DISSERTATION XXVII.

ON THE CHARACTER OF HALLS.

"If the hall be too large or too small, too plain or too much ornamented for the style of the house, there is a manifest incongruity in the architecture, by which good taste will be offended. And if the hall be so situated as not to connect well with the several apartments to which it ought to lead it will then be defective in point of convenience."-BOULLant.

We have now treated of the distribution and general division of rooms on the principal plan, as well as of their proportions; we shall therefore separately descant on halls, of which there are several kinds, both private and public. In magnificent mansions, the great hall of entrance first

attracts our notice, which is immediately approached on leaving the grand portico. This hall should always be made a conspicuous object, both as to its form, and boldness of architecture; and as large as the scale of proportion to the entire building and to that of the rooms will admit.+

The Audience-hall in the Doge's palace at Genoa, is situated more in the interior of the edifice, and is a very superb room, being in length one hundred and twenty-five feet, by forty-five feet in breadth, and in height sixty-six feet: the roof is supported by pillars and pilasters; the space between contains niches, which were once graced with statues of the great men of the republic. It is a folly, however, to sacrifice the rest of the rooms to one, by curtailing them, when their dimensions are within the bounds of proportion; however, in some noble houses its large size is an object of great advantage and grandeur. In the palaces of the Plantagenets, the dining-halls were spacious and superb, as may be seen on reference to King John's palace at Eltham in Kent, and to Westminster-hall, rebuilt by Richard II. in the fourteenth century. The mansions of the Tudors contained still more sumptuous and lofty halls, with high windows, and a louver turret on the roof above. In those halls the family dined, and these were also considered as antechambers, in which people on business of the second rank waited. In the house of a chief magistrate, the hall was an apartment for the reception of large companies at public feasts, and was also a place for the trial of offenders, whom the lord of the manor had the power of trying and convicting. We also read of Cæsar's and Pilate's judgment-hall among the Romans, and Priam's hall of public state among the Trojans. "Till from the posts the brazen hinges fly,

And gilded roofs come tumbling from on high,

The marks of state and ancient royalty."-POPE's Homer.

On inspection of ancient domestic edifices, we may presume that the architects of the olden time in England kept the principal feature of monastic establishments in view when forming their designs for manor-houses and banqueting-halls.

* There is first the Entrance-hall, next the Hall of Audience, and the Judgment-hall; then the Company's-hall, the Guild-hall, and, lastly, the more grand College-hall. Before 1190 the halls at Oxford were built wholly of wood, and covered with straw; they were in the end consumed by fire. They are now of stone, and covered with tiles and lead.-(A. Wood, History of Oxon, p. 57.)

+ The grand entrance-hall at Holkham in Norfolk, is forty-six feet by seventy, and forty-three feet high, surrounded by a colonnade of Ionic columns, supporting a gallery of communication above. In the niches under the colonnade are statues. Over the entrance-door into the hall is the following inscription: "This seat, on an open barren estate, was planned, planted, built, decorated, and inhabited, in the middle of the eighteenth century, by Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester."-(M.)

The hall, which we need scarcely remind our readers has given its name to many of our old mansions, was, in fact, the refectory or dining-apartment, and which in the hospitable times of our ancestors, when the head of the family and his retainers and dependents dined together, was necessarily constructed of large proportions. The hall, with few exceptions, consisted of a lofty and one undivided room, in form of a parallelogram. At the upper end the floor was raised one step, which was called the dais, or high-place, designed for the reception of the master of the house and his chief guests, who

Early in the sixteenth century, however, the change of manners gradually led to the withdrawal of the family from the hall, and to the introduction of the dining-room further from the entrance of the house. We may also remark, that the halls of our universities, especially at dinner, still furnish an excellent idea of the style, and, in a certain degree, the customs of the times of our ancestors. The note below, taken from the Aubery MSS., describes the ancient hall and the mode of then serving at meals.†

An ancient lordly hall was at peculiar times appropriated to other purposes, among which may be named that of the representation of theatrical pieces, while that instructive diversion was in fashion among the nobility. Milton's Comus was written on purpose for such a place of representation, and first performed at Ludlow Castle on Michaelmas-day, 1634, before the Right Honourable the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord President of Wales. These are the reasons for the spaciousness of the ancient hall; but in a modern mansion, if the rule of proportion in those places be not observed, the great size and height may make all those rooms into which we afterwards pass look diminutive. Halls of any consequence are seldom regarded in cities, ground being here more valuable than in the country, unless the house is to be on a large scale, like that of the Duke of Northumberland's, at Charing Cross, in London. In the country it is not so: here it will be easy to take in a few more feet for the purpose, and not to cramp the hall in order to give width to the dining-room alongside of it. The proportion of breadth to the length should here vary considerably: the nearer the hall approaches to a square the better; and from what we have observed in a variety of instances, it seems that from one and a third to one and a half of the breadth is the most proper proportioned length of a hall. The best height, is somewhat less than its breadth; but we are to consider the difference between a flat, a coved, and an arched ceiling; here the height may be within a twelfth part of the measure of the breadth, while in those with the ceiling flat four-fifths of the breadth is a very good general proportion. However, in this the architect, in respect to saving room above, has a great deal of latitude allowed.§

sat at a table placed parallel to the wall. At the opposite extremity, or lower end of the apartment, was an elegant enriched screen or partition of wood, behind which was a passage extending from side to side of the building, where there were doors leading to the "kitchener's" department, buttery, &c. The wooden roof was here the most striking part of the hall, from the richness of the carving, and boldness of its design. The hearth, instead of being placed at the side against the walls, was in the middle of the room; faggots of wood were then, as now in France and Spain, the general fuel, which were placed against a sort of fireiron, called the reredosse, the smoke being allowed to escape through the louver, a light open turret in the roof, generally forming a highly ornamental feature on the exterior, and summit of the roof of the edifice, to which it gave a peculiar character: the windows were placed at a considerable height from the floor, and at the upper end was a large oriel or bay-window.--(B.)

* In public buildings erected for the assembling of certain companies in London, the banqueting-hall is still adopted, but differently arranged.-(B.)

+ The lords of manors did eate in their great Gothic hall at the higher table or oreile, the folks at the side-table: the meat was served up by watchword. Jacks being but an invention of the other daye, the poor boys did turne the spit and lick the dripping-pan, and grew to be great lusty knaves. The body of the servants were in the great hall, as now in the guard-chamber, privy-chamber, &c. The hearth was commonly in the midst, as at colleges, whence the saying, 'round about our fire.' Here in the halls were the Mummings, Cob-loaf stealing, and great number of old Christmas plays performed. In great houses were Lords of Misrule during the twelve dayes after Christmas. The halls of justices of the peace were dreadful to behold; the screens were garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with open mouth, with coats of mail, lances, pikes, halberts, brown-bills, battle-axes, petronells and culverings, and, in King Charles's time, muskets and pistols.(Aubery.)

The principal performers were the Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and the Lady Alice Egerton. The music was originally composed by Sir Henry Lawes, who also represented the attendant spirit. In the year 1774 this masque was abridged, and has ever since been performed as an afterpiece at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden. (Preface to Comus.)

§ The whole that relates to lobbies and corridors, is that they be made as spacious as a proper proportion will admit ; but though they must not be made to that excess as to destroy the form and just dimensions of the rooms of the house, and further, to observe at all times that they have sufficient light, for there is nothing more disagreeable in a house than gloomy lobbies and dark passages. These are points of cheerfulness never to be obtained unless the construction of both be

Finally, the architect may be assured that he will never execute that design well which he contrives by piecemeal : all must be planned together and appropriately decorated, and every part regu→ lated upon a just idea of the whole. One good step as regularly attends upon another, as one false one follows upon the heels of another. When the various apartments in a house are well appropriated and proportioned to each other, the walls will have their several regular and just share of their weight of the floors and roof; but when large rooms are made on one side of the entrance-hall of a house, and small ones on the other, and their disposition is varied as well as their dimensions, in that case one side of the house will be stronger and the other side weaker, and the consequence of this will be in the end, the ruin of the whole fabric

DISSERTATION XXVIII.

OF THE FORMS OF VESTIBULES AND SALOONS..

"The vestibule admits of being made a grand pillared object, leading to the staircase, and of any form as to plan.”— BERNINI.

In private buildings where beauty and magnificence are studied, the vestibule is generally placed in the centre of the house,* and raised to the whole height of the edifice, and lighted from the top; a gallery or balcony of the height of the principal story being also carried around the interior circumference, for the purpose of communicating with the various apartments. In some mansions in the Italian style they comprehend two stories, with a range of windows above the roof: here the plan is sometimes octagonal. The vestibule at Chiswick-house, near Richmond, a seat belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, is of the octagonal form, rising above the roof, and terminated with an octagonal dome. On the upper sides of the octagon are Palladian windows, which give light to the whole interior: the dome inside is coffered and superbly enriched. This vestibule has no balcony, and was,

the last time I saw it, altogether appropriated to the use of pictures.+

The saloon is a splendid columnar apartment of state and grandeur in all great and noble houses, (as well as in palaces,) and its situation is in the rear of the vestibule, towards the garden-front or at the head of a gallery. It is always spacious, of a graceful figure, and continued with great symmetry of enrichment on every side. As to its form or figure, it may be either square, oblong,

well considered at the time when the architect is laying down the rooms, and their absolute purpose kept in mind while the rest is under his consideration. Lobbies are of more importance than passages, they therefore require more consideration. They are frequently ornamented with the orders of architecture, and become considerable objects in the house. The corridor on the outside of a house, when designed to communicate from the main building to the wings, has at all times a noble appearance. The colonnade and the arcade are both of this character; we therefore perceive that they both require our serious consideration, as well as the other parts of the plan of the edifice.—(A.)

* Among the ancients the vestibule was a kind of lobby or entry passage into large buildings, presenting itself before the entrance-hall. (Vitruvius.) It is now formed at the bottom of the staircase.—(Author.)

+ This beautiful little villa, after a design of the Villa Capra of Palladio, is a model of taste, though not without faults, some of which are occasioned by too strict an adherence to rules and symmetry: such as too many corresponding doors in spaces too contracted; chimneys between windows; and, what is worse, windows between chimneys; and the vestibule, however beautiful, is yet little secured from the damps of this climate. The trusses that support the ceiling of the drawingroom are beyond measure massive, and the Bibliothèque is rather a diminutive catacomb than a library, in a northern latitude. Yet with these blemishes, and Lord Hervey's wit, who said the house was too small to inhabit, and too large to hang to one's watch, it cannot depreciate the taste that reigns throughout the whole. The larger court, dignified by picturesque cedars, and the classic scenery of the small court, that unites the old and new house, are more worth seeing than many fragments of ancient grandeur which our travellers visit under all the dangers attending on long voyages.-(Author.)

The saloon is a state-room, and much used in palaces in Italy, and from thence the mode came to us. Ambassadors and other great personages are usually received in the saloon.-(Encyclopædia.)

octagonal, or of an elliptical shape. The saloon at Stow House, in Buckinghamshire, a seat belong ing to the Marquis of Buckingham, which has been celebrated by Pope in his Essay on Taste, is of an elliptical form, sixty feet by forty-three, having on the frieze of the cornice around the room a Roman triumph in alto-rilievo by Valdre. The Saloon of Hercules, in the palace of Versailles, is the most splendid I ever beheld, and the glory of the French school. It was built by Louis XV. It is sixty-four feet long by fifty wide, and decorated with twenty Corinthian pilasters of marble, the base-mouldings of which are brass, and the capitals of gilded metal, supporting a burnished cornice ornamented in the frieze with trophies. The pedestals are of green verdantique, and the stylobate of the pedestals of Autin marble. The ceiling, the production of F. Le Moine, is one of the finest compositions that exist. Olympus itself appears to open, displaying all the deities of the heathen mythology, with their respective attributes. Nine groups and three compartments represent the labours and apotheosis of Hercules: these groups, consisting of one hundred and forty-two figures, detached from the ceiling in a most extraordinary manner, are enclosed in a fictitious attic of veined white marble, with violet-coloured panels, while over them is the cornice, crowned with oak garlands, in imitation of stucco. In the centre of this saloon, on a pedestal, is placed the statue of Cupid bending his bow, which belonged to the Temple of Love, at the Petit Trianon.*

DISSERTATION XXIX.

ON THE SITUATION AND PROPORTION OF GALLERIES.

"Galleries are built to receive pictures and statues, they must therefore be of sufficient breadth for the eye to see the subjects at the proper distance; and the ornaments must here be subordinate, as the artist who would put such a frame to his picture as should distract or draw off the attention from the picture itself, would be justly condemned."-DA VINCI.

The purpose of a gallery is for the reception of pictures and sculpture, as well as a place of resort for amusement and contemplation. "When the weather," said Addison, "hinders me from taking my diversions without doors, I resort to the picture-gallery."+ Now it is essential in a gallery that it have a free and open communication with the rest of the house: it is also intended as a place of some grandeur, therefore it should be approached from an adjoining lobby, and the gallery be spacious and properly disposed to receive a steady light without glare; but as to the absolute size, if built in the body of the house, that must depend and be adapted to the extent and

* The more noble saloon at Blenheim, in Oxfordshire, built by Sir John Vanbrugh, and which communicates with the hall, and together with it occupies the entire breadth of the centre, is highly finished and richly decorated. It is lined in the lower part with marble, in the Italian taste, and its four door-cases are entirely composed of the same beautiful and durable material. Over each door, which face the four quarters, are the arms of the heroic duke. The ceiling, painted by La Guerre, emblematically represents John Duke of Marlborough in the career of victory arrested by the hand of Peace, while Time reminds him of the rapidity of his own flight.—(M.)

"I frequently," said he, "make a little party, with two or three select friends, to visit anything curious that may be seen under cover. My principal entertainments of this nature are pictures, insomuch that when I have found the weather set in to be very bad, I have taken a whole day's journey to see a gallery that is furnished by the hands of great masters. By this means, when the heavens are filled with clouds, when the earth swims in rain, and all nature wears a lowering countenance, I withdraw myself from these uncomfortable scenes into the visionary world of art, where I meet with shining landscapes, gilded triumphs, cheerful faces, and all other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas, and disperse that gloominess which is apt to hang upon it in those dark disconsolate seasons."-(Spectator, No. 83.)

It should not, however, be so grand in itself as to draw off the attention from the pictures. The gallery in the Collonna Palace at Rome, is itself too brilliant a picture for the pictures which it contains. A gallery should never attract the attention from its contents by striking architecture or a glittering surface. This, however, is supported by polished columns of the richest giall, antico. The storied ceiling displays the battle of Lepanto, which raised a Collonna to the honour of a Roman triumph. Its pavement is Parian marble laid in the form of tombstones.-(Forsyth.)

magnitude of the whole edifice. This, as we have previously observed in former sections of this work, is to be one of the first considerations, for no part of a house can be admired that is not in accordance with the whole.

The situation of a gallery in large houses is sometimes found at the west front, opposite the centre or principal entrance; such is the situation of the picture-gallery in Buckingham Palace, a splendid design by the late John Nash, Esq., (though the north is the most proper.) In some noble houses it is placed in the wings, but here there is frequently to be seen a circular open temple at each end, and which produces an imposing effect. Sometimes again the centre of the gallery rises to a considerable height and is crowned with a dome: such are the variations; but in all cases the light should be received from above, either by a lantern or skylight of ground-glass, admitting a soft and silvery light. But the lantern-light is the most preferable, not being so likely to have the glass broken by hail, or loaded and covered with snow in the winter season. As to the proportions of length and breadth, when the gallery is placed in a wing of a house, the architect is at liberty to vary according as occasion may require, that is, to the size of the paintings it is to receive, for there is nothing so much left to discretion. In general, however, from eighteen to twenty-two feet is the measure or breadth for a gallery, and according as it is required to be longer or intended to be shorter. Some measure between these where the largest or shortest breadth is to be taken; its length may be from four to eight times its breadth,* and its height equal to or rather more than the breadth other galleries may extend in length twelve times their breadth, but such should be raised to the height of two stories of the house.+

:

A gallery is not an absolute appendage to a house, for a very good and genteel residence may be built without any such place. It is an apartment, as we have observed, that serves chiefly for pictures; and some may not have a taste for the fine arts, and others again consider it rather in the character of elegance and luxury than of necessity; but such is the state of the mind of some, that when their wants and necessities are supplied, they then think of other enjoyments; and here we are bound to confess, that the enjoyment of pictures is both a rational and laudable desideratum. If lessons are to be drawn from the study of society, history, and nature, surely here they may be contemplated and enjoyed in the representative studies of others, drawn from their rich stores under every vicissitude. Here particular events, the productions of art and nature, are brought into our very houses to be studied, like that of a map of the world, whenever the mind is in a state of contemplation; and at such seasons too it may be enjoyed when the owner is confined to his dwelling by inclement weather, and under circumstances when he cannot go abroad. How delightful where"Painting shows the wonder of her art,

Gains on the sense, and captivates the heart:

From mimic pencils new creations rise,

Start into life, and wear their native dyes;

Bold as the form Prometheus taught to move,

When heaven's dread lightning he withdrew from Jove.

Hail! ye great artists, whose enchanting skill

Can mould the passions and control the will;

* An eligible length for galleries is five times their breadth, and they should rarely exceed eight times their width in length; their height may exceed their breadth in the proportion of a third, or even three-fifths, according to their lengths. Large pictures, however, require a broader gallery than small ones, for the distance of view requires it, which ought never to be less than twice the breadth of the picture, or such distance as the painter assumed for the distance of the supposed spectator.-(B.)

+ Our National Gallery at London, when compared with the Louvre in Paris, is a national disgrace: one is a noble and magnificent building, containing a spacious suite of rooms in succession, where the tout ensemble is imposing and grand; the other, a gallery of cells, divided and subdivided.—(Author.)