Not to the eye your labours are address'd, This then, which is only a part of a noble house and intended for a splendid show, requires to be finished in every part with the strictest care, for there is no apartment in which a fault will be so soon observed or so hastily censured, as it will come under the scrutiny of men of absolute taste. The sculpture gallery, if distinct or detached, may receive its light from the sides. The one at Woburn Abbey is perhaps worthy of our notice.* The western wing, or Temple of the Graces, was erected by the late duke, in the year 1818, to receive the splendid group by Canova. On the architrave of the portal is an inscription by Samuel Rogers, Esq., paraphrased from the fourteenth Olympic of Pindar: "Approach with reverence, there are those within Without them nothing pleases: Virtue's self The cella of the temple is circular, and measures fifteen feet in diameter; the walls are incrusted with yellow scagliola, in imitation of Sienna marble, and the floor is paved in mosaic, with variegated Devonshire marbles in circular ornaments; in the centre is placed the group of the Graces, Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, on an antique circular altar. The east end of the gallery, a Temple of Liberty, contains a select collection of Greek statuary; and amongst the works of modern art is the celebrated statue of Psyche by Westmacott. The galleries in the ancient mansions of England before the arts had made such progress, were appropriated not to pictures exclusively, but also to the reception of visitors, and afterwards for amusements and conversations. Their walls were then chiefly indebted for their embellishments to a multitude of royal and family starched-up portraits, "In peaked hoods and mantles tarnished, High dames of honour, once that graced (GRAY's Long Story.) painted on boards in carved frames of walnut or cherry-tree; maps, and tables, " of the owner's arms It is one hundred and thirty-eight feet long, twenty-five feet broad, and twenty-two feet seven high, and about thirty feet in the centre, where it is surmounted by a dome having a flat ceiling: the centre is separated from the two sides by eight antique marble columns, the shaft of each consisting of one piece, about thirteen feet six inches high, and crowned with a white marble capital of the composite order, very richly foliated. The shafts and capitals were all found (according to an account which has been printed for private distribution, by the late Duke of Bedford,) in excavations made at Rome. Of the columns, two of breccia Africana, two of a variegated kind of alabaster, two of Cipollino marble, and two of Reggio: the entablatures are also enriched, the whole presenting two of the finest screens in the kingdom. On the south side is the Apollo Belvedere, and opposite to it a semicircular recess, with a reticulated ceiling, containing the Lanti vase. This large and magnificent object of Parian marble, and of the first Greek sculptor, was found in excavations made in the ruins of Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, and was brought to England by Lord Cawdor: it is of the lotus form, and is one of the most noble specimens of antique decoration of the kind yet discovered. The diameter of this vase is six feet. three inches, and its height, exclusive of the plinth on which it stands, six feet. The circle beneath the bowl has a bold moulding, as has also the rim. Eight grotesque masks decorate the bowl in extremely bold relief, each connected with the festival of Bacchus; and the vase has two magnificent handles, chanelled throughout, and ornamented with fennel, a plant dedicated to Bacchus.-(M.) and genealogical tree," where miniatures in oval frames were hanging to the branches, and a long train of ancestors could be boasted. Some of these pictures are still to be met with. In Elizabeth's reign, when the manners of the people became more improved and their minds enlightened, the arts rapidly shone forth; pictures then in considerable numbers adorned the houses of the opulent, some of which had been sent from foreign parts as presents; those of most value generally had curtains drawn before them. Shakspeare in some of his plays takes notice of this custom. Sir Toby Belch, in his Twelfth Night, asks, "Wherefore are those things hid? wherefore have these gifts a curtain before them? Are they like to take dust, like Mistress Mall's picture?" (Act I. Scene 3.) And in Troilus and Cressida, Pandores says to Cressida, Come, draw this curtain, and let's see your picture." Act III. Scene 2. The most valuable cabinet pictures are still so curtained up in some of our galleries at the present day.* In the gallery of the late Thomas Hope, Esq., in Mansfield Street, near Portland Place, in London, large curtains are suspended from the ceiling on each side of the gallery, and drawn backwards and forwards on brass rods, in the French window-curtain fashion. DISSERTATION XXX. ON FRONT ENTRANCE-DOORS. "The ancients, according to Vitruvius, generally made their principal entrance-doors trapezoidal, i. e., rather narrower in breadth at the top than at the bottom, probably from their having the property of closing themselves."-NEWTON'S VITRUVIUS. The entrance-doors of stately houses are frequently adorned with porticos in the Roman or Grecian taste; but such should be ascended either by a single or double flight of steps, which formation has many advantages; first, by ascending to the principal floor, they are a great ornament, and may be formed into any degree of elegance, according to the taste of the architect or desire of the proprietor: the principal floor is likewise rendered much more cheerful and healthful by being elevated, and a good rustic basement is given below for the better sort of servants. There is perhaps no part of domestic architecture that has received so much improvement in the metropolis as that of front entrance-doors, and that within the last twenty-five years, previous to which time a street-door was generally formed in six panels, the four lower ones being oblong in height and the two upper ones square; now we have variously designed doors, but the doublemargined is the most handsome: this door is used for the entrance generally, and distinguished by a three-quarter or inch bead passing up on each side, and dividing the middle style into two parts, giving the whole door the appearance of two single doors joined together. In some instances it is in one door, at others the door opens in the middle with two leaves: the panels are variously disposed, but that door is considered the most handsome where there are two square frieze-panels at the bottom, two also at the top, and two long panels in the middle: the mouldings around the framing and the enrichments are also various; some panels are raised flush, others are flat with a sunk Grecian frett, and some have the frett raised; others again have an astragal on the panels, and some * This instead of preserving the pictures has been found to injure the colours.-(Author.) have honeysuckle ornaments at the corners. Other designed doors have two frieze-panels in the centre, and two long panels above, with two shorter ones below. Those doors that have knobs on the styles and cross-rails are exceedingly handsome: but such knobs are best made of lead and cast or; they may be formed of hard wood; but the knobs must always, in fact, be confined to outside doors. The doors in the buildings of the ancients were generally made very lofty and spacious, that is, the doors of the Greek and Roman tempies, not those to their domestic dwelling-houses; these were generally made low, on which the security of its occupiers depended; "For he that exalteth his gate," says Solomon, "seeketh destruction." (Proverbs, xvii. 19.)* The former divided the width of the door into two divisions of equal square panels, separated by a large bead: the panels were six and sometimes eight in height, richly moulded, and had a patera in the centre of each panel. As those doors were generally under a portico, the panels were sunk, and the face of the mouldings projected, in some instances beyond the square of the door, called belection-mouldings. The Egyptians made their doors in the form of the frustum of a pyramid, that is, narrower at the top than at the bottom, to correspond with their pyramidal edifices, and as the Greeks had studied their architecture from the Egyptians, so we sometimes find among their works the inclined door. Now these have in too many instances been imitated among us, even where they have appeared ridiculous; this inclined effect might be given with equal propriety, and much more convenience be produced, by giving a greater breadth to the bottom of the architrave than at the top, but here a projecting square in that case should be formed in the Etruscan manner.† In proportion as the house is large the front door must also be enlarged; this is a universal rule, * It should be remembered that the Oriental houses do not front the street, but rather resemble that of Northumberland House, in London; and that the entrance from thence leads to a court, in which, or in another beyond it, the front of the main building appears. Hence little indication can be gathered in the street concerning the probable character of the interior building, or the rank or wealth of its inmate, but from the appearance of the gate. Aware of this, and aware also that to excite the cupidity of the ruling powers by any indication of wealth is to seek destruction, the wealthiest persons are careful, among other precautions, that their gate shall not betray them, by being higher than the gates of their neighbours. In going through a street the doors are almost invariably of the most beggarly description, very low, some in Persia not being above three or four feet high, and although strong, formed of rough unpainted wood; and the traveller visiting a person whom he may know to be wealthy, is surprised to be conducted to a gate which in his own country he would consider unworthy of a stable or an outhouse, and which but ill prepares him for the splendour and luxury which he may probably find when he reaches the interior. Yet the Orientals are vain of appearances; and it sometimes happens that a wealthy man so far forgets himself, or thinks he has such grounds for confidence, as to exalt his gate; but it rarely happens that he has long to wait before he finds cause to learn that by this act he sought his own destruction. In the city of Bagdad, says a traveller, the only exalted gate to a private residence which I recollect to have seen, belonged to the house of a Moslem of large wealth, and of so much influence in the city as he thought might allow him to display it freely. He was mistaken : one day when riding through the street in which he lived, he was dragged from his horse near our door, and put to death on the spot, by order of the pasha, who immediately took possession of all his property.—(B.) + Doors turned anciently upon large pivots in the centre, let into sockets in the lintel and threshold, so that one of the sides turned inwards, the other opened outwards. Plutarch gives the following curious reason why persons were to knock and alarm the porter, viz. lest the visitor entering unawares should surprise the mistress and daughter of the family busy or undressed, or servants under correction, or the maids quarrelling. These ancient doors were sometimes made of marble or metal, but cypress was a wood, from its durability, so valued by the ancients, that doors made of it at the Temple of the Ephesian Diana lasted, it is said, four hundred years, and others at Rome, that were covered with silver, five hundred years. In Holy Writ we read of folding-doors, (1 Kings, vi. 34.) and of curtains for the door of the court. (Numbers, iii. 26.) The great palace-halls in Persia are usually open towards the garden in front; and when closed in summer, it is not by doors but by rich curtains or hangings, which are considered preferable to doors, as they admit the air while they exclude the sun.-(Sir R. Porter.) It was customary in England during the Tudor period to mark the entrances to sheriffs' and magistrates' houses by ornamental pillars; sometimes painted and gilt, called sheriffs'-posts, on which were posted proclamations, and such other public notices as were promulgated by those officers. "He set up his bills here."-(Cymbeline.) "He says, he'll stand at your door like a sheriff's post."-(Twelfth Night.) "How * on but we are astonished on considering how this rule has been transgressed. We have even seen at one period doors made of such height that a person would think every house inhabited by a giant : the other extreme, as weak minds in avoiding one error always run into another, we have seen them lose the form and fashion, grace and dignity of entrances to a noble habitation, by doors the very reverse, formed apparently for dwarfs. It is enough to observe that all extremes are to be avoided; one of them is as much a fault as the other. There are variations allowed (but limited) in proportion to the height with the breadth, which must be appropriated also to the general form of the house. Two things are to be considered in designing an external door; first, the aperture; next, the strength; and third, its ornaments or dressings ;+ these must all enter into the mind of the architect when he is designing and laying out the plans of an edifice, whether public or private, or he will never proportion or adapt it to the structure. It is not an unwise plan, as now frequently practised in second-rate houses, in detached situations, in the suburbs of a town, to have the entrance-door at the side or end of the house, as it at once brings the door nearer to the stairs, and therefore saves the space of the passage along the side of the front room. If a porch and lobby were likewise built at this entrance-side of the house, a hall and an ante-room might also be formed in addition, without breaking in upon the body of the house. A corresponding room, for the sake of uniformity, may be built on the other side, as a library. In houses in the country, where two or more are built together in groups, it is the most convenient arrangement that can be devised for saving of room: when there are many so built there is sometimes a colonnade formed between them and parted by a wall; and at other times an open porch. The Venetian door with side-lights produces a very noble appearance, within a Greek or Roman portico; but it is to be lamented that we frequently meet with Doric porticos unaptly and very inappropriately put to the fronts of private dwelling-houses, where the architecture is in every respect of a different character. "How long should I be ere I put off to the Lord Chancellor's tombe, or the shrive's posts ?” (Every Man out of his Humour.) "The posts of his gate are a-painting too," i. e. he will soon be a sheriff. (Old Comedy, by Thomas Dekkar.) "If ever I live to see thee sheriff of London I'll gild thy posts." (Woman never Vexed.) "A pair of such brothers were fitter for posts without doors, indeed to make a show at a new magistrate's gate." "My Lord Maior's posts must needs be trimmed against he takes his oath." There are two posts of this description, beautifully enriched, yet standing at the door of Hengrave Hall; but the practice of publishing official documents in this manner having been long discontinued, their introduction in buildings now would be useless.-(H.) The entrance-doors of palaces and the mansions of noblemen, where much company resort, are often made from four to six feet wide; those of public edifices may be from six to eight feet wide, and high in proportion, though they are not meant to be at all times opened to their whole height, hence they are to be parted eight feet up by a rail where they are to open. (B.) The most common mode of adorning entrance-doors is to surround them with an architrave surmounted with a frieze and cornice, forming a complete entablature. These decorations in good houses are made of artificial or real stone, whereever a suitable kind can be obtained at a reasonable price.-(S.) DISSERTATION XXXI. ON THE VARIOUS FORMS AND PROPORTIONS OF INTERNAL DOORS. "Doors should always be proportioned to the building and to the rooms, and not guided by modern custom, or that just sufficient to admit the entrance of a tall person."-Essay on Design. As to the forms of internal doors, these have not met with the attention that has been bestowed on the external ones, the latter being more commonly observed by the public eye. The internal door in its form generally consists of four panels, at other times of four, and two frieze-panels in the middle; at others again in the old fashion,* that of the two frieze-panels being placed at the top of the door. In the four-panel doors, the two bottom panels are much shorter in height than the upper ones, but this is regulated by the middle rail, for the convenience of the lock, which is for that reason sometimes called the lock-rail. The centre line of this lock-rail comes in a horizontal line with the surbase-moulding, which is about two feet eight inches in height, but since the discontinuance of the surbas-moulding, or what is sometimes called the chair-rail, the height of the middle rail of the door has been altered; now the middle of the entire height of the door is taken for the top edge of the middle rail, which is much better, and indeed a very good proportion. The sixpanel door was formed like the four-panel, with the exception of two frieze-panels at the top: these being generally square, and in height equal to the width of the other panels below. The four-panel door, when well proportioned, is certainly the most handsome for every kind of room in the interior of a moderate house, either for town or country, but for the outside of a house they do not appear sufficiently strong, as they have too much panel and too little framing for strength. With respect to the whole height of doors internally, and the apertures especially, there is a universal law founded on reason, though not always observed; and there is a certain height below which they should not be brought, although for dignity and proportion, the point beyond which they may exceed is almost unlimited. Palladio was of opinion that no rule could be given for the proportion of doors, while others have asserted that twice the width is a good standard for the height; but this we shall show to be inconsistent, because in that case internal doors in small houses which are but two feet six inches wide would be but five feet high; now a man could walk through a doorway of this height, but not one of this height without stooping. Doors which are two feet six inches in width are generally made six feet six inches high, and those which are two feet nine inches wide are six feet nine inches high, and a door of three feet wide is made seven feet high. So we see from this, that after the smallest proportioned door, wherever the larger ones have been increased in breadth the same proportion has been added to the height; the first instance being three inches in breadth, was also increased three inches in height; the second gained six inches in width was also increased six inches in height.+ In the early part of the sixteenth century the joiners' work in England was rude, as is particularly visible with respect to internal doors; these were seldom framed till Elizabeth's time, when doors were panelled. At Penshurst, in Kent, most of the doors to the kitchen, larder, and similar offices are of split oak, never touched with a plane, but reduced to their proper dimensions only by the chisel and the hatchet, sufficient proof of their antiquity.-(Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places, p. 25.) + Doors are varied in their dimensions according to the height of the story, and the magnitude of the building in which they are placed. In private houses they can rarely with propriety be made wider than four feet, and in general three feet will be sufficient. For small doors, when the height is to the breadth in the ratio of seven to three, the proportion may be considered good, but the height of large doors needs not to be more than double their breadth. In modern houses it is not |