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designing buildings of more than one story, (for it cannot be too often impressed on the mind of the student,) the combination of the vertical with the horizontal distribution will suggest an infinite variety of features, which the artist may mould to his fancy, although it must be so restrained as to make it subservient to the rules upon which fitness depends.

2860. We close the chapter, not without regret, (because the subject is pleasant to us, but a treatise would not fully carry out the principles inculcated,) with an example from Durand in perspective. The general plan, A, fig. 1030., will be found similar to No. 11. in fig. 1025., and the distribution may be a good practice for the student to develope. It is an excellent example for exhibiting of what plastic nature are the buildings which the vertical combinations will admit as based on those which are horizontal.

CHAP. III.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

SECT. I.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS.

2861. THIS chapter will be devoted to such remarks on public and private buildings as may be necessary to guide the architect in their general composition. To enter into a detail of each would be impossible, neither indeed could it be useful, for there are rarely two buildings destined to the same purpose which could be erected exactly similar. More or less accommodation may be required in one than another. The site may not be suitable for the reception of similar buildings. A city will require very different buildings as to magnitude from those necessary for a town, besides many other considerations which will immediately occur to the reader.

2862. In designing public and private buildings the first object of the architect is to make himself acquainted with the uses for which the building is destined, and the consequent suitableness of the design for its purpose. He must enter into the spirit which ought to pervade the building, examining and adjusting with care those qualities which are most essential to the end proposed. Thus, though solidity be an essential in all buildings, it is more especially to be attended to in lighthouses, bridges, and the like. In hospitals, not only must the site be healthy, but the interior must be kept wholesome by ventilation and other means. In private houses almost everything should be sacrificed to the convenience and comfort of the proprietor. Security is an essential in the design and construction of prisons. Cleanliness in markets and public slaughter-houses, which we hope will, on every account, be ultimately established in suburbs, and not in the heart of every great town of the empire. Stillness and tranquillity should be provided for in places of study; cheerfulness and gaity must be the feelings with which the architect arranges places of public amusement. The next step will be to consider whether the building should consist of a single mass, and whether it will be necessary that the whole should be solid, or whether it should open interiorly on one or more courts or quadrangles; whether the different solid parts should communicate with or be separate from each other. He must also consider whether the building will abut immediately on the public way, or be placed away from it in an enclosure; whether, moreover, all the solid parts should or should not have the same number of stories.

2863. From the whole the architect must pass to the different parts or divisions, determining which of them should be principal and which subordinate; which should be near and which distant from each other, and consequently their relative places and dimensions; how they should be covered, whether by vaulting or flooring; if the former, what species of vault should be selected, and whether the bearing of the timbers or the extent of the vault will require the aid of intermediate columns. Under these considerations, the sketch being made, the interaxal divisions of each apartment set out and written thereon, the architect may add them together, and thus ascertain the whole number of interaxal divisions, so that he may see that they can be contained on the given site. This done, he should take care that none of the interaxes are too wide or too narrow compared with the scale. Should that be the case, the number of interaxal divisions must be increased or diminished accordingly, either throughout or in those parts wherein the arrangement is defective.

2864. As the number of interaxes is greater or less in the apartments, so we may now determine the order to be used below the springing of the arches. On a sketch thus

conducted we shall have little more to do than to determine the profiles, ornaments, and other detail that the edifice requires. The student, by pursuing the course thus pointed out, will soon find his progress much advanced in the facility and success of designing. It is the course indicated by common sense as much in the study of the art as in the composition of designs, both of which are but an uninterrupted series of observations and reasonings.

SECT. II.

BRIDGES.

2865. Unless the design for a bridge be triumphal (a species now quite out of use), the composition can scarcely possess too much simplicity. If, indeed, in the design of a bridge we strictly adhere to the principles which regulate its convenience, stability, and economy, it will possess every beauty that can be desired. It is clear, therefore, that all applications of columns to the piers of bridges will fall under our severest censure. They can be of no service to the fabric, and are therefore unsuitable and absurd; their use moreover is a great waste of money, hence they are violations of an economical disposition in the design. We may, for illustration sake, point to the last bridge of importance erected in this country, viz. London Bridge, which is well and properly designed in comparison with Waterloo Bridge, which, though not behind the other in the requisites of strength and solidity, is inferior in the unfortunate application of columns to its piers. Had they been omitted, the deserved reputation of the engineer under whose designs it was executed would have been greatly increased, were his reputation and well-earned fame in jeopardy. same comparison may be made between the bridge at Neuilly and that of Louis XVI., now the bridge de la Concorde. In the last decoration is attempted, in the former it is avoided : the last is hideous, the first agreeable.

The

2866. There are certain rules respecting bridges which must not be lost sight of, whereof the principal one is, that their direction must, if possible, be at right angles to the stream, and in the line too of the streets which they connect on the opposite banks of the stream. From a want of regard to these points many unfortunate blunders have been committed, which a prodigal expenditure of public money will not afterwards rectify, as we have seen in the operations consequent on the rebuilding of London Bridge. We allude to this point without the intent of blaming the parties concerned, but rather as a beacon to warn future authorities of the rock on which they may be wrecked.

2867. We had almost determined not to have introduced the section now under our pen, from the circumstance of the course of employment of the architect having latterly been so changed in favour of the engineer; but on reflection we have thought it proper, however short the notice, to say at least a little on the subject, which may be useful, from the engineer, strictly speaking, having but rarely the views in his designs of an accomplished artist; and we say this without the smallest feeling against or disrespect to the very able body of men called engineers in this country. On the equilibrium of arches and their piers, which are the chief parts of a bridge, we have in a previous part of the work already spoken, and so far explained our views on those points as to render further discussion here unnecessary. In most of the bridges of the ancients the arches were semicircular, in those of modern date they have been segmental or semi-elliptical. The last two forms are very much more suitable, because of the freer passage of the stream, especially in the case of floods.

2868. In the bridge at Pavia, over the Tesino, which is of an early period, and also a covered bridge, (a practice useless perhaps, but not uncommon in Italy and other parts of the Continent,) the arches are pointed; a form very favourable in every respect, and most especially so in rivers subject to sudden inundations, but unfavourable certainly in cases where the span of the arch is required to have a large width in proportion to its height. But the bridge just named has no common comparison with the ancient bridge. The effect resultant from its disposition is nevertheless satisfactory and magnificent, which abundantly proves that forms and proportions have less influence in producing beauty than have the qualities of propriety and simplicity.

2869. The position of a bridge should be neither in a narrow part nor in one liable to swell with tides or floods, because the contraction of the waterway increases the depth and velocity of the current, and may thus endanger the navigation as well as the bridge itself. It is the common practice, except under extraordinary circumstances, to construct bridges with an odd number of arches, for the reason, among many others, that the stream being usually strongest in the middle, egress is there better provided by the central arch. Further, too, if the bridge be not perfectly horizontal, symmetry results by the sides rising towards the centre, and the roadway may be made one continued curve. When the roadway of a bridge is horizontal, the saving of centring for the arches is considerable, because two sets of centres will be sufficient for turning all the arches. If, however, the bridge be

higher in the middle than at the extremities, the arches on each side of that in the centre must diminish similarly, so that they may be respectively symmetrical on each side of the centre. From this disposition beauty necessarily results, and the centring for one of the sides equally suits the other. A bridge should be constructed with as few arches as possible, for the purpose of allowing a free passage for the water, as well as for the vessels that have to pass up and down the stream, not to mention the saving of materials and labour where the piers and centres are fewer in number. If the bridge can be constructed with a single arch, not more should be allowed. The piers must be of sufficient solidity to resist the thrust of the arch, independent of the counter thrust from the other arches; in which case the centring may be struck without the impendent danger of overturning the pier left naked. The piers should also be spread on their bases as much as possible, and should diminish gradually upwards from their foundations. The method now usually employed for laying the foundations is by means of coffer-dams, which are large enclosures formed by piling round the space occupied by the pier so as to render it water-tight, after which the water is pumped out, and the space so enclosed kept dry till the pier is built up to the average level of the water. When, however, the ground is loose, to the method mentioned recourse cannot so well be had; and then caissons must be employed, which are a species of flat-bottomed boat, wherein the pier is built up to a certain height and then sunk over the place where it is intended to remain, the bed of the river having been previously dredged out to receive it, or piles driven on which it may lodge when the sides of the chest or caisson are knocked away. The centre should be so constructed as to be unsusceptible of bending or swerving while the arches are in the course of construction, or its form will be crippled. We have diverged a little from the limits by which this section should have been circumscribed, because no other place in the work allowed us to offer the practical observations here submitted to the reader.

SECT. III.

CHURCHES.

2870. The churches whereof we propose speaking are not such as the present commissioners for building churches in this country sanction, but true good churches, such as appeared here under the reign of Queen Anne; true honest churches, one whereof is better than a host of the brick Cockney-Gothic things that are at present patronised, wherein the congregations are crammed to suffocation and not accommodated. These, therefore, we shall leave to the care of the peculiar school in which they originated, and the society to whom they more properly belong, to speak of buildings that deserve the name. Neither do we think it useful to inquire into the designs of the temples of the ancients, seeing that paganism has passed away, never to return. The largest of these temples compared to the cathedrals of the moderns was but a small affair.

2871. The early Christian worship, attended by large congregations, required for its exercise edifices whose interiors were of great extent and well lighted. Nothing was so well adapted for the purpose as the basilica, which, bearing the name from their resemblance to the ancient courts of justice, were raised for the purpose. Such was that of St. Paul without the walls of Rome (figs. 141. and 142.), the ancient St. Peter's, and many others. That of S. Giovanni Laterano was divided by four ranks of columns, which supported the walls, carrying the roofs of five aisles formed by the ranks of columns, the middle one or nave being wider and higher than the others. Each aisle being lower than that adjoining parting from the centre, admitted lights to be introduced in the several walls. The direction of the length of the nave and aisles was from east to west, and was crossed by a transverse nave called a transept from north to south. In front an ample porch or portico was provided for the assembling of the people, and for their shelter from the seasons. The distribution we have just described was, as we have mentioned in an earlier part of this work, the type of the Gothic cathedral, though it passed through two or three steps before the adaptation assumed the magnificence that would have been displayed in the church at Cologne had that structure ever been completed.

2872. The portico we consider essential to any building which deserves the name of a church, not less on account of the beauty it imparts to the edifice than for its use.

2873. The use of the modern church being the same as that of the first Christian basilicæ, it may be doubted whether for extremely large assemblies a better disposition could be chosen. The desire, however, of novelty, says Durand, induced Bramante to imitate the temple of Peace in the design for the new church of St. Peter, although that building was less a temple than a public depôt or treasury destined by Vespasian to receive the spoils from Judea. The desire, moreover, continues that author, of surpassing the ancients, by gathering into a single edifice the beauties of several, induced the same architect to

crown the edifice imitated from the temple of Peace with another, imitated from the Pantheon; and in this country the same sort of thing was done by Wren in St. Paul's.

2874. It is easy to perceive that these buildings are not so well calculated for worship as the ancient basilicæ. The obstruction to seeing and hearing caused by the large piers of the modern churches is a great defect when compared with the little obstruction that the columns of the basilica present. But this is not the only blemish in the cathedral of Italian origin, as may be shown from the fact of basilica of the time of Constantine being still in existence; whilst the church of St. Peter, erected long posterior to that period, would in this day have been a heap of ruins, but for the enormous repairs constantly bestowed on the fabric, and the iron chains with which the dome has been girt. The cost is another serious objection to them, most especially in the construction of their domes, which are, with their tambours, buildings deficient in real solidity, from the large portion of false bearing they must involve; creating a very different sensation to that experienced in viewing the louvre of a Gothic cathedral, to which, without being insensible to the beauties of St. Peter's, St. Paul's, and other buildings of the class, we do not hesitate to give the preference.

2875. The facilities of designing a church on the principle of the basilica will be obviously those of interaxal divisions, and will not require further developement. The same method will be useful in designing the smaller parish church, with its nave and an aisle on each side, which is not only the most economical, but the best form. It was that which best pleased Sir C. Wren, whose churches are generally so planned; and we shall here give a short account of one of his best of this form, that of St. James's, Westminster, whose interior is worthy of all praise. It is an excellent example of Wren's love of harmony in proportions; the breadth being half the sum of its height and length, its height half its length, and its breadth the sesquialtera of its height: the numbers are 84, 63, and 42 feet. The church is divided transversely into three unequal parts, by a range of six columns on each side the nave, forming aisles which are each one fifth of the whole breadth, the remaining three fifths being given to the breadth of the nave. The roof is carried on these columns, and is as great a proof of the consummate skill of the architect as any portion of the fabric of St. Paul's, on account of its extreme economy and durability. It is not further necessary to describe the building; but the observations of the architect upon it are of the utmost value, emanating from such a man, to the church-builders of the present day, if it be possible to reclaim them from their pasteboard style. "I can hardly think it possible." says our architect," to make a single room so capacious, with pews and galleries, as to hold above two thousand persons, and all to hear the service, and both to hear distinctly and see the preacher. I endeavoured to effect this in building the parish church of St. James's, Westminster, which, I presume, is the most capacious, with these qualifications, that hath yet been built; and yet at a solemn time, when the church was much crowded, I could not discern from a gallery that two thousand were present. In this church I mention, though very broad, and the middle nave arched up, yet as there are no walls of a second order, nor lanterns, nor buttresses, but the whole roof rests upon the pillars, as do also the galleries, I think it may be found beautiful and convenient, and, as such, the cheapest of any form I could invent." On the place of the pulpit in a church of this class, the same architect continues: "Concerning the placing of the pulpit, I shall observe, a moderate voice may be heard fifty feet distant before the preacher, thirty feet on each side, and twenty behind the pulpit; and not this, unless the pronunciation be distinct and equal, without losing the voice at the last word of the sentence, which is commonly emphatical, and if obscured spoils the whole sense. A Frenchman is heard further than an English preacher, because he raises his voice, and not sinks his last words. I mention this insufferable fault in the pronunciation of some of our otherwise excellent preachers, which schoolmasters might correct in the young, as a vicious pronunciation, and not as the Roman orators spoke for the principal verb is in Latin usually the last word; and if that be lost, what becomes of the sentence?" Speaking of the dimensions of a church, the following are Wren's own words, after stating that a proposed church may be 60 feet broad, and 90 feet long, “besides a chancel at one end, and the belfry and portico at the other." "These proportions," he says, "may be varied; but to build more room than that every person may conveniently hear and see, is to create noise and confusion. A church should not be so filled with pews, but that the poor may have room enough to stand and sit in the alleys, for to them equally is the gospel preached. It were to be wished there were to be no pews, but benches; but there is no stemming the tide of profit, and the advantage of pew-keepers; especially, too, since by pews in the chapels of ease the minister is chiefly supported." We shall close the section by the following quotation from the same admirable artist. Quaint though the language now seem, and simple as the mind of the writer, it is of great value, and would be respected by any but commissioners for building churches. "As to the situation of the churches, I should propose they be brought as forward as possible into the larger and more open streets, not in obscure lanes, nor where coaches will be much obstructed in the passage. Nor are we, I think, too nicely to observe east or west in the position, unless it falls out

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properly such fronts as shall happen to lie most open in view should be adorned with porticoes, both for beauty and convenience; which, together with handsome spires or lanterns, rising in good proportion above the neighbouring houses, (of which I have given several examples in the city, of different forms,) may be of sufficient ornament to the town, without a great expense for enriching the outward walls of the churches, in which plainness and duration ought principally, if not wholly, to be studied." Such are the common-sense remarks of a man of whom this country has to be proud, but who died neglected, the common fate of all artists who do not minister to the vanity of their employers.

2876. Churches are usually constructed on the plan of a Greek cross, which is that wherein the length of the transverse part, or transept, is equal to that of the nave; of a Latin cross, wherein the nave is longer than the transept; in rotondo, where the plan is a circle; simple, where the church has only a nave and choir; with aisles, when a subdivision occurs on each side of the nave; and those with aisles, as we have above seen, may have more than one of such aisles on each side of the nave.

SECT. IV.

PALACES.

It is

2877. We regret that in this country we can offer no model of a palace for the student. Windsor Castle, with all its beauties, which however consist more in site and scenery than in the disposition of a palace, will not assist us. A palace is properly an edifice destined not only for the residence of the sovereign or prince, but for the reception also of persons who have the privilege of public or private audience. It being impossible for the whole of the parties to be present together, besides the apartments which are occupied by the sovereign and his family, there must be ample room and apartments for the attendants in waiting of every degree, and the consequent accessories. A palace should be disposed with porticoes, vestibules, galleries, halls of waiting suited to every season, wherein those to be admitted may wait with convenience and comfort till their turn of admission arrives. evident that, from the nature of such an edifice, much magnificence should be displayed in it. The palaces of the Escurial, Versailles, and the Tuileries are, though extremely spacious, and consequently imposing, but ill disposed and imperfect examples of a palace. Perhaps the most perfect in Europe is that of the King of Naples at Caserta, commenced in 1752, which is described by Milizia as follows:-"The plan of this palace is a vast rectangle, 731 feet long from east to west, 569 from north to south, and 106 feet in height. The interior is divided into four courts, 162 feet by 244. The depth of building that surrounds these courts, in which are the apartments, passages, &c., is 80 feet, including the thickness of the walls, which are in some instances 15 feet. The two principal façades have five stories besides that below the ground, and each contains thirty-seven windows. There are three entrances, one in the centre, and the others at equal distances between it and the extreme angles, where, as well as in the centre, the building breaks forward a little, is carried up to the height of 60 feet, and formed into pavilions by columns 42 feet high. Thus the whole height of the building is 102 feet from the foundation to the top of the pavilion, at the angles 162 feet, and in the centre 190 feet. The basement, which is rusticated, comprises the lower offices, the ground floor and its mezzanine. Above is placed an Ionic order of columns and pilasters, which contains the two ranges of state apartments; the lower windows are ornamented with pediments; in the frieze are introduced the windows of the upper mezzanine. The centre entrance leads to a superb portico, which traverses the building from north to south, and is sufficiently spacious to allow carriages to pass under from either façade to the centre of the building, where is a large octangular vestibule, which unites the arms of the cross produced by dividing the plan into four courts: two sides of the octagon are open to the portico, four to the four courts, one to the grand staircase, and the eighth is occupied by a statue of Hercules crowned by Virtue, with this inscription:

Virtus post fortia facta coronat.'"

2878. "The grand staircase, which is on the right, is lighted by twenty-four windows, and decorated in a beautiful style. At the first landing it is divided into two flights; the hundred steps of which it is composed are 18 feet long, and each of one piece of marble; it is lighted also from the top by a double skylight. The upper vestibule is also octangular, and surrounded by twenty-four columns of yellow marble 18 feet high. Four doors lead from thence to the apartments, the one opposite the landing to the chapel, that to the right to the apartments of the king, which comprehend the south-west angle of the building overlooking the sea and the plains of Naples and Capua. To the left are the apartments of the queen, occupying the north-west angle, the remainder of these floors being occupied by the princes. The chambers throughout are vaulted, and admirably arranged; the

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