its whole height or forming external galleries round the several stories, and then add walls blocking up the openings. I do not deny that they often produce considerable architectural effect by this arrangement, but it is produced at the sacrifice of architectural consistency. One of the most striking fronts of Inigo Jones' design for Whitehall unites all three constructive systems in one. It is a colonnade, an arcade, and a wall with windows, laid one upon another. To look at the elevation, one would think it was a double-galleried front-the inner gallery being arcaded, and the outer one with columns and entablature; the wall and windows appearing through the openings,-whereas in reality all three are compressed into one.

I do not complain of the desire to relieve the face of the wall by any such means as these; what I object to is using for it forms intended for other purposes, and which have only to be freed from their filling in to convert them at once into open galleries,-as, for instance, at Somerset-house, where there is not a particle of difference between the open arches of the entrance and the walled-up arches of the rest of the front.

What I wish to deduce from the above remarks is, that wall-arcading ought to be either purely decorative, in which case it should be so light as to forbid the thought of its separate existence; or else so clearly a constructive portion of the wall, and so intimately united with it, that the two evidently constitute a single structure, and are incapable of being separated; and that the design of the arcade shall not in any way suggest the idea of an open gallery.

Fourthly, I would mention cornices and balustrades. These have been much neglected in our modern works,

serves.

and the cornice does not assume that importance in mediæval buildings north of the Alps which it deFew features tend more to give a palatial air to a building than a noble cornice. We have excellent elements for its development in our own earlier styles and the French examples of the thirteenth century, and we shall be much aided in it by reference to Italian examples of about the same period. It is a feature, however, which we should do well to work out afresh for ourselves.

Where the building is of sufficient extent, its arrangement round noble quadrangles has a great tendency to give it the character we desire; and though no rule can be laid down as to the number of stories, great grandeur has sometimes been given to such quadrangles by their multiplication, as on the eastern side of the court of the Doge's palace, which, though impure in style, being a mixture of Renaissance with Gothic forms, has as palatial an aspect as any work of its extent I recollect.

Material has great value in producing this dignity of style. It should be evidently the best of its kind. Costly materials, such as marble, serpentine, and polished granite, and costly decorations, such as mosaic and inlaying, are of the utmost importance.

The sculpture used in the decoration of such a building should be of the highest class, and calculated by its subjects and their treatment to produce noble and elevating impressions. The figures should not be too much penned up in narrow niches, but should have room to stand with dignity, as those round Or' San Michele at Florence.

The doorways should be the richest points in the architecture, and might contain sculpture of a more

finished and elaborate description than is suitable elsewhere; the doorway being almost the only part of a building which we are in the habit of viewing separately and closely.

The windows should be large and ample, deeply recessed, and boldly and nobly decorated. Their mullions should consist of marble or granite columns of good diameter, but may be omitted where balconies are used, which should be frequent where there are views to be gained by them, and should themselves be grandly designed, their balustrades being either of stone, or of finely designed bronze or wrought ironwork.

If the roofs be shewn, they should rise fearlessly to the proper pitch, not seem to draw in their horns like a snail, as if dreading the touch of criticism. How many English architects admire the lofty roofs of the Tuileries or the Hotel de Ville at Paris, and determine to take a lesson from them; but when they sketch such roofs on their own designs, become frightened at their own temerity, and cut them down again to a half-measure! Roofs in our style should be either nobly developed, or not made an element in the design at all.

In decorating our roofs we have much to learn: I refer my readers to the paper read on ornamental leadwork at the Architectural Museum, by Mr. W. Burges, since published in "The Builder," and in the "Ecclesiologist." This beautiful system of decorating roofs is purely medieval in its origin, though it has been continued in Renaissance buildings, especially in France.

Internally, the same feeling may be carried out by taking care that everything shall be nobly treated.

Spacious halls, fine vaulted corridors, and grand suites of apartments, each of them having an individual character suited to its purpose, and many of them containing objects of art and vertu of the highest order, rich marble columns and alabaster arches, tesselated pavements, sculpture, painted decorations, frescoes and painted glass of the highest order, wall-hangings of embossed leather, figured silk or tapestry, ceilings finely designed and enriched with artistic decorations, and a thousand other accompaniments of architecture in its highest developments, will not be wanting to complete the internal beauty of a palatial design; but if the dignified tone of mind and the noble intention be present with the architect, but few only of these costly elements will be necessary to give the same expression to his works.

I have not ventured upon the subject of furniture, fearing by entering upon so extensive a field needlessly to prolong my task. I believe, however, that few now entertain any doubt as to the suitableness of our style to such purposes. If they do, they need only go over the domestic portions of the Houses of Parliament. Mr. Crace, perhaps the best authority on such a subject that I can quote, assures me that he finds it more easy and more natural to design convenient and comfortable furniture in Gothic than in any other style; and I suppose that after all the abuse which modern upholstery has met with since the Exhibition of 1851, it will hardly be argued that the claims of the prevailing style are inviolable.

CHAPTER IX.

TH

COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS, &c.

HERE is one important class of buildings which must ever exist in large proportion in our commercial towns, and which, if we are not prepared to give up the towns to ugliness, must receive more attention than heretofore. I refer to warehouses and factories. It is customary among our opponents to speak of a Gothic warehouse as if the idea were a very good joke, which they should like to see, for the nonce, put into practice. Are these people ignorant of the fact, that all which has ever been done that was good for anything in the way of warehouses was either done in the middle ages, or has been derived from traditions of what was then done, and that the demoralization of commercial building commenced and developed itself during the ages of revived classicism? If they are ignorant of this, I beg now to call their attention to the fact, leaving it to speak for itself.

The medieval builders had no notion of the seats of commerce and manufacture being given up to unsightliness, nor of their buildings, however utilitarian, being allowed to disfigure their cities. We find, accordingly, that their warehouses were as nobly treated as any other of their buildings. The finest warehouses in existence are probably those remaining in the old commercial cities of Germany. There are

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