immerse them in a pail of water; then, after they have stood some time, take them out and again weigh them, to see what quantity of water they have imbibed: or place them in a pail with sufficient water to cover but half of the slates when placed in it on end; now, if they draw water and become wet to the top in six or eight hours' time, they are spongy and porous, and unfit for use, but if they do not appear wet above an inch or two over the level of the water, they are sound and good.* No material is more deceiving than slate is to the eye, therefore one or other of these methods should be resorted to, for no slates that admit water through should be used, and if at any time such should ever be discovered they should be immediately taken off.

DISSERTATION XX.

ON THE CHARACTER OF PORCHES.

"The rural porch with honey'd flowers,

The curling woodbine's shade embowers."-DR. WARTON.

The porch, now appended to modern residences, which is a projecting entrance with its sides enclosed, was originally to the Gothic church what the portico was to the Greek and Roman temple, and is therefore of sacred origin. When the custom of building manor-houses on quadrangular plans was discontinued, a porch with a room above succeeded the gate-house: those of a single story with a triangular roof, leading to entrance-halls, are of more recent introduction, and are among the few characteristic improvements visible in the Tudor architecture: one, of the date of Henry VIII., may be witnessed at Cowdry, attached to the door leading from the court to the hall. Those parts of our rural residences belonging to the rustic cottage and the Elizabethan architecture, are in general very picturesque, and such as the painter likes to select and represent in his village subjects. They are sometimes composed of trunks of trees with a thatched roof above, while others are formed of posts and trellis-work.

"Over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine."

SHAKSPEARE'S Midsummer Night's Dream.

But the Elizabethan porch was formed with Tuscan pillars on pedestals, supporting a rudely moulded cornice and quaint carved devices, mixed with running vine-branches and grapes, corbels, masks, and nondescript heads, with a pediment and single-span roof over, covered with tiles, having barge-boards and eave-boards of oak scalloped into fleur-de-lis and banner ornaments, with pinnacles and finials above. In fact, sometimes the whole of the Tudor insignia was brought together to ornament the porch. Now where such cottages are embosomed by umbrageous trees, with a pond for curious

* The light-blue sort is always the least penetrable to water, which the deep blue-black is apt to admit rather freely. Good slates will not imbibe above two hundred parts of their weight of water; indeed their wetting is merely superficial, and in summer will dry in a quarter of an hour. Imbibed water not only increases the weight of the covering, but in frosty weather, being converted into ice, it swells and shivers the slate.--(R. B.)

+ Mr. Howitt, in his Visit to remarkable Places, beautifully describes the parsonage at Bolton Priory with its porch. "As we descended and walked towards the Priory, the parsonage presented a very interesting aspect. Its garden crimsoned with roses, its old ivied porch, with an ancient escutcheon on it, I believe the Clifford arms, its pleasant shrubberies, and its little garden gateway, up a few steps, overhung on each hand with drooping masses of yellow pomeroy, made it one of the most perfect little rural nests we ever set eyes upon."—(H.)

ducks, overhung with elder-trees, which are occasionally seen in bloom; a small garden, enclosed by rails of oak, bedecked with lichens, and a fine diversified undulating country of hill, wood, and sea, visible in the distance between the opening boughs of the trees, such a combination may truly be said to be sylvan.* To complete the scene we shall give the wish of the poet :

"And may my humble dwelling stand

Upon some chosen spot of land;

A pond before, full to the brim,

Where cows may cool and geese may swim :
Behind, a green, like velvet neat,

Soft to the eye and to the feet,
Where od'rous plants in ev'ning fair
Breathe all around ambrosial air,
From Eurus, foe to kitchen ground,
Fenced by a slope with bushes crowned,
Fit dwelling for the feathered throng,
Who pay their quit-rents with a song.
With opening views of hill and dale,
Which sense and fancy too regale ;

Where the half-cirque, which vision bounds,
Like amphitheatre surrounds,

And woods impervious to the breeze,

Thick phalanx of embodied trees,

From hills, through plains, in dark array,

Extended far, repel the day.

Here stillness, height, and solemn shade

Invite, and contemplation aid.

Fresh pastures speckled o'er with sheep,

Brown fields their fallow Sabbaths keep,

Plump Ceres golden tresses wear,

And poppy topknots deck her hair,

And silver streams through meadows stray,

And Naiads on the margin play,

And lesser nymphs on side of hills

From plaything urns pour down the rills.

May I, with look ungloomed by guile,

And wearing virtue's liv'ry smile,
Prone the distressed to relieve,

And little trespasses forgive,

With income not in fortune's pow'r,

And skill to make a busy hour,

With trips to town, life to amuse,

To purchase books and hear the news,

To see old friends, brush off the clown,

And quicken taste at coming down."-GREEN.

DISSERTATION XXI.

ON THE CHARACTER AND USE OF PORTICOES.

"Scilicet umbrosis sordet Pompeia columnis
Porticus aulæis nobilis Attalicis."-HORACE.

The pillared portico was a peculiar feature of Grecian and Roman magnificence: which objects, formed by columns and surmounted by a pediment, in front of their public buildings, were very imposing; and when attached to our mansions, and ascended by a flight of steps, they give at all times

The author would, after this description, recommend a visit to Knowl Cottage, a perfect Paradisena, the summer residence of Fisk, Esq., at Sydmouth in Devonshire.

a grandeur and noble appearance to the fabric. Here something majestic strikes the imagination when they correspond with the character of the building, and are properly and duly proportioned ;* besides having their uses in protecting persons from the rain in the winter, and the scorching rays of the sun in summer, while waiting at the entrance for admission, or on leaving the house while the carriage is drawing up. The beauty and grandeur of porticoes arise from their extent and elevation; it is therefore to be observed, that they should never have less than four or six columns to produce this striking effect, nor more than eight, to be within the compass of the eye in viewing them. Columns should also be considered at all times as a support for something above them, and not a mere portico, which is well exemplified in the Tuscan porch in front of Covent-garden Church, a design formed by Inigo Jones. That a pediment is at all times the most proper and beautiful manner of crowning a portico, we would refer for proof to the Doric entrance at Covent-garden Theatre, the Ionic portico to the General Post Office, and the Corinthian one at the British Gallery.†

The porticoes in Greece and Rome were of two descriptions. The first formed the vestibule, and decorated the entrance of their temples, and made part of the edifices to which they were attached: these were always surmounted with pediments, and became part of the main roof. The second were erected solely for the convenience of the public to walk under in inclement or sultry weather, conducting from one public building to another, and surrounding others. But these should more properly be called colonnades. In Rome the approach to the Curiæ, the Basilicæ, and the Forum, were generally by porticoes. Several porticoes led to the capitol and lined the sides of the declivity, and the Campus Martius was surrounded by an uninterrupted colonnade: almost every emperor distinguished himself by the erection of a new edifice of the kind.‡

As to the porticoes to private villas, one opulent Patrician family were remarkable in this respect for magnificence. It is said their villa on the Via Prenestina contained baths as large as some of the Thermæ in Rome, had three basilica of one hundred feet in length each, and a portico composed of two hundred pillars of the rarest and richest marbles.

All that has been determined concerning the orders adopted in porticoes is established upon what remains of the works of the early architects, and those chiefly from temples. The ancient original orders of the Greeks, as we have observed in the Introductory History of Architecture, consisted of three different kinds :—the Doric, whose character is strength and stability; the Ionic, which is graceful and elegant; and the Corinthian, still more beautiful and luxuriant. The Romans, after

* Although the portico is grand, it can only be so when it accords with an edifice; it should not therefore be indiscriminately adopted. But it is really distressing to see how many of the more imposing structures erected in the leading cities of Europe during the last half century, exhibit little else than a servile adherence to the antiquities of Athens. And in situations where the projecting portico could not be erected, they have taken the design, the superficial face of a portico or architectural mask, and stuck it against a wall, were it is neither useful nor ornamental.—(A. B.)

The ancient temples of Greece and Rome had their entrances formed and finished in this way, and many noble palaces on the continent are so adorned; but to produce grandeur the columns should always be carried up to the top cornice of the entire edifice, for nothing is so mean as a portico, particularly if it consists of two columns stuck against the front of the building, and which rises but to one story in height, as we see to some gentlemen's seats about the country.-(B.)

"Nero" is said by Suetonius (Suet. Ner. 16,) to have lined the streets of Rome with a continued portico : several were erected by later emperors of astonishing extent; such was that of Gallienus, extending near two miles along the Via Flaminia, that is from the Via Lata to the Pons Milvius; that of Gordian in the Campus Martius, which was a mile in length, and formed of one range of pilasters and four of columns, opening upon plantations of box, cedar, and myrtle. The Palatine portico was supported by pillars of Numidian marble, enlivened with exquisite paintings and statues, and emblazoned with brass and gold. It enclosed the library and temple of Apollo, so often alluded to by the writers of the Augustine age, and was deservedly ranked among the wonders of the city. (Propertius, lib. ii. p. 31.) The people of Athens were allowed to assemble in the porticoes and colonnades around the temples; here goods were sold and business transacted; the Greeks also made promenades of them, and called them piopoμoç: here rhetoricians held their schools; orators harangued from them, and children of the highest rank were sent for instruction. They also afforded a retreat from heat, and were spacious receptacles for works of art, such as sculpture and painting.”—(Classical Tour.)

having seen the Greek orders, adopted a series of their own, but by changing the proportions and ornaments, they composed one entirely new from the Ionic and Corinthian, which is their Composite. The Tuscan, or Italian order, from Tuscany, was added, and thus was constituted their five Roman orders. Whenever we speak of the Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian order, it should imply the genuine Grecian orders; otherwise we say, the Roman Doric, Ionic, and so forth; but some orders are to be met with in Italy that are not of Roman origin, such is the beautiful Corinthian order in the circular temple of Vesta at Tivoli, which was executed by a colony of Greeks.

As to the formation of a portico, the first thing to be considered is the order proper to be adopted; this must depend on the character of the building itself, although too often the Doric is made choice of for the sake of economy, and for this reason we often find the Doric column erected where it should have been the Ionic, and the Ionic where it should have been the Corinthian. As to the proportion of the columns, we find them differ in the same order. In the Doric portico at Corinth, the column is only four of its diameters in height, while those of the temple of Minerva are five and a half, and the entablature two diameters nearly; and in the Propylæa there are six diameters, and the entablature two. Then as to their intercolumniation, the first is one diameter and a quarter; the second, one diameter and a half; and the third, one diameter and three-quarters nearly. The pediments equally differ, for that of the temple of Minerva rises one-ninth of its width, while that of the Propylæa is one-seventh.

In the Ionic porticoes, the columns of the temple on the Ilissus at Athens are eight and a half diameters; the entablature two, and the pediment rises one-seventh of its width. The columns of the beautiful temple of Erechtheus at Athens, in which the celebrated mysteries of Ceres were performed, are nine diameters, the entablature two and a quarter, and the pediment rises one-ninth. The Corinthian order in the Choragic monument of Lysicrates is eight diameters in height, and the entablature two. The Tower of the Winds at Athens, here the columns are the same; and the columns of the temple of Jupiter Olympus are ten diameters. From hence the inference is, that the Greek architects, during the administration of Pericles, when these buildings were erected, acted more on their own judgment and fine taste than on those supposed rules to which we have since reduced them. Of all the five orders of architecture the Grecian Doric and Ionic are the most chaste; but the Roman Corinthian, with the exception of the one in the Sibyl's Temple at Tivoli, is much richer than the original Greek, particularly that of Jupiter Stator in the Campo, and the Corinthian in the Pantheon at Roinc.†

No portico should, on any pretence whatever, be erected at the front of a public building, without being of such ample dimensions as to admit through its lateral intercolumniations (and that without distorting them,) the largest class of carriages, and should ascend by a very gentle acclivity behind the front columns, which should stand gracefully and simply upon a continuous stylobate or pedestal, a disposition saving the columns of a portico from the anomaly of standing upon detached pedestals; as those of the General Post-Office, which would satisfy in that particular the most fastidious lover of pure Grecian architecture. The late Carlton House, pulled down to make way for a new street, was the work of the great Henry Holland, one of the last of England's real architects, and possessed a fine Corinthian portico of Portland stone, elaborately enriched, under which a carriage could drive it was large, though not quite large enough to admit carriages without widening the lateral intercolumniations; hence this part of it was free from the unsymmetrical barbarism of having its central intercolumniation distended; and with its fine intrinsic columns, the grandest magnificent entablature perhaps ever enriched, it may justly be doubted whether England ever possessed a portico so fine. The columns of this portico have now reappeared in the front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar-square, but much broken by removal, and after lying some years unappropriated, now reworked into meagreness, and placed in a situation where they are visible from a great distance, and surrounded only by a plain unenriched entablature, and no longer forming a shelter under which carriages of princes and nobles may drive. Truly the once regal and useful portico of Carlton House is no more!-(A. B.)

:

+ I cannot sufficiently express my surprise and regret that the public portico should never have been general in England, and employed in the decoration of the capital. If we consult utility, no edifice is better adapted to a cold and rainy climate; if magnificence, none can be more beautiful or more stately. Every square at least might be lined, and every church and theatre surrounded with porticoes: the want of them round every place of public resort is a real grievance. It is true, it

INTERCOLUMNIATION.

By the term intercolumniation we mean the spaces or distances from one column to another. Perhaps nothing has a more meagre look than a portico where the columns are placed too far apart, or an unnecessary parade when they are crowded together; but the general fault lies on the side of the former. As a rule has been adopted by ancient architects for their adjustment, it is necessary to remark that they never exceeded three diameters in their intercolumniations, except in the Tuscan order, nor did they ever make them less than one diameter and a half, which is that proportion called eustylos, of two diameters and one-fourth, approximating it as a mean proportion to the Ionic order; the diastylos to the Doric, and the systylos to the Corinthian, which in all the porticoes to their temples and other public edifices they strictly observed.*

Palladio, it is to be observed, had a peculiar talent in assigning the orders and ornaments of architecture to the decorations of private edifices; unlike the ancient architects, who seem to have designed and contented themselves with employing them in the porticoes to their temples, and to the lower story only of their public buildings. He introduced those noble objects into domestic dwellings, and committed all their elegant forms and proportions to the different stories of private edifices. However, we must not be understood here to mean that the villas of the ancient Romans were always devoid of these architectural ornaments, for Horace speaks of the columns that decorated the mansions of the rich Romans of his time; but those country seats consisted only of a ground story, like those of the early Greeks:

"Nempe inter varias nutritur sylva columnas,
Laudaturque domus longos quæ prospicit agros."

Premunt columnas ultimâ recisas
Africâ."-HOR. Epist.

Pillars, which had been designed solely for temples,† we further find had not only been early introduced into other public buildings but into private houses; for Crassus, the orator, was humourously styled Vesta Palatina, on account of six pillars of Hymettian marble which ornamented his house on the Palatine Mount. We learn also from the same author, that Memura, a Roman knight, who had acquired great riches in the service of Julius Cæsar, not only entirely incrusted his house, on Mount Cælius, with marble, but adorned it with columns of the richest species of the same materials. Cicero speaks of a Greek whom he had employed, and complains of his ignorance, o rather inattention, in raising his pillars in the portico of his villa at Arpinum, as he had placed them neither perpendicular nor opposite each other. But I am inclined to believe that such noble decorations were generally confined to palaces and the more celebrated villas of the Romans, or perhaps employed only in the exterior courts and surrounding colonnades.

has been introduced around the Opera House and partly around Drury-lane Theatre; yet our taste in public buildings is still in its infancy when compared with those of Rome, France, and St. Petersburgh. The buildings on the east side of the Regent's Park in London present the finest piece of pillared architecture now in England: here the late Mr. Nash, the architect, has attempted to combine the picturesque with the grand, and no unprejudiced mind can say but he has very happily succeeded. -(R. B.)

See Vitruvius and the Roman antiquities, collected by Desgodetz, who measured those remains which time had spared. -(A.) + The classic architecture of the ancients which we now so much admire, we may observe, en passant, was the invention of the Pagans, the columns of which applied to their idolatrous temples produce an effect of sublimity and majestic grandeur.-(A.)

"Aliquando," says Cicero, "perpendiculo et linea decet uti." (Ad. Quint. Tratenem. iii. 5.) The portico of the Pope's palace leading to the Scala Regia, is an object too much exaggerated by prints, and like its model at the Spalda Palace, is too