best of Roman antiquity remaining, he 
 returned to England fraught with conceptions, for 
 which he found the public mind fortunately pre- 
 pared; and, under his lead, the general architectonic 
 taste reverted nearly to what it had been, in the 
 time of the Caesars. Then every intervening 
 style, the later Roman, the Saxon and Norman ? 
 the best of what arose under the Plantagenet 
 reigns, and that worst, which followed under 
 Elizabeth and James, were condemned together, 
 under one general term of reproach, GOTHIC. 
 
 Jones appears to have had a finer feeling for 
 simple elegance, and simple grandeur, than any, 
 moderns, or perhaps even ancients, from whose 
 works he gained his taste. He delighted in 
 powerful effects of light and shade, produced by 
 simple combinations of well-proportioned forms, 
 and, in that kind of architectonic beauty, which, 
 in his cotemporary poet's phrase, 
 
 Appears, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most. 
 
 His design of Covent-garden square, with its 
 church, is an eminent example of this; which, no 
 doubt, would have been more perfect, had the 
 existing relics of the best early Grecian architec- 
 ture, been known to him. His southern front of 
 Somerset-house, however differing in little matters 
 
I1ST ARCHITECTURE. 153 
 
 of form, was, in taste, purely Attic. Its destruction 
 is ill compensated by any architectonic merit in 
 the expensive building by which it has been super- 
 seded ; where, in the northern front especially, 
 small and highly wrought ornaments (elegant, be 
 it admitted, if in fit place) have been intruded, far 
 more to the architect's benefit, in his per-centage, 
 than to any good effect in the building; which, in 
 incongruous situation, stands, like an athletic 
 courtier, in superb and delicate attire, waiting, 
 among a dirty crowd, in a dirty street, distressed 
 for want of his coach. 
 
154 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 Roman Architecture in England. Wren. Saint Paul's 
 Cathedral. 
 
 I REMEMBER it the remark of a very acute 
 critic, at Rome, of very extensive observation, and 
 long experience, that, to lead the public taste 
 from right to wrong requires a superiority of ta- 
 lent; and that, accordingly, they were three very 
 able men, who overbore, in Italy, the fine taste 
 introduced by the Medicis, with their Michael 
 Angelos and Raphaels. You will probably be 
 aware that he adverted to Pietro da Cortona for 
 painting, Bernini for statuary, and Borromini for 
 architecture. Possibly also you may remember 
 the story told of Bernini, returning, in elderhood, 
 from Trance to Rome, with a very considerable 
 fortune. "Curious to look around the works he 
 had executed in his early days, he expressed 
 great delight at the view of his statue of saint 
 Bibicua ; gratified with assurance, which his eyes 
 gave to his now mature judgement, that he had 
 ever done any thing so truly good, and deserving 
 to earn him fame with posterity; adding however, 
 " But if I had always wrought in this style, I 
 " should have remained a beggar." 
 
 Already, in Italy, the fine taste of the Medici 
 age had given way to the genius of fortune-hunting 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 155 
 
 innovators, when sir Christopher Wren went to 
 study there. His judgement was too good to 
 allow him to adopt all the extravagances of Bor- 
 romini's style. He applied himself with devotion 
 to the earlier and better models, and especially 
 to that of saint Peter's church ; but he has been 
 evidently unable wholly to avoid, whether with or 
 against his own inclination, the vicious fashion of 
 the time. 
 
 The great fortune, which fell to Wren, to be 
 employed in design and construction, for repairing 
 the ravages of the great fire of London, has 
 hardly fallen to any other architect, nor may 
 again, throughout the world, in many centuries. 
 His one great work, saint Paul's church, alone 
 would suffice to place him among the first of 
 Fortune's favorites in his line. That great and 
 splendid building, the cathedral of our metropolis, 
 has I know been largely condemned by some 
 eminent critics; while others, admitting consider- 
 able faults, have held it altogether in high estima- 
 tion. Whether any finished exemplar 'of his 
 favorite design for that magnificent building 
 exists (for you know that executed was not his 
 favorite) I cannot tell ; but the very rough sketch, 
 among his works preserved in the library of All- 
 Souls College at Oxford, shows, for the exterior, 
 so much more simplicity with more grandeur, that 
 it seems fair to suppose the flutter, too common in 
 
156 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 his exterior architecture, and especially in saint 
 Paul's church, was introduced rather in unavoid- 
 able compliance with the fancy of the times, than 
 in pursuance of the dictates of his own taste. 
 
 An analytical criticism of that certainly mag- 
 nificent piece of architecture, ably showing apart 
 its virtues and its vices, could not but be of 
 high value for students of the art. For me to 
 undertake it would be, in the phrase of the day, 
 too dashing a thing ; nor does our purpose require 
 so much : but some observations occur, which, I 
 think, it does require, and which therefore, at ail 
 venture, I will proceed to give. 
 
 Far below saint Peter's at Rome in magnitude, 
 saint Paul's is however certainly, in magnificence 
 altogether, the second edifice of modern Europe ; 
 and its western portico, I mall not scruple to 
 avow, limiting the comparison to modern works, 
 has always struck rne as the finest piece of exterior 
 architecture I ever saw: I have only hesitated at 
 the southern front of the Louvre at Paris. This 
 splendid portico, nevertheless, I know, has, among 
 the critics, those who condemn it for its double 
 story; colonnade mounted on colonnade : on what 
 good principle however, I am far from completely 
 aware. Great authorities, ancient and modern, 
 in its favor, are too well known to need citing. 
 Such I am always glad to find, yet I would not 
 wholly rest on them. It appears to me that, to 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE* I 57 
 
 <*ain a required height, and avoid an offensive 
 massiveness in building, the placing of a colonnade 
 on a colonnade is a good resource. The column, 
 with its intablature, seems no improper pedestal 
 for another column, in just proportion smaller. 
 A basement, simple as that which bears aloft so 
 advantageously the colonnade of the Louvre, 
 would, most clearly, not have suited the west 
 front of saint Paul's. That it has been well dona 
 to set the composite order upon the Corinthian, 
 to crown all with such a massive weight of pedi- 
 ment, so different from the Grecian proportions, 
 or to distract the eye, wishing to contemplate the 
 sober magnificence of the portico itself, whence 
 the transition is ready to the grandeur of the 
 dome above, by intruding the complex ingenuity 
 of the various forms and decorations extended 
 laterally, I will not say. Nevertheless it may be 
 due to Wren, referring again to his first and 
 favorite design, and perhaps it may be due also 
 to the art, to observe, that, in that design, lie 
 proposed only one order of columns ; and with it 
 he proposed a far simpler extension of the build- 
 ing on each side. 
 
 The lateral porticoes, uncommon, by their 
 semicircular plan, have, I know, their admirers, 
 among those who admire little else in the building. 
 I am myself disposed to be pleased with them, 
 but not to give them unbalanced praise. The 
 
15$ PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 circular form, with its magnificence and its 
 beauties, has always obvious and considerable 
 disadvantages. The curved wall does not refuse, 
 we know, the admission of arches; but we 
 know there cannot be perfect accordance of all 
 their lines, as in the rectilinear wall. The same 
 unfitness holds for the application of columns. 
 Bernin^ enough felt this, when he had resolved to 
 give curvature to a part of his magnificent colon- 
 nade, leading to saint Peter's church at Rome. 
 Whether, with all the magnificence of the general 
 effect of that colonnade, his resource for adapting 
 four rows of columns to one curvature obviates all 
 objection, I would leave to others to decide. But 
 it may with clear safety be asserted, that the larger 
 the diameter of the circle, in proportion to the, 
 width of the arch, or the diameter of the column, 
 the readier and the nearer to completeness will 
 be their association. The circuit of the dome 
 of saint Paul's is large in proportion to the 
 diameter of the columns surrounding its base; 
 whence they coalesce in it intimately, and the 
 result is, without drawback, pleasing. But the 
 semicircle of the porticoes, of the northern and 
 southern entrances, is of very small radius, ia 
 proportion to the diameter and height of the 
 columns; which therefore occupy so few points of 
 the curve, that they do not of themselves give the - 
 idea of circular form ; they rather indicate an 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. , 159, 
 
 octagon. The eye must mount to the intabla- 
 ture, or sink to the steps, to learn that the circular 
 form is intended. The octagon indeed is a good 
 form generally, but surely would not suit there ; 
 and the indecision for the eye is of itself objec- 
 tionable. If .1 was to give a rule of measure for 
 the arrangement of pillars in circular form, k 
 should be by reference to the Sibyl's temple art 
 Tivoli. That little building has been universally 
 admired. I think the placing of columns in any 
 circle, or segment of a circle, of smaller radius in 
 
 ' O ' 
 
 proportion to the diameter of the columns, must 
 be at best hazardous. 
 
 Not then to engage in farther criticism of the 
 exterior of saint Paul's, though abounding in 
 matter, I will proceed to the interior. For 
 examination of this it may be fittest to enter by the 
 great portico, the great entrance of ceremony, 
 presenting at once a perspective of the whole in- 
 terior length, only obstructed, as usual in our 
 cathedrals, by the awkward midway intrusion of 
 the organ. Was that entrance such as is com- 
 mon in our churches, or even such, as that of the 
 present Somerset-house, we should say, I think, 
 on first view, that the building within was fine : ' 
 the general effect would be rather satisfactory : 
 the parts are elegant, the proportions just, the 
 combinations ingenious. But introduced by that 
 
l6o PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 magnificent portico, with expectation highly 
 raised, in approaching, by the effect of the 
 dome, seen over that portico, the first effect 
 within is, I must own, sadly disappointing. Not 
 only the magnificence of the portico, but the 
 flowery overdressing of all the rest of the exterior, 
 tends to inhance the disappointment within. As 
 we proceed, and the interior of the dome opens, 
 there, indeed, we gain very considerable amends : 
 there we find effect of united grandeur and 
 beauty, not elsewhere to be seen. But we go 
 on, and we return, and though we see beautiful 
 forms, yet in the dome only we see combination 
 to fill and satisfy the eye. 
 
 Returned to the western entrance, let us again 
 look at the perspective. Even there is gained a 
 glance into the dome, which assists the effect. 
 Why then is the general result less sublime than 
 in some of our Plantagenet cathedrals, of inferior 
 dimensions ? In considering this it will presently 
 occur to observation, that the first portion of the 
 nave is wider than all the rest of the long vista. 
 It is very ingenious combination, well deserv- 
 ing the attention of the student in architecture, 
 by which this has been managed. But if the 
 object has been to increase the grandeur of the 
 effect by a sort of imposition upon the eye, pro- 
 posing that it should measure width by the space 
 
Itf ARCHITECTURE, l6l 
 
 immediately about it, and then: be deceived into 
 the imagination of length in the vista beyond, 
 greater than would in appearance result were the 
 greater breadth continued, it is surely not at- 
 tained. The architects of the Piantagenet reigns 
 insured grandeur by a persevering adherence to 
 the simplicity of plan of their predecessors, the 
 designers of the corrupt Roman or proper Gothic 
 architecture. The Greek basilicon was the pro- 
 totype, which they improved, in some respects, 
 by devising forms the most effectual to obviate 
 interruption far the eye in the elevation, preserv- 
 ing still the striking effect of a lengthened vista. 
 
 The glance into the dome of saint Paul's,, 
 engaging the eye even at the western entrance, 
 leads it of course to look at the lofty vault over- 
 head. What ingenuity is there, and what ele- 
 gance ! and both how wasted, and far more than 
 wasted! Beautiful forms of domelets, ill-intruded, 
 break that continuity of the vault, the careful pre- 
 servation of which is a principal source of the 
 grandeur observable among the Piantagenet build- 
 ings. Immediately against the opening of the 
 dome is a greater interruption; a drop, from 
 the vault, as of a curtain. It cuts things 
 into two, whose intimate union should have beei> 
 especially studied. The arch, where that drop 
 occurs^ is itself magnificent, aad its decoration 
 nost advantageous. Could it have been difficult, 
 M 
 
l62 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 for a man of Wren's ingenuity, to have managed a 
 continuity of that grand arch, with its advantageous 
 decoration, the beginning of his vault,, to be 
 continued, unbroken ; denying intrusion to little 
 things, however beautiful, which are not of ad- 
 verse character, and by their mere interruption 
 adverse? Unity, the advantageous principle of 
 the Plantagenet architects, as it had been of the 
 Grecian, being so maintained, I know not whether 
 the vault might not have equalled in grandeur, as 
 it would have excelled in beauty, anything that 
 the Plantagenet buildings can show. 
 
 Wren was well acquainted with the Plantagenet 
 architecture : he had had occasion to examine, 
 with taste to admire, and candor to praise it 
 His report of his survey of Salisbury cathedral 
 remains, and his eulogy of King's college chapel at 
 Cambridge is celebrated. But, even gathering 
 only from what is observable in saint Paul's church, 
 I should have inclined to believe that he had ob- 
 served and felt the excellencies of the Plantagenet 
 style ; though the example of the Italian archi- 
 tects, and the favor of his age for their taste, led 
 him to give into the flutter of their manner, and to 
 view, with more than due respect, the fantastic of 
 the Saracenic, with which it is considerably con- 
 genial. The combination of arches, supporting 
 the dome of saint Paul's, is singularly ingenious ; 
 it is also magnificent ; and it is surely moreover 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 163 
 
 beautiful : but it is of too studied an ingenuity ; 
 too much adapted to excite wonder, rather than at 
 once to satisfy the eye. The upper arches, the 
 immediate supports of the dome, elegant and 
 grand, separately considered, seem flying in the 
 air. So wanting support themselves, how can 
 they support the vast superstructure of the dome ? 
 Such appears to me the question immediately 
 occurring. When the combination has been 
 maturely observed and considered, that question 
 is resolved to the mind; but amends are not 
 thus made to the eye. Occasion should not be 
 so given for question. If the architect would 
 give beauty its full effect he should not make us 
 start : if he would impress the sublime, he should 
 not involve it in riddle. 
 
 It has been very generally observed of saint 
 Peter's church at Rome, that the effect, both 
 within and without, is not correspondent to the 
 magnitude of the building. In apology for this 
 it has been said, I know, by very informed and 
 very ingenious men, that the perfection of the 
 proportions deceives the eye for the magnitude of 
 the parts. I must own, acknowledging some 
 degree of truth in the observation, I never could 
 be so quite satisfied. It should be the business, 
 I reckon, of an able architect, to make a small 
 building look like a large one, but not to bring a 
 M 2 
 
164 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 a great one to meet the eye with the appearance 
 of a small one. 
 
 The question then occurred, What are just pro-, 
 portions ? and, upon further consideration, another 
 suggested itself, Has not this some analogy with 
 the question, Where is the north ? to which it is 
 answered, - 
 
 At York 'tis on the Tweed ; 
 
 In Scotland at the Orcades ; and there 
 At Nova Zembla, or the Lord knows where. 
 
 How does this apply ? I will endeavour to show 
 by familiar examples. A square, I think you will 
 allow, is one among good proportions for rooms 
 in a family house. But it is especially good 
 for those of smaller dimensions : for rooms not 
 exceeding twenty feet, either way, I suppose it 
 the best of any of those called harmonic. But 
 the great hall at Wentworth house in Yorkshire, 
 if I remember right, is sixty feet square. It was 
 not to me a pleasant proportion, though fitter, I 
 think, for an entrance-hall than for any other 
 room. But divide the square, and join the two 
 halves lengthwise, making a room of a hundred and 
 twenty feet by thirty, and you have thus a mag- 
 nificent gallery, which all will admire. On the 
 other hand, take those dimensions within which 
 the 'square is a perfectly suitable form ; twenty, 
 twenty-five, or even thirty feet ; divide it, in the 
 same way, and in the same way join the divided 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 165 
 
 portions, so as to produce rooms twenty by ten, 
 twenty-five by twelve and a half, or even thirty by 
 fifteen, and you have I think surely that which 
 none will approve. , 
 
 The parts of saint Peter's church, then, I admit, 
 . are admirably proportioned to one another, so far 
 that, vast as they are, nothing appears monstrous ; 
 even the figure of a child representing a cherub, 
 six feet high, though very near, does not strike 
 the eye as extravagantly large. But that, may 
 I be bold to say it, I reckon a fault in the ar- 
 rangement. The figure of a child six feet high, 
 near the point of vision, ought to look gigantic. 
 In the largest Plantagenet cathedral it would look 
 so, almost equally as in the smallest room. How 
 happens this ? I will endeavour to say. 
 
 The vast length of the nave of saint Peter's 
 church is divided between, I think, only five 
 arches. These arches, in exterior building, the 
 unchecked ray of the sun being contrasted with 
 strong shade, might have a magnificent effect; 
 but it would be of a gloomy character. In 
 the interior it is otherwise : for there the light, 
 entering, nearly equally, through windows on each 
 . side, is so diffused that there can be no strong 
 contrast'; and the eye wanders over the void ofj- 
 the arch, and across the space of the pier to the 
 next arch, and so on, meeting with as little to 
 direct as to interrupt its course, or to decide 
 
1 66 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 either the measure or number of its steps. You 
 have seen the church of saint Paul without the 
 walls at Rome. How different the effect of its 
 colonnades ! There the eye, directing its flight 
 along the nave, gathers the magnificence of length 
 from the multitude of pillars, at easy intervals ; 
 the magnificence of loftiness, from their unbroken 
 lines, conducting it from the bases to the capitals. 
 Hence, though all the rest, even the upper por* 
 tion of the nave itself, is barbarous, some eminent 
 critics have not scrupled to avow a preference of 
 the interior of saint Paul's to that of saint Peter's. 
 Our Plantagenet cathedrals are of a character 
 between the two; giving effect of height beyond 
 either, and, in their power of giving effect of 
 length, having far more of the advantage of saint 
 Paul's than the deficiency of saint Peter's. 
 
 Effect in saint Peter's then, in my humble 
 opinion fails, as in the square room beyond a 
 certain size. On the contrary the Plantagenet 
 cathedral proportions operate as, in a great room, 
 the gallery proportions. Of our cathedrals, 
 Lincoln is among the most admired, and, I think 
 justly. No where, perhaps, is the proof of 
 principle, admirable principle, guiding the archi- 
 tects of the Plantagenet ages, more clearly to be 
 detected. The builder there has evidently been 
 limited in his plan to the foundations, and in part 
 to the walls, of an old church in the Saxon or 
 Norman ityle ; and thus his nave has been con* 
 
Itf ARCHITECTURE. 167 
 
 fined to a disadvantageous narrowness. Dignity, 
 such as was desired, could be given only by 
 carrying the height beyond the usual proportion to 
 the width ; so that, had not the architect had talent 
 and judgement to soften the discordance, the 
 loftiness would have struck the eye as extravagant. 
 But, dividing his pillars by a molding, he has 
 given them, in some measure, the effect of column 
 raised on column. Some following builders in the 
 same style, adopting the thing, without attention 
 to the principle, have introduced deformity in 
 their works, by the very same measure by which 
 the able architect of Lincoln has converted dis- 
 proportion into gracefulness. So in the moral 
 world, the same action, well-timed or ill-timed, in 
 proper place, or in improper, may be decorous or 
 indecorous, virtuous or vicious. I am far from 
 meaning so to impute deformity to the interior of ' 
 saint Peter's, but I do venture to impute defect ; 
 inasmuch as fine forms, so proportioned to each 
 other that, on a smaller scale, they would be 
 highly gratifying, on their vast scale are disap- 
 pointing. Is it otherwise than by proportions and 
 divisions well adapted to dimensions, that York 
 minster strikes the eye as large, even larger than 
 the reality, while saint Peter's, the largest church 
 in the world, strikes it, in the confession of all, as 
 less? 
 
 M 4 
 
 
l68 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 Roman Architecture in England. Wren. VanbrugK. Lord 
 Burlington. Gibbs. 
 
 M.Y last letter was long. I will compress what 
 farther occurs on the revived Roman architecture. 
 The wide destruction, made by the great fire 
 of London, provided for Wren an uncommon 
 variety of opportunities. His churches are nu- 
 merous, and show a great extent of invention. 
 The interior of saint Stephen's Walbrook has pro- 
 cured him, most justly, a wide renown, and indeed 
 his purest praise. It is perhaps the most ingenious 
 attempt, and the most successful, ever made, to 
 accommodate the graces of the Grecian column 
 to the needs of interior building. His little church 
 of saint Benet Fink is a curiosity. I remember 
 hearing an architect, now many years dead, whose 
 talents I respect, and some of whose works I 
 admire, speak of it with unqualified applause. In 
 this I cannot join. Whether the oval dome and 
 cupola were borrowed from Italy I cannot tell : 
 it is since Wren's time that they have been emu- 
 lated there, in the twin churches, which greet the 
 traveller from the northward, in entering Rome 
 by the gate del Popolo. The form happened to 
 fuit the odd nook in which saint Benet's church 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 169 
 
 stands ; but it is otherwise, I think, little worthy 
 of the architect of saint Stephen's. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fashion of Wren's age to 
 despise the architecture of the Plantagenet era, a 
 considerable degree of public favor remained 
 attached to that kind of building, between pyramid 
 and obelisk, which we call a steeple, or spire ; 
 which the Plantagenet architects, apparently ga* 
 theririg the idea first from the east, designed, in 
 their own style, often with considerable elegance. 
 Wren, whether chusing or required, in several 
 instances used his ingenuity in accommodating 
 that oriental appendage to churches of Roman -ar- 
 chitecture. His success, like that of most others 
 in the same attempt, generally failing, has been, 
 however, in one instance, extraordinarily great. 
 The steeple of Bow church Jn Cheapside, though 
 so unfortunately situated as to be but ill seen, 
 deserves nevertheless the notice, and I am in- 
 clined to add, the admiration, of every lover of 
 architecture. The solid simplicity of the lofty 
 basement, the lightness and richness of the aspiring 
 superstructure, the elegance of each portion se- 
 parately, and the harmony of all, combine to make 
 it a structure of its kind that never has been, and 
 perhaps never will be equalled. 
 
 The Theater at Oxford, a singular building, 
 largely gifted with the vices of the Italian style of 
 its day, yet for the ingenuity of the design alto- 
 
 
I/O PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 gether, and the admirable aptitude both of the 
 whole, and of the parts, for their purposes (exclu- 
 sively of the celebrated mechanism of the roof) 
 deserves perhaps more the attention of the curious 
 critic, and of the discerning student in archi- 
 tecture, than any other building of that univer- 
 sity, of date posterior to the disuse of the Plan- 
 tagenet style. 
 
 Vanbrugh, who succeeded Wren in eminence 
 and public favor, had a bold, inventive genius, 
 not under coercion of any pure taste. Like 
 Borrornini, he would scorn what before had 
 been most approved, and supersede it by a style 
 xvholly his own ; not meretricious, however, like 
 Borromini's, and delicately curled, but, on the 
 contrary, though hardly less fantastical, yet mas- 
 sive and masculine. 
 
 Whatever merit was in Vanbrugh's works, (and 
 merit I readily allow) a continuance of public 
 predilection for them could not have failed to 
 produce a style altogether vicious, when his genius 
 ceased to direct. English architecture therefore, 
 in my opinion, has no small obligation to lord 
 Burlington ; who had influence to lead back the 
 public taste to the Italian of the Medicean age, 
 and its archetype the Roman of the Augustan. 
 If Gibbs had as liitle genius as some have said, 
 and as some of his works indeed indicate, it is 
 highly to the credit of those models, which lord 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 17! 
 
 Burlington recommended, that, through diligent 
 study of them, such a man was inabled to desiga 
 and execute one of the finest buildings of modern 
 Europe, the church of saint Martin-in-the-fields. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 Revival of Grecian Architecture. 
 
 IT seems to have been through lord Burlington's 
 example and influence that a kind of fashion arose, 
 among young men of rank and fortune in England, 
 to direct their minds to architecture, so far as to 
 aim at some critical skill in it. Notwithstanding 
 that brutal arrogance of the Turkish government 
 in its prosperity, which made access to those 
 countries, where the fine arts attained their earliest 
 and greatest excellence, difficult and dangerous, 
 those countries had been explored by philosophers, 
 but not by architects. That arrogance abating 
 with the rapid decay of the overbearing vigor of 
 the Turkish empire, those countries became 
 more open to curiosity. What had been called 
 the grand tour in foreign parts, for finishing the 
 education, and completing the acquirements, of 
 young men of rank and fortune, was extended ; 
 and, among others, the late earls of Sandwich 
 
 
17 2 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 and Besborough stretched their travels into the 
 Levant. A meeting, on their return, of many 
 travelled young men, who fostered a love for the 
 arts, produced the establishment of the society 
 of Dilettanti, yet existing. It was not till after 
 lord Burlington's death that Mr. Bouverie, Mr. 
 Dawkins, and Mr. Wood, having explored 'the 
 antiquities of Greece and Ionia, engaged in the 
 bold undertaking of bringing to public knowledge 
 the wonderful remains of Balbec and Palmyra, 
 then of uncertain fame. About the same time 
 a preference, in uncommon amount, of fancy and 
 fame to ease and profit, urged the learned architect, 
 James Stuart, to employ his extraordinary dili- 
 gence and skill in a long, and sometimes hazard- 
 ous, residence at Athens, to make those accurate 
 delineations and descriptions of the best relics of 
 antiquity there, through which they are now known 
 to all the world. 
 
 The greatness, and richness, and altogether the 
 splQndor of the remains of Palmyra and Balbec, 
 exhibited in the publication under Mr. Wood's 
 direction, made the immediate impression on the 
 public mind that might be expected. They 
 produced a considerable degree of public favor 
 for the style of those magnificent ruins ; and some 
 architects of the day, of considerable talents, 
 fostered the taste. The temple of Balbec, or, in 
 its Grecian name, Heliopoiis, being of an earlier 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 173 
 
 a;e, is, in style, superior. Yet, in contem- 
 plating the buildings of Palmyra, under all the 
 circumstances of the place and times, it may well 
 be wondered, not that they exhibit a wide devia- 
 tion from the purity of the early Grecian taste, 
 but that, after so many centuries, and so many 
 conquests and revolutions, in the establishment of 
 a new capital of a new empire, very far from 
 Greece, amid deserts of sand, the deviation from 
 the purity of the early Grecian taste should not 
 be wider ; that not only most of the great prin- 
 ciples of the best Grecian style were preserved, 
 but very nearly the manner of application, and 
 even all the ornamental forms ; though too much 
 deviating into a luxuriant delicacy, and a feminine 
 profusion of decoration. 
 
 The work, which James Stuart lived to give to 
 the world, did not immediately lay equal hold on 
 the public fancy. But meanwhile the disposition 
 to prosecute exploration continued to prevail; and 
 three other works, exhibiting buildings of very 
 different styles and distant ages, all highly inte- 
 resting to the curious architect and every lover 
 of architecture, resulted. 
 
 It appears, in this country, extraordinary, 
 that in the fair region of Italy, and in that portion 
 of it which formed the kingdom of a Bourbon 
 prince, and scarcely sixty miles from his capital, 
 were some of the most perfect and most in- 
 
 i 
 
174 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 teresting remains of ancient architecture, un- 
 known to the curious of all Europe, till, about 
 the time of which I have been speaking, they 
 were brought to general knowledge by a British 
 artist. Tiie ruins of Passtum, imperfectly given 
 in Major's publication, now with great exactness 
 in Wilkins's, first informed modern Europe what 
 the very early style of Grecian architecture was. 
 
 About the same time two eminent men of the 
 profession, brothers, engaged in the laborious and 
 expensive adventure of exploring the style of the 
 Homan empire in its decline, and giving it to the 
 world, in their description and representations of 
 the ruins of Diocletian's palace of Spalatro in 
 Dalmatia. As Palmyra shows the last known 
 great effort of the Grecian, so the buildings of 
 Diocletian, at Rome and in Dalmatia, exhibit 
 what was among the last of the Roman school. 
 
 It was not long alter these exertions of indivi- 
 duals, in exploring and bringing to general know- 
 ledge the most magnificent relics of ancient build- 
 ing, that the society of Dilettanti, desirous of 
 having that completed which yet remained im- 
 perfect, engaged the learned Dr. Chandler of 
 Oxford to go, with two able artists, Revettand 
 Pars, to investigate the ruins of that portion of 
 the globe, singularly the nurse of science, and 
 all the fine arts, the western coast of Asia Minor, 
 Their publication, however, which followed, did 
 
IX ARCHITECTURE. I 75 
 
 not excite any eager general attention. The finest 
 buildings, of which relics were found, had been 
 too much demolished by the barbarians, who had 
 successively held the country, for representations 
 of them to be satisfactory to any but those con- 
 siderably versed in architecture^ or desirous of 
 becoming so. Nevertheless with ail such that 
 publication cannot fail to be highly interesting. 
 It is indeed a truly curious fact, that hardly a 
 molding, hardly a decoration of any kind, is found 
 in the best architecture of following times, not 
 only Greek but Roman, and not only those, but, 
 perhaps I shall surprize you with venturing to add, 
 our own architecture both ecclesiastical and mili- 
 tary, and not of the Saxon and Roman times only, 
 but of the following Planta^enet reigns also, of 
 
 o o o ' 
 
 which a prototype is not to be seen in the relics of 
 Ionic building, represented in the first volume of 
 Ionian Antiquities. Within similar narrow limits 
 nearly, I apprehend, the best of every thing, in all 
 the fine arts, will be found to lie ; whence, though 
 it is far from following that a desire of novelty 
 should in no degree be indulged, yet it behooves 
 genius to be very cautious and reserved in the 
 indulgence. Without genius, the pursuit can do 
 little mischief: its principal result will be, what 
 so often has been, to bring ridicule on the bold 
 inventor. 
 
176- PRINCIPLES OF DES1GM 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 Revival &f attention in England to the old National 
 Architecture. 
 
 1 HE great Italian architects, who, in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries, revived the Grecian 
 orders, as they had been adopted by the Romans, 
 were unacquainted with the elder Grecian style. 
 Indeed for the order of far most general use among 
 the Romans, the Corinthian, the difference from 
 the Greek was comparatively little. The striking 
 and characteristical variation was in the Doric : 
 the old Grecian Doric, and that used at Rome, to 
 which the Doric name was given, were, in reality, 
 different orders. 
 
 The massive and severe simplicity of the old 
 Grecian Doric then being brought to light, and 
 offered,for public favor in England, at the same 
 time nearly with the ilowery richness of the build- 
 ings of Palmyra and Balbec, the public taste was 
 likely to be divided, and it became so. The 
 flowery, recommended by the talents of the emi- 
 nent architects, brothers, already mentioned, ob- 
 tained the first favor ; being indeed far the less 
 violent deviation from what had before gained 
 establishment, the richest Roman Corinthian ; 
 already successfully emulated in our own island, 
 and in most parts of modern Europe. Never- 
 theless a predilection for the old Grecian 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 177 
 
 style obtained among a few, and most among 
 those who had had opportunity to know its effects ; 
 not judging merely from such imperfect repre- 
 sentation as the best delineation or picture can 
 give, but from having seen the buildings. 
 
 But, amid the distractions thus offered for the 
 public taste, almost at once, -from Paestum, Sicily, 
 Dalmatia, Athens, and Syria, while old Rome, 
 and all that modem Europe had done best after 
 Roman models, could not but retain a large 
 
 7 o 
 
 interest in the general mind, another candidate 
 for public favor, more at variance with all these 
 than any of them with any one other, was brought 
 forward. Various publications, Bentham's de- 
 scription of Ely cathedral ; Warton's disquisitions 
 concerning the architecture, introduced among 
 those concerning the poetry, of the middle ages ; 
 but, above all, the lively eloquence of the late 
 lord Orford, supported by the bold attempt to 
 revive, in practice, in his own residence, a style 
 of architectonic design, obsolete already for two 
 centuries, and long considered as fit only for the 
 past times of semibarbarism, excited public curi- 
 osity concerning that style; and its connection 
 with the history and literature of its day, and 
 especially with family history, promoted pre- 
 judices in its favor. Soon the comments and 
 praises of many men of talent procured extensive 
 allowance that, if only as a variety in architecture, 
 N 
 
178 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 with a strongly marked character, distinct from all 
 others known, it might deserve consideration. 
 But, beyond this, they contended, it had intrinsic 
 merits, peculiar to itself; and, having those merits, 
 it had been very unworthily treated, and deserved 
 to be otherwise considered. With favor, for this 
 old national style, some indignation, against those 
 who had restored the Roman, was excited ; as if 
 they had been the persons to treat it unworthily ; 
 though the eulogies of some of them, on particular 
 buildings, have been also eagerly noticed. But 
 it was observed, with triumph, that those who had 
 attempted to design and execute in that style, had 
 all failed, to a degree sufficiently proving con- 
 siderable talent necessary to produce the examples 
 which had been the objects of their emulation. 
 
 Considerations thus were large and powerful 
 for giving the public taste a turn toward that man- 
 ner of architecture, which had been peculiarly that 
 of our forefathers. But there were others which 
 not only urged the general fancy still farther, but 
 impelled professors of architecture to give their 
 minds, in some degree, to the study of that style. 
 When the Roman architecture was first revived, 
 it so had exclusive favor, that, whatever was to be 
 built, and wherever, no allowance was given for 
 any other ; and so Inigo Jones's beautiful Corin- 
 thian skreen, in Winchester cathedral, stands in 
 a manner hand in hand with the nave, in the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE* 179 
 
 Plantagenet style of one age, the quire, in that of 
 another, and the transept, Saxon or Norman. 
 
 As soon, however, as public favor began to 
 revert toward the taste in building of our earlier 
 forefathers, wherever ancient churches, ancient 
 castles, or ancient mansions (mostly those once 
 monasteries) were to be altered or inlarged, it 
 came to be cksired that all alterations and addi- 
 tions should conform to the style of the original 
 edifice. But the misfortune of Winchester ca- 
 thedral was a common one. Most of the build- 
 ings, of any extent, had already a mixture of 
 styles of different ages. The 'simplex et unum/ 
 if ever there, was already done away. Was it to 
 be restored ? and how ? 
 
 Such was already the state of things when it 
 became the royal purpose to improve the palace 
 of Windsor-castle; and the most eminent archi- 
 tect of the day, called to form the designs and di 
 rect the execution, gave his mind, it is said, with 
 delight, con amore, as. the Italians phrase it, to 
 the object. 
 
 
l80 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 ! 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 Chinese and Indian Architecture. 
 
 ABOUT the middle of the eighteenth century, the 
 Chinese architecture made some progress in public 
 favor in this country. That extraordinary nation 
 separated from us, eastward, by the length of 
 Europe and Asia, hardly less than, westward, by 
 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with intervening 
 America, and from all the world by its institutions, 
 is, in every point of view, an object of curiosity. 
 With a population said to exceed that of all 
 Europe, its government remaining the patriarchal, 
 modelled after that of a single family, so also its 
 letters, its sciences, and all its arts, seem to be of 
 patriarchal character; and, among the rest its 
 Architecture. Deviating indeed very widely, as 
 in the course of so many ages could hardly fail, 
 from patriarchal simplicity, in the abundance and 
 extravagance of its ornamental appendages, the 
 Chinese style has still, in its principles and es- 
 sence, much of that simplicity. Its character 
 is decided, in large proportion, as, early in our 
 correspondence, we observed must be, by the ma- 
 terial principally used. Though not only the 
 country abounds with rock, but the art of brick- 
 making is old there, beyond traditions said to be 
 
 -,, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. l8l 
 
 the oldest in the world, yet the buildings are al- 
 most all still of the primitive material, timber. 
 Hence, if the style of architecture had more 
 merit, it could hardly offer models for countries 
 where stone or brick are in common use. Not 
 that the style, whether of building or of paint- 
 ing, is always bad. Among the paintings, though 
 we do not admire either the grace or the expres- 
 sion of the human figure, male or female, or the 
 composition, or light and shadow, or perspective, 
 of the landscape, yet we see branches and flowers 
 often touched with freedom and spirit, and dis- 
 posed with elegance. So also in the architecture, 
 however without matter deserving imitation, yet 
 some things, for their resemblance to what is found 
 in Egypt and in Greece, may amuse the fancy, by 
 exciting speculation on the migration of the arts, 
 or on the analogies in the human mind. 
 
 Of later years only the prodigious (perhaps I 
 might add alarming) extension of our conquests 
 in India has brought us acquainted with antiquities 
 in that country, before unknown in Europe : and 
 the talents and diligence of a painter, employed 
 there, have given them to the world in a way to 
 excite admiration ; with a favor, as is the way 
 with favor to new things, perhaps not, in all 
 instances, free from extravagance. 
 
 Nevertheless the buildings of India, very unlike 
 N 3 
 
1 82 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 the Chinese, of the most lasting materials, and 
 most solid construction, are objects of curiosity for 
 the antiquarian, objects also for the historian, and, 
 in my opinion, not wholly undeserving attention 
 from the architect. 
 
 There are found among them two principal 
 distinctions of style, that of the ancient inhabitants, 
 who hold, with their ancient religion] their ancient 
 name, Hindoos ; and that of the Arabians," which 
 seems to have been adopted, with the Mahometan 
 religion, by the Tartar conquerors. Whether the 
 Tartars themselves have added anything I know 
 nor. But even the two styles, the elder Indian 
 and the Arabian, in some instances clearly dis- 
 tinct, have, in numerous others, been so mixed 
 that discrimination is, even for the most expert, 
 it seems, in many cases uncertain ; and the modern 
 architecture of India is a third style, compounded 
 of the elder two. Stone has been the common 
 material of both people, and solidity is eminent 
 among the qualities of the buildings of both. 
 
 For the antiquarian, whether inquiring into 
 early history, or early building, the old Indian 
 architecture is the higher object of curiosity. 
 The Arabian style, comparatively new in India, 
 may be investigated in other countries, whence, 
 with conquering armies, it migrated. But the 
 Arabian buildings in India are not only of a 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 1 8j 
 
 magnificence to attract notice, but also in 
 design, I think, are generally superior to what 
 either the Saracens carried westward, or the 
 Turks northward. Whether however their style 
 has any advantage over what prevailed earlier 
 among the Arabians, the representations I have 
 seen of some of their buildings, nearer home, 
 lead me to doubt. 
 
 We cannot wonder if, in Arabian architecture, 
 we find much analogy with that of earliest Egypt. 
 But the resemblance of Indian buildings to the 
 very oldest Egyptian, a much nearer resemblance 
 than is found in any Arabian buildings of which 
 any representation has been published, offers a 
 wide field for speculation. Especially those ex- 
 traordinary edifices, bearing very remarkable ana- 
 logy to the Egyptian pyramids, and yet very 
 remarkably differing, are objects of wonder. Like 
 the pyramids, they are works of vast labor ; like 
 them, unless monumental, of no imaginable human 
 use ; in form, like them, at the base square, at the 
 summit pointed ; but differing in the proportion 
 of base to height, being far smaller below ; and 
 not regularly diminishing in rising, nor by steps, 
 like the pyramid, but in one line, curving like a 
 beehive. Thus they offer perhaps the oldest 
 existing examples of building, if not to be called 
 a dome, yet, in manner, nearly approaching the 
 dome. Whether those ancient monuments at 
 N 4 
 
184 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Tortosa, on the Syrian coast, represented in an 
 engraving among those of the Ionian Antiquities, 
 are, in any degree, of the same family, I must leave 
 to more diligent investigators to inquire. 
 
 The older Indian buildings, however, are far 
 exceeded, in number and magnificence, by those 
 erected after the Arabian conquest. Among these 
 the POINTED ARCH is often a prominent feature. 
 But, in the published representations of them, we 
 discover nothing approaching that perfection in 
 applying the Pointed Arch to the purposes of 
 Interior Architecture, which is seen in some of 
 our own cathedrals. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Arabian designers have suc- 
 ceeded, beyond the cultivators of our old ecclesi- 
 astical architecture, in applying that form in the 
 exterior. Evidently indeed they have been more 
 called upon to give splendor to the exterior, and 
 altogether their manner will deserve notice. 
 
 ci 
 
 The Arabian architects, I think, have clearly 
 been aware of the unreadiness of the pointed 
 arch to coalesce with rectilinear forms. Con* 
 stantly, therefore, it appears to have been their 
 practice to soften the dissention, and prepare for 
 connection, by inscribing the arch in a parallelo- 
 gram, as a picture in a frame. Thus the arch, 
 with its curves and peak, having its own rectan- 
 gular associate, specially accommodated for the 
 purpose, not the discordant form of the arch 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 185 
 
 singly, but the arch and parallelogram together, 
 as, in some degree one compound figure, meet 
 the eye as an integral member of the composition. 
 
 Whether our architects of the Plantagenet 
 reigns gathered this excellent idea from the east, 
 or congenial good taste led them to the same 
 happy result as the Arabians, the practice has 
 been common, and is especially found in their best 
 buildings. In the castle-gateway, indeed, mili- 
 tary purpose would lead to it; but it is found also 
 in ecclesiastical architecture, even in the interior ; 
 and in the nave of Winchester cathedral, its ad- 
 vantageous effect is striking. 
 
 Where this combination originated I know not : 
 but the oldest example of it, that has fallen 
 within my observation is not Arabian, but Gre- 
 cian ; with the difference indeed, that, not the 
 pointed, but the semicircular arch has been thus 
 placed in a rectangular frame ; and this ex- 
 ample occurs in Athens itself. The lover of 
 architecture, I think, cannot but have amuse- 
 ment in comparing some of the Arab-Indian 
 buildings with William of Wickham's, and both 
 with that described in the last chapter, and repre- 
 sented in the last plate, of the third volume of 
 Stuart's Antiquities of Athens. 
 
 Possibly there may be among Indian and 
 Arab-Indian buildings, I think indeed there may, 
 what an able architect's fancy may profit from. 
 
186 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Perhaps alfo I may find occasion hereafter to 
 mention an instance in which' I have imagined a 
 very able architect has so borrowed, and very 
 well borrowed. Bet I never saw anything of 
 Indian or Arab-Indian work, which an architect 
 of any taste and judgement would chuse as a 
 complete model. Pillars, with minute eques- 
 trian statues for the ornament of their capitals, 
 and others, pinched in toward the bottom or 
 middle of the shaft, as if in emulation of the 
 wasp's waist, would ill supersede, or ill be added 
 to, the Grecian orders. Something, in general cha- 
 racter, like the latter form, is indeed old among 
 ourselves ; derived, already improved into ele- 
 gance, from Italy and Greece ; but not em- 
 ployed in the support of a weighty superstruc- 
 ture. More commonly the material has been 
 silver, and the purpose the support of a candle. 
 For the support of a building, there can, I think, 
 be no hazard in pronouncing such form incon- 
 gruous and absurd. The Indians have also 
 imagined the curved shape of a laced hood, or a 
 nightcap, as an ornamental appendage over a 
 window, wrought in stone, to throw off rain. The 
 habit of being carried in palankeens, and domi- 
 ciliated in tents or pavilions, may have led them to 
 such a fancy for their houses. But, where de- 
 coration is desired for the exterior of a window, 
 the Grecian architrave, with or without its frieze 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 187 
 
 arid cornice, and with or without the added 
 pediment, is adapted to stone-work and solid 
 walls and rectangular building; and will also 
 throw off rain* 
 
 Something of the dome kind, for the summit 
 of a building, has been much in favor with the 
 Arabians, wherever their conquests have been 
 carried. Some rare instances of the dome, among 
 the Indian buildings represented by Daniel, are 
 not only completely within those limits of taste 
 which common sense prescribes, but rather of 
 superior elegance. Yet the more common form, 
 the favorite trick, I think it may be called, for a 
 dome, among those who have derived arts and 
 taste from the Arabians, in Turkey us well as 
 India, has been to pinch it in at the bottom, 
 nearly as the pillar beforementioned ; so that, as 
 I remember a youth from the university, turning 
 over Daniel's works with me, observed, it looks 
 like a Brobdignag turnip reversed, with the tap 
 aspiring. 
 
 Considering however that there is certainly 
 something striking, and on first view pleasing, 
 in some of the Arab Indian buildings, as repre- 
 sented by Daniel, I think they may deserve 
 to be studied by the young architect; but 
 should be with much caution. He should en- 
 deavour to discover in them the principles which 
 have produced the good general effects; careful 
 
 ^ N 6 
 
1 88 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN. 
 
 not to be seduced by the virtues to any adoption 
 of the vices, from which the style, as far as I have 
 had opportunity to observe, is in no instance free. 
 The merit lies, hardly ever, in any part of the 
 detail : it rests in general effects, .which might 
 perhaps equally be produced, with a far better 
 style of detail. In the gayer kind of buildings 
 there is often much ingenuity, but always much 
 flutter. Here and there possibly, in Daniel's 
 publication, a palace may suggest a good idea for 
 something of a light and winning grace. But 
 the best effects of the Arab-Indian architecture 
 are seen in monumental edifices ; the solids large 
 and lofty, the openings, into shaded recesses, un- 
 commonly large and lofty^ the result gloomy and 
 sublime. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 189 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Modern Varieties in Architecture. 
 
 I ENDED abruptly, you observe, my letter on the 
 revival of public favor for the style of archi- 
 tecture of the Plantagenet reigns, for which in 
 former letters I had expressed very high esti- 
 mation ; and, when, in the next, you expected me 
 to proceed with it, I passed to the Chinese and 
 Indian. It gratifies me to learn that my ob- 
 servations on these made you any satisfactory 
 amends. I allow that the other subject rather 
 required that I should proceed on it : but I felt 
 myself on slippery ground. To you, I know, I 
 may venture to declare all my thoughts freely. 
 But if my letters are to be shown to others, there 
 are questions of taste in architecture that will 
 demand caution. I desire to offend none : I desire 
 not to excite a useless repentance of expence un- 
 worthily bestowed : I would occasion no uneasi- 
 ness, unless benefit might result, either to the 
 suffering individual, or to the public. Neverthe- 
 less I think scruple on this head may be carried 
 too far. To do what may mislead the public 
 taste, whether by building, or in any other way, 
 is a public offence, and challenges public animad- 
 version, I am aware how I thus commit myself. 
 
igO PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 on the supposition that any who may see my 
 letters, would regard them. Fortunately how- 
 ever for the matter immediately in question, I am 
 provided with considerable relief, by the authority 
 I have obtained for sending you the observations 
 of another ; though, were there guilt, trusting 
 however there is none, I must confess myself 
 implicated as an accomplice. 
 
 A friend of mine, fond of architecture, and 
 wh6 has built himself a very good house, to 
 supersede a bad though large old one, on an 
 ample patrimony in the north of England, had 
 been living there many years without migrating 
 farther than to his county-toWn for sessions, 
 assizes, and races ; when, last spring, he took the 
 fancy to visit London once more, and proceed 
 to the sea. YOU know him by name and by 
 character, but I believe not personally. In his 
 return northward he gave me an account of his 
 observations. Selecting among them what may be 
 most to the purpose before us, I shall perhaps 
 appear abrupt sometimes in transition ; but that, 
 for brevity sake, I trust you will excuse. 
 
 We were speaking of London, when he said, 
 ( For some years of my early life, I was pretty 
 
 * familiar with Palace-yard ; but now, I was 
 
 * told, I should not know my way to the house 
 ' of Commons ; and indeed I was not a little 
 
 * surprized at the alterations there. I used to 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. Ipl 
 
 think the unfinished building of George the- 
 Second's reign, against Westminster hall, ill 
 put there ; not however so much for defect in 
 style, as for its unfitness to make part of the 
 one great whole, which the circumstances of 
 the place demanded. Yet the next thing, 
 you will remember, was to build, on the opposite 
 side of the street, the new Ordnance-office ; not 
 only in a style utterly refusing coalition, but of 
 less dignity, and on a plan, like the style, accom- 
 modated to nothing about it. On the contrary 
 there it stood, offensively turning its back on 
 two churches close behind, and as if casting a 
 coxcomb smile on its elder brother before it. 
 This building is now prostrate. I have ob- 
 served it to be a good deal in the way of the 
 ordnance, and those under it, to do and undo. 
 One cannot go along the coast, as I did last 
 summer, from Dover to Portsmouth, inquiring 
 at all, without learning what surprizes those 
 unversed in the ways of the Ordnance-office. 
 However, all I have adverted to was be- 
 fore the present master-general's time, and 
 military matters are not our subject now ; 
 so I return to Palace-yard, and there the de- 
 molkion of the new Ordnance-office was a little 
 4 affair. 
 
 6 I remember to have heard that our late great 
 
Q2 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 minister, the illustrious Pitt, had talked of im- 
 proving the houses of parliament, with their 
 appendages and approaches, when, just before 
 the mad self-called republic of France declared 
 war against us, three-per-cent stocks were at 
 ninety-eight. Certainly there wanted improve- 
 ment ; and yet I must own I admire the cou- 
 rage of those ministers, his successors, who, in 
 the midst of a war, already then the most 
 lasting and most tremendous this nation had 
 ever to sustain, after an addition of hundreds 
 of millions to the public debt, and when the 
 three-per-cents were under sixty, would dash 
 at that at which he, not generally thought 
 wanting in boldness, had, in better times, 
 hesitated. 
 
 ' What, however, I saw prepared me, in 
 some degree, for what I was to see else- 
 where. Dover castle and its appendages 
 (though very curious matter occurs there) 
 and all military concerns, pass by, to come 
 to a town on the southern coast, where I 
 was struck with the very extraordinary style, 
 and very extraordinary splendor, of a large 
 new building, evidently not military. What, 
 said I, are the Arabian tales here rea- 
 lized? Has a treaty of amity been concluded, 
 through some of our new missions, with China 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 1Q3 
 
 " or Thibet ? And is this a palace raised to 
 " receive a princess with an immense dower, and 
 " a noble train, from one of the most splendid 
 "courts of eastern Asia?" ' That building,' 
 said a plain elderly man, who stood by, ' is a 
 " stable for horses.' ' For horses ! ' said I, 
 " Yes," he replied, 'for cattle, not princesses.' 
 ' I was surprized and stood silent. Seeing me 
 ' musing, and observing, he went on: 'That 
 " is not the only extraordinary building in its 
 " way in our country ; though I believe the like 
 " is not to be seen elsewhere. I am a South- 
 " saxon born, a builder by trade, and I have 
 " seen most parts of England. I reckon Sussex 
 " a passably good country among others: not 
 " bad for men and women; but its luxuries and 
 < magnificence are for horses and dogs.' 'And,' 
 I said, i have you a palace for dogs anything 
 4 like this for horses ?' * Very splendid,' he 
 * answered, c and very elegant ; with every con- 
 " trivance for luxury that can be imagined. It 
 " was the whim of a character altogether great 
 " and worthy, and whose memory, whatever 
 " some people may say, I highly respect, for 
 " private and for public virtues.' - 
 
 ' Liking the man's humour, I encouraged him 
 
 ' to go on, and he proceeded to say, ( Ay, that 
 
 " fine dogkennel is in the old way; Roman 
 
 " architecture, they call it ; such as I learned iu 
 
 O 
 
194 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 " my youth. A bit of Gothic is all the rage no^t, 
 " They will put a crooked top to a cottage 
 " window, as if they could not make a strait 
 " one; and that they will say is tasty; it i& 
 " Gothic; and if they only put a pane of glasar 
 " cut to a peak, where square would be better,. 
 " that is Gothic and tasty. Pray, sir, can you 
 " tell me what Gothic rightly means ? for it seems 
 " to me often only another word for nonsense. 7 
 ' I smiled, and he went on ; Tor this nevtf 
 " fine building, I do not know whether we are to 
 " call it Gothic, or what else. Novelty and 
 " variety I find are the go. I have been obliged 
 " to unlearn half of what, in my youth, I wds 
 " proud to know ; I did not like it at first, but I 
 46 find I must bend to the fashion ; and so now a 
 " bit of Gothic, and something new, are the 
 " words with me, as well as with other people; 
 " pray, sir, are you a foxhunter?' Foxhunting 
 ' might be a Gothic sport, but I wondered what 
 ' Gothic building had to do with foxhunting, 
 ' and I answered drily, 'Yes, I have been a 
 " foxhunter,' ' Horses, to be sure,' he said, ' are 
 " noble animals, and dogs are the most faithful 
 " friends of man ; they are looked on with favor, 
 " beyond other brutes, in most parts of the world. 
 " But the love of vermin I believe is peculiar to 
 " England ; and, after dogs and horses, at least, 
 " if not even before thera, the favorite animal of 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE, ig5 
 
 <f the present day, I understand, is the fox. 
 " Now one thing seems to me yet wanting 
 " for the glory of our county, and I should 
 " like to be employed upon it. A seraglio 
 " for foxes, what opportunity for novelty and 
 " variety in architecture ; mixture of styles 
 " without end ! But I am told we must be quick, 
 " or Leicestershire will be before us.' I shrunk 
 '. at first at this satirical observation. But 
 6 you know I respect every thing that attaches 
 6 men to the ' gloria ruris ;' and he is a poor fox- 
 - hunter who cannot stand a joke upon fox- 
 4 hunting." 
 
 My friend's observations now took a turn 
 rather wide of architecture ; which, however, led 
 again to matters connected with it ; and he 
 proceeded to tell another story, abundantly 
 whimsical, yet, to my mind, so much to our 
 purpose, that I mean to revise the notes I made 
 presently after, and make it the subject of my 
 next letter. 
 
Jg6 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 Modern Anglo-Gothic Architecture. 
 
 I HAD been conversing on various matters with 
 my friend mentioned in my last letter, when, after 
 a small pause, he said, ' Good and evil are 
 1 strangely mixed in this world !' I was wonder- 
 ing what topic this text was to lead to, when he 
 proceeded, 'Did you never ohserve that indiges- 
 ' tion often powerfully assists invention ?' I 
 smiled and said nothing ; but he presently pro- 
 ceeded, ' Often have I been unable to satisfy 
 
 * myself with my own designs, and not least in 
 1 building, when a wakeful hour in ' the night 
 
 * would help me to that which, among ideas 
 
 * disturbed by the cares of the day, and the ob- 
 6 jects which daylight presents, I could not catch. 
 
 * Sleeping fancies have sometimes their merit 
 4 too, though they are generally too incoherent 
 1 to be of much value. And yet I have some- 
 ' times thought that Addison's admirable dreams, 
 6 in the Spectator, may have had their origin 
 1 partly in a sleeping fancy. You know my 
 4 respect for Addison, infused in my childhood 
 6 by my grandmother, who was personally ac- 
 ' quainted with him. She reckoned his dreams 
 ' little less than divine revelations. I shall cer- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE, 10,7 
 
 * tainly not propose to emulate them, and yet I 
 
 * have a great inclination to exercise your patience 
 ' with telling you a dream of mine/ Leisure 
 perfectly allowing, I was no way disposed to 
 check my friend's fancy, and he proceeded thus : 
 
 ' I thought myself in Westminster abbey, ia 
 
 * company with those two great architects of 
 
 * different ages, William of Wickham, bishop of 
 c Winchester, and Inigo Jones. They seemed 
 c familiar with each other, and well informed of 
 matters passing since they had lived among 
 6 men. Architecture, and particularly the build- 
 ' ing under whose magnificent shelter we were 
 < walking, became the subject of their discourse. 
 c Jones observed, that, in his time, its style had 
 ' been, in a manner, anathematized ; the title of 
 c Gothic was given to it, not on any supposition 
 ' that it had been derived from the Goths, but 
 4 merely as a term of reproach and supreme 
 ' contempt. Nevertheless, he himself admired 
 6 in it, not simply the magnificence of great 
 
 * dimensions, but often, as in the building before 
 
 * them, much grace of proportion, and, in some 
 ' points, a singular greatness of effect. Such 
 ' merits, seen in so many buildings in that style, 
 ' he thought could not be the result of chance, 
 ' bringing congenial ideas to the minds of various 
 1 builders, through a course oi ages ; there must 
 
 * have been tome general principles, through 
 

 igS PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 f which all, differing as variously as they dkl in 
 ' particulars, so consented, as to produce results 
 * all holding one general character, which dis- 
 ' tinguished all, and distinguished them advan- 
 c tageously, from all other buildings ; and he 
 ' wished the bishop, who had himself both de- 
 ' signed great works in that style, and directed 
 c the execution, to inform him what those prin- 
 ' ciples were.' 
 
 " A name,' the bishop answered, * is no other- 
 " wise important than as it indicates clearly, or 
 " otherwise, the thing intended ; and, if, in itself, 
 " it originally implied something even contempt!- 
 " ble, yet merit, in the object to which it is given, 
 " will soon raise it in estimation. So, among the 
 " Romans, the conduct of the Decii dignified the 
 " ridiculous name of Mus ; and so the merit of 
 " the style of architecture, of the time in which I 
 " lived, has, in this country, brought the term 
 " Gothic, as I understand, into high esteem. 
 " But, in this case, unfortunately, confusion 
 " seems an unavoidable result : for, among the 
 " best authors, that term implies, and must 
 " continue to imply, when matters of taste are in 
 " question, what is not estimable. Confusion of 
 " terms then will scarcely fail to generate confu- 
 " sion of ideas; and a kind of confusion tending 
 " powerfully to the injury of public taste, espe- 
 te cially in architecture. But, as the public use 
 
fK ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 ** of names is not easily to be controlled ; as 
 " fashion will have its way, 
 
 * Quern penes arbitrium est, et jus et norma loquendi/ 
 
 (< the best check upon the mischief to be appr-e- 
 " hended, I believe, would be a general knowledge 
 " and admission of, what you ask for, the princi- 
 " pies of the style. 
 
 " Now, I always reckoned that the general 
 c( principles of good architecture, of whatever 
 " style, and not of architecture only, but of all 
 " the sisterhood of Design, must be the same. 
 " Horace surely did not prescribe for poetrj 
 " alone, when he said, 
 
 * Scribendi recte Sapere est principium et fong/ 
 
 " Would the verse permit, you will, I am sure, 
 " allow, it might equally run, * ^Edificandi recte/' 
 " Taking then common sense as the necessary 
 " foundation, the first rule for the superstructure 
 " will be, also in Horace's words, 
 
 * Demque sit quidvis Simplex duntaxat et Unum :' 
 
 (( and this, duly inforced, will be the best check 
 " upon the mischief of the ideas commonly asso- 
 " ciating themselves with the term Gothic ; which 
 < appear to have an extraordinary disposition to 
 " favor what Horace sets out with reprobating, 
 " Humano capiti,' and so forth. 
 4 
 
200 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 " Ah,' said Jones, * I remember how that 
 " commination of Horace haunted my con- 
 " science, while I was employed on rny skreen 
 " against the quire, in your cathedral of Win- 
 " Chester. Often I viewed with admiration 
 " the lofty vault of the nave, your work. 
 " There I observed the combination of so many 
 " lines into one great whole, so managed that, 
 " seen altogether, it impressed the eye with 
 " a character even of simplicity in its com- 
 " plicated magnificence. Then I looked to the 
 " quire, where I saw architecture of the same 
 " general character, though in parts consider- 
 " ably differing; of merit too, though inferior. 
 ** On each side was the clumsy Norman. To 
 <f accommodate a new part to all these around 
 " was clearly impossible ; and if, chusing among 
 " them, I had been able to emulate, in my little 
 " work, the style of your great one, it would 
 " hardly, in those days, have been allowed me." 
 
 " I think so,' said the bishop smiling, 'and I 
 " am much flattered by your compliment to my 
 " work. Certainly the style of my day had 
 " advantages for just that kind of building, the 
 " interior of a cathedral. But did you never 
 " observe its disadvantages for almost every other 
 " kind, and especially for the exterior ?' ' In con- 
 " sidering the style of my earliest days,' Jones 
 ' answered, 'and in viewing the examples of- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 201 
 
 " great and splendid buildings within my reach, 
 " which, before I went to Italy, were all in the 
 " better style of your time, it was impossible the 
 " disadvantage you mention should escape me. 
 " It appears to me that the pointed arch belongs 
 " to the clustered pillar, whence it naturally 
 " springs ; and that hardly any management can 
 " bring it to harmonize in any other combination. 
 .*' Hence I reckon it was that the style, of great 
 " magnificence and elegance, of yours and follow- 
 " ing ages, was changed, under the Tudor reigns, 
 " for one of neither elegance nor magnificence, 
 " which continued to my time. The magnifi- 
 " cence and elegance of the former were found 
 " fit only for a cathedral : the homely parallelo- 
 " grams of the latter, on the contrary, were 
 " capable of being accommodated to use, in 
 " building for any purpose. This quality of 
 " Usefulness then becoming the favorite of the 
 *' day, Greatness was looked for only from 
 " extension and multiplication : (jrace seems 
 " to have been out of question." 
 
 " I think/ said Wickharn, i you may have seen 
 " indication, in my building at Winchester, that I 
 " felt forcibly the truth of your, observation, while 
 " I was employed upon that work. I thought I 
 " had profited from numerous examples, within 
 " my observation, to design my buttresses, and 
 " the pinnacles above them, passably well ; but) 
 
502 PRINCIPLES O* 
 
 '" when I saw them in their places, on the north- 
 " ern side of the cathedral, I was, I must own, 
 41 shocked with the effect : the sin against the 
 *' golden rule, which I so highly respect, * Sit 
 4< quidvis simplex et unum/ was too glaring. 
 " Even the Norman transept, protruding itself, 
 *' clumsy in its parts, wholly without elegance in 
 " its proportions, but comparatively magnificent by 
 " its unbroken loftiness, seemed to look with some 
 " scorn upon my frittered lines, though of neater 
 *' and more decorated masonry. Disgusted thus, 
 " I ventured, against all common practice of my 
 " age, on the southern side, to discard buttresses. 
 " I took care the walls should be stout enough 
 " to need no buttresses for use. Whether the 
 " fancy may arise, in these times, to add them 
 " for ornament, I cannot tell. But, from what 
 41 I learn, it seems likely that the dissonance of 
 " the two sides of my building, may rather be 
 " considered as a merit; for irregularity and 
 " incoherency seem to be reckoned even vir- 
 " tues in the style, now called Gothic. Mix- 
 " tures of the ecclesiastical architecture of 
 " all ages with the military of all ages, in 
 " forms, and in plans, and for purposes, such 
 " as never were seen or thought of by those 
 " who formerly built in any of those styles, 
 .*' are already in vogue. Even the Chinese 
 * 6 has favor as a variety. A passion for 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 20J 
 
 " the Egyptian ran high for a moment, but 
 " passed like a meteor. Now the Indian is 
 " gaining ground. The Roman and Greek 
 " alone are excluded from the medley: the intru- 
 sion of your skreen at Winchester is, I under- 
 " stand, especially anathematized. But I shall 
 " not wonder if the fancy for mixture should 
 " gather as it rolls, so that the Roman and 
 " Greek may soon be admitted ; and then 
 " your beautiful skreen in Winchester cathedral, 
 " so far from being thought incongruous, may 
 " come to be reckoned singularly well situated 
 " there. But indeed ill taste, and even such ill 
 " taste, is not limited to one age or country. Had 
 " there been nothing of it at Rome, even in the 
 " Augustan age, Horace would not have chosen 
 4< his- reprobation of it for the exordium and 
 <c foundation of his discourse on the art of poetry. 
 " Probably his discourse contributed to check the 
 " disposition to extravagance, and to produce or 
 4f fix that justness of public fancy for which his 
 " age is justly famous. But it might seem as if, 
 " now, a perverted edition of his works had 
 *' vogue; admonishing to avoid whatever he 
 c< directed to do, and to do whatever he directed 
 " to avoid : 
 
 * Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam 
 
 * Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas 
 
 * Undique collutis membris, ut turpiter atrum 
 
 * Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superue, 
 1 Omne feret puiictum.' 
 
204 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 " Your skreen in Winchester cathedral is the 
 " mulier formosa, in such kind of odly mixed 
 " company.' We had just then reached the 
 * door in the poet's corner, by which we passed 
 ' into Old Palace-yard, and the bishop pro- 
 ' ceeded : c The nave, if you have a mind to 
 " compliment my work, may be the horse's 
 4< neck.' 
 
 * lie had scarcely spoken these words when a 
 1 spectacle struck all our eyes, so astonishing that 
 
 * at once we all stood motionless. It was a monster, 
 ' forty fee: high, standing where formerly we knew 
 ' the building called the Court of requests ; robed 
 
 * in something like a winding-sheet, white but 
 1 soiled. The form was squat, the arms extended, 
 
 * with a club in the right hand, a switch in the left; 
 ' both proportioned to its own size. The coun- 
 ' tenance was horrible. Two vast dark eyes, 
 ' dull and of ghastly form, were drawn upward 
 ' to a peak, downward to a horizontal line. 
 6 Where should have been the nose was an 
 
 * indenture, nearly as in the human skull. 
 ' Two prominences, on the top of the head, 
 ' would have seemed ears, placed like a cat's or 
 ' lynx's ; but they were of no form or propor- 
 ' tion to show any use. The ( ugliness was in- 
 ' lianced, but the terrific was somewhat abated, 
 ' by the total failure of a mouth. Almost im- 
 4 mediately under the nose and eyes were two 
 
 * protuberances, in the manner of female breasts; 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 20.5 
 
 in themselves not of inelegant form, but so 
 wanting all appearance of relation to any other 
 part of the monstrous body and limbs, that, in 
 such association they were disgusting. The 
 figure was studded over, in formal lines, with 
 what looked in substance like the eyes, but far 
 smaller. They were in pairs, with something 
 like a narrow bridge of a nose between every 
 two. Whether the monster had feet I could 
 not tell; but a multitude of claws showed 
 themselves at the bottom of the robe, such as 
 might belong to a gigantic milliped or cater- 
 pillar. Neither could I discover the exact con- 
 nection of something like a fish's tail, ex- 
 
 * tended to some distance toward Abingdon 
 street, and then at length showing itself dis- 
 tinctly, bell-fashioned, with its hollow toward 
 
 1 us. I was exceedingly surprized to see some 
 
 * handsome carriages, with coronets painted on 
 
 * them, stop at this most uninviting hole, and some 
 
 * welldressed men, of all a;es, alighting; from 
 
 ' o ' O C? 
 
 * them, go into it. Some bystanders said they 
 
 * supposed the monster, having no mouth, might 
 ( take its food that way. But I was again sur- 
 
 * prized to see some equally welldressed men 
 
 * come out of the hole, and go away in similar 
 ' carriages, without any appearance of injury to 
 1 their persons, or even of slime or other daubing 
 
 * on their clothes. Many men, and some women, 
 and some children, were about, mostly re- 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 gardless of the monster, some viewing and 
 talking of it, but none showing any sign of 
 fear. 
 
 * The bishop and Joires and myself observed 
 it some time before it seemed to notice us 
 more than others. At length however, casting 
 a glance at Jones, it immediately became infu- 
 fiate, . and I thought would have demolished him 
 with a stroke of its vast club. But, the bishop 
 then catching its eye, its countenance instantly 
 changed ; it seemed as if it would solicit par- 
 don for having proposed violence to one of his 
 company ; and, though with now and then an 
 eye of malice toward Jones, it manifested to- 
 ward the bishop a fawning servility. Wickham 
 gave it a stern look of disdain. The monster 
 exhibited, in various ways, extreme eagerness 
 to court his favor ; but, meeting only demon- 
 stration of determined aversion, it began to 
 show an alarming vexation. Its claws assumed 
 threatening attitudes ; not indeed against Jones 
 himself, whom the bishop held arm in arm ; 
 but one of them 1 saw extended, in an extra- 
 ordinary manner, almost as far as the chapel 
 at Whitehall ; and it actually struck the 
 Treasury, where Hans Holbein and lord 
 Burlington were standing together. Holbein 
 showed calmer indignation; but lord Burling- 
 ton was in agony. 
 
 c I observed no disposition in the monster to 
 
Itf ARCHITECTURE. 207 
 
 notice me, or any of the standing or passing 
 crowd. But people said he would, at certain 
 times, put out innumerable small proboscides, 
 with which he would filch money out of every 
 body's pocket ; and against this no distance gave 
 security ; but as he took only in proportion to 
 every one's substance and in very small proper*- 
 tion, they would not mind it, if he was not so 
 ugly, and if he had not such a mischievous 
 disposition toward such as Jones and Lord 
 Burlington ; nay, some supposed he had malice 
 enough to knock down saint Paul's. He was 
 called, they said, the GENIUS of MODERN" 
 GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. I was agitated and 
 
208 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 Old Ejiglish Domestic Architecture. 
 
 ' THE land we live in/ that good old English 
 festal expression of attachment to our country, 
 carries a sentiment I believe as much felt in Eng- 
 land, I am sure as justly, as in any part of the 
 world. I say England, far from desiring to 
 exclude Scotland and Ireland, Jbut less under-! 
 taking to know Scotland and Ireland. Moreover 
 Scotland has a different system of law ; I suppose 
 not better, because many Scotsmen have desired 
 the English law in its stead ; and yet I conclude 
 not bad, because I know the country is highly 
 flourishing. For Ireland I am farther at a loss, 
 I remember my northern friend observing that 
 English and Welsh and Scots are united under 
 one good name, of good authority, for a descrip- 
 tion of all ; but when we want to include that 
 other portion of our fellow-countrymen of the 
 United kingdom, the Irish, ' What,' he asked, 
 6 should we say ? United kingciomites ? Quaint 
 ' enough to be sure ; but I never could learn 
 ' how to handle United kingdom.' Let this 
 then be my excuse if I have used, or may 
 the names England or English, as among 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 2ttg 
 
 foreigners has always been common, to imply the 
 United kingdom and all belonging to it. 
 
 " Every man's house is his castle" saith the 
 English common law; meaning that there shall be 
 equal general security, for person and property, in 
 the frailest cottage as in the strongest fortress. The 
 castle-gate must open, if the law requires ; and 
 only with similar warrant shall any dare to lift 
 the cottage-latch against the owner's will. We owe 
 surely not a little to our forefathers, who, alike 
 unbent by the ' vultus instantis tyranni,' and the 
 i civium ardor prava jubentium,' a king at 
 Whitehall, or a mob in common-hall, established 
 that order of things, by which this is so advan- 
 tageously distinguished among nations. 
 
 The style of sacred architecture, of the earliest 
 known authors of our mixed blood, remains 
 largely exhibited in massive relics, in various 
 parts of our island, and especially in the rude 
 magnificence of Stonehenge. What the domestic 
 was, is intimated in the interesting narrative of 
 their grand disturber, Julius Caesar. When they 
 iiad incircled a cluster of their habitations with 
 a fortification of felled trees, he says, they called 
 it a town. Such a town would have some analogy 
 with the blockhouse-fort of our American colonies, 
 and the more ordinary houses might perhaps 
 resemble the Indian wigwam ; differing from 
 the Irish cabin of this day,, principally because 
 P " 
 
aiO PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 the material differed ; wood not abounding now 
 in Ireland as then in England. This description 
 however seems to have been intended for the 
 interior, that strong country, west of Canterbury, 
 where the resistance was effectual to stop the 
 polished invader's march, and compel him to take 
 a course nearer the Thames : for the people of 
 the coast, communicating more with foreigners, 
 he says, were more civilized, and not unacquainted 
 with arts. Generous as he was, and humane, in 
 comparison of many other renowned Roman 
 conquerors, yet no doubt his invasion contributed 
 to make the Britons, as the poet, who fled before 
 him at Pharsalia, has described them, { hospitibus 
 feros.' What he avoided to report, the cotem- 
 porary geographer has declared, that many thou- 
 sands were dragged away in chains to the slave- 
 markets of Rome. Where the Britons knew not 
 the Romans, but were in habit of communication 
 with strangers who came to trade . and not to 
 conquer, they were, according to a historian of 
 the same age, remarked for courteousness and 
 hospitality. In those western parts the domestic 
 buildings may have gained early something of 
 Phenician character, and afterward of Carthagi- 
 nian and Massilian Greek, from the people who 
 successively held the principal trade there. 
 
 Yet, after all, whether the injuries of the 
 Romans were greater than our warlike and divided 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 21 1 
 
 Forefathers were disposed and accustomed to do 
 one another, and whether the balance, even 
 including what followed after Julius's time, was in 
 good or evil, we have too little means for calcu- 
 lation to make any positive decision reasonable. 
 What, for our purpose, occurs to observe is, that, 
 beyond question, in the architecture of the country, 
 , great improvement resulted. Proconsuls, and 
 sometimes emperors, residing here, huts and 
 cabins and wigwams would no longer serve. The 
 
 O o 
 
 whole country, from the southern channel to the 
 northern mountains, being under one government, 
 administered according to that now emphatically 
 styled the Civil Law, many individuals would hold 
 large property, in a security inviting liberal ex- 
 pence on liberal enjoyments. The style of archi- 
 tecture then would be that of the Roman empire; 
 varying in small matters, as varieties of climate 
 and circumstances, would admonish. The splen- 
 dor of the buildings, in this country, remains 
 to be gathered principally from the pavements 
 preserved by the ruins of superstructure thrown on 
 them. Of the superstructures themselves little of 
 any kind, and nothing of great value, has escaped 
 the successive devastations of following barbarian 
 invaders, Picts, Saxons, and Danes. 
 
 But whatever, among the hostilities of centuries, 
 may have been the destruction of buildings, 
 evidences enough, to my mind, appear, that neither 
 
 P 2 
 
212 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Saxons nor Danes (congenial people, and barba- 
 rians with regard to the arts) were sueh barbarians 
 as some of our historians have chosen to represent 
 them. The universally admired system of law 
 and polity, which we owe to them, might indeed 
 alone suffice to prove it. Among many other 
 things to this purpose deserving notice, which our 
 historians have either overlooked, or, as not to 
 their purpose, rejected, is what that invaluable 
 record known by the name of Doomsday Book, 
 recently given to the public by the care of Par- 
 liament, has laid open to us. Hume, quoting 
 that record, which he had opportunity to consult, 
 though not then published, has enjoyed the 
 .remark that, at the time of the Norman conquest, 
 the towns of England were small, and their popu- 
 lation contemptible. But he has omitted the 
 information, which the same record largely fur- 
 nishes, that the country was fully peopled. It is 
 indeed remarkable how few hamlets in England do 
 not, in their names, carry evidence of an antiquity 
 up to the Saxon times, and some even beyond ; and 
 it is not a little farther remarkable how large a 
 proportion of them is found stated in Doomsday, 
 as then occupied by the husbandman. 
 
 The habits and fancies and institutions of our 
 Saxon forefathers evidently did not lead them to 
 delight in towns. The country was divided into 
 small hamlet lordships, and the proprietors lived 
 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE, 213 
 
 on their estates. The disposition of the people, 
 and the policy of the government seem equally to 
 have bent this way. Nevertheless that govern- 
 ment, with great defects, founded on a wise and 
 mild system, encouraged and even honored trade. 
 Very remarkable proof of this is furnished by that 
 law of Athelstan, inacting, that a merchant, who 
 had made three long sea-voyages on his own 
 account, should have the rankofTheyn. Another 
 law you know, of the same prince, gives the same 
 honor to a yeoman, who could purchase five hides 
 of land, and, with such property, had a house with 
 a kitchen, a hall, a chapel, and a bell. 
 
 Here we have, not indeed a picture, yet an 
 interesting sketch, of the kind of house esteemed, 
 in those days, requisite for a country-gentleman. 
 For curiosity we might be glad to have a geome- 
 trical plan and upright, with the addition of the 
 bedrooms and other appendages, and a sample of 
 the furniture. But we should satisfy ourselves 
 that what we have is more than will be found, of 
 that age, in many other parts of Europe, or 
 perhaps in any. 
 
2 14 PRINCIPLES OF DESJG& 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. -Towns. 
 
 J HE matter, with which I concluded my last 
 letter, offers a point whence to begin tracing the 
 English country-gentleman's house. But towns, 
 and of course most the greatest towns, afford the 
 greatest opportunities for the architect; not only 
 as they must have public buildings, not only as 
 they are the great scenes of civil architecture, but 
 also as they are the great scenes of domestic 
 building, inasmuch as accumulation makes great- 
 ness. 
 
 But the accumulation of family dwellings, in 
 towns, is not generally favorable to design in 
 architecture. Here and there a house of superior 
 magnificence may adorn a city : but the mass 
 must be composed of inferior houses ; and the 
 accumulation of these, within a limited space, 
 necessary in such cities as London and Paris 
 and many far inferior to them, is very adverse to 
 effect in architecture. Such houses must be con- 
 nected in streets : convenience must be consulted 
 for each house separately ; and if architectonic 
 effect is sought, it must result, not from each, but 
 from many combined. In streets then, whether of 
 shophouses, or of dwellings for the mass of wealthier 
 inhabitants, the disadvantage is similar to that 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 215 
 
 which, in a former letter, I observed inherent in 
 the monastery. Cells for monks cannot be so ac- 
 cumulated, in one building, as either to have ad- 
 vantageous effect themselves, or to associate advan- 
 tageously with large public rooms, the chapel, the 
 library, the refectory, or even the kitchen. So the 
 streets of a town, if, like London, composed of 
 houses containing each a separate family, are very 
 disadvantageous ; if, like Paris, better somewhat 
 for the effect of architecture, though incomparably 
 worse for family comfort, containing, as in our 
 inns of court, several dwellings in several tiers, 
 ascended by one staircase, they are still very 
 unfavorable ; and I think those regularly-built 
 towns, in which a general effect of architecture 
 has been attempted, Manheim and Turin, or 
 the great Frederic's streets at 'Berlin, have never 
 been considered by you as models. On the con- 
 trary, where the accumulation is great, something 
 of a picturesk irregularity is preferable ; such 
 as may result from small buildings and simple, 
 rather anomalously disposed, by contrast giving 
 advantage to the larger and more regular and more 
 embellished. Where larger houses are to be 
 assembled, squares may be magnificent; and 
 breaks, made in a long street by the interven- 
 tion of squares, are considerably advantageous. 
 Let the vista through Brook- street as seen 
 from Swallow-street, be compared with Wim- 
 pole-street, and the advantage of the breaks 
 P 4 
 
3l6 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 made by Hanover and Grosvenor squares Mill be 
 striking. In the view across Cavendish square 
 and Hanover square, to the converging lines of 
 George-street, a very superior variety occurs; 
 principally however not from an advantage to be 
 obtained by any combination of ordinary family 
 dwellings, but from the intervention of a public 
 buildiag, saint George's church, with its portico 
 advanced before the inferior mass. 
 
 There is however a town in England, such as 
 is not to be seen elsewhere, which may deservq 
 some particular consideration. Bath has offered 
 singular opportune ties for display in architecture, 
 by the extraordinary encouragement for building 
 there, through the periodical confluence of wealthy 
 individuals from various parts, and by the un- 
 common facilities furnished by a freestone on 
 the spot, of good color and quality, wrought 
 with extraordinary ease, and by a lime setting 
 with uncommon firmness. Upon this extra- 
 ordinary town therefore, a kind of hotbed of 
 architecture, I will offer a few remarks. 
 
 Bath, for its hot waters, appears to have been 
 a favorite place of the Romans ;. and perhaps no 
 part of Britain had Roman buildings of greater 
 splendor than Bath and its neighbourhood. But 
 the splendor of Roman Bath was not of times of 
 the best Roman taste ; which indeed seems at no 
 time to have migrated in any splendor beyond the 
 southeastern provinces of France. That temple, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 217 
 
 of the Augustan age, nearly perfect, at Nismes 
 in Languedoc, called the Square house, is a 
 singular jewel. The ruin, supposed of Diana's 
 temple, at the same place, a rare example of the 
 interior architecture of its day, is of great value. 
 The much injured exterior of a larger temple at 
 Vienne in Dauphiny marks also its birth in good 
 times. Farther northward or westward I know 
 nothing of any value, now existing; though, so late 
 as Lewis the fourteenth's reign, a barbarian en- 
 gineer, employed by that patron of the arts, de- 
 stroyed a valuable relic at Rourdeaux, to use the 
 materials in the construction of a fort. Even in the 
 south of France buildings of the lower empire, 
 of the style on the continent called Gothic, 
 more abound. Triumphal arches, principally 
 by their solidity and their uselessness, have 
 been preserved. That at Orange has fame for a 
 style above the Gothic, or lowest Roman. One 
 at Cavaillon has great richness with much more 
 of the character of taste far gone in decay. At 
 Carpentras in the county of Avignon, a triumphal 
 arch with much sculpture, not of the best times, 
 but superior to that of Cavaillon, has been singu- 
 larly converted to use. Half-buried, its remain- 
 ing opening was found just what a French cook 
 might most desire for a magnificent kitchen- 
 chimney, and it has been adopted as such for the 
 palace of the bishop of the place. What may 
 faaye become of either the bishop or his kitchen- 
 
2l8 PRINCIPLES OP DESIGN 
 
 chimney, among the horrors of the French revo- 
 lution in that part, I have not heard. But the 
 Roman antiquities found at Bath are not gene- 
 rally superior to the well-known monuments of 
 saint Remy in Provence, 
 
 Our Anglosaxon forefathers cared little for the 
 hot waters of Bath, in which Roman luxury 
 delighted, and by which Roman diseases, insuing 
 from luxury, were relieved. Perhaps the wealth 
 of the city contributed then to its ruin : all the 
 Roman buildings, of any splendor, were over- 
 thrown ; and, beyond the range of the ruins, the 
 village of Bath- wick perhaps sufficed for the re- 
 maining inhabitants. 
 
 The monks, possibly from Italy, seem to have 
 been the sagacious men next to observe and to 
 covet the site of the hot springs : and so Bath 
 abbey rose. What the buildings of the founders 
 \vere I know not. But the great church, remain- 
 ing, shows their successors men not indowed with 
 the fine taste, displayed in the cathedral of Wells, 
 and, if not superior, yet more celebrated, in the 
 ruins of the monastery of Glastonbury, in the 
 same county. 
 
 But the modern splendor of Bath is of late birth. 
 The first splendid range of buildings, produced 
 by the new resort of company thither, was that 
 called the Parades, with their connecting streets* 
 They are in a sound style of Roman architecture. 
 Happy in the limitation of their extent, and 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 21 9 
 
 singularly so in the fortune of their open situa- 
 tion, they are, I suppose, among the most suc- 
 cessful attempts ever made, to give effect of archi- 
 tecture to an accumulation of very moderately 
 sized houses. With their terraces, guarded by 
 extensive balustrades, in their now, decaying state, 
 they remind me, though as public buildings com- 
 pared with private, of what I know only by 
 Uvedale Price's description of what himself de- 
 stroyed, and afterward repented of destroying, at 
 his own beautiful seat of Foxley in Hereford- 
 shire. The miserable iron barring, by which the 
 decaying balustrades are already in part super- 
 seded, indicates, in the very outset of observation 
 on the subject, large decay of architectonic taste 
 since their erection. We see there, at once, what 
 was its youthful vigor, and what is its decrepitude; 
 at which however thus we arrive prematurely, so 
 I will revert to the midway scenes. 
 
 After the Parades, the Square became the 
 boast of Bath. The parades, and their appen- 
 dages, are an arrangement of building suited 
 peculiarly to the spot, on which they stand. The 
 square is a form suited to large towns generally ; 
 but was first seen, in advantageous extent, in 
 London. Bath proposed, not to vie with London 
 in that merit, but to excel it by the superiority of 
 its material, and by the richer style of architec- 
 ture, for which that material gave facility. The 
 style of the square at Bath, as that of the parades, 
 
220 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 is Roman, but having more of the Palladian 
 character : on the northern side more splendid ; 
 on the western more varied ; on the eastern and 
 southern simpler. Objection is made, I think 
 not unreasonably, to the heavy pediment in the 
 northern center. The fault, for I allow it, in my 
 eye, such, was however the approved proportion 
 not of that only, but also of the preceding age ; 
 of which the pediment of saint Paul's cathedral 
 is an example. There may be moreover other 
 faults ; but the assemblage of buildings in the 
 square, altogether, is clearly eminent for virtues, 
 among the buildings of that splendid city, and 
 perhaps not less pleasing because no two of its 
 sides are alike. 
 
 It was the good fortune then, of the archi- 
 tect Wood, and of Bath, that he raised himself 
 into credit. Where he began, or where he ended 
 I know not : it suffices for me that, avoiding a 
 street, he built the Circus and the Crescent. He 
 was a man who, with a disposition to bold de- 
 sign, had the moderation and judgement to respect 
 authority and shun extravagance. His style was 
 the Roman. The idea of his circus has been 
 derived from the Roman amphitheater: it is the 
 Roman amphitheater ingeniously and judiciously 
 adapted to his purpose by inversion; the exterior 
 of the Roman, making the interior of the circle 
 at Bath. Objection is made, I think, some just 
 objection, to the piling of three orders of columns. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 221 
 
 Yet, be it observed, that arrangement assorts 
 perfectly with the stories, and with the triple row 
 of windows resulting. The effect is altogether 
 rich, and the several intablatures carry the eye- 
 advantageously the circuit. Not so, however, it 
 must be confessed, for the elevation : the inter- 
 ruption there, though with fair forms, is not ad van- 
 tageous, but rather offensive. Moreover the 
 columns, though giving richness, are of dimensions 
 too small for grandeur. Within a room, even 
 smaller might, in some combinations, be admitted ; 
 but, in exterior building, they bear too much of 
 Lilliputian character. , Similar objection I think 
 lies against the minute ingenuity of the sculpture, 
 in the frieze of the lower order. In close exami- 
 nation it may amuse ; but to any general good 
 effect it is far from contributing. Nevertheless 
 I think it must be allowed that the triple order 
 assorts better with the interior of a circle, as at 
 Bath, than with the exterior as at Rome; which 
 .may go far to excuse Wood, though not to 
 establish his work as a model. 
 
 His Crescent certainly deserves far higher 
 praise. Indeed opportunity so advantageous, for 
 so wide a display of town-building, has fallen to 
 the fortune of few architects; and where any- 
 thing approaching it has occurred, I know not 
 where it has been used so ably. The general 
 resource, for the variety necessary to satisfy the 
 eye in a long range of building, is to distinguish, 
 
222 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 sometimes a center only, sometimes a center and 
 two wings, by elevation, or projection, or deco- 
 ration, or all three. Wood, having opportunity, 
 from the depth of ground allowed him, has most 
 judiciously used it for producing a sufficient variety, 
 by complexity of ground-line, to inable him to give 
 perfect simplicity to the mass of his elevation. He 
 has failed, in my opinion, (but, for the beauty of 
 his building, when I view it, I endeavour to over- 
 look the small failing,) in the little paultry distinc- 
 tion of the center, which, possibly in compliance 
 with worse taste than his own, he has introduced. 
 Other failings also there are, and some enough 
 generally noticed. Some belong not so much to 
 the architect as to the Roman style, or rather that 
 best modern Italian, called the cinquecento, the 
 style of the school in which he was bred. Over- 
 simplicity is not a common fault of that school ; 
 yet nothing, I think, is so commonly objected to 
 as the extreme plainness of the lofty and conspicu- 
 ous basement, bearing so splendid a superstruc- 
 ture. I am not myself generally disposed to quar- 
 rel with simplicity ; and, if celebrated example 
 may justify the architect, I desire to observe that 
 the justly celebrated front of the Louvre at Paris, 
 is an example in point. I will however farther ob- 
 serve, that had the best examples of Grecian ar- 
 chitecture been known to Wood, as, by publica- 
 tions since his time, they are now open to all, he 
 might probably not only have given a little more 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 223 
 
 richness, with good eftbct, to his basement, but 
 might also have designed several other parts of 
 his building in better taste. 
 
 Nevertheless, with all its faults- in parts, I 
 must reckon the Crescent at Bath among the finest 
 modern buildings at this day existing in the world. 
 Bernini's colonnade, in front of saint Peter's 
 church at Rome, superior far in magnitude and 
 magnificence, is alone also perhaps superior in 
 the simplicity of its magnificence, and the grand 
 effect resulting, which cannot be produced by 
 complexity. But over that celebrated colonnade 
 the Bath crescent has one great advantage. 
 Bernini's colonnade has the defect of the Grecian 
 roofless temple ; it wants breadth and solidity of 
 shade. The Bath crescent, by its semi-elliptical 
 form, and its length of solid wall, broken only 
 by its projected columns, with intervals harmo- 
 niously varied in the perspective by that semi- 
 elliptical curvature, has been, with singular felicity, 
 fitted to receive the most beautiful effects of light 
 and shadow. Excellent therefore altogether, it 
 deserves, in my opinion, to be studied by archi- 
 tects, who may distinguish its virtues and its vices > 
 and notwithstanding its defects, to be admired by all. 
 
 Whether the new rooms were Wood's I know 
 not, but they are not unworthy of him. Modesty 
 without, leading to splendor within, marks, in 
 my opinion, just judgement in the design of an 
 edifice of that character* 
 
224 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 Bath has been very unhappy in her later build- 
 ings, where extraordinary opportunities have been 
 lamentably wasted. The town house, the build- 
 ing of most pretension, most also shows an archi- 
 tect's mind ; and, for that reason I should prefer 
 it for criticism, if I wanted farther example of 
 frippery and nonsense. 
 
 There is, however, another building, among 
 the very latest, which I must notice on another 
 score, the new entrance to the old public rooms: 
 If the general sentiment of the failure of good 
 ^effect in that building should produce an exten- 
 sive opinion that the style is not excellent, and 
 the design not elegant, that building will greatly 
 injure public taste. But if it stands simply a warn- 
 ing how the best style may be misapplied, it may 
 furnish a very valuable lesson to future design- 
 ers. Why does that chaste design fail of its just 
 effect ? v The cause, I apprehend, is of the same 
 character with that of the failure of the interior of 
 saint Peter's at Rome, but it is the antipodes to 
 that cause. A little edifice, in a style adapted to 
 great dimensions, the portico of the old rooms at 
 Bath, in a garden, would please. But surrounded, 
 and looked down upon, by a shabby neighbour- 
 hood of far loftier buildings, it is like a figure with 
 the limbs and gait of a hero, but the stature cf 
 dwarf, in group with full sized beggars. 
 
IK ARCHITECTURE. 22J 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. Country Houses. 
 
 * FOOLS/ it is faid, c build houses, for wise 
 
 * men to live in.' Is mankind then indebted to 
 folly for the comfort of houses ? Questioning thus, 
 I do not however mean to controvert the old 
 saying ; which, like many other sayings of ex- 
 cellent import, will, I think, certainly be admitted 
 by the wise, but under reasonable limitations. 
 Extravagance clearly marks folly, yet is often the 
 error of powerful minds : carefulness is surely a 
 branch- of wisdom, though frequently the virtue 
 of slender intellects. More correctly then perhaps, 
 though less pithily, it might be said, ' Extra- 
 vagant men build houses for careful men to 
 
 * live in.' 
 
 I think however you will agree that a fool 
 never built such a house as a wise man, having 
 means to chuse, could be satisfied to live in ? On 
 the other hand, how often have you known the 
 man, too careful to undertake a new house, lay out 
 more on his old one, in alterations and additions, 
 than would have built a better from the ground ? 
 Every man's dwelling, I think it will generally be 
 allowed, however to be acquired, should be pro- 
 portioned to his fortune ; and, where means are 
 ample, not to build a reasonably good house 
 
 Q 
 
226 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 may be as little the decision of wisdom, as not to 
 have a reasonably good dinner. 
 
 There is however, I must own, this material 
 difference, that dinner, being a daily affair, the 
 miscalculation of one day, whether of excess or 
 deficiency, may be readily repaired ; but building 
 a house is a business that, well done may benefit, 
 ill done may even ruin, not the individual builder 
 only, but generations after him. Admitting then 
 the proverb, l Fools build houses for wiser men 
 * to live in/ may we not add, ' Wise men build 
 4 houses for themselves, and those whom they 
 'may most value of following generations?' 
 Certainly, however, I think it must be admitted, 
 that houses should be built as they may be 
 wanted, and that fools will not be the best ma- 
 nagers of the business. 
 
 The lowest order of dwelling, whether cabin, 
 wigwam, hut, or by whatever name distinguished, 
 is that which has but one room for all the pur- 
 poses of the family. The first step in improve- 
 ment, I suppose generally, has been to add a 
 kitchen, for the ordinary general business of the 
 family, apart from the sleeping-rooms. The 
 decency of providing for separation of males from 
 females, and married from unmarried in rest, hai, 
 I think, hardly preceded this; but, in whatever 
 order the progress went, it was a great step. 
 The hall followed, for assembling in leisure, and 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 227 
 
 taking meals with an elegant cleanliness, apart 
 from all places where victuals are prepared and 
 menial offices performed. 
 
 Thus far the domestic architecture of families 
 in easy circumstances, we observe, went in 
 Edgar's time. What differences may have been 
 in the manner of the rooms, and their furniture, 
 we cannot very exactly know ; but the description, 
 as far as it goes, would serve for the small 
 country gentleman's house, till the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century; and, in parts distant 
 from the capital, to the beginning of the eighteenth. 
 Hence, in the north of England, the phrase l a 
 ' hall-house' remains, among the common people, 
 descriptive of a gentleman's house. 
 
 But private architecture must always be se- 
 condary to public ; and we know very little of 
 what, in the Anglo-saxon times, public architecture 
 was, except for churches. Christianity early 
 gained a footing in the kingdom of Kent ; but; 
 having hardly obtained complete establishment 
 over England, when it was disturbed by the 
 Danish invasions, revenue had not been acquired^ 
 sufficient to raise many considerable buildings for 
 Christian worship. The interest of the church 
 however had obtained, by degrees, more and 
 more favor from the civil government to its de- 
 mand of a tenth of all the produce of the land. 
 One third only of this revenue was proposed 
 Q2 
 
228 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 for the maintcnence of the clergy; another 
 third was to relieve the poor, and the remaining 
 portion was to be expended in building and main- 
 taining the place of meeting for public worship. 
 
 It appears to me nevertheless probable that, 
 even to the end of the Saxon dynasty, parish 
 churches were few, except in towns. The people 
 of the hamlets assembled for divine service in the 
 lord's chapel ; where either a monk from a neigh- 
 bouring monastery or a secular priest without 
 presentation or induction performed the duty. For 
 it was long before the ecclesiastics obtained/ 
 the authority of law for the sole disposal of any 
 part of this tithe. The lords of manors retained 
 the right of directing to what ecclesiastic the 
 management of that collected from their tenants- 
 should be committed. 
 
 But with population spread over the country, 
 another species of architecture grew, specially 
 noticed in that invaluable record, Domesday Book. 
 Watermiils, new in the latter times of the Roman 
 empire, were remarkably numerous. This, taker* 
 together with the even extension of population 
 over the country, seems to constitute proof of 
 security for person and property, which historians 
 appear to have overlooked ; while they have col- 
 lected, and thrown into strong light, scattered facts 
 of a tendency to show thier insecurity. In times 
 of danger people Hock to towns. But the very 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 smallness of the population of towns, in the Saxon 
 times, while the country was well peopled, is still 
 a corroborating circumstance, in proof that, with 
 all the occasional weakness, and permanent defects, 
 of the political system, whence violences would 
 occasionally occur, the civil institutions of Alfred 
 had power generally to maintain that order, which 
 these facts, ascertained by Domesday, so strongly 
 indicate. 
 
 Policy made the first William a great patron 
 of the clergy. Pie acquired great means, and, 
 in his reign, and the two following, numerous 
 churches were built and endowed. Stephen's 
 reign was the great era of castle-building, 
 Henry the second checked the growing fancy 
 for fortified residencies, and superseded the need 
 of them, by restoring and improving the Saxon 
 administration of law, never formally abolished, 
 but only overborne by irregular acts of power, 
 or disregarded among the violences of civil wars. 
 
 Henry's was certainly a splendid era for the 
 improvement of administration. The rise of those 
 luminaries of the law, under him, whose authority, 
 to this day, has never ceased to be quoted with 
 the highest respect, would alone prove uncommon 
 improvement. In the various and long contests 
 for the crown, property had changed hands 
 greatly, since the first William's reign, and become 
 more divided. The establishment of the assizes 
 
230 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" . 
 
 then, and appointment of the itinerant judges, 
 from "the courts of Westminster, to insure the 
 administration of equal law all over the kingdom, 
 formed a most important improvement for the 
 security of person and property. Many of the 
 great accumulators of forfeited estates granted 
 lands to be held, by liberal tenures, under them : 
 many } to pa^ for the preservation of the rest, and 
 some with other views, sold portions of their pro- 
 perty. 
 
 Thus things began to settle in something ap- 
 proaching that, whence the order under which 
 \ve live has emanated. Then already, as now, 
 the principal landed men of the country were 
 in turn sheriff, and all met twice yearly, to 
 form the grand jury at the assizes. The inferior 
 landholders formed the petty juries. The sheriff s 
 court and the various courts-leet supplied the 
 place of the present quarterly and petty sessions 
 of justices. The provincial administration thus 
 being in the hands of the landed men of the 
 province, country-houses abounded and villages 
 flourished. 
 
 Here, ia my opinion, is the basis of the whole 
 constitution. If ever it should be, from whatever 
 circumstances, that those numerous, or rather 
 numberless, offices npw executed, as an unpaid 
 duty, by the various ranks of the country, from the 
 Jiigh sheriff to the petty constable and church- 
 
IX. ARCHITECTURE. 23! 
 
 warden, should be superseded by crown-appoint- 
 ments with salaries, all the rest of the constitution 
 ivill quickly moulder away : men of wealth must 
 herd in towns : country-seats will no more be 
 found in England than elsewhere. 
 
 By the bounty of Providence to this country, 
 the long list of her kings, from Egbert down- 
 ward, presents a larger proportion of men of 
 ^superior talent and virtue united, than perhaps 
 any other can show. But, beneficial as this prero- 
 gative has been, a more extraordinary felicity of 
 England is this, that she has, with vigor so tem- 
 pered by prudence, profited from the errors of her 
 worst kings, that it may be questioned for which 
 she has the greater obligations to ' the almighty 
 disposer of events. The reign of John, disasterous 
 during his life for his people, as well as for 
 himself, produced benefits for following ages ines- 
 timable ; which, without his errors and vices how 
 they could have come, human ingenuity will not 
 easily show : for the admirers of democracy will 
 look in vain to history, for proof that popular 
 government has anywhere been wise, or virtuous, 
 or beneficial. Among the contests, in our country, 
 for succession to the throne, property no doubt, 
 was violently agitated, and the law, at times 
 wholly overborne. But the result was that pro- 
 perty became more beneficially divided, the law 
 Q4 
 
232 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 was greatly improved, and so property itself far 
 better secured. Edward the first, in an admini- 
 stration vigorous and prudent, profiting from the 
 advantages, prepared by Henry the second, to 
 repair the evils of the intervening reigns, fixed the 
 foundation on which the houses of the country- 
 gentlemen of England have stood, now above five 
 hundred years, and may stand, as far as human 
 foresight can calculate, without limitation of time; 
 unless violence, whether of monarchy or democracy, 
 should gain an ascendant which our forefathers 
 have always successfully resisted. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 233 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. Country Houses. 
 
 JVj ucn as the government of the country was 
 improved, and increase of security given to do- 
 mestic life, by the wise and magnanimous admini- 
 stration of the first Edward, yet no more could 
 be done than to prepare the constitution and the 
 law to stand future storms, which were riot to be 
 prevented. The next reign was very stormy. 
 A season of uncommon brilliancy followed, and 
 then an uncommon continuance of uncommon 
 storms, in the celebrated wars of the Roses, the 
 contests of the houses of York and Lancaster. 
 Domestic security could not but in some parts 
 suffer ; everywhere it was more or less precarious. 
 Families were not universally driven, as under 
 democratical governments they commonly have 
 been, to live in towns ; but it became habitual 
 to give to every country-house something of the 
 castle character. If the building was of wood, a 
 situation was chosen, where a mote might afford 
 the security of walls : provision, in every way, 
 to make the interior safe, was of more considera- 
 tion than to make either interior or exterior plea- 
 fant 
 
234 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 Some houses of wood, of large size, and of 
 highly studied ornament, have remained to our time. 
 All, of whatever material, show that the general 
 plan of building w r as the same as that of castles, 
 more properly so called, or fortified family resi- 
 dences, built of stone. The plan little differed from 
 that of monasteries, and colleges in our univer- 
 sities. The principal entrance led immediately 
 to a hall, always large in proportion to the whole 
 building. At one end of the hall was the but- 
 lery, and not far from it, the kitchen ; which was 
 also large. The houses of men of superior rank 
 Lad commonly a chapel, which was commonly 
 the most splendid room of the house. The other 
 rooms were generally very small. 
 
 The revival of arts in Italy, extending to Eng- 
 land, produced a great change in the plan and 
 design of houses, which however remained imper- 
 fect ; much, I think, in consequence of the check 
 to the communication between the two countries, 
 occasioned by the reformation of religion here. 
 Great change nevertheless followed, and the more 
 readily perhaps, because nobody chose any longer 
 to have a house resembling the monasteries, 
 which were held antichristian. Nowhere in. 
 Europe, during the time, unless perhaps in the 
 Venetian territory, and never anywhere in so bad 
 a taste, were built so many magnificent country- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 235 
 
 houses, as here under Elizabeth and James the 
 first ; in plan not materially differing from exam- 
 ples at Rome and Florence, though in a style 
 wholly their own. 
 
 Effect of interior architecture appears to have 
 been little studied in houses, even at Florence 
 and Rome. Painting, then in its zenith, being the 
 favorite art, the architect seems to have been con- 
 fined to indulgence for exterior effect, that the 
 painter might have the more scope within. But 
 the same person, in those days, often was emi- 
 nent in both arts, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael 
 Angelo, Raphael, and Giulio Romano, were archi- 
 tects as well as painters. 
 
 The circumstances of Italy through all its nu- 
 merous states, with bad governments, and mostly 
 narrow territories, some very narrow, never 
 offered anywhere that domestic security which 
 has now long been injoyed in England. The 
 Venetian government gave the best, and thus 
 offered the opportunities which Palladio so ably 
 used. Thence Inigo Jones profiting, first intro- 
 duced good taste and convenience in the plan and 
 design of houses in England, suited to an age of 
 domestic security : though in some of the castles 
 of the Plantagenet era, fine taste is conspicuous 
 in plans most ingeniously adapted to the circum- 
 stances of the times ; and to the manners of the 
 
230 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGW ' 
 
 times ; which were necessarily affected by the un- 
 toward circumstances. 
 
 Jones's plans, originating from Italy, were 
 far from perfectly accommodated to either the 
 climate or, to that we call, the comforts of Eng- 
 land. Asa first essay,'however, in a great change, 
 they may be esteemed highly successful. The 
 next manner of plan which got vogue, was 
 brought from more congenial climates, France 
 and Holland. The hall of entrance, and the 
 principal staircase, were to be great, though all 
 else in the house, and even the house altogether 
 was small : and even when the house was great, 
 all the other rooms comparatively were small ; 
 the magnificence aimed at being to show a num- 
 ber in vista. Jones had followed the Italian 
 style in disposing his windows. His piers were 
 large and the light often scanty. In Italy light is 
 dispensed with, the better to obviate violence of 
 heat. Shade, in summer, even to darkness, 
 is preferred to light, accompanied with the sun's 
 burning rays. In France they ran into the con- 
 trary extreme. A French writer, who preferred 
 Latin to his own language for poetry, has described 
 the houses of Lewis the fourteenth's time thus : 
 
 Quas hodie rare ponunt, et in urbibus, secies 
 Perfundant hac luce, cavas hoc ore fenestras, 
 Hoc nurnero faciunt, altis ut tecta columnis, 
 Kon minis, suflulta putes ; hominemque penatef 
 
IJT ARCHITECTURE, 237 
 
 Nunc intra vitreos jures nee frigora brumse, 
 Nee curare notos et vim penetrabilis sestus. 
 Transmittuntur enim larga cum luce calores 
 ^Estivi; neque, si raucis Aquilonibus atrox 
 M'ugit hyems, duram gelidi vim frigoris arcent 
 Multa fenestratos quae munimenta penates 
 
 Linea defendunt. 
 
 Jac. Vanier. Praed. Rust. 1. i. 
 
 In the same age, with us, Vanbrugh had his 
 peculiar style of exterior. But the French style 
 was more common: not carried quita to the 
 excess, which the French Latin poet describes, 
 in light and glass, but aiming at exterior effect 
 almost only in minute ornaments ; sometimes 
 about the windows, but always about the door of 
 principal entrance ; which was dressed in a man- 
 ner fitter for a cabinet within, than for a portal 
 without, in a climate of rain and snow. 
 
 Lord Burlington had the merit of reforming 
 this fancy, and bringing the public taste back 
 nearly to that which Inigo Jones had introduced. 
 Through his influence and patronage George the 
 first and second's reigns may be considered as the 
 era of the greatest perfection of the Roman archi- 
 tecture in England, and the most general preva- 
 lence of the best taste in it. Saint Martin's 
 church, Wanstcad house, and Houghton house 
 may suffice to mention for examples. I wish I 
 could add Burlington house, without the regret 
 which cannot but arise at the report prevalent 
 that it is the noble owner's purpose to pull it 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 down. The court is an example of xteriof 
 domestic architecture, the most splendid and 
 beautiful, perhaps to be anywhere seen. 
 
 But in the moderately sized house, in the pri- 
 vate gentleman's seat, domestic architecture was 
 less nearly perfected than in mansions approach- 
 ing palatial magnificence. The general feeling of 
 this enough appears in the numerous instances 
 of interior alteration since ; the provision of at 
 new entrance to many; the removal of the great 
 staircase in many; the conversion of the great 
 hall in many to the purpose of an eating- 
 roorn, its original office; and the deoiolition of 
 party-walls to combine useless little rooms, the 
 formerly fashionable vista, in one sufficient draw* 
 ing-room. 
 
 The custom of Italy to have the farm-offices, 
 and espeqially those for the vintage, in the same 
 range of building with the mansion, and to raise 
 the principal floor, for a degree of castellan 
 security, high above the ground, on lofty vaults, 
 gave Palladio great opportunity for display of 
 exterior. 
 
 Jones appears to have reckoned justly, that as 
 English convenience neither required, nor would 
 readily admit, this arrangement, Palladio's display 
 of exterior should not be emulated here. But 
 the architects who followed him were dazzled, or 
 dazzled their employers. ' To tack the wings to* 
 
Itf ARCHITECTURE. 23$ 
 
 * the center with a colonnade,' became a phrase 
 to express the purpose of plan of the most elegant 
 effect. And the effect,' provided the combination 
 be harmonious, will be elegant ; but the arrange- 
 ment is very adverse to general convenience, and 
 especially upon the modera v e scale of most 
 general use. Where great splendor is the object,, 
 convenience must yield to it. Magnificence must 
 be paid for, in convenience as well as in money. 
 But it has been the reasonable object of our 
 times, even among the great, to extend con- 
 venience, even with the abridgement of splendor ; 
 and, of late, the spreading wings have had less 
 favor. 
 
 Elegance however is always desirable, and to 
 maintain in all things appearances, altogether not 
 below personal rank, deserves attention. Re- 
 sources therefore have been sought for dispensing 
 with spreading wings, or at least with a regular 
 equality in them. The first adopted was to place 
 all the offices on one side of the house, and plant 
 them out, as it is called. This answered perfectly 
 for convenience of disposition, and it gave op- 
 portunity or pretence for building less expensively. 
 Appearing then to have some plausibility in 
 theory, and being easy to attempt, it has been 
 attempted very extensively ; but it never did and 
 never can succeed. To answer the end the 
 plants must be placed, generally very near the 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 offices, and always close to the body of the house. 
 Low plants are insufficient; tall ones offend with 
 damp and darkness. Earnestness to complete 
 the business rapidly, nevertheless induces to plant 
 tall and close. Tall plants are generally un- 
 thrifty, and, set close, they cannot thrive. Advised 
 of this, the planter puts young plants under them. 
 With the first year's striking, they all go to war, 
 root and branch ; and the result is a ragged skreen, 
 greenish rather than green, and uglier than the 
 buildings it is desired to hide, and which yet, . 
 after all, are not hidden. Evergreens being 
 mostly of slow 'growth, and less bearing removal 
 when advanced in height, fill only the under 
 space ; so in winter the skreen is of thin brown- 
 grey gauze, and all the unsightliness behind 
 appears. This is the most common case. But 
 if the builder's experience in planting urges him 
 to a better course, and evergreens, with room for 
 root and branch to thrive, are depended upon, 
 long patience is necessary to the perfection of the 
 business; and still even so the business cannot be 
 perfected. It is not in the nature of plants to 
 rest in perfection. If not decay, yet growth be- 
 beyond what is convenient, presently begins. 
 Trimming, so as not to injure grossly the natural 
 form of the plant, and belie its character, is an 
 operation of much trouble, and requiring judge- 
 ment far beyond the common gardener's. Plant-* 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. $4\ 
 
 ing-out cannot possibly be either quickly brought 
 to perfection, or long hold it. 
 
 Some of the first architects of the present day> 
 aware of the always disappointing and generally of- 
 fensive result of planting-out, as well as the incon- 
 vcniencies of offices in wings, have reverted to an 
 old plan, building around a quadrangular court : 
 the body of the house forming the principal front, 
 and extending into either or both sides of the qua- 
 drangle, as may be desirable; the offices, with or 
 without stables, occupying the rest. But, if pros- 
 pect is desired, and aspect, with regard to the sun, 
 is considered, how far this plan may answer de- 
 pends upon situation. The general difficulty with it 
 is to manage the entrance, so that the very com- 
 mon, but very great annoyance, of presenting, to all 
 persons approaching the house, a look into all 
 the principal rooms, may be obviated. If a 
 central entrance be insisted on, this can hardly 
 be. To sidle into the house is le.ss satisfactory, 
 and yet often offers such advantages that I 
 would not absolutely condemn it. If then, for 
 the inconvenience of the central entrance, and 
 the appearance of the sideling entrance, whether 
 for effect more unharmonizing or more undig- 
 nified, this plan be rejected, I know of no re- 
 source but, throwing the offices all on one side, 
 to detach them by a break, the most that con- 
 veniently may be; making them in themselves, 
 R 
 
242 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 a handsome appendage of the house ; and assist- 
 ing the break in the building by breaking with 
 trees : not presenting the appearance of a pre- 
 tence to, what cannot be well done, planting-out; 
 but showing the main building completely and 
 prominently, the appendages, partially and in 
 back-ground. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. Country Houses. 
 
 I HAVE observed, in a former letter, that the 
 French taste, prevailing with us in Queen Ann's 
 time, made the entrance-door the greatest beau 
 about the house. A carriage could not approach 
 him. He was mounted on a number of exterior 
 steps, and the ladies, with their high head-dresses, 
 were liable to a sopping, in rain, before they 
 could reach from their coaches the shelter of the 
 great hall. Indeed the ladies of those days per- 
 haps the less regarded this, as many houses then 
 presented them a court to cross, before they 
 could approach the entrance-steps. Moreover, 
 the sidesaddle and the pillion were far more 
 common vehicles, for ladies in the country, than 
 the coach or chariot ; the tire- woman attending 
 with the dress, to be put on after arrival. 
 
IN" ARCHITECTURE. 243 
 
 However, the inconvenience led to consideration 
 of remedy ; and the first adopted, in some 
 splendid new houses, was to have a way to creep 
 under the portico, and rise thence by an inferior 
 staircase. Evidently so the portico did not pro- 
 perly do its office ; which should be to introduce 
 to the principal apartments with the greatest 
 convenience, and with suitable dignity. 
 
 For this proper office the portico has lately, in 
 some houses of superior size, with great advan- 
 tage, been adapted : the carnage driving under it, 
 and the company passing beneath its shelter into 
 the hall, where, if the principal floor is of a higher 
 level, steps are managed with advantageous ef- 
 fect, to rise to it. But this can suit only houses 
 of superior size. A portico of just proportion, 
 with intercolumniation to admit a carriage, will 
 be overbearing for a moderate private gentleman's 
 house. Hardly can a tetrastyle portico serve ; 
 and hardly less dimensions than those of the 
 portico of Carlton- house. Nor can a substitute 
 suited to the smaller mansion, I think, be easily 
 contrived. A projecting building, sufficient to 
 receive a carriage, though well-proportioned and 
 elegant in itself, yet by its prominence and 
 unharmonizing qualities, instead of adorning the 
 front of the house, will deform it. 
 
 But a building, insufficient to receive, may 
 meet the carriage, so that the company may pass 
 
 R '2 
 
244 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 instantly to the shelter of a vestibule, where steps, . 
 if necessary, may advantageously cqnduct to the 
 principal floor. To such a projecting vestibule 
 the ingenious architect will have no difficulty in 
 giving good effect, -exterior as well as interior; 
 and such I think is the best, and altogether a 
 good resource, for the moderate private gentle- 
 man's house. 
 
 Inigo Jones, to judge from what he executed 
 at Coleshill in Berkshire, reckoned a principal 
 staircase no unfit associate for a great hall. 
 At the Grange in Hampshire he connected 
 them less intimately. The effect at both places 
 has been generally admired. The former plan 
 is perhaps fittest for a moderate house, the 
 latter for one of great magnificence ; and at 
 Blenheim and at Castle-Howard the result is 
 the happiest, I think, that Vanbrugh ever pro- 
 duced in interior architecture. Certainly a stair- 
 case, with space not too confined, affords an 
 architect some of his best opportunities. Lat- 
 terly it has been fashionable to economize space 
 in both staircase and Jiall, as mere passages, 
 for the sake of giving more to the living apart- 
 ments : a small vestibule has often superseded 
 the large old hall, and, even in considerable 
 houses, the staircase is of little dignity. Pro- 
 Vided extremes be avoided, and the house be 
 so planned that such an arrangement is the most 
 
IX ARCHITECTURE. 245 
 
 convenient for communications, perhaps I might 
 not blame this. A house may be handsome, as 
 , well as commodious, without great space in a 
 mere passage-room, and without particular effect 
 in the principal staircase. But, if the plan of 
 the house makes a large entrance-hall convenient 
 for communication, which, in houses of consider- 
 able size, generally it may, the space will, I 
 think, be most advantageously economized by 
 Inigo Jones's resource, placing a handsome stair- 
 case in it. 
 
 I like a gradation in the decoration of houses. 
 The exterior, even of a palace, I should prefer 
 comparatively plain : of a private dwelling, 
 very plain. I do not thus exclude forms of 
 effect, as columns and arches; but only over 
 decoration of those and of all other forms. A 
 Corinthian capital is hardly fit for the open air in 
 this climate. In anything below a cathedral or 
 a palace, I reckon it, in the exterior, incon- 
 gruous. But I know not why a private gentle- 
 man's house should be denied columns for use ; 
 why a portico of stone should not supersede what 
 is called a viranda, of wood; nor why, though he 
 would avoid the caprices of the Caliban Anglo- 
 gothic, he should be limited, in his colonnade, 
 strictly to examples from the Grecian temple 
 What sort of a portico the house of that eminent 
 country-gentleman of ancient Attica, Miitiades 
 3 
 
246 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 son of Cypseltis, had, where he was sitting, when 
 he saw armed strangers passing, whom he invited 
 to hospitality, in return for which they invited 
 him to be prince of their country, I should he 
 glad if you cpuld tell me. The phrase, by winch 
 it is described, indicates no mote than building 
 projected before the principal door of the house. 
 It might, or might not, have columns. Hardly, 
 however, I think, would it emulate, in richness of 
 decoration, the temples of the gods, even of that 
 age; and still less of following dines, whence the 
 most perfect examples of the Doric order have 
 been preserved to us. Yet columns surely 
 inight be reasonably desired, both for pleasant 
 and convenient shelter, and for a dignity becom- 
 ing the mansion of an eminent individual: and if 
 the inta , lature, especially, were simpler than 
 that of the Doric of the temples, must the coin- 
 position therefore altogether be without grace ? 
 
 Another question has occurred to my mind, in 
 considering the different purposes and needs of 
 sacred and domestic architecture. Guided by the 
 reason of the thing, the Greeks, in the peristyles 
 of their temples, allowed small proportional in- 
 terval between column and column; for the pe- 
 ristyle was as a main wall, a principal support of 
 an extensive roof. But where support was not 
 wanted for so weighty a superstructure, they al- 
 lowed wider intercolumniation ; as seems indi- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 247 
 
 cated in the relic of a colonnade at Delos, repre- 
 sented in Stuart's third volume of the Antiquities 
 of Athens. Thus a portico, having a pediment, 
 will require a closer arrangement of columns than 
 one showing only a low horizontal parapet above 
 the cornice. 
 
 To return then to the consideration of gradation 
 in ornament, I will advert to a magnificent example 
 of a private dwelling, in which there is so much 
 to admire, that it may well bear notice of defects. 
 When, many years ago, recently returned from 
 the continent, I saw Keddleston-house in Derby- 
 shire, I thought the entrance-hall there the most 
 magnificent room I had ever seen anywhere, and 
 among the most unexceptionable in its richness. 
 I entered it from the portico ; which is itself un- 
 commonly magnificent for a private mansion, 
 even of a great nobleman; and yet, on first view- 
 ing the hall, with its Corinthian colonnade of 
 alabaster, its splendor was dazzling. But disap- 
 pointment ensued. Though the apartments were, 
 more than commonly large and numerous, and 
 very well fitted, yet all appeared comparatively 
 poor. I have been told that the noble owner, 
 nevertheless, not satisfied with the richness of his 
 magnificent hall, employed an ingenious artist to 
 adorn the doors with minute painting, such as 
 might be admired in a cabinet. The hall, I am 
 confident, would not be so x improved ; and how 
 R 4 
 
248 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 the other rooms could be worked up to it I 
 never heard, and am indeed wholly at a loss to 
 imagine. 
 
 In my opinion, to give the best effect to a house 
 altogether, simplicity, rather massive, with an air 
 of more or less- grandeur, proportioned to the for- 
 tune and rank of the family, should charac- 
 terize the outside, and especially the entrance- 
 front. A great degree of the same character 
 should hold through the entrance-hall; but some- 
 what softened, and with some addition, yet small, 
 of decoration. In the eatingroom the gradation 
 should proceed: some massiveness should re- 
 main, and considerable simplicity; but not with- 
 out an increase of ornament. Simplicity, in con- 
 siderable amount, is everywhere desirable; but 
 in the drawingroom first, more particularly the 
 lady's apartment, a character of delicacy should be 
 prominent, and, in proportion to the circumstances 
 of the family, richre^s. If the minute decoration 
 of the doors of the great' hall at Keddleston could 
 be anywhere desirable, it would be, I think, in the 
 lady's dressingroom to the state -bedchamber, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 249 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 Furniture. 
 
 A HOUSE unfurnished may be reckoned hardly 
 more than half built; furniture bekjg necessary to 
 its use, as well as to the decoration connected with 
 use. It follows that the architect should design 
 his rooms with a view to furniture : the architec- 
 ture and the furniture should harmonize; and for 
 that end, if the architect does not actually design 
 the furniture, he and the upholsterer, like Rubens 
 and Snyders in painting, should work together. I 
 have been told that in Paris, under the last Bour- 
 bons, this came into fashion; but I never could 
 learn exactly where it was done ; and in looking, as 
 far as I had opportunity, among the houses there 
 most celebrated for magnificence and new ele- 
 gance, I could no where discover any satisfactory 
 example of it. 
 
 But, with us, furnishing is generally reckoned 
 the lady's business; or, indeed, claimed as her 
 right and exclusive privilege. So far this is well, 
 as women are, in taste for such matters, and per- 
 haps judgement, not generally inferior to men ; and 
 in liveliness of delight in them, and in disposition to 
 diligence about them, certainly they far excel: 
 which is also obviously consonant to a just moral 
 
2O PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 order; the domestic being woman's proper de- 
 partment 
 
 But, in some points, this is not so well. There 
 Is, you know, of great power in the world, a cer- 
 tain fascinating spirit, called Fashion; which con- 
 trolls the fancy, and compels it to a predilection, 
 and, at its pleasure, to a change of predilection, 
 for forms and colors, and practices, quite inde- 
 pendently of reason, and not seldom in the most 
 direct opposition to common -sense. Fashion 
 nevertheless is a brainless spirit, if the expression 
 may be allowed of spirit; and without sense of 
 good or evil. It will ally itself with Taste, good 
 equally or bad, and with Moral Order, good or bad. 
 Among the Greeks of old, connecting itself with 
 good taste, (I wish I could add good morals) in 
 its progress toward perfection, and maintaining the 
 alliance, when perfection was attained, Fashion was 
 of inestimable value. In some instances Fashion 
 Las been found capable of fixing a good moral or- 
 der; and then of course it has been of worth 
 still far more transcendent. But tli i brainless 
 spirit, perhaps oftener has made bad taste hn- 
 nioveable; of which the Chinese afford a great 
 example; and that it has too frequently given 
 1 trge sanction to a most corrupt moral order, need- 
 less, you well know, it was, when Europe could be 
 travelled over, to go beyond Europe to sec. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 25! 
 
 But, among the Greeks, in architecture, in li- 
 terature, even in dress, things were so settled, that 
 one general character of Grecian taste has been the 
 allowed criterion of perfection, for now toward 
 three thousand years. How was it that the spirit 
 of Fashion, among them, held such persevering 
 connection with the spirits of Common-sense and 
 of Steadiness ? Could it be because women were 
 so excluded from general society as to have little 
 influence in directing Fashion, or in supporting 
 her in wayward fancies? Surely the spirit of 
 Steadiness is not alien from the English character: 
 in graver matters we know it has been eminent 
 The famous 'Noluinus leges Angliae mutari,' has 
 been persevered in for centuries; and we may 
 hope will be persevered in as long as the world 
 shall last, or as long as it shall please Providence 
 that the English nation exist. But in matters of 
 taste, certainly it has not been so. 
 
 There is not a daemon more adverse to good 
 taste than the spirit of Novelty. In matters of 
 taste, as in almost every thing, there are com- 
 monly many wrong ways for one right. Now the 
 spirit of Novelty allows readily the passing from 
 wrong to right ; but, at no rate, the perseverance 
 in right ; whence wrong must, many times to one, 
 with him, prevail. With this spirit, Fashion has 
 long, in our country, but especially of late days, 
 held close alliance. Fashion has no will of her 
 
25* PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 own ; but Novelty, though ever-changing, has, 
 for the moment, a most determined one. Thus, 
 Fashion still appearing the imperial lady, and 
 Novelty but her minister, he easily leads her his 
 own way. 
 
 In what high estimation both these whimsical 
 spirits are held very extensively, not to say univer- 
 sally, among the ladies, is enough known. The 
 ladies even in England, rarely have their natural 
 good taste improved, but often much perverted, by 
 education. Taught, from infancy, to revere the 
 majesty of Fashion, and to consider her sovereignty 
 as not to be, even decently, opposed, with a lively 
 feeling for the charms of Novelty, they set about 
 their imperial business of furnishing a house. 
 Iiangingthe fashionable upholsterer's warehouses, 
 they feel themselves as in a sea of delights, bul 
 as in a vessel with a port to seek. Without a 
 compass, they look to Fashion as their polar star, 
 and they give the helm to Fancy. 
 
 The sky is clear, the weather most temperate; 
 but, under licence of Fashion, Novelty, with his 
 handmaid Variety, dispensing the winds, they 
 are ever shifting. Fancy, distracted, grows giddy 
 her nerves faulter, her hand shakes, her eyes 
 twinkle, and she can no longer, by day, take the 
 height of the sun, or, by night, with any certainty 
 discover her polar star, a changeling polar star 
 Fashion. Distressed, she recommends to the 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 253 
 
 lady to seek advice from the experienced, and the 
 upholsterer himself is called to their assistance. 
 
 Beyond all others the spirits of Novelty and 
 Variety are objects of the upholsterer's worship. 
 He professes infinite reverence for Fashion. But 
 his- loyalty is for the fashion that may happen to 
 reign for the day : nor is it, like the vicar of Bray's, 
 an ever acquiescing loyalty ; on the contrary he 
 is ever aiming at revolution. The lady is. aware 
 of the unsteadiness of the reign of Fashion ; and 
 not less anxious than the upholsterer to be pre- 
 pared to adore the rising sun : but with this dif- 
 ference ; he is always ready for revolution ; she 
 devotes herself more to the present power, and- 
 dreads changes, in which others may be before 
 her. Not wholly unaware then of hazard in 
 committing herself to his advice, having made 
 her inquiries, and gained all attainable informa- 
 tion, her purpose is to direct him ; but he is 
 versed in the wavs of leading her. 
 
 J O 
 
 It behooves the upholsterer much to have talent 
 in matters of taste, and to cultivate it, so as to 
 distinguish good from bad ; but more it behooves 
 him to know the weak points in human nature. 
 To recommend then always what good taste 
 would approve, is utterly adverse to his interest. 
 Nothing so advantageous for him as to gain 
 prevalence for a new fashion of very bad taste ; 
 and the more grossly bad the surer and greater 
 
 * E 7 
 
254 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 his benefit ; because the easier will be the task ttf 
 bring about another change ; for of all tilings 
 change is most beneficial to him. 
 
 The upholsterer's interest then is in direct 
 opposition to the architect's credit. Put him into 
 command in a room, and his first purpose must 
 be to overwhelm the architect's work. What are 
 elegancies in stucco, stone, or marble to him ? 
 For daylight indeed, he is a little dependent ; he 
 must have windows from the architect ; and, till 
 stoves were brought into use, he wanted him also 
 for the chimney. But for candlelight, c Give me 
 
 * a barn,' he says, c and I will so throw my many- 
 ' folded drapery its length, suspended on my 
 ' golden thyrsus-fashioned poles, that nothing shall 
 
 * be seen needing the architect's art to supply/ 
 
 To proceed with this subject, however, I want 
 my northern friend's assistance with a dream. I 
 will venture therefore farther only to state a prin- 
 ciple or two, which I trust you will admit, and I 
 hope you will recommend to the ladies. When a 
 house is ready for the furnisher, if it has any 
 decoration of architecture fit to be seen, and not 
 rather deserving to be treated as the upholsterer 
 would very properly treat the barn, the style of 
 that decoration should be respected in the design 
 of the furniture. Either all should be upholstery, 
 or the upholstery should be subordinate to the 
 architecture, and harmonize with it. Can it be 
 
Itf ARCHITECTURE. 2,$5 
 
 requisite, I fear it may, to superadd, that the 
 furniture should harmonize with itself through all 
 its parts ; that gaudy and ill assorted colors, 
 awkward forms, and even elegant forms and 
 foldings, in that kind of display which may de- 
 serve the epithet meretricious, however warranted 
 by the fashion of the day, should be avoided. 
 With what ideas do that nakedness of the female 
 figure, and that abundant complexity, that mys- 
 tery of folding, of the drapery about the room to 
 receive such figures, as we have been accustomed 
 to see, harmonize? Fashion indeed is powerful, 
 and sometimes grossly perverse. What could be 
 reasonably done with the human head during the 
 century and more of the successive fashions of the 
 fullbottomed wig, the aile-de-pigeon hair-dressing, 
 and all that intervened and followed, till wigs 
 and hair-dressing were both abolished ? Fashion, 
 it must be confessed, has a strange power of fasci- 
 nation, which even strong minds have difficulty 
 wholly to resist, even when that power is exerted 
 most in opposition to evident reason. But it is 
 only when a fashion has obtained universal and 
 lasting prevalence that reason is so compelled to 
 submit to it. Generally large choice is open. 
 Reason and better taste may well venture upon 
 opposition to partial and ephemeral absurdities, 
 and with due exertion, would prevent their gain- 
 ing any overbearing ascendency. 
 
25 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 Sense and Nonsense in Architecture, 
 
 1 ou remind me of our conversation upon sense 
 and nonsense in architecture, and of my promise 
 to you of some remarks of my northern friend on 
 the subject. I will endeavour to keep rny pro- 
 mise; but, as on some other wide subjects I 
 have thought it prudent to be concise, so on this 
 also I shall avoid any great dilation. 
 
 Common-sense is not ostentatious : often it 
 escapes observation ; ordinarily it is without pro- 
 minent parts and strong colors to draw the un- 
 wary eye. Perhaps it may be most easily, if 
 not most advantageously pointed out by contrast 
 with its' opposite, Nonsense, which 1 will there- 
 fore endeavour to describe. 
 
 Nonsense in architecture is principally observ- 
 able in the misapplication of forms, invented for 
 use, where they are strikingly useless intruders ; 
 or, sometimes, where they are even inconvenient, 
 and obviously adverse to use. For instance, the 
 Pediment is a form which common-sense would, 
 without hesitation, propose for the front of the 
 Grecian temple, or of any building whose plan, 
 like that of the Grecian temple, is a simple paral- 
 lelogram, with the entrance not on the longside, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE* 257 
 
 but at the end. There the pediment form is as 
 useful as graceful ; giving the simplest construction 
 of roof, and, by that construction, affording the 
 convenience of throwing the drip of rain away 
 from the entrance. How frequently this form is 
 ill intruded will I think occur to any who may 
 give any attention to the subject. 
 
 I remember it your just observation that, in the 
 works of inferior designers, sense and nonsense 
 appear to depend much upon the material. Stone, 
 imperiously demanding respect for use and reason, 
 is adverse to nonsense. Timber, in. the office of a 
 supporting material, hardly less requires strict and 
 ingenious consideration of reason. But, through 
 it? readiness to find support, it affords large 
 opportunity for the spirit of ornament and the 
 passion for winning admiration to introduce non- 
 sense. But of all ostensible materials, plaster, or 
 stucco, offers the most boundless field. I highly 
 respect the late invention, called Roman cement ; 
 but I dread the perversion of its good qualities to 
 ill purposes, to which its accommodating temper 
 makes it liable. Already in London, so good arid 
 evil are blended, through the readiness with which 
 it lends itself to the rage for novelty and variety^ 
 absurdities begin to strike the eye in almost every 
 street. 
 
 Nonsense however may too often be seen even 
 in stonework. I have observed, in a former letter, 
 S 
 
258 PRTNTCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 that, over openings, as doors and windows, which' 
 a single stone, in- a rectilinear form, might securely 
 coyer, our forefathers laid such a stone. 1$ 
 the opening was too wide for their art to apply a 
 sufficient single stone, they put two, or more, a& 
 occasion might be, forming some kind of arch. 
 But I remember my northern friend speaking of 
 a park-gate lodge, somewhere on the great northern 
 road, with the lintel of its window formed of a 
 very sufficient single stone, yet not allowed the 
 rectilinear form, with which it would have re- 
 tained most strength and fitness for its purpose : 
 ' in emulation/ he said, 'of the fashionable Sara- 
 fc cenico-Gothic taste, it was cut into more wrinkles, 
 ' than a writhing eel could take while skinning.' 
 
 A thing so strikingly singular, given on a great 
 road to public view, is of course offered for public 
 admiration, at the risk of reprobation. Yet,, 
 where choice of matter suited to the illustration 
 wanted, occurs,. I should rather take a public 
 building for criticism, and to such I will novr 
 proceed-. 
 
 It happened to me to have occasion to go to. 
 Portsmouth, to attend a young kinsman embark- 
 ing for military service, when my northern friend 
 arrived there on his journey of curiosity. After 
 viewing the great objects with which that place 
 and its neighbourhood abound, we agreed to re- 
 turn northward by the way of Winchester. My, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 25J 
 
 friend's remarks on the fortifications, from Dover 
 to Portsmouth inclusive, would well deserve a 
 volume ; for, though he quitted the army young, 
 his mind has been always much given to military 
 subjects. They are however beyond our present 
 purpose ; but at Winchester occurred what I will 
 relate. 
 
 We had~been highly gratified with the cathedral 
 of that city, and were going toward the castle^ 
 when a glimpse of a large new building caught 
 my friend's eye, and he would turn into the very 
 narrow lane by which was the approach to it. 
 Arrived overagainst its center, we saw inscribed 
 in ample characters, on the doorway into a narrow 
 fore-court, ' Such-a-one, architect.' 'A handsome 
 
 * house the architect has built for himself here,' 
 said my friend, and some considerable expence 
 
 * he has been at in this doorway, for the sign of his 
 
 * trade.' Presently however we observed another 
 inscription, from which we learnt that my friend 
 was, at least in part, mistaken ; for the building 
 before us was the county-jail. Drawing back 
 then a few steps, to get a better general view of 
 it, he burst into a fit of laughter, exclaiming, c By 
 
 * my soul, Bullcalf's shoulders upon Shadow's 
 
 * legs !' The building had something imposing in. 
 its first appearance, and the wall of the court 
 before it concealed, from my nearer view, the 
 absurdity which had excited my friend's mirth 3 
 
 s 2 
 
*j6o PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 so that I was wondering what it might be, when he 
 broke out again, ' And the preposterous fop has 
 ' got a laced coat and ruffles on !' 
 
 Moving a few steps, I presently saw the ground 
 of these jokes. The building is of the white or 
 rather strawcolored brick, with a cornice of 
 Portland stone, more than commonly massive, 
 and of extraordinary projection. Assorting in 
 some degree with this, the windows have massive 
 keystones ; and the coins, also of Portland stone, 
 make a show of strengthening the angles. ' Do 
 1 you observe those French coins ? ' said my 
 friend. I did not immediately take this new 
 joke. But I presently observed what reminded 
 me of the French ingenuity, whence French plate 
 was formerly a name for false plate, French pearls' 
 for false pearls, French paste for false diamonds, 
 and a French shirt for no shirt at all, but only frill 
 and ru files; and then I acknowledged the same 
 French character in the building in view. For 
 the stone, with which the coins are adorned, 
 offers even the show of use only for the care- 
 less passenger : to every curious eye the nonsense 
 of massive blocks, in a mariner suspended in the 
 angles of the upper story, becomes presently 
 glaring ; for those blocks of stone overhang the 
 brick coins of the lower story, so that, with osten- 
 tation of strength, they cause real weakness. 
 
 While I was silently admiring this absurdity, 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 26l 
 
 jny friend engaged in conversation with a man 
 who was passing. Directing my attention to 
 their discourse, I heard the stranger say, * I 
 
 * think sir, from your speech you come from 
 ' the north ; and I am from the north too, 
 
 * though I have been long settled in this town. 
 1 In our parts I reckon we should have put 
 
 * the projecting coin of stone below, where it 
 
 < might rest firmly on the foundation of the 
 ' building, and give real strength to the wall 
 
 * above.' ' Ay,' replied my friend, ' I was 
 
 < going to ask you if they had discovered here 
 ' any art for making stone fly in the* air.' ' Oh,' 
 said the stranger again, * some things have been 
 ' done here ingeniously enough. Our gentle- 
 ' men of the county, who attend sessions, were at 
 ' first all for economy : public money, they said, 
 ' should be allowed for the useful only : they 
 6 would grant nothing for show ; and this con- 
 ' tinued till a man from a great way off came 
 ' and out-talked the architects of neighbouring 
 ' parts, and so the building got what I think I 
 ' heard you call a laced coat and ruffles. And 
 ' sure enough lace and ruffle*. ould do as 
 ' much good as those coins of stone, and they 
 4 would do no mischief; which, I fear, is 
 
 * more than can be with certainty said of that 
 ' stonework, hanging a dead weight in the wall, 
 ' already weakened by the destruction of ita 
 
 S3 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGlf 
 
 ' original coins of brick ; for all was brick at first, 
 ' and the stone is but stuck in. .The cornice 
 * was reckoned handsome ; for it cost a deal of 
 ' money ; but some thought it looked too heavy, 
 ' overhanging so much the brick wall below; so ? 
 ' to mend tlje looks, a sham support was pro- 
 ' vided, in those ^oins, which want support them- 
 ' selves.' 'Well/ said my friend, i this is a lesson 
 ' in architecture beyond what I expected to meet 
 ' with ; and if the inside of the building has beeu 
 ( managed with as "much ingenuity as the outside, 
 ' it must be worth seeing.' ' Why/ said the man, 
 ( what I reckoned the greatest curiosity within, 
 ( when I saw the work going forward, is not visible* 
 ' now. You were laughing at the building for 
 1 looking like Bullcalf s shoulders with Shadow's 
 Megs: but put such a figure in w-oman's dress. 
 ' and all shows well ; the petticoat hides the 
 ' defective limbs. This court- wall indeed makes 
 
 * but half a petticoat ; and so you see the naked- 
 
 * ness over it : but, within, a veil of plaster hides 
 
 * all. ' Another special lesson in architecture/ 
 said my friend. 'Ay/ said the stranger, 'and 
 ' it has been well paul for. I think the cost of 
 ' the building at last has been near four times 
 ' what it was at first peremptorily determined 
 c should be the utmost allowed.' 4 Yet/ said my 
 friend, ' the gentlemen of the county are satisfied 
 
 * with the architect, or _they would not. have 
 
IN ATCCHITECTURE, 263 
 
 * allowed him to hang out his sign with his name 
 
 * here.' * To be sure,,' replied the man, ' there are 
 
 * as good gentlemen as any in England among 
 * them ; and, for my part I cannot tell how it has 
 
 * been. In the north you know we call all these 
 
 * parts the south ; but, in the south they reckon 
 ' this the first county of the west. I think I have 
 
 * read in some book that the golden apples grew 
 
 * in the west : but another book, which W T C all 
 ' should read, you know tells us that the wisemea 
 4 came from the east.' 
 
 My friend began to be much pleased with this 
 man's humour, as well as his intelligence ; but a 
 gentleman of the country, to whom we were known, 
 just then joining us, our conversation with the 
 stranger of course ceased. 
 
 o . 
 
 Mismanagement and defect in building may 
 possibly be often seen where use has been the 
 end, but absolute nonsense rarely : ft can hardly 
 arise, in that case, but where an ignorant mechanic 
 lias undertaken a business requiring a mechanic 
 ; of superior information and talent. Nonsense 
 inost commonly grows out of the purpose of 
 gratifying the eye, and exciting admiration. Often 
 it is conspicuous in the modern Anglo-Gothic. I 
 -will mention one instance, of late very common^ 
 .and, though extremely simple, J think powerful to 
 illustrate the principle. An advantage of the 
 pointed arch, and indeed a characteristic of .thai 
 M 
 
264 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 composition of two arches, is that it wants no 
 keystone. Two curves meet in an angle ; at that 
 angle is regularly a joint ; and the arch, so 
 built, excels in strength. But our workmen 
 have been so educated in the habit of reckoning 
 a keystone indispensable to the essence of what- 
 ever is to be called an arch, that regardless 
 equally of the reason of the thing, and of the prac- 
 tice of our forefathers of the Plantagenet times, 
 which, for that style nevertheless they profess 
 their model, whether they use stone or brick, 
 they will have a keystone or a key- brick to their 
 arch ; and, ridiculously enough, they cut a nick 
 in it, to show where the materials of the two 
 curves, forming their arch, should, but do not, 
 meet 
 
 Such mechanical absurdity, however, is not per 
 culiar to the moderno-Gothic. The segment of 
 circle, sometimes called the Diocletian arch, from 
 the admired example of it at Rome, has of late 
 obtained extensive favor, principally through the 
 recommendation of it in the practice of that emi- 
 nent architect James Wyatt. Yet it may be seen, 
 in the ruins of the unfortunate building at the 
 southern foot of Blackfriars bridge, that, when 
 an architect directs the work, the form of the 
 material, with which the arch is turned, will be 
 determined by the radius of the circle of which 
 the arch is a segment. But when a skilful brick- 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 265 
 
 layer gets the management, his delight is to show 
 his skill in defying Common-sense, and con- 
 quering difficulties of his own making. He rubs 
 his bricks, not only each, from the center either 
 way, to a different radius, but he forms each side 
 of each brick to a different radius, that those, 
 abutting on the piers may lie horizontally, as in a 
 semicircular or an elliptical arch. Thus h'j alters 
 the essential properties of the Diocletian arch, and 
 loses much of the strength belonging to its prin- 
 ciple. But he gains pay for more labor, and, 
 perhaps with the ignorant, credit and increased 
 pay still proportioned to that credit, for an opera- 
 tion certainly requiring more skill and practice than 
 the method of better science and better use. 
 
 A more common practice still, a very little 
 matter in itself, yet so adapted to illustrate the 
 principle that I will mention it, is observable in 
 what the builders call a flat arch. When such 
 an arch is to be constructed, of what is called 
 single brick, the bricklayer constantly wastes his 
 labor (not for himself; he is paid for it, but for 
 his employer) in making a more perfect material 
 look like a more imperfect one. The arch is 
 formed of intire bricks ; use so requiring, for the 
 strength of the work ; but a notch is sawed in 
 every other one, and filled with mortar, to make 
 it look like two half bricks ; so giving the 
 work a studied appearance of defect. I remember 
 
r266 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN* 
 
 it an observation of my northern friend r that, 
 much as elegance and fine effect fail in the Plau- 
 tagenet exterior, Common-sense is hardly ever 
 found tripping there. I have looked extensively, 
 he said, for nonsense in it, and if any has ever 
 fallen within my line bf observation, it has escaped 
 me. Once I thought I had detected it, in a 
 -church-tower in Lancashire. An octagonal story 
 is set on a square basement, and above it another 
 octagon with the angles of the upper in the middle 
 of the sides of the lower. In some points of view 
 this complex form appeared more, in others less, 
 light and well-proportioned. But, in considering 
 it, the common-sense became obvious. The 
 angles of the square basement are as buttresses 
 for the firmer support of the octagon next above, 
 whose angles are equally buttresses supporting 
 the sides of the superstructure. The idea is 
 exactly the reverse of that of the flying coins of 
 the county-jail at Winchester. 
 
 As the Plantagenet style however went into 
 decay, Nonsense got footing in it. When th 
 pointed arch grew flat, and wood became a com- 
 mon material, a single beam, which, in its simple 
 rectilinear form, would have served the purpose 
 well, was cut to a nick in the middle, to make 
 the fashionable arch ; so producing weakness, 
 where strength was most wanted. From wood 
 the evil trick passed to stone and, in distant 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 267 
 
 parts of England, especially in the north, the 
 foolish practice remained almost to the late revi- 
 val of public fancy for the Anglo-Gothic archi- 
 tecture, from which that foolish practice has 
 found extensive favor. 
 
 After these little matters, to rise again, before 
 I conclude, to more splendid examples, the most 
 splendid nonsense in architecture, that I know, 
 and I think I may add, the most abundant, is 
 peculiar to Italy, but seen, especially at Rome ; 
 introduced by Borromini's genius to favor there. 
 Even France revolted at the more egregious .of 
 the inept fopperies : but she adopted some 
 which, with French recommendation, got footing 
 here. The broken pediment, and even the bro- 
 ken pediment in a curling form, (you will, I 
 think, from your recollection of the thing, be 
 aware of what I mean, and I know not how else 
 to describe it) had their vogue in the end of the 
 seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 turies, between Inigo Jones's days and lord 
 'ftorlington's. 
 
 Nonsense is much less seen in interior than in 
 /exterior architecture. In private houses this may 
 have been, with us, as with the French, because 
 provision of interior effect is committed less to 
 the architect than to the upholsterer. I will 
 desire however to recall your attention to an 
 example, which I have formerly noticed, in a 
 
268 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN" 
 
 building of the first consideration, saint Paul's 
 church, and I will conclude with it. 
 
 You will remember my objecting to the little 
 domes, or, as I have ventured to call them, dome- 
 lets, in the vault of the nave of that splendid 
 building. If the term nonsense may seem harshly 
 applied to them, I would describe their character, 
 as it strikes my mind, by comparing them to a 
 fair epithet in poetry, of harmonious sound, and 
 powerful sense, but so introduced as, instead of 
 assisting the expression, to disturb and weaken it. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. Cottages and Villages'. 
 
 I COME now to the branch of my subject which I 
 have reserved for the last, building for that large 
 and most valuable part of the community em- 
 ployed in the labors of husbandry. Were strict 
 limitation to architectonic design insisted on, the 
 field here would be very scanty ; but with allow- 
 ance to dilate on connected matter, it were very 
 wide. You will allow me, I trust, some episodical 
 scope, and 1 shall endeavour to use the indulgence 
 discreetly. 
 
 I have observed in a former letter (xxvin) 
 that, under our Anlo-saxon forefathers, the 
 
 7 O 
 
 towns of England were small and little populous ; 
 and yet after all the evils of the Danish inroads, 
 and the establishment of the Danish dynasty, 
 and the revolution which restored the Anglo- 
 saxon, the country was altogether well peopled. 
 Things have strangely altered since. In the 
 towns what increase has been, even within me- 
 mory ! What a prodigious city is London be- 
 come ! What buildings at Birmingham, Man- 
 chester, and Liverpool ! What villages, beyond 
 cities of old times, have grown about the old 
 towns of Newcastie-under-line! What haunts 
 for luxury and dissipation have arisen in the 
 
27 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 numberless formerly sequestered spots, now called 
 Watering-places ! Agriculture at the same time 
 has received great improvement. Land old in 
 cultivation, now, through improved art, brings 
 far greater produce, and very many thousand 
 acres formerly waste, are now objects of beneficial 
 industry. Nevertheless, except where manu- 
 factures have arisen, or dissipation has chosen^ 
 his abode, I cannot tell where, in travelling Eng- 
 land over, a new village may be seen, or where 
 even any considerable improvement of the old. 
 
 To what should this be imputed ? Is it that 
 nearly in proportion as* waste land has been 
 brought into tillage, tilled land has been con- 
 verted to pasture ? Certainly there are induce - 
 ments to it. The taxes, of late years imposed 
 on husbandry, affect tillage almost exclusively. 
 Their amount is not in itself heavy ; but, added to 
 that very heavy tax, the tithe, they may turn the 
 scale, and decide the cultivator to the less 
 expensive, less laborious, and less hazardous 
 business, perhaps with benefit to himself, but 
 certainly not to the country at large; neither 
 population nor produce, will so be increased. 
 Where, indeed, extensive wastes have been brought 
 jnto cultivation, new farm-steds have necessarily 
 arisen ; but, even there, villages are not seen, and 
 rarely even cottages. In that extensive portion 
 of England, where bricks are the building mate- 
 
1^ ARCHITECTURE. 2"f 
 
 rial, the tax on thorn is no inconsiderable check 
 to that kind of improvement ; which, indeed, the 
 farmers are rarely desirous of putting, forward. 
 They generally prefer taking single men, as ser- 
 vants, into their houses, and discourage families. 
 
 I know you agree with me in reckoning that 
 whatever contributes to attach landed men to 
 their property, is of advantageous tendency for 
 the country. I suspect the principle of citizen- 
 ship of the world, and the ' Omnia mea mecuin 
 'porto.' They may be good for the individual, 
 in some circumstances, especially of misfortune. 
 But, for the ootSnmnity; give me rather the old 
 Engliili adage, * Home is home be it ever so 
 homely/ Whatever by sentiment, be it but a kind 
 of mechanical operation of sentiment, attaches 
 men to their paternal fields, forms the very soli 
 for patriotism to thrive in. With men I include 
 their families ; and therefore not only the attach- 
 ment of the lord of the fields tcrhis pleasures in 
 them, whether of the more or less intellect 1 .] al 
 kind, but also of the lady to her flower-garden, 
 her poultry -yard, or her dairy, and of the younger 
 branches even to county meetings of amusement, 
 in preference to unlimited vagrancy, and the- 
 endless dissipation of watering-places, 1 reckon 
 politically good. Even the evils of county- 
 races, in parts distant from the metropolis, have 
 their balance; insomuch that I am inclined to- 
 
272 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 reckon the institution of royal encouragement to 
 them rather among the good incidents of a bad 
 reign. Seeing things thus, whether those who 
 have judged landscape-gardening a fit object for 
 checking by taxation, have not been led by a far 
 over narrow view of the question, I wholly 
 doubt. . 
 
 Thus I come round again to my more parti- 
 cular subject, landscape-gardening being nearly 
 connected with cottage- building. - 
 
 Formerly it was the way of our landed men to 
 chuse their own habitations where population was 
 most assembled on their property, and, with 
 encouragement from them, their dwelling drevv 
 people around it, and the. village grew. Of late 
 it has been the fancy of the lord of land rather to 
 live in a wilderness ; to place his house far from 
 a village, or to remove the village far from his 
 house. A village elbowing the mansion I grant 
 is a nuisance; but there is convenience in hav- 
 ing population within even small distance ; and 
 the lord of land who would do good in his 
 generation, should not put the lower classes too 
 much out of his sight. 
 
 Among the fancies of our day however, that 
 of building cottages to adorn an estate around a 
 
 o ~ 
 
 mansion has not wholly failed. The board of 
 agriculture has very praiseworthily given its at- 
 tention to the subject, and artists have been 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE, fi^3 
 
 encouraged to publish on it. But their books, 
 valuable as some of them are, may not suit every 
 one's purse to buy, nor every one's leisure to read. 
 I shall endeavour that mine at least shall have 
 the negative merit of not being a great evil. 
 
 In treating of cottage-building generally, I 
 hold it right to consider the well-being, moral and 
 civil as well as natural, of the class for which 
 cottages are to be built ; and not theirs only, but 
 also that of the whole community, to whose wel- 
 fare every class should contribute. For this I 
 am persuaded, wherever we can catch the policy, 
 or the philosophy, of our great Alfred, we may 
 profit from it. 
 
 There is something amusing to the imagination 
 in the idea of a lonely cottage ; in a woody 
 country it can hardly fail to be more or less 
 picturesk ; and seclusion is apt to excite a 
 soothing notion of freedom from the vices of 
 society. Innocence, it is to be hoped, may be 
 found in all situations. But there are vices of 
 solitude as well as of crowded cities ; and those 
 who have had opportunity for observation, you 
 well know, will not believe that lonely cottages 
 are generally the abodes of perfect innocence. 
 A dwelling out of the view of men has a tendency 
 to promote far more the predatory character of 
 the night- prowling fox, than the quiet temper 
 of the gregarious sheep, or the valuable industry 
 ef the swarming bee. 
 
 T 
 
t2y4 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 Putting two cottages together in one building, 
 
 you, at the same time, save a Iktle expence, and' 
 
 obviate a total solitude. Possibly, by care in 
 
 Selection, or by good fortune, two sheep-families 
 
 may meet in a double cottage. But without 
 
 care, and even against all care, without good 
 
 fortune, two fox-families may meet. It is odds^ 
 
 however, but dog and cat are among them. 
 
 Hence I have known cottage-families, even of th& 
 
 best character, prefer a lonely dwelling, to one 
 
 which has a near neighbour. Only by avoiding 
 
 all neighbourhood can they be sure of avoiding 
 
 bad neighbourhood ; and a bad neighbour is 
 
 far more grievous, where he is the only neighbour,, 
 
 than in a more numerous society. Indulging 
 
 then the good family with a solitary dwelling,., 
 
 you obviate for it the evils of bad neighbourhood ; 
 
 but you completely prevent the good which, not 
 
 to reckon upon its example, its eye on those 
 
 around, even without any intentional direction for 
 
 th'3 purpose, would, in the course of -things, do.. 
 
 I do not know whether it may be reckoned among 
 
 proofs of inspiration, that saint Peter, in his iirsfc 
 
 epistle, has said, ' All of you be subject one to 
 
 c another' ; but I reckon it a certain proof of 
 
 wisdom, and knowledge of human nature. 
 
 Alfred's tithing, with his gradation of super- 
 intending powers, is, in ray opinion, beyond 
 question, the best model ever devised for a popu- 
 lation of husbandmen. I should suppose, with. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 275 
 
 feome modification, it may be beneficially adapted 
 to the far closer population of manufacturing 
 districts, but of that I can less undertake to 
 speak. Ten families, he reckoned the advanta- 
 geous mean, for one society, under one respon- 
 sible inspector, of its own body ; not however 
 strictly so limiting the number. But, be th 
 village or hamlet larger or smaller, Alfred's 
 system will give_: the advantageous principles of 
 regulation for it, saint Peter's precept furnish- 
 ing the foundation, ' Let all be subject one to 
 another.' 
 
 If any nation ever would build a constitution on 
 the model of ours, they must begin with the cot- 
 tage and the village. The French, in the outset 
 of their revolution, taking a plan of our House of 
 Commons, with its seats and galleries arid bar, 
 and adopting the technical phrases used in its 
 business, did so far perhaps well. But to model 
 their provincial government, it behooved them still 
 more to look to ours. They should have counted 
 the thousands of unsalaried offices, imposed as a 
 duty on those interested to maintain public order, 
 and by which public order has been maintained 
 now so many centuries. When they had esta- 
 blished such an advantageous foundation, then 
 they might have proceeded, with fair prospect, to 
 raise the superstructure of free government. If 
 ever, here, Alfred's shire and hundred and tithing 
 
 T 2 
 
2/6 PRINCIPLE* OF DESIGN 
 
 government should be overthrown, and salaried 
 officers, as for the business of the Excise, should 
 supersede, throughout the country, its unpaid 
 native administrators, legislation by Parliament 
 will not long survive. 
 
 LETTER XXXVL 
 
 Villages and Cottages. 
 
 IF, when we propose to build a village, use is not 
 alone considered; if allowance is given for gra- 
 tification of the eye and picturesk effect, to form 
 the design we want a painter; not without an 
 architect, but rather both in one. A village com- 
 posed of cottages, does not deny architectonic 
 regularity in parts, but can allow it only to a 
 small extent. The buildings being low, a greatly 
 protracted continuity in one line, would be 
 tiresomely monotonous ; and, as in towns we have 
 agreed that some irregularity is pleasing, so still 
 more in villages it will be requisite. To invent well 
 an irregular building, or an irregular assemblage 
 of buildings, is so little easy, that, notseldom, chance, 
 snatching, in the poet's phrase, a grace beyond 
 the reach of art, does the business more happily 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 277 
 
 than the ablest designer. Chance however hardly 
 ever makes the picture complete, but her rough 
 sketches are often admirable, and furnish most 
 advantageous ground for the architect painter to 
 work upon. 
 
 Repton, in his Inquiry into changes of Taste in 
 Landscape gardening, says, * From the external 
 ' effect one might pronounce that there are only 
 ' two characters in buildings : one may be called 
 
 * perpendicular, the other horizontal. Under the 
 1 first I class all buildings erected in England 
 
 * before and during the early part of queen Eli- 
 4 zabeth's reign, whether deemed Saracenic, Saxon, 
 ' Norman, or the Gothic of the thirteenth and 
 ' fourteenth centuries, and even that kind called 
 ' queen Elizabeth's Gothic, in which turrets pre~ 
 vailed, though battlements were discarded/ He 
 proceeds afterwards to say, ' trees of a conic shape 
 
 * contrast advantageously with Grecian, round- 
 
 * headed with Gothic architecture.' The good 
 principle, here brought in some degree to view, 
 is, to my mind, obscured by what appeai-s pro- 
 posed for illustration. The Grecian, no doubt, 
 has a better claim to the title of horizontal archi- 
 tecture than the four or five kinds which he has 
 placed in an opposing group ; but those four or 
 five kinds, or any of them, can surely have superior 
 claim to the title of perpendicular, only for some 
 excresccncies on the top; and this seems to have 
 
 T3 
 
27$ PRINCIPLES OF DESIGW 
 
 been within the autohr's recollection, whete, after* 
 ward he observes, ' that the prevailing lines of the 
 
 Grecian architecture will accord (apparently 
 meaning, f will contrast advantageously) either 
 ' with round or conic trees.' 
 
 But after all the recent eulogies of the various 
 architecture, now called Gothic, as superiorly 
 picturesk, can you tell me of a picture in which its 
 exterior forms have been advantageously intro- 
 duced. Drawings I know there are many, of 
 parts of such buildings, admirably executed. But 
 can you tell me of a painter of any eminence whos6 
 own fancy, with all the stimulation of the popular 
 favor, has led him, in composition, even to attempt 
 it ? That favor had not reached its present fervor, 
 while Zuccarelli painted. But, during his long 
 residence in England, he got a relish for the cha- 
 racter of English landscape, and has mixed some- 
 thing of it often in his later pictures. A lively 
 fancy, rather, than a correct judgment, was his 
 merit; yet I think he was never inveigled to the 
 representation of pinnacles. 
 
 In Grecian architecture perpendicular and ho- 
 rizontal lines prevail nearly equally, and almost 
 alone. Thence it is especially qualified to contrast 
 with round masses of foliage, and with all irregular 
 breaks of ground or rock. Our ecclesiastical 
 Architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies, the Plantagenet age ; abounding in diagonal 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE, 2"9 
 
 lines, and various irregularities of form, makes 
 .confusion, rather than either contrast or harmony, 
 'with the irregularities of nature. Thus it is far 
 less adapted to landscape than the castellan of the 
 same era. But large semicircular arches, con- 
 trasting with nature's usual forms almost equally 
 with the strait lines of the Grecian temple, make 
 a variety very advantageous for picture. The 
 buildings introduced by the Poussins, especially 
 Gaspar, are rarely beautiful in themselves, but 
 give great advantage to their pictures by con- 
 trast, which appears to have been especially stu- 
 died by them ; not with a view to spearheaded 
 trees, which are hardly seen from their hands, but 
 to the better forms of the oak, deciduous arid 
 evergreen, the common forest-trees of Italy, and 
 of the elm and spreading poplar, the most com- 
 jnon cultivated timber. 
 
 But the Italian village, Caspar's favorite, has 
 generally had its siiaation chosen, among the 
 various, troubles and in the divided state of the 
 jcountry, on mountain sides, for security against 
 attack ; and in the design of many of its forms, 
 the same purpose has been in view. Something 
 different is wanted for the fortunately peaceful 
 plains of England. In looking them around, I 
 think the north will be found to offer more, hard- 
 ly indeed models, but good ideas for a village or 
 hamlet than the south. The street is com- 
 T4 
 
280 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 monly wide. The houses abut immediately on 
 the street, without a ragged paling and littered 
 garden before them, so frequent in the south. 
 The litter of gardens, and other Utter, are behind. 
 They are neither alined with perfect regularity, nor 
 deviate greatly from a perfect alinement ; they are 
 neither all contiguous, nor widely scattered. Thus 
 there is variety in the lights and variety in the 
 shades, and breaks in both, yet breadth in both. 
 Often one or more trees in the street assist the 
 composition. 
 
 In the south, in the rare instances of new cot- 
 tages, raised for the husbandman, the common 
 fashion has been to put the whole of the ground, 
 allowed for the garden, against the road, immedi- 
 ately under the passenger's eye, and place the house 
 behind it. Thus indeed inspection of the cotta- 
 ger's diligence in cultivating his garden is easier; 
 and, where diligence is found, the inspection will 
 be gratifying. But no diligence can make the 
 potatoe and cabbage-garden either a picturesk 
 object, or not generally a scene of litter. The 
 house with the door open, may exhibit advan- 
 tageously sometimes, the housewife's neatness ; 
 but oftener, against all care, that also, with a 
 young family, must be a scene of litter. Better 
 therefore I think is the plan, common in the north, 
 of putting the door, not fronting the street, but 
 pn one side of the house, or behind. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 28 1 
 
 But, in the south, even where extensive wastes 
 have been brought into cultivation, and large 
 farmsteds have been built, an analogous plaa 
 has had favor, The house, often a creditable 
 building, is thrown behind, and the dungyard, 
 and all the most offensive appendages of a farm, 
 are even with an appearance of ostentation, 
 spread out for the entertainment of the curious 
 traveller. The same arrangement reversed would 
 be nearly all necessary to make the whole a plea- 
 sing combination in the landscape, without being 
 less advantageous for the uses, which form cer- 
 tainly the more important object. The house 
 (better indeed often shorn of its coxcomb little 
 central pediment, and other fripperies of the 
 country architect) might itself be the advantage 
 ous skreen to hide some of the less pleasing ob- 
 jects ; and the other buildings, concealing the 
 rest, might be so disposed as to produce one good 
 combination. If anything interferes between the 
 road and the house, it should be only a green 
 croft, in which a very few trees allowed, against 
 ordinary modern practice, room to spread 
 their branches, might afford gratification in future 
 ages to the elegant admirer of forms. 
 
taSs PRINCIPLES or DESIGN 
 
 LETTER XXXVH. 
 
 Domestic Architecture. Cottage*. 
 
 DESIGN for cottages is riot controlled by 
 material, as for temples and palaces. For the up- 
 right, whether of stone, brick, wood, or unbaked 
 earth, the design may be the same. The cobwall, 
 or mud wall, common in many parts of England, 
 and recommended for economy, makes a dry 
 wholesome dwelling. In the Pisan territory of 
 Tuscany, the failure of clay, fit for either the 
 manufacture of bricks, or the construction of 
 cobwall, together with the distance of all stone 
 fit for walling, has driven to the discovery, highly 
 valuable there, of a mode for making the common 
 surface soil hold together sufficiently for the pur- 
 poses of building. Curiosity urged to trial of it 
 here ; and I believe it is the same thing to which 
 borne, in writing of this Italian invention and 
 practice, have given a French name, Pise. I re- 
 member my northern friend imputing this to ar- 
 tifice. 'They would allure favor to it so,' he said, 
 ' as the milliners to their wares by their number- 
 6 less quaint French terms, and the auctioneers/by 
 ' their ' fermes omees,' and ' facades/ and i coups 
 i d'oeils,' and ' chef d'oeuvres.' The plain English- 
 ' man's eyes stare at the strange marks, and his 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. *$$ 
 
 f utterance is posed by the strange syllables, to 
 * the delight of the belles and beaux, who flatter 
 c themselves with the imagination, mostly under 
 wide mistake, that they can twist their mouths 
 4 to the exotic pronunciation with true Parisian 
 * grace.' 
 
 But though, for the perpendicular of cottages, 
 whatever the material, design may be nearly the 
 same, it is not so for the roof. Where ornament 
 to the country is desired in the construction of a 
 village, slate and pantile have great superiority 
 over the flat tile, in allowing a lower pitch ; more 
 approaching the advantageous rustic grace of the 
 rustic buildings of Italy and the south of France. 
 A predilection for thatch I have known, among 
 your ornee cottage fanciers, extensive, and in some 
 instances vehement. The advantage of thatch 
 for use, as it protects more, against both heat 
 and cold, than any other covering, I admit. But 
 its danger from its readiness to take and com- 
 municate fire, must deserve serious consideration 
 on the other side. There must then be added 
 as a public consideration, the loss of either cattle- 
 food or manure ; as private considerations, the 
 inconvenience of the allurement to birds and 
 vermin, and the perishable disposition of the ma-* 
 terial, with the addition that the patchwork of 
 repaired thatch Mill hardly please any eye. In 
 Dutch composition only, I think, thatch can 
 
284 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 deserve favor : in combination with trees and 
 varied ground, and in the more distant parts of 
 landscape, of any description, the more decided 
 lines of the firmer material, whether in nature, 
 or in picture, have a far better effect. 
 
 But cottage-building is a very different business 
 in different parts of England. Where, under the 
 soil, is a rubble stone, as in many places, divided 
 by nature nearly to the size and form convenient 
 for a rude building, that natural advantage is 
 great. Brick-earth is much more extensively, 
 found in England than stone fit for building, and 
 no doubt is also a very advantageous material. 
 But brick-earth requires far more labor in manu^ 
 faeture ; and that manufacture is loaded with a 
 heavy tax : it requires expence in fuel ; and, in 
 many parts, the fuel also is loaded with a tax. 
 Thus building with brick is made so expensive, 
 that, where stone is not ready, and cheapness is 
 an object, cobwalls recommend themselves. The 
 Pisan, or Pisee, may, I think, be left to countries 
 where even the cobvvall cannot be had. But the- 
 saving, by either, is only in the wall. For floors, 
 stairs, doors, windows, and roof, with such walls, 
 the expence will be at least equal, in some points 
 greater. The cob and Pisan moreover both re- 
 quire external plaster; which, in proportion a$ 
 the climate is subject to frost, suffers from wear 
 ther, and requires occasional renewing; so thtf 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 2$5 
 
 the saving, in the end is very little, or perhaps 
 none. 
 
 It must however be acknowledged that a cot- 
 tage, to give a family decent accommodation, 
 cannot be built in the cheapest manner, at such 
 an expence that the rent, which the laborer in 
 husbandry can pay, will amount to a reason- 
 able interest ; a consideration which cannot but 
 check cottage-building. But moreover the col- 
 lection of cottage rents is commonly troublesome ; 
 and for this, and for other reasons, stewards, and 
 all concerned in the collection of rents, desire 
 rather the demolition of cottages than any in- 
 crease of them. Hence additional ground of 
 favor for the grazing husbandry in preference 
 to tillage. If the tax on bricks affected only 
 London, Birmingham, Manchester, and other 
 great towns, it were well : it will hardly check 
 buildings there. Ev r en in the agricultural line, 
 it can injure the grazing business little; but its 
 operation on building for the laborer in tillage 
 may deserve more consideration than it has met 
 with. 
 
 Cobwall, beside its cheapness, recommends 
 itself by the dry ness which it secures within. 
 Dampness, where there is free circulation, is 
 indeed not, like confined air, unwholesome; at 
 least to those accustomed to it : but it is incon- 
 venient and uncleanly ; and clearly it w r ere better 
 
286 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 to make the cottager's dwelling dry, if it can be 
 easily done. 
 
 To obviate the resting of moisture on the walls 
 of covered buildings, we must, of course, consider 
 the causes of it; and it will be easy to assure our- 
 selves that they differ, according to the nature of 
 the material of which the wall is built. It is well 
 known that a common building brick, set on end 
 in a plate of water, will imbibe the moisture to it* 
 top ; and such a brick, immersed in water, will, 
 in a very few minutes, become saturated ; so that 
 the water imbibed will add five, six, or even seven 
 ounces to its weight. All the stones called free- 
 stone, have the same quality, in greater or less de* 
 gree, as they are more or less porous. Rain, 
 driven by the wind, against a wall of such a ma- 
 terial, will of course be imbibed in large quantity. 
 The wall then will become saturated, sooner or 
 later, according as it is thinner or thicker; and as 
 soon as that happens, the moisture will show itself 
 on the inner surface ; and if the impulse without 
 continues, will proceed to trickle down. 
 
 But the harder stones of our island, granite, 
 basalt, marble, slate, and even those coarser, 
 commonly used for paving, if immersed for hours; 
 will hardly sensibly imbibe water, or be increased 
 in weight. Of course no moisture can pass 
 through walls built of such stone, unless by tha 
 mortar, of which some sorts arc also impervious. 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 27 
 
 Nevertheless, -a room with walls of these hardest 
 materials, will, in damp weather, show moisture 
 on the interior surface much sooner than a room 
 with walls of brick or freestone ; and not only, 
 like them, on the weather side, but equally on all 
 sides. This is familiar to observation in the in* 
 terior of churches, on monuments of marble:; 
 where the moisture will be seen on those distant 
 from the wall as well as on those adhering in it. 
 As it cannot penetrate the walls of the building, 
 such moisture must enter with the air .circulated 
 through doors, windows, and crevices. 
 
 Moisture of course, in the same manner, 
 equally enters houses of brick and freestone. But 
 walls of those materials, imbibing readily and 
 even greedily, absorb the utmost amount of damp- 
 ness that can come in contact with them from the 
 air within. If therefore no wet penetrates from 
 without, none will ever hang visibily on such walls, 
 or so affect them as to stain the most delicate 
 paper with which they may be covered. 
 
 From these considerations combined may be 
 gathered how to have the interior surface of walls/ 
 of rooms always sufficiently dry. 
 
 The ordinary resource is Battening ; but to this 
 the objections are considerable. For cottages 
 the expence deters ; so that it is there hardly ever 
 found with the purpose of obviating dampness of 
 walls, but only, sometimes, to supply the place of 
 
288 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 a wall. Battening then, wherever used, offers 
 ready food for fire. It often, also, provides a 
 nest for dry-rot, by stopping the circulation of air 
 between itself and the wet wall. Moisture, with- 
 out a free circulation, rarely fails to produce that 
 evil in wood, and then the battening is little 
 lasting. 
 
 Where use and permanence only are desired, 
 a wall with its exterior of any of the water-proof 
 stonei, laid in sufficiently firm mortar, and its in- 
 terior of brick or freestone, will excel in strength, 
 and be always dry ; the hard stone outside pre- 
 venting the penetration of driving rain, and the 
 brick or freestone inside imbibing, without satu- 
 ration, all the moisture that can come in contact 
 with it. The learned Eorlase, in his Natural 
 History of Cornwall, has admonished his fellow- 
 countrymen of this : but they have little attended 
 to his admonition. Their more common method 
 is the exact reverse. They build with roughly- 
 formed marble or granite, which their country 
 abundantly furnishes, and, for the delight of a 
 smoother surface without, they face with a red 
 brick. 'But Battening is then necessary to interior 
 dryness, and hardly suffices. Perhaps you will 
 imagine some reason for this apparent perverse- 1 
 ness, I have never been able to discover any but 
 the ordinary aversion of workmen for what they 
 call rough finishing, and their ambition to have 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 289 
 
 their neat handiwork admired ; whence in Lon- 
 don now, we see so many painted houses, some- 
 times in stripes, red, yellow, and brindled, with 
 pick and patted joints, I think they call them, of 
 the whitest mortar ; making altogether a mixture 
 the most inharmonious ; but well imagined to at- 
 tract the eye, free from all influence of good taste, 
 to admire neat handiwork. 
 
 You will remember to have seen proof, with 
 me, that a very moderate thickness, for any consi- 
 derable building, will secure an exterior wall, in a 
 situation and climate not more than commonly 
 subject to driving rains, against saturation, and, 
 consequently, against injurious damp on its inte- 
 rior surface. For great buildings therefore there 
 need be no difficulty ; what has been wanted is a 
 mode of making the cheapest wall (which of course 
 must be the thinnest, that may suffice to support 
 a cottage roof) able to resist the penetration of 
 rain. This I have been assured has been done 
 thus : Instead of an ordinary single-brick, or nine- 
 inch wall, prepare your foundation for a thickness 
 of ten or eleven inches. On such foundation, in- 
 stead of forming, in the usual way, a single wall, 
 with alternately whole-brick and half-brick, or 
 binders and stretchers, form two walls of half- 
 brick only, with an interval of one or two inches 
 between, them ; and bind them together, at inter- 
 vals, in rising, with any water-proof stone, or with 
 U 
 
 ^ 
 
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGIf 
 
 fragments of slate. The increase of labor thus is 
 little, of expence in material very little ; and you 
 have a wall sufficient for a cottage of two stories, 
 with its inner half perfectly secure against exter- 
 nal moisture. 
 
 Among the mountains of Westmorland and 
 Cumberland nature has furnished a singularly for- 
 tunate facility for building cottages. The slating 
 stone, extensively existing under the soil, laid with- 
 out mortar, in a position declining outward, 
 makes a firm wall, which, with a coat of plaster 
 only within, defies all storms. But this stone, 
 impervious to moisture, holding the damps within 
 on its surface, the practice of plastering without, 
 has, of late years, been ignorantly adopted as a 
 remedy. Doubling the plaster within might have 
 a more useful effect. But the white coat, I ap- 
 prehend, has gained favor, as a beauty, in the 
 sickly fastidious eye of ill taste, which is offended 
 at the picturesk roughness and duskiness of the 
 stone. The white coat certainly gives some neat- 
 ness, but with an offensive glare, harmonizing with 
 nothing around, and it gives at the same time all 
 the dignity of lath and plaster to a building that 
 before might have engaged the pencil of Salvator. 
 The same ill trick has become sadly common in 
 Wales. Buildings which, with their proper hues, 
 would highly adorn the sides of the hills of that 
 beautiful country, might often, at a distance, be 
 
 I 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 29 1 
 
 mistaken for chalk-pits; and some churches, 01 
 size and form more decidedly to mark their cha- 
 racter, are apt to strike with the idea of being 
 risen from their grave in a winding-sheet. 
 
 Where cottages are built with any view to adorn 
 a country, I reckon they should he of stone or 
 brick. When ornament is the purpose what is the 
 saving by cobwall or Pisan, compared with what 
 has been frequently bestowed on bolstering up 
 a piece of water, where, by the form of the 
 ground, nature has so evidently denied it, that 
 art cannot make it harmonize, with surrounding 
 objects ? The color of cottages should be accom- 
 modated to landscape ; not a glaring red, and still 
 less a chalky white. The roof should be of the 
 lowest pitch that may be effectual to throw off 
 rain. The plan should be simple, and common 
 sense in it should be clear. Let nonsense be left 
 to your Ornees : in a real cottage it is, if possible, 
 still more absurd than in a palace. Something 
 of mystery may become a palace : the most per- 
 fect simplicity should form a principal grace of 
 the cottage. Attention should then be given to 
 convenience within ; and to decencies, not the 
 less if the lower people are. sometimes careless 
 about them. If there is more than one floor, 
 the stairs should be so placed, though rarely so 
 found, as to give distinct communication to every 
 chamber. The windows should be of form te 
 u 2 
 
2$2 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN 
 
 open readily, and stand open, without danger to 
 the glass. Wooden sashes, the outer one sliding 
 on its bottom, common in the north, are the best 
 I know. For wholesomeness it is farther desirable 
 that there be a chimney to every chamber, and 
 that attention be given to prevent the stopping 
 of circulation of air, with what is called a chim- 
 ney-board. 
 
 I desire, as I have formerly mentioned, that 
 the gratification of the landlord should be inti- 
 mately connected, and, as far as may be, iden- 
 tified, with the good of holders under him ; and 
 for that very reason I would not have him expect 
 the gratitude of those benefited always to attend 
 the good he does, and look to that as his recom- 
 pense. French novels, or French philosophy 
 may hold out such views. But the book which, 
 with the utmost simplicity of unlearned writers, 
 shows a knowledge of human nature, not less 
 than its perfection of moral system, beyond all 
 philosophers, promises nothing like them. You 
 however enough know, that he who watches the 
 welfare of families, relieves want, inforces industry 
 and decency, and restrains immorality, will 
 hardly contend in popularity with the promoter of 
 cudgel-playing, ass-races, and grinning-matches, 
 with the usually concomitant drunkenness. There 
 will be, however, those with whom he will have 
 
IN ARCHITECTURE. 293 
 
 superior esteem, and such esteem will be reason- 
 ably gratifying. But the consciousness of well- 
 doing, independently of other results, will be his 
 surest and best reward. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 London : Printed by Luke Hansard & Son, 
 near Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 
295 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 The following extracts from a letter received from 
 a friend, after the foregoing observations had been 
 published, but while it was unknown to him who was 
 the author, are offered to the reader's knowlege and 
 judgement for correction of what may have been 
 over-hazardousty ventured in the preceding pages 
 on this complicated subject. 
 
 19th April, 1810. 
 
 I HAVE a mind to trouble you with some 
 observations on the Letters on Architecture 
 lately published. More critical acumen I 
 think is displayed than accurate attention to 
 the historical part. National compliments 
 upon our ancestors, not perfectly founded, 
 seem only a cloak to make general satire go 
 down. Too much, I admit, cannot be said in 
 contempt of modern Anglo-Gothic. I wish, 
 nevertheless, more from the author about the 
 antient castle as residence, and the modernizing 
 of the few that have been preserved. My re- 
 marks, however, I shall, for the present, limit 
 to the beautiful Plantagenet architecture ; so 
 I am willing, with our epistolary author, to call 
 it. I can neither believe it of English inven- 
 tion, nor peculiarly reigning in England during 
 
296 
 
 the centuries when the Plantagenets reigned. 
 All Germany was covered with such. Many 
 grand and beautiful remains are still to be 
 seen in the northern parts. Where the thirty 
 years 1 war, civil and religious, was carried 
 on with greatest fierceness, there temple and 
 tower went to the ground. But the southern 
 and eastern extremities yet display most mag- 
 nificent remains of tall pointed arches, light 
 clustered columns, curling foliages, fretted 
 vaults, and, at the western entry, a profusion 
 of statues. Several examples are found in 
 Holland ; abundant in the Netherlands ; for 
 size Brussels, for beauty and for spire Ant- 
 werp is eminent ; and, after Cologne (which, 
 though vast, is but a clumsy and an unfi- 
 nished specimen) several along the Rhine, 
 but above all Strasburgh, with the most 
 beautiful as well as highest steeple probably 
 in the world, being five hundred and seventy- 
 four French feet, whereas that of Salisbury is 
 only four hundred English. The old church 
 was burnt in 1003. The present, begun soon 
 after, was not finished till 1449. St. Ste- 
 phen's at Vienna is nearly of the same date 
 and character. 
 
 The northern parts of France afford nu- 
 merous specimens, not in general beautiful. 
 Notre Dame, at Paris, has a clumsy resem- 
 
297 
 
 blance to York minster ; but St. Louis's chapel 
 near it I remember Horace lord Orford 
 said he thought the most beautiful specimen 
 he knew of the earlier date. 
 
 But, though I deny our claim to exclusive- 
 ness in the Plantagenet architecture, I do 
 not deny our superiority in taste and rich- 
 ness. Henry the Third, with his cousins, 
 delighted in the fine arts. There are still 
 remaining beautiful cups and crosses in ena- 
 mel of their age. The king's tomb and that 
 of Amer de Valence, not only richly ena- 
 melled, were adorned with figures in fine taste. 
 In Whitington's book on Gothic architecture, 
 edited by lord Aberdeen, it is confidently as- 
 serted that this country received from France 
 and Italy both its plans and architects ; upon 
 what authority I do not know. My chief 
 objection is to the claim for England of a 
 greater superiority than circumstances war- 
 rant. That it was an eastern child I think 
 probable, and that it originated with the 
 crusades. 
 
 T. W. 
 
 
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